MTV Launches Facebook App Aimed at Reducing College Student Debt

FROM: http://www.policymic.com/articles/3501/mtv-launches-facebook-app-aimed-at-reducing-college-student-debt/category_list

Rita Solomon in National, Education

MTV recently launched a new Facebook app, My College Dollars, aimed at reducing the increasing amount of national college student debt. Complete with application and financial aid information, motivational videos, and other resources, the app uses students' Facebook profile data to determine the best financial approach toward a higher education.

Perhaps MTV is launching this initiative only for good press, but nonetheless, the widespread influence MTV has on the millennial generation makes it a great platform to fight against rising college debt.

It is encouraging to high school and college students to see a mainstream media source finally tackling the previously unaddressed issue of student debt. Since the financial crisis of 2008, college students have amassed over $1 trillion in student debt, the largest amount of consumer debt in the nation. MTV’s choice to engage in an important social and economic issue integral to its young viewers is admirable.

Although the videos, aid, and advice offered by MTV’s app may not be better than those offered by alternative websites with the same intent, the widely viewed network boasts a viewership demographic of 18- to 24-year-olds, proving its superior influence on youngsters regarding college acceptance and financial aid.

The collaboration with Facebook also better integrates aspects of social media into MTV's network, a way to connect more deeply with millennials. Targeting social media as a forum for change will impact today's students more than ever.

There may be concerns that the app infringes on the privacy of users, as it accesses a user's race, gender, age, location, and other personal information to make educational choices. However, the scholastic benefit attained from this localized information access far outweighs privacy concerns. Additionally, young people have adopted other social media apps that access private information.

Despite publicity stunt and privacy concerns, MTV’s admirable campaign to increase higher education and decrease alarming amounts of student debt should be encouraged and made an example of. If other large entertainment networks followed MTV’s lead, we would perhaps find a faster resolution to our nation’s student debt conundrum.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Facebook rolls out 60 apps for Timeline

FROM: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-01-18/facebook-lifestyle-apps/52653014/1

By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook is dramatically expanding Timeline, the re-imagining of its user interface, in a move that could delight consumers and vex some security experts.

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  Payvment's Shopping Mall app on Facebook.

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Payvment's Shopping Mall app on Facebook.

 

Thursday, it will unleash more than 60 apps for Timeline ranging from fitness (Nike) and events (Ticketmaster and Ticketfly) to food (Foodspotting) and movies (Rotten Tomatoes). The aim is to give Facebook's 800 million members additional reasons to spend more time on the site, by sharing their experiences with others as they happen.

The apps avalanche is the next stage in the development of Timeline and a major part of Facebook's push to maintain its competitive edge over Google+, which has about 40 million members. Late last year, Facebook got a face lift in the form of Timeline. Since then, it has methodically released apps — including a "Listen with" button that lets up to 50 members listen to songs at the same time.

"For the first time on the Internet, consumers can share with others what acts they are planning to see," says Andrew Dreskin, CEO of Ticketfly. "For example, on Timeline, you can say you plan to see Radiohead in San Jose in April."

Millions already use music, video and other apps designed for Timeline. But the prospect of hooking users on apps that show when they exercise, where they shop and what they listen to — as they do it — should have marketers and advertisers salivating, analysts say. "There is nothing more that advertisers and marketers like than knowing the frequency and relevance of a consumer's habits," says analyst Patrick Moorhead, principal at Moor Insights & Strategy.

At the same time, Facebook has its eye on a potential mega initial public offering in the first half of 2012 that could raise an estimated $10 billion and value Facebook at more than $100 billion. "Facebook is merely trying to leverage its standing as a service that has become part of our lives," says Anjelika Petrochenko, general manager of LiveJournal blog service.

Facebook "grows through absorbing people and ideas," such as check-in services and messages, Petrochenko says.

Still, the notion of sharing so much personal information with so many others could be enticing to hackers in pursuit of valuable data. "Facebook is a malevolent multiplier," says Alisdair Faulkner, chief product officer at computer-security firm ThreatMetrix. "It's turning cybercrime into an armchair sport."

Facebook’s Android team is hiring, and other tidbits

FROM: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebooks-android-team-is-hiring-and-other-tidbits/7420

By Emil Protalinski | January 16, 2012, 12:08pm PST

Summary: Are you a Google Android user and a Facebook user? Here’s what Facebook’s new engineering manager for Android app development has been saying on Twitter in his first few days on the job.

In September 2011, Mike Shaver, vice president of technical strategy at Mozilla, announced he was leaving the company and moving to Facebook. Now we know he’s the company’s engineering manager for Android app development, which he announced via his Twitter account (via CNET):

This week I started as the eng mgr for Facebook’s Android team. Doing cool stuff — some probably obvious, some rather not. And hiring!

This wasn’t the only tweet Shaver send out this past weekend. He responded to a popular meme:

Vlad Vukicevic: @shaver fix ALL the things!
Mike Shaver: @vvuk that is the first part of the plan, yes.

