Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
- Platform Update: Re-Authentication, Raised App Tester Capp
- Refreshed Facebook for BlackBerry Improves Integration with Native Contacts App
- India, Brazil, Egypt Among Countries With Most New Facebook Users in April 2011
- Video, Friends, Chase Community Giving, Bands, Cards and More on This Week’s Top 20 Emerging Facebook Apps
| Platform Update: Re-Authentication, Raised App Tester Capp Posted: 06 May 2011 06:17 PM PDT Today’s Platform Update from the Facebook Developers Blog explains a new security function for apps that allows them to ask users to re-authenticate by re-entering their password, which can be especially helpful for commerce apps. Facebook has also raised the API-created application tester limit to 500 and now allows developers to reset a tester’s password via the API. These changes make Facebook applications a safer place to transmit sensitive data, and make development on the Platform simpler.
Now developers can add additional re-authentication parameters to an authentication request through the dialogs or Graph API OAuth system. Under auth_type the can include In November 2010, Facebook implemented an API-controlled application tester system so developers wouldn’t have to create fake accounts that violated the site’s terms of service in order to test their apps. Developers could only create 50 testers per app, through. Facebook has now raised this cap to 500. Facebook recently added a test user’s email and password to the response sent when they’re created to augment the id, access_token, and login_url already included in the response. In case developers need a tester’s password, or need to change it, they can now reset the password via the Graph API. This will alleviate the need to meticulously copy down the passwords received when testers are created. To change a tester’s password, developers can follow the sample code provided by Facebook: $new_password = "YOUR_NEW_PASSWORD"; $graph_url = "https://graph.facebook.com/" . $obj->{'id'} . "?password=" . $new_password . "&method=post&" . $app_access_token; $response = file_get_contents($graph_url); if($response) { echo "Password changed successfully."; } | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Refreshed Facebook for BlackBerry Improves Integration with Native Contacts App Posted: 06 May 2011 01:37 PM PDT Blackberry has released a “refresh” of its Facebook for BlackBerry v2.0 beta app that improves the app’s integration with Blackberry’s native contacts, phone, and SMS apps; adds some new feature to chat and profiles; and makes it compatible with the outdated BlackBerry Device Software v5.0. These enhancements underscore Facebook’s increasing role as an aggregator of contact information that augments one’s own phonebook.
The refreshed beta app is now available to registered BlackBerry Beta Zone users, and the new features will likely appear in the official version of the app when it’s released. The initial beta release of v2.0 added Chat. BlackBerry also just released a native Facebook app for its PlayBook tablet device. While it included an innovative dual-panel Chat interface, it lacked crucial mobile features such as Events and Places making it better as an alternative Facebook interface for use at home than a true mobile app. Facebook for BlackBerry v2.0 can now click on BlackBerry PINs, phone numbers and email addresses they see on Facebook wall posts or profiles to open a menu of options for using that contact information with the device’s native apps. Users can add data to their contacts, call or SMS phone numbers, send an email to clicked address, or send a BlackBerry Message to a PIN. The interface works better than that of Facebook for iPhone, which automatically takes the corresponding action when contact info is clicked, rather than giving the option to save the information for later. Facebook asks users to connect a mobile number to their account for security purposes, leading them to also display their numbers in their profiles, making Facebook a more and more reliable way to find the phone numbers of associates. This can be especially useful in emergency situations, and these new BlackBerry features facilitate this utility. The app has also improved the Chat experience by letting users see if their conversation partner is currently typing — another feature lacking from Facebook for iPhone and some other native apps. Users can also search their friend lists to find chat partners quickly. In terms of performance, BlackBerry reports that it has improved Chat connection, shortened online contacts list loading time, and made Chat message delivery notifications more consistent.
