Which icon do you have? Facebook’s Globe Is No Longer Americentric

You know that little globe icon on the Facebook website that displays your pending notifications? Of course you do. It’s the first thing any self-respecting narcissist clicks on when they open Facebook. (That's pretty much all of us, by the way.)

Well, did you know that the globe looks different depending on where you are in the world? The default icon portrays the Americas:

But as Tech in Asia recently pointed out, Facebook has quietly introduced a new icon for its desktop users in Europe, Africa, and Asia, which shows the globe from the other side. (Update: Facebook tells me the new globe was rolled out widely just on Wednesday, though it had been tested on some users prior to that.)* Log in from any of those continents, and you’ll see this icon instead:

It’s a small change, but it highlights something a lot of Americans might not realize: They’re vastly outnumbered on Facebook. The company reports that just 18.3 percent of its 829 million daily active users hail from the United States or Canada. A far larger percentage come from Asia, even with the site still mostly blocked in China.  

As of April 2013, the United States still clung to a thin lead for the most Facebook users of any single country, but India was closing fast. Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico rounded out the top five.

More importantly for Facebook’s business and mission, Africa and Asia represent the company’s brightest prospects for future growth and are the focus of its Internet.org push to bring more of the world online at low costs.

On Thursday Facebook launched an Internet.org app that will allow users in developing countries to take advantage of some basic services like Google Search, AccuWeather, Wikipedia, and (of course) Facebook and Facebook Messenger without incurring any data charges. The app will be rolled out first to Airtel subscribers in Zambia, where it will also include free access to local jobs, health, library, and women’s rights apps.

This is why, when someone tells you that Facebook is dead because his 15-year-old sister thinks it’s uncool, you should take that anecdote for what it is—one data point from a country that represents an ever-smaller minority of the service’s massive global user base. Yes, American teens can be a bellwether for worldwide trends, but Facebook’s flock has grown too diverse for any one subset of sheep to lead. Like it or not, Facebook has crossed the line from fad to established multinational corporation, and it isn't going the way of MySpace anytime soon.

Facebook Totally Screwed With a Bunch of People in the Name of Science

If you feel down on Facebook, it could have a lot to do with what your friends are posting

Did your Facebook News Feed seem a little too happy, or perhaps a little too depressing, for one week in January 2012? That may have been because researchers were experimenting with your News Feed to figure out more about how humans’ emotions work when we’re physically apart.

By tweaking the Facebook News Feed algorithm and studying nearly 700,000 Facebook users’ posts, Facebook’s data scientists and researchers found that emotional states can be transmitted between people without face-to-face interaction, according to a study published earlier this month.

For the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers analyzed over 3 million posts containing over 122 million words and used an algorithm to characterize the language as positive or negative. Facebook’s data team then adjusted the amount of positive or negative Facebook language users were exposed to on their News Feeds to see how they would react.

Researchers Adam Kramer, of Facebook; Jamie Guillory, of the University of California, San Francisco; and Jeffrey Hancock, of Cornell University, found that when users were exposed to fewer positive posts, they would themselves produce fewer positive posts and more negative posts. The reverse was true when they were exposed to fewer negative posts. In other words, verbal and textual cues have a big impact on our emotions, even if we don’t hear a person’s tone of voice or see their body language.

“These results suggest that the emotions expressed by friends, via online social networks, influence our own moods,” said the team in the study.

The data was analyzed by computers, so it’s not like a scientist was poring over your Facebook posts. And if you feel weirded out about Facebook looking at your posts without your consent — well, you’ve already given your consent. You just haven’t read Facebook’s privacy policy, which gives the company permission to carry out studies like these.

In any case, the next time you feel your mood changing while you’re on Facebook, it might have something to do with what your friends are posting.

Facebook reveals its legal campaign against mass surveillance

FACEBOOK HAS REVEALED its efforts to keep the Manhattan District Attorney's hands off its customers' information.

The social network, which has been accused of not being a friend of privacy in the past, has presented a more open face since last year and its first government surveillance transparency report.

