facebook application development

Facebook launched an official company-run Page for universities and university-related entities Monday. The Page currently includes some shopping bargains relevant to school and also tips for how different campus organizations can use Facebook, like the recommendation that student newspapers add the Like button to their web sites.

The Universities Page is similar to other company-run reference Pages Facebook has created this year, including: Comedy Page, Congress Page, U.S. Politics Page and a Media Page. So far the Universities Page is nearing 3,000 Likes.

As part of the Page’s launch Facebook teamed up with several retailers to offer back-to-school specials on school supplies. Context Optional designed the Deals tab which includes offers such as Eddie Bauer discounts on clothing and backpacks and Newegg.com’s laptop deals.

Other info on the Page includes several separate tabs meant to help college organizations take full advantage of Facebook’s platform by providing a tip sheet. The Press tab offers tips for college newspapers, a Community tab for dorms or clubs, a Student Government Tab and a Sports tab with different suggestions on how to use Facebook for promotion. Some of the tips include cross-promoting content, spreading awareness, creating discussions, selling merchandise and promoting events.

It’s interesting to see Facebook take on the university scene, as several other companies have been trying to fill that void for some time. We’ve written about Inigral’s attempt to build a closed version of Facebook and CampusBuddy’s application adding onto Facebook with its most recent partnership with Cramster. Both companies have been attempting to help universities shine on Facebook, as currently higher education is one of the sectors that hasn’t had smashing success on the Facebook platform — aside from Facebook’s roots as a massive success with college students, of course.

Rumor: AOL, Facebook Talk Ad Alliance – The New York Post reports that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong have been discussing a “strategic alliance” that would boost the companies’ respective online ad businesses. Discussions have purportedly been on for months, and a deal might allow Facebook to tap into AOL’s online ad power and AOL to dump much of its content into social media, post-Bebo. AOL could potentially be named a “preferred media partner,” according to the story, but Facebook said it doesn’t comment on “market rumors.”

Facebook, Google Approach Data Centers Differently – An interesting piece in The Dalles Chronicle points out that Facebook and Google have taken radically different approaches to constructing their data centers in Oregon. The article characterized Google as standoffish, secretive and not always smooth with the locals on site whereas Facebook — headed by one of the former leaders of Google’s data center — has sent employees to meet with local leaders and disclosed construction plans early on. In other example, as we wrote previously, Facebook recently co-sponsored a local music event and pie bake-off at its site in Crook County.

Facebook Changes Notes – Facebook has changed its Notes app to allow people to bold, italicize, underline, use bullets, numbered lists or indented quotes without having to use the HTML tags. Users will now also be able to tag Pages in Note. Finally, a new menu on the left side allows for quick perusal of a user’s own Notes, Notes about you or Notes that might interest you.

CloudCrowd raises $5.1 M – CloudCrowd, which networks with workers around the world to bring labor into the cloud, previously raised $5.1 million recently and previously raised $1.5 million, according to TechCrunch. We wrote extensively about CloudCrowd’s business recently, the company bills itself as an on-demand labor-as-a-service crowdsourcing company which uses a Facebook application to assign tasks to workers, more at the link.

Appbistro Raises $550K – Appbistro raised $550,000 in funding recently from a variety of angel investors; the startup is essentially a market of apps for Page developers. Appbistro launched in May, according to TechCrunch, and so far 10,000 apps have been downloaded from the web site.

Rixty: Redeem Coins, Get Facebook Credits – Virtual currency provider Rixty is running a promotion from Aug. 9 through Sept. 7 that combines its Coinstar coin counting kiosks with Facebook Credits. the promotion allows users to redeem vouchers from Coinstar kiosks for Credits, up to 10 free Credits for redeeming their kiosk balance for a Rixty voucher. They can earn up to 105 more free Credits for exchanging these vouchers for Credits at the $0.199/Credit tax, depending on the value of the voucher.

Facebook Seattle Page – Facebook recently opened the Seattle office we wrote about in May and the company consequently published a Page for the office. Thus far the Page has about 530 Likes and Wall content, as well as a note including basic information and a photo of the view from the office.

