Microsoft announced the release of a new version of Facebook for Windows Phone. The new version, 2.3, is now available from Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace. You can also update the app through the Marketplace on your phone.
The update includes improved design and support for several new Facebook features. There’s Pages view, the ability to access Groups, and see the Likes on any posts or photos, as well as the ability to apply filter to your News Feed. All your requests, messages, and notifications sits at the top of the main interface.
A refined toolbar at the bottom provides quick access to Check in, Add (post, or add/take a new photo.)
“Test out your groups. Visit your pages. Look at who like your posts. Change the banner image. Check out the improved news feed performance. Use the new filters. Explore the improved navigation,” Microsoft said on said..
There is no full Timeline support though. Hopefully, we will see a full integration of the feature in the next update.
There are about 1.4 million active users of the Facebook app for Windows Phone, according to the Next Web.
If you use Facebook app for Windows Phone, do share your thoughts on this updated version.
The largest social networking site is undoubtly Facebook, but Google is still the web brand to beat.
According to a Nielsen report released Wednesday, Google was the most-visited U.S. web brand in 2011.
Nielsen reviewed the top online destinations, social media sites, video destination, and smartphone devices. Without surprise, Facebook and Youtube tops the list of social media sites and online video destination respectively, without much competition. Apple was the top smartphone manufacturer claiming about one-third of the market share.
Nielsen compiled the data based on web traffic from home and work computers from January through October 2011. The data does not include mobile visits, a growing consumer browsing category today.
Experian Hitwise also released their list last week where Facebook topped the list of most-visited sites and most-searched terms in 2011. It is worth mentioning that Nielsen focused on individual visitors per month while Experian Hitwise looked at total visits for the year. Moreover, Facebook had more U.S. visits than Google.com, but Google has the edge when the visits to all Google properties are combined.
Enough said, let’s look at the Nielsen’s list of toppers for 2011.
Top 10 U.S. Web Brands in 2011
Top 10 U.S. Social Networks & Blogs
Top 10 U.S. Online Destinations for Video
Top 5 Smartphone Device Manufactures.
Facebook has launched its Facebook for Every Phone app, to reach the mass beyond chic smartphones.
According to Facebook, the new Facebook for Every Phone app will allow users to access some of the most popular features of Facebook including News Feed, inbox, and Photos, as well as find friends from their phone’s contacts and upload photos.
The app supports more than 2,500 Java-enabled mobile phones. Facebook said it is “working on making the app compatible with even more handsets in the future.”
In order to bring the new app to users of emerging markets, Facebook has collaborated with several carriers worldwide to offer users free data access to the app for 90 days.
Check the list below to see if your mobile provider is offering free data access for the limited time:
• Aircel (India)
• Airtel (India)
• Banglalink (Bangladesh)
• Beeline (Russia)
• Celcom (Malaysia)
• Etisalat (Egypt, Nigeria)
• Globe (Philippines)
• Idea (India)
• Indosat (Indonesia)
• O2 Telefonica (Germany)
• Reliance (India)
• Smart (Philippines)
• Smartfren (Indonesia)
• Telkomsel (Indonesia)
• Three (Indonesia, United Kingdom)
• TIM (Brazil)
• TMN (Portugal)
• Ufone (Pakistan)
• Vodafone (Turkey)
The app is optimized to use less data than other Java apps or mobile site to ensure that it is easily available and more affordable to the mass.
You can download the app by visiting m.facebook.com; scroll down and click the download link or by entering d.facebook.com/install directly into your mobile browser. You can also find the app in leading app stores like GetJar, Appia, and Mobile Weaver.
