The recent data comes from analytics firm SocialBakers, which also says that the UK saw a drop of 1.4 million Facebook users last month. Between the US and UK, the average percentage drop within the last month was 4.25%, which isn’t bad at all, but that obviously doesn’t make up a majority of Facebook users.

Furthermore, however, the last six months have seen a total drop of nine million users in the US and two million in the UK. Other countries are reporting similar results as well, including Canada, Spain, France, Germany, and Japan. The average time spent on Facebook has also fallen to six minutes since December.

However, usage continues to grow. Developing countries are getting in on Facebook, with Facebook usage in Brazil rising by 6%, up to a monthly total of 70 million users. India also has seen growth of 4%, up to 64 million monthly users. Of course, though, we still can’t help but feel that this will affect advertising for the social network, but it may not be a huge hit for them at all.

[via The Guardian]

The developer for Cloud Hero was inspired by the Blogger/Google+ commenting system integration and decided that WordPress needed one as well. And voila, he managed to develop a Google+ comments plugin for WordPress. Since it’s not an official release from Google, it still has some kinks in it, but it still manages to integrate nicely with WordPress. It has similar features to the Blogger plugin, where you can choose to view comments from everyone, or just from certain circles.

As of right now, the plugin is only available through Cloud Hero and you will have to install it manually, however, Cloud Hero has submitted the plugin to WordPress and it should available in its plugins database shortly. Cloud Hero has the plugin up and running on its website, and so far it seems to be working appropriately. You can see how many +1′s a comment has, if a user edited their comment, quotes from other people, and much more.

This is a nice step forward into making blogging more social as well as making Google+ more popular. At the end of February, Google+ finally joined the ranks of Twitter and Facebook, and allowed users to sign into 3rd party apps, or register for accounts using the “Sign in with Google+” button. While this plugin may not be from Google directly, it is certainly helpful in making its Google+ platform more convenient.

The survey was conducted by Kerry Patterson et al, who wrote the New York Times best-seller book Crucial Conversations. The study says 78% of social network users reported being hostile in some fashion while online. Furthermore, the survey pointed out that 40% of users have admitted to unsubscribing or “unfriending” someone over an argument on a social networking site.

Other findings from the survey include 76% of users reported to have witnessed an argument on a social networking site, while 19% have gone so far as to decrease in-person contact with someone because of something they said online. A whopping 88% of users believe people are less polite on social media than in person, and 81% say that arguments they have been involved with over social media remain unresolved.

Of course, this isn’t surprising at all. The internet is a hotbed for incivility, and since the consequences are so low, many users have no qualms to start an argument or be rude to other users, which is why cyber bullying has been such a hot topic lately. Social networks provide the opportunity to make connections, but it turns out that it’s having the opposite effect on a majority of users.

[via VitalSmarts]

Image via XKCD

Timelines Inc.’s service is similar to Facebook’s timeline services, except instead of organizing Facebook status updates, likes, etc, it organizes historical events like wars, advancements in science and technology, sporting events, and more. Facebook tried to counter-sue Timelines Inc. and asked for judgments of non-infringement and a cancellation of the registrations due to Timelines Inc.’s trademarks being too generic.

U.S. District Judge John W. Darrah stated that Facebook “has failed to demonstrate, as a matter of law, that the marks are generic.” He continued by saying that Timelines Inc. had a decent amount of sales and many active users. He further states that “it is not unreasonable to conclude that as to this group of users, ‘timeline(s)’ has acquired a specific meaning associated with the plaintiff.”

Timeline Inc.’s attorney, Douglas Albritton, stated that the company is happy with the ruling. He says that the company will be seeking damages against Facebook that is equivalent to the social network’s “timeline-derived ad revenue”. The trial is set for April 22nd. We shall keep you updated about the trial when it takes place. In other news, Facebook is gearing to announce its own customized Android OS, a new HTC phone running the OS, and potentially a new Facebook for Android app soon at its event on April 4th. Stay tuned to SlashGear for live coverage of the event.

[via Bloomberg]

Now reports are saying that Facebook’s version of Android OS will be called “Facebook Home”. Sources revealed to 9to5Google that the tagline on Facebook’s invitations, “Come See Our New Home On Android”, is actually a teaser to the new product name. Facebook’s version of the OS will feature deep integration into Android. Facebook Messenger, Photos, and Contacts will be set as the default programs, with Facebook Messenger being used for both messaging your Facebook friends, as well as sending out SMS text messages.

The HTC smartphone that will feature the new, modified Android OS, and will most likely be announced at the event as well. Many sources say that the phone highly resembles the iPhone 5. It will have a home button at the bottom-center of the phone, with capacitive buttons on its right and left side. The device will have a screen larger than 4-inches, with speculations that it will be 4.3-inches. The phone is also said to be similar in size to the iPhone 5.

On top of both of these reveals, we’re also expecting Facebook to announce an upgrade to its Facebook for Android app. Android users have been waiting for a long time to have a decent Facebook for Android app. The current app, while much better than the versions before it, could still use a lot of work. We’re hoping that the app is just as smooth as the iOS app, if not better. Facebook had its employees work extra-hard on the Android app, so it’d be nice to see the results that have come from that. Tune in with us on April 4th, 10:00 A.M. PST, for the official updates from Facebook’s event.

[via 9to5Google]

This new feature improves engagement between websites, page moderators, and their followers. Now celebrities, politicians, and other popular figures can have a more personal conversation with their followers. They can start a Q&A session where they can answer a series of questions asked by followers, similar to Reddit’s AMA threads. The new service also consolidates reply threads with a drop down-esque menu.

