Facebook revealed that its previous estimate of 845 million users may have been skewed by the presence of millions of ‘fake’ who accounts.

Facebook acknowledged this week in its filing that somewhere between five to  six percent of accounts are either for false personalities or duplicates of other accounts. That’s between 42 million to 51 million fake accounts.

Facebook also stated in its filing that it has over 432 million monthly active mobile users as of December 2011. Here too, the social networking giant also admitted that their data are skewed by mobile apps that regularly “check in” – whether or not the user has actually engaged with Facebook. Facebook says less than 5% of their estimated worldwide DAUs resulted from this type of automatic mobile activity.

Facebook didn’t provide how they came up with the percentage of ‘fake’ users, hopefully, we will hear more regarding that in the future.

Still, one cannot deny the fact that Facebook is still the largest and is growing pretty fast. At the end of 2010, the numbers stood at 608 million overall active users with 374 million active mobile users.

Do you know that, for most part, all it takes for others to judge you on Facebook is your profile photo?

A new study reveals so, and only when your profile picture reveals something different than their image of you, people will take the extra step to look at what you are writing.

The findings come from two studies conducted at Ohio State University. Brandon Van Der Heide, lead author of both, conducted the study with Jonathan D’Angelo and Erin Schumaker, graduate students in communication at the university.

“If your profile photo fits what they expect, observers may be unlikely to look very closely at the rest of your profile – they have already decided how they feel about you,” said Brandon Van Der Heide. “But if your photo is not quite normal – either positively or negatively – people are going to pay a lot more attention to what you wrote.“

In the study, college students viewed a mock Facebook profile of a person who was supposedly a fellow student. The profile included a photo and a written “about me” statement.

In the first study, participants viewed one of four profiles:

• A photo of a person shown socializing with friends and a text that read, “I’m happiest hanging out with a big group of friends“, both suggesting an extrovert.
• A photo of a person alone on a park bench and a text that read, “I’m happiest curled up in my room with a good book“, both suggesting an introvert.
• Photo suggesting an extrovert and the text an introvert.
• Photo suggesting an introvert and the text an extrovert.

Participants were then asked to rate how extraverted they thought the student in the profile was, on a scale of 1 (least extraverted) to 7 (most extraverted) based on the photo and text.

The researchers found that photo mattered more than the text in deciding whether the person was an extraverted or an introvert.

In the second study, 84 college students viewed one of the photos or read one of the text used in the first study, and then rated the person’s extraversion or introversion. The results show that participants who read the introverted text rated the person as significantly more introverted than those who saw the introverted photos, while there was no significant difference in the rating between photo and text for extraversion.

While the study was based on Facebook, the researcher suggests that the results can be applied to all other social networking websites.

The results of their study appear in a recent issue of the Journal of Communication.

Do you also judge others based on their profile picture or photos? How do you usually judge other on Facebook?

Two third of web users in the UK regularly uses Facebook, but a new study shows that Britons ‘getting bored’ of the networking site.

Survey firm YouGov surveyed 1,275 UK citizens on their social media habits, and found that two in five (41%) of the UK online population are getting bored of social media, especially Facebook.

The survey found that 23% of Facebook users claim they use the platform ‘less often” than they did a year ago, with 19% predicting this to also be the case in another 12 months’ time. LinkedIn on the other hand, saw that 53% of its audience had increased their activity over the last 12 months, and 30% expecting to use it more in one year’s time.

But, Facebook still remains the dominant player when it comes to social media.

Within the last month before the survey –

• Almost two thirds (65%) of the UK online population have used Facebook.
• Facebook usage was staggering amongst the younger generation with 95% of 16-20 years olds and 74% of 21-24 years old accessing Facebook.
• YouTube was the next most popular social media site with 50% of the respondents claiming to have accessed the site.
• The numbers for other popular social media sites are Twitter (23%), Windows Live (14%), LinkedIn (13%), Google+ (12%) and Spotify (10%).

YouGov suggest that it is possible that a new phase may be developing, with users favoring social media with “more purpose than just connecting to people for the sake of it.”

Australians are apparently tired of Facebook, even though Facebook still remains their favorite online destination.

According to Experian Hitwise Australia, Facebook accounted for more than 50 percent of all social-networking traffic, the time users spent at the networking site has significantly decreased over the past one year.

Experian Hitwise tracked the Internet habits of 3 million Australians from January 2011 to January 2012, and found that the average time spent on Facebook was 26 minutes 27 seconds, down by about 21 percent in the last year.

Tumblr which is placed fourth in the social media popularity list and accounting for only 1.65% of the social-networking traffic, turned out to be the top attention-grabber, engaging the Australians for 30 minutes on average.

Google though far behind, maintained a fairly steady audience, with visit times increased by about 2 percent in the past year.

