Do you know you can change the color of your Facebook from its traditional blue to pink?
Well, this is what you might have or will come across on your feeds/network on Facebook. But, you can’t, so don’t fall for it.
Unfortunately, it looks like a lot of users are falling for it, and the scam is spreading fast on Facebook with post such as:
AWESOME!!!
HELLO PINK FACEBOOK!!! and Goodbye BLUE FACEBook!
Switch Your Facebook to 5 Different colors and themes here:
[LINK]
This is just another clever gimmick from scammers to coerce users into installing the app. Once installed, the app will be able to access the user’s account and spread the scam further by posting messages to lure you friends on your network.
As with most scam apps, users are taken through a series of steps and ultimately land them at an online survey page through which the scammers earn commission.
If you have already installed or given permission to the app, take some time to revoke the permission given to the app and remove any reference the app from your Timeline.
Facebook, this morning, rolled out timeline-style pages for brands and business. Companies with a Facebook profile can now turn on the preview of the new design, or wait until all Pages are converted to the new interface at the end of March.
With the Timeline update for Pages, brands and businesses can interact with fans in a whole new way, and make the experience more dynamic and relevant for fans.
The new design comes with the following features:
Cover Photo: Yes, Pages also gets the widescreen “cover photos”.- Friend Activity: When someone first visits a Page, they may see friends’ recent posts highlighted as friend activity, as well as those friends who are connected to the Page.
- Milestones and Page Timeline: Page owners can now add their brand/business timeline and milestones, and interacted with users in a whole new way with Facebook’s open graph ‘actions’.
- Posts (Sticky): Page owners can pin a post like a sticky, at the top of a Page (for up to seven days only).
- Admin Panel: This panel is a new way for Page administrators to track their page’s performances, get notifications about fans’ interaction with the pages, and to respond to private messages from users.
- Activity Log: Page administrators can access to a log of their Page activity, including tools to easily manage contents like highlighting posts, hide/delete them.
In the old business Pages, administrators can specify a particular view or landing tab for users clicking through to their site. But, with the update, Timeline view is always the default view for users following links to a brand page. So, for brands too, not everyone is happy with the changes.
The update will be mandatory, and Page owners will have till March 30 before the new design kicks in for everyone.
For more information, check out facebook.com/about/pages and the new Facebook Pages guide.
Do you have a Facebook Page? What do you think about the timeline-style design?
The Australian Defence Force is investigating into a Facebook group whose contents provides a disturbing insight into the soldier’s world.
ACB1′s 7.30 was given access to the site by a concerned member.
ABC TV reveals that the closed Facebook group has more than 1,000 former and serving members of the Royal Australian Regiment, and is extremely busy and acts as an online meeting place where racist, sexiest and abusive views are share.
The group contains images such as “This is a rag head free zone” and “All women are filthy lying whores.”
One comment below a picture of a drunken women says, “She looks a little ‘used’ to me.” Another member then replies, “Which woman isn’t.”
A former Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) cadet Naomi Brookes says the site’s content does not come as a surprise, because such views are commonplace within Defence.
Ms Brookes decided it was not the place for her after one year because she was disgusted with the way a friend who had been raped was treated by her peers.
One post posted after Defence Minister Stephen Smith announced that more women would go into combat read, “Let’s face it, the RAAF get the best-looking one, the Navy get second dibs, and the Army as usual get what’s left. Vote 1! Ugly chicks in every digger gunpit!!”
Army chief Lieutenant General David Morrison told ABC TV in a statement that the issues raised were “serious” and will be dealt with.
He said army headquarters was working to determine if any serving members were linked to the offensive comments posted on the Facebook page.
It appears that the grasses are no longer green at the Facebook gaming market.
According to IHS Screen Digest Media Research Insight report from information and analysis provider IHS, Facebook gaming boom is over.
Even though Facebook has continued to grow, the number of monthly active gamers on the social network has not changed appreciably over the past year.
In 2010, almost half of all Facebookers were active gamers, but the figure dropped to 25 percent by the end of 2011.
Facebook’s leading game developer Zynga, for example, lost an average of almost 5.5 million MAUs a month over the past year, particularly between the third and fourth quarters.
The report illustrates some major challenges gaming companies faces:
- With stagnant user base, acquiring new player or even retaining older ones has become more difficult and expensive.
- Facebook gaming scene has also seen a shift away from casual gaming, with gamers seeking deeper, more challenging games, giving raise to increasing number of strategy titles on Facebook.
- Introduction of Facebook Credits as the compulsory payment platform has placed further pressure on revenues.
- Facebook is also becoming a major player of the emerging multichannel, cross-platform approach to connected gaming, with the rise in smartphone users. IHS believes that, though Facebook is addressing many of these problems and will continue to do so, it is not likely they will be fully dispelled by the end of 2012.
The report concludes that despite these challenges, small independent game teams with a compelling offering can still find traction, if they can publishing partners to help overcome the hurdles.
With social networking a part of almost every Internet users, an infographic from Social Jumpstart shows some mind boggling numbers.
Can you believe that two million videos are viewed on YouTube, 700,000 messages are delivered through Facebook, and 175,000 tweets are made in just 60 seconds.
This is what social media scene looks like in 60 seconds.
An investigation revealed that social networking giant Facebook, and other well-known internet firms are accessing smartphone users’ personal data such as text messages.
The sad thing is many phone users do not know that when they agree to the terms and conditions, they are actually giving developers the right to inspect their personal information, the Daily Mail reported.
Developers are given the right to access various personal data starting from contact books to location data to text messages and even collecting whatever images the phone camera happens to be seeing.