Those of you with a Facebook page will be able to opt-in to the new conversation threads feature through your admin page. The option is located in your Manage Permissions section. Those of you that have Facebook pages with over 10,000 followers will automatically be opted into the service. And all Facebook pages will have the service auto-enabled on July 10th, 2013.

Facebook really is making its social network much more efficient and personable. It is planning on implementing hashtags into its service, so that users will be able to find statuses and events surrounding the topic. A new timeline will be rolled out to all users in order to bring a much cleaner interface to your newsfeeds, and Facebook Events have gotten more efficient with its new addition of weather forecasts. What will Facebook come up with next?

[via Facebook]

Open Graph actions range from a variety of things, including follows, likes, songs listened to (on a variety of services like Spotify or Pandora), articles read on various news portals, videos watched on YouTube, LiveLeak, etc, images pinned on Pinterest, photos liked or shared on Instagram, and more. Users enabled many of these services to automatically share their information through their Facebook Newsfeed.

So far, Facebook users have shared a total of 110 million songs, albums, and radio stations over 40 billion times, and have shared around 1.47 million books. Facebook makes it easy for users to share their data to their timeline through integrated apps, or social buttons placed throughout a majority of websites and blogs out there. It hopes to make sharing on its network more personable and enjoyable with acquisitions like Storylane.

These kind of numbers should have developers and companies promoting their next projects or campaigns through the social media behemoth. The user engagement looks promising for those that develop on the platform, or those who are looking to get more exposure to the world. Marketers should also be pleased that Facebook is offering new features that will make finding the right, targeted audience easier.

[via The Next Web]

According to the study, from 2005-2009, Facebook users were very picky about the information they shared on their news feed. At the end of 2009, Facebook had changed its settings, and users, who the study say were presumably confused by the new settings, ending up sharing more information on their news feed and their profiles. When timeline was introduced in 2011, people started sharing even more data due to the number of added information fields available, like milestones and history.

Jules Polonetsky, director/co-chair of the Future of Privacy Forum, stated, “I think the study shows Facebook users have reached a reasonable equilibrium now that there is far less data being shared publicly and much more interactions with your friends, which is a good thing.” In a separate study, researchers found that 222,000 posts by Facebook users made over a course of a month were able to reach 61% of the people on their friend’s list.

It shouldn’t be surprising that when Facebook implements more privacy options, users feel more safe to share their personal information. The privacy features allow people to freely share their thoughts and photos without the fear of there being a maniac out there stalking them. With the news feed being redesigned frequently, it also entices users to test out the new features and see how they like it, even if they initially hate it.

[via ABC News]

Adam Ludwin, developer of a social photo album app entitled Albumatic, interviewed a group of people under the age of 25 about his app, and a majority of the people he asked stated that they disliked the apps reliance on Facebook. Ludwin stated, “They gave me the typical teenage response. We’re bored with Facebook.”

It also seems that Facebook is very aware of this problem. In Facebook’s annual 10-K report, it stated, “We believe that some of our users, particular our younger users, are aware of and are actively engaging with other products and services similar to, or as a substitute for, Facebook.” The statement continues on by saying that its business could be harmed due to its users lack of interest in its service.

It’s normal for teens to quickly move onto the next “it” thing. It’s very impressive that Facebook became so popular with teens for as long as it did. Perhaps Facebook will find a new way to bring back teens to its service. Otherwise, it’ll join the masses of other left-behind services, like AOL Instant Messenger, Xanga, and MySpace. While those services are still alive and still have a user-base, they just aren’t the way they used to be “back in the day”.

[via Business Insider]

The mark downs were discovered by CNET, and they seem to appear when you want to send a gift to a friend for their birthday. It seems a bit desperate because the message that you’re greeted with is, “Send a gift of $5 or more and get $4 off.” That’s a whopping 80% markdown. Yes, the company is willing to lose money in order to get more people to try out their marketplace, which they hope in the future will bring in the returns it had lost. Facebook’s marketplace doesn’t generate the revenue it wants, so its hoping these specials will turn that around.

Alongside essentially turning part of its marketplace into a Dollar Tree store, Facebook is trying various methods to get its marketplace some publicity. Special sales will emerge around certain holidays, like Christmas or Valentine’s Day, and there will most likely be sales centered around the seasons (keep an eye out during Spring and Summer time). However, Facebook does deserve some credit for reminding people to give gifts to those who have something special to celebrate. It’s a bit of a guilt-trip, but it is smart.

So if its your co-workers birthday, or your acquaintance’s birthday, you can give them a small, little treat to brighten up their day and show them how thoughtful you are. A nice cup of coffee can go a long way in terms of your relationship with your peers, and it’s only going to cost you a dollar.

[via CNET]

As of right now, Falcon Pro has created a petition. The creators hope that the petition will get enough signatures to convince Twitter to extend Falcon Pro’s amount of tokens. As of 8 hours ago, the petition has accumulated over 600+ signatures. Whether this helps or not is completely up to Twitter. Falcon Pro is also working on the issue of pirates. According to its stats, only 40,000 people have actually purchased its app, meaning there are 60,000 who either aren’t using the client anymore, or have pirated the app.

Guys, bad new, the Token limit has been reached sooner than expected. Getting reports that new users can’t login… Thanks @twitter.

