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Startup Meme

A blog about technology and Start ups

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Social Networks Like Facebook And Twitter Continue To Gain Popularity As Marketing Tools Amongst Firms

When you talk about success of one platform and more importantly hear how every Tom, Dick and Harry is nibbling advantage off it, the bigger names tend to speed up their activity on the same. Facebook therefore is no exception. We have seen how big brands are using social networks to their advantage, leveraging the massive population they pull towards them. Examples would include brands like Adidas, Nike, Motorola, Microsoft with its Bing, just to name a few.

According to the stats from the latest report, well over 75% of online retailers utilize the social network. Those numbers are for the retailers in the US only but this just shows how rapidly the social networks have influenced each. While the online retailers have always have had a Web presence with their own portals, the migration towards utilizing these networks for massive or to put it more correctly the viral marketing. That percentage is only about those who are very active on these sites. Those that aren’t are planning to step into the social scene and devising strategies. i recently came across a startup in Stealth mode in Pakistan that is only postponing its launch because it is unable to devise a proper social media strategy.

With the ground work already laid in the last one year primarily there are more than just concrete reasons why companies should actually devise such methodologies to have a reputation online too. More importantly one that is very actively maintained. While this may mean a lot to companies as whole, it will definitely help the self proclaimed Social Media Specialists.

[Image with thanks]

Facebook To Bring Location Features Soon

Wow! Facebook is heading over to location based features and will be introducing these in the coming month. This would enable users to add their location with friends on the social network, letting your network know where you are. These features would also enable the developer community to leverage users sharing their location and design related activities and apps for more location centered user experience.

I know many would be pissed and create a havoc on why is the social network using their location to design apps as bait. But cry as you may, the social network had already included that in their Terms of Service, when the TOS created a lot of controversy last year. Whether you enjoy these new features or not, you have already agreed to let the social network use these, if you happen to be using the social network.

I really appreciate having such features, given that they are very useful. However the issue will be with those countless startups that focus on location features. Just think of it, if you happen to have big names like Google and Facebook giving you those features along with the countless many already, are you really going to use these startups for one dedicated purpose? I doubt that.

Tags: facebook, location, social network

What’s the best way to boost the number of fans on your fan page? Exploit their desires, something which many have done out and about on Facebook. The latest to surface is the scam that says it will give you Apple’s latest gadget, the iPad for free only if you are to register your information as well as the cell phone number on the destination site.

Of course the deal is worth falling for the bait. I mean especially those die hard Apple fans who would do anything to sniff the tiniest bit of news or just a touch on the Apple devices, would readily have fallen prey to it. The worst part is that you are requested to provide the cell phone numbers of your friends on the site as well and you end up being charged $10 a week. To be honest these scams only succeed in fishing the less aware of users and one reason why we make sure that such scams are covered immediately so that the maximum users are aware of it.

I would just advice that the next time you get the deal of your life on Facebook or anywhere on the Web just make sure that you inquire about it with the countless friends you have there. It is always good to be safe than sorry.

Tags: apple, facebook, scam

Absolut Vodka Brings Jay-Z’s NY-Z To Facebook, Thanks To ABSOLUT Fan Page

Well you might be too far to attend Metallica’s concert in Israel at half a price thanks to Facebook and even more as they might not be held in your city, but complain not! At least Jay-Z fans who are spread across the globe. The artist has made up a deal with Absolut Vodka to bring his fans a latest documentary titled; NY-Z.

So what makes it worth a mention? Well Absolut Vodka is going to stream the same on its Facebook fan page from March 22. All you have to do is the obvious, become a fan of the beverage and the documentary would showcase the happenings both on stage and off it in the concert held in September 2009. While you might not be watching the entire movie on the page, you will at least have the sneak peaks at your disposal, while you enjoy the activity on the page that gives you tips on drinks as well as a chance to win a prize or two.

Sounds pretty good and quite clever of Absolut Vodka to leverage the reputation of the Grammy Award winning artist. If you are a fan of Jay-Z, I bet you would love to watch the promo cum demo.

Tags: absolut vodka, facebook, fan page, music

Quit Smoking On Facebook!

Wow. First they had chewing gums to help you quit smoking, then came sessions to help you with that followed by electronic cigarettes. Well this year there is a new way to quit smoking as the world celebrates the No Smoking Day. Some smart folks out there have created an app for the largest social network, Facebook.

The idea is to get all the smokers challenge each other and friends alike to quit smoking where success will be rewarded and a lot of boos for failure. Sounds interesting, especially the idea of Wall of Shame, which puts the photos of smokers who find nooks and corners to continue with their habit and fool others. Again, the app will be pretty viral as March 10, the day for No-Smoking approaches and I really commend the group for making the effort. I have always thought that doing so all by yourself is pretty tough, but if you have the motivation from others like you and all smokers try to quit this habit in a group, actually find it much easier to reduce their tobacco intake.

Apparently the group wants to have a large population of smokers kick the habit out of their lives using the power of social media as a motivational tool. The page itself is pretty motivational and makes sure that the word and idea gets across to those who really want to let go of the habit and it brings to limelight the fact that social media can be put to many uses. The major being obviously connecting the masses under one common cause and agenda. If you are one of those smokers who are looking for a reason to quit the habit or happen to know someone who can benefit from this app, please do add the app: WeQuit.

Tags: app, facebook, smoking

Facebook Campaign Pulls Down Ticket Price For Metallica Concert In Israel

Now this one definitely pulls the value of Metallica’s concert down but it has got their fans thanking Facebook. Apparently the fans of the band in Israel used Facebook to launch a campaign to boycott the soaring prices for their concert scheduled for May 22, 2010. The actual price of the ticket was put at $159, but the power of the crowd has got it to half the price to around $80.

This was obvious, the band which people actually worship when it comes to metal genre is visiting the state after their last tour in 1999. Now would you ever think of missing that just because you can’t pay the price. The group started off with 600 followers and in less than 4 days has amassed over 6,000 users. Now this definitely is a good news for the fans in Israel as well as for the tour, given that the cost is now halved, it means that more people will be making it to the concert. Jam packed to be precise is what it should be and will make it worth the campaign.

To me this just shows how effective can social networking sites can be when you utilize the platforms to rally in the like minded for a cause. Plus it also shows that the strength of each group, cause or campaign has equal chances of success and these could be as diverse as the people and their tastes. I hope we can pull off something similar for a foreign artist coming to Pakistan.

Tags: facebook, israel, social network

Leveraging Farmville And The Likes – Not a Bad Idea To Amass Fans On Your Page

Now when your fans increase from 1 to 5 it isn’t worth talking about anything but if a single step of yours pushes you from 100,000 to 500,000, it’s worth every word I write. Microsoft has surged overnight from having 100,000 followers to 500,000. What was their magic spell? Give those Farmville addicts currency in exchange of becoming a fan of Bing on its Facebook fan page.

The killer idea was that they enticed users to join in without actually having to leave their game and become fans of Bing. The trouble is who exactly is becoming a fan there? I mean you can have all sorts of people joining in for a bribe of the ever important Facebook Credits or some worthless virtual currency. The purpose here was primarily to make Bing the default search engine choice when it comes to finding tips for the game. How stupid. I mean wouldn’t it be easier for users to figure those out on blogs or with the friends who are busy engaged in the game as well?

