Facebook Application Development

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.

Power.Com, Facebook Suit Decided – After more than a year, the Power.Com v. Facebook lawsuit was settled this week. A federal judge gave a multi-part ruling. 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. And 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 and in the case of one 14 year-old user posted a reference to a hardcore pornographic movie.

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.