Facebook Surpasses 100 Million Mobile Users
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Facebook has hit another important milestone, the social networking giant now has more than 100 million mobile users. Facebook’s mobile user base has almost doubled in less than six months, as it had around 65 million mobile users in Sep, 2009.
The current mobile growth rate is spectacular in a sense that Facebook is adding mobile users even faster than it is adding web users. Facebook had around 300 million users in Sep, 2009 – which has increased to 400 million users – an increase of 25%. However, the mobile user base has increased by almost 53% in the same time period.
Facebook’s mobile offering supports all major device manufacturers including Nokia, Android, Windows Mobile, Sidekick, Blackberry, INQ, Sony Ericsson, Palm and the iPhone. In addition to this Facebook is being used across all major operators across the world.
Facebook’s announcement further points out that the company has redesigned the mobile sites m.facebook.com and touch.facebook.com to enable users to access Facebook from any mobile browser in more than 70 languages. In addition to this, Facebook now handles text messages from more than 80 operators in 32 countries.
Facebook’s announcement corroborates Opera’s recent survey results. Opera’s survey findings showed that Facebook’s mobile usage on Opera Mini mobile browser increased by around 619% in 2009 alone.
Source:http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/02/mobile-100-million/
The current mobile growth rate is spectacular in a sense that Facebook is adding mobile users even faster than it is adding web users. Facebook had around 300 million users in Sep, 2009 – which has increased to 400 million users – an increase of 25%. However, the mobile user base has increased by almost 53% in the same time period.
Facebook’s mobile offering supports all major device manufacturers including Nokia, Android, Windows Mobile, Sidekick, Blackberry, INQ, Sony Ericsson, Palm and the iPhone. In addition to this Facebook is being used across all major operators across the world.
Facebook’s announcement further points out that the company has redesigned the mobile sites m.facebook.com and touch.facebook.com to enable users to access Facebook from any mobile browser in more than 70 languages. In addition to this, Facebook now handles text messages from more than 80 operators in 32 countries.
Facebook’s announcement corroborates Opera’s recent survey results. Opera’s survey findings showed that Facebook’s mobile usage on Opera Mini mobile browser increased by around 619% in 2009 alone.
Source:http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/02/mobile-100-million/
Labels: Facebook Applications, Facebook news, Facebook’s mobile
Facebook Webmail Approaching?
Monday, February 08, 2010
There’s a strong rumor saying there’s an internal Facebook project developing to be released to the public soon: Facebook’s Webmail.
As greedy as it could sound to you, it really doesn’t seem like a big shock, Facebook is the biggest social network available with over 350 million users and with an amazing growth in the last few years. Constantly looking for new ways to expand; a while ago we’ve showed you an interview of Facebook’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckeberg, that said Facebook is not intended to be a simple website, they are looking to represent your identity in Internet.
There isn’t much information about the project, which already has a codename: Titan and that your mail address will be the same used in your vanity URL. In my case should be augusto.a.alvarez@facebook.com. And of course, you will be able to set E-Mail Clients like Outlook or Thunderbird to access your mail using POP or IMAP protocols.
The webmail really sounds like a very possible next step. Could we expect next a bigger instant messaging experience?
Source: http://crenk.com/facebook-webmail-approaching/
As greedy as it could sound to you, it really doesn’t seem like a big shock, Facebook is the biggest social network available with over 350 million users and with an amazing growth in the last few years. Constantly looking for new ways to expand; a while ago we’ve showed you an interview of Facebook’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckeberg, that said Facebook is not intended to be a simple website, they are looking to represent your identity in Internet.
There isn’t much information about the project, which already has a codename: Titan and that your mail address will be the same used in your vanity URL. In my case should be augusto.a.alvarez@facebook.com. And of course, you will be able to set E-Mail Clients like Outlook or Thunderbird to access your mail using POP or IMAP protocols.
The webmail really sounds like a very possible next step. Could we expect next a bigger instant messaging experience?
Source: http://crenk.com/facebook-webmail-approaching/
Labels: Facebook Mail, Facebook news, Facebook Titan
Revealed: Which social networks pose the biggest risk?
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
One of the nuggets of interesting data inside the newly-published Sophos Security Threat Report 2010 reveals which social network people believe poses the biggest security risk.
