Technomaly » facebook

Facebook Comes to Kindle

J. Matthew Zoss — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:27:46 +0000

Man, Facebook just can’t be escaped, can it? The new Kindle 2.5 software update adds Facebook and Twitter support to the e-reader, which means there’s officially not a single gadget out there that doesn’t connect to the social network sites. Okay, so my toaster can’t access Facebook yet. Just MySpace.

The Kindle 2.5 update also adds more useful features, such as the ability to pan and zoom while viewing PDFs, the ability to organize your books in collections, and highlighted passage sharing, which will show you what chunks of text your friends found relevant in their e-books.

Obviously, the Kindle’s display won’t allow for all the features of Facebook and Twitter, but c’mon – do we really need it to?

Facebook Beats Yahoo, Is Now 2nd Most Visited Site Worldwide

Asterios Kokkinos — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:00:30 +0000

Web analytics company Compete.com has reported that Facebook has vaulted past Yahoo to become the second most visited site on the web behind Google.

Until two years ago, Yahoo was the most popular site on the planet. It was overtaken by Google, and now, Facebook, falling to the third most visited site on the web.

It’s always been a question of when for Yahoo. They’re outfoxed on search by Google, and Facebook just celebrated its 400 millionth user. The real question here is, “Do we need a Yahoo at all?”

To “google” something is now an adjective, whereas nobody “yahoo’s” anything. That and Facebook puts us in touch with old high school crushes in a way that Yahoo never could – how are we to stalk our past loves through Yahoo? Or play annoying games like Mafia Wars, or post links to minute causes that only we care about in order to look good to girls? Answer: we can’t, which is why Facebook wins.

There’s just no use for Yahoo anymore.

Facebook Petition Emerges To Halt Facebook Coal Power Usage

Asterios Kokkinos — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:00:14 +0000

Facebook’s just built it’s first custom data center to keep up with the demands of being the world’s second most popular website. But according to a report from Fast Company, that shiny new data center may be powered by some old, black coal.

Fast Comapny reports on a petition circulating to stop Facebook from using coal power, a petition that at this point has 227 members. How’s this square with the corporate image? Not well, which is why company spokesperson Lee Weinstein shot back at the claim, stating that the data center will be getting power from a company that uses “hydro, geothermal, wind and coal power. ” What Lee didn’t say was that the company, Pacificorp, generates 83% of its power from coal, geothermal and natural gas – this means Facebook probably won’t be drawing much power from the greener of the company’s sources.

Additionally, both Microsoft and Google have touted their company’s use of hydroelectric power in data centers, which is a much cleaner source of power than coal.

Will Facebook switch over from coal to something less sooty? Check out the petition and judge for yourself – visit the petition for the dirty details.

Source & Photo Source: Fast Company

Google Buzz Hits 9 Million Posts & Comments

Asterios Kokkinos — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:00:31 +0000

What the hell is Google Buzz anyway? A BBS embedded in Gmail? A Twitter-killer? The death of Facebook? Well whatever it is, it’s got over 9 million posts and comments since its launch on Tuesday. That’s over 160,000 comments & posts per hour, and 200 posts per minute by mobile device.

That’s incredible for a service that launched about three days ago. For me personally, I find that my friends are taking to Google Buzz like moths to a hi-tech flame – people are “buzzing” up stories and photos, arguing over movies and generally acting like idiots on the internet always do.

I’ve sent out a Google Buzz or two myself, and I’ve noticed that the reactions are much more immediate. This could be due to Google Buzz’s relative shiny-newness, but I think it’s a little deeper – we’re constantly on Gmail. I have virtually no friends who use Yahoo or, god forbid, Hotmail – everyone I know is on Gmail. Everyone I know is also checking their Gmail twenty times a minute.

So what Google’s done is given us one more thing to obsessively check. While waiting for that email from that special someone, why not browse what your friends are “buzzing” about? Makes sense to me. Clever, Google.

Source: Mashable

Image Source: Google

Facebook Iz In Ur Profile, Violatin Ur Privacy

Geoffrey Golden — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:11:27 +0000

Facebook CEO Mark Zimmerberg recently went on record as saying that people care less about privacy today. That’s why this anonymous interview with a Facebook employee, which surfaced on The Rumpus recently, is so telling.

In the interview, the employee claims that there was once a master password that allowed Facebook employees to enter anybody’s profile. Now employees can login to profiles with the touch of a button, as long as they provide good reason to the higher ups. (Of course, couldn’t an employee claim a profile has been compromised just to get access to the user’s phone number, or even creepier – the list of their favorite bands?) Also, all private messages are stored in an easy to search database, which employees can peruse. Nice!

Many in the comments section of the article are questioning the credibility of the source. Anonymous sources are hard to trust. I will say this: given the CEO’s apparently lax views on privacy, if you’re worried about whether your private info is in safe hands on Facebook, I’d delete it immediately.

[Image via]

Facebook Updates Lead To Recapture Of British Prison Escapee

Nex — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:33:27 +0000

After escaping from Hollesley Bay Prison in Suffolk, England, Craig Lynch worried that perhaps his family and friends were having a hard time keeping up with his ongoing flight from the Queen’s iron-fisted justice.

“How will my mum ever know that I had to crawl through a mile and a half of sewage while Morgan Freeman waxed poetic in the background?” Lynch wondered aloud, most likely while kneeling in the mud and raging against the melodramatic soundtrack that seemingly follows him everywhere he goes.

Luckily for Lynch, Facebook came to the rescue. The 28-year-old fugitive began updating his status on the popular social networking site, leading to a number of Facebook users to take interest in Lynch. He has his own Facebook fan page, an anti fan page and (just in case the first fan page is removed by Facebook’s moderators) a backup fan page, all of which sport more than 1,000 followers.

Unwilling to look a gift horse in its poorly plznnc

WIP

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/suffolk/8456182.stm

Facebook CEO Says, ‘Privacy Shmivacy’

Geoffrey Golden — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:15:53 +0000

During his talk at the Consumer Electronics Show, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed the theme of privacy, as it relates to his company. “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people,” Zuckerberg said. “We view it as our role in the system to constantly be innovating and be updating what our system is to reflect what the current social norms are.” I’m getting dizzy, because that logic is totally circular!

Facebook is a successful business, built on getting people to put information on its website. When more users update their profiles with phone numbers, relationship statuses and pictures of themselves vomiting, there’s more information on Facebook, and therefore Facebook becomes more valuable. I see the above quote as saying, “Facebook has become successful at coaxing private information out of people, so now the social norms of ‘privacy’ have changed. We will continue to innovate in the field of getting more people to give us their formerly private information.”

It’s kind of like a cigarette manufacturer saying the definition of “healthy” has changed, because more people have decided to smoke their cigarettes.

[Image via]