AllThingsD » status updates

Facebook Tweaks Mobile News Feed, Photos

Mike Isaac — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:45:40 +0000

Facebook on Monday introduced a minor redesign to its News Feed product for mobile phones, changing the way photos and posts are displayed on users’ handheld devices. The tweaks come as Facebook continues to figure out a solid way of monetizing mobile access to its app, a method of entry more and more users are shifting to, according to the company. Among the changes are a 3x increase in photo display, as well as full-bleed status updates and posts.

"Hit Me Up" Was Facebook's Breakout Slang in 2010

Liz Gannes — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 08:00:18 +0000

I suppose I’m a sucker for year-end trend lists, given I’ve written up reports about trends from YouTube, Twitter and Google in just the last few days. In short: Bieber, Bieber, Bieber.

Next up is Facebook, which offers aggregated data about trends in the status updates posted by its members, including their activity around major news events and their usage of slang.

The best anecdote from the bit is about a newly popular acronym on Facebook, “HMU.” This comes after Facebook noted in 2009 the growth of the trendy whine “FML. (Explanation: We’ll leave the “F” open to your imagination, but the “ML” stand for “My Life.”) Here’s the whole explanation of HMU by Facebook data scientist Lars Backstrom:

The shorthand for “hit me up” was this year’s biggest surprise. In early 2009, the acronym HMU was virtually unheard of. Only a few posts a day contained HMU, and half of them were probably typos. By May, however, it started to grow slowly and was averaging about 20 posts a day. The volume roughly doubled every month, and by the end of 2009 it had risen to 1,600 posts a day–too modest of a number to be on our radar for last year’s list.

However, HMU continued to grow aggressively throughout 2010, increasing by about 75 percent each month. By the end of summer, HMU reached 80,000 mentions per day.

In early September, an interesting pattern emerged in how people use HMU. Until that point, it was spreading like wildfire, but was being used with roughly equal frequency throughout the week. In September this changed, as usage rates started going through huge swings from day to day. The reason? Before September the demographic most likely to ask their friends to “HMU” was on summer break and looking to hang out most nights. Then many of these folks headed back to school, and HMU became a weekend-oriented request.

Some notable stats from the Facebook 2010 roundup:

At key moments in certain games during the World Cup, as many as 50 percent of all new status updates were World Cup-related.
“Toy Story 3″ was the movie most mentioned in status updates, followed by “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” “Inception,” “Alice in Wonderland” and “Iron Man 2.”
Mentions of the iPad and iPhone 4 accounted for 25 million total Facebook status updates. (I’m not sure what the total number of status updates for the year was.)
A day after the Haiti earthquake Facebook was receiving 1,800 posts per minute on the topic.
Yes, Bieber. People talked about the teenage pop star throughout the year, but the single greatest statused-about Bieber moment was the MTV Video Music Awards.
Facebook could identify 33 separate activity spikes for when each of the Chilean miners was rescued.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Synch With 'Em

Voices — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:45:10 +0000

MySpace appears to have come to terms with the reality that it will be looking at Facebook’s taillights for the foreseeable future, and it is now taking steps to secure at least a complementary relationship with its larger rival. Today, MySpace started letting its users synch their status updates to their Facebook profile or page and share content with their friends over on that other site.

Questions? Facebook Is Working on Answers.

Geoffrey A. Fowler — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:17:17 +0000

Facebook is testing a new add-on to its social networking service: the ability to ask questions–and get answers–from other people in the online community.

Some people already use Facebook’s status update feature to pose questions to their friends, who leave answers in the comments section. The new service, which has begun popping up on some users’ pages, formalizes the process of asking and answering. Under the live test, some users get a box on the right side of the screen (around the “Pokes”) with potentially interesting questions.

Q&A services are a popular idea among Internet companies looking for a better way to organize the content on the ever-growing Web. Yahoo (YHOO) has had an answers service for everything from homework questions to product recommendations since 2005. Product ratings and reviews company Bazaarvoice offers an “ask and answer” service for product sales pages on e-commerce sites that they say not only increases sales conversion, but also reduces returns.

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The Black Art of Writing Facebook Updates

Geoffrey A. Fowler — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:10:51 +0000

A Web 2.0 Expo panel on how corporate brands use Facebook shared a social media dirty secret: a company might have a spectacular fan page on the site–but its thousands of self-identified “fans” probably don’t visit that page there very often.

“Instead of wanting a fancy fan page, you want a fancy newsfeed,” said Jeff Widman, the CEO of BrandGlue, a company that helps companies manage their social media. The newsfeed is the basic home screen where Facebook shares status updates from friends and fan pages.

But the problem is that not all of a brand’s updates automatically get passed along to fans. Facebook filters which ones show up, based on a formula that it doesn’t disclose. It’s designed to keep spam and other boring posts out of users’ feeds.

