Facebook Home gets mixed reviews from users
Ever since Facebook Home was released to the public, a lot of people have gotten their hands on it. While we can't exactly try it out for ourselves barring some hacked up version of the install package, we can look at some of the user reviews for Facebook Home on Google Play to give ourselves a good idea of how the app actually is.
Opinions on Facebook Home seem to be polarised. The review rating is averaging out at 2.5 out of 5 stars. The overwhelming consensus seems to steer towards the lower end of the rating scale, though, with the app having gotten 860 1-star reviews, as opposed to only 404 5-star reviews and 187 4-star reviews.
The biggest criticism faced by the app is that it eats up too much battery and data usage, while at the same time hampering regular Android features such as widgets. A 1-star review says: "The app's pretty lousy. Causes battery drain, severely hampers operation of your device, it just gets in the way of what you need/want to do."
Reactions have been mixed so far
Facebook lovers seem to have taken a liking to Facebook Home, however. Users have praised the app for being smooth and having quick access to their social feeds. A 5-star review says: "I have the galaxy note 2 it does a amazing job thank you facebook! Keep up the amazing work!"
Some of the average reviews, namely the 239 3-star reviews, mostly seem to have issues with the restrictions on homescreen customisation that Facebook Home seems to have. One of the 3-star reviews read: "Looks pretty. Messenger is cool with that chatheads. However, we should have more freedom controlling what we want on the Lock screen because I want the phone dialer there."
Facebook Home went live on Google Play in the late hours of the night. At the moment, the app isn't available to Indian users. It is only compatible with some of the highest-end devices out there, including the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy Note II.
Cover Feed on Facebook Home lets users view their News Feed posts as soon as they turn their phone on. They can swipe through these posts to view more, double tap to like a post and then can comment on a post from the cover feed.
Up next is Chat Heads and Messenger. Home users can install Messenger on their devices to send and receive texts and Facebook messages at the same location. Then there is the ability to move in and out of conversations while, say, watching a video or browsing the web. It is possible to type replies right from chat heads. Alternatively, users can choose to move them around, in case they don't want to respond to it right away.
As far as the service's location collecting abilities go, Facebook clarifies that it does not use the location any differently than the Facebook app that users already have on their Android phones. Importantly, it is possible to control the location permission in the phone's settings.
Review: Take the time to curate Facebook Timeline
Facebook Home gets mixed reviews from users
Ever since Facebook Home was released to the public, a lot of people have gotten their hands on it. While we can't exactly try it out for ourselves barring some hacked up version of the install package, we can look at some of the user reviews for Facebook Home on Google Play to give ourselves a good idea of how the app actually is.
Opinions on Facebook Home seem to be polarised. The review rating is averaging out at 2.5 out of 5 stars. The overwhelming consensus seems to steer towards the lower end of the rating scale, though, with the app having gotten 860 1-star reviews, as opposed to only 404 5-star reviews and 187 4-star reviews. The biggest criticism faced by the app is that it eats up too much battery and data usage, while at the same time hampering regular Android features such as widgets. A 1-star review says: "The app's pretty lousy. Causes battery drain, severely hampers operation of your device, it just gets in the way of what you need/want to do."
Reactions have been mixed so far
Facebook lovers seem to have taken a liking to Facebook Home, however. Users have praised the app for being smooth and having quick access to their social feeds. A 5-star review says: "I have the galaxy note 2 it does a amazing job thank you facebook! Keep up the amazing work!" Some of the average reviews, namely the 239 3-star reviews, mostly seem to have issues with the restrictions on homescreen customisation that Facebook Home seems to have. One of the 3-star reviews read: "Looks pretty. Messenger is cool with that chatheads. However, we should have more freedom controlling what we want on the Lock screen because I want the phone dialer there." Facebook Home went live on Google Play in the late hours of the night. At the moment, the app isn't available to Indian users. It is only compatible with some of the highest-end devices out there, including the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy Note II. Cover Feed on Facebook Home lets users view their News Feed posts as soon as they turn their phone on. They can swipe through these posts to view more, double tap to like a post and then can comment on a post from the cover feed. Up next is Chat Heads and Messenger. Home users can install Messenger on their devices to send and receive texts and Facebook messages at the same location. Then there is the ability to move in and out of conversations while, say, watching a video or browsing the web. It is possible to type replies right from chat heads. Alternatively, users can choose to move them around, in case they don't want to respond to it right away. As far as the service's location collecting abilities go, Facebook clarifies that it does not use the location any differently than the Facebook app that users already have on their Android phones. Importantly, it is possible to control the location permission in the phone's settings. |
Review: Take the time to curate Facebook Timeline
I've
often joked that if something's not on Facebook, it didn't happen.
Facebook's new Timeline feature makes that adage even more apparent.
Timeline is Facebook's new way of presenting you to the world. It replaces your traditional profile page - the one with your headshot and a smorgasbord of personal musings, photos and other items to share with friends. Instead of just a snapshot of you today, Timeline is supposed to be a scrapbook of your whole life.
But these highlights are culled from what Facebook sees as important - the stuff you and your friends have chosen to write or post photos about over the years. So it's crucial to spend time curating it, so your life doesn't come across as vain. If you're not careful, you also might reveal skeletons from your past to more recent friends.
Once you're ready for Timeline, you have a week to airbrush your life before it replaces your current profile. That's not a lot of time when you have (cough, cough) years of your life to go through. I suggest focusing on the years since you joined Facebook. You can always add photos from childhood later.
To set up Timeline, visit http://facebook.com/timeline . Facebook will force you to switch within a few weeks, so don't procrastinate.
MAKING A SPLASH
Start by choosing a cover photo, the image that will splash across the top. You can choose a sunset, your dog, a hobby, anything that reflects who you are. Keep in mind the dimensions are more like a movie screen than a traditional photo. A close-up portrait of your face won't work well, but one of you lying horizontally will.
Your old profile photo will still be there, but it'll be smaller.
If you haven't done so already, you can add where you've worked, lived and went to school. If you specify years - such as when you started a job - those items will be added to Timeline's stream of life events, even if they took place before Facebook's founding in 2004.
You can also add other life events to the stream, such as when you broke your arm and whom you were with then, or when you spoke your first word or got a tattoo. By adding them to Facebook, you signal that those things really did happen.