We polled over 500 firms, and 60% felt that Facebook was the biggest danger:
We shouldn't forget, of course, that Facebook is by far the largest social network - and you'll find more bad apples in the biggest orchard.
The truth is that the security team at Facebook works hard to counter threats on their site - it's just that policing 350 million users can't be an easy job for anyone. But there is no doubt that simple changes could make Facebook users safer. For instance, when Facebook rolled-out its new recommended privacy settings late last year, it was a backwards step, encouraging many users to share their information with everybody on the internet.
Although LinkedIn is considered to be by far the least threatening of the networks, it's worth remembering that it can still provide a sizeable pool of information for hackers.
Targeted attacks against companies are in the news at the moment, and the more information a criminal can get about your organization's structure, the easier for them to send a poisoned attachment to precisely the person whose computer they want to break into.
Sites like LinkedIn provide hackers with what is effectively a corporate directory, listing your staff's names and positions. This makes it child's play to reverse-engineer the email addresses of potential victims.
If you haven't already done so, download the Sophos Security Threat Report 2010now.
http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2010/02/01/revealed-social-networks-pose-biggest-risk/
We polled over 500 firms, and 60% felt that Facebook was the biggest danger:
We shouldn't forget, of course, that Facebook is by far the largest social network - and you'll find more bad apples in the biggest orchard.
The truth is that the security team at Facebook works hard to counter threats on their site - it's just that policing 350 million users can't be an easy job for anyone. But there is no doubt that simple changes could make Facebook users safer. For instance, when Facebook rolled-out its new recommended privacy settings late last year, it was a backwards step, encouraging many users to share their information with everybody on the internet.
Although LinkedIn is considered to be by far the least threatening of the networks, it's worth remembering that it can still provide a sizeable pool of information for hackers.
Targeted attacks against companies are in the news at the moment, and the more information a criminal can get about your organization's structure, the easier for them to send a poisoned attachment to precisely the person whose computer they want to break into.
Sites like LinkedIn provide hackers with what is effectively a corporate directory, listing your staff's names and positions. This makes it child's play to reverse-engineer the email addresses of potential victims.
If you haven't already done so, download the Sophos Security Threat Report 2010now.
http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2010/02/01/revealed-social-networks-pose-biggest-risk/
Labels: Facebook news, LinkedIn News, MySpace, Social Media News
Facebook Teams Up with McAFee to Offer Free Security Software
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Facebook just announced that it has signed-up a year-long deal with McAfee to offer free download of its security software. That’s putting McAfee’s software available for download to 350 million people, although not all of them might be PC users.
The deal would allow Facebook members to download and use the security software for a free six-month subscription after which those who opt to continue using it can renew the subscription at a discounted cost. Again, thanks to Facebook’s deal.
And the reason why Facebook is doing this? To help its members protect themselves against security threats that could otherwise hamper them from using their computers which might include accessing Facebook.
It’s a nobel effort from Facebook. Although we could not discount the fact that it’s also a marketing ploy for McAfee and Facebook. Either way, there’s no harm in getting the free security software even if you can use it only for six months.
And in case you’re computer is already compromised even before you got the McAfee software, Facebook will detect it once you try accessing its site. It will then ask you to go through several processes which include running the McAfee virus scan procedure. Again, another one-of-a-kind service from the world’s no.1 social networking site.
To get the free McAfee security software, simply head over to the Protect Your PC tab on the McAfee Page on Facebook.
Source:http://www.dailybits.com/facebook-teams-up-with-mcafee-to-offer-free-security-software/
The deal would allow Facebook members to download and use the security software for a free six-month subscription after which those who opt to continue using it can renew the subscription at a discounted cost. Again, thanks to Facebook’s deal.
And the reason why Facebook is doing this? To help its members protect themselves against security threats that could otherwise hamper them from using their computers which might include accessing Facebook.
It’s a nobel effort from Facebook. Although we could not discount the fact that it’s also a marketing ploy for McAfee and Facebook. Either way, there’s no harm in getting the free security software even if you can use it only for six months.
And in case you’re computer is already compromised even before you got the McAfee software, Facebook will detect it once you try accessing its site. It will then ask you to go through several processes which include running the McAfee virus scan procedure. Again, another one-of-a-kind service from the world’s no.1 social networking site.