What makes this strategy viral is that when you become a fan of any page, that is brought to limelight in the activity stream on the Facebook News Feed. With this method, the only thing that restricts your reach is the number of friends/connections that the individual has. And if I am not mistaken that on an average each user has a around 100 friends on the social network. This alone makes the entire promotion bit easy and more importantly viral. Other than that, we all know how rapidly the concept of anything virtual has evolved with Facebook so throwing away a credit or two to buy one fan isn’t really much loss given that this would eventually add up to a more fruitful fan force that would somehow associate itself to using Bing and giving it a significant presence on the social network.

To me, this is still in the early stage. Companies would try and leverage the power of these existing engagement pages and apps on Facebook to boost their following in the long run. Just think of it, big business have no issues with spending some cash and it is always essential for them to have a quick result spending money rather get someone try and do it form scratch. But then again, it really harms the brands in my opinion, just think of it if I were to say that Startup Meme would give away $1 dollar worth of virtual gifts to every one who joins our fan page, I bet everyone would irrespective if they love reading about Facebook or not. In my humble opinion, what you will actually have is a massive community that is kept alive by a very handful of fans.

Tags: Bing, facebook, fan page, microsoft, social network

Facebook Pictures Jump to 720P

Pictures should be visible, especially when photography enthusiasts make so much efforts to capture the most inspiring moments and users want to see them bigger. Well yesterday the social network did make the move and pushed the image resolution to 720 pixels. Now we are talking more detail!

I did notice bigger pictures when I recently updated my photo album, the image size appeared much larger than. But the only issue here is that the new size will only be for the new pictures you upload to now. Meaning all your previous photos will remain fixed at the older 604 resolution. Other than that those of you who upload images from other methods, like mobile applications, etc will still have to bear with the smaller resolution. Hope that doesn’t remain so for long as many uploads do happen from user’s mobile devices and on the go.

Tags: facebook, pictures

American Idol Season 9 Wants One Facebook Fan Page, One Twitter Account For All Activity

While it is great to have a fan page for almost every new idea on Facebook or Twitter accounts, it might get very stupid if there different ones for different faces of the same idea. Think of it, if Nokia had different fan pages for its different mobile phones. Or Apple had the same for the MacBooks, iPhone and the iPod. The major trouble would have been the issue with keeping a check on all data which was spread on to so many sites/pages. Today the team at American Idol had some senses knocked into it as they centralized all contestants into one Official account for all.

As of now, American Idol’s season 9 would have one single account on Twitter [@AI9Contestants] and one page on Facebook [AI9 Contestants]. The move is justified, primarily because it’s going to bring all the thrill and news about the new season at one place, instead of having all the noise polluting streams of users and fans. To be honest it kills the purpose of competition as it becomes more individual. With This in place one can actually be updated about every contestant’s activity on one page or through one single account. This would keep the spirit of the competition alive and will be much easier to monitor by the the team.

Oh and I almost forget, the favoritism and arguments will so flood those pages and activity stream that it will actually be fun to be a part of. What do you think about this move? Do you think that they should not implement it? Le us know your opinion in comments.

Tags: american idol, facebook

Facebook Promote Facebook Mobile… Big Time

The social network is really heading on to maximize its growing influence. The social networks now wants to make sure that you end up using the Facebook mobile version if you do leave the social network on the Web. Well the social network has been used far and wide the many smartphone devices like the iPhone, Android phones, etc but it hasn’t really been able to give a great experience. I only enjoyed using Facebook on the Nokia N97 [you can read the phone’s review here].

As of now the login page now has a huge mobile phone image and the link takes you to a new page where you are provided many options to ease using Facebook via mobile devices. The release provides you with the ease of updating your Facebook status via text messages, you already had this option but the social network has made these option more prominent now. Other than that you also have the options like having a customized email for the social network that you can use to upload videos, photos, etc to your Facebook profile. Once you are signed up and click on the link to have an upload email, the social network would generate you one which you can use to share content right from your email client.

All these options, as already mentioned have been there all the while, but the social network is just making them more visible. It sounds fair enough, especially given the fact the the social network is already set to get past the $1 Billion revenue in 2010. The connection is obvious that it wants to reach the maximum very rapidly and for that it has to bring all those hidden features out for the users.

Tags: facebook, mobile, social network

Hella Should Be A Real Number: So Desires A Facebook Fan Page

If flues of all kinds go viral in the real world, it only takes a crazy idea to go viral on Facebook. I am so not wrong when I say this as we have seen this happen with so many fan pages. Be they purposeful or plain pointless, there are people who will support the idea. The latest one erupting with fans is there to make Hella a real number. How?

Well they plan to to make that word a SI word for 10^27. I bet I don’t need explanation to explain that? Anyways it simply means 1 leading 27 zeros. The biggest surprise here is that it is catching attention from big names like Popular Science and media channel Fox News which are only making it sounds really important. The page is actually a petition by Austin Sendek who is a Physics student at the University of California and had thought of having a better and more understandable prefix for the mammoth number.

If he gets the desired attention and people do signup or support the Petition, the International body that standardizes Units [International System of Units] would go ahead and make it official. Why not? They already have Yotta as a prefix for 10^24. The page at present has over 34,000 fans and as more people join, spread the word, Twitter about it or write posts, that number is going to increase exponentially.

By the way, how much would 1 HellaByte of Hard drive cost?

Tags: facebook, fan page, hella

$1 Billion In 2010 Might Just Be Easy For Facebook

New numbers are coming in as the social network, Facebook continues to expand rapidly and amass users. As of the latest analysis, the social network might end up raising more than the $700 million that were initially expected for year 2010. If this turns our true, we might have the social network hitting past the $1 Billion revenue range and that it might actually have bagged the predicted $700 million in 2009. Wow and I bet many folks out there are already trying to apply the Facebook model to their own setup.

The social network as we have been talking about has raised revenues from the content and activity on its platform. Be those ads by Microsoft which it has eventually pulled from the US, via brands on Facebook to selling virtual goods via crazy apps like Farmville and God knows what else. The virtual good market has already pushed past $10 Million since the boom late last year. Other than this, the social network is definitely getting serious about minting some revenue and keeping a firm grip on revenue matters itself. It has boosted its staff, which can very well mean that they will have more people working to enhance the advertising on the platform and devise strategies for the same. Other than that it has already got Facebook Credits system which take away around one third of what ever transaction is made using those.

The sad part is that the social network still has a lot to do when it comes to being profitable. What I would really love Facebook to get a break with is that the social media actually hits hard on some beneficial revenue model it could help many at large, especially those apps from lone developers. But seriously there is a lot that Facebook can do and profitability is just a very small part of it.

Tags: facebook, revenue, social media

Soldier’s Facebook Update Saved West Bank Village From An Israeli Strike

Facebook or any news associated on a given day would never cease to ridicule you. There have been many reports that have been categorized as bizarre all the way to funny and today we hear that certain activity on the social network had Israel rolling back its strike. Apparently Israel was planning to launch an attack on a small West Bank village, but thank to a soldier it never happened as he shared certain details online. Thanks soldier you did save some precious innocent lives!

Let me connect this to the news yesterday when the US Department of Defense pulled off its ban on letting Marines use the social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Didn’t I say that this would very well fall back in the ban mode and this is exactly why I thought so. The soldier was carried away with the rush of blood and enthusiasm about sharing the clean sweep of the village, sharing the time and exact location. Of course that was just a silly mistake on his part but it cost him dearly as he was court martialed and put in prison for ten days, I feel sorry for him but to be honest he did a job. Why? Well I can bet that the forces would have killed a countless innocent people just to get rid of a few bad folks.

Other than that, he will get a lot of curses from his fellow soldiers who might very well be banned from using social networking sites like Facebook. Especially when they are on duty.

