I had written previously about a short trailer of the movie on the Facebook phenomenon called ‘The Social Network’. It has just voices and dialogues which gave a slightly edgy and dark motive to the film.
Apparently the movie is probably a drama with comedy and that comes across with its latest theatrical trailer released. Look up more details of the movie at their official website.
The growth of Facebook has been phenomenal right from the word Go. Even with the onset of another social phenomenon in the form of Twitter, Facebook has continued to grow exponentially in terms of the numbers of users. Putting the growth in sheer numbers, Facebook had close to 250 Mn users around this time last year and now Facebook is certain of reaching 500 Mn users sometime this week.That accounts for a 100% annual growth which is spectacular by any means. What’s more, given the volumes we are talking about, the growth of Facebook is even more applaud worthy.
Facebook is closing on the heels of reaching 500 Mn users in a few days and plans to mark the celebration with a new feature
What is The New Feature Facebook is going to launch to announce 500 Mn users?
Facebook has always been very aggressive about launching innovative applications and has always followed a good strategy to ensure that any new service gets viral. The plan this time around is similar. As Facebook gears up to announce 500 Mn users, a new feature will be rolled out for all the users. The new feature is codenamed “Facebook Stories”
Facebook Stories will allow users (all 500 million of them) to share just how Facebook has made an impact on their lives
So basically, Facebook Stories is going to allow users to share their experiences with Facebook which according to me would help strengthen Facebook’s connect with users. Moreover, Facebook will indirectly get truck loads of key insights into usage trends of customers. These usage trends could prove very helpful for Facebook in rolling out new features/applications based on user needs. Imagine even a small percentage of users sharing their Facebook stories and then others get the option of liking these stories. The viral nature of the feature could be gauged by the sheer numbers that are involved here.
We had recently reported that Facebook had recently beaten its own traffic record in US a while back. With the way things are going, I am sure Facebook is all set to break many more traffic records and the 500 Mn user would mark one of the great achievements.
Would you be interested to contribute your Facebook story once the feature is rolled out? And how much time do you think Facebook will take to reach the coveted 1 Bn user mark?
(Source: Kara Swisher)
Bharti Airtel has made accessing Facebook free for its subscribers, albeit for a two month period. The move tops almost every other option available for accessing facebook on mobile for free. If you remember, Facebook had recently launched a very basic version 0.facebook.com primarily for mobile access for free. Using o.facebook.com users can access their facebook accounts, view and update status messages without incurring any data charges. However, there was one little problem with this – o.facebook.com does not provide viewing and updating of images. So, if anyone wants to view and update images via o.facebook.com, data charges apply.
However, Airtel has gone one up and actually provided free access to m.facebook.com itself, the mobile version of Facebook. What this means is that Airtel users can get the complete experience including images at no extra cost. The service is free for 2 months and will last till August 31.
How to access m.facebook.com for free on Airtel
If you are already use mobile internet on your Airtel connection, all you need to do is log on to m.facebook.com and start accessing your facebook account without worrying about data charges.
If you are going to use mobile internet for the first time on your Airtel connection, here are the steps you need to follow,
This sure looks like a win-win move for Airtel and Facebook. Facebook has a huge user base in India and with Airtel providing free access for limited time, it can both result in increase in subscribers for Airtel and also increased adoption of its mobile internet services which will go a long way in increasing revenues for Airtel.
Do you have a Airtel connection? Give the service a try and let us know your feedback.
You might have googled for ages about how to save Facebook chat history. Facebook had been continuously concentrating on privacy rather than the fb chat which is another major point of criticism from users. One thing we’ve missed from Facebook is to keep logs of chat history. But with the advent of extensions and add-ons can now help saving your facebook chat history, both in Firefox and in Chrome.
The process is quite complicated, here’s what you have to do:
Just by seeing the steps, we can say that this is not that simple. But it fills out the hole in facebook’s chat experience? What is your opinion about the Facebook Chat History Manager?
Once again facebook.com breaks it’s own traffic record in United States for the month of June by getting more than 141 million unique visitors (via comScore) in U.S. Even in the month of May Facebook got around 130 million unique visitors which was a record in itself too.
If we see the previous year’s traffic records for facebook, the number of unique visitors nearly got doubled from 77 million (June 2009) to 141 million (June 2010).
Clearly from the traffic graph by comScore, we can see how rapidly facebook is growing as compared other social networking site myspace which has nearly a flat growth and micro-blogging site twitter. However the situation is not the same in other parts of the world except U.S. Like in India people are still using Orkut and even Twitter is getting popular by time. But still facebook is the world’s best and most popular social networking website and world’s second most visited website after Google.
There have been great rivalries in the past when it came to technology companies. Operating Systems and Personal computers both existed before Apple and Microsoft but the game was fought between the two for control of the OS market. Then we had the internet itself at stake. Yahoo and MSN slugged it out until Google the geeky search engine took its competitors to the cleaners. Facebook has did the same to My Space and other competitors in the social networking category.
Now Google and Facebook stand to challenge each other. At stake is who will get more users to stay on its website longer.