He took an off-hand suggestion:

Jacob Appelbaum: @shaver Can you please add Orbot support to their app so that people may use Tor with that application on Android? guardianproject.info/apps/orbot/
Mike Shaver: @ioerror what is”orbot support”? I thought it was transparent.
Jacob Appelbaum: @shaver Explicitly allow someone use the proxy - so they don’t need a rooted device to redirect traffic: github.com/guardianprojec… cc @n8fr8

He pointed where to apply for a job at Facebook:

Nanik: @shaver where to send the resume to ?
Mike Shaver: @nanikjava if you know me personally, to me. else, facebook.com/careers/department.php?dept=engineering
Nanik: @shaver thanks

He acknowledged Android’s browser still doesn’t support SPDY, a Web-acceleration technology developed at Google that is now being built into Firefox:

Mike Belshe: @shaver Congrats, Mike! we should talk about #spdy sometime
Mike Shaver: I figured we’d get it for free from Android’s WebView and HTTP libraries
Mike Belshe: @shaver Hopefully that will be available eventually…

He strengthened relationships with a previous colleague, a Firefox evangelist:

Asa Dotzler: @shaver Will you all re-write the Android Facebook app as a Web app?
Mike Shaver: @asadotzler you know that it’s a mostly a wrapper around the m site, right? need APIs browsers don’t expose yet though
Asa Dotzler: @shaver ahh. I did not know that. cool. let’s see if we can’t get you the APIs you need soon then.

He also noted the Facebook app needs more interfaces that browsers don’t yet offer:

Fabrice Desré: @shaver @asadotzler which APIs? (notifications I guess, but probably more)
Mike Shaver: @asadotzler @fabricedesre notifications, camera+gallery, contacts, some settings stuff I think — I’ll make a list soon

Last but certainly not least, he talked about making the app faster:

Mark Finkle: @shaver FB on Android needs to use local cache/storage more. I spend too much time looking at a spinner.
Mike Shaver: @mfinkle I think we should cache harder, yeah, but wouldn’t you get a spinner when it was loading new content, even if old stuff was cached?
Mark Finkle: @shaver yes, but perception should be improved, and you can use the time to pull down fresh content in parallel.
Mike Shaver: do you find it to be worse than the iOS app or the m site?
Mark Finkle : @shaver m site seems better, but maybe that is web vs app perception? problem is waiting for the topbar UI to appear, not the content itself
Mike Shaver: @mfinkle we wrap the web site, but I agree about the chrome. May be that FF caches/loads better than Android web view too
Mark Finkle: @shaver also the”loading”for notifs and comments takes longer than I like. can you prefetch some data when I start looking at an entry?
Mike Shaver: @mfinkle prefetch is definitely something I’m looking at, yeah. Probably need to model out the cost.

It seems to me like Shaver is off to a good start. Hopefully he’ll be able to further improve Facebook’s Android app, which by the way is currently at version 1.8.1.

10 Ways Facebook Is Integrating Into Your TV, Music, Games, Cars & Cameras

FROM: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ces_2012_10_ways_facebook_is_integrating_into_your.php
By Alicia Eler / January 13, 2012 10:36 AM

The world's biggest social network wants to change the way you share TV shows, music and games. Think frictionless sharing meets social TV for all media. Given what Facebook recent announcements about integration with cameras and cars, is full media integration? If you're still unsure, take a hint from this: Earlier this week, Facebook announced frictionless sharing for your TV with Boxee.

Facebook is integrating with DIRECTV for social discovery of programs and movies. You can see what their friends are watching, and then start watching those shows immediately or, just save them for later.

With the IntoNow iPhone app, you can identify the shows your friends are watching by analyzing the audio signal. Then you can share those TV shows with your Facebook friends.

Trident is not a bubblegum app. It's yet another apps for seeing what shows your friends are watching, liking and commenting on.

The U-Verse social TV app integrates directly with the Facebook Platform. You can share what you're watching and what you "like."

Zeebox is a social TV app with a slightly different twist. Instead of just seeing what your friends are watching and liking, you can also post those shows directly to your Facebook Timeline.

The Snapstick app for Facebook Timeline is designed for playing and watching video, listening to music and surfing channels with your friends. Web content is streamed directly to your TV.

With the Xbox app, you can share game achievements with friends, which seems more useful than just dumping them into the crowded Facebook news feed. You can also share shows, music and pictures taken with their Kinect device.

The Slacker Radio app is similar to frictionless sharing music services Spotify, MOG and Rdio. You discover and listen to music with friends through Web or mobile devices.

Earlier this week, Kodak launched two Facebook-integrated cameras and two apps; could these two moves save Kodak from its tenuous pre-bankruptcy state?

Facebook and Mercedes-Benz announced a new Facebook app that allows drivers to access Facebook friends and restaurants that their friends have "liked." The new feature will be available in the 2012 SL-Class Mercedes this upcoming spring.

With integration of cars, cameras, music, TV and games, will Facebook become your one true login?

Consumers Give Facebook Shopping a C+

FROM: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2012/01/consumers-give-facebook-shopping-a-c.html

By Cynthia Boris on January 13, 2012

This past holiday season, consumers had more ways to shop than ever before, online, offline, mobile, and even through Facebook. eCommerce company Baynote, put together a report card for each of these areas based on a consumer survey. The results aren’t surprising but still interesting, particularly as they relate to social media.

Overall, 84% of consumers said their online shopping experience was “good” or “excellent.” This was only 78% last year.

As you can see from the chart, retail websites were rated highest across the board. The biggest problem mentioned in this area was the ease of finding the product they wanted. 44.1% said they were frustrated by too many options when they used a searched engine. After that, they found that many of the offered links led to generic pages or sites that didn’t actually carry the product. Obviously, there’s room for improvement here.

Shopping on Facebook

When asked if they bought anything from a Facebook fan page, 91.4% of respondents said no. But here’s the kicker, 80.2% said that they weren’t even influenced by anything they saw on social media or their social media connections. Ouch.

On the flipside, 55% said that getting advice from friends on social networks was at least “somewhat important.”

Sounds like marketers still aren’t making the connection between social sharing and social shopping.