Tags: army, facebook, social network, soldier

Department Of Defense Gets Easy On Soldiers: Allows Excess to Facebook And Other Social Networks

Alright I am surprised here. How come the US department of Defense allow Marines to use social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. That’s great for the armed division given that much free Football players aren’t allowed to use the social networks even now. Does this mean that soccer players have much important secrets that those in the armed forces? Of course not!

I recall that these sites had been blocked for the armed personnel a couple of years back but that wasn’t made an official rule. That is of course the reason why it has been lifted and the soldiers been allowed to use these platforms. Now this doesn’t mean that the network is open to all and more importantly for all times to come as the DOD can put the ban up any time it has to. I personally don’t see the reason why they would want to keep a ban on any social activity, given the fact that they literally own all activity that these soldiers far and away do online? They have blocked all access to any porn site on their network and I bet keeping an eye on every individuals activity there wont be any big a trouble for them. In the meantime the soldiers can kill their loneliness while the ban isn’t there and feel a bit closer to their loved ones in some distant corner of the world.

What do you think about this decision? Do you think that this ban should be there for armed forces and such organizations? Do share your view point with us in comments.

Tags: DoD, facebook, social network

LiveOffice Plans To Record Your Activity On Facebook, Twitter With Its App

There is quite a lot of being done by almost every name online to associate themselves with Facebook. Presently LiveOffice that helps users archive their emails is bringing the same archiving facility to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I am not sure what and how exactly is it going to work around but as I can grasp it would work by retaining content or activity across the given social networks.

The content is going to be captured using the application and will store that activity on its proprietary service; LiveOffice AdvisorMail. The purpose of this is to help monitor and keep a check on activity across the site, again not sure how this would be made use of but it might actually help people keep a check on what sort of activity is being performed or done across the given networks. Even organizations can keep a check on closed systems within and analyze how consumers or people within the organization engage with these networks. The application isn’t going to cost anything for the existing consumers.

I sort of like the idea, I mean I can use it personally to monitor how I engage or use the social network. Though I would love if the app is available for free.

Tags: app, facebook, liveoffice

Microsoft’s Zune HD Finally Brings Facebook App For Its Users

The wait is over for Zune HD owners as Microsoft finally gets ahead and brings a Facebook App for the device. That did take a lot of time, given that the promises were actually made to bring it for users back in 2009. The best part? Well it is free of the ad plague and you can get it without paying a nickel for it.

There isn’t much different about the app, meaning it lets you do all the much needed functions you need to do on the social network. Like updating status, viewing photos, browsing through profiles of friends and sending messages. All in all it lets you do whatever you want to do on the social network from your mobile. What actually makes it different one bit, is that you can set the songs you are playing on your device as the current status by simply clicking, or to put it more correctly tapping the Zune Button near your status bar.

The app can be downloaded right from your Zune HD suite on your desktop or by visiting the Market Place right from your device’s browser. The app though coming out late, isn’t a disappointment and users would find it worth the wait.

Tags: app, facebook, microsoft, zune hd

March 1, 2010: The Day When Facebook Notifications End

It ends, finally! All those notifications that bothered countless Facebook users like me irrespective we of the fact that we never really appreciated those apps being out there. The social network is now planning to pull those notifications off the system when March begins. Of course they wont just vanish overnight, but I am glad that they have given a date at last.

Of course This is going to dent the developers who have thrived on these flooding notifications that actively promoted their apps. But it is for the good of many users of the social network. I still receive dozens of notifications though I have blocked more than a hundred apps from sending me notifications, it just seems irritating. Plus it appears to be more of a harassment than a friendly app being promoted. What Facebook should do is provide these developers a better method to communicate with users. Something like a universal app dashboard or letting them get updates via email, more importantly users themselves should have the freedom to select how they should be contacted or updated about the apps.

While everyone can go about suggesting ideas on app notifications, the updates will take their time. Till then all we can do is try and digest those and hope that we do get to a have lighter and cleaner Facebook experience. Still if you do feel burdened by a friend or two sending you stupid notifications from apps, just hit the ignore notifications from this app in the options just beneath the notification itself to have one less app to worry about.

Tags: facebook, notifications

Poll: Why Do You Use Social Media?

I have been attending quite a lot of meeting lately and it is interesting how much everyone is inclined to talk and learn about social media. I just managed to ask a few of them the purpose they use the social networks for and responses were quite amazing. Of course I wasn’t near a system to create a poll there and then but many of them had opinions of using them for connecting with friends and businesses.

I am not sure what actually they meant when they said business since almost each one of them was not representing any brand or product. But many of them actually owned blogs that they updated on and off and web pages on which they needed hits. Most probably they intended to turn those into useful revenue sources. But the primary purpose still remains connecting with friends and sharing photos and videos. I mean that was what they were meant to be used for initially. I just thought about having conducting a poll at LinkedIn to see the responses of others on the Web.

The question is very basic and is not Facebook or Twitter centric. However this is just one of the many polls I will be conducting more of such polls to get a a clearer picture of how and where social networks are centered. If you are one of those interested to participate in the poll please visit and answer:

Why Do You Use Social Media?

You can connect with me on LinkedIn: Sardar Mohkim Khan

Tags: polls, social media

Facebook Issue: Right Emails To Wrong People At Random

Errors keep surfacing more often when you are handling a platform as large as Facebook. But downtime, inaccessibility is quite tolerable but when things as serious as mails going to random people begin to occur, it is indigestible. Think of it if you are sharing some useful information across a private message to a close friend or family member and it ends up into a totally random person’s inbox. I find it very worrying.

A similar thing happened with Facebook as emails began being sent to people randomly. It didn’t cause any major issues as the technical team was quick to fix it pretty soon after it broke free. However those affected by the problem were barred from accessing the social network. As for the exact numbers, Facebook hasn’t spoken about how many were affected.

As I said earlier, if the account is inaccessible for some time, I don’t mind it. But the major issue is with privacy, I mean think of the hazard each of those users affected were left prone to. Especially given the fact that privacy has been a major reason for so many controversies. Sadly enough this isn’t the first it has happened nor is this the last as Facebook always manages to find a way to get in trouble and conflict with users’ interest.

[image with thanks]

More Facebook Extensions For Google Chrome

If you remember that I had earlier discussed three useful Chrome extensions that made using Facebook in the browser easy. Well those were just three of them and there are loads that I will further discuss. At present I have three more which I will share with our readers, especially those who use Chrome for everything

The list follows and I hope you all like them.

Facebook Button

The extension places a small Facebook button on the right side of your address bar. Click it and it would ask you to login with your Facebook credentials. Once you are logged on you can do almost anything you do on Facebook opened in a window or a tab. So what exactly is different about it? Well you can move around across tabs and when you feel the need to check your Facebook updates, simply click the button and it will open a window where you can easily chat, set status updates or see your messages.

It also lets you perform multitude of tasks which include getting notifications and sharing any page you visit on the social network. it isn’t letting you do something really unique but I as a user would always love to have tasks being eased and online experience made more efficient. And of course you can always share the posts right from the window.

Facebook Button 2

This one is similar to the earlier one we covered at the top. I wont take any credit away from the hard work the developer must have put in to create this extension but it doesn’t seem original. The window that opens up is exactly the same as the one earlier just that there is no sharing option available for the links and posts. You can however comment and use the like button and check messages. Do try the two I have shared and let me know if there is any difference that I have overlooked between the two.

Facebook for Google Chrome

Trust me I am not driving you nuts with covering similar extensions. This third extension installs a button on the right of your Chrome browser. The extension does the same task as do the above mentioned plugins. What I like about it however is the design which is quite impressive and rids you of the traditional Facebook look.

