Granted, Facebook’s recent redesign came with a couple of flaws, and lots of people were upset about the changes, but resorting to street protests to try and turn them around?

The French have taken to the streets! Over the new Facebook design, that is. God bless their revolutionary hearts.

Women older than 55 are the fastest-growing group on Facebook, with 1.5 million currently on the site – a 550 percent increase in the past 6 months.

Do you know what that means? Your mom just joined Facebook. It’s all in the Facebook family now.

Following a much-discussed change in Facebook’s terms of service, co-founder Mark Zuckerberg took to the company blog Monday in an effort to dispel concerns about who owns what when it comes to user data: “Our philosophy is that people own their information and control who they share it with. When a person shares information on Facebook, they first need to grant Facebook a license to use that information so that we can show it to the other people they’ve asked us to share it with. Without this license, we couldn’t help people share that information.”

This month, when Facebook updated its terms, it deleted a provision that said users could remove their content at any time, at which time the license would expire. Further, it added new language that said Facebook would retain users’ content and licenses after an account was terminated.

Baseline: When someone leaves the social net, their own copies of data disappear but anything they’ve sent someone else lingers on, like the grin from the Cheshire Cat, whether they want it to or not. As Consumerist explained, Facebook took out some language from the terms that made it sound like users could expunge everything having to do with their accounts.

Zuckerberg admits the social net’s way of explaining this is far from simple: “Our philosophy that people own their information and control who they share it with has remained constant. A lot of the language in our terms is overly formal and protective of the rights we need to provide this service to you. Over time we will continue to clarify our positions and make the terms simpler.” (The company also could make it more obvious as a Facebook user, I may have acknowledged a change at some point since the terms changed on Feb. 4 but I honestly don’t remember it.)

In the meantime, he wants users to take it all on trust that if Facebook has the rights to use your data in perpetuity, they will not abuse it. This becomes a little harder to take if you’ve watched what happens to the accounts of people Facebook thinks run afoul of its terms even when that may not be the case: their accounts simply disappear without the person who posted or accumulated that shared info being able to even make a copy. Zuckerberg doesn’t refer to that issue but says the tension between information control and data portability are the root of some problems: “People want full ownership and control of their information so they can turn off access to it at any time. At the same time, people also want to be able to bring the information others have shared with them like email addresses, phone numbers, photos and so on to other services and grant those services access to those people’s information. These two positions are at odds with each other.”

Amid the evolution, at least a few members are showing their uneasiness about the stance that Facebook is taking.

Some members, including Sasha Frere-Jones, the pop critic and staff writer for The New Yorker, said they had deleted their accounts to show their opposition to the new terms.

“Zuckerberg’s response to the protest is just the modern version of ‘Ignore the fine print, ma’am, just sign here,’ ” Mr. Frere-Jones wrote in an e-mail message. “Why would anyone trust a company with his or her personal information, especially when that company’s explicit legal language claims eternal rights to exploit that information, and there is good reason to expect that they will?”

In the battle for online friends, Facebook is now the world leader and is turning 5.

Five years ago, Mark Zuckerberg launched a site out of his Harvard dorm called thefacebook.com. It was an immediate hit, despite competition from established social networks, because it offered a safe place for students to share things like party photos with just their real friends. So it’s hardly a birthday surprise that photo uploads — and a range of other methods for sharing personal information on the site — continue to gain popularity today, as can be seen from some new statistics just released by the company.

“Building and moving quickly for five years hasn’t been easy, and we aren’t finished.

“As we celebrate Facebook’s 5th birthday, we continue to work hard to evolve Facebook and make it as simple as possible to communicate with and understand the people and entities that matter to you,” wrote Mr Zuckerberg.

In the blog he has also taken a trip down memory lane and shared old images of how the site has changed since it was launched in 2004.

In fact, information-sharing features like photos seem to be gaining popularity with Facebook users faster than Facebook itself is gaining new users — a sign that the sharing-focused redesign implemented last year continues to take hold on, and also a good sign for the company’s revenue-making efforts. Here’s the breakdown.

Facebook said it had 140 million monthly active users as of mid-December. The company hasn’t updated that number since, but a recent third-party analysis by the blog AllFacebook guessed that the site hit 160 million users by this past Sunday, based on raw data available on Facebook’s advertising service. That’s a fourteen percent increase in new users in roughly a month and a half.

Meanwhile, Facebook users are now sharing more than 850 million photos per month, up 21 percent from 700 million in mid-December. Facebook was pronounced the largest photo-sharing web application in the world by web measurement company comScore in January of 2008, so presumably this ongoing growth is helping it maintain that title.