Beyond that, privacy was a big problem for potential Facebook shoppers. They gave it a C. The shopping experience and personalization both rated a B-, which was on par with smartphones and tablets. Frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t score lower in that area.

Overall, consumers gave Facebook a C+ on the report card, the lowest of all shopping avenues. Better luck next year.

Taking it to the Streets

Mobile fared only slightly better than Facebook on the Baynote report card and I don’t get that. The saving grace was in the area of privacy. People felt more secure buying from their smartphone than from Facebook, but even better when shopping a retail site. What’s that all about?

Thinking this through, I’d guess they’re separating privacy from security. I’m not sure putting my credit card numbers into a phone app is secure, but I’m pretty sure the store I’m buying from, isn’t going to post my purchases on the web for all to see. With Facebook, I’m not so sure. I’ll trust a fan page with my credit card, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a “Cynthia just bought a guitar” message pop-up on my friends’ feeds.

Some good news is that 49% of tablet owners used it to make a purchase. Tablet owners are still a very small portion of the overall ecommerce community, but it’s encouraging.

In spite of the fact that tablet shopping is easier than smartphone shopping, consumers gave it the same grade. Going forward, I would expect the tablet’s marks to come up to those of any online retail site, but we aren’t there yet.

The Baynote 2012 Holiday Online Shopping Survey is loaded with interesting nuggets. There are pages on cross-channel marketing, more specifics on privacy issues and specifics about personalization. It’s worth a look-see and all it will cost you is your contact information. Click here, if you want to check it out.

Google, Google+ and search: Maybe it's all an SEO play

FROM: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57358022-92/google-google-and-search-maybe-its-all-an-seo-play/

by Larry Dignan January 12, 2012 10:36 AM PST

The flap over Google's playing up Google+ in its search results continues. Now Harvard professor and security expert Ben Edelman has weighed in on the debate. His argument: By embedding Google+ into search, Google is essentially prodding people to join its social network out of SEO fear.

Edelman has been noting Google's potential favoring of results before. He argues that Google favors its own properties. That debate has gone off the charts on Techmeme.

He sets up his argument against Google's tying of Google+ by comparing it to other services.

I've found more than a dozen Google services receiving favored placement in Google search results. Consider Google Blog Search, Google Book Search, Google Checkout, Google Health, Google Images, Google Maps, Google News, Google Realtime, Google Shopping, and Google Video. Some have developed into solid products with loyal users. Others are far weaker. But each enjoys a level of favored placement in Google search results that other services can only dream of.

Google uses premium placements and traffic guarantees to address the "chicken and egg" problem that undermines the launch of many online businesses. For example, many retailers might be pleased to be listed (and even be willing to pay to be listed) in a review site or product search site that has many readers. But finding those readers cost-effectively requires algorithmic search traffic, which a new site cannot guarantee--hindering the site's efforts to attract advertisers. So too for books, local search, movies, travel, and myriad other sectors. Ordinary sites struggle to overcome these challenges--for example, buying expensive pay-per-click advertising to drive traffic to their sites, or beginning with a period in which they have undesirably few participants. In contrast, anyone assessing the prospects of a new Google service knows that Google can grant its services ample free traffic, on demand and substantially guaranteed. Thus, the success of a new Google service is much more predictable--reducing Google's barriers to expansion into new sectors. Indeed, if partners recognize that Google can send such traffic whenever it chooses to do so, merchants are encouraged to join before Google turns on the spigot.

But then Edelman's argument gets more nuanced. There's also a bit of a confessional that is worth noting as you examine Google's search power. Edelman said:

I joined Google Plus not because I wanted to participate, not to take a look around, but because I perceived that Google would grant my site preferred placement--more algorithmic traffic--if I linked my Google Plus account to my web site and online publications. It's hard to figure out whether I was right. But SEO forums are full of users who had the same idea. So Google can force users to join Google Plus to avoid receiving, or expecting to receive, lower algorithmic search ranking. Certainly myriad sites added Google +1 buttons (giving Google both data and real estate) not because they genuinely wanted Google buttons on their sites, but because they feared others would overtake them in search results if they failed to employ Google's newest service.

In other words, you join Google+ not because you want to, but you have to.

Whether this holds up in court would be an interesting experiment. The argument revolving around Google's power deals with some gray areas.

This item first appeared on ZDNet's Between the Lines blog under the headline "Harvard's Edelman on Google+ and search: I joined Google+ for SEO."

Facebook Adds Comments Box to Mobile Devices

FROM: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/facebook-adds-comments-box-to-mobile-devices-014099.php

By Rikki Endsley (@rikkiends) Jan 12, 2012

Case Studies: Learn How the Experts Are Managing Customer Experience

If your website has the Facebook Comments Box plugin, the plugin will now appear automatically on mobile devices, too.

Facebook launched the mobile Comments Box plugin today, which makes it easier for your website visitors to interact with your content no matter how they reach it. Technical details about the Facebook plugin and formatting it for your site are available on the Facebook Developers site.

Comments Plugin

The Comments Box plugin lets visitors comment on website pages, while also providing moderation and distribution tools for web admins. The plugin uses "social signals" to flag the most relevant comments to show users, such as comments from friends or friends of friends, whereas comments flagged as spam are hidden.

The developer site explains that website visitors can choose to share their comments on Facebook, which makes the story appear on the visitor's friends' News Feed. Then friends or other people who like the site's page on Facebook can add to the discussion either through the News Feed post or directly in the Comments Box on your website. If you'd prefer not to have the mobile version appear, you can change the settings.