More Facebook Extensions For Google Chrome

Instead of having those huge text buttons for Wall, Info, Notifications, etc. The developer has done an impressive job to replace those with decent and appealing icons.

While each of these are similar in function, I personally like the last one the most. What about you? Do you know of any other extension for Chrome that makes using Facebook easy and fun? Do share in the comments.

Tags: Chrome, extensions, facebook, google, tools

Facebook Updates Will Now Appear In Google Search In Real Time [Conditions Apply]

While all the Buzz from Google Buzz is definitely making many think that Google is trying to fly past Facebook. The search engine is keeping itself quit occupied with Facebook as it included updates from Facebook in its real time search results.

This isn’t something new as similar inclusion existed with other social networks which include MySpace and Twitter. While the option has been made available in Google results to facilitate finding useful information and links that people share on the social networking site, I personally think that you might not be able to find much. Why so? Well for your updates to appear in the search results you will have to make sure that your status updates are available for the public, which I think is quite impossible. There have been so many controversies with the whole idea of privacy settings that even if any single status update appears in the search result and the user appears to be unaware about the new privacy settings, I bet he or she will go ballistic. Lets see how it turns out to be and how many people have actually let their statuses and other information left open for public search engines.

Tags: facebook, google

Another Bizarre Relationship Story From Facebook: Guy Steals Ex-Girl’s Password And Fiddles With Her Profile

LOL. I am sorry but I didn’t have anything better to go along with what I exactly felt learning about this new bizarre news on Facebook. It appears that the social network is getting as much attention as any topic in the real world. Presently a woman, Jessica Zamora Anderson got fooled by her boyfriend, Paul Franco.

Apparently Jessica was made to believe that Franco, 38 years old and a musician, made her believe that he was an English teacher, all to make her fall for him. Obviously there must have been a desire to take classes and like any other alluring acquaintance on the social network it turned out to be a love affair. And like any other love affair online, it has fallen prey to same sorrow: the boyfriend stole her password and fooled around with her profile. Why would these guys do such things? I mean it sounds so ridiculing and stupid. That’s not it though, according to Jessica he did a lot more than just change a few things.

The guy, who is definitely a pervert. he stated on her profile that she is interested in woman and accepted friend requests from lesbians. Wonder what good it will do to Franco other than satisfying his perverted desires and role playing mindset. The guy is also demanding money in exchange of her social networking profile before being arrested and charged of harassment. If he so badly needed money he could have easily borrowed some from her, I bet if she was so loving to share her password with him, she would have definitely given him some cash.

Tags: bizarre, facebook

Another Day Another Bad Act: Teen19 Year Old Sentenced For 15 Years. For Blackmailing Other Kids

I guess everyone is having news about wrong stuff on Facebook. Come on, wasn’t this the month of love? I have covered quite a lot of news in the last week or so talking about people being murdered or committing suicide all the way to people being fired for letting kids enter a no entry zone and putting up pictures on the social network. Today another similar news has been circling the Web talking about a 19 year old kid being sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The kid has been accused of blackmailing more than half a dozen teen, forcing them to indulge in sexual activity/acts. How insane, the kid asked other teens to take naked pictures posing as girls and then used the same to blackmail them into perform indecent acts with him. I just don’t feel any sorrow for this youngster, given that many of those kids he blackmailed have been hospitalized. The fear is of course the same that they might harm themselves or even try to commit suicide.

The kid, Anthony Stand did however offered his apology for being guilty but I guess that isn’t enough:

I am deeply, deeply sorry for the pain and suffering I have caused you and your family. I can’t imagine or understand how much of an impact my actions have had on you.

I personally think that his sentence is absolutely justified and this should set an example for others who ever intend to perform such a heinous act.

Tags: facebook, social_network

Viral Videos And Easy Sharing? K.I.S.S! Just Say Facebook

It has grown and has grown bigger everyday. Now it almost sounds clichéd when I say that and many would simply not read it any further. But the fact stands that social network has opened up new venues and methods for services to grow and more importantly spread.

Even the media firms are now devising methods to help users easily share videos across the Web utilizing the platform itself and Facebook Connect to make sharing a breeze. The two big names at present; ABC Television and TVGuide are introducing features that help easy sharing of videos. It is inevitable, I mean the way videos go viral in no time on the Web, the only thing stopping them from spreading like a wildfire is that users usually don’t have the best way to share those despite the ease with which they can now than before. But since the Web continues to make us more lazy and our laziness grows exponentially with the evolution of social media. I bet soon people would demand intelligent social networks or machines to be correct that read their mind and share stuff without them actually doing any physical work.

Tags: facebook, video

Facebook Tips: How To Have A Living Facebook Fan Page

The biggest trouble with companies on Facebook is that many find it impossible to maintain an influential presence on the social network. The reason? Well many lose focus on why they are on the social network and what they need to do. Many more would just create a group or page and forget about it.

A great fan page isn’t some theory of relativity. It is fairly simple and these firms, or more importantly any individual who look forward to a great presence on the social network. I will not go about giving a long lecture on this but point out simple points that you can follow to have a page that fans interact with.

Appeal

Make sure you have a page that people find appealing. Think of a page on Johnny bravo hat is dull and very serious. I bet none of the character’s fans would spend time on it for its simply not as energetic as the Johnny Bravo is supposed to be. Have some energy on the page and users will keep it alive. There are numerous examples of it, Global Relief Fund for Haiti and the page for Nike.

Post Something That Makes Users Participate- Not Just LIKE

Users have become fan of your page and some of them will do something to show their loyalty. The least that they do is press the like button and if you have too many likes without much comments know that your fans are only forcing themselves to do something. Make sure you post something that sparks a healthy conversation or an argument. Anything that pulls users to share opinions and not just put a thumbs up.

Feedback Anyone?

There is no harm in asking your fans to share opinion and ideas about your page or brand? Ask them how they think that the page can be improved? Many might think this is absolutely useless thing to do but trust me the more power you give to the users and get them involved with you brand, the more loyal they will be. Dell did that when they crawled out with an active customer support online, Red Bull is doing it on Facebook.

Damn! No Photos!

The worst thing that could happen. You have loads of text ad no photos, that’s like you are zombie, all colorless. It’s not important that you share photos or videos about your brand only, it can be about your team enjoying time in office or a video on some event you organized. Trust me, users want something unusual every now and then and while your regular content might not really get all that traction, the odd video or photo now and then can grab a lot of attention.

Tags: facebook, tips

WOW! Bishop Bob Using Facebook To Post All Your Prayers To God!

Now I don’t want to mock it or sound sarcastic but it sounds funny as Bishop Bob has brought the entire prayer thing to Facebook. The bishop has asked people to post their prayers on his fan page and in return he will submit or communicate them to God. How? Well perhaps he has some Inter Galactic network at his place.

Bishop Robert Evens, quite popularly known as Bishop Bob is accepting or to put it more correctly asking people to send their prayers via email, texts and even through social networking site including Facebook. So what are you waiting for? Haven’t you complained for not having a very direct connection with God, well our bishop is doing exactly that for all of you. More importantly he is going to make sure he responds to each one of you, especially those in Devon:

I will be pulling over in lay-bys all over Devon, as well as adding people to my prayers at home each day

In order to get the word across, the loving bishop will be praying each day till March 13 and will wrap the prayers with a mass prayer in Exeter Cathedral. While I do believe in prayers I find it quite fascinating, especially when I only recently reported about a depressing report on a school teacher committing suicide. This one show’s that the social network can be put to some positive use and not the wrong ones that creepy boy friends resort to.

