Tag Archives | Facebook

FaceMod's Dislike Button Unwilling Participant in Scam

Posted by Ed Oswald on August 16, 2010 at 12:40 pm

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a status come across my news feed that says “Facebook has an dislike button, install now!” Chances are now from what we’re being told by Sophos that these folks fell for a scam that really doesn’t truly add a dislike button anyway.

What’s installed is a Firefox add-on by FaceMod, but nobody will see your dislikes unless they got the add-on installed as well. Sophos says that the company is not involved with the scam, but is rather being used as bait.

Whoever’s behind it has rigged the Facebook app (which doesn’t install the add-on anyway) to silently update your Facebook status which in turn spreads it to your friends. In order to even gain access to the add-on, the user needs to fill out an online survey.

The survey seems to be how the scammers are making money through this scheme. Sophos recommends that users download FaceMod’s dislike button directly if they really want it, and ignore those status messages.

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Instant Jam Goes Where Other Music Games Won't

Posted by Jared Newman on August 16, 2010 at 5:00 am

Although I sometimes say nice things about music games such as Guitar Hero, I don’t host enough parties to justify spending money on them, but I might consider buying a fake plastic guitar for Instant Jam, a music game that launches in closed beta on Facebook today.

At a glance, Instant Jam looks like Guitar Hero for the PC. Colored notes scroll down the screen, prompting you to press keyboard buttons in step with the guitar track. You can also use guitar controllers from other games, as long as they have USB output.

Here’s the big twist: Instant Jam uses music you already own, reading songs off your hard drive and matching them with a database of note charts. If a note chart exists for your favorite tune, you can play it in Instant Jam for free, and if a chart exists for a song you don’t own, the game provides links to iTunes and Amazon. Furthermore, there’s no music licensing involved, so even artists that have refused to appear in Guitar Hero and Rock Band, such as Led Zeppelin, are represented among the initial 2,000 songs.

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A Silly Little Quiz

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 9, 2010 at 1:21 pm

Which classic computer are you? Find out at this quiz on Facebook, which I created with a nifty service called FanAppz. (I, of course, am a TRS-80…)

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Facebook Questions Rolls Out. No "Like" Button?

Posted by Jared Newman on July 28, 2010 at 3:33 pm

Facebook’s “Like” button is all over the Internet (including Technologizer) but one place you won’t find it is on Facebook Questions.

Facebook Questions is a new Q&A service like Yahoo Answers, and TechCrunch reports that between 3 million and 5 million users are seeing it now. When you’re curious about something, just click “Ask Question” in the status bar, type the query, and it will be visible to all Facebook users — not just your friends.

The public nature of Facebook Questions is probably the most interesting part of the news. It’s arguably the most forceful thing Facebook has done to bring users outside of their social circles, because you cannot make questions or answers private. Facebook Questions could not survive any other way, but it will probably cause some snafus for people who don’t realize their questions and answers are exposed to 500 million people. (Facebook does give fair warning that your question will be “visible to everyone.”)

Yet I’m stuck on the idea that the prominence of answers to Facebook Questions are not dictated by the almighty Like. Instead, people can vote answers up or down with an uninspired green check or red “X.” See it in action on Facebook’s blog.

My guess is that Facebook couldn’t just rely on nods of approval to filter the best answers. Some way to flag unhelpful answers was needed, and rather than create a “Dislike” button — that’s just not part of Like’s positive feedback vibe — Facebook may have decided to avoid the issue altogether.

Too bad. I’m sure the dawn of a Facebook “Dislike” button would’ve pleased many Internet malcontents.

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Facebook Tests "Delete Account" Option

Posted by Ed Oswald on July 26, 2010 at 2:48 pm

It appears that Facebook is finally getting the picture that when you want off the social networking service, you really want off. It appears that they’re finally getting the point — somewhat.

One of privacy advocates biggest gripes with Facebook is the fact that once you’re on the service, you’re pretty much locked in the service for life. That’s because instead of letting users delete their accounts directly, you could only “deactivate.”

(To be fair, there is a delete process in place currently for all users, but it was somewhat cumbersome.)

What this does is put the account in limbo — not deleting it, but making it invisible. If at a point in time you decide to come back, you simply reactivate and its like nothing ever changed.

The company has confirmed that is now testing a new feature called “Delete Account,” which is exactly what it says. Once you delete, everythings gone. As Brad McCarty at The Next Web points out however, Facebook’s terms of service still allow for the company to hold this information as it sees fit.

I’ll give Facebook the benefit of the doubt and say that it probably doesn’t want to hold this information, given doing so would likely create yet another negative backlash against the company who has already been raked over the coals for its actions.

Let’s hope I’m right.

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