 

Mobile Advances

Mobile customer experience shouldn't be afterthought. In fact, in a November 2011 article, Simon Lande pointed out that treating it like an afterthought is the biggest reason mobile web content fails. "In short, businesses are about as good at designing mobile experiences in 2011 as they were at designing desktop web experiences in 1999," he wrote.

As 2011 wound down, focus on mobile site design ramped up. In fact, in 2011, mobile shoppers grew to 11%, which was almost triple from 2010, and IBM predicted that mobile devices would drive 15% of web traffic over the 2011 holiday season.

As this Comment Box plugin update shows, Facebook continues to be a leader in mobile customer experience. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2012, Facebook will become the hub for social network integration and Web socialization, and by 2014, more than 3 billion of the world's adult population will be able to interact electronically via mobile or Internet technology.

Still, Facebook's innovations in social engagement and mobile devices comes with privacy concerns, which inspire plugins to help users limit the social network's reach. At least with the Comments Box plugin, privacy-minded site admins choose how, or even if, Facebook reaches their visitors.

Google’s New Social Results – Just a Google+ Booster, or the Future of Search?

FROM: http://techcocktail.com/googles-new-social-results-just-a-google-booster-or-the-future-of-search-2012-01

BY Kira Newman

Google began rolling out its social search on Tuesday, called “Search, plus Your World.” Now, Google results will pull in content and profiles from Google+.

“We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships,” wrote Google fellow Amit Singhal.

For example, a search for “vacation” will display posts from you and your friends about your recent trips, including photos. On the right hand side, you’ll also see high-profile Google+ users who post often about that topic. Or, you can search specific names to find the profiles of your friends and other famous people on Google+, whom you can add to your circles directly from the results page.

These features extend Google’s experiment with social search, but make results more prominent and highlight Google+ pages.

I’m not too happy with this, but I won’t complain until I’ve tried it. When I’m doing research for an essay or looking up a medical condition, I don’t really care what my layman friends think about the topic. Luckily, you can change your search settings to make “unpersonalized” search the default, although a little icon in the top right corner lets you turn it on when appropriate. You can also sign out of your Google account.

Despite these reservations, the ability to effectively search social content – definitely lacking on Facebook – is a plus (pun intended). In fact, it adds to the value and allure of Google+.

Personal search isn’t enabled for me yet; does it work for you? What do you think?

 

Google Attempts to Take Down Facebook With ‘Search Plus Your World’ Feature

FROM: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/12/google-attempts-to-take-down-facebook-with-search-plus-your-world-feature.html

Jan 12, 2012 12:05 PM EST

Google risks antitrust claims by tying Google+ social network to its market-leading search engine. But the risk might be worth it to gain access to Facebook’s data, writes Dan Lyons.

 

Google this week made a brazen move when it rolled out a new search feature called “Search Plus Your World,” which brings up results based not only on what’s out there on the Web but also on what you and your friends are doing on the Google+ social network.

The idea, Google claims, is to deliver results that are more personalized and therefore more relevant. Critics say, however, that Google is simply pursuing the same strategy that once got Microsoft into hot water—using a dominant position in one market to gain ground in another.

Microsoft’s problems arose when it tied its Internet Explorer browser to its Windows operating system, a move that helped put browser maker Netscape out of business and made Microsoft the target of a lengthy and damaging antitrust lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice.

Now Google could be facing the same kind of trouble, since it appears to be using its market-leader search engine (which delivers roughly two thirds of all searches in the United States) to prop up its fledgling social network, Google+, which has 40 million members and is trying to compete against Facebook, which has 800 million members.

The howling began almost as soon as Google introduced the new feature earlier this week, from bloggers, pundits, and privacy groups, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a watchdog group that says it is considering filing a complaint with the FTC.

Screen shot, provided by Google, of a personal results page

Even louder complaints came in from Twitter, whose executives claim Google is unfairly pushing them down in its search rankings, in favor of Google+. Google and Twitter used to have a “partnership,” meaning Google paid Twitter to get access to its data so that it could include Twitter data in search results. But that partnership fell apart last year—although Google says Twitter can renew the deal if it would like to.

But what about Facebook? Strangely enough, so far it has said nothing. And its silence speaks volumes about what Google might really be up to with this “Search Plus Your World” gambit.

Google needs to crack that fence around Facebook—for its own survival.

My theory goes like this: Facebook is sitting on a gold mine, a trove of personal data from 800 million people. Think of that data as a precious ore that lies deep under the ground, stuff that can be mined, processed, and turned into money.

And so far, Facebook has only begun to extract value. In 2011, the company might have done $4 billion in revenue. But that’s just the beginning—many more billions could be extracted from this data.

Better yet, unlike a gold mine with a fixed size, Facebook’s “claim,” or potential revenue from this data, keeps growing as more people join the service. The data Facebook is sitting on represents the biggest and most valuable mountain of data ever amassed.

Google wants to get at that claim. Leave aside the “don’t be evil” rhetoric for a second and just think of it this way: there’s a big pile of money sitting out there, and money is what corporations are all about, and Google is a corporation.

But there’s another angle: Facebook, right now, represents the biggest threat to Google’s existence that has ever come along. For example, Facebook won’t let Google search through its data. The site is walled off. (Think of it as Facebook putting a big fence around its mining claim.) So Facebook could be, in effect, attempting to build its own private Internet—and one that Google has no access to.

This could be devastating to Google. Because its business model is built on the notion of an open Web where everything is available to everyone, and where Google’s little bots can crawl over everything, extracting value from the data.

Google, in other words, needs to crack that fence around Facebook—for its own survival.

If Google can’t get at that mountain of data that Facebook is building, and if the mountain keeps getting bigger, and if other companies start building other walled-off mountains, then eventually Google starts to dwindle away.