To get the free McAfee security software, simply head over to the Protect Your PC tab on the McAfee Page on Facebook.
Source:http://www.dailybits.com/facebook-teams-up-with-mcafee-to-offer-free-security-software/
Labels: Facebook and McAfee, Facebook news, Facebook Privacy Control
Facebook making privacy controls easier
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, sent an open letter to the social network's users announcing some good news both for the company and for users. He announced Facebook now has over 350 million users. To put that into perspective, the Facebook population is larger than those of all of the countries in the except China and India.
The other, and arguably more intriguing, bit of information from Zuckerberg was the announcement of updates to Facebook privacy settings:
"The plan we've come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.
We're adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload." (emphasis added)
Make good privacy choices
This is an important change because it will provide individuals a way to have better control and hopefully filter their postings for appropriateness. Perhaps this is Facebook's way of letting users help themselves and making good choices online. I especially liked how Zuckerberg leads users down the path of choosing privacy settings:
"...the best way for you to find the right settings is to read through all your options and customize them for yourself. I encourage you to do this and consider who you're sharing with online." (emphasis added)
If you're a Facebook user, will this change be helpful to you? Do you think people will take the time to update their privacy settings? The comments are yours.
Images:http://www.flickr.com/photos/36521958135@N01/3016389517
Story: http://nextcommunications.blogspot.com/2009/12/facebook-making-privacy-controls-easier.html
Labels: Facebook, Facebook news, Facebook Privacy Control
Facebook Groups Redesign Becomes Official
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Last week we wrote about Facebook testing out a new design for Facebook groups which is almost identical to Facebook Pages. As of today, that new design has become official. One significant component of the upgraded version of groups is that updates to them will now be delivered to the homepage News Feed. With the new design the Pages versus Groups debate will continue to rage on.
It’s clear that the design of groups is almost identical to Facebook Pages and at this point there are few benefits of using groups over Pages which makes me think that the debate is moot to a certain extent. This new groups design also make one wonder whether or not groups will become a platform for applications. With over 45 million groups, it would only make sense to grant developers access to them.
For now we’ll have to wait and see how the groups evolve but this is most definitely a significant upgrade. While I’d like to personally see Facebook Pages and groups merge together, many users argue that Groups have their own use case. With tons of invites to groups about different issues I’ve stopped using them for the most part, however many users still flock to groups daily.
Do you think this redesign is useful? Should Facebook just merge groups and Pages or is there a reason for keeping groups?
Source:http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/10/facebook-groups-redesign-becomes-official/
It’s clear that the design of groups is almost identical to Facebook Pages and at this point there are few benefits of using groups over Pages which makes me think that the debate is moot to a certain extent. This new groups design also make one wonder whether or not groups will become a platform for applications. With over 45 million groups, it would only make sense to grant developers access to them.
For now we’ll have to wait and see how the groups evolve but this is most definitely a significant upgrade. While I’d like to personally see Facebook Pages and groups merge together, many users argue that Groups have their own use case. With tons of invites to groups about different issues I’ve stopped using them for the most part, however many users still flock to groups daily.
Do you think this redesign is useful? Should Facebook just merge groups and Pages or is there a reason for keeping groups?
Source:http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/10/facebook-groups-redesign-becomes-official/
Labels: Facebook, Facebook news, Facebook Pages
4 Facebook Mobile Updates You Should Know About
Monday, September 07, 2009
Yesterday Facebook made a number of mobile announcements in addition to a number of partners that made announcements about support for their Facebook mobile offerings. Rather than posting a bunch of articles about each of the news announcements, we’ve compiled all the announcements into a single list. It’s clear that an increasing percentage of Facebook users are using Facebook’s mobile services as their default method of accessing the site.
Facebook Surpasses 65 Million Users
Yesterday Facebook announced that they had surpassed 65 million mobile users, accounting for approximately 25 percent of all Facebook users. As Facebook expands globally, there is no question that the percentage of Facebook users that access the site on their mobile devices will increase over time. While the best interfaces are found on the iPhone and Blackberry (and soon on Android devices), any mobile device with internet access can view the site.
Nokia Announces Ovi Lifecasting With Facebook
Yesterday Nokia announced a new service called Ovi Lifecasting. In a relatively lengthy video (embedded below), Nokia highlights a new system which makes it possible to connect to your friends in real-time through a layer that’s built on top of Facebook. While the full functionality of the service isn’t really clear, it’s obvious that Nokia has realized that they need to provide integrated Facebook access in order to sell more phones.
