facebook application development

Facebook Questions Absent in Search Engines – Facebook launched its Questions service this week but so far the results are not available in search results. Search Engine Land reported that a Facebook spokesperson tells them, “Currently, search engines cannot access questions and answers through our Questions product. That may be something we consider for the future but have no current plans to allow it.” Also, searches on Yahoo, Bing and Google yielded no results for Questions.

Facebook to Add Delete Option – Facebook has released a “delete account” option, which would allow users to streamline the deletion of their accounts from the social network. Currently, the process of doing so is cumbersome and drawn-out with several steps. Facebook is testing the option with some users, which says it will “permanently delete your account and all information you have shared.”

Bump Releases Redesign – Bump has overhauled its iPhone app by changing its look, adding new features, allowing Twitter and LinkedIn integrations, chat function, a calendar feature and also allowing unlimited photo and contact sharing.

Info From 100M Facebook Users ‘Leaked’ – Much ado has been made this week about the “leaking” of information from 100 million Facebook users’ accounts. This information was downloaded by security researcher Ron Bowes from Facebook’s user directory, or index of public profile Pages. Which is to say that the “leaked” info was already public, including names, profile pictures and a few of the users’ friends.

‘Owner’ of Facebook Busted for Shrooms – Paul Ceglia is the man alleging he’s contractually entitled to 84% of Facebook per a contract he signed with Mark Zuckerberg in 2003. He seems to have a somewhat checkered past. In 2009 Ceglia was accused of defrauding customers in the amount of $200,000 for not delivering ordered merchandise and he also apparently enjoyed the effects of hallucinogenic mushrooms in 1997 while in Texas.

WaPo Further Integrates Facebook, Web Site – The Washington Post announced an expansion this week of its Network News tool, which incorporates social media feedback such as Likes and the Recommend button. Now users may see what’s been recommended across the site, by section; also the Like button is being replaced by the Recommend button. Users may deactivate the Network News box by clicking the red X at the top of the box to manage their preferences. Similar updates were also made to the site’s Twitter integration.

LiveWorld Releases LiveConnect - LiveWorld released a new product this week aimed at helping brands better engage in conversations with fans. Facebook LiveConnect allows brands to unify moderation/administration across Pages and web sites into one system.

iGoDigital Provides Shopping Help, Facebook Integration – This week iGoDigital announced new Facebook integrations for its product recommendation platform. Essentially consumers are presented with direct and indirect product suggesitons from their network after logging in with Facebook via web or mobile, these sugestions take Likes, recommendations and interests into account. The integration also allows for Facebook users to post products on their profiles to solicit or provide advice to their network.

Appssavvy Makes Six More Hires – Appssavvy announced this week that it hired six people who are set to help the company focus on social and mobile media marketing, taking the company’s total employee count past 40. Talent includes: Human Resources Manager Holly Ettenger, Marketing Coordinator Mattan Griffel, Senior Account Executive-Midwest Meghan Kludt, Product Manager Yolanda Ladia, Senior Account Executive Magali Merat and Senior Director of Ad Operations Robin Wilson.

New Facebook Ads Promotions – Facebook has started some new promotions for Page administrators that includes free ad trials and credit promotions, following similar efforts over the years.

Nigerian President Shines on Facebook – Social Times highlighted Nigerian President Goodluck Johnson’s use of his recently set up Facebook Page, noting that the president posts at least once daily and has earnestly tried to engage Nigerians about the intricacies of government policy.

Facebook in Windows Messenger - Windows Messenger incorporated some Facebook integrations this week allowing users to see their contacts’ social network activity. In Messenger, with a new brower plugin, users can see what contacts have shared online and comment on them via Messenger Companion notifications in the upper right-hand corner of the browser window.

Become a Star with Facebook Connect – An interesting Facebook Connect integration allows users and their Facebook friends to star in a movie trailer. The reason seems to be promoting Swiss television shows.

