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Inside Facebook

Inside Facebook

Facebook updates payments terms to reflect addition of subscriptions, Credits phase out and more

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 05:01 PM PDT

Facebook has updated its payment terms for both users and developers following Tuesday’s announcement that it would support monthly subscription billing for apps and games on its platform and phase out Credits in favor of a user’s local currency.

Note that Facebook’s transition from Credits to local currency is not an indication that the social network is getting out of the payments business. In fact, it is expanding it to be more similar to Apple’s iTunes App Store model, rather than emphasizing virtual currency. This should give Facebook more flexibility as it looks to monetize apps beyond games.

Overall, the new policies are more comprehensive and better organized, which is important as the number of users and developers who use Facebook’s payments platform expands over the next year to include more non-game transactions.

For users, the social network added more information and terms about various payment methods, and made it clearer that users under 18 cannot use Facebook Payments only with the involvement of a parent or guardian. The age stipulation was previously one of the final points on the user terms page. Now it is in the second paragraph. The payment methods section, including a definition of Facebook Credits, is completely new.

In the new payment methods section, the company expanded its payments terms to explain its policy around gift cards and introduced terms around mobile billing. For example, Facebook noted that it is not a bank and that gift card balances are not deposits and do not earn interest. Surprisingly, Facebook didn’t make any mention of mobile billing in its previous policy. The social network recently rolled out a two-step payments flow for mobile apps, but has supported mobile carrier billing for years.

Readers can compare Facebook’s new user payment terms with its previous policy from March 27 here.

For developers, Facebook changed its “Facebook Credits Terms” to the new brand of “Facebook Developer Payment Terms.” The terms page now includes more explanation of payouts and introduces the term “developer balance.”  Whenever developers complete a sale on the platform, Facebook will credit the proceeds, minus a 30 percent service fee, to a developer’s balance. The new policy is reorganized with clearer headlines and explanations, for example, including a section called “Your Responsibilities and Risks.” The section compiles conditions that were previously incorporated into several different areas of the document.

Developers can compare Facebook’s new developer payment terms with its previous credits policy from November 2011 here.

Facebook and Yahoo in talks to resolve patent dispute, court filing confirms

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 03:05 PM PDT

Facebook and Yahoo are looking to settle two patent-infringement suits between the companies, according to a court filing from Yahoo.

Yahoo’s lawyers confirmed that the company is in negotiations with the social network and they requested the court grant them a two-week extension to file replies to the lawsuit and a two-week delay in a motion. Yahoo says it believes an extension will facilitate settlement.

Yahoo filed a lawsuit in mid-March, claiming Facebook infringed on 10 patents Yahoo holds related to advertising, privacy, customization, messaging and social networking. The suit called for Facebook to be permanently prevented from further infringing on Yahoo's patents and to pay damages and legal fees. Facebook responded with counterclaims that Yahoo infringes upon 10 of the social network's own patents.

Since then, Facebook expanded its patent portfolio by buying about 750 patents from IBM and another 650 from Microsoft. It also has deals to license hundreds more patents that weren’t for sale. Scott Thompson, Yahoo’s CEO at the time the original lawsuit was filed, has since resigned after failing to correct inaccuracies in his academic history.

AllThingsD sources previously suggested that key terms of the agreement include a cross-licensing agreement and an even deeper integration of Facebook into Yahoo and vice versa.

Facebook gives Like button functionality to third-party mobile and web app buttons

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 01:11 PM PDT

Facebook announced today that developers will be able to add a new Open Graph-enabled Like action to their apps so that users can easily share content back on Facebook.

Mobile and web app developers can now build custom buttons that function similarly to Facebook's traditional Like button. For example, Instagram and Foursquare use hearts in their mobile apps. Now instead of those actions being seen within the app only, they can be published to Facebook without any additional steps. Further, when a user Likes their friend's photo or story using the new Like action, the friend will receive a Facebook notification about it. This feature could help increase discovery and engagement of apps that integrate Open Graph.

Previously, mobile apps couldn't integrate the Like button. The change also gives developers flexibility in their app design now that they don't have to use Facebook's standard Like button to achieve the same viral results. The only difference between the the new Like action and Facebook's original social plugin is that users will have to authorize an app in order for custom buttons to publish to a user's Facebook account. Developers should make it clear when users' activity within apps will be posted to Facebook and only publish "Like" stories when users take an explicit action to Like something. Facebook notes that a user giving a movie a five-star rating does not qualify as a Like. Instead the app should use the "rated" action.

More information about implementing Open Graph Like actions is available from Facebook's developer site here.

New this week on the Inside Network Job Board: High 5, King.com, Machine Zone and more

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 12:00 PM PDT

The Inside Network Job Board is dedicated to providing you with the best social media job opportunities across social and mobile application platforms. Here are this week's highlights from the Inside Network Job Board, including positions at: High 5, King.com, Machine Zone and more.

Abundance

International Development Group (IDG)

Mixr, Inc.

PT Gaming

ReachLocal

Listings on the Inside Network Job Board are distributed to readers of Inside Social Games, Inside Facebook and Inside Mobile Apps through regular posts and widgets on the sites. Your open positions are being seen by the leading developers, product managers, marketers, designers and executives in the Facebook Platform, mobile and social gaming industry today.

Facebook hides page content from logged-out users

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 08:17 AM PDT

[Update 6/20/12 10:30 a.m. PT - Facebook says not being able to access pages while logged out is a bug and it is working on a fix.]

[Update 6/20/12 11:58 a.m. PT - Facebook appears to have resolved this issue. Users can once again see posts, apps and other page info even when they are not signed in.]

Facebook pages are no longer visible to users who are logged out of the social network.

Users who visit fan pages without being signed into Facebook will not be able to see any details on a page's Timeline besides a login dialog. However, when users enter their email and password, they are redirected to News Feed, not the page they originally landed on. This could be detrimental for pages and particularly for those paying for logout ads.

It is unclear when this change was made and how widely it has been rolled out. It’s possible that this is a bug, but Facebook has not yet responded with more information.

Hiding content until users log in makes sense for the social network, which wants to bring users back into its platform and encourage users to stay logged in so they can use social plugins and integrations across the web. But taking users to News Feed rather than refreshing the page they had been on is not a good user experience and it has implications for the millions of fan pages seeking new Likes and engagement.

The number of users visiting a specific business or community page without being logged into Facebook is likely insignificant for most pages most of the time. However, organizations that promote their pages through email, print, online banners or other means outside of Facebook could miss out on conversions because the social network hides their content and pushes people to News Feed instead of their page.

This change is even more likely to affect Facebook's own premium advertisers paying for the new logout experience ad. Although the ads are typically aimed at generating awareness and video views moreso than gaining new Likes and comments, the barrier of the redirect reduces the advertiser's opportunity for earned media. Samsung is currently running logout ads in the U.S., for example. Even after clicking the name of the page directly from the ad, logged out users will not be able to see more Samsung content unless they sign in and then navigate back to the page manually. This is not ideal for advertisers who are likely paying around $700,000 for these logout ads and homepage units.

Facebook still allows logged-out users to see some public aspects of individual user profiles, but it does not show and recent or past posts, even if they are open to the public. Logged-out users are also barred from seeing a user's Facebook or app activity on Timeline unless they have a direct link to the content.

torsdag den 21. juni 2012 at 07.45