MORE ON THE STREAM
The timeline stream is your life on Facebook in reverse chronological order.
At the top are your recent status updates, comments from family and friends, photos you're in and events you've attended. As you scroll down, you'll get highlights from last month, then earlier in the year. Scroll down even further for last year, the year before that and so on. Click one of the "Show" links to get all posts from a particular month or year.
Posts will be more sporadic the further you go back. You'll see when you joined Facebook and the first post you ever made - mine was "Anick Jesdanun is wasting a lot of time on facebook."
Beyond that, you may see details about high school or college. A colleague even saw the birth of her younger brother listed, after having told Facebook which of her friends were her siblings.
The bottom simply says "Born" with your birth date and birthplace, if you've chosen to share that.
This may come across as a big privacy breach, but keep in mind that people could have seen many of those posts before by continually hitting "Older Posts." The difference is most people wouldn't bother. With Timeline, you can jump more quickly to older posts.
Another thing to consider: Although your privacy settings remain the same, your list of friends has likely grown over the years, and your definition of friends has probably broadened to include parents, bosses and random flings at weddings. Someone you didn't know in 2008 would suddenly have easier access to something you posted then.
CURATING YOUR LIFE
You can change who has access to which posts. Perhaps you'd want to narrow an embarrassing photo from Thanksgiving to family members who were there. You might want to delete other posts completely or hide them so that only you can see them.
You can change the date on a post. For example, if you had waited a week to tell the Facebook world that you broke up with someone, you can change the date to reflect when all the screaming and crying took place. You can also add where you were, retroactively using a location feature that Facebook hadn't offered until recently.
For major events in your life, you can click on a star to feature them more prominently.
You'll likely feel overwhelmed when you see your Timeline for the first time. Years-old posts made by people you're no longer friends with are still there. Musings on a trip or a long-forgotten event suddenly lack context. Your life may also come across as duplicative, such as when multiple friends post similar photos from the same party.
Here are a few tips:
- Start with your older posts. You were probably experimenting with Facebook then, and most of those could go into hiding. Plus, those are the ones you'd need to be most careful about because you had reason to believe only a few friends would see them.
- Find the button for Activity Log. Click that to see all of your posts at a glance and make changes to them one by one. Open Facebook in a new browser tab first, though. Every time you switch between the log and the timeline stream, Facebook resets to a default view rather than let you return to where you were. So have one tab for the log and the other for the stream.
- Think carefully about what you want to highlight when people scroll through your past. Facebook has a secret formula for determining which items are included in your highlights, using such factors as how many friends commented on a post. That may not necessarily be what you want to showcase.
Unfortunately, getting the stream to look right is difficult.
There's no easy way to highlight something Facebook's formula didn't pick, without starring it such that it gets splashed across the page. I also couldn't find a good way to remove something from the highlights without hiding or deleting it completely. There are events I wouldn't consider major, but would want people to see if they took the time to browse through my past.
There also ought to be a way to star or hide posts in batches.
And oddly, Facebook includes stuff posted by others, but it doesn't include items you've posted on other profiles. Older posts come across as one-sided without the back and forth for context.
MOVING FORWARD
Overall, I like the concept behind Timeline. I got a nice stroll down memory lane, and I enjoyed stalking my friends and uncovering their pasts, too.
I just wish it were easier to customize, and I don't appreciate being rushed. Facebook spent months developing Timeline and rolling it out to its 800 million users. Why give us just seven days?
If you're not ready to start Timeline, you can still view Timelines your friends have already activated. Just keep in mind that Facebook eventually will force you to switch, so you might as well do it now if you have the time.
You might also want to take this as an opportunity to clean up your presence on Facebook. Review your privacy settings and get rid of friends who don't need to be there.
Timeline is Facebook's new way of presenting you to the world. It replaces your traditional profile page - the one with your headshot and a smorgasbord of personal musings, photos and other items to share with friends. Instead of just a snapshot of you today, Timeline is supposed to be a scrapbook of your whole life.
But these highlights are culled from what Facebook sees as important - the stuff you and your friends have chosen to write or post photos about over the years. So it's crucial to spend time curating it, so your life doesn't come across as vain. If you're not careful, you also might reveal skeletons from your past to more recent friends.
Once you're ready for Timeline, you have a week to airbrush your life before it replaces your current profile. That's not a lot of time when you have (cough, cough) years of your life to go through. I suggest focusing on the years since you joined Facebook. You can always add photos from childhood later.
To set up Timeline, visit http://facebook.com/timeline . Facebook will force you to switch within a few weeks, so don't procrastinate.
MAKING A SPLASH
Start by choosing a cover photo, the image that will splash across the top. You can choose a sunset, your dog, a hobby, anything that reflects who you are. Keep in mind the dimensions are more like a movie screen than a traditional photo. A close-up portrait of your face won't work well, but one of you lying horizontally will.
Your old profile photo will still be there, but it'll be smaller.
If you haven't done so already, you can add where you've worked, lived and went to school. If you specify years - such as when you started a job - those items will be added to Timeline's stream of life events, even if they took place before Facebook's founding in 2004.
You can also add other life events to the stream, such as when you broke your arm and whom you were with then, or when you spoke your first word or got a tattoo. By adding them to Facebook, you signal that those things really did happen.
MORE ON THE STREAM
The timeline stream is your life on Facebook in reverse chronological order.
At the top are your recent status updates, comments from family and friends, photos you're in and events you've attended. As you scroll down, you'll get highlights from last month, then earlier in the year. Scroll down even further for last year, the year before that and so on. Click one of the "Show" links to get all posts from a particular month or year.
Posts will be more sporadic the further you go back. You'll see when you joined Facebook and the first post you ever made - mine was "Anick Jesdanun is wasting a lot of time on facebook."
Beyond that, you may see details about high school or college. A colleague even saw the birth of her younger brother listed, after having told Facebook which of her friends were her siblings.
The bottom simply says "Born" with your birth date and birthplace, if you've chosen to share that.
This may come across as a big privacy breach, but keep in mind that people could have seen many of those posts before by continually hitting "Older Posts." The difference is most people wouldn't bother. With Timeline, you can jump more quickly to older posts.
