Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 1st July 2009
18 COMMENTS 
Martin Bryant, Co-founder, Social Media Café Manchester
In the last hour Facebook has announced a number of changes that you need to know about.
- It’s now easier to control what you share with who
Wherever you can share anything (photos, videos, personal information etc) you’ll be able to choose from multiple privacy levels; ‘Everyone’ (to make it completely public), ‘Friends and Networks’, ‘Friends of Friends’, ‘Share With Friends’ and ‘Customize’ (allowing you to choose specific people to share with.
- Privacy options have been simplified
Privacy options for your Facebook account currently span six pages. These have been consolodated into one page.
- Regional networks have been removed
These have always been an odd part of the Facebook experience. Some countries had many small networks while others had one network. Facebook says only 50% of users are in a regional network.
- Transition Tools are being introduced
To ensure that users are eased into Facebook’s new-found ability to share anything with anyone, Transition Tools are being introduced. This will allow you to change who can see different parts of your profile quickly and easily. Until you change anything here, your existing privacy settings will remain in place.
What does this all mean?
The good news is that if you like your profile to be private it will stay that way. If you want to operate more publicly you can do that too while still being sure those embarrassing photos from your college years remain hidden from public view.
While it’s good that Facebook is simplifying its privacy options, there are still concerns. Facebook is considering allowing anything that’s shared with ‘Everyone’ to be indexed by search engines. This makes sense on one level, but what about if you want to change your mind and make it private later? Will those embarrassing photos remain cached by Google if you hide them from view on Facebook?
The new privacy controls and the removal of regional networks will be rolled out to all users over the next few weeks. While previous Facebook changes have caused uproar, it’s unlikely there’ll be much to complain about here. Only the removal regional networks may cause a problem, but opening up parts of your profile to everyone should solve this problem for most people.
Facebook has today announced a number of changes that you need to know about. The changes make it easier to share information publicly without getting bogged down in Facebook’s current complicated privacy controls.
Here they all in one simple-to-follow list.
- It’s now easier to control who sees what
Wherever you can share anything (photos, videos, personal information etc) you’ll be able to choose from multiple privacy levels; ‘Everyone’ (to make it completely public), ‘Friends and Networks’, ‘Friends of Friends’, ‘Share With Friends’ and ‘Customize’ (allowing you to choose specific people to share with. (more…)
Written on 24th June 2009
3 COMMENTS
Keith, Network Consultant, Social Media Fanatic
Facebook has entered the realm of online streaming video with an announcement that they are offering Facebook Pages the ability to broadcast live video via Ustream. Facebook first demonstrated this “Live Stream” technology during some recent Jonas Brothers concerts but today’s announcement represents a real step forward for both Facebook and Ustream.
Unfortunately, Livestream isn’t available to everyone yet. Artist and content producers can apply to have the feature enabled by visiting Ustream.tv/facebooklive/apply. The free version of this player is ad supported but you can obtain the “white label” version for a mere $15,0000.
Perhaps the biggest winner in this venture is Ustream. While it is safe to say
(more…)
Written on 24th June 2009
21 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Facebook today announces the relaunch of its Publisher tool; the photo, video and status updating field available to you above your news stream and profile pages.
Up until now, you have only been able to share content amongst your Facebook friends. Today, that changes with the release of an option called “who do you want to tell?”.
The option makes it possible to share your posts with everyone – not just your friends – but even more interesting however is that (more…)
Written on 24th June 2009
13 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
I have a belief, a belief that very few “average Joe’s” on Twitter, people who work 9-5, aren’t part of any customer service team, aren’t entrepreneurs, aren’t marketers or freelancers, aren’t part of a new startup – they simply work because they may or may not enjoy what they do, but do it to feed the family or maintain their lifestyle.
I’ve also witnessed first hand Twitter devotees gradually devoting more time to Facebook, its fan pages and its Twitter-like tools – occasionally embarassed by the fact that they’re going to use what HAS become a rival service. There’s a compelling and very understandable (more…)
Written on 22nd June 2009
9 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
New Facebook discussion blog FBHive has announced their arrival to the blogosphere with a post describing a serious vulnerability within the worlds largest social network, Facebook.
The site claims to have found a hack which exposes the entire “basic information” section within anyones Facebook profile. This section includes location, gender, relationship status, relatioships, political views, religions views, birthday and hometown. Clearly enough for sly marketers and identity thieves to play with.
TechCrunch’s Robin Wauters contacted the blog to challenge them to exposing his basic profile information:
“I asked them to tell me some things about me that they could only find on my Facebook account, which is protected from public viewing and should only be accessible to my networks and friends. Almost immediately, they replied with my birth date, the name of my hometown, the name of my fiancé and my political views. That’s scary (and more proof is available if you click the link below).”
Rightfuly, the site doesn’t explain exactly where/how the leak is hacked, but does refer to a Register article that gives details of how Facebook Search can expose many of these details.
FBHive says they have contacted Facebook via a number of channels but have received no response.