Facebook Nears Saturation in UK – Hitwise’s numbers in the United Kingdom show that, while Facebook is still very popular, the social network may be nearing saturation. The amount of time people spend on the site decreased slightly and growth has slowed over the past six months. Check out our premium service, Inside Facebook Gold, for more information on growth by country.

eBay Thanks Like Button for Revenue – eBay has reportedly attributed part of its $2.2 billion increase in revenue last quarter to Facebook’s Like button. The Like button has been part of eBay’s Daily Deals or Fashion Vault promotions and company executive say Facebook’s social plugins represent some of the best marketing tools currently available.

Spotify Designer Joins Facebook – Rasmus Andersson, the former chief designer at Spotify, has left to join Facebook as a product designer. At Spotify, Andersson worked on creative and art direction, interaction and graphic design, brand identity and user interaction, among other things. He’ll be moving to San Francisco as part of his new job. On his blog he said that working with basic human needs, such as music and social interaction, has been the focus of his professional life. [Photo via]

Swiss Pharma Censured Over Facebook Info – Swiss drug maker Novartis ran into trouble with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week over a widget on the company’s web site promoting its leukemia tasigna drug. Under current laws drug companies must present the pros along with the cons of any drug in advertisements, but the widget allowed Facebook users to share information promoting the product without any of the warning information. We wrote about the thin line pharmaceutical companies are currently walking by promoting products on social media spaces; the government is still considering regulations for social media drug promotions.

Book Delta Flights on Facebook – Delta’s new Ticket Window app allows users to book flights directly on Facebook. The app is powered by Alvenda.

Shout Out with Shoutworthy - Facebook Connect integration Shoutworthy is set up to allow people to professionally recommend their Facebook friends by profession and broadcast a short message about this recommendation over Twitter and Facebook.

Hospitals Contend with Facebook – Hospital administrators in California, as well as other places, are having trouble controlling what employees post about their work on Facebook. This is a particular problem due to U.S. medical confidentiality laws, especially in hospitals in Southern California where celebrities often go for treatment. So far, hospitals have responded by firing staffers who break the laws by posting photos or other confidential information on Facebook and by mounting their own social media campaigns.

UK’s Panic Button a Success – The United Kingdom’s experience with the so-called “Panic Button” to allow children to report inappropriate behavior on Facebook has been deemed successful by authorities there. The application has been downloaded more than 55,000 times and the 211 reports generated from it were serious offenses, such as “sexual grooming.” More at the link.

New Jersey Police Post Mug Shots – The Evesham Township police have begun posting the mug shots of local offenders, like drunk drivers, on Facebook. CNET reports that, while this is interesting, it does open up a strange can of worms because the photos can be tagged, which could lead to mischief.

Ronaldo Gets 10 Million Fans – Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo passed 10 million Likes on Facebook this week, making him the first non-American person to do so.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other company executives visited Washington, D.C. this week, the latest moves to fend of possible legislation around privacy and online advertising.

National politicians have begun paying more attention to online business in the last couple of years, with Facebook getting special attention around issues like privacy policy changes.

Zuckerberg’s first official trip to Capitol Hill included private meetings with politicians, including with Utah’s Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, as well as other members of the Senate’s Republican High-Tech Task Force. Hatch came out of the meeting talking about job creation, not privacy. “It was a productive meeting that underscored technology’s importance as a key engine in fueling job creation and putting the nation on the road to economic recovery,” he said in a statement, according to Politico.

Meanwhile, other company executives testified along with other technology employees from AT&T, Apple and Google at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing about online privacy where senators said they’d be eyeing new online privacy rules by next year.

Democratic Massachusetts Senator John Kerry said during the aforementioned hearing that he was working with Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor, also a Democrat, on proposed legislation for 2011. Politico reported that Kerry is likely to have “the full support of the committee’s top Democrats,” who have been involved in several privacy hearings this year. Separate online advertising regulatory bills have been drafted by some members of the House.

