Facebook Promoted Posts expanding across europe

A couple of weeks ago, Facebook began testing Promoted Posts for regular users, not just businesses and brands. This would allow you or I to “promote” one of our status updates to show up at the top of everyone else’s news feed. The features has slowly been rolling out across the US and other countries like New Zealand, but the company is now introducing the new feature to European users.

Users who pay $7 per post will be able to have their status updates show up towards the top of their friends’ news feeds in order to gain more exposure, and thus receiving more comments and/or likes. Users can pick and choose which status updates they want to promote, rather than having to pay for all of their status updates to be promoted.

The roll-out of Promoted Posts to Europe could mean that Facebook will be making this a permanent feature in the near future. The company is notorious for testing potential new features on a select group of users before they officially roll it out to the public. Since the social network is continuing its roll out for Promoted Posts, we could see this being a permanent thing fairly soon.

There’s no word on what the pricing is for users in other countries, but we assume it’s close to the same $7 that US users have to pay in order to promote one of their posts. Of course, a lot of users don’t like handing over their money if they don’t have to, but we could see this being useful for updates like important announcements or wishing someone a happy birthday.


Firefox introduces preliminary support for Social API, brings your networks into the browser

Firefox introduces preliminary support for Social API, brings your networks into the browser

While you might use Firefox to access your social media of choice already, preliminary support for a new API has been introduced that could integrate key features into the browser itself. The aptly named Social API, will allow developers to embed services into the browser directly, letting you interact with friends and stay updated without having to open new windows, or keep hopping into different tabs. There’s no solid info just yet on how this will manifest itself, or how issues such as security and privacy might be addressed, but with testing beginning soon, we’re expecting the curtain to lift on the finer details soon. Interested developers can head to the source, for the other billion, you’ll just have to wait.

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Firefox introduces preliminary support for Social API, brings your networks into the browser originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 10:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Brass Knuckles iPhone Case: Tough Love for Your Smartphone

Brass Knuckles iPhone Case: Tough Love for Your SmartphoneThe Knucklecase for the Apple iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S cushions your smartphone from life’s hard knocks while helping callers get a grip on any situation. Sure it’s as subtle as a punch in the nose but if you don’t like it… tough!

Facebook auto-liking pages for users without permission [updated]

Some more bad news has hit the Facebook front today. It’s being reported that Facebook is scanning its users’ private messages and searching for links to Facebook fan pages. Once it finds these links, Facebook supposedly automatically likes the pages for you without asking for your permission to do so.

This could either be a bug or a deliberate feature, but the scanning of messages is said to increase the Like count for a fan page just by talking about it. However, it only seems that it increases the Like count of a page, and doesn’t actually “like” the page on your behalf. Then again, some users are reporting that it actually does like the page for you without your permission.

Obviously, this can be a huge problem if you’re talking to a friend about something specific, like how much you hate a certain band’s music. Mentioning the band and linking to its fan page in a private message to a friend could lead to you liking the page without you even knowing.

Scanning itself is nothing new. Gmail does it to provide its users with targeted ads, but this auto-liking debacle takes it to another level that’s a little over the line and unnecessary. Then again, a lot of users are reporting that it works and others are saying that it’s not truly liking the page for you, so it actually might just be an unfortunate bug on Facebook’s end. Either way, hopefully Facebook addresses the issue and brings order to chaos.

UPDATE: Facebook has reached out to us and commented about this issue: “Absolutely no private information has been exposed and Facebook is not automatically Liking any Facebook Pages on a user’s behalf…Many websites that use Facebook’s ‘Like’, ‘Recommend’, or ‘Share’ buttons also carry a counter next to them. This counter reflects the number of times people have clicked those buttons and also the number of times people have shared that page’s link on Facebook. When the count is increased via shares over private messages, no user information is exchanged, and privacy settings of content are unaffected. Links shared through messages do not affect the Like count on Facebook Pages.”

[via Forbes]


Facebook auto-liking pages for users without permission [updated] is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Zuckerberg: more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month

Zuckerberg: more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month.

Active accounts have become one of the hottest currencies online, especially for social networks. Previous boasts by Facebook have been quickly shot down, but this latest number is pretty hard to ignore. According to Zuckerberg himself the site now has 1 billion active monthly users. That’s right, one in seven people on the planet logs on to the social network at least once a full moon cycle. The announcement comes via the site’s official news blog, which if the numbers are true, could mean most of you have read this already. Zuckerberg broke the news originally in a Q&A with Bloomberg Businessweek, also claiming that the site now has 600 million mobile users.