Facebook, NPR and the Media – Facebook launched a Page specifically for media properties this week and some insight as to how media properties use Facebook came from an interview with one of NPR’s social media strategists Andy Carvin. Among the insights was that NPR’s Page was created by a fan and eventually handed over to NPR, the Page now has more than 1 million Likes and provides tips, allows for surveys and pretty basic demographic insights (60% are women, for example). Facebook accounts for 7% of NPR’s traffic, just behind Google, and comments on Facebook are much more common than on NPR’s web site.

Sit on My Facebook, the Video - An interesting mix of social media metaphors roll into one in a new, mildly NSFW music video, “Sit On My Facebook“ by The Scribes. The video was produced by the Pantless Knights.

The Week in Bugs – Facebook experienced an array of relatively minor technical issues this week, that were more notable for how they were perceived. Facebook was preventing people from using the word “Palestinian” in creating Pages, apparently due to an automated filtering system. Also blocked were mentions of Power.com in status updates. However, this latter issue was attributable to the fact that, after Facebook debuted Questions and changed its publisher interface, people were having problems using the tagging option (using @ in front of a name in a status update). This has since been fixed.

Finally, there was a bit of obscenity on Facebook for users who chose the Spanish language option this week. Not only was there explicit curse words, but there were also allusions to sex acts and genitalia. There’s a Facebook Page with about 5,700 people who said they saw the same problems. Gawker attributed the problems to a Turkish web site.

Following up on years of Facebook saying that it is not planning to make an initial public offering any time soon or not commenting on rumors to that effect, a new report out… basically has that same message. “Facebook Inc. will probably put off its initial public offering until 2012, giving Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg more time to gain users and boost sales, three people familiar with the matter” tell Bloomberg.

Facebook has no reason to do an offering, as Zuckerberg owns a controlling stake in the company — the other stockholders in the company have to go along with whatever he decides. By going public, he and the company would be under more pressure to make money by public shareholders, and to handle all the expensive financial reporting that comes with being listed.

However, whether or not Facebook goes public in 2012, or sooner, or later, there have been occasional hints that indicate it is planning to go public at some point (rather than, say, never going public). In 2007, for example, it appeared to be hiring for someone familiar with public company regulatory frameworks. Last fall, it introduced a dual-class stock structure that gave existing shareholders ten times the voting power of new people.

Meanwhile, the company began turning a profit last year, growing revenue from around $700 million over that period to around $1.1 billion this year — or so we reported in March. Given how the year is going with its advertising revenue, and the roll-out of Credits, it could make more this year, with Bloomberg citing sources who think the number could reach $1.4 billion.

With fast revenue growth, no immediate plans for an IPO, and the potential to disrupt advertising and payments across the web, Facebook unsurprisingly has investors excited. Many have bought, or have tried to buy Facebook stock on private secondary markets, helping to drive stock prices high enough to imply steep valuations in the $25 billion range, according to some secondary stock sites. In fact, the company has tried to restrict secondary stock sales, as it has to file financial statements with the SEC if it has more than 500 stockholders.

And investors might soon have another way to get Facebook stock — Digital Sky Technologies, a holding company that a small percentage of Facebook, as well as other popular web companies like Zynga and Groupon.

Sugar CRM’s new customer relationship management web software Sugar6 includes strengthened social network integrations, allowing users to view Facebook profiles from within the product. Facebook vanity URLs or user IDs can be pinned to contact files or added as dashboard feeds, allowing previews of activity on the site. There is no social authorization system within Sugar6, though, so users must log in on Facebook.com on the same web browser and can only see profiles they usually have access to, such as public profiles and friends.

Sugar is one of a number of social CRM software providers, all of whom are trying to help businesses to figure out sales leads and other relationships from existing social data.

Sugar says it is slowly building the infrastructure for a more social CRM tool. In future releases of Sugar, it hope to include automatic syncing of social network data into contacts, data-centric social media monitoring, and the ability to track actions like wall posts and messages to contacts the way they currently track email.