In the spirit of this, Facebook deputy general counsel Chris Sonderby has published an account of the fight the firm has had in New York to oppose demands to release data relating to 381 social networkers.

"Our goal is to protect people's information on Facebook, so when a government requests data, it's a big deal to us. We have strict policies in place for law enforcement requests and have published these procedures publicly for anyone to review," he said.

"Since last summer, we've been fighting hard against a set of sweeping search warrants issued by a court in New York that demanded we turn over nearly all data from the accounts of 381 people who use our service, including photos, private messages and other information. This unprecedented request is by far the largest we've ever received - by a magnitude of more than [10] - and we have argued that it was unconstitutional from the start."

Sonderby said that of the people whose data was requested and surrendered, 62 were charged for disability fraud. His concern is that information belonging to the other 300 or so individuals was demanded for no reason.

Facebook took its opposing position to court, but was told, "As an online service provider we didn't even have the legal standing to contest the warrants."

This kind of bulk, shotgun blast of requests is not what Facebook wants to deal with, and it would prefer to be more open with its users.

"The government also obtained gag orders that prohibited us from discussing this case and notifying any of the affected people until now," he added.

"We've gone to court and repeatedly asserted that these overly broad warrants - which contain no date restrictions and allow the government to keep the seized data indefinitely - violate the privacy rights of the people on Facebook and ignore Fourth Amendment safeguards against unreasonable searches and seizures."

The firm's most recent move was filing an appellate brief to invalidate sweeping warrants and reunite it with the data that was "seized and retained". That led the government to unseal warrants and court filings, Sonderby's revelations, and informing the affected punters.

That is one victory for Facebook, and it promised its many million users that their data is important to it.

"We feel strongly that there is more work to do, and we will continue our legal fight to retrieve data that has been seized and retained by the government," he added.

"We will continue to fight on your behalf, and we recognize the importance of this responsibility. We look forward to keeping you updated about our progress."

Facebook goes down globally; users unable to log in

Facebook appeared to have gone down for a wide number of users across the globe on Thursday.

Facebook user complaints were seen on Twitter for about 30 minutes.

Users could not log in to the social networking site. On logging in to Facebook.com earlier, a message appeared that read:

“Sorry, something went wrong. We are working on getting this fixed as soon as we can.”

There is a “Go Back” button underneath this message that redirects users to the log in page, but when we tried to log in again it showed the same message.

The problem was not limited to the web app, even the Facebook app for Android was unable to load news feed.

According to SLCERT Sri Lanka, the error might have occurred due to a large amount of traffic to the server .

Facebook Moves to Single-Column Timelines for Pages

Facebook has announced a plan to revamp the look of Timelines on its Pages, moving to a one-column design more similar to the Timelines on individual profiles. (Quick reminder: Pages are generally public and can be for a person, business, movie, etc., while personal profiles are just for individual use.)

This is a little change, but it illustrates that Facebook is making a concerted push to give itself a streamlined, stripped down look. It also further blurs the line between a personal account and a Pages account, which makes sense. Facebook would prefer that its users treat their individual accounts more like Pages anyways, publicly posting and sharing content, so this will help reinforce the idea that Pages aren't so different than regular accounts (which is a lie, Pages are inferior).

In addition to giving Pages an easier-to-navigate makeover, Facebook also gave administrators more control over the look of their layout. The new design allows users to move sections around to create a custom look. Remember, this is the same Facebook that swore off giving users too much control over the look of their individual profiles to avoid people from cluttering their profiles with garish color schemes; it appears Facebook is more willing to cater to customization now.

Facebook is doing two things right here, by simplifying the design and giving users more control. The main Facebook service often feels overstuffed, so it's important that the site's scaffolding doesn't add another distraction. At the same time, even as the company looks for ways to make its design more elegant, allowing users a few options to put their own spin on the look keeps people engaged.

Now if only Facebook would consider offering an option to browse without a News Feed… right now you have to use an obscure script called "Quiet Facebook" to remove the cluttered stream from your profile-creeping experience.

