Tag Archives | Facebook

Facebook Takes Another Page from Twitter’s Playbook

Posted by David Worthington on June 25, 2009 at 4:46 pm

Facebook LogoFacebook insiders are reporting that a beta version of the site’s “publisher” allows users to choose whether anyone on the Web can view their status updates. Can you say “Twitter?”

What would be interesting would be to see Facebook separate its events stream from the rest of the site, essentially creating a Twitter clone. It could then focus on letting developers build services that piggyback on top–targeting one of Twitter’s strengths. 

Regardless of how aggressive it plans to be, I’ve been continually impressed by Facebook’s ability to evolve itself to remain relevant. It went from being a static social networking site that offered basic messaging capabilities to a site that is focused on actions, events, and mobility. Friendster and MySpace were too late to adapt, and lost their luster.

Earlier this month, Facebook made user names available to its users as a replacement for the random string of numbers that used to represent people. These are all small steps in the right direction that preserve what I like about Facebook while selectively adding what’s best about Twitter.

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Share Your Moments With thisMoment

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 22, 2009 at 9:17 pm

This Moment LogoGameSpot cofounder, former Yahoo executive, and old friend and colleague Vince Broady is launching a new site called thisMoment, and it’s going into public beta tonight. It’s an interesting site that’s part social network, part media sharing site, and part Facebook application, and I haven’t seen anything quite like it.

thisMoment is about sharing moments in time–events from your life that may have just happened, or happened a long time ago, or even be in the future. It lets you do so by uploading photos and videos, grabbing photos and videos you’ve posted elsewhere (such as on Flickr or YouTube), grabbing other people’s photos and videos, and introducing everything with your comments. You can specify the time when they took place, their location, and even how they made you feel. And you can make them public, share them only with friends, or even keep them to yourself.

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The Web Evolves to Reflect the Developments in Iran

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 19, 2009 at 1:21 am

Almost exactly twenty years ago, the Tiananmen Square uprising made history, and the protesters used a then-hot gizmo called the fax machine to coordinate their efforts. This week, something extraordinary is going on in Iran–and whatever happens, it’s clear that social networks and other Web tools will be remembered for the role they played.

Fax machines were hunks of plastic that remained unchanged throughout the drama in Beijing. The Web, however, can adjust itself on the fly to reflect the situation. Or rather the people who make Web services can. Facebook has just launched a version with a Persian interface, based on contributions from more than 400 Persian speakers. Iranians were already using Facebook; now they can use a version in their native tongue.

Similarly, Google has rolled out a version of Google Translate that can translate from Persion to English and vice versa. I’m not sure about how Google goes about adding new languages to the machine-translation service, but it was able to add Persian this quickly from a standing start, I’m impressed.

Meanwhile, Twitter continues to play an important communications role within and outside of Iran, and I hope that each and every people who’s ever sneered at it as amounting to nothing more than boring people sharing what they had for breakfast will reflect on its use by the Iranian protesters. If you’re gonna by snarky about a medium at its worst, it’s only fair to celebrate it as it helps make history, no?

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Facebook Servers Performing Admirably

Posted by Ed Oswald on June 12, 2009 at 9:23 pm

Well we’re about a half hour into the “land grab” and so far so good. I’ve been checking the Facebook page frequently, and I’m not noticing any kind of reduction in load times (at least that is noticeable anyway).

I’ve grabbed my name on there. I’m now facebook.com/eoswald, although I would have preferred the shorter “edoz” — note that your username must be at least five characters. I’m glad that the social networking site is doing this, albeit a bit late.

Are you participating? Did you get the name you wanted? Let us know in the comments.

Update: We have our first squatter issue of the new Facebook era. A man named Morgan O’Neill has picked up a username which is the name of Engadget editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky. We’ve attempt to contact Mr. O’Neill to see why he selected this name.

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Facebook to Implement User Names

Posted by David Worthington on June 9, 2009 at 5:20 pm

Facebook LogoFacebook announced today that user names will become available at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 13. Save the time and date: Legions of homebodies with nothing better to do will be the first in line for the land grab.

If someone wants to find out what I’m up to on Facebook, they have to log in and search for me unless they know the random string of numbers that represents me. Whereas Twitter already has easy to remember user names that people can type into their browser (I’m twitter.com/dcworthington).

This is a welcome improvement, and it complements Facebook’s strategy of focusing more on its users’ stream of events. I’m equally happy that it still requires people to use their full names when they register for an account. That protection adds a measure of trust, which many be one of the reasons why I am not spammed on Facebook. I get spammed on Twitter, and now to a lesser extent, Myspace. Adding user names is that latest of many smart decisions Facebook has made to evolve itself.

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Will Xbox Live Be a Hangout?

Posted by Jared Newman on June 1, 2009 at 4:30 pm

xboxlivecardMicrosoft wasn’t shy about its intentions during today’s E3 press event: It’s trying to branch out beyond the typical gamer set. Project Natal is one piece of the puzzle, and so is Xbox Live, for which the company revealed five significant additions and improvements.

Let’s make this nice and easy with a list:

Social Networking: Come this fall, Facebook and Twitter will be accessible through Xbox Live. A demonstration showed the usual features, such as status updates and friend lists, presented in the New Xbox Experience’s distinct windows. One feature allows Facebook friends to find each others’ Xbox 360 Gamertags.

“Live Party”: Friends on Xbox Live can watch videos or listen to music together over the Internet. In a brief demonstration, avatars gathered in front of a television (within a television, of course), watching and reacting to the content.

Zune Marketplace: As we heard when Microsoft announced the Zune HD, Xbox Live’s video service will become Zune-branded, but it’ll get at least one substantive change in the form of 1080p streaming videos.

Last.fm: Xbox Live Gold members around the world will have access to millions of songs through Last.fm, simple as that.

Netflix Improvements: My biggest gripe with the Xbox’ 360s Netflix service was the inability to select movies or manage playlists directly on the console. Fortunately, that will change, so a PC is no longer required.

While the Zune and Netflix developments are just tweaks to existing services, the other three announcements go in a different direction. Microsoft wants the Xbox 360 to be a hangout. I can almost sense this ideal of families or friends crowded around the tube, getting a dose of interactive entertainment.

But will people get into it? Live Party didn’t get an enthusiastic response at the press event, and the social networking seems a little clunky for everyday use (especially without a keyboard). I’m reluctant to make a bold prediction either way, but I’m curious to see how this effort pans out.

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