Tag Archives | Facebook

Facebook Phishing Attack

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 29, 2009 at 1:14 pm

A couple of hours ago I got an oddly terse message from a Facebook friend who I’m not used to hearing from:

Facebook phish

It wasn’t hard to identify it as a hoax, one that wasn’t really from the “sender” in question–especially when I noticed that the “Facebook” URL mentioned something called fbaction.net. Out of curiosity, I clicked anyhow–hey, I like living dangerously–and got a fake Facebook login screen. I therefore entered a fake user name and fake password, whereupon it sent me to the real Facebook (and, presumably, stole my fake credentials).

Over at TechCrunch, M.G, Siegler explains that I was one of many Facebook users who heard from these guys. Facebook blocked the site from being shared via Facebook, and reported it as a bad actor, so recent browsers with anti-phishing features could protect their users. But I’m sure some other random troublemaker will try precisely the same trick again soon.

Bottom line:

1) Be suspicious of odd Facebook messages, especially ones that demand you click on something without explaining why;

2) Be suspicious of messages you receive from random Facebook pals that don’t carry any clear indication they’re real and personal;

3) Be very suspicious of anything involving a URL that’s a variant on Facebook.

4) If you do click, watch the URL you go to very, very carefully.

5) Remember that none of this advice is Facebook-specific–it applies to…well, everything.

6) Be grateful that so many phishers really aren’t very good at their job–and paranoid about the possibility of being fooled by one who knows what he’s doing.

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Facebook Outside of Facebook

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 27, 2009 at 12:35 pm

Facebook LogoThe race between Twitter and Facebook is starting to look like Tortoise vs. Hare. I don’t mean that as a value judgment, or a prediction that Twitter is headed for victory and Facebook for a fall. It’s just that Twitter’s strategy to to go slow and steady–it’s only just now making search a core feature–and Facebook’s strategy is to pursue change fast and furiously.

The latest news on that front is today’s announcement that Facebook is opening up its stream to outside developers. Just as Twitter’s API has let TweetDeck, Twitterific, Tweetie, and a bevy of other clients for multiple platforms get at Twitter users’ tweets, Facebook will let developers build sites and services that can tap into users’ status updates, shared activities, and more. For the first time, it’s possible for companies other than Facebook to write Facebook clients–Seesmic, for instance, is adding rich Facebook support.

But will anyone write a Facebook client that’s better than Facebook, in the way that the majority of Twitter users have found clients that they prefer to Twitter.com? That’s a tricky one. Facebook is a fundamentally richer and more complicated world than Twitter, and the information that gushes from it may be harder for new clients to process than Twitter’s river of 140-character tweets. And Facebook, unlike Twitter, has an array of privacy options that must be taken into account. The company understandably doesn’t want third-party clients to cheerfully ignore the privacy controls it’s put into place.

It’s going to take awhile to gauge how significant today’s announcement is (although we can start soon–it sounds like an Adobe Air-based Facebook client based on the new developer features will be available later today). But there’s no way this isn’t good news. From now on, if Facebook’s official BlackBerry client isn’t ideal, for instance, it’s way less of an issue–because someone else with the interest and technical chops will be able to come along and build a better one.

I’d also expect some of the folks who have built clients and services for Twitter and other social networks to add Facebook support, as Seesmic is already doing. That’s good news for social networking fans, and also good news for Facebook: The more time I’ve spent in  Twitter clients, the less time I’ve spent hanging out at Facebook. One great client that gives me access to both services would be mighty appealing.

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Facebook 1.5 for BlackBerry: A More Integrated Experience

Posted by Patrick Moorhead on April 22, 2009 at 8:22 am

facebooklogoI got real excited when I heard about the new Facebook application 1.5 for BlackBerry phones, thinking it would provide the same functionality as is delivered on my iPod Touch or my wife’s iPhone. Question is, does it even come close to the iPhone interface, or does it leverage the strength of the BlackBerry?

I instantly appreciated the following improvements on my BlackBerry Bold:

  • Viewing comments on someone’s status.  Hard to imagine, but no, you couldn’t do that before on a BlackBerry.
  • Commenting on a status update and commenting on those comments.
  • Connecting your Facebook contacts to your BlackBerry’s contacts.  Here is where it gets really interesting.  While in Facebook 1.5, you choose a contact and it gives you the option choose to “Connect to BlackBerry Contact”.  You then get the chance to “Select Contact” from your BlackBerry address or create a “New Contact”.  If the person already in your BlackBerry address book it marks that contact as a Facebook contact then places the avatar picture in the BlackBerry address book.  If it’s a new contact and you choose “New Contact”, it creates a new one in the BlackBerry address book.  In either case, if you don’t have the person’s phone number, it will send a message asking them for it.
  • Connecting your Facebook messages to the BlackBerry’s inbox. Message integration is easy to explain… you see Facebook messages in the BlackBerry’s universal inbox with a Facebook icon to let you know it’s from Facebook.  You can also go into BlackBerry messages and select “Facebook”, to send a message over FaceBook.  I can also go into my BlackBerry address book, choose a friend on FaceBook, then either send that person a message, write on his or her wall, or poke him or her.  This leverages the BlackBerry’s universal inbox and address book.
  • Connecting your FaceBook calendar to BlackBerry’s.  I did not try out the calendar function as I don’t use that in Facebook.  I did go into the BlackBerry calendar and it would allow me to pick “Send using FaceBook.”

So the new FaceBook 1.5 BlackBerry application does leverage BlackBerry’s strengths.  This is impressive to me as I believe for my uses, BlackBerry has a superior universal inbox, calendar, and address book.  But I still want some of the items available on the iPhone, such as the application bar and the ability to easily view photos, links,  the live feed, notes, and other apps.  I can’t have it all!

