From the monthly archives:

July 2010

Disney Buys Playdom: Social Network In Disneyland

July 28, 2010

Walt Disney Company have reportedly bought Playdom for a deal worth as much as $763.2 million.

Sweet Jesus, that’s a lot of money for a start-up!!! icon smile Disney Buys Playdom: Social Network In Disneyland

Playdom, a tech start-up company operating for around two-and-half years, is the No. 3 game developer on Facebook with about 42 million monthly users. Sorority Life, Social City (oh i loved this game! for its exceptionally good graphics compared with other city-building game on Facebook), Tiki Resort, Tiki Farm, and Mobsters 2: Vendatta are some of the popular Facebook games created by Playdom.

The deal involves an initial payment of $563.2 million and an additional $200 million performance-based payment.

This will certainly bring a whole new level of entertainment to many Disney fans around the world. Can we expect a live streaming of Disney cartoons or re-runs of classic fairy tales on Facebook, or yet another chance to play Mickey or Donald on Facebook?

Wait and watch… you might even get a hit with ‘Sleeping Beauty Pillow’ from me very soon.. really!! Anything can happen when you are social networking in the magical kingdom of Disneyland icon smile Disney Buys Playdom: Social Network In Disneyland .

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Amazon And Facebook Connects To Give Shopping Advices

July 28, 2010

While Search engine giant Google Inc is reportedly in talks of developing new Social Service to rival Facebook, two other giants – E-commerce giant, Amazon, and social networking giant, Facebook, have joined hands and launched a new feature that enables users to connect their Amazon and Facebook accounts.

amazon facebook connect Amazon And Facebook Connects To Give Shopping Advices

On opting for this new feature, a user will get product recommendations for themselves and their Facebook friends. The feature will also list upcoming birthdays of a user’s Facebook friends and provide gift recommendations and also display movies, songs, and other products that are popular among their friends.

This new integration, that will open doors to a user’s personal likes and dislikes, will prove as a powerful marketing tool for Amazon, even if they manage to tap into a small percentage of the 500 million strong user-base of Facebook.

As usual, many people will be little edgy with privacy concerns, but its is reported that Amazon has emphasized on several privacy protections – saying it will not share people’s Amazon account information and purchase history with Facebook and will not attempt to contact people’s Facebook friends – to counter security concerns.

Now, only time will tell how far will this new integration improve online shopping experience or impact the future of online shopping.

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Google In Talks For Developing A Facebook-Killer Service

July 28, 2010

google logo 5 2 300x200 Google In Talks For Developing A Facebook Killer Service
According to a Wall Street Journal report, search-engine gaint Google Inc is in talks with gaming companies.

The reason – Google Inc is preparing to launch a gaming social network to rival Facebook.

The Journal reports that the search engine giant have already talked to various popular developers of online games for the service such as Zynga Game Network Inc, Electronic Arts Inc’s Playfish, and Playdom Inc.

A smarter move by Google, i would say, as social games and application have been one of the major driving factor for the success of Facebook.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt decline to confirm the development by saying “the world doesn’t need a copy of the same thing,” when asked whether the company plans to launch such service.

While it is not clear when common people like us around the world will get a feel of this offering in the news.

Facebook, the undisputed leader of online social network, has so far enjoyed continued success and have overcome different services rolled out to rival it, and will not sit quite on its achievements anytime soon, especially with competitors such as Google breathing fire down its neck.

It is also worth mentioning that Google’s recent service, Google Buzz failed to make as much buzz as it did before it was launched.

But, before i sign off, i would like to add something more – Eric’s answer really makes me eager to know more about the project, as to how different will this new service be. A service to rival Facebook at this moment? All i can think of is the massive amount of punch – excitement, addiction, and importance – this new service will need to have on the users and i can’t wait to feel it icon wink Google In Talks For Developing A Facebook Killer Service

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Facebook Safety Page Launched To Help Users Stay Safe

July 27, 2010

FB safety page Facebook Safety Page Launched To Help Users Stay SafeFacebook had always faced criticism in view of privacy issues and safety on Facebook.

Facebook on Monday launched a Web page called Facebook Safety Page, devoted to help users stay safe on the internet.

“The Safety Page will highlight new initiatives to keep people on Facebook safe,” wrote Joe Sullivan on Facebook blog.

The page will also contain valuable educational materials from Internet safety experts and relevant news coverage.

This new page is intended to supplement the virtual Safety Center that Facebook introduced last April – Security Page that now boasts of more than 2.2 million fans.

“Online safety is a shared responsibility. We’ll continue to think of innovative ways to promote safety on our service and elsewhere on the Web. By liking the Safety Page, you also can make safety a regular part of your Facebook experience,” adds Sullivan.

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Cha.fm Released Friends Statistics Facebook App

July 26, 2010

cha.fm friend statistics 300x283 Cha.fm Released Friends Statistics Facebook App

Cha.fm has announced the official release of their Facebook application, Cha.fm Friends Statistics.

The application provides users an easy-to-use platform to analyze their Facebook friends’ data.

With this application, users can get a variety of up-to-date information about their Facebook friends such as:

  • A graphical overview that provides gender, horoscope, relationship status, age, location, school, workplace and more.
  • The data are shown with the help of bar and pie charts.
  • Number of connected friends.
  • Whose birthday falls in the current month.
  • It also features a small window called “Most popular pages liked by friends!” from where users can get a statistical overview of the most popular application, music, travel, etc among their connected friend, which is a great way to find common interest of connected friends.
  • The application also displays the percentage value of friends who are single, married, or in a relationship.
  • The application analyzes the user’s Facebook friend list and displays a variety of information in percentage.

Like any other Facebook application, Cha.fm’s Friends Statistics also provides options to publish one’s findings. User can keep the information to themself or share it among their friends. In the ‘settings’ option, users can choose whether to ‘auto Publish news feed to your wall’, ‘allow your friends to view your charts’ and ‘allow you friends to view detail information of your charts’. By default all the options will be selected.

Users can also view their friends charts if they have allowed in their privacy settings.

Users can also invite their Facebook friends to try out the application.

Bottom line : The application is worth trying out. It is handy, informative and fun to use. Users can find a lot of information about their Facebook friends, which they usually don’t check out.

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Facebook Says Contract Most Likely Forged

July 26, 2010

Facebook on Friday backs Mark Zuckerberg with an official statement stating that the lawsuit filed by Ceglia claming 84% of the company is based on a contract that was likely “forged.”

“Mark has made it clear that Ceglia’s claims are absurd and we strongly suspect the contract is forged.”

This latest lawsuit against Facebook by Paul Ceglia is not the first for both – Facebook and Ceglia.

Back in 2007, a lawsuit was filed against Facebook by co-founders of the Site ConnectU, alleging that Zuckerberg took Facebook’s software code and business plan from them. The parties eventually reached an agreement that granted ConnectU $65 million in Facebook stock and cash.

Ceglia, on the other hand, has an ongoing case against him. He along with his wife Lasia, has been accused of defrauding customers of their wood-pellet fuel company, Allegany Pellets. The company allegedly took $200,000-worth of pre-orders fro wood pellets and then failed to deliver them.

With Facebook crying foul over the originality of the contract, which is so far produced in electronic format only and the current lawsuit against Ceglia, what most people think might turn out true – forgery.

But then again, Mark Zuckerberg seems unsure of the contract and it’s details – I think we were quite sure that we did not sign a contract that says that they have any right to ownership over Facebook.

We don’t see Ceglia wining this, unless the genuinity of the document is confirmed. Meanwhile, the current lawsuit has already caused some problems for Facebook with a temporary restraining order issued by the court.

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