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Zuckerberg: more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Oct 2012 07:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NASA’s Curiosity rover checks in on Foursquare, gives Mars its first mayor

DNP Foursquare is out of this world, as Curiosity checks in at the Red Planet

Yes, seriously. NASA announced on Wednesday that its Curiosity rover had “checked in” on Mars via Foursquare. Marking the first check in from another world, the robotic rover will utilize the location-minded social network to share updates and pictures while visiting the Red Planet. While Curiosity will continue to explore the possibilities of Mars being able to sustain life, it would appear that the fourth planet from the sun just got a brand new mayor. Something tells us the universe’s rarest badge is about to be bestowed.

Continue reading NASA’s Curiosity rover checks in on Foursquare, gives Mars its first mayor

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NASA’s Curiosity rover checks in on Foursquare, gives Mars its first mayor originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Oct 2012 19:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook testing Promoted Posts for all users

You might already be familiar with different companies and brands promoting their status updates or tweets on Facebook and Twitter. By paying social networks, these companies make sure their messages are read by as many people as possible in the form of “promoted” content, and it looks like Facebook is expanding this feature to regular users as well.

Today, Facebook began testing Promoted Posts for regular users in the US (the feature has already been rolling out in New Zealand). By paying around $7 per post, Facebook will make sure your status updates will more likely be seen by your friends. Along with the increased visibility, Promoted Posts will come with a tool that lets users see how many people have seen their posts.

Testing out potential new features to a select group of users is a tactic that Facebook is known for. It did the same thing when they introduced automatic photo uploads for Android a couple weeks ago. To find out if you’re one of the lucky ones who got access to the feature, a new “Promote” button will show up next to “Like” and “Comment” underneath your posts.

We can see where this could be useful for everyday users. Obviously, it’s not something you would use on every single status update or post, but if you’re posting some photos to a special event or want to celebrate someone’s birthday by posting a special birthday wish, we can see why some people would want to promote these kinds of posts if they’re willing to shell out $7 to do so.

[via The Verge]


Facebook testing Promoted Posts for all users is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Connected To The Case to use Facebook for crowd-sourced crime solving

Connected To The Case to use Facebook for crowd-sourced crime solving

Ready the spandex and decide on a name for your alter ego, because come October 16th, you’ll have the chance to fight crime from the comfort of your computer. On that date, the “Connected To The Case” website goes live with the aim of crowd-sourcing tips from its users to help the cops solve active investigations. You’ll use your Facebook login for access, as the service pulls data from your profile to prioritize cases with which you might have a connection. Morgan Wright, CEO and Chief Crime Fighter of Crowd Sourced Investigations, told us its system looks at five key areas when digging for pertinent triggers: “date, location, time, relation and demographics.” It then uses that data to tailor notifications of unsolved crimes based on — for example — proximity to your school, or where you used to work. Rest assured that you control the privacy settings, and if you’ve got useful info to share, you can do so anonymously.

Law enforcement agencies can register to include their cases from today, with the initial roll-out targeting the US. The plan is to expand first to other English-speaking countries, with foreign language support in the future to build a global network of internet do-gooders. Including data from other social networks is also in the pipeline, starting with Twitter and later, Foursquare and Pinterest. A smartphone app is also on the agenda, so get your detective devices ready — we can be heroes, if just for one click.

Continue reading Connected To The Case to use Facebook for crowd-sourced crime solving

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Connected To The Case to use Facebook for crowd-sourced crime solving originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Israeli Cartoon Bomb Explodes Virally In The United Nations

With Iran’s nuclear capabilities escalating to an all-time high, it
appears Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has built his very own
bomb in retaliation. Except his high-octane ammunition was not of the world-annihilation kind.
Identified as the "Bibi Bomb," named after the PM’s nickname "Bibi," his
explosive came in the form of a cartoonish drawing to illustrate what is
perceived as Iran’s probability to create an atomic weapon. Used as a
prop at the UN General Assembly this past week,  it was seen as Israel’s first preemptive salvo launched at its number-one enemy, Iran.


The Engadget Interview: RIM’s T.A. McCann on how BB10 is going social

The Engadget Interview RIM's TA McCann on how BB10 is going social

In case you missed Thorsten Heins keynote yesterday, RIM’s betting on BB10 becoming the next big thing in mobile computing. Part of Thorsten’s plan to put BB10 on top involves deep integration of third party social apps like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare into the new OS. BlackBerry has always been a productivity platform first and foremost, but with RIM touting BB10’s abilities as a social platform, we wanted to know more about the plan to make it happen. So, we sat down with T.A. McCann, RIM’s VP of BBM and Social Communities, to find out how he’s going to reach his CEO’s goal of a flowing, social OS and the challenges of getting there.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: RIM’s T.A. McCann on how BB10 is going social

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The Engadget Interview: RIM’s T.A. McCann on how BB10 is going social originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 19:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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