Pay Per Click Advertising and SEO » Facebook

Google announces yet another shrewd acquisition

Jenny Sanderson — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:50:10 +0000

As the year progresses and we get ever closer to summer it would seem that competition in the online world is really hotting up. Perennial innovators Google are leading the pack with the announcement that they are set to purchase their third company this year.

On their blog, this week, Google announced that the deal was done for them to buy online photo editing site Picnik, as per usual this was for an undisclosed sum, but it is believed to be one of their ‘cheaper’ acquisitions as Picnik is a fairly small company. Started just five years ago in Seattle (USA), Picnik has a modest staff of just 20.

It is one of the earlier incarnations of an online photo editing website. It allows its users to edit their photos online thus enabling them to post them on social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook. The basic service is free or alternatively users can pay a subscription to benefit from more advanced features.

Picnik brings Google’s total number of acquisitions this year to 3 and a staggering 60 in total. More high profile purchases include the likes of Youtube and Android. This comes hot on the heels of Google’s announcement that they have purchased search sites Aardvark and reMail.

If this trend continues it look as though it will be an interesting year as the giants of the online world jostle for dominance in an ever growing world wide web.

Facebook could be making more than $1 billion a year

Matt Thomas — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:27:23 +0000

The ever increasing popularity of social networking site Facebook is showing dividends for the company as this week it was revealed that their finances are even healthier than expected. The site is reported to be well on its way to hitting $1billion in revenue by the end of 2010.

The numbers come from tracking site Inside Facebook, frequently used by the company’s horde of developers and advertisers. Figures from their site indicated that Facebook made $635 million in 2009 which was a massive 15% higher then had been estimated, this would mean that they are envisaging that Facebook will almost double its profits within a year.

Inside Facebook is considered an extremely reliable and methodically accurate source for data regarding the inner workings of the company’s business; they suggest that if Facebook continues to make crucial moves in the market they will remain on course to double their profits every year, a remarkable achievement considering the company’s humble beginnings.

It is often questioned how exactly Facebook makes its money being a free service and all (despite the constant pranks suggesting it will soon become subscription based), the answer is in the advertising. With over 400 million users on Facebook there is a lot of room for brand advertising. With so many people prepared to give up every snippet of information about themselves it is easy to target specific users.

On top of this Inside Facebook have suggested that the biggest and most profitable part of the company’s market is in its ‘performance advertising’ referring to the companies that deploy ads within Facebook in order to promote their own ‘developed for Facebook’ products, like the popular online game Farmville for example.

Despite often being saddled with controversy the future looks bright for Facebook as the company shows no signs of slowing in its progress.

Facebook and Microsoft shake hands on new deal

Matt Thomas — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:37:41 +0000

Two giants of the online world, Microsoft and Facebook, have come together to form a mutually beneficial agreement. The companies have decided to revise their search pact into a global deal. This would mean that the social networking behemoth Facebook will sell its own advertisements and receive more of Bing’s features on its web results.

The new deal will allow Facebook users to receive the full-featured version of Bing beyond links for the site’s web search. The deal is seen as more of a ‘global pact’ that will bring Bing to Facebook users abroad, and Facebook will in turn sell its own display ads.

Jon Tinter – General Manager at Bing outlined the thinking behind the new deal:

“We have deepened our joint work together on web search to provide even more compelling experiences to Facebook users with Bing. As part of this expanded cooperation in search, our two companies will soon provide Facebook users with a more complete search experience by providing full access to great Bing features beyond a set of links, including richer answers combined with tools that help customers make faster, smarter decisions.”

He added: “Second, we are extending our cooperation outside the US, bringing the Bing-Facebook search integration to the more than 400 million people using Facebook around the world.”

Facebook and Microsoft have teamed up in the past and appear to have quite a friendly relationship that will surely only benefit us as users.

Facebook Partner up with McAfee

Matt Thomas — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:02:24 +0000

Despite recently going public about his belief that privacy is no longer a ‘social norm,’ Mark Zuckerburg has made a move to placate the sizeable wing of Facebook users that are less than pleased with his website’s privacy and security arrangements. Virus protection company, McAfee have launched a partnership with Facebook in order to provide users with six months of McAfee protection absolutely free and a discount subscription after that.

In addition to this special offer there will also be educational materials and custom security applications and software available through the Facebook interface. According to McAfee, Facebook will take no share of the subscriptions and are doing this purely to improve the security of Facebook users’ computers and online experiences in general.

“Facebook is applying all financial incentives from this partnership to the benefit of its users and will not be taking a share of any revenue from user subscriptions,” – McAfee press release.

The benefits of the partnership will initially only be available to users in the U.S., Mexico, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Brazil, the UK, Canada, Australia, Spain, and France, though more countries are expected to be added to that list in the coming months.

