Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
- Facebook Roundup: Messages, User Data, Politics, Photos, Ads, Trademarks, Video and Music
- Details on Facebook’s Plans to Allow Iframe Page Tab Apps, FBML Deprecation
- Turkey, Games and The Oregon Trail on This Week’s List of Emerging Facebook Apps
- Facebook Bug Causes Unmerging of a Merged Place/Page to Delete the Place
- Longtime Facebook Designer Aaron Sittig Returns to the Company as Product Architect
- A Savvy Combination of Mobile and Facebook Virality Fuels Beluga’s Growth
- Facebook Changes News Feed Settings, Some Users Only Shown Close Friends by Default
| Facebook Roundup: Messages, User Data, Politics, Photos, Ads, Trademarks, Video and Music Posted: 11 Feb 2011 06:35 PM PST Facebook Begins Messages Rollout - Facebook posted a blog that the company has begun the rollout of Messages to Facebook users over the next few weeks, for more information see our previous coverage.
Facebook Reveals New User Data – Facebook has around 149 million U.S. users, 70% of whom log on daily. France has 22 million users with 65% logging on daily, 29 million in the UK and 19 million in Canada. Detailed data on ad rates by demographic for over 190 country markets around the world is available with a membership to Inside Facebook Gold, our data service that also includes the monthly Global Monitor Report. Illinois Senator Requests Anonymity for Facebook – U.S. Senator of Illinois Richard Durbin sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg requesting that the company give users around the world an option to withhold their real identities in the name of "freedom of expression." While this idea goes against the idea of Facebook being the central service for people’s real-world identities, it would also allow for human rights activists to more easily avoid oppressive governments. Facebook Details Photo Viewer Update - Facebook's Engineering team posted a blog this week detailing the final upgrade to its photo viewer tool.
[Image Via Facebook] Super Bowl Advertisers Flock to Facebook Ads - Ryan Spoon wrote an interesting post pointing out that Super Bowl companies that used the web to promote themselves around the time of the big game have since moved on to Facebook ads. Facebook Moves on Generic Trademarks – Facebook has trademarked the term "face" as it pertains to online social networking and related activities in the European Union, according to TechCrunch. Facebook continues to pursue a U.S. trademark on both "face" and "book."
Syria Unblocks Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – The Syrian government lifted its ban on Facebook, and other social media sites like Twitter and YouTube on Tuesday, according to reports. Social Video Advertiser Sharethrough Grows 236% – Social video advertising company Sharethrough announced this week that in 2010 it increased revenues by 236% and grew its client base 43%. The company reports that brands are investing an average of 250% more in social video media buys than a year ago . Facemoods Emoticon App Releases Update - Israel-based start-up Facemoods, a browser add-on enabling emoticon use in Facebook chat, has grown by 9 million fans since we last wrote about the company in August and is set to release a new version of the app enabling the use of emoticons in Facebook chat outside of the platform. Moontoast Impulse for Musicians' Merch – Moontoast Impulsve is a Facebook app allowing artists to install social commerce storefronts to sell their digital tracks and albums without leaving the platform. Now the app includes the ability to sell merchandise, as well as tickets. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Details on Facebook’s Plans to Allow Iframe Page Tab Apps, FBML Deprecation Posted: 11 Feb 2011 06:13 PM PST Yesterday, the Facebook Developers Blog announced that Page tab applications can now be built and implemented using iframes, and FBML and FBJS will be deprecated starting March 11,2011. Iframes will allow developers to build both canvas and tab applications on the same programming model, and integrate social plugins and the Graph API into tab apps. Facebook announced the shift from FMBL to iframes in August, slated migration for Q4 2010, then delayed it until Q1 2011. In the meantime, some developers created what were meant to be Page tab application in iframes. Since they couldn’t integrate them before, they had to use an FBML landing tab that linked away from the Page to the iframe canvas app. Now, developers can go into the Page Tab settings of the Developer app and change the Page Tab Type from FBML to iframe. The Page’s admin will still have to go into the Edit Page admin interface and choose to add the iframe Page tab app.
Facebook has updated its signed_request parameter for securely communicating the identity of users who visit tab apps. When users browse to a tab app, the app will receive
This string can be used to show the user customized content. Here is an example of an updated signed_request: { "algorithm":"HMAC-SHA256", "expires":1297328400, "issued_at":1297322606, "oauth_token":"OAUTH_TOKEN", "app_data":"any_string_here", "page":{ "id":119132324783475, "liked":true, "admin":true }, "user":{ "country":"us", "locale":"en_US" }, "user_id":"USER_ID" } Developers will also be able to include an age object in the user JSON object encoded in the signed_request. This object will be a minimum and maximum age the user must be between in order to access the application. This will not give developers access to a user’s specific age.
