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Facebook over Twitter for News, still Twitter News more Valued

March 19, 2012

Global news shared on social media sites spreads like wild fire. But social networking sites haven’t yet created the sort of news revolution that many believe.

Pew Research Center surveyed more than 3,000 participants in the US, and found that “recommendations from friends are not a major factor yet in steering news consumption.”

It described Facebook and Twitter as being “pathways to news” but added that their role has been somewhat over-hyped.

facebook twitter news pew 2012 01 Facebook over Twitter for News, still Twitter News more Valued

Major findings of the survey include:

  • Only 9 percent of traffic to news sites comes from Facebook, Twitter, and smaller social sites, but social media are becoming an increasing important driver of news. The percentage of traffic increased 57 percent since 2009.
  • Despite Twitter’s reputation for breaking news, Americans appears to follow news recommendations form Facebook more than from Twitter.
  • However, Twitter appears to be a more highly valued news source that Facebook.

It also noted that Twitter and Facebook were perceived differently by their respective users.

facebook twitter news pew 2012 03 Facebook over Twitter for News, still Twitter News more Valued

“Facebook news users get more news from friends and family and see it as a news they might well have gotten someplace else if Facebook did not exist,” it said.

“For Twitter users, though, the news links come from a more even mix of family and friends and news organisations. Most of these users also feel that without Twitter, they would have missed this kind of news.“

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DoT calls on Facebook and Twitter ban while driving

February 17, 2012

The U.S. Department of Transportation asked automakers to redesign distracting electronic systems and prevent drivers from accessing social networks like Facebook and Twitter while a car is moving.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, in non-binding guidelines issued today, called for disabling manual texting, internet browsing, 10-digit phone dialing and the ability to enter addresses into a built-in navigation system for drivers unless a car is parked.

When a car is moving, messages and other infotainment tasks should require no more than two-second glances.

The guidelines are part of the U.S. government’s broader effort against distracted driving. According to the National Highway Transportation and Safety Agency, distracted driving cost the life of 3,092 people in 2010.

The guidelines does not apply to electronic warning systems such as lane-departure or collision alerts. The department seek comments before making them final.

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Houston Scams Floods Facebook And Twitter

February 14, 2012

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.

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Stolen Facebook, Twitter Login Credentials On Sale

February 10, 2012

Cybercriminals are selling bulk log-in credentials of social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, and web server management software cPanel.

Security company Trusteer says it has discovered evidence of “factory outlets” where the information are being put up for sale at wholesale rate using underworld advertisements. The information were also available in country-specific batches at $30 a log-in.

Login credentials of financial sites are more valuable to most cybercriminals. The information is harvested by infecting systems with Trojans such as Zeus or SpyEye. These malwares also captures the login credentials used on the victim’s machine to access other websites, in addition to online banking credentials.

“To monetize the login credentials that pile up, fraudsters have started setting up “Factory Outlets” to sell them off,” Amit Klein, Trusteer’s chief technical officer, wrote in a blog.

He stress that the offering of cPanel credentials was particularly worrisome.

Fraudsters can use the account logins for web hosting admin system like cPanel to hijack a website and “plant malicious codes on these sites … that can exploit browser vulnerabilities and infect machines through drive-by-downloads.” The next step, in common practice, would be to “lure victims to the site through phishing emails and social network messages,” infecting the victims machines to carry out attacks and start over the vicious cycle.

Having access to bulk social network accounts can also be used for spamming and spreading scams on the sites.

“This latest development provides a window into the vast cybercrime aftermarket that has risen up on the internet and been made possible by sophisticated malware. Whether it’s bulk drive-by download infections, bulk login credentials, pre-built web-injects, etc., criminals today have an unprecedented arsenal of tools at their disposal to attack banks and enterprises,” Amit wrote.

Facebook officials told Trusteer that it actively detects known malware on users’ devices and validates every login to the site to check for malicious activity.

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Spammers Hits 4 Million Facebook Users On Any Given Day

January 10, 2012

Internet’s oldest pest, spam, is now moving away from email to social networks. With the ever growing popularity of social networks, spammers are now targeting the two most popular social networking sites – Facebook and Twitter – like never before.

In November 2011, 70 percent of all email was spam, down from 92 percent in August 2010. While the percentage of spam on social networks is still relative low compared to email, with Facebook saying that less than 4 percent of the content shared on their site is spam and affects 0.5 percent (4 million) of its users on any given day. Whereas, Twitter says just 1.5 percent of all tweets were spam in 2010.

But, don’t think the social network sites are just sitting back. Facebook and Twitter are waging war on social spam. Facebook says, each day the site blocks 200 million malicious actions, such as links to malware.

Facebook has a team of 30 workers who spend hours combing the site for user-reported spam (up from just 4 in 2008), in addition to 46 people working in security as well as 300 people focused on user issue.

Twitter, on the other hand, has only two programmers fighting spam, but it plans to add five more by the end of the year, and another nine account abuse specialists.

With over 800 million users, preventing spam is an uphill battle for site like Facebook, but they are determined to fight the good fight.

We, as users of these networking sites, what is our contribution in this fight against social spam? I believe we can at least take the advice of Chester Wisniewski, Senior Security Advisor at Sophos Inc.

Aside from relying on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google to do a “good job” the best most people can do is implement a good web security filter to look for malicious or spammy URLs and prevent your browser from going to content that may be harmful.”