Mark Zuckerberg: Privacy not a ‘Social Norm’

Matt Thomas — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:09:44 +0000

Mark Zuckerburg has poured petrol on the fires of the Facebook privacy debate by stating privacy is no longer a ‘social norm’. The comments came at the crunchie awards, a San Francisco ceremony that recognises technological achievement.

Zuckerburg was making the point that attitudes to personal information have changed over the last few years, drawing a comparison between the attitudes of people when he first started Facebook and now.

“When I got started in my dorm room at Harvard, the question a lot of people asked was, ‘why would I want to put any information on the internet at all? Why would I want to have a website?… Then in the last 5 or 6 years, blogging has taken off in a huge way, and just all these different services that have people sharing all this information.”

The comments were no doubt intended to put facebook’s attitudes to privacy issues in context, though the speech is almost guaranteed to anger privacy advocates, who have long raged against what they see as the steady erosion of the right to privacy online. Zuckerberg However, is unrepentant.

“We viewed that as a really important thing, to always keep a beginner’s mind and what would we do if we were starting the company now and we decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.”

Facebook Recruits Lobbying Team

James Oliver — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 08:42:45 +0000

As anyone with an internet connection, or who has been around someone under thirty recently, knows, facebook’s success over the past few years has been unparalleled. This year alone it has jumped from 50 million users to 350 million. However, facebook may now be in danger of becoming a victim of its own success as it struggles to deal with the sheer weight of personal data at its disposal.

As more and more people trust Mark Zuckerberg and friends with their highly sensitive information, world governments are starting to take more and more notice of facebook. A couple of high profile incidents haven’t helped, namely a $9.5 million dollar lawsuit settlement over an intrusive advertising system and a series of changes to privacy settings that have been widely criticised and even led to an official complain being filed with the US regulator.

This is why Facebook has been steadily amassing a healthy lobbying presence in both Washington and Brussels in order to put across their side of the story and try to head off any regulation that might be in the pipeline to curtail their activities.

Top Facebook Status Updates of 2009

Matt Thomas — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:22:21 +0000

We’re well used to the year end search query lists, published by the major search engines, being used as handy barometers of what’s been going on that year, but this is the first time I can remember facebook doing the same thing with status updates. The social network has today published a list of the top themes in the more than 45 million status updates a day (from 30 million unique visitors) that facebook enjoys.

Unsurprisingly for anyone who knows the facebook scene, facebook application (Mostly just Farmville actually) themed status updates were the most common. Next was a slightly sad one – updates featuring the abbreviation FML (F*** My Life). In third, were swine flu and illness related updates, with celebrity deaths surprisingly far down the list in fourth.

Other notable entries included lady Gaga in 12th despite barely a murmur concerning her before the summer. Status updates mentioning the popular singer even managed to edge out religion themed updates and ones mentioning the specific word ‘I’. Crazy.

Full list below…

1 – Facebook Applications
2 – FML
3 – Swine Flu
4 – Celebrity Deaths
5 – Family
6 – Movies
7 – Sports
8 – Health Care
9 – FB (facebook)
10 – Twitter
11 – Years
12 – Lady Gaga
13 – Yard (status updates including the word yard)
14 – Religion
15 – I (status updates including the word I)

Facebook cited in 20% of Divorces

James Oliver — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:15:03 +0000

The folks at Facebook will have to hope that the old adage about all publicity being good publicity is true today, as news breaks that the social network is cited in as many as 20 percent of divorce petitions. These statistics come courtesy of divorce online, a firm of lawyers who specialise in divorce cases and who say that a staggering number of marriages are now ending as a result of the extra-marital liaisons arranged through the site.

Because of the ease and secrecy with which it is possible to get in touch with people, facebook has unwittingly become a perfect tool for the would-be adulterer, with many married people using it as a conduit through which to conduct affairs.

Of course, Facebook cannot be explicitly blamed for these marital break-ups, though it certainly has made it easier for those intent on straying outside the bonds of marriage. Until your wife figures out your password that is.

Panic Buttons for young Facebook Users

Jenny Sanderson — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:55:53 +0000

Parents and youth advocates have long worried about the potentially harmful influence social networking sites like facebook could have on the young. In response to these worries, facebook has decided to install what is being referred to as a ‘panic button’ on their site so that children can quickly alert site administrators whenever they see material that is offensive or obscene. The button will work in a similar fashion to the one that features on the social networking site Bebo, whose demographic skews much younger than facebook.

The move comes in the wake of a recent list of internet standards drawn up by government adviser for online safety, Tanya Byron. The panic button is just one of the suggested measures, others include offering a ‘safe search’ version of the site that prevents children from seeing any offensive content that the site may contain. Facebook is joined by more than 140 other firms and groups in implementing the new guidelines.