Facebook is also seeing a surge in status updates — the Twitter-like feature that Facebook launched shortly after Twitter, back in the spring of 2006. Now, more than 15 million users are updating their statuses at least once a day, whereas 13 million were back in mid-December — a 15 percent increase. It’s hard to know exactly how big Twitter is because that company doesn’t release traffic data, and much of the activity comes through the use of its application programming interface (API), but we’re guessing there are somewhere less than 15 million Twitter users tweeting at least once per day

This isn’t just personal information that’s being shared. Now, 24 million other “pieces of content” (links to online news article, Facebook notes, etc.) are being shared per month, up 60 percent from 15 million in mid-December.

Why are people sharing more? The redesign emphasized features like status updates and photos, and that certainly seems to have contributed to it. But the average Facebook user now has more than 120 friends whereas the average user only had 100 friends in mid-December, a 20 percent increase. More friends likely means more friends to share things like photos, news articles and your status with. Facebook more than doubled from 60 million monthly active users in January of 2008. As new users gradually gain more friends on the site, they seem to be deciding to share more.

This is also good for Facebook’s revenue plans. The company is trying to build “engagement” ads around sharing behaviors; in the news feeds showing you your friends activity, for example, Facebook also shows you ads and links to brands — and to brand fan “Pages.” You might see an ad for a movie then become a fan on its Page, then the action will appear in your friends’ news feeds. The more people post photos and status updates and whatnot, the more material Facebook has to show you in your news feed — and the more you’ll want to read your news feed every day. This may be why more than 3.5 million users are now becoming fans of at least one Page every day, up 40 percent from 2.5 million in mid-December.

In just a few short weeks, Matt Bacak has crossed the Facebook finish line with 5,000 Friends. By putting his own Internet marketing strategies into action, “The Powerful Promoter” has managed to break the social media networking barrier. Unfortunately for those Internet marketers who want to get connected to Bacak through Facebook, they’re too late.
At first, I took on the quest for 5,000 Facebook Friends as a fun challenge. The more I got into it, however, the more I realized that I could leverage the game to my advantage

Suwanee, GA (PRWEB) October 13, 2008 — “The Powerful Promoter,” Matt Bacak, is pleased to announce that he has made the Facebook record books. In record-setting pace, he has garnered 5,000 Friends on the top social media networking site. Because Facebook sets this figure as the limit for its members, Bacak has taken his networking endeavor as far as he possibly can. Known throughout the Internet marketing community as “The Powerful Promoter,” Bacak’s Facebook Friends’ list includes a who’s who of the Internet marketing industry’s elite. Jealous Internet marketers who would like to see who Bacak is connected with can do so by visiting his Facebook profile online at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=675977989.

ust a quick browse through Bacak’s top Facebook Friends reveals the secret to his social media networking success. Some of the well-known individuals he’s connected with include The Success Doctor Michel Fortin; “New York Times” best-selling author Joel Comm; marketing genius Dave Lakhani; FMG Network founder Jody Colvard; Internet-based business guru Cody Moya; Income.com founder John Reese and “Conversations with Millionaires” author Jason Oman – just to name a few.

When Bacak’s vast email contacts learned that they could get connected with such movers and shakers by becoming “The Powerful Promoter’s” Facebook Friend, they jumped at the chance. Thus, Bacak reached the Facebook Friends limit faster than even he imagined.

“At first, I took on the quest for 5,000 Facebook Friends as a fun challenge. The more I got into it, however, the more I realized that I could leverage the game to my advantage,” explains Bacak. As a result of the endeavor, I’ve not only widened my own networking circles, but I’ve also been able to teach other up-and-coming Internet marketers how to get connected to some of the industry’s most notable players.”

Matt Bacak continues, “It’s been an eye-opening experience to say the least. I only wish Facebook would allow its members 10,000 Friends. Should the day ever arrive that they raise the bar, you can bet I’ll be among the first to aim for and achieve it.”

A social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers, Facebook has risen to the top of social media networks since its inception just four years ago. Today, the company boasts more than 100 million active users, and according to comScore, a global Internet information provider, it is the fourth most-trafficked Web site in the world. Among all social media sites worldwide, it currently takes the top spot.

Via: PR Web

A new website being launched next week is promising to do for business networking what Facebook has for making social links.

MeettheBoss.com, which goes live on September 8, is being heralded by the web’s designers as a site which will change the way executives communicate forever.