Facebook Chief Technology Officer Bret Taylor also testified that vague legislation could ultimately harm technological innovation. AT&T’s Senior Vice President of Public Policy Dorothy Attwood and Google’s Engineering Lead for Privacy Alma Whitten had similar messages, advocating a loose regulatory framework around online businesses.

Privacy changes, security problems and other issues — along with rapid growth — have put Facebook in the political spotlight.

Facebook has been busy this year taking on the issue of online privacy, with other executives meeting with the Obama administration. Much of this prepping included hiring people to oversee global policy, D.C. legal expertise and even a California lobbyist. Of course Zuckerberg’s first trip to D.C. coinciding with Senate hearing testimony is also a part of the company’s committment to address privacy.

[Zuckerberg photo via Gabriel Bouys AFP/Getty]

Zuckerberg Interviewed on ABC – Facebook CEO gave an extended interview to ABC’s Diane Sawyer this week in which he discussed “The Social Network,” the 500 million user mark, the current ownership dispute and a possible IPO.

Facebook Updates Events Emails – Facebook recently updated the email interface for Facebook events this week, going from a text-only view to a more graphical interface matching with its latest events page changes.

Court Hands Down Opinions on Power.Com, Facebook Suit – After more than a year, the Power.Com v. Facebook lawsuit got some opinions this week. A federal judge gave a multi-part ruling on some aspects of the case, including the dismissal of Power.com’s claims that Facebook was a monopoly. Power.Com did not commit a crime by allowing users to violate Facebook’s terms of service to access their personal information by “automated means.” But, when Power.Com changed its IP address to do so, it might be a crime. The judge also dismissed summary judgement against both companies.

Facebook Relies on Users for Clean Content – As more people began to upload images to the Internet the business of screening these images for offensive content became a big business. The New York Times reported this week that, oftentimes, the low paid content reviewers suffer psychological trauma related to their jobs. As the article also describes, Facebook (like many other web companies) relies on users to flag objectionable content, which is later reviewed by employees in Palo Alto, Calif. or Dublin, Ireland. Some of Facebook’s content is outsourced, but not most of it, according to a company spokesman.

San Francisco’s Facebook Use – Facebook posted an interview with San Francisco City/County’s CIO Chris Vein discussing how social media might replace government web sites and the role sites like Facebook play in providing city services.

Sarah Palin, Facebook and a ‘Social Experiment’ – Former Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin wrote a controversial Facebook note this week that was automatically removed after blogger Brian Ries posted a screenshot on Tumblr urging others to flag the note as “hate speech.” Ultimately, Palin’s note was reinstated by Facebook and Ries said the result of the experiment was that freedom of speech on the Internet is still hazily defined.

Adobe Integrates Facebook Ads – Adobe Systems announced it was adding tools to its software this week that would allow online marketers to better integrate with Facebook ads. Specifically the changes will allow marketers bid for ads on Facebook through Omniture, a recent acquisition, and a company that has been an Ads API services provider for months.

Coca-Cola’s Facebook Faux Pas – Coca-Cola was forced to pull its Dr. Pepper Facebook promotion this week after the application published pornographic messages on underage users’ accounts. The app took over a users’ status updates.

People Hate and Love Facebook – A recent survey by ForeSeeResults led many to conclude that Facebook’s devoted user base hates the site. But as TechCrunch examines, the survey has issues. It struggles to explain, for example, why 57% of respondents visited Facebook every day, yet ranked the site worse than Wikipedia, even though only 20% visited that site every day.

Facebook in Patent Trial – Facebook was in court this week to defend itself in a patent-infringement trail. The suit revolves around a patent for managing electronically stored data issued in 2006 to Michael McKibben and Jeffrey R. Lamb, who work for Leader Technologies Inc.; they’re asking for royalties and for Facebook to stop infringing on their patent. Facebook said it didn’t misuse the technology and the patent doesn’t cover social networking anyway. Facebook has been habitually taken to court over extremely broad prior patents, and these cases have tended to not go anywhere.

BranchOut, Facebook’s LinkedIn? – Startup BranchOut launched a Facebook application this week that aims to provided LinkedIn-style business networking on Facebook. A very thorough review here.