Another thing to consider: Although your privacy settings remain the same, your list of friends has likely grown over the years, and your definition of friends has probably broadened to include parents, bosses and random flings at weddings. Someone you didn't know in 2008 would suddenly have easier access to something you posted then.
CURATING YOUR LIFE
You can change who has access to which posts. Perhaps you'd want to narrow an embarrassing photo from Thanksgiving to family members who were there. You might want to delete other posts completely or hide them so that only you can see them.
You can change the date on a post. For example, if you had waited a week to tell the Facebook world that you broke up with someone, you can change the date to reflect when all the screaming and crying took place. You can also add where you were, retroactively using a location feature that Facebook hadn't offered until recently.
For major events in your life, you can click on a star to feature them more prominently.
You'll likely feel overwhelmed when you see your Timeline for the first time. Years-old posts made by people you're no longer friends with are still there. Musings on a trip or a long-forgotten event suddenly lack context. Your life may also come across as duplicative, such as when multiple friends post similar photos from the same party.
Here are a few tips:
- Start with your older posts. You were probably experimenting with Facebook then, and most of those could go into hiding. Plus, those are the ones you'd need to be most careful about because you had reason to believe only a few friends would see them.
- Find the button for Activity Log. Click that to see all of your posts at a glance and make changes to them one by one. Open Facebook in a new browser tab first, though. Every time you switch between the log and the timeline stream, Facebook resets to a default view rather than let you return to where you were. So have one tab for the log and the other for the stream.
- Think carefully about what you want to highlight when people scroll through your past. Facebook has a secret formula for determining which items are included in your highlights, using such factors as how many friends commented on a post. That may not necessarily be what you want to showcase.
Unfortunately, getting the stream to look right is difficult.
There's no easy way to highlight something Facebook's formula didn't pick, without starring it such that it gets splashed across the page. I also couldn't find a good way to remove something from the highlights without hiding or deleting it completely. There are events I wouldn't consider major, but would want people to see if they took the time to browse through my past.
There also ought to be a way to star or hide posts in batches.
And oddly, Facebook includes stuff posted by others, but it doesn't include items you've posted on other profiles. Older posts come across as one-sided without the back and forth for context.
MOVING FORWARD
Overall, I like the concept behind Timeline. I got a nice stroll down memory lane, and I enjoyed stalking my friends and uncovering their pasts, too.
I just wish it were easier to customize, and I don't appreciate being rushed. Facebook spent months developing Timeline and rolling it out to its 800 million users. Why give us just seven days?
If you're not ready to start Timeline, you can still view Timelines your friends have already activated. Just keep in mind that Facebook eventually will force you to switch, so you might as well do it now if you have the time.
You might also want to take this as an opportunity to clean up your presence on Facebook. Review your privacy settings and get rid of friends who don't need to be there.
Facebook shows off new home page design
Hoping to tame the blizzard of information that has turned off many
users and discouraged some advertisers, Facebook on Thursday unveiled a
major makeover of the home page that greets users when they log into the
site.The new design of the Facebook News Feed presents bigger photos
and links, including for advertisements, and lets users see specialized
streams focused on topics like music and posts by close friends.
The changes are designed to address the company's two most vital challenges: how to hold on to users at a time of competing, specialized social networks and how to draw more advertising dollars to please Wall Street.
Mark Zuckerberg, the company's co-founder and chief executive, said at a news conference that he wanted Facebook to be "the best personalized newspaper in the world." And like a newspaper editor, he wants the "front page" of Facebook to be more engaging - in particular on the smaller screens of mobile devices.
The topic-specific News Feeds could well persuade users to spend more time scrolling through various streams of content. And the redesign will offer bigger real estate for advertisers, including more opportunities for brands to feature bigger pictures, which marketers say are more persuasive than words.
Facebook's proprietary algorithms, which try to guess what every user will want to see, will continue to filter the items that show up on each person's main News Feed. And users will be able to drill down into specific topics they are interested in, akin to the sections of a newspaper.
For instance, they can switch over to specialized feeds that are focused on just the music they are interested in, or they can scroll through a feed that consists of posts from the pages of products and people they follow - a bit like Twitter. If they want to see everything that their friends have posted, they can choose to do that, too; those posts will rush down in chronological order, without any filtering by Facebook's robots.
Facebook introduced the new design to some users of the Web version of its service Thursday and will extend it to all Web users and to mobile apps in coming weeks.
It's unclear how users will react to the changes; in the past, major design changes have often been greeted by complaints, at least initially.
Investors seemed to welcome the new look. Shares of Facebook rose 4.1 percent Tuesday, to $28.58. But the company's stock price remains substantially lower than its $38 initial public offering price last May.
Facebook is clearly hoping the new format will encourage users to stay longer on the site. At the news conference to announce the changes, officials offered examples of content they hoped would be compelling photos of a cousin's babies on one area of the page, Justin Timberlake concert news on another, a list of stories your friends liked on National Public Radio on still another.
"The best personalized newspaper should have a broad diversity of content," Zuckerberg said. "The most important stuff is going to be on the front page," he went on. "Then people have a chance to dig in."
The announcement met with swift praise from the advertising industry. In addition to bigger ad formats, the redesign's specialized content streams could keep users glued to the site longer, marketers said.
"This will result in more time spent overall on the Facebook News Feed - and of course, increase engagement with content and ads," said Hussein Fazal, chief executive of AdParlor, which buys advertisements on Facebook on behalf of several brands.
Facebook executives suggested that there would be no immediate changes to the number of advertisements that appear on the News Feed.
Julie Zhou, the company's design chief, said only that ads would be more visual. "Everything across the board is going to get this richer, more immersive design," Zhou said.
The redesign is also a nod to the ubiquity of mobile devices, which a majority of Facebook's 1 billion users worldwide use to log into their accounts. Pictures will show up bigger in the News Feed, and there will be larger images of maps and links to articles. In that way, the new look is a nod to other social networks that are seeing viral growth, like Pinterest, which is built around large pictures.
The new News Feed emphasizes the importance of photographs, which are one of Facebook's most underexploited assets. Zuckerberg said half of all News Feed posts were pictures, compared with about a quarter of all posts a year ago. Every day, 350 million pictures are uploaded to Facebook by individual users and brands.
The new design is virtually identical on the desktop and on tablets and cellphones.
Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Robert W. Baird, said the changes were positive for the company. "We see this as more likely enhancing the longer-term value of Facebook for both users and advertisers rather than adding materially to financial performance in the very near term," he said.
Users weighed in on Twitter.
"Not sure if (AT)facebook is merchandising our attention or Zuckerberg cares about our reading habits," Daixin Neill-Quan, a self-described Boston University senior, posted after the news.
Others pointed out that Flipboard, a popular app, already offers a personalized newspaper in which users choose the topics and publications they are interested in.
Siva Vaidhyanathan, chairman of the media studies department at the University of Virginia, said the redesign could help educate users as to just how much Facebook's algorithms filter what they see on what they think of as their social network.
"Users will at least be under less of an illusion that what's happening on Facebook is merely a function of what their friends are doing," he said. "Facebook is the puppet master of our social network."
© 2013, The New York Times News Service
The changes are designed to address the company's two most vital challenges: how to hold on to users at a time of competing, specialized social networks and how to draw more advertising dollars to please Wall Street.
Mark Zuckerberg, the company's co-founder and chief executive, said at a news conference that he wanted Facebook to be "the best personalized newspaper in the world." And like a newspaper editor, he wants the "front page" of Facebook to be more engaging - in particular on the smaller screens of mobile devices.
The topic-specific News Feeds could well persuade users to spend more time scrolling through various streams of content. And the redesign will offer bigger real estate for advertisers, including more opportunities for brands to feature bigger pictures, which marketers say are more persuasive than words.
Facebook's proprietary algorithms, which try to guess what every user will want to see, will continue to filter the items that show up on each person's main News Feed. And users will be able to drill down into specific topics they are interested in, akin to the sections of a newspaper.
For instance, they can switch over to specialized feeds that are focused on just the music they are interested in, or they can scroll through a feed that consists of posts from the pages of products and people they follow - a bit like Twitter. If they want to see everything that their friends have posted, they can choose to do that, too; those posts will rush down in chronological order, without any filtering by Facebook's robots.
Facebook introduced the new design to some users of the Web version of its service Thursday and will extend it to all Web users and to mobile apps in coming weeks.
It's unclear how users will react to the changes; in the past, major design changes have often been greeted by complaints, at least initially.
Investors seemed to welcome the new look. Shares of Facebook rose 4.1 percent Tuesday, to $28.58. But the company's stock price remains substantially lower than its $38 initial public offering price last May.
Facebook is clearly hoping the new format will encourage users to stay longer on the site. At the news conference to announce the changes, officials offered examples of content they hoped would be compelling photos of a cousin's babies on one area of the page, Justin Timberlake concert news on another, a list of stories your friends liked on National Public Radio on still another.
"The best personalized newspaper should have a broad diversity of content," Zuckerberg said. "The most important stuff is going to be on the front page," he went on. "Then people have a chance to dig in."
The announcement met with swift praise from the advertising industry. In addition to bigger ad formats, the redesign's specialized content streams could keep users glued to the site longer, marketers said.
"This will result in more time spent overall on the Facebook News Feed - and of course, increase engagement with content and ads," said Hussein Fazal, chief executive of AdParlor, which buys advertisements on Facebook on behalf of several brands.
Facebook executives suggested that there would be no immediate changes to the number of advertisements that appear on the News Feed.
Julie Zhou, the company's design chief, said only that ads would be more visual. "Everything across the board is going to get this richer, more immersive design," Zhou said.
The redesign is also a nod to the ubiquity of mobile devices, which a majority of Facebook's 1 billion users worldwide use to log into their accounts. Pictures will show up bigger in the News Feed, and there will be larger images of maps and links to articles. In that way, the new look is a nod to other social networks that are seeing viral growth, like Pinterest, which is built around large pictures.
The new News Feed emphasizes the importance of photographs, which are one of Facebook's most underexploited assets. Zuckerberg said half of all News Feed posts were pictures, compared with about a quarter of all posts a year ago. Every day, 350 million pictures are uploaded to Facebook by individual users and brands.
The new design is virtually identical on the desktop and on tablets and cellphones.
Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Robert W. Baird, said the changes were positive for the company. "We see this as more likely enhancing the longer-term value of Facebook for both users and advertisers rather than adding materially to financial performance in the very near term," he said.
Users weighed in on Twitter.
"Not sure if (AT)facebook is merchandising our attention or Zuckerberg cares about our reading habits," Daixin Neill-Quan, a self-described Boston University senior, posted after the news.
Others pointed out that Flipboard, a popular app, already offers a personalized newspaper in which users choose the topics and publications they are interested in.
Siva Vaidhyanathan, chairman of the media studies department at the University of Virginia, said the redesign could help educate users as to just how much Facebook's algorithms filter what they see on what they think of as their social network.
"Users will at least be under less of an illusion that what's happening on Facebook is merely a function of what their friends are doing," he said. "Facebook is the puppet master of our social network."
© 2013, The New York Times News Service
Facebook's News Feed revamp puts 'mobile first'
Facebook Inc introduced the biggest change in years to its popular
newsfeed on Thursday, with a new look and focus on photos that is
expected to make the social network more ad-friendly and may entice
users to spend more time on the website.The changes to the newsfeed,
whose look and feel had remained largely unchanged since Facebook's
inception, include a division into several sections, with separate areas
for photographs and music.
The newsfeed is the ever-changing stream of photos, videos and comments uploaded from friends, and is the first page most users see upon logging in.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the makeover was part of an effort to position the social network as a "personalized newspaper," complete with different sections for users to explore.
It comes with a revamped interface that gives more prominence to visual media, such as photos and videos.
The makeover comes roughly a month after Facebook introduced a new social search feature it dubbed "graph search" that makes it easier for the social network's more than 1 billion users to discover more content on the social network.
The much-needed changes unveiled on Thursday, which standardize the network's look across different types of desktop and mobile devices, bring Facebook up-to-date as Google+, the much younger social network started by Google Inc, begins to incorporate more video and images.
"This is just going to provide more opportunity for people to click around and stick around," said Brian Blau, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner, about the revamped newsfeed.
"The newsfeed was kind of outdated. This sort of brings it up to maybe what's comparable to their competition, and partner sites that are focusing on media and richness."
Facebook's newsfeed is one of three "pillars" of the service, along with search and user profiles.
The updated newsfeed provides more space for the photos and videos that users share on the network, and provides a more consistent look and feel between the version for PCs and for mobile devices such assmartphones and tablets. The changes will begin rolling out in limited fashion from Thursday, Facebook said.
Facebook executives say the updates will help keep organized the increasing jumble of content available on the social network as its user base grows.
The last major update to the feature occurred in September 2011. Since then, the company has incorporated ads directly into the feed and has shifted its focus to creating "mobile-first experiences," because more people now access the social network from smartphones than from desktop computers.
Facebook vs Google
Marketers will be able to fashion more compelling ads thanks to the increased real estate for photos, said Hussein Fazal, the chief executive of AdParlor, a firm that helps companies advertise on Facebook. "Larger images will result in higher click through-rates, a higher level of engagement and better performance," Fazal wrote in an email.
Still, analysts say the company needs to tread carefully to avoid inundating users' various feeds with advertising, as Facebook tries to sustain a rapid pace of growth that helped it debut on public markets at the highest-ever valuation for a technology company.
The world's largest social network is moving to regain Wall Street's confidence after its botched IPO last year, addressing concerns about its long-term prospects - many of which center on an industry-wide shift toward the use of mobile devices.
Facebook shares, which are still more than a quarter off their IPO price of $38, closed up 4 percent at $28.57 on Thursday on the Nasdaq.
Facebook and Google, which both got their start on desktop computers, are now managing a transition of their products onto smartphones and tablets, which typically yield less revenue than on PCs.
The two Internet mainstays are also waging a war for revenue in mobile advertising - a market that is still small compared with the traditional desktop but that is growing exponentially.
In terms of overall mobile advertising, Google commanded a 53.5 percent share in 2012, aided by its dominance in search-based ads. Facebook had just 8.4 percent, a distant runner-up, according to estimates from research house eMarketer.
But in terms of mobile display ad sales, Facebook narrowly edges out its rival with 18.4 percent of the market versus Google's 17 percent, the research outfit estimated.
Pressure on the system
The makeover is partly prompted by complaints about increasing clutter on Facebook's network.
As Facebook has grown to more than 1 billion users, the amount of content that users and companies post to the website has surged. Facebook users only see a small portion of that content, culled by Facebook's proprietary algorithm.
In recent months, some companies and users, including entrepreneur Mark Cuban, have grumbled that their content was not getting enough exposure in the newsfeed, because Facebook gives paid ads priority in the newsfeed.
Facebook's vice president of product, Chris Cox, acknowledged that there was "more pressure on the system" to feature the various content, as Facebook has grown in size.
The additional newsfeeds provide more opportunities for content to appear in front of users. A photos-only feed displays pictures shared by a user's connections on Facebook as well as on Facebook-ownedInstagram and other photo apps that are integrated with the social network.
A revamped version of an existing but little-used Music feed aggregates the songs that a user's friends are listening to, and includes posts from bands and performers in which a user has expressed an interest.
Facebook also introduced a "Friends Only" feed that displays every message shared by a user's friends in chronological order rather than chosen by an algorithm as well as a "Following" feed that gathers posts from news publishers, celebrities, sports teams and other groups or businesses that a user subscribes to.
"The basic idea is sometimes you want five minutes and you want to see the top stuff, sometimes you want to spend an hour and go through a lot of different stuff," Cox said in an interview after the event.
The additional feeds could also provide Facebook with more space to offer ads on its newsfeed, though a spokeswoman said the additional news feeds would not initially feature ads.
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Concerns arose when Facebook changed its privacy policy to make way for Graph Search. The new policy made it impossible for users to hide their entire timelines from search results, although individual posts can be hidden one at a time by choosing the most restrictive privacy setting for that item.
Even CEO Mark Zuckerberg's sister, Randi Zuckerberg, was caught unawares by the new privacy settings. When a photo she posted -- which was intended to be private -- became public, she raised a stink and got it removed.
Those users who previously had opted out of having their timelines appear in search results then were forced to change the privacy settings for each post if they wanted it to remain out of sight.
"Users should periodically review those changes and ratchet down the settings. They give you the tools to do that," Claudia Rast, attorney at Butzel Long, told TechNewsWorld.
Checking one's privacy settings frequently is widely recommended. More changes are likely on the way -- either as part of Graph or for other reasons.
"The reason that they do it is they don't believe that people are paying attention," Alan Webber, analyst at Altimeter Group, told TechNewsWorld.
Facebook has a privacy blog, and typically posts any time there is a change so that users can keep up with changes. Weber said the blog is a good starting point for learning about changes, but sometimes deeper digging is required to find out all the implications. Privacy changes made in time for Graph Search came around the time of the announcement, but the post was brief.
"Facebook has not included posts as part of Graph Search yet, but the language on their website makes it seem like this is an upcoming feature. Just like when Timeline rolled out, users are going to see old posts from a different era of Facebook privacy," Adi Kandar, activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told TechNewsWorld.
When Facebook and other social-networking sites make privacy changes, users typically hear about the changes through friends, news stories or the network itself. Sometimes the advice from friends is wrong -- such as posting a statement in a newstream -- and other times the advice is useful. A tip saying, "Go to Facebook privacy settings and click this box" is more effective in protecting posts. Users can also go to Facebook for that advice.
"Facebook does a decent job of explaining exactly how users can limit what shows up on search results. That being said, the ability to remove oneself from search results altogether is a necessary level of control to prevent unwanted messages of friend requests," said Kandar.
Graph Search, and the resulting changes to Facebook's privacy settings, appear to be a user feature, but there are back-end uses for advertisers.
"Before the arrival of Facebook's Graph Search, the search function on Facebook was basic and as such, a wasted opportunity given Facebook's imperative to strengthen advertising revenues. Facebook Graph Search will no doubt leverage member data to provide advertisers with more targeted, personalized advertising opportunities going forward," said Eden Zoller, principal analyst at Ovum, in a statement calling for Facebook to make it easier for users to opt out.
"Facebook needs to tread very carefully here and be mindful of user privacy," he continued. "It claims to have built Graph Search with privacy in mind, but Facebook has a mixed track record on this front and is in the habit of pushing privacy to the limits of what is acceptable."
