Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
- Facebook Roundup: Germany, Ceglia, Comments Box, Stock, Social Experiments and More
- Milyoni’s Facebook Credits for Video Rentals App Ups Virality With Live Commenting and Scene Sharing
- Facebook Tries Replacing “Most Recent” with a “Ticker” Real-Time Feed Atop the Chat Sidebar
- Friend Quizzes, Korea.com, Photos, Phrases and Comics on This Week’s Top 20 Emerging Facebook Apps by MAU
| Facebook Roundup: Germany, Ceglia, Comments Box, Stock, Social Experiments and More Posted: 19 Aug 2011 07:30 PM PDT German Privacy Office Condemns Like Button – The privacy office of Northern German state Schleswig-Holstein has called for a ban of the Like button on grounds that it violates user privacy by sending browsing behavior data to Facebook. Starting at the end of September, it plans to sue German websites still using the plugin for 50,000 euro. Facebook says it is operating in compliance with European data and privacy laws, is approved by German’s central government, and the head of the complaining office, Thilo Weichert, is known to be a grandstander.
Comments Box Helps Websites – A side-by-side comparison by the LA Times of Facebook’s Comments Box social plugin and an unauthenticated identity commenting system showed Facebook’s plugin improved civility of comments, drove more referral traffic, and sped up site loading. Interpublic Group Sells Half Facebook Stake – IPG sold about half its Facebook stake, initially purchased for $5 million in 2006, for about $133 million this week. Now the group will take its profits and buy $450 million worth in shares.
Facebook, Yahoo Test 6 Degrees of Separation – Facebook and Yahoo have partnered for a social experiment to see by how many associations people around the world are connected. The Small World Experiment will test the hypothesis that people are connected by "six degrees of separation."
Facebook Zip Code Ad Targeting Inaccuracies - ClickZ reports that some early tests by Ads API developer XA.net indicate that in some cases Facebook may be showing that the expected audience for ads targeted to a specific zip code is higher than the census population for that zip code. This could be due to inaccuracy in how Facebook assigns users a zip code based on the city they list in their profile or where the site believes their IP address is located.
Sony's PSVita to Include Facebook – Sony's Vita handheld game console will include Facebook and other social apps when or soon after it launches, according to Electronista. The apps will be available for free on the PlayStation store. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Milyoni’s Facebook Credits for Video Rentals App Ups Virality With Live Commenting and Scene Sharing Posted: 19 Aug 2011 05:42 PM PDT Facebook ecommerce developer Milyoni has added new sharing features to its Social Theater app that lets Pages rent videos to users for Facebook Credits. Social Theater, which powers rentals for Warner Bros’ The Dark Knight and the ACL music festival, now allows users to leave timed comments, share specific scenes, chat live with other viewers, Like brands mentioned in the film, and send discounts on rentals to friends. These improvements can now be seen on the Page for film The Big Lebowski, will enhance the Social Theater user experience, and could help instances of the app spread virally across Facebook, increasing sales for content owners.
Milyoni got the attention of the ecommerce and media worlds when Warner Bros first announced it would rent films from its Facebook Page using Social Theater, and would allow users to pay with Facebook Credits. While it opened a new revenue stream to video content owners, we criticized the app for lacking many of the social feature it added this week. Without these, Social Theater wasn’t taking full advantage of Facebook’s communication channels and built-in audience, hampering sales. The ecommerce developer has since raised $3 million in Series A funding and partnered with Page management company Vitrue to help brands drive direct return on investment on their social media efforts. It’s also been tapped to power on-Facebook rentals of concerts as well as more Warner Bros films including Inception and Harry Potter. Now it is debuting Social Theater 2.0 with rentals of cult hit The Big Lebowski from the film’s Facebook Page. Once users opt to rent the film they’re shown a landing page with Like and Send buttons for sharing the app with friends, and a Like Box so they can become a fan of the film’s Page. Users then confirm that they’ll pay 30 Facebook Credits, or $3, for 48 hours of unlimited viewing of the film. They’re giving the option to post a link to the walls of friends that lets them get a $1 discount on renting the film.
While watching the film without going into full-screen mode, they see timed comments — text tied to a certain moment in the film — written by other viewers scroll across the screen. They can add their own comments that are also published to Facebook, though this syndication could be made more explicit to the user.
At certain moments in the film users are are shown prompts to share scenes or popular quotes from to the film to the news feed. This content can be consumed for free by friends right from the news feed, and entices them to click through and rent the film themselves. Users also prompts to Like the Pages related to the film or of brands mentioned in the film, so users get a chance to Like the Page of the film’s main character “The Dude”, and when he asks for a drink of Kahlua, users have the option to Like the alcohol brand.