In conjunction with the new code of practice, the government also plans to release an ad campaign that warns children of the dangers of the internet and advises parents to limit internet access to supervised areas.

Dixons Workers slander Customers on Facebook

Matt Thomas — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:44:50 +0000

Aside from slightly sinister fringe benefits like being able to vet and monitor employee’s social lives, it’s fair to say that facebook has been nothing but hassle for employers. With employees wasting company time poking each other and absent mindedly posting corporate secrets on each other’s walls left, right and centre, many employers could be forgiven for wishing that the social network had never been invented.

That’s certainly how the top brass at Dixons must feel at the minute after a number of employees posted abusive comments about customers on a facebook group called ‘DSGi Employees’. The comments ranged from angry musings about why they weren’t allowed to ‘Cattle prod’ customers, to slightly creepy tales of starting relationships with customers using information garnered during a sale.

Dixons predictably snapped into damage limitation mode stating that,

“Delivering excellent customer service is at the forefront of everything we do, so we are very disappointed a small number of our colleagues have made these comments on a social networking website. We will take the necessary action with any staff found to be acting inappropriately.”

If you’re a UK shop worker I’d expect a new chapter on social networking in the next edition of your company handbook.

Facebook downsizes for the Third World

Matt Thomas — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:08:19 +0000

Social networking site, Facebook has begun testing a pared down version of its full website for use in countries with unreliable access to high speed broadband. The service, known as Facebook Lite, is being piloted in India and will allow users access to the core elements of the network like photos, status updates and the wall. The fast loading version of the site is said to have a very ‘clean’ look, somewhat reminiscent of the original Facebook site.

According to a statement from Facebook, ‘We are currently testing Facebook Lite in countries where we are seeing lots of new users for the first time and are looking to start off with a more simple experience.’

However, it has been suggested by some that Facebook Lite is, in part at least, a reaction to the proliferation of Twitter over the last few months. The theory being that a simplified Facebook would occupy practically the same space as the hugely popular social network and, thanks to the brand loyalty that Facebook has built up over the years, might therefore stand a chance of competing.

it is also thought that this new version would appeal to the reasonably large number of Facebook users who dislike the more advanced functionalities like Facebook apps.

British Military U-Turn on Facebook

James Oliver — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:00:32 +0000

It would appear that the British military is having some trouble making up its mind on the subject of social networking. Only a couple of months after the Sun and other publications reported that the top brass had banned facebook and other social media platforms at all military bases, it has emerged today that not only are they now allowing use of social networking sites, they are actually encouraging personnel to use them.

A thirteen page report of recommendations for serving personnel entitled ‘Online Engagement Guidelines’ has been circulated, which claims that, “Current and emerging internet technologies, such as simple self-publishing, sharing of user-generated content, and social networking, are of growing importance to Service and MoD civilian personnel in their personal and professional lives.”

The ‘professional lives’ part of that quote may have come as a surprise to a few people, given their stance until recently. The military seem to have finally come round to the fact that social networking sites can be great for PR for them as they add to a wider ubnderstanding of the duties of military personnel.

Wife’s Facebook Page compromises MI6 Chief

James Oliver — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:59:43 +0000

Sir John Sawers, the new head of MI6 , has become embroiled in an embarrassing security breach after it emerged that his wife, Shelley uploaded several pieces of compromising information about him to her Facebook page. The postings included holiday photographs of Sir John as well as information about the couple’s children, their friends and most troubling of all, their home address.

The security breach comes can be relied upon to add to the debate about the effect of the internet on national security, especially as it comes only 6 months after it was revealed that Scotland Yard head of counter-terrorism, Bob Quick’s home address was available online through searchers looking for his wife’s limousine company, run from their family home.

It also comes on the back of claims that the Taliban are using Facebook twitter, et al. to gather intelligence on army movements in Afghanistan, which is enough to make sure this is not going to be the last we hear about the security problems involved with social networking.

Government Monitoring of Facebook?

James Oliver — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:55:47 +0000

The government could be about to gain access to your Facebook account, that’s if new plans announced today are approved. The home office is proposing forcing some social networks to hold data on the movements of their members in an effort to disrupt the activities of criminals.

The plan is part of the government’s ‘Intercept Modernisation Programme,’ a programme aimed at retaining information on phone calls, Internet visits, emails, etc. that is set to cost the government several billion pounds.

The retention of online traffic was already covered by the European Union’s Data Retention Directive which suggests that ISPs store online communications and traffic for one year in case it is required by the authorities. However, it was claimed recently by MPs that this directive does not go far enough since the directive does not cover social networking sites like Bebo, Facebook and MySpace.

In this country around 25 million people use social networking sites, meaning that almost half of the population would be affected by any such plan. Civil liberties groups are outraged by the news, claiming that the plan will excessively pry into the private lives of millions of innocent Internet users