Sugar6 provides a web-based, customizable, open source CRM platform for approximately $30/month/user. While some CRM services like Siebel and Microsoft Dynamics are more rigid, and Salesforce charges for simple customizations after a certain limit, it is free to use Sugar6’s Sugar Studio to create coding-free customizations. Those with PHP skills can even alter the source code to make more drastic changes to the platform. This makes Sugar6 a good choice for users who frequently need to adapt to changes, or whose requirements don’t match that of traditional CRM software.

Contact pages on Sugar6 can be customized to include Facebook Page and profile URLs, as well as Twitter and LinkedIn links. If the user has logged in to Facebook on the same browser, and have access to that contact’s Facebook content —because they are friends, the profile is public, or they have relaxed privacy settings— a custom tab allows a user to view that profile from within Sugar6. This could help a user monitor updates from a business partner’s Page, or see that a lead has left a status update saying they are preparing to make a purchase.

Sugar6’s goal is to eliminate the need for using multiple windows simultaneously to manage relationships. The lack of a native authorization system make this a bit clumsy, but usable. A future release that integrates authorization, auto-syncing, and the ability to interact with Facebook, not just watch it, will finally bridge the gap between the wealth of contact and behavior information available on the social network and the software meant to take advantage of it.

Our list of Facebook hires this week is a little thin but includes new adds to engineering, and advertising staff. The list, generated via LinkedIn, in alphabetical order:

• Roger Chen has joined Facebook as an engineer and comes from similar work at Greater Boston Area Information Technology and Services and Panjiva. He also interned for Qiming Venture Partners and Microsoft and previously did research at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab.
• Jocelyn Goldfein is now Director of Engineering at Facebook, which we previously reported. Her previous work was as a VP and general maanger at VMware.
• Richard Sim has joined the company as a product marketing manager of performance ads; before, Sim held a similar position at Anchor Intelligence, although he also worked as a product manager at MSN/Microsoft and atKeynote Systems.

And, for a closer look at what jobs are opening up in the industry, be sure to check out our new Inside Network Jobs Board.

Out of the last five startups that Facebook has bought, four of them have had something to do with sharing information in a social news feed interface or sharing location data, if not both. All of the sale prices have been relatively low, too, with the acquisitions largely intended to bring in talented developers. So it makes sense that Facebook may be buying Hot Potato, a startup that lets you create and share a stream of information about events, and anything else.

The acquisition is close to finalized, according to TechCrunch, and like Facebook’s other purchases, the main point may just be to scoop up talented people who have generally relevant product and engineering experience. The company has raised $1.4 million in funding from well-known angels, with the price being somewhere in the $10 million to $15 million range, according to MediaMemo.

But there are a few areas where the Hot Potato team, headed by veteran product leader Jake Schaffer, would be the most relevant.  Facebook is “supposedly looking to bulk up the projects under Facebook Director of Product Blake Ross, and on the mobile side of things,” TechCunch says. “This Hot Potato deal could fulfill either of those — or both.”

Location, a long-tested feature that, one way or another, would involve people sharing their locations into the news feed — probably from their phones — then talking about what they’re doing. That seems relevant to Hot Potato.

Another area is Facebook Questions, a product currently in private beta, that Ross has been working on directly. It lets users ask and answer questions in a threaded-comments format, somewhat like Yahoo Answers or Quora. Questions hasn’t fully launched yet, and it’s possible that the Hot Potato team could end up here.

Of course, Facebook’s news feed has been a key part of the site for years, the company has more experience designing (and redesigning) it at scale than anyone else in the world, and maybe it just wants more help here.

Most of the other startups that Facebook has bought recently have somehow been working on social sharing products. FriendFeed, which Facebook bought almost a year ago, had its own social activity stream service. Nextstop, acquired earlier this month, let travelers share their experiences with each other. ShareGrove, bought in May, focused on private conservations. The other two companies are less relevant: Octazen made an effective contact importer for social sites; Divvyshot made online photo products.

Hot Potato might go the way of FriendFeed, whose employees are now working in a variety of areas across the company, or it might emerge with a soon-to-be-launched Facebook product.