Applications that include content specified in Facebook’s alcohol guidelines will have to use the age object to prohibit underaged users from gaining access, or risk violating Facebook’s alcohol policy. Previously, FMBL tags had to be used to exclude underage users. The option to integrate social plugins and the Graph API opens new potential for making more social Page tab apps. Developers could include Like buttons for specific pieces of content to create broadcast channels to subsets of their users. Social game developers have had some success with implementing the Like button on their canvas app to let users share specific pieces of content with friends. The Comments plugin will offer another way for users to leave feedback in addition to the wall and discussion board. It could also help apps grow, since comments can be posted to a user’s wall. The Facepile could be used to show friends who’ve used the tab app, or the Recommendations and Activity Feed plugins could suggest what users should do first within a tab. FMBL Deprecations and the Developer RoadmapStarting March 11th, 2011, developers won’t be able to build new FMBL apps, and Pages won’t be able to add static FBML apps as Page tabs. All existing FMBL tab and apps will continue to function, and will still be able to be edited for the immediate future. However, it seems that Facebook will eventually remove FBML entirely. XFBML tags that support social plugins will not be deprecated, and will continue to function normally.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turkey, Games and The Oregon Trail on This Week’s List of Emerging Facebook Apps Posted: 11 Feb 2011 03:16 PM PST
Top Gainers This Week
Two games in Turkish, Tavla and Videolji, were on our list this week. The game Tavla added 185,400 MAUs while video sharing app Videoloji saw 134,000. Then there was the Thai version of Texas Hold'em Poker, which grew by 194,700 MAUs, an app in Persian called Persian's Daily Clip, which saw 232,500 MAUs and automatically subscribers users to daily video clips, posting these to the feed for you. Finally a Bulgarian app, Bulgarian Coffee Shop, counted 234,000 MAUs.
There were a few interesting apps in the list this week. Travel Balloon is an app that memorializes dead loved ones, counting 156,300 MAUs this week. Birthdays Reminder, which we wrote about for its apparent violation of platform policies, was on the list again with 137,500 MAUs. Finally a Valentine's-themed app, Puzzled Hearts from 2b Social, grew by 137,500 MAUs. Funmoods is an app that does funny alterations of your Facebook photos, adding 186,400 users this week. Neon Inc.'s Tik Tac Toe game, which is self-explanatory, grew by 358,800 MAUs to top out at 642,500. The Oregon Trail added most of its 338,700 users, Spartacus saw a bump of 250,300 MAUs since last week and an apparent competitors, Glory of Rome by Kabam, also made the list with 138,000 MAUs. The rest of the list consisted mostly of games that have been on our list in recent weeks. More detailed stats are available at AppData Pro, our data service supplying performance data, including historical MAU and DAU data, audience demographics, and company information for developers and applications. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Bug Causes Unmerging of a Merged Place/Page to Delete the Place Posted: 11 Feb 2011 01:16 PM PST Facebook is currently experiencing a bug such that when some admins of a merged Places/Pages attempt to unmerge the two presences, the Place is deleted. This can result in severed Like connections, loss of user content, and resetting of the check-in count. The bug has affected Places/Pages that merged after the Page was upgraded to yesterday’s redesign, and apparently Pages that didn’t upgrade yet as well, as the problem arose as early as February 5th. There is a chance that Facebook may be able to restore these deleted Places. We do not know yet how many Pages are affected, but Facebook says it is currently working to solve the problem.
When Facebook originally launched Places and the ability to merge them with Places, there was no way to unmerge the two. In response to criticism and admin requests, Facebook added the option to unmerge in December. Some admins who upgraded their Page to the redesign and then merged with a Place found they didn’t have access to all the functionality of old Pages merged with Places. They were unable to manage Facebook Deals, for instance. Now, some of those trying to take advantage of the option to unmerge and regain control of Deals are having their Place disappear instead of becoming independent of the Page. Admins are discussing the issue on the Unmerge Places & My Business Page that initially called for the unmerge option.