— Falcon for Android (@falcon_android) February 23, 2013

Falcon Pro is also asking users who don’t use its client anymore to revoke access to the app via their Twitter settings. This way there can be additional tokens freed up for other users. Falcon Pro has included a disclaimer in its app description warning users of the 100k limit. Hopefully it will stop users from giving the app a 1-star rating. However, it still has to deal with the refunds for people who bought the app, but can’t access it.

Falcon Pro is currently finding other ways to get an extension on its tokens, and it’s trying to avoid any methods that may breach Twitter’s terms of service. While it’s important to get more users access to its app, Falcon Pro doesn’t want to jeopardize anything for its current users. So as of right now, all its users can do is sign its petition and hope that Twitter’s lenient.

[via Falcon Pro]

According to the original pop-up, Twitter’s new app “is not authorized” to grab Facebook’s data, leaving users facing manual adding of their friends on the site. That warning has since been changed to a more generic “An error occurred” dialog; there are also reports that Vine users have been unable to share their videos to their Facebook timeline.

A Facebook spokesperson told Mashable that the social network had no comment beyond the vague text of the error message. However, it’s not the first time the company has yanked down the shutters to prevent rival social services from getting their teeth into Facebook data.

Back in August, microblogging platform Tumblr discovered its friend-finder functionality had been blocked by Facebook, for instance, while Android dropped native Facebook contacts sync in early 2011, after the social site refused to allow exports for backup purposes. Facebook isn’t the only company to wage war with data access, mind; only a month before the Tumblr block, Twitter had thrown up a similar block to Facebook-acquired Instagram.

What remains to be seen is whether Facebook has a Vine-style short video sharing feature of its own in the pipeline; the company has proved adept at mimicking rival apps with its own, home-grown versions, such as happened with Snapchat-esque Poke last month. Expanding Facebook Camera or Instagram with brief video support would hardly be difficult.

While both Facebook and Google+ are social networks, they take very different approaches. Facebook is about friendly sharing: inviting people into your digital life, and dipping into theirs. Google+, in contrast, sits at the hub of all of Google’s services, each of which is focused on a different type of data: email, documents, music and videos, photos, and more.

I’ve been an Evernote user for years now, and a Google+ user since the service opened its virtual doors in mid-2011. Like many, I’ve been relying on Evernote as a digital aide-memoir, a place to gather up thoughts, lists, books I might want to buy, music I might want to listen to. I’ve drafted articles and reviews in Evernote on my phone while sitting on buses and trains, then picked up where I left off in the desktop version. I’ve even relied on its clever OCR – which can pick out text in photos and make it searchable – to store business cards, snapping them with my phone’s camera for easier recollection than digging through a physical stack later.

It’s proved its worth both because it’s convenient and because I’m lazy: I don’t want to have to remember which device my information is stored on, I don’t want to have to remember to synchronize when I get back home, I just want to be able to find data quickly later. In recent weeks, though, I’ve found myself bypassing Evernote and using Google+ for many of those tasks instead.

For those who haven’t used it (or who have turned the feature off), the Google+ app for Android and iOS automatically uploads photos and video you capture with your phone and tablet to a private album. From there you can share it easily, either publicly or to specific circles you’ve set up; or, as I’ve been doing, you can keep it private but use it as a simple way to keep track of information.

In bookstores, I’ll snap a shot of the cover of a book that I might want to check online reviews of later, or I might grab a photo of a particular wine bottle, or a DVD, or an advert; anything I might think I’ll be interested in at some point in the future, but know will slip from my memory before I’m home again. I know Google+ will automatically upload it and it’ll be waiting for me, not only in the browser on my computer, but pushed into the Google+ album in the gallery on all my Android devices.

I could snap a photo with Evernote, but I’d feel obliged to tag it, or sort it into a notebook, and that’s more than I want to do when I’m out and about. Still, Evernote’s organizational systems are far more advanced than those of Google+, since it’s set up to handle sorting and recalling huge amounts of information.

That needn’t always be the case, however. Google has all of the constituent parts to make an impressive alternative to Evernote, building on different aspects of services already on offer. Text and handwriting recognition are already used by search, able to find results in PDFs and translate the scrawl of a finger on your smartphone display: they could just as easily pick out text in snapshots of book jackets and billboards. Evernote’s notebooks could find their equivalent in private Google+ circles: individual ways to gather together content that could – but not necessarily – be kept private rather than shared.

Where Google+ has the potential advantage over Evernote is how integrated it is into our daily lives and the services we rely on, not to mention the social aspect. My photos of business cards currently wait in an Evernote notebook for me to search and find them; Google, meanwhile, could pull out the text and automatically slot it into my Gmail contacts, then sync that with my phone. It could also fill in the gaps based on what it knows about the person: things that won’t fit on a 3.5 x 2 inch card, like a Google+ bio, or a list of sites that person contributes to and samples of the recent content they’ve produced.

Those books I’m curious about, or adverts I’ve spotted, could be recognized with the same technology that powers Google Goggles: then I can automatically see reviews, and the cheapest place to buy them. Maybe there’s a QR code on the advert, something I probably won’t scan at the time – it always seems to be the way that the billboards with QR codes I see are when I’m underground on the Tube, with no signal to look them up – but which Google+ can quietly look up for me itself, and use that information to flesh out what I see when I come back to review my gallery of gathered images. After all, it already knows that I must be interested in that topic, since I’ve been curious enough to take a photo of it.