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Xobni Takes to the Streets and Skies Above Microsoft

Nick Wingfield — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:00:10 +0000

Xobni’s best customers used to be Microsoft (MSFT) employees. Now the San Francisco startup plans to make a scene at Microsoft’s headquarters to win them back.

During the morning commute on Thursday, Xobni plans to advertise its product around Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., campus with people spinning Xobni signs stationed at entrances to the main thoroughfares of Microsoft headquarters. A plane will pull a Xobni banner in the sky above the campus. Xobni radio and bus ads in the Seattle area started earlier this week.

Xobni, whose name is inbox spelled backwards, makes a plug-in program for Microsoft’s Outlook that makes it easier to quickly search for messages and contacts in the ubiquitous email software. It also connects Outlook to information on social networking sites like Facebook, pulling in status updates and photos into Outlook so users can see what their contacts and email correspondents are up to.

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Google Buzz Isn't Exactly Humming Along

Katherine Boehret — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:00:18 +0000

These days, it’s near impossible to use a computer without running into a social network. Web sites encourage people to “tweet” links to their articles via Twitter; photo-sharing sites nudge users to post albums on Facebook; and aggregators like TweetDeck display content from several social networks in a digestible way. Last week, Google Buzz joined this trend by integrating social networking into something people use every day: email.

[ See post to watch video ]

Google Buzz (google.com/buzz) is built into Gmail, Google’s email program, as an opt-in social network that provides people with a place for sharing status updates, Twitter tweets, photos, videos, Web links and blog posts with a network of friends. I’ve been testing Google Buzz, and I like the way it displays shared photos in full-screen view and nestles into Gmail, which I use every day. But right now, Buzz still falls flat.

One of the biggest problems with Buzz is that it’s late to the social-networking party. People have had years to get comfortable with networks like Facebook and Twitter, and old habits are hard to kick. Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) already incorporate social networking into their Web email in Windows Live Hotmail and the Yahoo Mail, respectively. Windows Live Hotmail lets users create networks of friends and connects with up to 69 other networks, including Facebook and Twitter. Yahoo also builds networks with your connections, and integrates content into email from sites like Twitter, Flickr and Picasa.

Google (GOOG) tried to catch up with existing social networks by using a proprietary algorithm to create networks of people with whom users communicate most in Gmail and in Google Chat, the company’s instant messaging program. In other words, the people you emailed the most via Gmail or chatted with the most on Google Chat automatically became the people you followed in your social network.

But Google took a lot of heat for these pre-made networks because people didn’t know where the names came from or who some of the people were. Even worse, these networks were made public by default so every Buzz user could see everyone else’s closest contacts.

Google Buzz encourages social networking for Gmail users, but is it too late to join the fray?

This is a problem because many of us treat email differently than we treat our social networks. We communicate via email in private conversations—often with people who we don’t necessarily want looking at our personal photos or other information. If I exchange several emails over an extended period of time with my plumber about fixing a sink, it doesn’t mean I want him in my social network. Likewise if a parent regularly emails with a teacher about a child’s progress.

In the past several days, Google has apologized for its presumption that you would absolutely want to add the people you email into your social network online. The company has changed settings in Buzz to ameliorate this and several other issues. A network is now suggested rather than predetermined so users can clearly select whom they follow by checking boxes beside names and photos, nixing the plumber and keeping a best friend. Likewise, a very clear box now lets people opt to share these names publicly or not.

So how does the rest of Buzz work? All Gmail users will find a Buzz icon in the top left area of the Gmail site and must opt in to use Buzz. A tiny link at the bottom of every page can always turn it off altogether. Buzz is a separate screen and isn’t fully weaved into Gmail’s inbox, though notifications are sent to the Inbox in three instances: if someone comments on your post; if you comment on a post and then someone else makes an additional comment; and if someone directs a Buzz at you, such as starting a post with @Katie Boehret.

Buzz doesn’t yet have a way to completely stop notifications from coming to an inbox, but you can opt to stop receiving inbox notifications every time someone else comments about a post. (Go to “More Actions” within the email and select “Mute.”)

Google Buzz uses ideas from Facebook, like the ability to “like” a post. It also integrates with other Google properties including Blogger, Google Reader, Picasa and YouTube. Rather than using a system of friends like Facebook, Buzz takes a page from Twitter’s playbook by organizing friends into followers: people a user follows and people who follow the user. If you don’t want someone following you, just block them.

I spoke to Facebook about Buzz, asking specifically if the company would consider integrating with Google’s new program. A spokeswoman noted Facebook’s position as an open platform and said the company is always delighted to be working with new partners that want to integrate Facebook Connect in ways that help people connect with their “real” friends.

Buzz pulls in Twitter updates, or tweets, from people who have connected their Twitter and Buzz accounts. But the Twitter feed is only one way—coming into Buzz—so people can’t respond to or direct message back to Twitter. They can just leave a comment about the tweet on Buzz—a comment that is never displayed on Twitter. A Google representative said the company is working on more two-way integration in the future.