If you have a BlackBerry and want to give the new Facebook a spin, try it out here. Here are a few images of it in action:

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Facebook Rots Your Brain!

Posted by Ed Oswald on April 14, 2009 at 8:41 am

Facebook LogoNo doubt we’ve heard from our grandparents how television appartently makes us stupid. Enter Facebook, the latest scorn to our intellgence. A study from Ohio State University of 219 students gauged their school performance against their Facebook usage.

While 79 percent of students expressly denied that Facebook was interfering with studying, there may have been some tangental evidence it does. Users of the site generally studied less (1-5 hours a week), and averaged GPAs between 3.0 and 3.5. However those that didn’t use Facebook studied more (11-15 hours), and had GPAs above 3.5.

Call me crazy, but researchers may have only found the obvious: the more you study, the better grades you’ll get. But continuing on…

“There’s a disconnect between students’ claim that Facebook use doesn’t impact their studies, and our finding showing they had lower grades and spent less time studying,” co-author of the study and a doctoral student Aryn Kapinski said of the study.

Kapinski and crew also found that students were less likely to use Facebook if they had a job, and more likely to if they participated in extracurricular activities.

Science, technology, engineering, math and business majors were most likely to use the service above other discliplines.

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Is Twitter Overhyped? A Debate. (Please Join It!)

Posted by David Worthington and Harry McCracken on April 9, 2009 at 4:18 pm

T-Debate[A NOTE FROM HARRY: Introducing a new Technologizer feature–T-Debates! In this inaugural one, Dave Worthington and I have at it about the value of Twitter–he’s doubtful it has much at all, while I’m a Twitter optimist. But we’re mainly doing this in hopes that you’ll continue the conversation in comments, whatever your stance.]

David Worthington begins:

The Twitter fad is so oversaturated that someone has to say “enough already.” Twitter must either make money and prove that it has a viable purpose, or accept a fair market valuation to be acquired and become a part of something that’s more interesting.

There are times when Twitter is useful, and it unquestionably has millions of users who do like it. It is a handy tool for journalists who cover events, it helps companies and celebrities connect with people, and can wrap multiple parties into a conversation.

Beyond those few use cases, I question what’s the point? It solves a question that nobody asked, and feeds the narcissism that pervades our culture.

Twitter has been over extended and over used. George Stephanopoulos’s gimmicky Twitter “interview” with former U.S. Presidential candidate John McCain was especially pointless.

Continue Reading →

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Facebook's Problem is the Management

Posted by Ed Oswald on April 1, 2009 at 9:32 am

Facebook LogoShockwaves were felt throughout Silicon Valley when the social networking site announced that one of its star hires, CFO Gideon Yu, had been fired. Although Facebook claims that it is looking for someone with “public company experience,” (ludicrous because Yu held executive positions with Google (YouTube) and Yahoo), industry insiders say it was very much an inside job.

See, Yu apparently did not care much for Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg–Facebook’s star Google hire–and increasingly was not seeing eye to eye with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, according to our friend and colleague Kara Swisher. That adds up to a lot of internal infighting, and not a need for a CFO with more experience.

Reportedly, Yu left the company immediately after a meeting, symbolistic of Zuckerberg’s apparent “you’re with me or against me” mentality. But the way Facebook framed the departure is troubling.

Facebook has made it no secret that it would like to go public, and the company is attempting to say letting go of Yu was a step in that direction. That kind of logic is faulty.

Zuckerberg needs to learn if he wants to take his company public that investors do not like turmoil. The revolving door of executives at Facebook will make investors uneasy, and reluctant to invest in the company.

No slight intended at the young CEO, but I think this is where his youth comes as a major negative. Being young myself, I know that sometimes we make judgments more based out of emotion rather than thinking them through first.

I can’t see that Mark’s much different than me. Wisdom does come with age, and I think we learn that sometimes its best to surround yourself with people who may not see eye to eye with you all the time. Keeps your mind open.

Surrounding yourself with “yes men” is never a good thing. I’m beginning to think financing and lack of users will never kill Facebook, it will be the management itself.

18 comments

Facebook Members Give New Layout Thumbs Down

Posted by David Worthington on March 19, 2009 at 4:29 pm

Facebook LogoFacebook’s new, more Twitter-like interface is overwhelmingly unpopular with users, according to a Facebook application that is polling Facebook users on their feelings about the site’s layout changes. Today, the application’s reported results had just over 5% of the nearly 800,000 respondents approving of the changes. While the poll is far from being scientific, its results are still telling.

Like many of you, I’ve seen my friends complaining the new layout. Some of their gripes focus on how Facebook is mirroring Twitter.

Today one wrote, “I joined twitter and lost interest like *that*. I’m supremely narcissistic in thinking you all care about my whereabouts and status updates all day, but the new layout feels like that’s all Facebook is focusing on now… that functionality existed before the change, but it also allowed me to see wall comments, videos, pics and notes more easily. hatin’ it…”

I have to agree with that assessment. The only major change that I thought Facebook needed was to become more intuitive for the average user. Features like wall comments, videos, pictures and notes differentiate Facebook from Twitter and make it more interesting.

Don’t get me wrong –Facebook’s willingness to change is a good thing. I stopped using Friendster and MySpace because they became stagnant, and Facebook was a better alternative. Facebook’s inclusion of the events stream into its last layout was a good idea, and I started to visit the site more frequently throughout the day–even through my iPhone.

However, Facebook moved too far in Twitter’s direction, and lost some of what makes it unique in the process. It should listen to its customers and make some tweaks to the layout to keep them happy. What do you think?

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