This explains almost everything Google does outside of search. It’s all about preventing people from creating little mini-Internets that Google can’t search.

The Android mobile operating system exists almost solely because Google couldn’t risk having Apple, Microsoft, and others create mobile ecosystems where Google search wasn’t used.

Google doesn’t make money on Android—at least not directly. Instead, it gives Android to handset makers at no cost, just to make sure that hundreds of millions, and it hopes someday billions, of people are using devices that have Google search on them.

Google argues that everyone in the world would be better off if all data is available to everyone. No more walled gardens. No more private mini-Internet.

But Facebook is not persuaded by Google’s argument, and for good reason.

Look at what happened to media companies. Newspapers and magazines fell for Google’s line and made all their content available to Google. In part they felt threatened: the fear was that if they didn’t let Google crawl and index their content, they would become essentially invisible on the Internet. Nobody would find their content.

So they played along. In theory this was supposed to be a win-win, since Google would be sending them traffic and they could make money on that traffic. In the end, however, the payoff was a bit lopsided. Media companies went broke chasing digital dimes instead of analog dollars. Google became a company with $30 billion in revenues—and with obscene (nearly 30 percent) net profit margins.

The people running Facebook aren’t as easily gulled as newspaper companies—if only because some of them, such as COO Sheryl Sandberg, were the ones running Google when it ran roughshod over the newspapers.

Sandberg and her colleagues know what Google did to media companies, and they do not intend to suffer the same fate. They’ve told Google: thanks very much, but we’ll keep our precious data to ourselves and do with it as we please.

Who can blame them? Facebook put in years of hard work and spent huge amounts of money building the world’s biggest network of people. Why should Google be allowed to just walk in and start digging through that data?

Facebook does let some companies gain access to its data, but apparently demands ridiculously high prices, so much so that in 2010 Apple walked away from a potential partnership after Facebook demanded what Steve Jobs called “onerous terms.”

Microsoft has made a deal with Facebook that lets Microsoft draw on Facebook data when people do searches on its Bing search engine. Terms are private, but Microsoft is probably paying through the nose. The software giant has lots of money and is desperate for any way to get an edge on Google and catch up in the search market.

Google and Facebook reportedly explored a deal in 2009, but could not agree on terms.

Faced with a roadblock, Google last year came up with a workaround. It launched Google+, a great-looking social network that was in some ways better than Facebook. The site now has 40 million members (some estimates have that number even higher, as much as 62 million) after six months on the market.

Now Google aims to use Google+ to gain leverage with Facebook. Here’s how it might work: Facebook whines to the government that Google is engaging in anticompetitive activity, and Google counters by asking for access to Facebook’s data, and says it will gladly include Facebook results alongside results from Google+.

Basically, Google is trying to use a 40 million-member network as leverage to gain access to an 800 million-member network.

And if Facebook refuses, how can the government tell Google not to crawl its own stuff just because a competitor refuses to share?

An antitrust hearing might be just what Google wants. As Eric Eldon on TechCrunch puts it, Google might even argue that Facebook has been engaging in anticompetitive behavior by building a monopoly in social networking and then striking a deal with Microsoft but refusing to strike a deal with Google—thereby abusing its monopoly power.

If this is the case, Facebook can put up or shut up. Facebook can let Google dig through its data, or keep the fence up and hope that Google+ doesn’t become so big and attractive that people start abandoning Facebook and using Google+ instead.

Google has already presented a similar line of reasoning to Twitter, after that company began whining about Google’s new move. In an official statement, Google commented that it was “a bit surprised by Twitter’s comments about Search plus Your World, because they chose not to renew their agreement with us last summer.” Since then, Google says, it has “observed … instructions” from Twitter not to crawl its data.

In other words: put up or shut up. Let us crawl your site, preferably at no cost, or go build your own search engine and stop complaining about what we do with ours.

This is Google playing hardball, in a market with tens of billions of dollars at stake. This is a battle over the future of the Internet, and who will rule it. This is Google flirting with an antitrust investigation and betting that it can come out the winner.

The days of peace and love and “don’t be evil” are over.

Facebook “Listen With” Artist Page Links Will Help Musicians Monetize

FROM: http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/12/listen-with-musicians/

By Josh Constine

Today’s launch of Facebook’s synchronous music listening and chat feature “Listen With” will grow the social network’s time on site and encourage streaming service usage and subscriptions. But another big benefactor will be the musicians themselves. When someone plays a song for a friend, their “Listen With” chat room will display a link back to that artist’s Facebook Page. This will help musicians accrue fans to whom they can publish news feed links to concert tickets, merchandise, and their websites. Driving traffic to these additional revenue streams is crucial since streaming royalties are just a fraction of a cent per listen.

Getting to an artist’s Page was more difficult before. Users first had to hover over an artist’s name in a news feed or Ticker listening activity story, then click on the artist’s name or Like them from a pop-up hovercard. Lots of users wouldn’t know how to do this or wouldn’t go to the trouble.

In Listen With chat rooms, one click to an artist’s name shown each time one of their songs plays will bring you to their Page. When Facebook’s music partnerships launched I wrote about how they weren’t doing enough to help artist gain and retain fans, but that’s no longer the case.

Music simply isn’t a commodity people are willing to pay much for any more. Lucrative $15 physical albums sales are giving way to $1 mp3 downloads, which are will eventually die off in favor of ad-supported or subscription music streaming. An artist and their label receive minuscule royalties from streaming, as little as $0.0016 per listening — not enough for most artists to make a living off of their music alone.