"What you have to accept is that social-media companies, or Facebook, have a license for that company to use your content or your photos, except if you change your settings," said Rast.
As Facebook develops new features -- and works on ways to monetize its property -- it will continue to make changes to its privacy policy.
"I think there's a degradation of privacy going on, and it has been going on for a while," Webber said. "When you see new technologies being introduced, you see it eating away at our privacy. That's when you begin to see somewhat of a backlash."
The newsfeed is the ever-changing stream of photos, videos and comments uploaded from friends, and is the first page most users see upon logging in.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the makeover was part of an effort to position the social network as a "personalized newspaper," complete with different sections for users to explore.
It comes with a revamped interface that gives more prominence to visual media, such as photos and videos.
The makeover comes roughly a month after Facebook introduced a new social search feature it dubbed "graph search" that makes it easier for the social network's more than 1 billion users to discover more content on the social network.
The much-needed changes unveiled on Thursday, which standardize the network's look across different types of desktop and mobile devices, bring Facebook up-to-date as Google+, the much younger social network started by Google Inc, begins to incorporate more video and images.
"This is just going to provide more opportunity for people to click around and stick around," said Brian Blau, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner, about the revamped newsfeed.
"The newsfeed was kind of outdated. This sort of brings it up to maybe what's comparable to their competition, and partner sites that are focusing on media and richness."
Facebook's newsfeed is one of three "pillars" of the service, along with search and user profiles.
The updated newsfeed provides more space for the photos and videos that users share on the network, and provides a more consistent look and feel between the version for PCs and for mobile devices such assmartphones and tablets. The changes will begin rolling out in limited fashion from Thursday, Facebook said.
Facebook executives say the updates will help keep organized the increasing jumble of content available on the social network as its user base grows.
The last major update to the feature occurred in September 2011. Since then, the company has incorporated ads directly into the feed and has shifted its focus to creating "mobile-first experiences," because more people now access the social network from smartphones than from desktop computers.
Facebook vs Google
Marketers will be able to fashion more compelling ads thanks to the increased real estate for photos, said Hussein Fazal, the chief executive of AdParlor, a firm that helps companies advertise on Facebook. "Larger images will result in higher click through-rates, a higher level of engagement and better performance," Fazal wrote in an email.
Still, analysts say the company needs to tread carefully to avoid inundating users' various feeds with advertising, as Facebook tries to sustain a rapid pace of growth that helped it debut on public markets at the highest-ever valuation for a technology company.
The world's largest social network is moving to regain Wall Street's confidence after its botched IPO last year, addressing concerns about its long-term prospects - many of which center on an industry-wide shift toward the use of mobile devices.
Facebook shares, which are still more than a quarter off their IPO price of $38, closed up 4 percent at $28.57 on Thursday on the Nasdaq.
Facebook and Google, which both got their start on desktop computers, are now managing a transition of their products onto smartphones and tablets, which typically yield less revenue than on PCs.
The two Internet mainstays are also waging a war for revenue in mobile advertising - a market that is still small compared with the traditional desktop but that is growing exponentially.
In terms of overall mobile advertising, Google commanded a 53.5 percent share in 2012, aided by its dominance in search-based ads. Facebook had just 8.4 percent, a distant runner-up, according to estimates from research house eMarketer.
But in terms of mobile display ad sales, Facebook narrowly edges out its rival with 18.4 percent of the market versus Google's 17 percent, the research outfit estimated.
Pressure on the system
The makeover is partly prompted by complaints about increasing clutter on Facebook's network.
As Facebook has grown to more than 1 billion users, the amount of content that users and companies post to the website has surged. Facebook users only see a small portion of that content, culled by Facebook's proprietary algorithm.
In recent months, some companies and users, including entrepreneur Mark Cuban, have grumbled that their content was not getting enough exposure in the newsfeed, because Facebook gives paid ads priority in the newsfeed.
Facebook's vice president of product, Chris Cox, acknowledged that there was "more pressure on the system" to feature the various content, as Facebook has grown in size.
The additional newsfeeds provide more opportunities for content to appear in front of users. A photos-only feed displays pictures shared by a user's connections on Facebook as well as on Facebook-ownedInstagram and other photo apps that are integrated with the social network.
A revamped version of an existing but little-used Music feed aggregates the songs that a user's friends are listening to, and includes posts from bands and performers in which a user has expressed an interest.
Facebook also introduced a "Friends Only" feed that displays every message shared by a user's friends in chronological order rather than chosen by an algorithm as well as a "Following" feed that gathers posts from news publishers, celebrities, sports teams and other groups or businesses that a user subscribes to.
"The basic idea is sometimes you want five minutes and you want to see the top stuff, sometimes you want to spend an hour and go through a lot of different stuff," Cox said in an interview after the event.
The additional feeds could also provide Facebook with more space to offer ads on its newsfeed, though a spokeswoman said the additional news feeds would not initially feature ads.
Facebook's Graph Search Turns Up Privacy Issues
The privacy chorus has begun to chime in on
Facebook's new Graph Search feature, saying mainly that it's hard for
people to know which of their information will turn up in results. "What
you have to accept," said Butzel Long attorney Claudia Rast, "is that
social-media companies, or Facebook, have a license for that company to
use your content or your photos, except if you change your settings."
Simplify in-house IT management with GFI Cloud, reduce costs and streamline operations. From a single, unified, web-based platform it offers integrated antivirus, asset tracking, network monitoring and remote control. Start a 30 day free trial today.
Facebook's introduction of Graph Search has been greeted with -- wait for it -- complaints about privacy.
Graph Search is a feature Facebook introduced to allow users to enter
parameter-based searches to find friends -- and friends of friends --
who share certain interests. A search for "friends who ski" or even more
specifically "friends who ski in Arizona" will narrow the results
within that field.Concerns arose when Facebook changed its privacy policy to make way for Graph Search. The new policy made it impossible for users to hide their entire timelines from search results, although individual posts can be hidden one at a time by choosing the most restrictive privacy setting for that item.
Even CEO Mark Zuckerberg's sister, Randi Zuckerberg, was caught unawares by the new privacy settings. When a photo she posted -- which was intended to be private -- became public, she raised a stink and got it removed.
Those users who previously had opted out of having their timelines appear in search results then were forced to change the privacy settings for each post if they wanted it to remain out of sight.