Discovery Channel Connect Mimics Facebook - Campfire created a Facebook Connect integration for the Discovery Channel’s “The Colony” project. Essentially “The Colony” is a simulation of what a global pandemic would do to civilization via social media; electing to utilize Facebook Connect pulls up a users’ network in a simulated social network revolving around the pandemic. Users see (fake) posts from their Facebook friends encouraging them to survive the pandemic.

Zuckerberg on ‘The Simpsons’ – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to guest star on the popular television show “The Simpsons” in the upcoming season. He will play himself and tell characters on the show that even billionaires drop out of school.

Canadian Firm, German Govt File Against Facebook - Toronto-based Merchant Law Group filed paperwork seeking class action status in a lawsuit against Facebook this week claiming Facebook mishandled user data during the most recent privacy changes, and seeking the sum of the money the company made as a result of making user data public in that change. It’s not clear how strong the firm’s particular arguments are; what is clear is that some law firms pursue such cases when they think they can get money or at least publicity out of their efforts.

Meanwhile, perhaps more seriously, Germany data protection official Johannes Caspar said in a statement this week that his office had initiated a legal process that could ultimately cost Facebook thousands of euros in fines. The action comes over privacy issues, specifically, April privacy setting changes that exposed the information of people who don’t use the site through Facebook’s email importing settings. Facebook has until August 11 to respond to the legal complaint.

Facebook’s Economic Geography - Visual Economics created a really interesting map of what Facebook’s economy would look like if it were a landmass, representing app companies and Pages by size, and other interesting representations.

Microsoft’s Docs Integrates Facebook - Microsoft’s new Docs.com site has made some changes to its program that allows for better Facebook integration. Currently you can post a document to your Facebook Page. Docs.com users now have the ability to:  post documents for a Page, author a document as a Facebook page, add a Docs tab to your Page and share/manage docs with other Page admins.

Buy a Drink, on Facebook - It’s now possible for Facebook users to buy their friends drinks — real drinks — even if they live in different cities. Web developer Webtab uses Facebook Connect and its Bartab app to coordinate the purchase.

Basically after paying a $1 fee (on the site or via the app) a user can send a drink to someone in the app network in the form of a digital coupon; the indicated drinker must then go to the indicated bar to redeem the coupon.

DC Team Focuses on Privacy - The Hill interviewed Facebook Spokesman Andrew Noyes this week noting that the company’s D.C. team is setting its sights primarily, 90% to be precise, on privacy.

Facebook’s Buchheit Gives Gov a Hand – Code for America, a group working to “import the efficiency of the Web into government infrastructures,” is the beneficiary of the services of Facebook’s Paul Buchheit. The organization is working on several projects with a variety of government groups.

Ladies Love Facebook – Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research released a report about Facebook usage by women this week. Among the findings was that about one-third of women aged 18-34 check Facebook as soon as they wake up, even before heading to the bathroom. Other findings: 42% of women think posted photos of them “visibly intoxicated” are okay;  57% interact with people more online than face-to-face; 39% call themselves Facebook “addicts”; 21% check Facebook in the middle of the night; 63% network on Facebook; 79% think posted photos of them kissing are okay and 50% are friends with strangers.

Doctors Talk Health on Facebook - USA Today has a piece this week that explores how some health care professionals are using social media tools to help their patients.

Facebook Supports Rel-Me - Chris Messina posted a screenshot showing that Facebook now seems to be supporting the rel-me attribute on its site, used for identity consolidation. Links on one web site about someone connect to other Links about that person, establishing a bi-directional personal rel-me link.

Facebook Pushes Ad Quality, Privacy - The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Facebook is promoting its social-context banner ads service as superior to competitors — including by impression volume, as the graph from the article shows, below. Incidentally, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg wrote a company blog this week describing the way ads work, taking special care to spell out how user privacy is maintained.

Users Like Likes - A couple of different outlets reported on the number of Likes Facebook users are serving up. One promoted the figure of 3 billion Likes a day, with 350,000 sites using Facebook’s social plugins.