Of course, Google+ is a social place, and so I needn’t solely rely on Google’s opinions before I make a decision: I can crowdsource it. I’m probably not the first person to ask, either, so if the ensuing discussion is done publicly, Google+ could easily bring together those multiple conversations so that everybody gets the benefit. Google knows masses about me and the sort of people whose opinions I particularly trust – it reads my email, after all, and it sees who I interact with most and what I click on regularly – so it could make sure the most useful tidbits simmer up to the top where I’ll see them first.

I, like a lot of people, am lazy with how I collect my data – heck, sometimes I just email myself something I need to remember, and hope it’ll be somewhere near the top of my inbox when I next open it up – but I expect great things in how I then consume it. Evernote is a brilliant digital alternative to the notebook, but my life has moved on from collating snippets of information through which I’ll browse later on.

If Facebook is about sharing the minutiae of our lives and hoping our friends comment on it, then Google+ has an opportunity to do something new, to bridge our interests and our expansive digital memories and help us process them in meaningful ways. Evernote may get caught in the crossfire, but I doubt I’m the only one who’ll follow the path to the service that helps me get most done with the least effort.

This could either be a bug or a deliberate feature, but the scanning of messages is said to increase the Like count for a fan page just by talking about it. However, it only seems that it increases the Like count of a page, and doesn’t actually “like” the page on your behalf. Then again, some users are reporting that it actually does like the page for you without your permission.

Obviously, this can be a huge problem if you’re talking to a friend about something specific, like how much you hate a certain band’s music. Mentioning the band and linking to its fan page in a private message to a friend could lead to you liking the page without you even knowing.

Scanning itself is nothing new. Gmail does it to provide its users with targeted ads, but this auto-liking debacle takes it to another level that’s a little over the line and unnecessary. Then again, a lot of users are reporting that it works and others are saying that it’s not truly liking the page for you, so it actually might just be an unfortunate bug on Facebook’s end. Either way, hopefully Facebook addresses the issue and brings order to chaos.

UPDATE: Facebook has reached out to us and commented about this issue: “Absolutely no private information has been exposed and Facebook is not automatically Liking any Facebook Pages on a user’s behalf…Many websites that use Facebook’s ‘Like’, ‘Recommend’, or ‘Share’ buttons also carry a counter next to them. This counter reflects the number of times people have clicked those buttons and also the number of times people have shared that page’s link on Facebook. When the count is increased via shares over private messages, no user information is exchanged, and privacy settings of content are unaffected. Links shared through messages do not affect the Like count on Facebook Pages.”

[via Forbes]

Asked about where the next big jump in user figures will come from, Zuckerberg highlights mobile for its massive growth. “The big thing is obviously going to be mobile. There are 5 billion people in the world who have phones, and a billion people using Facebook” the social CEO said. “There are actually already 600 million people using Facebook on phones, so that’s growing really quickly. And as more phones become smartphones, it’s just this massive opportunity.”

Exactly how Facebook plans to take advantage of that opportunity, however, is unclear. It’s not a new problem, either; worried whispers around Facebook’s mobile users not pulling their weight in terms of site income were circulating prior to the company’s IPO, and Zuckerberg himself fingered the gap in strategy in interviews last week.

“There are a lot of different bets that we’re making. A lot of it over the next few years is going to come down to mobile. There is this funnel that I think is pretty clear and in our favor, which is there are going to be more people using mobile devices. There are already 5 billion so that’s where the user growth is going to come from. We already know that people who use Facebook on mobile use it more, spend more time on it” Mark Zuckerberg

One possible area of development could be the overlap between commerce and mobile use. Research has already shown the growth of mobile devices among users comparing purchases, even if they still often return to their desktop in order to complete the transaction. Zuckerberg hints that there’s potential in “what services can get built now that every company can assume they can get access to knowing who everyone’s friends are” and predicts “there’s about to be a big push in commerce,” perhaps a lucrative one if Facebook can leverage its mobile users and take a cut from any shopping virtual spree they go on.

“Over the long term I also think we’re going to make more money per amount of time that people are spending on mobile, because it has this focus as a device. It’s more like TV, where you’re doing one thing at a time” Zuckerberg concludes. “The advertising and monetizing has to be integrated in, whereas on desktop we kind of reached this equilibrium where there’s the content and then the ads off to the side of it. So I’m really optimistic about that.”

The first step toward such integration is Facebook Gifts, allowing users to buy their friends real-world gifts even if they don’t know their address, clothes size, or other personal preferences.

“If you’re reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you” Zuckerberg wrote today of the announcement. “Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life. I am committed to working every day to make Facebook better for you, and hopefully together one day we will be able to connect the rest of the world too.”

There are 140.3bn friend connections, including check-ins and location-tagged posts, and Facebook now has a total of 219bn photos uploaded. Counting images that have since been deleted, 265bn images have been uploaded to the site since fall of 2005.

Other stats include 17bn location-tagged posts, and 62.6m songs played a total of 22bn times overall. Zuckerberg told Businessweek that the celebrations were relatively low-key: “Well, just everyone came together and counted down” the founder said, “then we all went back to work. We have this ethos where we want to be a culture of builders, right?”