One business owner reports that Facebook told her it had fixed the bug, though she still isn’t able to visit her unmerged Place. Some admins are saying the can see their missing Place in search results, but are returned the Facebook home page or an error when they try to visit. The fix may have only solved the problem for Pages with the old design. Until the problem is resolved, admins should not try to merge or unmerge their Page and Place. We’ll update here as more information is available. [Thanks to Eti Eti Suruzon for the tip.] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Longtime Facebook Designer Aaron Sittig Returns to the Company as Product Architect Posted: 11 Feb 2011 11:44 AM PST
It’s a strong vote of confidence in the company as it begins a new phase of life with a move to a larger, more corporate campus in Menlo Park this summer and amid feverish speculation about a potential initial public offering in 2012. One of the most widely respected young designers in Silicon Valley, Sittig came to the company nearly six years ago through Facebook’s former president Sean Parker. At first, Mark Zuckerberg was skeptical of what he could bring to the table because Sittig was feeling burned out and unmotivated at the time. In David Kirkpatrick’s book, “The Facebook Effect,” Zuckerberg kept complaining about Sittig’s work ethic, repeatedly asking, “Who is this guy? He’s worthless. He doesn’t do anything.” Sittig eventually became one of Zuckerberg’s closest confidants and went on to design the icons for the “like” button, photos and wall posts. He also came up with the idea to tag friends in photos — a killer decision that catapulted Facebook past much larger photo-sharing services like Flickr to become the biggest one in the world. The success of photos crystallized the idea for the Facebook platform in Zuckerberg’s mind after the team realized that power of people and their social relationships could be the groundwork for all sorts of unanticipated and valuable applications. As design strategy lead, Sittig articulated the visual principles that have guided the site through countless changes over the years. Those include the ideas that the site should be clean, understated and transparent and that it should be universally accessible. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A Savvy Combination of Mobile and Facebook Virality Fuels Beluga’s Growth Posted: 11 Feb 2011 09:28 AM PST
Even though Facebook is pushing to convince mobile developers that it is a strong channel for growth, many of the top developers are still finding that a high app store ranking or using the phone’s address book is good enough to get users cheaply. Very rarely do we see an app that successfully rests across multiple mobile platforms and Facebook. However Beluga, a tiny but fast-growing group messaging startup, is showing that it is possible to mix viral tactics on Android, iOS and Facebook to pick up users. The three-person company is growing by at least 20% week over week among Facebook users, according to AppData.** Founded by ex-Googlers Ben Davenport, Lucy Zhang and Jon Perlow, Beluga makes it easy to send messages to multiple friends on a mobile phone. It’s part of a wave of group messaging startups like GroupMe and Fast Society that rely on telephony startup Twilio’s APIs. The company has been bootstrapped so far. The trio are tight-lipped about potential revenue models or the future directions in which they might take the product. Beluga uses several tactics to on-board users including – > Continue reading on Inside Mobile Apps. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Changes News Feed Settings, Some Users Only Shown Close Friends by Default Posted: 11 Feb 2011 07:45 AM PST Last week, Facebook changed the options in its news feed settings so users either “Show posts from: friends and Pages you interact with the most” or from “all of your friends and Pages.” Some users have unknowingly been defaulted to the first option, causing lot of content to be hidden from them without their knowledge. It’s not exactly clear what determines which default users receive, though newer accounts appear more likely to only be seeing content from a subset of friends. Previously users could select exactly how many of their friends they saw posts from.
Users can manually configure this setting by scrolling to the very bottom of their news feed and clicking the “Edit Options” link. This brings up the “Edit Your News Feed Settings” window where users can select from the two “Show posts from” options. They can also manage the list of friends, Pages, and applications they’ve hidden from their news feed by clicking the ‘x’ button next to one of their posts and choosing to “Hide all by [author]“.
Facebook’s news feed settings have become much simpler over the past few years. In 2007, users could manipulate sliders for each type of story to control how often they appeared. In 2008, users could increase or decrease prominence of specific friends in-line from the news feed. Before the current interface, users defaulted to seeing posts from their 250 closest friends unless they increased the maximum.
When making the decision of whether to see posts from all or only some friends and Pages, users should think about how often they skim past uninteresting updates in their feed. If its only a few especially noisy friends that are cluttering their feed, they should just hide those users. If they are frequently bored or think there’s too much to read, they should select to only see a subset. However, if users want the most comprehensive news feed possible, they should go into their settings and ensure that they’re seeing posts from all friends and Pages. [Thanks to Kellie Mairs for the tip.] |
Egyptian Activist Thanks Facebook – Google marketing manager Wael Ghonim — who has risen to prominence in recent weeks for his role in organizing against the government, said in a conversation with CNN that 
At a time when many of Facebook’s earliest and vested employees are leaving, designer Aaron Sittig returned to the company last month to serve as product architect. He left last year for six months and came back last month.
The reduction in granularity of control contrasts with the increasing granularity available in Facebook’s | You are subscribed to email updates from Inside Facebook To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |