Facebook improves photo viewing with larger images, takes cues from Google+

Facebook improves photo viewing with larger images, takes cues from Google

Facebook has offered photo sharing in one form another since shortly after the site’s launch, but while certain features have been added over the years, such as tagging and downloads, image formatting has remained mostly unchanged. Until today. Facebook has announced that it will roll out a new tool for thumbing through galleries across the site, presenting photos in a new square format with the option to “highlight” certain shots to increase their footprint on the page. Google+ users may recognize the format, which bears some resemblance to the tool on that site. We haven’t seen the feature go live on Facebook just yet, but eager social networkers can preview it today at the source link below.

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Facebook improves photo viewing with larger images, takes cues from Google+ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook’s New Photo UI Creates Gorgeous Mosaics [Facebook]

Facebook’s photo interface is getting a lovely, much-needed makeover. Starting today, it’s rolling out a much cleaner layout, with a mosaic view off all your images as well as three simple tabs at the top of the page—one for photos of you, another for all the pics you’ve posted, and another for your albums. More »

Facebook’s mobile strategy is reportedly flawed, says report

The behemoth social network recently hosted its first earnings conference call yesterday with CEO Mark Zuckerberg casting the company’s direction. Zuckerberg said earlier that developing Facebook’s mobile platform is a top priority of the company. The CEO also highlighted its plans to increase revenue from mobile ads. Now, a new report sheds some light into Facebook’s mobile strategy. According to a research conducted by EyeTrackShop, an online eye tracking solutions company, Facebook’s ads on its mobile apps seems to perform quite poorly, particularly on the iPhone. EyeTrackShop reportedly analyzed the eye movements of individuals as they accessed Facebook on the web, the iPhone, and on the iPad.

They then examined the attention of the individuals to the ads displayed on the social network. The firm allegedly found out (as you can see in the photo above) that a fewer number of people are noticing the ads on Facebook’s iPhone app. Also, according to their research, they also found out that among the three platforms tested (web, iPad, and iPhone), iPhone ads were the least efficient for brand advertisers in terms of awareness and recall. EyeTrackShop could be wrong, but I would say that I don’t usually mind the ads on my Facebook account. How about you? Do you think that the research is a little biased?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Mark Zuckerberg: No Facebook phone coming your way, Facebook CEO kicks off company’s first earnings conference call,

Facebook stock hits new low as Zuckerberg loses billions

Facebook may have delivered a decent quarterly financial report yesterday, but that apparently did little to quell investor concerns about the company, which only went public earlier this year. Facebook’s stock took another tumble today, falling $3.03 to $23.81. That 11.3% decrease in stock price led to Facebook’s stock hitting a new all-time low, and it doesn’t seem like the stock is going to recover anytime soon.


Despite the fact that Facebook did post a profit and did report a growth in the number of users for Q2, that apparently wasn’t enough for Facebook’s investors. Revenue did grow in Q2, but not as much as it did in Q1, which gave investors some cause for concern. That isn’t the major problem Facebook’s investors have with the company’s direction, however, as it seems that many of them are concerned about Facebook’s mobile ad growth. As far as they’re concerned, Facebook isn’t making nearly enough money from mobile advertisements, while more and more Facebook users are accessing their profiles from mobile devices.

The result is a stock price that now sits at nearly 40% below the price it started at when Facebook initially went public. Any way you slice it, that isn’t good for the company or current investors – though it may be good news for those waiting to jump in when the price is low. Indeed, CNET is reporting that this week has taken quite the toll on Mark Zuckerberg’s pocketbook, with the Facebook founder losing a mind-numbing $3 billion since Wednesday. It’s going to be a long and bumpy ride for Facebook in the coming weeks and months, but at the very least, it should be pretty interesting for outside observers.

[via USA Today]


Facebook stock hits new low as Zuckerberg loses billions is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Battlefield 3 Facebook ads led to 440% return for Electronic Arts

When publishers are ramping up on advertising for an upcoming game, Facebook ads don’t seem like a natural place to start. If EA’s success with Facebook ads for Battlefield 3 is anything to go on, however, maybe they should be. In a recent investor call – Facebook’s first one since its IPO – Facebook COO Sheryl K. Sandberg highlighted Electronic Arts‘ success in using Facebook ads to push the extremely popular game, saying that Electronic Arts spent $2.75 million on ads and now attributes $12.1 million in sales to the marketing campaign.


That’s a whopping 440% return-on-investment for the publisher. It isn’t just EA that hit it big with Facebook ads either, with Sandberg stating that independent analysis shows a hefty percentage of campaigns delivering a return of 3x or better:

Independent analysis of more than 60 campaigns, 45 of which were completed in the first half of this year, show that 70 per cent of those campaigns delivered a return on ad spend of 3x or better. And 49 per cent of those campaigns delivered a return of 5x or better.

The write-up on GamesIndustry International points out that EA’s methods of figuring out its return weren’t made clear, but even if EA’s numbers are off by a bit, that still leaves plenty of room for the publisher to make a significant return-on-investment. This is a really encouraging report for those considering rolling out a Facebook ad campaign, so if anything, expect to see more video game companies using Facebook to push their latest games in the future.


