Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
- Facebook Roundup: Netflix, Hires, Comments, Privacy, Insights, Ads, Baseball and More
- Facebook Introduces Batched Requests to Assist Heavy Graph API Usage
- Blackberry’s Facebook 2.0 App Emphasizes Photos, Chat and Places
- Facebook Users Around the World Now Gaining Access to Places
- Analysis: Almost All Mobile Apps Gained at SXSW, but Data Shows There Were No Clear Winners
- Basketball Brackets, Video, Brains, Photos and Horoscopes in This Week’s Top 20 Emerging Facebook Apps
| Facebook Roundup: Netflix, Hires, Comments, Privacy, Insights, Ads, Baseball and More Posted: 18 Mar 2011 10:28 PM PDT
European Union Requires Stricter Rules for Facebook – The European Union is set to overhaul its 16 year-old privacy rules to address social networking; these rules would target the way Facebook and other companies utilize user data. Facebook's Engineering Team on New Insights – Facebook's Engineering team wrote a post about the thought that went into building the new Insights system.
Facebook Implements Micro Servers – Intel powers power and space saving technology that has caught the attention of Facebook; these micro servers may be part of a "mass deployment" for the company's operations in late 2011 or 2012, according to The Wall Street Journal. Facebook Comments Better and Worse – Facebook-enabled commenting has reduced the percentage of commenting overall and per post, according to an analysis by TechCrunch. But another analysis shows that Google Buzz increased by 30% and Likes increased total and average numbers.
Facebook Changes Comments – Facebook users may now post comments without having to hit "Share," and simply press Enter on their keyboards.
Android for Facebook Updated - The Facebook Android app was updated, specifically when it comes to photos, security, Deals and chat. Netflix's Facebook Integration Has Begun – Netflix has begun asking customers to synchronize their accounts with their Facebook accounts, allowing them to share what they're watching with their network. The integration allows a users' friends to see they're a Netflix member, what they're watched, rated, what's in queue, Likes, interests, and more. Facebook Shares Used By Fraudsters - The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority warned potential investors to be wary of pre-IPO stock offerings, such as Facebook. One securities trader tricked more than 50 investors into forking over $9.6 million involving fake Facebook stock.
MXP4's Pump It Facebook's Top Music Game – MXP4's Pump It game is the number one game on Facebook, or so the company press release claims. The game has been used by 30 artists, such as Enrique Iglesias and Nelly Furtado, and has more than 1.3 monthly active users. Brighter Option Releases Social Ad Manager Update – Brighter Option, a company that allows clients to create, target, and bid on ads at a large scale through a self-service tool, released version 2.5 of its Social Ad Manager. The new version offers more information about performance, scheduling, campaign timeline and interest clusters. Facebook Instrumental in Investigative Journalism – A Denver television journalist won a duPont-Columbia Award after using Facebook for an investigation into housing scams resulting in foreclosures. Facebook to Stream Baseball Games Free – Facebook is set to stream Major League Baseball pre-season games live until the end of the month. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Introduces Batched Requests to Assist Heavy Graph API Usage Posted: 18 Mar 2011 07:36 PM PDT
The capability should help developers build faster, more efficient apps that can access large amounts of data without putting as much server strain on Facebook. The Graph API was designed for accessing a single object so previously, developers had to send each Graph API request separately. However, it’s more efficient to batch these requests into a single HTTP request, so Facebook has released the capability to everyone’s benefit. Facebook has created detailed documentation that walk through several different cases of batched requests. One highlight is the ability for operations reference the results of previous operations in a batch using JSONPath expressions. Facebook has long been dedicated to using progressive coding techniques both internally, and for its Platform. Some developers are applauding the advance, making batch requests a success in terms of Facebook’s ongoing efforts to improve its standing with the Platform community. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Blackberry’s Facebook 2.0 App Emphasizes Photos, Chat and Places Posted: 18 Mar 2011 03:29 PM PDT Blackberry's new Facebook application, Facebook 2.0 in beta, is a big improvement over the previous version, which was cumbersome because it was designed with menu after menu to scroll through to do anything. The new application is much more sleek, easier to use and faster, to boot.