Next up, though, isn’t necessarily chasing more membership numbers, but using the shared data more effectively. According to Zuckerberg, that may well involve commerce:

“So for the next five or 10 years the question isn’t going to be, does Facebook get to 2 billion or 3 billion? I mean, that’s obviously one question. But the bigger question is, what services can get built now that every company can assume they can get access to knowing who everyone’s friends are. I think that’s going to be really transformative. We’ve already seen some of that in games and media, music, TV, video, that type of stuff. But I think there’s about to be a big push in commerce” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

Announced today, Facebook Gifts allows you to purchase a gift for any of your Facebook friends and have it delivered to their door. Did your friend just have a baby? Buy them a teddy bear. Did your friend just get dumped? Buy them a batch of cupcakes. Perhaps you have a friend who can’t function without caffeine? Good news for them, because it appears that Starbucks gift cards are available through this service as well.

Once Facebook Gifts has been fully implemented, you can buy a gift for your friends through birthday or engagement notifications or directly through their timeline. You don’t need to know their address as they’ll be the one who enters it in, and bad gift givers have no reason to fear – recipients will be able to choose the size, color, and flavor of their gift, and if they really don’t like it, they can exchange it out for something of equal value.

Facebook says that this new gifts service will roll out gradually, but those in the US will be getting it first. There isn’t a time frame for the full roll out of Facebook Gifts, likely owing to the social network‘s nearly 1 billion users around the world. Facebook promises more information on Gifts soon, so we’ll update you once new details are made public!

[via Facebook Newsroom]

The social network has gained some momentum over the past several months, giving users a more visual way to share their finds among friends. The timing of the open registration is interesting given recent rumors that Apple is eyeing up a purchase of The Fancy, a service not too far removed from Pinterest.

Pinterest’s valuation has also soared over the past few months. Earlier this year, the social network was valued at around $1 billion, and more recently Japanese conglomerate Rakuten valued the company at around $1.5 billion after a $100 million round of funding. Rakuten has multiple ecommerce sites scattered around the internet, and the inclusion of the “Pin It” badge on any one of them will be sure to further raise the profile of Pinterest.

Still, if you’re not too fussed about the business side of things and just want to share content with your friends, Pinterest isn’t a bad way to go about it. Head on over to the website to sign up with your Twitter, Facebook, or email if you haven’t done so already.

Path has also added the ability to search for movies and books within the app. Previously the service pulled down information about what music you were listening to, and now users can manually search for whatever movie they’re watching or the next book they’ve been eyeing, further adding to the Path mantra of seeing what your friends are experiencing. The biggest feature, however, is the ability to “nudge” your friends. When a friend on Path hasn’t posted to the service for some time, their name will turn grey, and a question mark will appear that will allow you to nudge them into activity.

Inviting users to the service has also been improved. Now, invitations can be customized with a note, photo, and even a voice recording that will prompt friends and family to sign up. Finally, the initial sign up process has been streamlined, with an added tour that guides the user around the various features of the app. Path 2.5 is available for iOS and Android right now, so head on over to the respective app stores to update or give it a whirl for the first time.

Once you arrive on the site, you’ll see that it has a very clean and simple interface. If you start a post on Hometalk you’ll be able to share pictures of your project and have people comment on them, a little bit like Pinterest but with a less cluttered layout. As you would expect, anything can be shared out to other networks like Facebook, Twitter, and StumbleUpon. Registered users can also Save and Like posts to view later on.

While most users are keen to show off decorations or the ongoing status of projects, there is an “Ask” option that will allow novices to ping others for the best advice. Topics range from just about anything found in the home, from bathrooms to bedrooms, plus more specific areas like windows or air conditioning units. It’s a simple idea, but it’s executed pretty well and clearly has an audience. If you’re working on your own home improvement projects, Hometalk may be worth a look.

Google’s infographic lays out facts about the social, create, and business aspect of the web, as well as indicating growth over the years. For example, 1 in 6 marriages begin with couples meeting online, while 36.6 million jobs were found using social networks.

The timeline of the webs growth begins in 1991, with the first web page being published, and the first “viral” video occurring in 2005. Internet usage has seen a dramatic surge over the years, with there being 304 million users in 2000, reaching a staggering 1.97 billion users in 2010.

There are also links for visitors to “start something”, with links going out to Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. Users are encouraged to post to the social networking platforms to give their account of what kind of power the internet enables. Google hopes it will start a conversation about the future of the internet.

The Facebook Offers feature makes it easy for businesses to share special discounts and promotions directly from a Facebook Page, which is a nice addition for both advertisers and users. However, the new ad placements may be a slight annoyance for users, as Facebook will now be inserting ads into its mobile news feed and logout page in addition to its web news feed and sidebar.

Although the logout page seems like an odd place to monetize, Facebook says that of its 500 million daily active users, 37 million are logging out daily. Plus, there’s no other content on the logout page that would distract users from advertisements. The logout page ads will begin in April while mobile news feed ads begin today.

It’s interesting that Facebook had denied reports of mobile ads incoming earlier this month, only to be introducing them now. But when Facebook filed its IPO, the company did reveal that it had not yet monetized its mobile app, which currently has 425 million users.

As for its Reach Generator, the feature will allow advertisers and Page users to amplify the reach of their posts. According to the company, less than 16 percent of a Page’s fans see each of its posts. But with the Reach Generator, Facebook gives special placement for select posts, which its studies show can reach 10 times higher click-through rates than standard ads.

[via TechCrunch]

Various app concepts were developed from the Hackathon with the two winning ideas chosen to be further developed in Ford’s Dearborn labs. One winning concept kept it simple and has a car’s system check if a user has arrived at his or her Facebook event location. If so, the system automatically checks-in on Facebook for the person once the car’s ignition is turned off.