Instead, artist need to diversify their revenue streams, leaning more on tickets, merch, sponsorships, and inclusion in commercials. Facebook Pages give artists a way to market these goods and a quantifiable way to define their popularity to sponsors. Listen With could help turn existing listeners into Facebook fans, and draw Likes from those discovering artists through their friends.

Mobile app use soars while mobile browsing wanes

FROM: http://gigaom.com/2012/01/09/mobile-app-use-soars-while-mobile-browsing-wanes/?utm_source=newteevee&utm_medium=specialtopics

By Ryan Kim Jan. 9, 2012, 9:43am PT

The world is increasingly going mobile: mobile apps, to be more exact. New data out of app analytics firm Flurry finds that mobile users are spending more time in mobile apps than mobile web browsing, widening a gap that began for the first time last summer.

Flurry said Monday that average smartphone users now spend 94 minutes in apps a day compared to 72 minutes in a mobile web browser. Last summer, Flurry noted the first time app usage eclipsed mobile browsing, with users spending 81 minutes in apps compared to 74 minutes daily on the web. Now, Flurry said app usage is continuing to grow each day, while the use of mobile web browsing has fallen. ComScore also noted a shift last fall toward mobile apps, finding users are now spending more time in apps over the browser for the first time. For the study, Flurry examined app usage in 140,000 apps running Flurry analytics and compared it to mobile web data usage from comScore and Alexa.

The shift to apps appears to be driven in part by mobile users’ waning interest in accessing Facebook from a browser, Flurry said. It said while the average Facebook user in June last year spent more than 33 minutes on average each day on the website, that number is now below 24 minutes. Traffic to Facebook now appears to be increasingly channeled through mobile apps, including a new Facebook app for the iPad, which launched in October. But with Facebook’s increasing use of HTML5 and web technologies, it’s possible Facebook could also help push the tide back toward web browsing as it looks to enable more developers to build mobile web apps that work through Facebook. And with the overall maturing of HTML5, we should see more interesting web apps emerge that can attempt to pull user attention away from native apps.

Flurry said the growth of mobile app usage appears to be slowing, however. Between Dec. 2010 and June 2011, the time spent in mobile applications grew more than 23 percent, but from June 2011 to December 2011 time spent in apps has grown 15 percent. While the growth in time spent on mobile apps is slowing, users are engaged in more sessions, visiting apps more frequently than in the past, said Flurry.

The jockeying between apps and mobile web browsing will continue into the future. Native apps make more sense for intensive programs that require more use of the hardware. And with native app stores making it so easy to download purpose-driven apps, it’s simple for users to turn to apps to get what they need done. But with HTML5 emerging, there are a lot of native apps that can exist just as easily as web apps. And in fact, many apps are being built now in HTML5 with a native wrapper designed for specific platforms. Forrester recently came out with a report recommending developers and enterprises go with this hybrid approach, which cuts down on costs and helps apps fit a number of platforms. I think native apps will continue to increase their advantage over web browsing until HTML5 grows up some more and we see some solid distribution channels and stores for web apps.

Intuit Offers GoPayment Card, Facebook Store for Small Businesses

FROM: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Midmarket/Intuit-Offers-GoPayment-Card-Facebook-Store-for-Small-Businesses-790703/?kc=EWKNLFIN01022012STR2

The free SimpleStore tool automatically syncs the merchant's Website and Facebook page.

As part of its GoPayment mobile payment offering, Intuit announced the launch of the GoPayment Prepaid Visa Card. The card expands Intuit's strategy beyond processing credit cards on a mobile device to offering the convenience of a Visa prepaid account linked to GoPayment. The company also recently launched SimpleStore for Facebook, allowing any current SimpleStore user to establish a storefront as part of his or her business page. The free tool automatically syncs the merchant's Website and Facebook page.

Small business owners can accept credit or debit card payments directly on Facebook, all through Intuit, with no added log-ins required for the customer. Because Intuit Web Payment is already tied to a user's merchant account, small businesses receive payment directly from Intuit, whether a sale is made on their Website or Facebook page.

"Using SimpleStore for Facebook has opened me up to an entirely new client base, and my sales have increased about 40 percent," said Erica Hunter owner of Arin Madison, an online store selling fine children's accessories. "I also have more repeat sales, since customers are checking back daily for new products and have the luxury to do so while logged in to their Facebook accounts."

The GoPayment Card makes it possible for users to have the funds they collect with GoPayment deposited into their GoPayment Card account. They can then use the card to make payments online and in stores and withdraw cash at ATMs everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted, though the company noted some fees may apply.

The card is aimed at smaller businesses or individuals who don't have a business bank account and still want to separate the money they make with GoPayment from their personal finances. It can also help them get up and running quickly as there is no bank account required to sign up. Those who prefer using a business or personal bank account can still choose to have their funds deposited into their bank account.

The GoPayment Card has no signup or monthly maintenance fees and offers one free ATM cash withdrawal each month as well as one free transfer of funds from the card to a bank account via ACH each month. The GoPayment Card is available to GoPayment users by signing up via the company’s Website or via the GoPayment app. The physical card will arrive in the mail generally within seven to 10 business days. In the meantime, users can start accepting GoPayment credit card transactions, and the funds will be deposited into their GoPayment Card account generally within two to three business days.

"The GoPayment Card adds new value to those using GoPayment. In addition to helping them get paid, we're helping them make payments," said Chris Hylen, vice president and general manager of Intuit's payment solutions division. "This is just the beginning. Intuit will roll out new, innovative features for GoPayment that help users make payments in a variety of ways."