Instagram Expands Ads to International Users

The photo-sharing service owned by Facebook announced on Tuesday that it will begin showing in-feed ads to international users "in the coming months," according to a company spokesperson. Instagram will start with three countries — Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia — but more countries could be added in the future.

It's unclear how many of Instagram's 200 million-plus users are outside the United States — the company doesn't break down its user demographics publicly. Instagram also did not identify any of its upcoming international advertisers, but a spokesperson did say that the ads will be tailored and targeted to the individual regions.

"We’ll work closely with a handful of advertisers in each country who are already great members of the Instagram community," a spokesperson told Mashable. "That could mean it’s a global brand with a strong presence in one of the countries, or a regional/local brand specific to that country."

The international ad push is not Instagram's first foray into native ads. Instagram first rolled out in-feed ads to U.S. users in November, starting with a small sampling of advertisers like Michael Kors, Burberry, Lexus. The response at the time was mixed — the images generated lots of Likes, but also lots of angry comments from users who didn't appreciate Instagram's monetization attempt.

Facebook approached advertising slowly at Instagram in hopes of keeping users happy, and the results seem to be working. Instagram added close to 50 million new users in the first six months after adding ads.

The service also announced an ad partnership with the ad agency Omnicom in March that could be worth as much as $100 million over the next year.

-Mashable-

Facebook Messenger Gets Instant Video Messaging

Facebook has updated its Messenger app for iOS and Android devices, giving users the ability to record and send 15-second video messages.

Version 6.0 of the app also adds a feature called "Big Likes" — when you really like something, press and hold to send an even bigger "thumbs up" sign.

The new version of Messenger comes after Facebook's odd, accidental rollout of messaging app Slingshot earlier this week. That app, which was quickly pulled from Apple's App Store, also had the ability to send short video messages to friends.

The new version of Messenger is available for free at Apple's App Store and Google Play.

Facebook announces two major changes

Facebook has announced two major changes to its advertising policy that will let it track users across the web and give them access to the advertising profiles created by the social network of their likes and interests.

The site creates profiles in order to sell targeted adverts tailored to the individual but has never before let users view or edit the information in those files.

Users’ web browsing activities outside of Facebook will also be added to this profile through the Facebook ‘Like’ button. Even if individuals do not click this on third-party sites it still registers their presence if they are logged into Facebook in the same browsing session.

Similar buttons from Twitter and Google have identical abilities, but this is the first time Facebook has chosen to utilise this wealth of data. If users don’t want to be tracked in this way then they can opt out via the Digital Advertising Alliance or for mobile browsing adjust their settings on their handset.

Brian Boland, Facebook’s’ vice president of ad product, told the New York Times that people “want more targeted advertising” and that the aim of the new policies was to make it clearer to individuals why they were seeing certain ads.

Adverts on the site will have drop down menus in the top right-hand corner that gives users more control over these adverts. Individuals can find out why they are being shown an advert based on the likes and interests that Facebook has logged – or they can choose not to see any more similar adverts in the future.

The new policies will likely meet with a mixed reaction from privacy advocates and the site’s users. Although Facebook is giving people more control over what sort of adverts they see they’re also becoming more aggressive regarding the types of data they collect. The changes will appear for US users in a few weeks and in other countries over the following months.

Mark Zuckerberg, other Facebook directors are sued over pay plan

Mark Zuckerberg and other members of Facebook Inc's board have been sued by a shareholder who claimed a policy letting them annually award directors more than $150 million of stock each if they choose is unreasonably generous.

In a complaint filed on Friday night in Delaware Chancery Court, Ernesto Espinoza said the board was "essentially free to grant itself whatever amount of compensation it chooses" under the social media company's 2012 equity incentive plan, which also covers employees, officers and consultants.

He said the plan annually caps total awards at 25 million shares and individual awards at 2.5 million, and in theory lets the board annually award directors $156 million in stock each, based on Friday's closing price of $62.50. The lawsuit does not contend that such large sums will be awarded.

Espinoza also said last year's average $461,000 payout to non-employee directors was too high, being 43 percent larger than typical payouts at "peer" companies such as Amazon.com Inc and Walt Disney Co that on average generated twice as much revenue and three times more profit.