On the backend, Milyoni has implemented an efficient self-serve admin system that for deployment of the app in less than 24 hours. Admins can also customize pricing, promotion, and app layout. Social Theater 2.0 is much more engaging and viral than the first version Milyoni launched with The Dark Knight. It gives users a unique, social viewing experience in which they can easily share compelling content and discounts on rentals with friends, and subscribe to updates about the film and related Pages. These elements should allow content owners who license Social Theater to secure more rentals, and help Milyoni turn one-time renters into repeat sales across deployments of its app. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Tries Replacing “Most Recent” with a “Ticker” Real-Time Feed Atop the Chat Sidebar Posted: 19 Aug 2011 12:17 PM PDT For the past few months, Facebook has been testing several home page redesigns that add a second, real-time news feed to the right of the central Top News feed. In the latest tested design, Facebook has removed the Most Recent tab of the news feed and replaced it with a real-time activity feed that is displayed at the top of the Chat sidebar. This design may feel more familiar to users since it leaves birthdays, upcoming events, and ads in their traditional place to the left. However, the design reduces above-the-fold real estate for the buddy list such that might have to do more scrolling to find friends to Chat with. It also makes ads less prominent and thus less valuable than a previous real-time feed design that kept ads visible no matter where on the home page a user scrolled.
Testing Different DesignsFacebook has long been rumored to be searching for a design of the home page that would do away with the two tab news feed, as some users never click away from the default Top News feed to view the Most Recent real-time feed. By showing both feeds at the same time the site could make sure the home page always displays both highly compelling older stories as well as fresh content, drawing more time-on-site from both those just quickly checking Facebook and those who’ve already read all their Top News. In June we spotted the first of the new two-feed designs called “Happening Now”, which replaced the right side of the home page’s upcoming events and birthdays with a feed of text-only real-time activity stories about the actions of friends, such as “Eric Eldon posted a link”. These entries could be clicked to reveal an overlay displaying the full, rich media news feed story. Some users complained about losing easy access to birthdays, upcoming events, and the rich media Most Recent feed that helped them find posts related to the social games they played. Later that month, we saw another design that kept the left navigation sidebar and the right live-feed sidebar fixed but let users scroll their central news feed, which itself first showed Top News stories and then further down showed Most Recent stories. Similar the the previous design, this could help Pages get more impressions for their news feed posts, but would also give more exposure to ads and let users access the top and left navigation bars at any time. However, users might have been jarred by only being able to scroll the central feed. Facebook has confirmed the tests multiple times over the last couple months, saying "We are currently testing a feature within News Feed that gives people the ability to see what their friends are commenting on and 'liking,' as these actions are being taken on Facebook. This test includes a small percentage of Facebook users, just a fraction of a percent. In the coming weeks, as we learn more from this test, we'll keep making improvements and may expand it to more people."
A screenshot from user Robert Dickbert shows the real-time feed taking up the top half of the Chat sidebar, leaving less room for the online statuses of friends and in some cases forcing users to scroll down the sidebar to see their whole buddy list. In the tests, users didn’t have a Most Recent feed, only a “Highlights” or “Stories From The Last 5 Day” feed similar to Top News. This would make it difficult to quickly consume a large volume of rich media real-time updates. Top News, Most Recent, and Ticker?I believe a version of the home page that offered the Ticker and Top News but also provided the Most Recent feed would be optimal — basically how it is now, plus the Ticker. It would preserve all the old functionality and make a real-time activity feed visible to all users as the currently tested design does, but also let power users read the Most Recent feed’s full, rich-media versions of news feed stories without having to expand each from the sidebar individually. This design wouldn’t reduce the clutter of the home page, but a two-tab central feed with a real-time second feed could give gamers, casual users, and power users what they want. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 19 Aug 2011 08:33 AM PDT
Top Gainers This Week
Korea.com grew by about 406,000 MAU this week. Then the French Qui regarde le plus votre profil ? grew by 321,700 MAU.
Friend quizzes were big this week as emerging apps. Freequizz.es grew by 275,200 MAU and is a Connect app that asks you questions about your friends, then asks you invite them to the app when you answer. Warheiitsspiiel is a german friend quiz app that publishes answers to your Wall or other places and the Spanish version, Te Atrevez A Kontesta..!, grew by 225,700 MAU. Together is an app that grew by 153,600 MAU and allows users to match up their friends on Facebook, publishing to their Walls. Finally, Top Ten Friends with 194,500 MAU grew mostly in India and the Philipines and generates a list of top friends, publishing a photo that tags your friends.
Photo apps included Photos + with 229,100 MAU and How Happy are You Today which publishes a percentage of happiness to your news feed and grew mostly in India by 229,000 MAU. Friends Photos & Albums is an interesting app that places your friends' Facebook photos into a new interface where you can view, Like or send them; the app grew by 228,700 MAU.
A few Page tab apps, Turkish Hoş Geldiniz by 275,600 MAU and Static HTML… [Fifth Tab] by 216,700 MAU. Another Turkish app, VidyoMax, grew by 154,000 MAU and is a very complex app displaying YouTube videos to be viewed, shared or commented upon. Phrases Box [daily], which grew by 152,100 MAU, offers apps and phrases to users and finally Comic Mashup is an interesting app that grew by 151,900 MAU and creates a "comic" based on feed stories, comments and photos in your profile. All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned next week for our look at the top weekly gainers by monthly active users on Monday, the top weekly gainers by daily active users on Wednesday, and the top emerging apps on Friday. |
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