Hasta La Gadget!

Facebook has discovered that its “pages” feature, which allows businesses and websites to share their information with millions of Facebook users, has a slight issue. There were some bugs that were discovered after Facebook launched a “comprehensive engineering audit” on their pages product. The bugs caused the impressions and audience reach reports to return incorrect information to businesses and websites.

Facebook says that while the actual delivery and reach were unaffected, the reports of how many people being reached were under-reported. Fixes for the Facebook system began rolling out on Friday,and will continue rolling out this weekend. Facebook pages should be reporting the correct information starting on Monday.

After the fixes are rolled out, your reported reach should increase compared to previous reports, however there is also a chance that your page’s reach was unaffected by the bug in the first place. Your organic reach should either increase or decrease depending on the number of subscribers to your Facebook page, as well as how often you make a post. For those who purchased a paid-ad campaign through Facebook, there should definitely be an increase in your reports. There has been a change in the metrics extracted from your Facebook page’s reach and impressions. Finally, Facebook has implemented new measures in order to prevent bugs from misreporting your page reach in the future.

Starting Monday, Facebook suggests analyzing your page’s data, including looking at your organic, paid, and viral reach in order to view how affected you were by these bugs. Since the bugs affected Facebook’s logging system, there’s no way Facebook can restore the real data in past posts. Despite this bug affecting your statistics, it might actually be a good thing, because your Facebook page, and your business, could be doing a whole lot better than you had expected.

[via Facebook]

Bugs affect Facebook insights for pages is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week we’re seeing the second in a series of retro-documentary trailers made for the upcoming game BioShock Infinite going by the name “Columbia: a Modern Day Icarus?” The actual content of the game becomes more enticing each moment one watches each of the two trailers that have been released thus far, so much so that I’ve passed these video spots on to friends and colleagues even when they’re not the type of people who would ever end up playing the final product. This sharing is important in and of itself, as the medium almost becomes the message itself with such zeal as we’d only otherwise find in an art film meant for a gallery.

What you’ll see here is a set of information about Columbia, a flying city, and a man by the name of Zachary Comstock. Interesting still is the fact that the presentation of this video is such that the picture works just as well in low definition as it does in high. This is more of a filmstrip than it is a web video.

This video was released near the end of January, then another appeared here in the middle of February. This Part 2 video spot is once again narrated by the enigmatic Alistar Bloom and surrounds the mystery of the “Songbird”. It also once again makes the case for the flying city of Columbia and its mysterious disappearance being the central point of the game that’ll be released this year.

This video again mixes animation, photography, and design elements that make this presentation both “retro” and timeless at once. Of course you and I being part of a timeline that places the filmstrip video presentation from grade school squarely in our minds will be reminded of educational oddities from the 1950s, with a few 1980s video swoops in for good measure. The end result is, again, a wholly enticing prospect: jumping in to a world that’s real in a video game that’ll be released this year.

BioShock Infinite “Icarus” trailer series redefines the art is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Generally, Facebook is making money off you (or at least trying) by collecting all your info and then parceling it all out for ads. But now the tables have turned, maybe kinda sorta. Thanks to an ongoing class action lawsuit, you may be entitled to up to 10 whole dollars from the social networking giant. Take that, Zuck! More »

Microsoft will feature one lucky app in a Windows Phone 8 TV advertisement via its Windows Phone Next App Star contest. The contest is open to global Windows Phone developers, whose apps will be judged by both quality and ratings. A total of 64 apps will be selected to undergo public voting, with each being awarded some type of award.

Developers who want to participate will need to opt-in to the contest via the Dev Center by March 5, while those who are not yet ready to publish their app can still participate by registering now and making sure their app is live by the March 5 cutoff. Each entry will be reviewed by Microsoft for a combination of user ratings and quality, with Windows Phone 8 feature implementation getting a specific mention.

The top 64 apps will be selected from the entries and will then be subjected to public voting. Says Microsoft, the apps will undergo a “head-to-head, bracket-style competition.” Over the course of several weeks, the entries will be halved on a regular basis so that the 64 entries are narrowed to 32, then 16, etc. The last app standing will receive the grand prize.

The grand prize is ad placement in a primetime Windows Phone TV commercial in the United States. Other developers will receive lesser prizes, such as a Dev Center 1-year subscription and a Nokia Lumia 920. Says Microsoft: “This isn’t just about picking the most popular app in the Store. Windows Phone Next App Star is about giving developers a shot at being the next big hit. You don’t have to be a longtime developer on the Windows Phone platform — even a newcomer can win fans and win big.”

[via Microsoft]

Top Windows Phone 8 app will be awarded free TV advertisement is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week the folks at NetShelter have become “inPowered”, a group making it their mission to take “earned media” to the next level as the “industry’s first earned advertising platform.” This type of advertising for the web makes use of endorsements rather than simply saying, “hey there, buy this product.” With advertising that’s “earned”, marketers are able to find the most influential expert stories surrounding their products and push that influence to great heights.

In other words, you may well be seeing a fundamental shift in the way you’re marketed to on the web. Keep your eyes open to banner ads, towers, and the like using words plucked from publications and see how much more (or less, you never know) you trust these words than a straight-up standard ad spot. According to inPowered and the studies they’ve conducted, “76 percent of U.S. adults rely on articles, blogs, reviews and video from knowledgeable experts.” In other words, they read reviews like SlashGear publishes to see if they’d like to purchase a smartphone.

NetShelter is announcing this week that they’d been working with a limited version of what is now inPowered as a product of NetShelter Technology Media. This limited run has done so well over the 11 months they’ve had it running that they decided to launch inPowered as a separate company to bring Earned Advertising to the masses. Now NetShelter will be a subsidiary of InPowered and “a key distribution channel” for reaching the massive number of technology enthusiasts that exist on the web.

“inPowered plays a critical role in our advertising strategy; it is the key tool for amplifying our message. We might have thousands of articles online, but inPowered tells us the top 10 stories that people are reading, and then amplifies them to the wider network. The measurement functionality enables us to devise a strategy for communicating the right message that resonates with consumers.” – Peggy Ang, VP of Marketing, Samsung

Those of you who work with NetShelter right this minute should also be aware that they are going to be continuing to offer all the services they’ve had up until now. This is an expansion of the brand and a bit of a re-branding too, as it were. Again, keep your eyes open to this type of marketing across the web – and off the web too – watch for it!

NetShelter rebrands as inPowered and “Industry’s First Earned Advertising Platform” is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.