The membership of MeettheBoss.com, being called a “dream rolodex,” will feature CIOs, CEOs and other senior executives from the likes of ABN Amro, Barclays, HBOS, Goldman Sachs and Visa.

Weekly interviews with industry leaders will be webcast on the site’s dedicated channel. These will be combined with live, moderated discussion groups, video conferencing, IM and secure e-mail.

The designers of MeettheBoss.com claim it is the only financial services networking tool to combine quick and secure video calls with IM, e-mail and SMS between members on one, simple interface: their profile page.

Austin Adams, former CIO for JPMorgan Chase, said: “Every one of us as CIOs can be much more effective as individuals and as leaders if we take what I call a progressive/aggressive stance to dialogue with other CIOs.”

Users will be able to select an executive, read their bio information and extensive career notes, and in two clicks members can be on a video call to discuss common challenges.

There is no cost to joining and membership is by application only. MeettheBoss.com is strictly for financial services executives to ensure a truly secure, open environment where they can learn from each other.

Spencer Green, founder of MeettheBoss.com said: “We are really excited by the take-up on membership, which we will close at 50,000. We currently have 20,000 members through invitation only; the next 30,000 will be through application.”

Every week there will be video interviews with the top thought- and industry leaders, including Martin Davis, CIO for Wachovia, Kim Fournais, Co-CEO of Saxo Bank, and Peter Leukert, CIO at Commerzbank.

“We are seeing that this platform is exactly what the industry has been crying out for. The feedback has been incredible,” added Green.

If, by chance, you’ve received a message from a “friend” in the last few days saying that you’ve been caught on tape, it’s not true. Unless you’re Paris Hilton.

But no, she’s been tossing a dwarf. Okay, not really, but those are just two of the scams Facebook and MySpace users have been hit with recently.

The malicious software attempts to lure users in with messages ranging from “You’ve been catched on hidden cam” to the one about Hilton tossing a dwarf on the street. The messages contain a link that takes unsuspecting users to a Web page that looks like YouTube. There the page tells visitors that to view the video, they need to click on another link to download and install updated software. Those who fall for the scam are actually installing malicious software.

The worm, called Koobface, turns compromised computers into “zombie” machines that can be used in other types of online attacks. The malicious software may also include keylogger software, which can record a computer user’s keystrokes — and potentially grab passwords when they are entered on a computer.

Alexander Gostev, senior virus analyst at computer security firm Kaspersky Lab, said in a statement that this type of attack could be a successful one for hackers. “Users are very trusting of messages left by ‘friends’ on social networking sites. So the likelihood of a user clicking on a link like this is very high,” he said.

Facebook has also been alerting users to a hoax message claiming that the site is overpopulated and that some accounts soon will be deleted.

Facebook’s security page offers a few common-sense suggestions for those worried about security. (“If a link or a message seems weird, don’t click on it,” is one tip.) The company is still investigating the malware attack, according to a spokesman.

According to research firm Cloudmark, users of social networking sites are reporting a rise in spam. An average of 64 spam attacks have been reported over the last year, and 37 percent of users have noticed an increase in the last six months in unwanted messages.

As you have no doubt heard by now, swimmer Michael Phelps won his eighth Olympic gold medal in the Beijing games over the weekend, bringing his career total to 14 – the most ever for an Olympian.

All the attention that comes with all that bullion has certainly made Phelps the friend to have on FaceBook. He told Bob Costas on Saturday night that he has something like 7,600 new friend requests, according to the Baltimore Sun’s Medium Well sports blog.

His fan page has also exploded in recent days, with 859,387 FaceBookers having signed up at the time of this posting.

Given this excitement, it’s fair to say it may be difficult for Phelps to maintain much of a private life over the next few months – or even years. Check out ScientificAmerican.com’s coverage of security and privacy issues in our new In-Depth Report to see how your own privacy is being protected – and threatened.

You may also be wondering why Phelps is so good at swimming. Could it be those size 14 feet or his long torso and short arms? Or might it really just be hard training and a will to win?

Is she? Could be. And more power to Ivy Bean, we say. More friends, too. She’s nearly got 5k as of 5PM EST. Much to do with the publicity the frisbee-wielding Olympian has received, we suspect. She was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition this Friday, followed by a spot in the Daily Mail, and subsequently, Silicon Alley Insider. This weekend the sporty and Web-enabled centenarian can check off Mashable, too.

This is light news at best, not like the technical heavies we trumpet most every week. But Ms. Bean’s 15 minutes have indeed arrived, as they say, and since she’s nabbing much props from the Facebook congnoscenti, we’ll go ahead and bow to the great dame as well. 