The five most popular social-networking were:

1. Facebook – 50%
2. YouTube (desktop site) – 23%
3. YouTube (mobile site) – 2%
4. Tumblr – 1.65%
5. Yahoo Answers – 1.28%

As the news of Whitney Houston’s sudden demise spread like wildfire, and becomes a trending topic on social networking sites, cyber crooks are wasting no time to capitalize on her tragic death.

The security firm TrendMicro found two scams – a clickjacking attack on Facebook and another link circulating on Twitter.

The scam on Facebook was spreading with through wall posts the read, “I Cried watching this video. RIP Whitney Houston”, and a link to the supposed video. As usual, clicking on the link takes the users through several redirections until they are landed on a survey scam site.

The security firm, upon further investigation on the domains involved in the redirections, found 101 more survey scams registered on the same IP where the domains are hosted.

The firm also found tweets with malicious links taking advantage of the singer’s death, which is trending worldwide on Twitter. Clicking on the link takes people to a blog dedicated to Houston’s career, but redirects them to a Web page offering several Whitney Houston wallpapers.

Downloading wallpaper triggers another offer to download Whitney Houston ringtones, and the user is eventually taken to a survey site that asks for mobile number.

Always be cautious when clicking news items on Facebook or Twitter feeds, especially with trending topics.

Facebook, the world’s most popular and largest social networking site, turned eight on February 4, 2012. Facebook has an estimated 845 million active users, and the social networking giant continues to grow, since its launch on February 4, 2004 and is most likely to cross the 1 billion users mark by August this year.

Facebook, initially built the service exclusively for Harvard students, has become a household name all over the world. Here is a quick peek at Facebook’s own Timeline – the journey from a dorm room to Nasdaq.

2004

• February 2004: Founded under the name thefacebook.com at Harvard University
• September 2004: Introduced the Facebook Wall, a forum for users to post quick witty messages to their friends. Lawsuit filed against Facebook claiming that Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from a company co-founded by twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and a third person at Harvard.
• 2004: Began to expand to colleges and university around the country, and recorded $382,000 in revenue.

2005

• May 2005: Grew to support more than 800 college networks.
• August 2005: “Thefacebook.com” officially becomes “Facebook.com,” after the Facebook domain is purchased for a whopping $200,000.
• September 2005: High school students are given the ability to join Facebook. Added international school networks and introduced Photos.
• December 2005: Facebook cross the one million users mark.
• 2005: Recorded $9 million in revenue.

2006

• April 2006: Launched Facebook Mobile.
• May 2006: Expanded Facebook’s availability to workplace networks, allowing people with corporate email address to join.
• July 2006: Mark Zuckerberg turns down an $800 million offer from Yahoo to acquire Facebook.
• September 2006: Facebook begins to let anyone over 13 years of age to join. Introduce News Feeds.
• November 2006: Launched Share feature on over 20 partner sites.
• 2006: Recorded $48 million in revenue.

2007

• February 2007: Facebook launches Facebook gifts, a virtual memento for a low cost of $1.
• May 2007: Facebook officially launches Facebook Platform, setting a stage for third-party developers to come in and build apps and games within Facebook’s network, and Facebook Pages.
• October 2007: Facebook agrees to sell a 1.6 percent stake to Microsoft for $240 million.
• November 2007: Launches ad platform “Beacon”, which post updates on users profile when users interact with partner sites. Users responded with a class-action lawsuit, prompting Facebook to shut the feature down in late 2009.
• 2007: Recorded $153 million in revenue

2008

• April 2008: Introduced Facebook Chat.
• July 2008: Facebook launches it first official mobile app, “Facebook for iPhone.”
• September 2008: Facebook officially switches all users over to the then “new profile,” or Facebook 3.0 – A Facebook profile like the one we had before Timeline, but with tabs for our wall, info, photos, and other apps….ah..you remember now… There were many users back then too, who were unhappy with the switch.
• December 2008: Launched Facebook Connect, the next iteration of the Facebook platform.
• 2008: Expanded to 23 languages offered including French, German, and Spanish.
• 2008: Recorded $272 million in revenue.

2009

• February 2009: Introduced the Like button, a lazy way for users to show their appreciation for things they care about both on and off Facebook.
• May 2009: Launched Facebook Payments.
• June 2009: Surpassed MySpace as the leading social network in the US.
• July 2009: Facebook crosses the 250 million active users mark.
• 2009: Recorded $777 million in revenue.

2010

• April 2010: Introduced Open Graph API and social plugins – a set of easy-to-use modules allowing anyone to integrate with the Facebook Platform.
• July 2010: Facebook’s active user base crosses the 500 million mark.
• August 2010: Facebook launches “Places,” a location-based service, allowing users to share where they are with their friends…..and strangers.
• October 2010: Launched Groups, a shared space for users to discuss common interests. “The Social Network,” a movie about Facebook, hit the theaters and went on to win 3 Academy awards.
• November 2010: Launches the new message system, where all of a user’s conversation history of messages, SMS, IM with a individual are combined into one communication string. Facebook users gets an @facebook.com email address.
• 2010: Recorded $1,974 million in revenue.