Facebook spokeswoman Genevieve Grdina said in an email: "The lawsuit is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously."

A spokeswoman for Robbins Arroyo, a law firm representing the plaintiff, had no immediate comment.

The lawsuit alleges breach of fiduciary duty, waste of corporate assets and unjust enrichment.

It seeks to force directors to repay Facebook for alleged damages sustained by the Menlo Park, California-based company, and to impose "meaningful limits" subject to shareholder approval about how much stock the board can award itself.

Among the other defendants is Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, a director whose compensation was $16.15 million in 2013, according to a regulatory filing. She is worth $999 million, Forbes magazine said on Monday.

Zuckerberg made $653,165 last year, a regulatory filing shows, and Forbes said his net worth is $27.7 billion.

Espinoza was also a plaintiff in a 2010 shareholder case in Delaware against Hewlett-Packard Co concerning its handling of the resignation of Chief Executive Mark Hurd over his relationship with a former contractor.

The case is Espinoza v. Zuckerberg et al, Delaware Chancery Court, No. 9745.

(Additional reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware)

(Source : Reuters)

Facebook Video Ads

After nearly a year of anticipation, Facebook is finally launching its long-awaited new video ad format following limited beta testing in Q4 2013.  Video ads will start appearing in the Facebook newsfeed starting in April, thus bringing closure to a very lengthy and complicated product launch. The ad unit’s initial launch date was delayed several times due to the ad unit’s apparent superiority to the native content experience. Facebook senior management, including Zuckerberg himself, was apparently reluctant to disappoint users and show any bias to the advertising community.

Facebook walks a very fine line with the launch of this new ad unit. On one hand a new video unit will help it capitalize on the growing migration of TV AV spend to the Internet. Facebook’s recent quarterly results have pleased Wall Street; continuing such stellar growth will require new sources of media investment, and online video is certainly one such source.

However, Facebook will also need to carefully monitor reaction from its users. Any backlash will further fuel rampant but largely unproven industry speculation and discussion around a user exodus, particularly amongst fickle teens. In response, Facebook will likely limit the number of campaigns and brand’s in the US during 2014 as testing continues. Ad frequency is also capped at one ad per user per day; a user should not see more than one video ad in their newsfeed on any given day.
 
DETAILS

The new video advertising unit will automatically play without sound.  Auto-play begins when the user scrolls through the newsfeed and the video comes into view. Time-length of the ad is limited to 15 seconds. Once the user clicks to play, sound is initiated. Two subsequent carousels are also available, which can house additional video creative up to 15 minutes in length. Each brand will be entitled to a maximum of three 15 second creative executions per buy. These spots are not currently permitted to be split across a portfolio but are limited to a single brand per buy.


 
Facebook is heavily involved in the creative process in an attempt to make the ads as non-disruptive as possible. The emphasis is on enhancing the user experience as opposed to completely disrupting it – a tough balancing act to achieve, particularly given the massive amount of mobile users. For the initial beta campaigns, video ads had to be approved at the highest level by Facebook. Going forward Facebook Creative Consultants will provide creative guidelines and be part of the asset development process. A video will not go live on Facebook in the early days without Facebook approval on the creative.
 

Eg: In a recent study, Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings measured a campaign for a beauty care brand that was hoping to improve its image among younger women (Figure 1). The advertiser designed a campaign focused on women 18-34 and ran 213 million impressions across 14 websites and ad networks for a six week period. Nielsen analysis showed that 33 percent of these impressions reached the desired audience (W 18-34), while 40 percent of the impressions were served to men. Clearly, these figures were disappointing to the advertiser. They never expected the campaign to deliver more impressions to men than their young female audience! 


Video ads cannot currently be targeted based on other audience factors e.g., language, interests, behavior, etc. unlike other Facebook units.  Video will not be accessible via FBX (Facebook exchange). As the platform evolves we would also expect to be able to buy against demo plus interest, making the video targeting space more robust, as well as potential inclusion in FBX.
 