Other minor improvements include the ability to see a friend’s friend list and your mutual friends, and easier navigation of the news feed thanks to a persistently visible cursor. Compatibility with the old BlackBerry Device Software v5.0 that was released in late 2009 means those with older devices can use the latest Facebook features. It’s impressive to see BlackBerry one-upping in some way the Facebook for iPhone app. While it still lacks some major features present on the iOS app including Groups, the company’s mobile development team appears to be focusing on deepening the Facebook integration with BlackBerry’s core value proposition — contact organization. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| India, Brazil, Egypt Among Countries With Most New Facebook Users in April 2011 Posted: 06 May 2011 11:37 AM PDT Continuing trends we’ve seen growing over the past year, Asian and Latin American countries gained the most Facebook users in the world during April, with India leading the way, according to data from our Facebook traffic measurement service, Inside Facebook Gold. There are now nearly 25 million Facebook users in the country of 1.16 billion people, an increase of 1.78 million from the start of last month. Facebook appears to be reaching the wealthier, more networked parts of the country — its mobile efforts, like the free Zero data service, could help it grow across much more of the country in the years to come.
Having reached around half the total populations in Europe and North America, Facebook had slower growth in these regions. The US only grew by a couple hundred thousand users, many fewer than the millions Facebook had been adding every month for most of the past year. It lost users in Canada in the United Kingdom, although we’ve fluctuating gains and losses recently, and it’s not clear what the trend is. Looking further down on our list of the ten countries with the most Facebook users, Southeast Asia is heavily represented, with the Philippines and Indonesia each gaining more than a million users, and Thailand appearing higher than it usually has — the country has been slower to move from other social networks to Facebook than many of its neighbors. Brazil leads Latin America with, 1.21 million more, but Mexico is not far behind, and Argentina and Peru also make the list. Finally, Egypt has continued to grow after Facebook was credited with helping protestors in the country successfully overthrow the government. It gained more than half a million new users, part of a 3-month growth rate of 38%. Turkey, as it has for years, continued to grow quickly as well. Stats on Facebook’s top 25 countries this month are publicly viewable at the Inside Facebook Gold Stats Page. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 06 May 2011 08:19 AM PDT
The list of top 20 emerging apps was compiled based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook and covers apps that grew the most in the past week, ending at between 100,000 and 1 million monthly active users. Top Gainers This Week
Turkish video apps were big on the list this week, there were four in total. Video İzlemek grew by about 534,000 MAU, Videolar by 280,800 MAU, VideoPort by 275,000 MAU and VideoGezegeni by 130,900 MAU. Each app allows a user to watch, share or Like videos, comment on them, although VideoPort automatically generates a feed story when you watch a video.
Compatibility With My Friends grew by 271,200 MAU. The app calculates your compatibility with your Facebook friends based on Likes and comments, publishing a feed story with the results, as well as a photo with a link to the app. A similar app, Social Statistics, grew by 189,500 MAU; the app gives the user's posting frequency, influence with friends a a Wall post summary for the past month. Page tabs were on our list. BandRx is another music app for bands, which grew by 211,400 MAU; the app promises to help bands create their presence on a Facebook tab. Then My Tab allows Page administrators to create custom tabs for their Pages; the app grew by 188,600 MAU.
A few photo apps also made our list. Friends Who Always be There For Me grew by 144,600 MAU; the app compiles Likes on your photos and statuses to tell you who your strongest Facebook friends are. Then Pixable, with 131,200 MAU, promises to be the best way to view Facebook photos; you can receive a daily photofeed, see top photos f the day, be notified of your friend's activity and more. Then there was Chase Community Giving with 156,200 MAU; the app allows users to vote on charities to receive grants from the company. There are ample opportunities for users to share with their friends. The French Dromadaire is a virtual and musical greeting card app that allows users to watch and share cards. The app grew by 150,300 MAU, partly because every time you watch a video, a feed story is generated, as well as if you decide to post to your Wall or that of a friend. |
In some cases, developers may want verify a user’s identity before they take an important action, such as making a purchase or changing their settings. This helps developers avoid customer service or billing issues stemming from unauthorized actions that may have occurred because a user’s session was hijacked either in person by someone on a shared computer, or by a hacker. It can also ensure parents aren’t charged because their kids sat down at the computer and started randomly clicking.
Turkish video applications were prominent on our list this week, as were apps measuring your relationships with your Facebook friends. There were apps for bands, for Chase's Community Giving program, a French app for musical greeting cards, a Page tab app and a photo app. The apps on our list grew from between 130,900 and 534,000 monthly active users this week.
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