The GoPayment Card is a good option for many types of small and personal businesses, said Nathan Lipson, who owns Metrocycle Pedicabs in Austin, Texas. "Most of my riders don't have a business bank account and primarily use cash," said Lipson. "Having a prepaid card makes it much easier for them to sign up and use a service like GoPayment and gives them another option to make payments."

Social Media | The new niche networker

FROM: http://www.livemint.com/2012/01/06211129/Social-Media--The-new-niche-n.html

Forget Google+, it’s time you looked for a Pinterest or SoundCloud account invite

Gopal Sathe

Prasad Rao, 20, is a Delhi University student in the second year of his BA (Hons) programme. For his birthday in November, his father gifted him an iPhone 4. He used to be a regular Facebook user, logging in at least four or five times a day to keep up with his friends. The phone was best put to use by sharing pictures with his friends, on Facebook. But now, Rao mostly uses Instagram, a photo-sharing network for iPhone users.

He says: “Many of my friends also have iPhones and we’ve all got Instagram. Now, you can take pictures and then apply these really cool filters, so the pictures look really amazing. When one of my friends uploads a picture, it updates on my phone and I can see it right away.”

Facebook is expected to have a billion accounts in 2012, Twitter is estimated to be half that size, but it is unclear how many users are actually active. While the size of these networks means that they won’t disappear overnight, analysts say the growth of both is beginning to slow down.

New York-based social media analyst and independent media management consultant Jason Koetz says the reason a newcomer such as Instagram was able to add two million users in November (to reach 12 million users) is because it allows people to tell a story in a unique way. He says: “It allows people to tell stories visually, with simplicity and immediacy. It’s a mobile-first platform, unlike Facebook, and meets those expectations. It is an elegant solution that makes people feel like artists.”

Smaller, interest-focused networks, such as Pinterest, SoundCloud and Fab.com, are also gaining popularity. It’s not likely that any of these will replace the bigger networks, since they don’t offer the same scope as, say, Facebook, which in September announced that it had reached 800 million users. However, the new networks actually benefit from Facebook and Twitter, integrating their services into the existing networks.

Pradeep Chopra, CEO of Digital Vidya, a social media training company that works with firms to help them develop and implement their social strategies, explains: “A network like Facebook is enormously powerful because of the number of people connected to it. In comparison, a niche network such as Instagram can’t compare. But uploads to Instagram also share the feed on Facebook and Twitter, so you’re not just getting one set of connections, you’re getting three. This rub-off effect adds a lot of value to networks such as Instagram or Pinterest.”

Yashraj Vakil, COO of online marketing agency Red Digital, says: “Reaching out to people on Facebook gets big numbers, but it’s cluttered. Facebook is everywhere, but new networks like Pinterest allow specialized messaging.”

•••••

Instagram (12 million members as of November)

Instagram, which launched in October 2010, has been a big success thanks to mobile phones. The problem with networks such as Flickr or Facebook photos used to be that after taking a picture, you had to go to your computer to make even the most basic fixes before you shared the image. Instagram takes advantage of the iPhone to give users a tool which allows them to take photos, do some fun image editing, and then share it with all their Instagram followers, as well as on Facebook and Twitter, and even email lists. The ease and convenience of Instagram gave it an immediate advantage over other networks. Like Twitter, it’s an open network—you don’t need to know someone to follow them, and they don’t need to follow you back. For many artists, this is a great way to show their work to a large audience, and get immediate feedback.

•••••

Fab.com (350,000 members as of June)

Fab.com is a members-only network for daily deals on fashion that began life as a gay network. When the company changed direction in March, founder Jason Goldberg noted in his blog, “Gay rights progress over the past year had a positive impact on the gay community but a negative impact on the demand for our services.

“Design is a lifestyle, and it’s social,” he wrote. “People love sharing great designs!” Part of that is Fab’s Moodboard, a Pinterest-style image wall where members can share pictures of designs they liked/created. And all this ties back to deals.

•••••

Pinterest (4.9 million members as of December)

This category-based photo-sharing site allows users to share ideas easily and collaborate on projects through pictures. You “pin” photos in collages that anyone can comment on or re-pin to new collages to build ideabooks.

Launched quietly in March 2010, the site is so popular that there’s a waiting list to join.

The categorization and re-pin features make it easy to collate ideas into a digital scrapbook. You could make, for example, a recipe book on your computer, and then access it on your phone in the kitchen, or put together design ideas to take when you go shopping for furniture. Anyone can add to a pinboard, so collaborating on a project is easy too.

•••••

SoundCloud (5 million members as of June)

SoundCloud launched in October 2008, but remained small and virtually unknown until 2011. Last year, the site announced that it had added four million users, reaching five million members. SoundCloud, much like Instagram, has benefited from the growing ubiquity of smartphones—similar services had existed, but thanks to good timing, SoundCloud was there to take advantage of the huge number of mobile users who had in their hands a tool that could be used to record, edit and share audio. A key advantage SoundCloud offers over similar services is that users can embed clips on any website, making it easy to share audio. Users can comment not just on the clip as a whole, but even on specific parts of the audio—making it a useful tool for collaboration. Suppose you’re working on a song with friends in another part of the country—they can click on the exact moment in the song where they want to suggest a change, and leave a comment.

gopal.s@livemint.com

Facebook Turns Your Timeline Into Moo Business Cards, First 200,000 Are Free

FROM: http://eu.techcrunch.com/2012/01/05/facebook-turns-your-timeline-into-moo-business-cards-first-200000-are-free/

Mike Butcher on January 5, 2012

In a move which is likely to catapult UK startup Moo onto a new international stage, the company has become the only one to deeply integrate its ‘social business cards’ with the Facebook platform today. Taking pictures from users’ Facebook Timeline information and photography, users will now be able to create 50 personalised business cards for £10/$15. But in a promotion from today Moo is giving away cards to the first 200,000 users, equivalent to 10 million cards.