IMPLICATIONS

A level of scale is being offered in an area where quality video inventory has been traditionally scarce online, albeit in a social versus premium content setting. That the video doesn’t play until in view supports advertisers with objectives of increasing the percentage of viewable ad experiences for their audiences. The creative experience can be in-depth and also acts as a forum for longer form content; traditionally a tough paid format to effectively place although interaction potential is still unknown. The audience being guaranteed against OCR also gives Facebook a competitive edge over Google; YouTube has yet to fully embrace OCR.
 
Pricing points may be prohibitive for many advertisers; this new ad space is not cheap. Facebook will argue and seek to prove that when contrasted with a cluttered TV environment, an exclusive Facebook newsfeed emotive ad may prove to be a more impactful and effective investment. Other than media cost, the next biggest barrier is likely to get creative agencies and clients organized far enough in advance to go through a ridged creative approval process. Most creative agencies don’t start ideation with Facebook consent in mind.

Blue Dinosaur in new Facebook privacy settings

Facebook highlighted some of its minor new and future privacy features on Tuesday, including one aimed squarely at the people left behind by complicated settings.

A new pop-up message featuring a cartoon dinosaur will appear for Facebook users who haven’t tinkered with their privacy settings in a while.

When someone who always shares publicly posts a link or update, Facebook will double check that they really want to share it with that audience.

The company’s privacy team is also testing other tweaks, including updating mobile and Web designs with more prominent audience controls, a new default privacy setting for cover photos (old images used to be public, now they’re private), and a message clarifying who can see an image you post when your friends re-share it.

Facebook and Google at war to shape the future

Facebook and Google are locked in a high-stakes, multi-billion dollar battle to shape the future.

Both companies are spending like crazy on emerging technologies. Their aims: when their current businesses are disrupted — and they will be — they’ll have a fallback plan.

“While Facebook is doing well now, it knows that its core business could degrade just as MySpace’s did,” said Carl Howe, analyst at Yankee Group.

That’s why Facebook (FB, Fortune 500) has poured billions of dollars into a photo sharing network, facial recognition software, a chat app and now virtual reality company Oculus.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), in turn, has invested billions in driverless cars, wearable gadgets, military robots and — most recently through its purchase of Nest — connected home devices like smoke detectors and thermostats.

It’s as if Facebook and Google are now combatants in Silicon Valley’s version of a Cold War arms race.

“Facebook and Google are high technology titans engaged in a real world game of ‘Monopoly’ to grab the choicest technology properties in a bid to maintain and extend their dominance with each other as well and various other rivals,” said Laura DiDio principal analyst at consultancy ITIC.

These are long-term bets. For all their attempts to diversify, neither company’s purchases have helped them expand beyond their core business models just yet. Both Google and Facebook generated about 90% of their revenue from advertising last year.

CNN

Facebook Messenger scrapped from Windows

Facebook has reportedly announced end of Windows support for its Messenger app.

The social networking giant announced the end of support in the form of a notification to users within the app, saying that it would stop working on March 3, 2014.

According to PC World, Facebook Messenger debuted on Windows around two years ago and around a million people had been using it.

Although, the social networking giant has announced the burial of its Messenger for Windows, the company has maintained that it would continue to work on the app for Windows Phone.

Facebook Buys Whatsapp

Facebook has bought messaging app WhatsApp in a deal worth a total of $19bn (£11.4bn) in cash and shares.It is the social networking giant’s biggest acquisition to date.WhatsApp has over 450 million monthly users and is popular with people looking to avoid text messaging charges.
In a statement announcing the deal, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg described WhatsApp’s services as “incredibly valuable”.
WhatsApp allows users to send messages over internet connections, avoiding text messaging fees. The company claims it is currently registering one million new users a day.It makes money by charging users a subscription fee of $1 per year, although it offers a free model as well.

The deal to buy it includes $4bn in cash and approximately $12 billion worth of Facebook shares, plus an additional $3 billion in stock to WhatsApp’s founders and employees at a later date.On a conference call to discuss the deal, WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum says he plans to operate the firm “independently and autonomously”. He will also become a member of Facebook’s board of directors.“We’re excited and honoured to partner with Mark and Facebook as we continue to bring our product to more people around the world,” Mr Koum said in a statement.Zuckerberg said the prospect of a deal was first floated just 11 days ago.