Reviewing Privacy Settings
While it is laborious, it may be the cost of using Facebook -- and good advice for other social networking sites as well. As sites evolve, their privacy settings evolve with it, and it's advisable to keep up with the current settings."Users should periodically review those changes and ratchet down the settings. They give you the tools to do that," Claudia Rast, attorney at Butzel Long, told TechNewsWorld.
Checking one's privacy settings frequently is widely recommended. More changes are likely on the way -- either as part of Graph or for other reasons.
"The reason that they do it is they don't believe that people are paying attention," Alan Webber, analyst at Altimeter Group, told TechNewsWorld.
Facebook has a privacy blog, and typically posts any time there is a change so that users can keep up with changes. Weber said the blog is a good starting point for learning about changes, but sometimes deeper digging is required to find out all the implications. Privacy changes made in time for Graph Search came around the time of the announcement, but the post was brief.
"Facebook has not included posts as part of Graph Search yet, but the language on their website makes it seem like this is an upcoming feature. Just like when Timeline rolled out, users are going to see old posts from a different era of Facebook privacy," Adi Kandar, activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told TechNewsWorld.
When Facebook and other social-networking sites make privacy changes, users typically hear about the changes through friends, news stories or the network itself. Sometimes the advice from friends is wrong -- such as posting a statement in a newstream -- and other times the advice is useful. A tip saying, "Go to Facebook privacy settings and click this box" is more effective in protecting posts. Users can also go to Facebook for that advice.
"Facebook does a decent job of explaining exactly how users can limit what shows up on search results. That being said, the ability to remove oneself from search results altogether is a necessary level of control to prevent unwanted messages of friend requests," said Kandar.
Graph Search, and the resulting changes to Facebook's privacy settings, appear to be a user feature, but there are back-end uses for advertisers.
"Before the arrival of Facebook's Graph Search, the search function on Facebook was basic and as such, a wasted opportunity given Facebook's imperative to strengthen advertising revenues. Facebook Graph Search will no doubt leverage member data to provide advertisers with more targeted, personalized advertising opportunities going forward," said Eden Zoller, principal analyst at Ovum, in a statement calling for Facebook to make it easier for users to opt out.
"Facebook needs to tread very carefully here and be mindful of user privacy," he continued. "It claims to have built Graph Search with privacy in mind, but Facebook has a mixed track record on this front and is in the habit of pushing privacy to the limits of what is acceptable."
Degradation of Privacy
The challenge Facebook encounters is that it has a larger user base than most other companies, so any changes cause a larger ripple than most companies face. Users must be vigilant about the privacy settings they apply to anything they post if they wish to keep it from being seen by unintended eyes."What you have to accept is that social-media companies, or Facebook, have a license for that company to use your content or your photos, except if you change your settings," said Rast.
As Facebook develops new features -- and works on ways to monetize its property -- it will continue to make changes to its privacy policy.
"I think there's a degradation of privacy going on, and it has been going on for a while," Webber said. "When you see new technologies being introduced, you see it eating away at our privacy. That's when you begin to see somewhat of a backlash."
Facebook Messenger Not Just for Text Messages Anymore
Facebook's Messenger app will now send voice
messages, and a voice-calling feature is being tested in Canada. "I'm
actually surprised they didn't do this sooner," said analyst Zeus
Kerravala. "If you look at industry metrics, people tend to stay in
Facebook longer than almost any other Internet-based application."
Simplify in-house IT management with GFI Cloud, reduce costs and streamline operations. From a single, unified, web-based platform it offers integrated antivirus, asset tracking, network monitoring and remote control. Start a 30 day free trial today.
Facebook has added a
recording feature to its Messenger mobile app, allowing mobile users to
send each other voice messages without using their voice minutes.
In addition to the recorded message options, iPhone users in Canada
are able to make voice calls via Facebook's mobile app. Users can tap
the "i" button in the app and hit "Free Call" in the updated app to call
a contact. The feature uses existing data plans to record messages and
make calls.The voice over IP feature could potentially allow Facebook to compete more directly with services such as Google Voice or Microsoft's Skype, which allow users to make voice calls and video chat for free or low rates. Apple's iMessage service also lets users convert voice to text messages.
In the updated version of the app, iOS and Android users can tap the "+" button and hold down the red Record button to record a message. To send, a user simply releases the button when they're done. A timer limits messages to 60 seconds. To redo or cancel the recorded message, the user can slide their finger off the button.
Facebook did not respond to our request to comment for this story.
Logical Step
Adding voice recording features to its mobile app is a natural business step for Facebook, said Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research. One of the social network's biggest goals is to keep users engaged and active inside its ecosystem. Instead of making them exit Messenger to make a call or send a voice message, then, Facebook is offering users the chance for its app to be a one-stop communication shop."I'm actually surprised they didn't do this sooner," he told TechNewsWorld. "If you look at industry metrics, people tend to stay in Facebook longer than almost any other Internet-based application. Leaving that to call someone can be disruptive, so the next step is obviously to use that mobile device for exactly what it is supposed to do, call people."
Right now, that calling is only available in Canada. If Facebook expands that offering, though, the feature could be a huge bonus for smartphone users that are opting for more data and fewer voice minutes in their service plans, said Greg Sterling, founder of Sterling Market Intelligence.
"Heavy Facebook users who have limited voice minutes but unlimited data, for example, would probably find it appealing," he told TechNewsWorld.
Mobile Money
Drawing those users is critical for Facebook's business plan. Since going public last May, the company has been working to show investors it can remain relevant in the constantly evolving digital world, especially as digital users are turning more to smartphones and tablets and away from PCs."One of the big mysteries for Facebook is how it monetizes mobile, and this could go a long way to solving this holy grail of theirs," said Kerravala.
Eventually, if it expands its voice calling options, Facebook could add short ads to calls or charge small fees to make money from the service, said Pim Bilderbeek, founder of Bilderbeek Consulting.
"This is a precursor to monetizing voice and video communications," he pointed out. "I can see Facebook charging a fee for calls to and from the carrier networks, for instance. I can also see Facebook adding more countries beyond Canada."