Facebook for Blackberry now has an interface that's much easier to navigate on a phone. When you open the app, there are two drop-down menus, one on the left and one on the right. The menu on the left includes most of the Facebook functions: News Feed, Profile View, notifications, search, messages, friends, chat, Places, photos and options. The drop-down on the right Blackberry calls the "notifications bar" shows you daily updates of notifications, messages, friend requests and chat conversations you have received.
Which brings us to the highlight of Blackberry's new Facebook app: chat. The chat function is part of the left drop-down menu and is simple to use. If you're not already online to chat, the app will sign you in, and then friends you can chat with are indicated by a green circle, just like on Facebook. You may either press enter or send via the menu each time you type a message; although chatting on a phone isn't as easy as on a computer, plus, many people already communicate short messages on their phones via text messages. Blackberry has also chosen to emphasize photos and Places in the new Facebook application. Previously, these functions were part of a menu that ran across the top of the interface, whereas now the default or "home" interface weaves in the upload photos feature on the left, status update in the middle, and Places icon on the right. Which is to say, Blackberry's new Facebook app is designed to be as useful as possible to users connecting via mobile phone.
The app also creates utility by making Facebook more like a phone book, when users look up a friend or look at their profile the menu allows you to see their Facebook information — such as Wall, photos, information, poke, view mutual friends — but also to call them if you have their phone number, connect via Blackberry Contacts if you do not and request their phone number. Comments and Likes used to be displayed in small print underneath each item in your news feed, but now next to each item is a + symbol which Blackberry calls the "more button," which is where users can go to to comment or Like a post.
Blackberry wrote yesterday that more than 10,000 downloads had occurred in 24 hours since the apps' release, since it's still in beta, the company released 10,000 more. The update brings Blackberry's Facebook app up to speed with recent platform changes, as the company hadn't significantly redesigned the app for three years. For more news and market research to the mobile application ecosystem, visit Inside Mobile Apps. [Images Via Blackberry] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Users Around the World Now Gaining Access to Places Posted: 18 Mar 2011 11:44 AM PDT Facebook’s location checkin service Places is now available to users in Brazil, India, Singapore, the Philippines, South Africa, Egypt, Israel, other countries around the world, according to users in those countries. We’re checking with Facebook about the scope of the launch — the company has been slowly rollling the feature out since August, starting with iPhones and Facebook mobile sites in the US, often waiting until smart phone penetration reaches critical mass in a certain country before launching. Update: Facebook tells us that the rollout covers just about everywhere, with some notable exceptions.”We are confirming that Places has become globally available with the exception of Korea and Russia where we are working to launch Places soon,” a spokesperson tells us. The widespread launch today could indicate that there are many countries with the appropriate smartphone penetration, or the company could just be releasing it to everyone everywhere to see how it’s used.