[image with thanks]

Tags: facebook, God, social network

Another Sad Facebook Story: Young Teacher Commits Suicide, Thanks To Her Ex-Boyfriend

Here is another bizarre news associated to Facebook. A old school teacher, Emma Jones committed suicide because her ex boyfriend put indecent photos of her on the social network. Emma was 24 years old and was a Greenwich University graduate. She was presently teaching 8 year old kids in an International School in Abu Dhabi.

Emma committed suicide by drinking poisonous cleaning fluid when she found that her ex boyfriend had put her photos on the social networking site. She was overtaken by fear and thought she would be charged of prostitution after a person working in the IT department of the school had also seen those pictures. Her fear was partly justified given that she was living in a strict Muslim country and more importantly she had been entrusted with job to teach young kids.

We aren’t sure what prompted her ex to actually go about doing such an act but one can imagine that it must have been a regular story; both partners not getting along with each other. Emma’s mother, MRs. Rowlands also reported the same that the two weren’t getting along. I am not sure why she didn’t try to leave the country and was afraid that she would be thrown in jail, she could have at least filed a case and tried to prove her innocence. I mean you can’t really take all the blame if someone else screws up with you. The investigation however reported something different as Emma had her passport in her pocket and her clothes were out to be packed most probably.

However sad this might be, I just hope this was the last of such horrendous incident. It is sad, but has become a very integral part of activity on Facebook and related to it.

[with thanks]

Tags: bizarre, facebook

Facebook Campaign: President Obama’s Statue Removed From The Park In Indonesia

While the Web has definitely helped President Obama big time with his election campaign people in Indonesia have used Facebook to have his presence removed from Jakarta. The statue has been placed in Jakarta’s school being removed from its original position from a public park. It was placed in honor of the president who had studied in the same school.

I am not sure why they placed it when they had to remove it eventually or more importantly relocate it. The only reason I see fitting here is that his popularity has faded amongst the people who had welcomed him as someone associated to the nation since he had studied in their homeland. While only 500 students watched its inauguration over 50,000 joined the group to support the cause of having it removed from the park.

The statue is a 43 inch model of a school going Obama with a butterfly perched on his hand. The president had lived in Indonesia between 1967 and 1971 and the statue had cost $10,000 and the funds were provided by a charity, a local television channel and a group of individuals.

The issue first got air when the same campaign started back in December last year and it had attracted quite a lot of fans. It is obvious that the purpose of statue has fallen prey to politics and the growing unpopularity of the President. I wouldn’t disagree with the people’s demands when they stated that they needed an Indonesian hero instead of a foreign president irrespective of what connections he has. Other than that the way they had it removed was very appropriately done and they resorted to using the social network for the purpose which just shows that the social network can be utilized for multiple purposes and that can include even influencing key decisions of the administration.

I would be really love if such modes of demonstrations find way in other cities and people resort to using social networks to influence governance. Many might disagree with me on siding with the statues removal, but I just learned something useful and how we can leverage the new modes of communication.

Tags: facebook

Facebook Bizarre Again: Footballer Gets Sacked For Going Racist On Facebook

It appears that people just wont stop giving Facebook those crazy status updates and helping to create a mountain out of a molehill. I have always asked everyone that they should always exercise caution when it comes to putting up any update, especially jokes and the likes. Why? Well no one knows the mood you wrote that in and what you actually meant. Same goes today as an athlete underestimated the trouble an update could bring trouble for him.

Jamere Holland, Oregon wide receiver is the latest victim. I bet little did he know that his curse word riddled status update about his fellow team member set quite a flames up. So what makes this worth reporting? Nothing except for the fact that the team mate he was so loud about was never kicked out and it appears his statements have had him out of the team. I seriously wouldn’t have kicked him out of the team for jokingly stating a team secret or anything out to the mass audience but his statements to follow would definitely have made me go ahead with banning him.

The desperate player added both fire and fuel later when he used racist remarks and going free fall with abusive words. I bet he was desperately looking forward to some serious attention. Gladly he got all the attention of his friends and bloggers which he can enjoy back at home. This makes it Facebook Bizarre post number two in as many days.

[with thanks]

Tags: bizarre, facebook, social network

Google Buzz Is Buzz And Not A Facebook Killer!

It was only a matter of time before Google would jump out stating it isn’t into competing Facebook or Twitter. Well today it did as it stated that its social networking project; Google Buzz is only there to complement the existing players in the social networking scene. Sounds quite uncompetitive or perhaps it thinks it will ease away Facebook’s fear of Buzz being a potential force to reckon.

I totally agree on this that Google Buzz might not be beating Facebook anytime, given than the social network has over 400 million users, but you can’t rule out the possibility of Buzz doing great. Why? Well it utilizes Gmail which has over 176 million users at present and each one of them uses it for all sorts of email related work plus using Google Docs and various other services the search giant offers. Those number of users is one reason why over 9 million posts were made in just hours of the launch of the Buzz and millions of users jumping the bandwagon. I personally think the reason why it has been used or rather adopted by so many is because it offers users the interaction which they look forward to. I would call it conversation and to be honest this is just a next step Google took on its threaded emails on Gmail.

I had said it in my earlier post what Facebook will or has done started rooting from its inception as a social network. Come over to Google, it has spread the roots first and now it’s going to grow and Buzz will be the stem. In a statement given, Horowitz stated:

We have nothing to announce in that regard except that we continue to work on the APIs that would make that possible and our philosophical intent is that we do have the most open, well integrated, well behaving social network in the industry. We want to make sure that users have an opportunity to get Buzz out and create Buzz anywhere on the Internet where they deem appropriate. We’re working hard to make that a reality so nothing specific to announce but philosophically we want this to be open in every way, both in and out.

What do you think about this? Do you think that Buzz will grow past the existing social networks and be second to Facebook?

[image with thanks]

Tags: facebook, google, google buzz, social network

Facebook Bizarre: Hong Kong Leader Fires Housekeeper

Well not joking about anything here but if people can murder others for posting photos with a new boy friend, others can definitely get fired for posting photos fooling around someone’s private chambers. Today the leader of Hong Kong had his housekeeper fired because he posted photos of his friends playing around the premier’s private chambers. The photos included teens who were at his residence along with others for a barbecue.

The place had its value as the area is strictly prohibited for anyone other than the leader and the people in office. The leader, Donald Tsang immediately fired the housekeeper along with initiating an investigation into how they were able to make it to the restricted area. This is quite a serious issue given that our friends in China are so strict with letting any information roll out and quite lenient on the housekeeper for only firing him.

The kids didn’t explore too much and nothing very confidential was revealed in the pictures. But be it any reason, you are bound to suffer and be penalized if you aren’t careful with being vigilant over who has access to restricted areas or not. At least the trial was fair, else they could have even charged him spying or something and taken care of in some other serious manner.

Tags: facebook, Law, privacy

Crap! Facebook Not Working!

Has Facebook not yet got over the reported issues? I read it early in the morning on Twitter when a friend complained about Facebook facing some outage, sadly had no chance to check the social networking site out until now. It appears that the issue still exists as the login page just wont open. And I have been trying this out for quite a long time now.

I thought the issue was with users in the US alone but that is sadly not the case. At least I am one from Pakistan who has issues even now and I bet there are many elsewhere too. While this is definitely some issue with the social network’s servers some have even exaggerated the issue and stated that the platform has been hacked. I find that pretty funny at present. The social network has grown significantly in the last half a year and now boasts more than 400 million users that are busy engaging with the site in one way or the other. Given the load it has to cater to, an outage so sporadic can some what be overlooked.