The aim behind the initiative is to seamlessly extend a user’s social life into the car for a more personalized and connected driving experience, while keeping safety a priority. Instead of simply asking an in-car system for nearby restaurants, the system gives you a list of nearby restaurants recently likely by your friends. Or you could listen in to the same stream of music that your friends are listening to in their homes.

Ford’s SYNC connectivity platform is already in more than 4 million vehicles. It lets drivers listen to their favorite music, answer calls, and get directions using simple voice commands while keeping their eyes on the road. The company hopes to expand the capabilities of SYNC by find ways for the system to leverage social data for an even more customized experience that also encourages exploration and discovery.

The Contour Storyteller has been updated to version 3.3.2, which lets you link your Contour accounts directly to your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Vimeo accounts. Once you upload a video, you have the option to share it with one or more of these social network accounts.

The software already lets you map out your adventures, keeping track of your GPS data points. It also allows you to edit your story with an easy “awesome” button that lets you mark your favorite clips for watching later or sharing online with your friends.

There’s almost certainly no way this action, in whatever set of forms it ends up showing up in, will receive heavy backlash from Facebook users and defectors alike. Facebook will be pushing this project as a value-added adventure where advertisers show off their awesome wares through your friends activities, much better than traditional banner ads, for example. On the other hand, Sponsored Ads showing up too often in the main feed, no matter how relevant they are to our daily lives, will result in masses of users exiting the platform.

This isn’t the first step in Facebook’s efforts to turn your activities into advertisements, as you may have seen “Sponsored Stories” showing up on your right-hand sidebar for many months now (starting at the beginning of 2011.) This newest project is essentially the opposite of that, where instead of turning friends activities into ads up on the sidebar, sidebar ads will be showing up in your news feed. The difference between this and straight up dropping banners down in front of you is that these ads will be affected by your activity and perceived interests. Clicking ice cream sandwich pages will result in ice cream sandwiches.

You can see a few use-cases in the gallery here, courtesy of Facebook and TechCrunch. Feel free to let loose on what you think of this situation in the comments below. Time to find a new place to roam, or are ads the way of the future?

The new design focuses on channel subscriptions that are listed in the left-hand column, with Google+ and Facebook feeds listed at the top that when clicked show videos shared by any of your friends or circles. This column also features other ways to filter your feed, curated feeds, suchas Trending channels, and also lets you pin any specific channel subscriptions to the list.

When a subscription or filter in the left column is clicked on, the corresponding videos show up in the center column, with the latest videos from the feed showing up first. The right column then features recommendations and ads. This layout is similar to what we’ve seen in both Google+ and Facebook.

Additionally, YouTube introduced new templates for these homepages, including Blogger, Creator, Network, and Everything templates that let you customize your page to best present your video content. YouTube will likely be introducing more social features that will further enhance discovery options and possibly even tighter integration with Google+.

[via TechCrunch]

The new feature is available starting today on select carriers around the world. Those carriers include AT&T, Verizon, and Cellular South in the US; Vodafone, O2, and Orange in the UK; Vodafone Italy; Rogers Communications in Canada; VIVA Bahrain; and TIM Brazil. Twitter is working on expanding the service to other carriers.

Twitter has enhanced its Tweet by text message service in the past with the addition of a Fast Follow feature that lets anyone instantly receive Tweets on their phone by sending a text message, even without a Twitter account. Twitter also offered SMS Commands, which are a one-word commands that you can text to Twitter to get information, including Suggest, Stats, and Help.

[via Twitter]

The Friends Lists function has now been optimized so that it’s easier to filter which status updates you see on your News Feed. You can also more easily share status updates with only certain groups in your Friends Lists directly via the News Feed screen.

The News Feed now makes sure that you don’t miss any important updates, especially if you don’t check Facebook that often. The “Top Stories” and “Most Recent” filters have been removed and now the feed automatically adjusts to show the most important events since the last time you checked your feed.

However, you can still filter and tweak your News Feed using the Friends Lists filter as well as by marking or unmarking updates as “Top Story.” You will also notice that photos in the News Feed will now appear larger and be more prominently displayed.

And finally, the new ticker feature will appear at the top right of your screen, where you’ll be able to see and join in on real-time updates from your friends. Hence, it works like the “Most Recent” filter that was removed from the News Feed. In this way, the News Feed essentially focuses on the past or on the important updates you might have missed, while the ticker focuses on the present.

[via Mashable]

The video was subsequently linked to by Google senior VP Vic Gundotra, who asked on Google+ whether others were experiencing this same problem. He notes that the company was “getting reports” from other users of this behavior. This, of course, sparked speculation that Facebook may be intentionally blocking Google+ related posts.

However, Facebook disagrees and has responded saying that the company could not duplicate the same problem as depicted in the video. The company also noted that they have display-filtering technology that help prevent spam and thus could exclude certain links from re-appearing on a user’s news feed if it had previously been posted several times.

Additionally, there are others that speculate this could be a Google gimmick to spur distrust for the Facebook platform while bringing more attention to Google. CNET was also unable to duplicate the problem while other users from Gundotra’s Google+ thread reported mixed results.

[via CNET]

The Facebook integration automatically pulls in your Facebook events into the phone’s calendar, as well as adding online galleries to the phone’s local photos and videos. You can also read and post comments on media, “Like” the tracks you’re listening to, and use a media discovery app to find out what audio your friends are currently enjoying. Other improvements include:

• Battery performance
• General software stability
• Wi-Fi stability
• HD Video recording performance (Xperia arc)
• Touch responsiveness

Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson has also announced that the Gingerbread update for the XPERIA X10, confirmed back in March, will also include the Facebook Inside XPERIA functionality. Still no timescale on that upgrade’s release, however.