Not much in the way of deets about the networker. She’s 102 years young. She’s over in Bradford, England. She was given a Facebook group all her own, titled “Oldest Person on Facebook.” And, well, it seems she’s only looking to add to her friends list at the moment, it seems. Typical Facebooker, eh? Apparently that policy is working to her favor anyway.

 Really, though. Consider how you’d like your profile to show if/when you’ve reached 102. Peace and quiet, and some polite conversation with folks close by, right? Most definitely.

Anywho, for old time’s “Add-as-Friend” sake, we’d say be the kind lads and gals you are and give Englishwoman a click and a hello.

When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to illustrate the impact of his social network, he tells a story about several young religious militants from Lebanon who changed their view of Western culture through Facebook friendships. The subtext to the tale is that free expression of ideas, enabled by the Web, bridges deep cultural divides. But we knew that: It’s one of the central concepts behind the Olympics, after all. What we didn’t know is that Facebook is in Lebanon.

In fact, Facebook is quickly expanding in many regions. The site is the top global social network, according to figures released by comScore (SCOR) on Aug. 12. Of Facebook’s 132 million users, nearly 63% are outside North America. The site, which had been translated into 20 languages including French, Spanish, and Mandarin, has recently added 69 more. “Now, through translations, we are seeing a lot of growth in international countries,” says Javier Olivan, international manager at Facebook in a recent interview.

Viral growth
Facebook isn’t the only social network focusing on international expansion. As American sites such as Facebook and MySpace, News Corp.’s (NWS) leading U.S. social network, saturate their home markets, they’re looking abroad to fuel the audience growth that has made them so attractive to advertisers, audiences, acquirers, and would-be investors. MySpace, for example, has expanded to more than 29 countries, including India and Korea, in the past few years,.

MySpace is particularly frequented by users in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Australia, Britain, and Malaysia, according to a study showing where social networks are most popular that was released on Aug. 12 by Pingdom, a Swedish site that monitors Web site availability. Pingdom based its findings on the regions where a particular social network is searched for most often via Google, the most popular search engine. For instance, the countries with the greatest interest in LinkedIn, a network aimed at professionals, are India, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, and the U.S., says Pingdom.

But Facebook has been particularly successful in terms of sheer user adoption. Its number of new members was up 153% in June from the same month a year earlier, driven largely by astronomical growth in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Among specific countries, Turkey, Canada, Britain, South Africa, and Colombia have the greatest interest, according to Pingdom. In comparison, Facebook’s North American audience grew just 38% in June vs. the year-earlier month and MySpace was up only 3%, according to comScore.

Advertising magnet
Facebook owes its results, in part, to its technology-driven international strategy. Rather than launch local-language versions of Facebook for new markets, complete with a local Facebook bureau, Facebook opted to provide translation tools (BusinessWeek.com, 5/14/08) that let users take the existing site and personalize it in their own tongue. The tools, which users can tweak to create more accurate translations, helped Facebook roll out in new countries faster than many rivals, giving it an early presence in local markets that grew exponentially as users encouraged friends to join the site. “It was a very scalable process,” says comScore senior analyst Andrew Lipsman. “They have gotten these things up and going quickly, and the audiences are up.”

MySpace has taken a different tack. It is opening offices in countries where it knows there are ad dollars, as well as friends, to be made. The strategy makes the company slower at expanding in new markets, but MySpace believes the approach ultimately makes its local offerings better able to reflect the cultures of new countries while also catering to advertisers. MySpace’s non-U.S. audiences will soon account for more than 50% of the site’s revenues, says Jeff Berman, MySpace’s president of sales and marketing.

Hi5 is following a hybrid strategy. In May, the San Francisco-based social network launched tools letting users translate the site into any language. Before that, it hired a third-party provider, Lionbridge, to translate the site into languages like Japanese and make it reflect the added countries’ cultures. The company’s user base has grown to more than 56 million, thanks in large part to those efforts, says comScore’s Lipsman. “Hi5 has really put an emphasis on cultural relevance beyond just the translation,” says Lipsman. The site remains popular throughout Latin America, home to four of the five countries where it shows up most often in searches, according to Pingdom.

Although Facebook has focused on tools, it isn’t ruling out opening local bureaus to help make the site more culturally relevant—and to sell ads. But executives aren’t convinced that new offices are necessary. Once there are users, the thinking goes, advertisers will follow. “The platform is open, and as soon as advertisers find value they just start creating campaigns,” says Olivan. “So it is pretty much universal.”

Via: Business Week