I am not sure how long this outage has lasted for now around the globe but it has now been half an hour and I was just waiting if I could log on, but no use. Is this outage for some odd reason or has Facebook been compromised in any way? Let us know what sort of issues are you facing for I can’t say if it is slow or anything since my page just wont open.

[image with thanks]

Tags: facebook

Facebook Can’t Think Green!

Talk about Green Coal. Sounds ridiculing but that is what Facebook thinks about its data center using coal to generate power for it in Oregon, US. I wonder what would make them environment friendly with all the black smoke coming out to run the servers for the social network.

To be honest this sounds very stupid. When almost every one plans to be environment friendly, the social network that provides all the green pasture for developers and users alike as well as business to thrive, appears to be going against the good of Earth. Apparently people have taken the case up and are demanding the social network that it drops the idea of taking up any such initiative. And when we say the users of Facebook have taken the matter up, it is some serious business they are talking about. We have seen that happen at Facebook all the time that people have a voice and if they can make it they can break it for sure. We saw that happen with privacy issues and how they united to make Facebook go back on its decision in 2008. We have seen how they come together as one to help the victims of natural calamities and they will definitely make something happen now to help Nature.

The people at Facebook have stated that the building itself is going to be energy efficient but that doesn’t count in keeping the environment green when your large data center is consuming natural resources to generate power. I personally think they made a wrong decision when they gave the power bit to PacifiCorp. The company states on the site that it generates almost 83% of its energy from natural resources like Coal, geothermal and gas. I am not sure how many of you are with Facebook on this one, I am totally against it. Firstly it is not at all environment friendly and secondly it will eventually have to move over to alternate energy once the Coal resources are exhausted.

Will you boycott Facebook if it resorts to Coal power? You can at least join the group to voice your concerns.

Tags: clean, coal, environment, facebook, power

3 Useful Facebook Extensions For Google Chrome

We have talked about Facebook Plugins for the Firefox quite a bit at Startup Meme. Today I will be sharing with our readers a few plugins for Google’s browser, Chrome. I haven’t been using Chrome much for my browsing purposes and had it not been the slow experience on Firefox I wouldn’t have really attempted Chrome. I came across a few interesting plugins, won’t call them super awesome but they would greatly help those who like tweaking their Facebook profile a bit.

Beautify Facebook

If you are looking forward to have some tweaking done on your Facebook page the plugin will of great use. It adds a bit of design to your already redesigned Facebook page. The title changes, introduces emotions in your Facebook chat bar and more importantly the Shortcuts to help you navigate on your Facebook Profile.

I installed it and using it at present and it doesn’t look that bad except for the gridded boxes that divide your posts.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shift + H: Home
Shift + P: Profile
Shift + F: Friends
Shift + I: Inbox
Shift + S: Settings

Facebook Fixer

The app plugin would have worked perfect on the older version and perhaps that is exactly what it was initially designed. The major issue is you wont see the Fixer button anywhere at all. And it doesn’t display the sign and age of users. But it does help with auto zooming on pictures. For example if you do scroll over a photo, be it in an album or even the profile picture, it will be displayed in a larger form in the right corner.

I would really like the developer to work out on the latest version so that it works fine with the new version of Facebook. Or at least let us know how it works.

Facebook To Go

The extension places a button on on the right of your address bar. When you click on the button it opens up a small window within the browser which you can use to access Facebook within it. You can leave the window attached to your browser or detach it to move it around. The purpose is to let you have a dedicated window for Facebook instead of having the trouble to switch between tabs. Really not that great a deal for those who do have desktop apps like Microsoft Silverlight Client. But its pretty handy and smart to use.

Tags: Chrome, extensions, facebook

Facebook Taken Too Seriously: Man Murders Ex Girlfriend..

While we might continue to report on the fun and highly profitable side of Facebook the social network carries the scars of horror. In a most shocking report today, a man was accused of killing his ex girlfriend. The reason? Simply because the man saw his ex girlfriend photo album that had her with another guy.

The guy had murdered her back in 2009 when he came to know about this. Apparently the wasn’t cheating on him or anything and she had tried to bring an end to their relationship appropriately and didn’t inform him that she was now with a new friend. But I guess it wasn’t too easy for the guy to tolerate that and like any wild beast he resorted to the most heinous act.

The man accused, Paul Bristol is an Internet Technician by profession and his girlfriend, Camille Mathurasingh was an accountant. This isn’t the first time such an incident has taken place in connection with Facebook. A similar incident took place in 2008 when a 41 year old guy killed his wife when she changed her status to single and another one in 2008 when a 35 year old guy killed his wife all because she said her marriage was over and she wanted another guy.

I understand that Facebook is quite an essential part of a person’s life now. But there is definitely no point in taking it to such a serious level. But I guess that is too late for now. People will continue to take it far more seriously as time goes by and people find more reason to take it seriously in all walks of life. Gone are the days when employees were fired because they made a nasty comment on their social networking profile. I just hope people get some sense knocked into their heads and such acts be avoided.

Tags: facebook, murder

Facebook Partners With PayPal For Payment Across Its Platform Because Trust Is Key

The social networking giant, Facebook today announced a major announcement as it teamed up with PayPal. This would enable the platform’s users to utilize the PayPal payment methods to pay for their Facebook Credits. The rumor finally comes down to this after al the brouhaha being created about Facebook releasing its very own payment platform to compete with PayPal.

So what does this mean? Very simply that the social network would continue with its Credits platform to enable users buy virtual goods, which by far are pretty low on payments and can be trusted upon. We all know making such transactions always has risks involved and introducing an entirely new method has all the troubles you can think of. Of course the social network can have a team whose task is to monitor all transactions made across its platform but it has its complications and the major is that it is quite expensive. And there is absolutely no point in spending too much on a method that isn’t going to have a big turn over.

I bet the social network did try and do a lot of thinking and deciding to team with PayPal wouldn’t have been its top priority. But PayPal is by far more credible than its very own payment methods like Zhong, etc. PayPal has over 80 Million users, which shows that it has the trust of a huge Web population.

Tags: facebook, partnership, paypal

Gist Moves Forward Into The Social Networking Scene, Brings Facebook Integration

Free Web Application Gist that lets you import and manage their contacts on services like Google’s Gmail, Salesforce and Microsoft Outlook has taken another step forward with Facebook. The application will be using Facebook Connect to integrate itself with the social network. With this new integration users will enable users to have access to their activity on the Social Network.

Before I go any further, I am just surprised why it would continue to charge users for doing so? I mean there are already services at large like Xobni and the more recent Microsoft Outlook Social connector that provide the same without charges. The application would enable you to easily access your Facebook stream using the Web based application as well as its iPhone app or the Outlook plugin. The good point here is the filter feature, meaning that you can view content only from those contacts you want to. It just appears that almost everyone out there is grabbing the social network by the horns in a bid to leverage its ever growing popularity.

That isn’t too bad, I mean almost everyone wants a way to ease accessibility to the social network. And while Gist does link itself at the right time with the right thing, it seriously needs to cut our the price factor for its usage. Why would anyone pay to use Gist to access Facebook content when they can do so for free elsewhere?

You can download the Outlook plugin here and the iPhone app here.

Tags: Apps, facebook, gist

Facebook To Introduce Better Privacy Controls For Applications

Talk about privacy and more importantly file a lawsuit and almost immediately you get some sort of improvement coming from Facebook. We reported the issues that people had with the new privacy settings only recently and today the social network introduced new privacy controls. The new settings would give users a better grip on what information is shared on the applications they use.