Over the last few months, Places has become available in the U.K., Japan, Canada, France, Italy, Australia, Denmark and several other countries. Simultaneously, the major handheld device operating systems including Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, Palm webOS have gained support for Places through their native Facebook apps. Some international users couldn’t wait until their country officially received Places, and instead employed US-hosted VPN accounts to be able to checkin locally. Facebook has chosen international countries with high smart phone penetration to launch Places because there are the spots where users have a way to checkin. If Facebook launches too early before smart phones have proliferated, Places wouldn’t receive enough checkins to convince locals of its value. [Image via Mobiputing.] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Analysis: Almost All Mobile Apps Gained at SXSW, but Data Shows There Were No Clear Winners Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:48 AM PDT The field of mobile and social apps looking to breakout this week at SXSW was quite crowded. But it looks like almost everyone got a bump in active usage and downloads. Personally, I got pulled into eight GroupMe groups and found myself drifting back to Foursquare from Facebook Places. So New York — not Silicon Valley — won SXSW for me. To get a more accurate picture of how SXSW impacted different apps, we pulled data on Facebook usage from AppData and looked at iOS app store rankings through AppAnnie and install numbers on Android Marketplace. Unlike many of the mobile games we cover, apps like Foursquare and Instagram are inherently social. They almost always have a strong Facebook integration so these numbers are a decent — if imperfect — proxy for growth. When looking at the charts below, there are a few things to keep in mind. For some apps like Ditto, where is the no alternative to logging in with Facebook, these numbers actually measure total usage. But for others like Instagram, which only uses Facebook to find new friends, these numbers account for probably less than half of the apps’ total usage. How many people choose to log in with Facebook depends on how well the integration is designed. The iOS app store rankings are based on pure downloads while Android shows installations (a better metric since it doesn’t count apps that have been downloaded and then later deleted). Android will show a range of installations (e.g. 10,000 to 50,000 or 10 million to 50 million), but not an exact number. So this is an imperfect way of looking at app usage, but it’s better than reading press releases about downloads or registered users. Group Messaging
Recently acquired by Facebook, Beluga still made a strong showing at SXSW, grabbing more than 16 thousand monthly active Facebook users during the past week. It also held its iOS app store ranking higher than much-hyped GroupMe through out the entire interactive part of the conference. While Facebook will keep the app alive, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Facebook launch its own standalone group messaging app in the next six months.
Daily active users on Facebook: 7,583 (+1,703 last 7 days)
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| Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:22 AM PDT
We compile this list of top 20 emerging apps based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook covering apps that grew the most in the past week, ending at between 100,000 and 1 million monthly active users. Top Gainers This Week
The NBA's official game, NBA Legend, was on our list of emerging apps this week, adding 253,600 MAU. In the face of March Madness, the game grew 130%, we reviewed the game previously, on Inside Social Games. Two basketball bracket apps were quite popular on Facebook this week, too. CBS Sports brackets added 229,800 MAU this week; the app is pretty straightforward, allowing users to pick their final four and share to the news feed.
Brack Challenge by Citizen Sports, however, was much more complex and created many more opportunities for news feed exposure; it grew 160,800 MAU this week. The app includes a $5,000 grand prize related to the final four brackets, also syncs with an iPhone app, includes trivia questions and allows for extra alerts to your stream. When you play trivia, if you don't know the answer, you can share the question to your stream for "help" from your friends. You can Like your own bracket once it's created to receive alerts in your news feed and you can check into games, which also creates a news feed story.
Then there were three Turkish video apps. VidyoTV Video grew by 408,600 MAU; every time you view a video a link posts to your Wall, although users may also share videos manually. Video75 Videoları grew about 288,000 MAU this week; when you use the app a news feed story is generated, users may also Like, share or comment on videos. Finally, Yılbaşı Hediyeleri saw 213,400 MAU this week. There was a Vietnamese horoscope app that posts horoscopes to your Wall; Tư vấn vui grew by 323,700 MAU. Spot The Difference, an app that asks users to compare two photos and point out their differences saw 306,300 MAU this week. Finally, การวิเคราะห์สมอง, the Thai brain analysis app that posts photos of users' friends to the stream saw 226,800 MAU this week. |
White House Pushes Privacy Bill – The Obama Administration is
Facebook Makes Tech PR Hire – Facebook has hired Caryn Marooney, co-founder of OutCast Agency, to lead its tech public relations strategy. The Director of Technology Communications position specifically does outreach with the tech community, reported 
Facebook Changes Places, Features Memorable Statuses – Facebook has changed other parts of its interface, too. Eti Suruzon points out that Facebook adds "Nearby Places" to Places Pages now, and also features a "Memorable Status Updates" module on the right-hand side.
Facebook now allows application developers to 
Ironically, we can’t really track the app that I seemed to be most dependent on at SXSW. Because it uses phone numbers and Twilio’s API to seed its userbase, it is difficult to get a handle on GroupMe’s daily and monthly active usage. 
Basketball brackets and the NBA were popular this week in the face of March Madness and the upcoming NCAA Tournament. There were a few apps in languages other than English, including a Turkish video application, and other apps in Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai and Spanish. Profile banner apps were conspicuously absent from our list.
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