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Facebook Now Supports 63206 Character Limits For Status Updates

December 1, 2011

character limit status Facebook Now Supports 63206 Character Limits For Status Updates

Lately, Facebook users has a reason more to officially rejoice since the company has increase the status update limit to 63,206 characters, apparently 400 times more than Twitter.

Facebook has keep increasing its limit. Originally, the limit was restricted to 160 characters. Later in March 2009, the company increase the limit to 420 characters. But in 2011, Facebook has increased the character limit three times. By July 2011, the limit was pumped up to 500 characters and within a couple of months to 5,000 characters in September and now has been boosted by over 10 times.

Bob Baldwin, the software engineer who set the new number, wrote on his Facebook wall “I set the exact limit to something nerdy. Facebook … Face Boo K … hex(FACE) – K … 64206 – 1000 = 63206 icon smile Facebook Now Supports 63206 Character Limits For Status Updates ”.

The company explains that the average novel has roughly 500,000 characters. This could be shared in nine posts by the users.

Twitter as of now has been built around the infamous short, 140-character, however the limit of Google+ appears to be 100,000. We wonder if Facebook will overcome Google+ character limit but if so do,hopefully with reasons.

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Government Sets August 25 As The Date Of Riot Summit For Social Networks

August 21, 2011

David Cameron’s government in Britain has set August 25 as the date to meet with the representatives from social networks Facebook, Twitter and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Messenger service, to discuss about their use and their role in the recent UK riot this earlier month.

The riot was the worst over the decades, with more than 1,200 people arrested till date. Apparently, these social networking technologies were used by the rioters and looters to coordinate their plots.

Facebook is the first to confirm the meeting. Facebook said “We look forward to meeting with the home secretary to explain the measures we have been taking to ensure that Facebook is a safe and positive platform for people in the UK at this challenging time”.

Although, BlackBerry has not officially confirmed to the meeting but previously said that “we welcome the opportunity for consultation together with other companies in the technology and telecommunications industry”.

It is only Twitter which has not made any public announcement about whether it will attend the session. Among the major social networks, RIM has been particularly criticized for its extensive used by the rioters.

Despite hue and cry in support of freedom of expression and flow of information the British government threatened to limit access to social networks that has been held accountable in the outbreak of social unrest in the country.

The meeting will decide about the fate of these social networks or least we speculate certain rules and control over these platforms by the gov

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That Girl In Yellow Boots Director Irritated By Impostor On Social Networks

September 15, 2010

Bollywood director and screenwriter Anurag Kashyap is one man that is not getting along well with the dark side of social media.

After the Education Minister of Goa, it is Anurag’s turn to be irritated by people posing as them on Facebook or Twitter.

Anurag, who is currently in Toronto for screening of his latest film “That Girl In Yellow Boots” plans to file a complaint as soon as he return against the impostor who is operating Facebook and Twitter accounts in his name. The impostor is also said to have opened an account in the name of his latest film too.

To add to the spice of the drama, the impostor is also said to be interacting with someone whom the director doesn’t see eye-to-eye.

The director said to TOI that his impostor Twitter account is opened with “imanuragkashyap” and with his name on Facebook. The imposter according to the director has several accounts all over the place and is bothering him now.

The impostor is also said to be using the fake id to set up meeting with many unsuspecting people, which is the most dangerous part.

Just came across the news and though it might be proved useful if shared.

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US University Plans Week Long Social Media Blackout

September 15, 2010

I am sure you might have read about the plant “Meet Eater” that lives on social interaction. Now, i would like to share a news that is almost opposite – how life will be with social media?

Provost Eric Darr of the Pennsylvania Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, enforced a campus-wide social media ban in an “academic exercise” to see how students cope. He wants his student to not only think about the impact of technology in their daily lives, but live it.

“Often there are behaviors, habits, ways we use technology that we may ourselves not even be able to articulate because we’re not aware of them,” Darr said to the NPR.

The blackout will be enforced by blocking social sites and networks on the campus network. Students living off-campus or using smartphones will be mostly unaffected by the exercise.

Students will be writing a reflective essays about their time during the social media blackout.

I hope the result will not only be interesting, but infact a retrospection of people’s life in this age, where social media and technology impact our lives 24×7.

Share your views about this social media blackout?

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Social Networks Enjoys More Time From Online Users

August 2, 2010

American internet users are spending increasing amount of time on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, while the amount of time spent on e-mail and traditional web portals have declined,according to a recent research report from Nielsen.

The result of the study says that web users, in June, devoted 23% of their online time to social networking sites, up from 16% a year ago. Online games ranked second, previously held by e-mail use, where people spend 10% of their time, powered by social games like Zynga’s Farmville.

Another major service to enjoy increase user time in June was streaming of videos and movies  with 3.9%, up from 3.5% a year ago.

This is no major surprise as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube together enjoys close to one billion users, or roughly 20 percent of the world’s population.

Time spent on E-mail dropped from 12% to 8.3%, while online time spent on traditional portals like Yahoo! also fell from 5.5% to4.4% in the last one year.

“You can start your daily online experience on Facebook and perform many essential communications functions,” Nielsen analyst Dave Martin said. “In the past, you might have to log into Yahoo Mail and then log into MSN Messenger and then maybe check the Yahoo home page for new, breaking news.”

Another interesting detail the report showed was; twice as many users over the age of 50 are using social networks than users under age 18, indicating the social network audience is getting more matured.

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