2011

• June 2011: The Winklevoss twins end their legal battle over the idea behind Facebook.
• July 2011: Facebook teams up with Skype and adds video chatting.
• September 2011: Introduced Timeline, an enhanced and updated version of the Facebook Profile. Launched the next iteration of Open Graph.
• 2011: Recorded $3,711 million in revenue.

2012

• January 2012: Facebook begins making Timeline mandatory.
• February 2012: Facebook files for its much-anticipated IPO, giving the company a valuation of nearly $100 billion.

As the year 2010 finally crawls to an end, you will literally find yourself wading in heaps of materials ranging from chronological events of the year to top list of various things.

Coming to social networking sites, we are not going to talk about the obvious “who’s the top social networking site?” but have a look at an interesting comparison between the two most popular social networking site – Facebook vs. Twitter.

The nice infographics below that compares Facebook users to Twitter users was put together by Digital Surgeons.

As you can see, between Facebook and Twitter:

• There are some interesting similarities like:
• Majority users of both the sites are outside the United States
• About one third of users login using mobile devices.
• Gender breakdown is about the same with the fairer sex accounting for bigger portion of the pie.

And some key differences:

• While more Facebook users check their account regularly, it’s the Twitter users who are more religiously updating their status.
• Twitter users are more matured and educated than Facebook users.
• An important fact for businesses out there, even if Twitter users are less interested in following brands, they are more likely to purchase that specific brand.

Keeping those interesting facts aside, both the site have enjoyed tremendous popularity and growth and will most probably enjoy similar growth in the coming year.

But the bottom line is – One year from now, where do you see these two sites standing?

Mrs. Lilian Lowe (Source: Welshonline)

Lilian Lowe, 103-year-old great grandmother from Wales is the world’s oldest Facebooker.

She uses Facebook to keep in touch with her 7 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, and she updates her status using her grandson’s iPad.

“I love it – it is very exciting. It’s a wonderful way of finding out about things,” Walesonline quotes Lowe.

“But I must say it’s a dreadful waste of time. I’m sure there are lots of other things I should be doing rather than playing on a computer.”

She has more than 30 Facebook friends, and her granddaughter Kaylee Lowee, 10, is said to be her most active friend.

Believed to be the oldest among more than 500 million Facebook users, Mrs. Lowe – dubbed supergan by her family – will turn 104 in two months and is hopeful to get her own iPad.

The previous title holder was 104-year-old Ivy Bean who died in her sleep in July.

For someone whose family didn’t had even a radio when she was about 12 years, heard about the sinking of the Titanic while in school, live through two world wars, and be facebooking at the end of the year 2010 through an iPad, she’s definitely a supergran and worth the title. Kudos!!

Yahoo Mail recently got a makeover and it is filled to the brim with new features and improvements. Among the many improvements, performance has been boosted to twice as much than before according to the company.

Here is a quick look at the features:

Performance: The Company claims that its mail is now twice as fast. Let’s take their word on it.

Improved Search: You can now filter out emails with different kinds of attachments including PDF files, photos, videos and music etc.

Social Integration: Yahoo Mail is already has already integrated Facebook and now a robust Twitter integration is also been made. You can now read and post status updates directly from the “What’s New” page. Apart from that, the update Yahoo Mail enables you to dock multiple SMS or conversations in one window allowing you to multi task easily like check mails while you easily  keep up with any conversations.

Apart from the performance boost and more social integration, the new Yahoo Mail, according to the company, offers better spam protection, unlimited storage, improved slideshows and video streaming that can be now viewed without leaving the message.

However, the new Yahoo Mail is in beta and is not yet integrated with the company’s classic mail service (this is the first time Yahoo plans to redesign its Mail service since 2005). Users will have to opt in to try out this new beta.

(Try the new Yahoo Mail beta here)

A recent study conducted by professor Paul Kirschner of Open University in Netherlands in the United States showed Facebook has negative affect on the grades of students.

The study was conducted on 219 students aged between 19 adn 54 at the American university. It was conducted to test the belief, multitasking allows people to do more in less time, in reality is otherwise.

The survey showed that students who revised for exams with their social networking account running scored much lower than their counterparts.

It was found that on average, grades of students who multi-tasked between Facebook and learning decreased by 20 % with a GPA of 3.06, While those students who stayed focused on their revision scored 3.82 on a scale of 0 to 4.

So, all you students out there, just remember that being obsessed with Facebook during studies can get you an “F” grade. Facebook itself starts with an “F”