The team at Facebook wants users to have a better control over what information each has access to. This is something that many of its users have had problems with when the social network stepped up its move to introduce a more public form of the social network. With the current settings out, the users will see tweaks on each app, probably a set of customizations like letting them share their activity with a select group of friends. This would also include customizations for Facebook Connect, which is quite essential given that it presently only offers users options to either share the content on any site on their profile or not to.

While these settings do sound pleasing and the countless critics of the previously introduced privacy options would love having more control. But I am just a bit more concerned with how many more prompts it will show while I use any application. As far as true user opinion is concerned the reaction is as always mixed and while it does answer the long standing issue of giving them more control, it will by all means be found odd by many. What do you think about the new options?

Tags: applications, facebook, privacy

Facebook Issues: Radio Presenter Quits Group For Being Racist!

Adrian Renzi, a radio presenter has quit a group on the social networking site, Facebook. The reason? A racist campaign that states that a particular group on the social networking site thought that all trouble in a particular town was due to Aborigines. The reason is quite justified and the least he could have done to demonstrate his disgust over the act of those who did that.

The radio presenter had joined the group for he thought that the group would do a favor to the residents of Alice Springs by addressing the major issues that people faced in the town. Little was he aware that some locals had quite a hatred against the aborigines. The group has gained quite some attention given that a senior police official in on the group too, for some effective policing on the group and keeping an eye on what is being posted on the it. Quite a job to say the least, I can bet many people I know would love to do such monitoring and ever more efficiently.

This is isn’t the first time such a thing has happened on the social networking site. Earlier today a man was charged for providing misleading information to the law enforcement agencies on Claudia Lawrence. The 18 year old guy was arrested, but later released for providing false information and fooling around with quite a serious issue. This just shows that law enforcement agencies do take malicious activity on the social networking site pretty seriously and anyone found indulging in such activity might face some serious issues with the law. Just be aware if you happen to fool around with some serious issue on the social network, even a prank can deal a serious blow on your existence.

Tags: facebook, privacy, quit

More Against Privacy On Facebook: Five People File Lawsuit

There is no way you can satisfy everyone and the job gets tougher the more you grow in popularity. The same is the case with Facebook as the social network continues to face issues from its users every now and then. Presently, five people in the Northern District of California have filed a lawsuit against the social network.

The issue? Well the same old concerns with the privacy settings the social network introduced last year which appear to have taken the privacy out and brought much of user information to public, by default. The five people voiced the problem stating that the social network is now much less private than what it promises to be with the new settings. I personally think that is quite true from a user’s perspective. I mean think of it, how simply was being private was? Do you remember seeing a user profile when you searched for one or came across a link to someone’s profile? It just showed you the name, profile picture and a networks the person was associated to. Jump over to the present scene and we have a user actually defining what needs to be public and what has to be hidden from even the eyes of friends. The results for search would now show you almost everything, from names, pictures to geographic location in case the user hasn’t modified his privacy settings.

The settings are now scattered across more than two dozen pages on the platform and to be honest, the layman who continues to use the social network will have great difficulty in figuring those out. Most of them actually have no idea on how they can prevent ads from having their activity or photos being published on friends’ walls. I wont call these users to be less savvy with social network jargon, all of us are more prone to be public with these current settings, no doubt about that.

But think of Facebook too. I can bet on this if the social network had continued with its long existing strategy on privacy many would have called it dictatorial. To end this one, I personally think Facebook should introduce a one click method for privacy to satisfy the users; meaning that by default, all settings should be private and only made public or modified as per users’ wishes.

[image with thanks]

Tags: facebook, Law, privacy

Microsoft Goes More Social As Facebook, MySpace Come to Outlook

That was so much set to happen. Microsoft has finally taken the step to introduce the integration of social networking sites to its leading desktop mail client, Outlook. Called the Outlook Social Connector, it will be integrated with mail client in Office 2010. It definitely took some time, given that the integration was announced back in November 2009.

To be honest, all this happening sounds quite exciting, especially since Google only recently announced its Google Buzz product and almost immediately, Facebook and Microsoft have taken steps to counter the same in the early stages. Microsoft has already released integration with LinkedIn for all version and the deals with MySpace and Facebook. With this coming out, users will be able to keep an eye on the person’s most recent social networking activity. Much like many things you do already and know of. Like your personal contact from your professional network, LinkedIn or your status updates flooding in from Facebook.

The new add-on makes your Outlook client more of a desktop based social network. While this does sound interesting, it isn’t happening just yet given that the add-ons for Facebook and MySpace integration will go live once the Office 2010 product is available in June this year. Will definitely be worth it for all those who are avid users of Outlook and would do anything to have Facebook and other social networking option right in the Outlook client.

However, Microsoft at times just surprises me. I mean it has got a plethora of products all around, some of them, like the MSN Messenger, Hotmail, etc have dominated the Web by quite a margin while others simply remain a shadow. I am talking about services like Windows Live Blog, etc. This one is another attempt by the software giant to have some connection cum presence on the Web. Hope this works out good too.

Tags: facebook, microsoft, outlook, social network

More Social Games For Facebook Soon! This Time From Garriott’s Portalarium

Gaming on social networking sites has definitely got big, especially when they are for Facebook. Games like Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc from Zynga and Playfish have earned quite a reputation and encouraged more and more to develop games for the Social Web. The latest entry is from Richard Garriott, who has had his work and passion shifting from being an NCsoft designer to being an astronaut and now to the beginning of Portalarium.

His idea is to bring premium gaming to the social sphere on the Web. So why social gaming? The man is of the opinion that he might have missed making it big when the multiplayer marketing boomed, but he is not going to do so with Social gaming. He is definitely right on this one, the social gaming has grown leaps and bounds over the last 2 years, almost alongside Facebook and people are actually spending more time online on these networking platforms.

I personally think that no matter how green the pastures are, there are already big names who reign supreme in the category he is jumping into. But then, all it takes is one addictive idea and given how much less you actually need to spend compared to the huge prospects if the concept does click, you are in for one big ride. In his own words:

This really takes me back to my roots in the game business – small development teams, low barriers to entry, affordable budgets for quality projects, and unlimited new interactive frontiers to explore together with our customers.

I bet he is right. Given the number of users Facebook has and how it continues to grow, you can easily make do with the idea. I am not sure what exactly is Portalarium is going to bring out, just wish it isn’t about some dancing pets or hours of farming!

Tags: facebook, games, portalarium, social games

Facebook Helps Raise Money For Noble Causes: Target Donates $1 Million To Charities

All this news about Groups on Facebook and campaigns continue to raise millions for charities. Presently another such campaign initiated by Target came to an end and it donated $1 Million for the charities. All this has been made possible with the launch of a marketing campaign that Target launched keeping it focused on the recent Valentine’s Day and the Super Bowl.

The winners were awarded in relation to the number of votes each participating charity received. The stats show that Target was able to bag over 900,000 Fans on its fan page at Facebook and more than 25,000 fans sent cards to their contacts. The amount was given on the basis of votes to the five charities which were:

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – $490,000
United Through Reading Military Program – $22,000
Kinds In Need Foundation – $120,000

The other two charities were United Way that got $90,000 and The Salvation Army that got $80,000 in charity respectively. All these charities had been selected for they work for education and healthcare. To me it is another proof that the social network has the potential to be the most prominent method of raising cash for a noble cause and not just about having fun. This is one reason why I admire Facebook as it has helped quite a lot for almost every cause and not just brand marketing.

Tags: charities, facebook, target

Bring Your Facebook To Gmail. Yes Right Where The Buzz Is!