T-Mobile Announces Sidekick Support For Facebook
Yesterday, T-Mobile announced that more sidekick devices can now access Facebook through a free application. The company is also attempting to sell a Twitter application for $1.99 (for some unknown reason) but all Facebook users can log in to Facebook for free. Over 65,000 people are already using Facebook for Sidekick but with this new version being accessible to older versions of the Sidekick, I’d expect that number to increase.
Facebook Announces Connect For The Mobile Web
Developers now have another library for developing Connect-enabled versions of their applications for all mobile devices. While there is already services for the iPhone and the web in general, enabling Connect on basic mobile sites was not an easy task until now. Yesterday the company launched Facebook Connect for the Mobile Web. It functions like all other connect applications but increases the number of people that will now be able to view the apps.
Source:http://www.allfacebook.com/
Facebook Surpasses 65 Million Users
Yesterday Facebook announced that they had surpassed 65 million mobile users, accounting for approximately 25 percent of all Facebook users. As Facebook expands globally, there is no question that the percentage of Facebook users that access the site on their mobile devices will increase over time. While the best interfaces are found on the iPhone and Blackberry (and soon on Android devices), any mobile device with internet access can view the site.
Nokia Announces Ovi Lifecasting With Facebook
Yesterday Nokia announced a new service called Ovi Lifecasting. In a relatively lengthy video (embedded below), Nokia highlights a new system which makes it possible to connect to your friends in real-time through a layer that’s built on top of Facebook. While the full functionality of the service isn’t really clear, it’s obvious that Nokia has realized that they need to provide integrated Facebook access in order to sell more phones.
T-Mobile Announces Sidekick Support For Facebook
Yesterday, T-Mobile announced that more sidekick devices can now access Facebook through a free application. The company is also attempting to sell a Twitter application for $1.99 (for some unknown reason) but all Facebook users can log in to Facebook for free. Over 65,000 people are already using Facebook for Sidekick but with this new version being accessible to older versions of the Sidekick, I’d expect that number to increase.
Facebook Announces Connect For The Mobile Web
Developers now have another library for developing Connect-enabled versions of their applications for all mobile devices. While there is already services for the iPhone and the web in general, enabling Connect on basic mobile sites was not an easy task until now. Yesterday the company launched Facebook Connect for the Mobile Web. It functions like all other connect applications but increases the number of people that will now be able to view the apps.
Source:http://www.allfacebook.com/
Labels: Facebook, Facebook Applications, Facebook news
Watch Out Twitter! Facebook Launches Realtime Search
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Facebook’s on a roll today. Earlier today, Facebook acquired FriendFeed, one of the largest and most-discussed social media acquisitions we’ve seen in a long time. The deal is partly seen as a move by the world’s largest social network to boost their social technology, specifically realtime streams, conversations, social media aggregation, and search.
That’s what makes Facebook’s latest move so intriguing. In June, Facebook announced it was building a new real-time search to rival Twitter Search. It not only would search status updates, but photos, notes, images, videos, and links. Facebook has also made changes that will allow users to post their status updates publicly in anticipation of the new search.
Fast forward to today: Facebook just announced that it is rolling out the new Facebook search. With realtime search and FriendFeed (FriendFeed) in its pocket, Facebook is gunning directly for Twitter .
More story on:http://mashable.com/2009/08/10/facebook-launches-realtime-search/
Labels: Facebook, Facebook news, Friend Feed
Facebook employees are offered $14.77 a share
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
SOCIAL NOTWORKING SITE employees at Facebook who want to make a quick buck off their company are being allowed to sell stock for $14.77 per share under an agreement with Digital Sky Technologies.
The Russian outfit wants to buy $100 million of Facebook common stock from current and former employees. It already announced a separate $200 million investment in Facebook's preferred shares in May, which means it thinks the value of the company is $10 billion.
From a Facebook staff member's perspective this means that they can get some cash out of the outfit at last, particularly before it goes to a public float and Wall Street starts wondering if it is really worth all that much.
Although Facebook is doing much better than Rupert Murdoch's MySpace, it is expected to make only $500 million in revenue this year.