The cards can feature a different photo image on the front of the cards together with a favourite quote or saying on the reverse. This will doubly act as a promo for Facebook’s Timelime as people will be able to take snapshots of their lives from their Timelines and put them onto the cards.

Facebook spokesperson Jillian Stefanki says “The MOO.COM integration makes it possible for people to take [the Timeline] experience with them offline.”

Richard Moross, CEO and Founder of MOO.COM told me the deal was put together daily quickly after an ‘enthusiastic Moo user” at Facebook, who was also a product manager, contacted him about a partnership.

The integration took about four or five weeks as although Moo had a basic integration with Facebook, “this is a more involved integration and we have had more exposure inside Facebok than before” says Moross.

Moo is the only partner for these social cards so far and won the contract with Facebook because it has “been doing this for 5/6 years so we are the most experienced online printer in working with social networks,” says Moross.

It also fulfils his original vision of the ‘social business card’: “My original idea was for a modern business card that connected online with offline, so it’s funny that years later this is now complete and it’s something which is very satisfying personally to me.”

He says Moo remains confident that it will be able to delver cards to anywhere in the world, given it has already done so in 200 different countries.

“We’re not quite sure where this could go but we’re confident we can scale this. We have capacity to print millions of cards a day and we’ve done this with many of partners before,” he says.

Moo’s revenues are made mostly in the US business followed by Europe then Asia.

Moo’s trump card, as it were, was its initial integration with Flickr. Now its Facebook integration could see the value of this startup soar. The company was backed by Atlas Venture, Index Ventures and The Accelerator Group with a $5m Series A round in 2006 but has not needed to raise money since.

He’s my personalised Facebook card:

Words With Friends Is Facebook’s Fastest Growing App

FROM: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-fastest-growing-2-2012-01

Words With Friends narrowly slides into the top spot in the first 2012 ranking of Facebook’s fastest growing applications.

 

Name	Daily Active Users	Monthly Active Users	Weekly Growth
1. Words With Friends	7,300,000	15,700,000	1,900,000
2. Static Iframe Tab	1,500,000	24,400,000	1,700,000
3. Causes	300,000	5,300,000	1,600,000
4. Yahoo	830,000	10,200,000	1,500,000
5. Family Tree	370,000	4,800,000	1,400,000
6. Tetris Battle	3,100,000	10,400,000	1,200,000
7. Iwipa Website: HTML + iframe + FBML	550,000	11,300,000	1,100,000
8. JibJab	120,000	4,700,000	1,000,000
9. Spotify	5,200,000	12,100,000	1,000,000
10. FarmVille	7,500,000	34,000,000	900,000
11. Birthday Cards	150,000	1,800,000	800,000
12. Static HTML… [Third Tab]	110,000	2,800,000	800,000
13. Pinterest	950,000	5,200,000	700,000
14. schoolFeed	1,200,000	3,700,000	700,000
15. Instagram	390,000	3,200,000	600,000
16. MyCalendar – Birthdays	1,600,000	41,800,000	600,000
17. Tarjetitas	120,000	1,900,000	600,000
18. Today Calendar	90,000	590,000	510,000
19. Are YOU Interested?	810,000	7,500,000	500,000
20. BandRx	330,000	6,500,000	500,000

 

Games

Zynga begins the year as Facebook’s leading developer for the first seven days. With a 14 percent growth rate, Words With Friends lands in the top spo,t gaining 1.9 million players. A little ways down in the middle of the countdown, FarmVille ends with a 900,000 increase.

Found ahead in sixth, Tetris Battle grows by 1.2 million gamers.

 

Page Tools

Static Iframe Tab ends the week in second, tallying a tabs built and view total of 1.7 million. Returning to the countdown in seventh, Iwipa earns a 1.1 million growth statistic. Static HTML… [Third Tab] collects a 800,000 increase, a 12th place return.

A popular tool for musicians takes the final position on the countdown; BandRx‘s 500,000 total secures it a position as a fastest growing app.

 

Community

Feeding homeless youth, a Dallas Cowboy holiday wish, and text while driving are just a few of the topics gaining popularity on Causes. The pledging application finishes strong in third amassing a 1,600,000 weekly growth total.

For a more personal sense of community, Family Tree connects relatives that may or may not be found on the social network; 1.4 million more Facebook users are now on the app. The next collegiate semester merely weeks away, SchoolFeed returns in 14th connecting 700,000 classmates.

 

Plug-Ins

Yahoo got 1.5 million new users synchronizing with Facebook, for a fourth place finish. Spotify got an additional million users, to rank ninth. A social network in its own right, Pinterest is13th with a weekly growth total of 700,000. Instagram ranks in the 15th position after 600,000 additions.

 

Gifts

Holidays are wrapping up, but JibJab remains strong in eighth as 1 million users search for just-right eCards. Developer RockYou gives social networkers pages of gifts to choose from in celebration of those special days using Birthday Cards; a 800,000 growth figure is good enough for 11th place.

OndaPix Tarjetitas is a Spanish competitor within the trend, and 600,000 new gift givers place the newcomer in the 17th spot.

 

Calendars

MyCalendar – Birthdays enjoys 600,000 additions, for a 16th place week. New to the list with a 510,000 increase Today Calendar comes in 18th.

 

Dating

Some 500,000 people added Are You Interested this week, putting the dating application in 19th place.

Readers, did you find yourself hooked on any of the week’s fastest growing apps?