Entries Tagged 'Facebook News' ↓

I have heard from over 40 people via two posts over the last fews months about Facebook disabling accounts. It seems that Facebook is still having trouble differentiating between actual spammers and those who are not spammers, but may be conducting activities that are “spam-like.” I have long feared this to be a problem because as Facebook continues to grow. Due to the size and number of users Facebook has grown to and the subjective nature of certain activities, I can’t see these sorts of “wrongful” disables stopping any time soon.

Anyone know of a particular way to go about reactivating your account?

Over the last three days I have received an influx of emails from people who have been banned from Facebook. In addition to these emails, there seems to be an influx of people hitting a post I wrote about being banned from Facebook a few months ago.

Is this increase in activity indicative of Facebook “clamping down” on “SPAM like” behaviors due to the increase scrutiny they are facing over privacy concerns?

After the backlash over Beacon, many news organizations are churning out stories about possible competition for Facebook. The latest story in the Telegraph suggests that LinkedIn might be about to give Facebook a run for its money.

Oh, it is to laugh. Although it’s true that LinkedIn is planning to launch a redesigned site which includes several new tools (not applications! tools!) for its users, tools which will be designed by outside developers, the appeals of the two sites are so different that I find it hard to consider them as competitors. Distant cousins, maybe.

The Telegraph describes LinkedIn’s redesign as “The latest move in the battle against the soaring popularity of social networking site Facebook.” I like the image this conjures up of all the other websites in the world banding together in a scrappy alliance to overthrow the tyrant Facebook. Just throw the ring in the lava, guys, and be done with it.

We’re also seeing more stories about the dangers of Facebook, including this one in The Toronto Star about a teenager using Facebook to post death threats against some of his peers. And, of course, no one is quite ready to let the Beacon fiasco drop yet: a Wired article speculating that Blockbuster’s participation may have broken the law is titled “New Ways Facebook’s Beacon May Have Broken the Law,” bringing it all back to Facebook’s error once again.

In cheerier news, “facebook” is being considered for Merriam Webster’s Word of the Year this year. According to the San Francisco Chronicle article, “Merriam-Webster defines ‘facebook’ as a verb, as in ‘to look up someone’s profile on the popular Internet social network Facebook.’” Vote it in while you still can, guys. Maybe before long we’ll be saying “linkedin” instead.

Though Syria has officially banned Facebook access from within the country, residents can apparently get around the ban with relative ease. Our correspondent in Damascus (i.e. a friend of mine who happens to live there at present) reports that he’s been continuing to access the forbidden site via internet cafes by simply removing firewall blocks. He reported this by writing it on my Facebook Wall, so I believe him. Now I’m just hoping no one arrests him for it.

And a discussion question: Would you risk arrest in order to access your Facebook profile everyday? Just how much does the ability to Superpoke your friends mean to you?

In other news, you can start sending your e-cards via a new Facebook app from 123greetings.com. I mention this only because it made the news; the cards themselves aren’t too impressive. The first one I glanced at had grammatical errors (nitpicky, maybe, but it was a card designed to be sent to a co-worker, and don’t you not want to look like a moron in front of co-workers?); none of the cards I saw had especially impressive animation or artwork; and as far as I can tell they can only be sent to Facebook friends, with no option of typing in an external email address. Say what you will about Amazon, but they still rule my e-card world.

Webs.com is also making a splash in the newsy world with their increasingly popular Facebook games. They may be best known for the text-only game WarBook. I just went and played around with this, and I can see how it could rapidly become addictive: it’s got many aspects (building, fighting, costuming, all that stuff people love to do in games yet often avoid in real life) that can take up a lot of time without getting boring. On the flip side, people are also loving completely non-interactive Facebook games like Street Race, where all you do is click a couple of things and the game is over. This just goes to show you that it’s possible to please all of the people all of the time but not possible to understand them.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the title. A Hong Kong tycoon, Li Ka-Shing, has reportedly invested $60 million in Facebook. Ka-Shing is also supposed to have ties to Tom Group, a Chinese media services company. It’s speculated that this move may bring Facebook and Tom Group into a closer partnership.

Read the article here.

ZDnet is reporting that Tim Berners-Lee, the man widely credited with inventing the web (no, it wasn’t Al Gore), spoke to an assembly of techies and scientists at HP Labs this week. He talked about the coming evolution of social networking, including some specific predictions about the direction Facebook will take. You can check out the video here, or read his post on the same subject here.

The problem with Facebook, and I know you’ll all agree, is that there just isn’t enough Microsoft in it. It lacks that special Microsoft touch: buggy releases, incomprehensible messaging systems, etc.

Wait, actually it does have those. Still, if you prefer the real thing, you can try Microsoft’s Dashboard Update on XBox Live, which provides a Facebook-esque social networking platform for XBox gamers.

Still, I don’t think Facebook has to worry just yet. Microsoft is going to collect a fairly dissimilar demographic with Dashboard, which launches on December 4. The minimum age to use the site is 13, and that combined with the XBox theme will ensure a younger crowd gets drawn to Dashboard.