As for photo sharing, Buzz lets users integrate with Google-owned Picasa or Yahoo-owned Flickr so they can share on Buzz whatever photos are publicly shared within those services. Images show up in Buzz and, when selected, they take up the full browser screen—an eye-catching feature. But though users can browse Picasa albums from Buzz to select photos, they can’t share whole albums to Buzz right now.

Buzz is usable on the go with Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and Google’s Android phones. By default, it uses someone’s current location whenever posts are made on Buzz. But this can be turned off, albeit in a clumsy way: Currently, people must tap an “x” beside their location to remove this location information from a post. Later this week, this language will be made clearer with a bolded explanation on each screen before a post is sent of how to remove locations. If someone opts not to use location in one post, this setting sticks for subsequent posts—except when Buzz is accessed through a voice program.

Google Buzz got off to a rough start and still has a lot of catching up to do. Though it could be a convenience for people whose social contacts all already exist in Gmail, it could also saddle them—and their friends—with yet another social network to check every day. For now, my social-networking friends are sticking to Facebook and Twitter, making the buzz on Buzz almost inaudible.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg.

Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

Google to Add Social Feature to Gmail

Jessica E. Vascellaro — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:48:43 +0000

Google Inc. (GOOG) is set to unveil a new feature to Gmail designed to make it easier and faster for users to share media and status updates with friends, according to people familiar with the matter.

These people said Google could launch the new feature, which aims to make its Gmail email application more social, as soon as this week.

The change is a new module that will allow Gmail users to view a stream of status updates from people they choose to connect with, according to one of these people.

Currently, Gmail has a chat bar that can display a short “away message” for each user’s contacts. But the new interface will have an area that users can click through to see updates from more friends in a stream–a format popularized by Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., these people said.

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Microsoft Bails on “Family Guy” Special

John Paczkowski — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:00:12 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Firms Get a Hand With Twitter, Facebook

Sarah E. Needleman — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:00:20 +0000

Sylvester Chisom began paying a consultant last summer to blog on Twitter, post status updates on Facebook and run marketing campaigns on both sites for his auto-detailing business.

He thinks the service, which costs $450 a month, is worth it. “It’s just better having somebody else dedicated to thinking of stuff to put up,” says Mr. Chisom, co-owner of Showroom Shine Express Detailing LLC in St. Louis.

Some small-business owners, overwhelmed by the time commitment required of marketing their products and services via social media, are hiring consultants to lend a hand. But the price of such support can vary widely based on the extent of work involved, and many entrepreneurs with already meager resources for marketing and advertising may need to think carefully before taking on the extra cost.

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The Perils of Oversharing on Facebook

Marisa Taylor — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:40:17 +0000

Over-sharing on Twitter and Facebook has always been annoying, but in recent months over-sharing has been in the news for getting people fired from their jobs.

Digits rounded up a few of the most notable stories from this summer as cautionary tales:

One of the most dramatic tales that surfaced this month was the unnamed woman in the UK who was fired after she insulted her boss and wrote “OMG I HATE MY JOB!!” in a Facebook status update, without realizing that he was her Facebook friend.

Her boss responded on Facebook: “You also seem to have forgotten that you have 2 weeks left on your 6 month trial period. Don’t bother coming in tomorrow….And yes, I’m serious.” Screenshots of the whole Facebook exchange have spread virally all over the Web.

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Microsoft Vine: The Zune of Social Networks

John Paczkowski — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:09:03 +0000

Think of it as Facebook for the people you actually know and like, those whose health and safety you’d worry about in a natural disaster. It’s called Microsoft Vine and it’s not so much a social network as it is a “societal” one–or at least, Redmond likes to bill it as such.

Announced today and scheduled for beta in May, Vine is a hyperlocal messaging and alert system intended to be used to share information during a crisis. Properly configured, it will gather local news and public safety announcements along with location information, reports and messages from friends–eventually even those posted to other services, like Facebook and Twitter–into a handy little dashboard. This being Microsoft (MSFT), that dashboard will be proprietary and require PCs running XP SP2 or Vista and 600 MB of hard disk space.

So really, Vine is not so much a societal network for people you care about, but for the PC users you care about. A proprietary disaster messaging system… sigh, only from Microsoft.

Anyway…. It’s an interesting idea–not so much as the “societal network” Microsoft touts it as but as a cunning end run around established services. Twitter and Facebook are fun, recreational, but Vine has gravitas. It’s the network you turn to when things fall apart–assuming you meet the proper system requirements–because it consolidates the Tweets and status updates you actually want to read with need-to-know public safety announcements. Of course, Microsoft won’t admit that. “We intend this to be a service of services–to not replace social networking tools that exist today, but embrace them,” Tammy Savage, Microsoft Vine general manager, told TechFlash.

Yeah, embrace and extend and… well, we all know what comes next.