I can bet many people out there would be envious of the fact that Google just rolled out its Google Buzz bringing all its services under one name. Especially the coming of social aspects to Gmail. However the users of Facebook need not to envy it anymore as there is a new integration available for them to bring their Facebook messages to Gmail. You can download the extension here.

Once you have installed the application you will see the tab in the menu on the left just beneath your Buzz button. With this done you can easily update your Facebook status right from your Gmail inbox. You can sign in with Facebook Connect and you are good to go with it. You can read your news feed, along with your emails and continue with Google Buzz, talk about competitors being under one banner.

I am trying to make use of the app right now but it appears to fail with the login. Keeps returning the error that it can’t connect to my Facebook Account. While the idea is simply superb, I just wonder how densely populated would the Gmail inbox be with the free flow of your Feed from the social network.

Tags: buzz, Chrome, extensions, facebook, Gmail

Facebook Goes From Lite To Zero: Launches An Ultra Light Version For Mobile Devices

While the attempt from Facebook to go light with Facebook Lite might have done quite a bit to shed some weight on the platform’s page it has had tough time on the Mobile devices. The idea of apps for the smartphones sounds great but there is nothing better than having a better experience on mobile browsers. Presently the social network took the step ahead with its Facebook Zero, its latest attempt to invade the mobile device.

I just tried the Zero Facebook on my Nokia N97 and since it has recently been launched the carrier doesn’t support it as yet. From where I look at it, it’s pretty lighter than anything you have experienced on the mobiles. Primarily because the version is purely text based and this version wont be charged for anything. However I see quite some revenue coming in if users do request for having to view photos and videos. Carriers might just charge them some cash for having the facility.

To be honest this is quite a great method Facebook has taken to make itself accessible for free on every carrier. Just think of the venues it opens itself to, I bet not everyone has a smartphone and many still use phones that have no WiFi connectivity. Having a chance to use this would sound quite appealing for all those users. For the time being, Facebook Zero would leverage almost ever mobile device out there.

Tags: facebook, facebook zero, mobile

And Now Facebook Gets More Traffic For Sites Than Google

Facebook has outgrown Google. Love it or hate it, it’s a fact now, as Compete reports that the social networking site generates more traffic for sites like MSN, AOL and Yahoo. And those traffics stats are more than what search engines bring to these websites. No doubt Google amalgamated all its services under the umbrella of Social network; Google Buzz.

The stats provided by Compete are very interesting as well. The social networks combined brought around 15% of all traffic to online portals like Yahoo, AOL and MSN which was twice as much as Google brought [around 7%]. However, of those stats, Facebook was the unchallengeable name as it alone generated 13% of all traffic for these sites combined. I am not going to brag about the stats much and would rather talk about what this means and how significant is all this at present and what it says about the future?

While the stats clearly state that the social networks have taken the cake away but in my opinion that by no way means that the search engines will soon be the talk of the past. I can bet that the only people who would give up on search are those who rely absolutely on recommendations coming along on their social networking profiles. On a larger scale, people would continue to use search engines for most of their time they sent online, meaning that Search will remain a vital part of the Web. The only reason why social networks continue to rapidly expand is because users spend too much time on them as there are so many things they do being on them. The search by far is still one dimensional and that is what it will remain for times to come.

I personally think that Google Buzz is worth an attempt from the search giant to take a leap at Facebook. It brings so much for its users to spend time on and make use of its services/tools. And while it might prove to be good enough, Facebook will continue to bite away traffic from all other sources.

Tags: facebook, google, google buzz, Reports, social network

Facebook Tips: Worried About Your Photo Coming On Ads? Take Control!

I was a bit surprised today when I overheard a friend taking about he is worried about Facebook using his pictures for its own purposes. Wasn’t this already cleared by Facebook last year? Anyways if you happen to be like my dear friend and are worried about your pictures appearing on Facebook ads you shouldn’t be. Why? Lets answer that in this post.

You can simply Click My Account and select Account settings and you will be displayed the options. From there click on Facebook Adverts to learn the policy Facebook has on sharing your activity on third party apps, including ads. The first and foremost is the fact that your information isn’t shared by Facebook without your permission.

The social network makes sure that none of your information is shared by any third party apps. What it does do is that at times it lets Ads make use of your activity on the apps across the platform that you are using or that on the Fan pages that you are a part of. Plus your photo only appears on the pages of friends who you have added. Again the picture shown is only the one you have on your profile page already and no image is taken from your albums.

But still if you do have issues with that and want your profile to be more secure than simply select the options from the dropdown menu to ensure than none of your information is made use of on Facebook pages.

Tags: facebook, security, tips

Valentine’s Day: Love It/Hate It Groups On Facebook

image thumb28 Valentine’s Day: Love It/Hate It Groups On Facebook

Valentines Day. It ended much earlier and to be honest I have nothing worth sharing at all at the moment regarding the day except for a few stories here and there. The restaurants were flooded with the air of love. Back on my desk I just did a search on Facebook for the Valentines Day and the leader was the Valentine’s Day Application followed by Love Sucks at number three.

The Valentine’s Day application had over 890,783 monthly active users and is quite an active one. I was pretty glad it had a last wall post stating that there can be any day to show how much you care about the person close to you.

The other one is the opposite that wants everyone to find a reason to hate February 14, Valentine’s Day: Love Sucks.. Eat Pancakes. And it is pretty active with over 719,400 fans. While I can’t generalize anything, in my opinion it shows that there is enough reason to hate Valentine’s Day as much as there are reasons to anxiously wait for it.

I seriously find the reason to celebrate the day pretty senseless. Not that I have grudges but I have come across people who show and express love on this day alone or find this date to be a reason to express their feelings. What you d you think about Valentine’s Day? How did you spend it?

Tags: application, facebook, valentines day

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Tools: Useful Facebook Plugins For Your WordPress Blog

I was just looking at our fanbox of our Facebook fan page at Startup Meme and I just thought how many plugins are actually there that you can use to integrate Facebook with your blog. Our blog is based on WordPress so I began with my search for WP plugins for Facebook. Isn’t WP the most popular publishing platform for blogging right now?

I am sure there is a whole list of plugins out there that you can use. I will however share a few of those that let you integrate your Blog on WordPress with your page on Facebook:

WP-FBConnect

The plugin will bring Facebook feature to your blog and it utilizes Facebook Connect APIs. The plugin can be downloaded here and while it may not be the most up to date plugin available it helps you with the basic Facebook functionality. Users can login to your site using their Facebook account and at the same time have it appear on their pages as status, if they allow it to be published to their walls.

You can follow the tutorial here to know exactly how to go about it.

WPBook

I personally liked this one for a couple of reasons. The first being it helps link your Facebook and WordPress blog in a way that your posts on the blog appear simultaneously on Facebook as well. The second important feature is that it lets comments appear both ways. Meaning if someone comments on the post on Facebook, it appears on the blog and vice versa. This is important as you don’t have to switch two way to keep an eye on comments and learn what your readers have to say. In short, you can keep all your conversation right where you need it.

Sociable Facebook Connect

This one is quite popular when it comes to having added functions. Apart from letting Facebook users comment on the site and share the blog posts on their Facebook profiles it also lets you view the most recent visitors to your blog with the help of a widget. To make it short, the plugin helps you create a community of Facebook users right on your blog. I am not using the plugin at Startup Meme, but I sort of like this one more, given that is a bit faster than WP-FBConnect when it comes to functioning.

You can watch the Video below to have an idea on how it actually works and download the plugin here.

At present I just found these worth discussing. I would be very pleased if our readers could let us know of more in the comments and what plugin are they using on their blog to connect with Facebook.

Tags: facebook, plugins, tools, WordPress

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