More on Facebook Offering
Labels: Facebook, Facebook news
Google and Facebook still biggest players in UK
Thursday, June 18, 2009
You can hardly call it "news" anymore but still... Hitwise has released new numbers showing that Google is still the biggest player when it comes to online in the UK.
The search engine not only is the biggest search engine with over 90% market share (.com and .co.uk combined), it's also the most visited site overall. Facebook is a very good second before the big gap with the others shows up. Google is biggest in almost every categorie with services like YouTube, Google Images and even Gmail accounting for lots of visitors.
In the top 20 websites visited last week (ending June 13th), Google takes up four different spots with Gmail and Image search for example also in the top twenty. The BBC is as always also very present with three sites in the top.
The top 20 also shows that both Gmail and Bing have a long way to go. Gmail still is small compared to Windows Live Mail (Hotmail) and Bing just entered the top 20.
When it comes to the search engines after Google looking at the last month Yahoo is still the strongest brand in the UK, followed by Ask and Bing. However if you only look at last week Bing surpassed Yahoo and went to the fourth spot with a marketshare of 3,11%.
Source For this Report: http://www.searchcowboys.com/research/671
The search engine not only is the biggest search engine with over 90% market share (.com and .co.uk combined), it's also the most visited site overall. Facebook is a very good second before the big gap with the others shows up. Google is biggest in almost every categorie with services like YouTube, Google Images and even Gmail accounting for lots of visitors.
In the top 20 websites visited last week (ending June 13th), Google takes up four different spots with Gmail and Image search for example also in the top twenty. The BBC is as always also very present with three sites in the top.
The top 20 also shows that both Gmail and Bing have a long way to go. Gmail still is small compared to Windows Live Mail (Hotmail) and Bing just entered the top 20.
When it comes to the search engines after Google looking at the last month Yahoo is still the strongest brand in the UK, followed by Ask and Bing. However if you only look at last week Bing surpassed Yahoo and went to the fourth spot with a marketshare of 3,11%.
Source For this Report: http://www.searchcowboys.com/research/671
Labels: Facebook news, Google News
Facebook Rocks With a Different Look
Monday, June 15, 2009
Everyone have probably noticed that Facebook looks different today. It all began when Facebook began accepting registrations at midnight New York time on June 13. Facebook debuted usernames for companies, individuals and groups, in order to finally enable everyone to grab an easy-to-remember, easy-to-share URL for profile or page on a first-come, first-served basis. Within 15 minutes, more than 500,000 user names were assigned.
The new service, which went live at 5am BST on Saturday morning, allows account holders to register more distinctive URLs for their profiles by choosing a specific username, which will then be displayed in the URL link to their profile.
People can enter a Facebook username as a search term on Facebook or a popular search engine like Google, for example, which will make it much easier for people to find friends with common names.
According to Facebook Inc., more than 3 million people registered user names in the first 12 hours after the social-networking site offered members the chance to claim a personalized Internet address.
Facebook, the most-popular social-networking site, introduces the new feature which is designed to make it easier to find people. Users that have claimed their names can direct friends to a simplified Web address, such as http://www.facebook.com/username. Previously, those addresses had strings of letters and numbers, making them difficult to remember. The change also makes it easier to find Facebook members through search engines such as Google Inc.
According to different reports, within seven minutes of the service being available, 345,000 users grabbed one and within 15 minutes, over a half million had, Facebook usernames.
The new service, which went live at 5am BST on Saturday morning, allows account holders to register more distinctive URLs for their profiles by choosing a specific username, which will then be displayed in the URL link to their profile.
People can enter a Facebook username as a search term on Facebook or a popular search engine like Google, for example, which will make it much easier for people to find friends with common names.
According to Facebook Inc., more than 3 million people registered user names in the first 12 hours after the social-networking site offered members the chance to claim a personalized Internet address.
Facebook, the most-popular social-networking site, introduces the new feature which is designed to make it easier to find people. Users that have claimed their names can direct friends to a simplified Web address, such as http://www.facebook.com/username. Previously, those addresses had strings of letters and numbers, making them difficult to remember. The change also makes it easier to find Facebook members through search engines such as Google Inc.
According to different reports, within seven minutes of the service being available, 345,000 users grabbed one and within 15 minutes, over a half million had, Facebook usernames.
Labels: Facebook, Facebook news