Rumors earlier this month suggested Twitter could pay as much as $50m for the popular client, in part seen as a defensive move to keep TweetDeck out of the hands of rival UberMedia. The company had reportedly offered TweetDeck $25m to $30m back in February 2011, a deal which Twitter quickly challenged with one of its own.

UberMedia is still tipped to be considering launching a Twitter-rival of its own. No word at this stage on what Twitter intends on doing with TweetDeck, whether it will allow the app to continue as a standalone project or be folded into the micro-messaging company’s existing software portfolio.

[via TechCrunch]

[Image credit: Nan Palmero]

If you recall, during the internet startup IPO bubble companies IPO’d on hype not actual value. This model was not sustainable because many companies who IPO’d had no real market differentiator and most importantly no defensible strategy.

LinkedIn is a mature business with a mature business model and vested customers. LinkedIn has three primary revenue sources, and job placement and lead generation are among the most reliable. Their customers are mostly business professionals who understand the value of a business social network and will most likely be loyal LinkedIn users.

The stock market has been looking and waiting for Silicon Valley startups with not only solid revenues but a defensible strategy and competitive advantage. It should not surprise when a business that has strong fundamentals does well as an IPO.

The interesting question, however, is what does this do for Facebook and possibly Twitter, two current Silicon Valley darlings.

My answer is it does more for Facebook than for Twitter. However, both companies need to use LinkedIn and other business that have successfully IPO’d in the past few years as a model.

Both Facebook and Twitter have a large customer base. But large customer bases alone don’t equate to Wall St. value. Look at how fast the world crumbled for MySpace. The same could easily happen to Facebook and Twitter if they don’t continue to innovate and keep customers loyal and, more importantly, vested.

This is why I think if we look at LinkedIn’s core business model and customer base it is much more similar in value to Facebook than to Twitter. The only difference is that LinkedIn has a niche audience, meaning business professionals, where Facebook has those but a wider general mass market audience too.

Both Facebook and Twitter still need to prove they can generate continued revenue growth with sound and defensible business models. Twitter most importantly, and I am the most skeptical of Twitter’s long term value. Primarily because I don’t see them having that defensible competitive advantage.

Get the fundamentals of your business solid. Create sustainable and growing revenue strategies. Create loyal and vested customers and continue to engage in defensible strategies through innovation.

If Facebook and Twitter can establish solid business fundamentals then they may very well be the next to IPO, and we should expect similar results. This is not a sign of another tech bubble, only one that shows us a template of how solid business can IPO and create value for investors.

News of the smear campaign first came to light when one of the journalists approached revealed his correspondence with Burson-Marsteller after the company refused to disclose which client had retained them. ”The American people” the PR firm wailed “must be made aware of the now immediate intrusions into their deeply personal lives Google is cataloging and broadcasting every minute of every day—without their permission.” USA Today is also believed to have been pressured to feature Google-sniping content, though the Burson-Marsteller employees responsible for the pitches refused to comment any further once the newspaper investigated and discovered the claims were exaggerated.

For its part, Facebook claims both legitimate concerns about Google’s attitude toward privacy in social network products, along with a growing resentment regarding how Google is attempting to use Facebook data in those fledgling services. Among the products causing particular argument is Google’s Social Circle, which pulls in friend-of-a-friend information through Gmail, and which Burson described as “designed to scrape private data and build deeply personal dossiers on millions of users—in a direct and flagrant violation of [Google's] agreement with the FTC.”

Facebook reckons its users profiles are being scraped as part of that gathering process, something it says contravenes its terms of service. Google has begged time to consider a response.

The feature should be very familiar to those who use Twitter. And recently Facebook, has incorporated the use of mentions in comments as well. Basically, when typing a comment, you can type the @ symbol to tag someone, for instance if you’re specifically addressing them.

As you type the mention, a small overlay will appear with a auto-complete list of users to choose from that have either participated in the conversation or use Twitter. Once tagged, the name gets a gray box around it and the user you tagged gets an email notification if they have a Disqus account or a regular @ mention on Twitter if they do not have a Disqus account.

This new functionality could be a good way to invite someone into a conversation, or be a way to call out someone directly to respond. Since we’re running Disqus, we certainly don’t mind you trying it out in the comments below. Let us know how you like it.

[via TechCrunch]

That raid saw one helicopter downed “due to mechanical failure” (although that cause was later denied by senior officials in the briefing) though with no loss of life, as well as the deaths of bin Laden, three adult males and one woman reportedly used as a human shield. The house Bin Laden was using has been described as “purpose built” to shelter an individual, with significant levels of security and a suburban location which dissuaded military forces from using an unmanned drone.

There’s a comprehensive obituary on Osama bin Laden at the Guardian and a timeline of Athar’s tweets at TechCrunch. The full transcript of the Whitehouse press briefing about the raid – much of which is still being treated as confidential – is here, and President Obama’s video address is below.

The company-wide memo alerted employees that 25% of their annual bonus will depend on the success or failure of Google’s social strategy for 2011. Even employees not directly involved in Google’s social efforts will be held responsible with results reflected in their bonuses.

“This is a joint effort so it’s important that we all get behind it,” says Page in the memo. He expects all employees to encourage their family and friends to test out Google’s new social products.