Before that, though, Messenger usage needs to grow, Sterling pointed out. Facebook has taken some steps to drive adoption lately. It recently allowed Android Messenger users log in without a Facebook account, requiring just a name and a phone number to download and use the app's messaging services. It also launched Poke, giving users the ability to send messages that disappear after a specified amount of time. The app is meant to compete with the popular app Snapchat.
Only by steps like those, such as eliminating some of the barriers to joining Messenger and adding novelty features, could Messenger dream of taking on a service such as Skype, said Sterling.
"First, Facebook has to drive adoption and usage before it can consider ads," he noted. "If it develops a large enough and engaged enough user base, it can make money off Messenger."
Facebook's Graph Search Turns Up Privacy Issues
The privacy chorus has begun to chime in on
Facebook's new Graph Search feature, saying mainly that it's hard for
people to know which of their information will turn up in results. "What
you have to accept," said Butzel Long attorney Claudia Rast, "is that
social-media companies, or Facebook, have a license for that company to
use your content or your photos, except if you change your settings."
Simplify in-house IT management with GFI Cloud, reduce costs and streamline operations. From a single, unified, web-based platform it offers integrated antivirus, asset tracking, network monitoring and remote control. Start a 30 day free trial today.
Facebook's introduction of Graph Search has been greeted with -- wait for it -- complaints about privacy.
Graph Search is a feature Facebook introduced to allow users to enter
parameter-based searches to find friends -- and friends of friends --
who share certain interests. A search for "friends who ski" or even more
specifically "friends who ski in Arizona" will narrow the results
within that field.Concerns arose when Facebook changed its privacy policy to make way for Graph Search. The new policy made it impossible for users to hide their entire timelines from search results, although individual posts can be hidden one at a time by choosing the most restrictive privacy setting for that item.
Even CEO Mark Zuckerberg's sister, Randi Zuckerberg, was caught unawares by the new privacy settings. When a photo she posted -- which was intended to be private -- became public, she raised a stink and got it removed.
Those users who previously had opted out of having their timelines appear in search results then were forced to change the privacy settings for each post if they wanted it to remain out of sight.
Reviewing Privacy Settings
While it is laborious, it may be the cost of using Facebook -- and good advice for other social networking sites as well. As sites evolve, their privacy settings evolve with it, and it's advisable to keep up with the current settings."Users should periodically review those changes and ratchet down the settings. They give you the tools to do that," Claudia Rast, attorney at Butzel Long, told TechNewsWorld.
Checking one's privacy settings frequently is widely recommended. More changes are likely on the way -- either as part of Graph or for other reasons.
"The reason that they do it is they don't believe that people are paying attention," Alan Webber, analyst at Altimeter Group, told TechNewsWorld.
Facebook has a privacy blog, and typically posts any time there is a change so that users can keep up with changes. Weber said the blog is a good starting point for learning about changes, but sometimes deeper digging is required to find out all the implications. Privacy changes made in time for Graph Search came around the time of the announcement, but the post was brief.
"Facebook has not included posts as part of Graph Search yet, but the language on their website makes it seem like this is an upcoming feature. Just like when Timeline rolled out, users are going to see old posts from a different era of Facebook privacy," Adi Kandar, activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told TechNewsWorld.
When Facebook and other social-networking sites make privacy changes, users typically hear about the changes through friends, news stories or the network itself. Sometimes the advice from friends is wrong -- such as posting a statement in a newstream -- and other times the advice is useful. A tip saying, "Go to Facebook privacy settings and click this box" is more effective in protecting posts. Users can also go to Facebook for that advice.
"Facebook does a decent job of explaining exactly how users can limit what shows up on search results. That being said, the ability to remove oneself from search results altogether is a necessary level of control to prevent unwanted messages of friend requests," said Kandar.
Graph Search, and the resulting changes to Facebook's privacy settings, appear to be a user feature, but there are back-end uses for advertisers.
"Before the arrival of Facebook's Graph Search, the search function on Facebook was basic and as such, a wasted opportunity given Facebook's imperative to strengthen advertising revenues. Facebook Graph Search will no doubt leverage member data to provide advertisers with more targeted, personalized advertising opportunities going forward," said Eden Zoller, principal analyst at Ovum, in a statement calling for Facebook to make it easier for users to opt out.
"Facebook needs to tread very carefully here and be mindful of user privacy," he continued. "It claims to have built Graph Search with privacy in mind, but Facebook has a mixed track record on this front and is in the habit of pushing privacy to the limits of what is acceptable."
Degradation of Privacy
The challenge Facebook encounters is that it has a larger user base than most other companies, so any changes cause a larger ripple than most companies face. Users must be vigilant about the privacy settings they apply to anything they post if they wish to keep it from being seen by unintended eyes."What you have to accept is that social-media companies, or Facebook, have a license for that company to use your content or your photos, except if you change your settings," said Rast.
As Facebook develops new features -- and works on ways to monetize its property -- it will continue to make changes to its privacy policy.
"I think there's a degradation of privacy going on, and it has been going on for a while," Webber said. "When you see new technologies being introduced, you see it eating away at our privacy. That's when you begin to see somewhat of a backlash."
FaceWash helps clean up your Facebook profile
Here’s one
for all you perverts that swarm Facebook. Researchers from Kent State
University have developed an app for Facebook that will help you clean
up the potentially embarrassing “stuff” off your Facebook Profile.
Aptly titled “FaceWash,” the app scans
through one’s profile for any mention of questionable content such as
photos, posts, status updates, ‘liked’ pages etc. The app was developed
by Daniel Gur, Camden Fullmer and David Steinberg when they realized
that people might need a way to clean up their extensive Facebook
activity in order maintain good chances of future employment.
In order to cleanse your dirty wall, all you have to do is browse over to facewa.sh
followed by going to the app and giving it access to all your dirty
laundry. Once all necessary permissions have been granted, just click on
the Start icon and the app will start scanning for questionable
content. You can also define custom search words to look for, which is
pretty good for looking up posts that contain dirty slang. The app will
conclude the search with clearly marked results and show links to each
of the post to make their removal a breeze.
The FaceWash app, currently in Beta, is
going to be saving many people a whole lot of embarrassment (and jobs!)
given how effective it is. FaceWash is still in beta, but if you’re
about to go for an interview and don’t want your future employer coming
up on your drunken shenanigans, we recommend giving this app a spin.
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