Facebook defends using profile pictures for facial recognition

Facebook's 'Tag Suggest' feature currently identifies faces in newly uploaded photos by comparing them with pictures in which the users have previously been tagged. Facial recognition software is used to calculate a unique 'template' based on someone’s facial features, like the distance between the eyes, nose and ears.

Templates are only created for people on Facebook who have been tagged in a photo. Facebook users can choose to de-tag themselves from photos posted by other users on the site, and these photos will not be used to create the template.

However, in an August update to its data use policy, the social network revealed plans to use profile pictures as well as previously tagged photos to suggest tags. Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan said that adding members' public profile photos would make it easier for users to identify photos in which they appear.

The news caused an outcry from privacy campaigners, who warned that users would no longer have the option to avoid Facebook's facial recognition software.

In an attempt to mollify users, Facebook has now published a number of 'clarifying edits' to its data use policy, claiming that that using profile pictures to suggest tags is designed to increase the user's control and awareness of information about them on Facebook.

"The way this feature works is, after a photo is uploaded it may prompt the question – do you want to tag this photo – to your friends. If that photo is then tagged, you are notified that a photo of you has been posted so you can check it out. After that, it is up to you what action to take– for example, you can remove the tag or ask the person who posted the photo to remove it altogether," the company said in a blog post.

"Please also note that the tag suggest feature is not available in every country, such as those in the EU. In response to your questions, we have provided more information in our Data Use Policy to make it clear that the tag suggest tool only applies to you if the feature is available where you live."

Facebook facial recognition software has long been controversial. It was turned on by default in 2011, meaning members had to opt out if they did not want to be part of the system.

The social network was then forced to switch off its facial recognition tool and delete data collected from European users in October 2012, following an investigation by privacy authorities in Ireland and Germany. Facial recognition is still disabled in Europe but the software is gaining traction in the US.

Commenting on other proposed changes to its data use policy, Facebook said that nothing has changed with regard to the way it uses people's names, profile pictures, content and information in connection with ads or commercial content.

The goal of the update was to clarify language, not to change policies or practices, it said. Just as before, users can limit who can see which pages they have 'liked' and commented on.

"We don’t share your private posts with others without your permission. When you post, you choose how to share and with whom, and we respect your choice. This has long been key to our terms and policies and has not changed as a result of this update."

telegraph.co.uk

Facebook changes privacy settings for teens

Facebook is relaxing its rules for teenagers. Recently Facebook said that teenagerss can share their posts publicly for the first time, but the default privacy setting for new users will limit their sharing to friends only. The also will be able to share photos, updates and comments with the general public on Facebook. That means strangers, and companies collecting data for advertisers and marketing companies, will be able to see select posts. Teenagers will also be able to turn on the Follow feature for their profiles, which would allow anyone they're not friends with to see their public posts in the main news feed.

Until now, Facebook said, teens aged 13 to 17 joining the service defaulted to being able to share information -- status updates, photos, videos, and the like -- with anybody in their extended network including friends and "friends of friends." But in a bid, perhaps, to assuage concerned parents, the giant social network is ratcheting the default for new users back to just "friends."

Note: To be sure, Facebook will allow those teens to change their privacy settings to anything they want. 

Other social networks such as Twitter, Tumblr and Last.fm don't prevent teens from posting publicly. However, if someone under 18 wanted to bypass the setting on Facebook before today, they could easily lie about their age when signing up for an account. Children under 13 are not officially allowed to sign up for a Facebook account, though they can skirt the rules in the same way. When someone underage does sign up for an account, Facebook assumes they have the permission of at least one guardian but does not verify it in any way.

Privacy, or the lack of privacy, has long been a touchy subject for Facebook. Users often bash the social network for its ever-changing and often complicated privacy settings. And despite the impression that teens are carefree with their online identities, a recent report showed that they are definitely concerned about their privacy on Facebook.