[via Business Insider]

The babies are talking about Google +1, a new thing from Google that’s been heralded as the best thing since apps. I don’t know if it’s any good yet, because they haven’t even released the thing into the wild yet. Considering the date, it might be the biggest prank ever to receive a chorus of LOL. I hope it’s true because it would be cool of them to jack Zuckerberg’s Like It.

You should just be finishing up with the babies right about now. Do you see what we’re talking about here? This is Google’s opening shots in the Button Wars of 2011. Check out our coverage you might have missed from earlier today.

[via Kara @ All Things Digital]

Video demo after the cut

Initially +1 buttons will only be found in among Google search results, but eventually the company plans to offer the same functionality to third-party sites to include. That will allow readers to flag up good content directly in the search results, rather than requiring them to go to Facebook or Twitter to see recommendations.

After ten years of marriage, and fifteen years together, my wife and I are getting a divorce. I’m not going to get into the details, but needless to say that we’re getting along well, and for both of us our sole priority is remaining great parents to our wonderful 2-year old son. It’s very sad, but we both understand that we’ll be better off, and our family will ultimately be happier, if we’re apart.

Now I have to figure out how to tell Facebook the news.

When we came to the hard decision, I told one person per day. I told my sister, my best friends, my parents, and some close friends who had also gotten divorced. The phone calls were not easy, but everyone was supportive. During each call, I made it clear that I wanted them to pass along the news. I told my cousin that I knew this would be great gossip, and she shouldn’t hold back. I did not want to have the conversation multiple times, especially not with cousins I see once every two years, or friends of friends. I did not want to hide the news, but I didn’t feel like it needed to come directly from me.

Facebook is an entirely different case, though. I have a good group of friends on Facebook. I have culled the list extensively. In the last year, I have cut far more Facebook friends than I have added. I have also redefined my relationship with Facebook. I made a resolution to not wish Happy Birthdays on Facebook anymore. I’ll either call, or I’ll just keep quiet.

My wife and I had been a couple since college. We were married fairly young, by today’s standards. There are very few people on my Facebook friend list who don’t know me as a married man, and many of them know my wife just as well. They deserve to hear this news. I want them to hear it. I don’t want them to ask, the next time we talk online or in person, how she’s doing, as if we’re still married. I don’t want to have to tell an old friend whom I run into at a reunion, “Oh, no, we’ve been divorced for five years now. Sorry I didn’t mention it until now.”

In a similar way, I wasn’t sure about writing this column. By reading this story, my editor and friend Chris Davies is learning about my divorce. This may be too personal for SlashGear, but that’s the point of this column. I’m exploring how our digital world and our daily lives collide in interesting and unexpected ways. I’ve written about life and death, about my family and friends. It would be disingenuous if I didn’t also write about the end of my marriage.

After the decision was made, I decided to remove all of my wife’s friends from my Facebook list. I consider many of these people to be my friends as well, so it was a hard decision. My wife’s best friend is one of the top people I would consider to raise my son if something ever happened to us. I’ve spent numerous Thanksgiving dinners with her whole family instead of my own. There is no doubt that she is on my wife’s side, but that’s only because she wants what is best. That’s not why I cut her.

I’m worried that I will vent on Facebook. I haven’t posted much there since this happened. I couldn’t figure out what to say. On Twitter, I posted that my life feels like a Liz Phair song, but at least it’s one of the early songs and not one of the recent tunes. That’s the sort of cryptic tweet that can be tossed off without a second thought. It adds character to my otherwise professional timeline.

I don’t tweet after I’ve been drinking, since Twitter is a professional space for me. But occasionally I’ll have a few slugs of barrel strength bourbon and hit the Facebook wall hard. I’ll get nostalgic. I’ll get sardonic. Not enough to get me in trouble, but enough that my true feelings come out. There are so many emotions connected with my divorce. Sadness, depression, disappointment, self-loathing. Anger. I hope that my friends will understand, but I can’t expect the same of my wife’s friends. I want to feel like I can express myself on Facebook as needed, without worrying that my updates will be misconstrued, or repeated, or used against me.

I also just need some space.

My best friend asked if I had thought about any old flames since my wife and I reached this decision. There aren’t many to think of. I’m a long-term relationship type of guy. But I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I considered reaching out.

Except that I had already cut those connections. I have no former girlfriends or old crushes on my Facebook list. I eliminated them in the great culling I undertook last November. I was married, and happily, I thought. Why torture myself with updates from happy old girlfriends, and news about their kids or photos of their drunken escapades? Why bore myself with the tedium of lives I was trying hard to avoid?

Now I won’t be making those connections again. I won’t be looking anyone up, even though it is easier than ever. It would feel too obvious. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe it’s time for me to be obvious again. I don’t think so. I think it’s time to start over, to start fresh. It’s time to add new friends to the list, and to make a clean, amiable break from the past.

So, SlashGear readers, I’m telling you my sad news first, before I tell Facebook. So if any of you could pass the news along to my social network, I’d appreciate it. I don’t want to have this conversation twice.

The new feature being tested does not alter this algorithm other than speeding it up, so ads are served immediately after a status is posted, getting the brand in front of the user much faster, hopefully during decision-making time. – AdAge

That makes simple sense. Now, posting a status update about some random desire could serve you with relevant targeted ads immediately. That’s cool. Really, this doesn’t change much. It’s just speeding up the process that’s already in place. Before, this information had to be filtered and aggregated before the ads were served to your browser. Now, it’s much quicker.

1% of Facebook’s 600 million customers are enjoying this new feature.

[via TIME]