The Sunday Times reported that some apps such as YouTube, are capable of remotely accessing and operating users’ smartphone cameras to take photographs or videos at any time.
Top internet firms like social networking site Facebook, Yahoo Messenger, photo-sharing site Flickr, and dating site Badoo have all admitted to reading user’s text messages through their Android smartphone apps.
A YouGov poll for the Sunday times revealed that 70 percent of smartphone users rarely or never read the terms and conditions policy when they download an app.
How often do you read the terms and conditions while downloading and app on your smartphone?
“Facebook users’ story” is a post where we bring some of the most popular stories or ones we think you will enjoy, about Facebook users that made news over the past week.
- Getting a jail sentence for posting something on Facebook wall is not uncommon now a days, but getting the option to either apologize on Facebook or go to jail is. A Cincinnati man was threatened with jail time for posting comments about his estranged wife on his Facebook page unless he posted daily apologies for a month. [More]
- Internet users successfully campaigned for Robert Mills against Red Lobster Restaurant to provide the former a free meal. The campaign started after a sentimental post by Mills about how he being poor cannot afford $100 to eat at the restaurant on his birthday. But, will the people be able to help him get his next wish? [More]
- Wichita police credit Facebook posts for major breaks in two cases after images of people connected to each case were posted to the department’s Facebook page. [More]
- A jilted lover was arrested for creating a fake Facebook profile of a woman, and posting defaming and obscene content, after he his proposal was rejected. [More]
- “Facebook’s Top Cop: Joe Sullivan”, is an article about Facebook Chief of Security Joe Sullivan – a look into his work life and work. The story also appears in the March 12, 2012 issue of Forbes magazine. [More]
Are American Facebook users becoming decidedly unfriendly or are they becoming more privacy aware?
I believe it’s the latter. According to a report released Friday by Pew Internet & American Life Project, an increasing number of American social network users are managing their privacy settings and their online reputations by pruning their profiles.
The study found that:
- 37% untagged photos, up from 30% in 2009
- 44% deleted comments, up from 36^ in 2009
- 63% unfriended someone, up from 56% in 2009
Other interesting findings of the study include:
- Women are much more likely than men to restrict their profiles; 67% of women set their profiles to “friends only” while 48% of men did the same.
- Regardless of gender, 58% of social network users say their profile is set to “friends only”, 19% to “friends of friends”, and 20% to “public”.
- When it comes to managing privacy controls, half of the social networkers found it easy, 48% found it a bit difficult to manage. Only 2% of social media users describe privacy controls as “very difficult to manage”.
- Young adults were more likely to delete unwanted comments than older people; 52% of users aged 18-29, 40% of those aged 30-40, and 34% of people aged 50-64 said they have deleted comments made on their profile by others.
- Men are more likely to post something they later regret; 15 percent of male respondents said they posted something regrettable, compared to 8 percent of female respondents.
- Agewise, it was the younger lot who were more likely to post something regrettable; 15 percent of the respondent aged 18-29 and 5 percent of people over 50 falls under the category.
- The report found no significant differences in people’s basic privacy controls by age. The younger lots as well as their older counterparts were just as likely to use privacy controls, with figures standing at 62% and 58% respectively.
The study was based on Pew’s phone survey of 2,277 adults conducted in April and May 2011, and data from separate phone survey Pew conducted with teenagers and their parents.
Facebook announced the details of its Mobile Hack events in Asia.
The social networking giant has successfully held Mobile Hack events in the U.S. in the past. Few days ago, it announced that it will bring the events to Europe, then to Asia next month.
Facebook has already announced the locations where the events will be held in Europe and the Middle East. The four Asian events announced today are:
Singapore – March 19, 2012 (10:00 AM to 11:00 PM GMT+0800). US$ 25 fee.
Hong Kong – March 22, 2012 (10:00 AM to 11:00 PM GMT+0800). US$ 25 fee;
Seoul – March 27 ,2012 (10:00 AM to 11:00 PM GMT+0900). US$25 fee;
Tokyo – March 29, 2012 (11:00 AM to 10:30 PM GMT+0900). JPY 5,000 fee.
The events will kick off with introduction to Facebook mobile platform and developers benefits, followed by deep-dive into learning about building social mobile apps (with Facebook new Open Graph platforms), using native platforms, HTML 5, and the company’s SDKs for each. Facebook will also highlight success stories from great existing apps as well as introduce important partners.
This will be followed by the Hack event, where contestants will have the chance to build their own mobile social application (or improve an existing one) with assistance from Facebook engineers. Best apps in various categories will then be awarded.
Facebook Hack events are a “unique opportunity to learn more about mobile and social apps from Facebook engineers – as well as to show off your own hack skills”.
Facebook is creating a dedicated gaming division in Europe to manage its relationships with overseas developers.
The social networking giant has similar gaming division in the US. “In the US, we have a team of engineers, product managers and partnerships folks who only do gaming, from Zynga down to two-person shops,” Christian Hernandez told the Guardian UK. “Now we’re creating that same unit in Europe too.”
The decision is a result of the recent success of social companies like Wooga, King.com, Surpercell and Nordeus, who have all managed to grab the attention of audiences on the social network, and built huge fan based through referrals.
The new division will be primarily focussing on mobile gaming, establishing a consistent presence on user’s smartphones.
As part of investment, Facebook will be bringing its engineers to Stockholm, London, and Tel Aviv to host educational events that will be focussed on teaching local developers about building successful apps for Facebook’s mobile platform.
Users can now discover games through Facebook’s mobile apps and websites, while developers can make money from in-game transactions using a combination of Facebook Credits and native in-app purchases.