We recently covered Google Me, which is supposedly a new Social network being created by Google. Facebook on the other hand has a lot of features and one massive hit with Facebook users are its games. Mainly Farmville and Mafia Wars. These games are created by Zynga.
These have addicted millions around the globe to make Facebook a one stop place for them when they are online.
I read recently that Google has secretly invested over $ 100 million into Zyngya to collaborate for creating Google Games.
This means the game is on, first with ‘Google Me’ rumors and now with Zynga, Google is pulling out aces all over to keep Facebook worried and make sure their dominance remains.
Lately Google has really made inroads and its big future plans are really in spaces which already have leaders like Facebook in social networking and iPhone, RIM in the smart phone space. Google seems to be this hydra capable of competing across various technologies and competing well.
Is Google right to concentrate so much on social networking rather than keep working on Google search and Gmail which are its traditional spheres of dominance? Do let us know through your comments.
It looks like Facebook constantly updates the UI for its users and the latest new change has been showing profile images along with notifications. It still shows about six updates but they fill up a lot more space because of the profile pictures. This is a littler irritating for some users and they prefer older version with just a name.
This new notifications format really makes no different for me but it might be quite attractive and user friendly in some cases as people end up recognizing profile pictures much more easily than names written down. This could be Facebook’s way of encouraging more interaction which obviously leads to the increasing relevance of information on Facebook.
Do you like profile pictures popping up with notifications? Do let us know through your comments.
Before I became a blogger I had a pretty big network of friends on Facebook unlike Twitter to which I started to really pay attention only after I turned to blogging. Most bloggers look at social network through the prism of their blogs. The questioned asked is “What is in there for my Blog?”
The answer is not very definitive and not at all very productive in the short term. Facebook presence is a bit like your blog. You have to work at it consistently and over time.
Here are 5 tips that I feel as a blogger are useful when it comes to using Facebook.
I was previously not a fan of having two separate accounts with Facebook. I thought people interested in knowing me as a blogger should know the real me. But the problem starts with privacy. You are not just responsible for your privacy but also your friend’s privacy. I dont really want my blogger friends randomly add my school friends on Facebook. This is where you need to draw a line. I have created a profile only dedicated to adding blog related contacts. Usually I don’t mix my contacts at all.
People who add a blogger on Facebook are not necessarily bloggers themselves. Sometimes they are just regular readers. They want to get to know the person behind the name and the best way to start of here would be to work on your profile information. Usually always update details like City/town name, Country, Education. Another way to make yourself seem human is to make sure you have added some favorite movies, books and sports.
Be casual when it comes to updating your wall status or leaving comments on other contact’s updates. Being casual is good but never forget to be polite. If your Facebook profile is blog related then make sure the language you use on your blog is the same on Facebook.
I tend to take Facebook profiles with thousands of friends not very seriously. Let’s say someone has a 2000 friends and I have to add this person. Chances are this person will not be able to give my profile any attention. You seriously cannot interact individually with 2000 friends. Make a fan page if you need to share things with thousands of people. I know adding friends is easier than getting people to become fans but then this is Facebook and not Twitter.
Be careful with the ‘Like button’ and be selective. Do not press the ‘Like button’ automatically. Make sure there is a reson behind you putting a ‘Like’ to someones status, shared link or photo. Usually follow up ‘Like’ with a comment. Also in case you are reading a link, check out the link actually and then come back and click the “Like” button.
These are really points which I follow on my Facebook profile. I do not use it as an extension of my blog but more like a way to get to know other bloggers and interact with them.
If you feel you have more points to add to things you expect bloggers to do with their Facebook persona do let me know through your comments.
Today I noticed quite interesting feature of Facebook. Facebook got Hovercard. Earlier Facebook announced that it is going to add Hovercard feature and finally it’s live.
When we hover mouse to our friend’s name, Interesting pages or applications, a small popup will appear which will show that how many of our friends like that page or how many mutual friends we have. Apart from Mutual friends, the feature also gives you number of Facebook users who “ Like” the Facebook application or page.
It is a great feature, you can even hover a mouse to an event and check out how many users are going to attend that event. You might also find new friends with same interest by checking out the hovercards on pages that interest you. As, the hovercard feature also lets you know about the number of Facebook user who “Like” the page, you will easily know the popularity of any application or page before liking it.
Twitter and Friendfeed already have this feature and now Facebook have also launched. Facebook might have copied the idea but I guess it’s worth copying.
What you think about new hovercard feature of Facebook?
Finally a dramatic movie is out based on the rise of Mark Zuckerberg the creator of Facebook. The movie is titled ‘The Social Network’ and has the potential to become as iconic as the geek favorite ‘Pirates of Silicon Valley’
The Social Network was adapted from a book called ‘The Accidental Billionaires’ by Ben Mezrich.
This movie is has been widely anticipated as a funny movie but the trailer seems to be quite intense. Have a look at its official trailer below. This is probably a step which will further immortalize Mark Zuckerberg. Point to be noted is none of Facebook and its staff were involved with the making of the move. 😉
Do you think you will like to watch a movie on Facebook and its origins? Do let me know through your comments.