Written on 18th June 2009
6 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Facebook has announced a long overdue upgrade to the inbox making it easier to find, read and control your messages.
The new inbox supposedly provides greater control and organisation capabilities and more opportunities to select exactly what messages you do and don’t want to receive. Email like filters have also been integrated in an effort to filter rubbish from credible messages, and you can also report spam too.
Keyword search has also been integrated, so finding a specific (more…)
Written on 18th June 2009
1 COMMENT
Martin Bryant, Co-founder, Social Media Café Manchester
Many of us rely on Facebook to keep in touch with friends. After all, many people still shy away from newer services like Twitter or FriendFeed. The problem is, having all that data out in the cloud is risky.
What if Facebook removed your account? What if you wanted to take the data elsewhere? Despite their recent moves to open up, Facebook still make it difficult to remove your data.
Stepping in to solve this problem is SocialSafe. This Adobe Air app from a British team has the sole purpose of backing up your Facebook photos, address book and profile information. Accessing your account via Facebook Connect, it’s fast and effective at copying all the data to your local storage.
(more…)
Written on 16th June 2009
7 COMMENTS
Martin Bryant, Co-founder, Social Media Café Manchester
Popular Twitter and Facebook app Seesmic Desktop has today been upgraded with a number of new features and a new community website has been launched.. However, support for Seesmic’s bread-and-butter product, video discussion, is still curiously missing. It’s leading us to wonder if the team at Seesmic have any future at all planned for their video platform.
New features for version 0.3 RC1 (it’s no longer tagged as a ‘Preview Release’) include the ability to crosspost to multiple Twitter accounts simultaneously, with an option to allow the app to automatically switch between accounts depending on whom you are replying to.
URL shortening service Bit.ly is now more tightly integrated with Seesmic Desktop. Support for their API means you can track the number of clickthroughs from Bit.ly URLs generated within the app. Support for services like Posterous and Twitpic can now be set on an account-by-account basis.
(more…)
Written on 16th June 2009
5 COMMENTS
Keith, Network Consultant, Social Media Fanatic
Facebook vanity URLs have been around for just over 72 hours but we are already seeing a major brand capitalize on their Facebook URL for an advertising campaign. Volkswagen (VW) has released a series of TV ads that in addition to highlighting their vehicles points viewers to facebook.com/vw. This is the very first instance that we are aware of a marketing strategy that utilizes the a brand’s Facebook page instead of the companies main website, VW.com.
(We would embed the video but Facebook doesn’t like sharing outside of their walled garden, click the screencap below to view the video within Facebook.)
The social network integration goes a step further with a “Meet the Volkswagens” Facebook app
(more…)
Written on 12th June 2009
2 COMMENTS
Martin Bryant, Co-founder, Social Media Café Manchester
Getting a Facebook Vanity URL? Here’s how to keep track of who’s using it
It’s all very well grabbing a Facebook Vanity URL when they launch in a few hours’ time, but how do you track who’s using it?
SocialToo may have the solution. The company, which already offers a range support services like auto-follow, unfollow notifications, filtering and survey creation for social networks, is reportedly to launch an analytics service for Facebook.
SocialToo already offer a redirect URL service for Facebook that allows users to give out an easy-to-remember address for their Facebook profile. With Facebook Vanity URLs, that service is suddenly not needed so SocialToo founder Jesse Stay has found a way to add value to his offering.
Quoted by The Inquisitr, he explains:
“…tonight you’ll be able to get a Facebook vanity URL and get the SEO benefits, but the URL you’ll want to hand out to all your friends will be your SocialToo vanity URL because we’ll provide statistics around those clicking on the URL, the browsers they’re using, where they’re located, and where they’re clicking from (if available).”
This is a great idea, whether you’re using Facebook for business or you’re just nosey as to who’s stalking your profile. What’s more, in the near future they’re looking to extend the service to Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook. An API will also be made available for developers to add this service into their applications.
The idea is a great ’save’ from SocialToo, who would have been sitting on a useless product from tonight. Let’s face it, an ‘official’ Facebook vanity URL is much more desirable than a third party one. With the new analytics dimension, they may just hang onto their customers and even gain a few more.
This isn’t the first time SocialToo have had to revise their offerings based on changes beyond their control, although it’s usually Twitter that is the culprit. Jesse Stay has frequestly complained about how Twitter makes changes to its service without consulting people who make a living from Twitter support services.
It’s all very well grabbing a Facebook Vanity URL when they launch in a few hours’ time, but how do you track who’s using it?
SocialToo may have the solution. The company, which already offers a range support services like auto-follow, unfollow notifications, filtering and survey creation for social networks, is reportedly to launch an analytics service for Facebook.
SocialToo currently offer a redirect URL service for Facebook that allows users to give out an easy-to-remember address for their Facebook profile. With Facebook Vanity URLs, that service is suddenly not needed so SocialToo founder Jesse Stay has found a way to add value to his offering.
(more…)
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