Battlefield 3 Facebook ads led to 440% return for Electronic Arts is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Vizify offers free infographics all about you, makes you feel like a big shot

Vizify offers free infographics all about you, makes you feel like a big shot

Infographics. The stuff of high turnover websites and news channels, right? Well, yes, but now you can bring the same white space and pastel shades to your own internet footprint, courtesy of free infographic web app Vizify. It’s still in its trial period for now, which means you’ll have to wait for an entry code to tap into the breezy visualization generator, but we managed to plug in as many social networks as we could to see how it all works. The service is definitely centered around those that are very connected to the internet. Vizify will draw information from Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, LinkedIn and also connect through work-based websites you add yourself. It will then populate a clickable front page with circles including images, quotes and links to your profile elsewhere. The service, which is geared at recruitment, crafts a convenient short link to offer up on resumes or job emails. Edit options include a choice of color palettes, and the ability to tweak the layout of the information circles [seen above] and the larger pages that follow it, bringing either more career-centric (or interesting) content to the forefront. Sign up for an access code at the source to give it a try for yourself, or take a stalker-esque trip down an Engadget editor’s social network tracks at the second link below.

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Vizify offers free infographics all about you, makes you feel like a big shot originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zuckerberg says Facebook phone “wouldn’t make much sense”

Earlier this week we mentioned rumors of Facebook and HTC were reportedly working on a smartphone to debut sometime next year. Neither Facebook nor HTC confirmed it, and now we’re hearing that Mark Zuckerberg himself stated on Thursday’s earnings call that there’s actually no existence of a Facebook phone. He said it wouldn’t make any sense for the company to launch its own smartphone.

“There are lots of things that you can build in other operating systems as well that aren’t really building out a whole phone, which I think really wouldn’t make much sense for us to do,” Zuckerberg said. “We want to support a development ecosystem where other apps can build on top of Facebook.”

Zuckerberg explained that Facebook was more focused on being integrated with other smartphones as much as possible rather than on creating a whole new smartphone. But that doesn’t completely rule out the possibility that the company could be working on its own operating system.

The Facebook founder’s denial of a new smartphone still comes as a bit of a Facebook facepalm for the rest of us after months of developing rumors and all these designer mockups of a future Facebook phone, which now seems to have been completely thrown out the window. But whatever the social network has in store for us next, Zuckerberg still seems to have made it quite clear that it most certainly will have a lot to do with mobile.

[via Mashable]


Zuckerberg says Facebook phone “wouldn’t make much sense” is written by Elise Moreau & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Summer Olympics 2012 opening ceremonies streaming in London

It’s time to check out all the streaming live video streams we can for the kickoff of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. This is the third time that London has hosted the Olympics, with their first being all the way back in 1908 and the next just a few years after the end of World War II in 1948. Here in 2012, it’s time for a party – and without a doubt the entirety of England will be in rare form throughout the events which start off tonight with an above-average strange set of characters that’ll only be come apparent once the ceremony has begun – Voldemordt and Mary Poppins have been tipped.

What you’ll be looking for online on your desktop computer for live video is a collection of feeds from NBC. While there are other streams out there, the Olympics committee appears to be working directly with NBC for this event for all streaming content via YouTube. Of course the BBC will also be streaming all of the events, including the opening ceremonies, all via Facebook. Have a peek at BBCSport on Facebook to see what your options are right this minute!

Have a peek at the following presentation video to get connected:

For those of you looking to connect via Android, you’ll want to check out the NBC Olympics app which will be working asap starting tonight. This same app is available for iOS and made for both the iPhone and the iPad. You can check out our whole collection of iPad apps for the Olympics in iPad Olympics app set to cover from all angles.

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Adobe is onboard, as is Reuters for photos, there are several official scores apps as well as your very own London 2012 Official Mobile Game – fun stuff! Check out the timeline below as well to get caught up on all things London Olympics here at the start!


Summer Olympics 2012 opening ceremonies streaming in London is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Facebook’s new Recommendations Bar pops up, just wants to be liked

Facebook's new Recommendations Bar pops up, just wants to be liked

Facebook’s Recommendations Box sits passively on many websites, allowing us to engage or ignore as we see fit. But too much of the latter option has led to something slightly different: the new Recommendations Bar — a pop-up variant which, when integrated by your favorite page, plugs site-specific links based on your friends’ thumbs and shares. The Bar is similar to the in-house recommendation pop-ups we’re all familiar with, but adds a like button for posting the current page to your timeline. It shouts much louder than the Box, so it’s no surprise that in early tests the new plug-in produced a three-fold increase in click-throughs. In this case, privacy wasn’t an afterthought — Bar integration, like the Box, is at the site’s discretion and sharing pages is very much on your terms. Just try not to accidently hit that like button during your daily scan of Bieber’s homepage.

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Facebook’s new Recommendations Bar pops up, just wants to be liked originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitter blocks key API access for Instagram

Instagram is growing at an incredible rate with 80 million users. Many of those new users who are also on Twitter and want to follow their Twitter friends on Instagram will find one key feature is no more. Twitter has changed API restrictions for Instagram and has eliminated the “Find Your Friends” feature that Instagram previously offered.

It is worth noting that the “Tweet Photo” feature is still available. There is some indication that Twitter may have axed that portion of the API for Instagram over concerns of strains on twitter servers due to the massive user base of Instagram and bandwidth consumed with users pulling friends lists. However, TechCrunch reports that other social apps still have access to this part of the API, known as Twitter Friend Graph.

That would seem to indicate that Instagram was consuming more bandwidth than any of the other users of that particular part of the API. Perhaps this is a little tit-for-tat on Twitter’s part now that Facebook owns Instagram. Facebook blocked Twitter access to the Facebook in-app friend Finder feature in June of 2010.

[via TechCrunch]


Twitter blocks key API access for Instagram is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.