Hasta La Gadget!

MessageMe may be the new guy on the block, but it has been experienced phenomenal success since its launch. The app had launched a little over a week ago, and has already hit the number 2 position on iOS’s Social Networking section. The app sees so much success, even in an over-saturated market of messaging apps, because its part of a social gaming company called LOLapps, which currently has over 50 million active users on Facebook.

MessageMe has become so successful in such a short amount of time that even Facebook has become threatened by it. In order to quell its growth, Facebook blocked MessageMe from accessing its social graph. Now users are unable to find their friends through Facebook’s network, causing a setback to the rapidly growing messaging app. This move by Facebook has been speculated to have happened for three reasons.

First, it’s speculated that Facebook cut off MessageMe’s access to its social graph because MessageMe poses a serious threat to Facebook’s own Messenger service. Facebook has been trying to make Messenger the top app for messaging. It has offered incentives, like adding free VoIP calling, and offering free/discounted data for the messaging app in select countries. The second reason is that Facebook believes MessageMe copies Messenger’s core functionality, which violates Facebook’s platform policy. The third reason is that MessageMe doesn’t offer any reciprocal benefits to Facebook. Facebook wants MessageMe to allow users to share information back to it.

Being cut off from Facebook is a big setback, however MessageMe has enough support from LOLapps and its current users to be able to thrive on its own. MessageMe also isn’t the only app to have been given the axe by Facebook. Many apps, like Twitter’s Vine, have also been cut off by Facebook, but they still went on to experience great success. MessageMe’s users aren’t too worried about the apps future, and they’re sure it will continue to thrive. Arjun Sethi, co-founder of the app, has stated that there will be more details on the issue on Tuesday.

[via TechCrunch]

Facebook blocks MessageMe users from its “Find Friends” feature is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Twitter is apparently looking to bring some music into its service. The company is getting ready to use We Are Hunted, a music discovery service it had acquired 6 months ago, to help build itself a standalone music app. The app will give personalized music recommendations to users based on the musical artists the user follows, and the musical artists the user’s followers follow. The service, while less personalized, will still be usable for those without a Twitter account.

The app will stream music via SoundCloud. It will feature 4 tabs. The “Suggested” tab recommends you songs based on the musical artists you follow. The “#NowPlaying” tab lists links to songs tweeted by your followers who tweet using the #NowPlaying hashtag. The “Popular” tab lists the songs that are currently trending on the music app, and the “Emerging” tab lists a bunch of up-and-coming artists featured on We Are Hunted.

The app will display artists and songs in a grid design. Clicking on an artist’s panel will cause it to expand displaying a short bio on the artist, as well as links to songs the artist has on SoundCloud, or on iTunes. Users can tap the play button to begin streaming music from the artist. Users will also be able to follow artists directly from Twitter’s “Twitter Music” page.

iOS users are said to have first dibs on the Twitter Music service, just like Twitter’s video sharing app, Vine. The Twitter Music service is speculated to be released to iOS devices by the end of this month. Twitter hopes that by integrating music into its network, it can attract more new users to its service. It will, however, have a hard time prying users away from popular music services like Pandora and Spotify.

[via CNET]

Twitter to launch standalone music app is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There’s no doubt that Facebook is the most popular social network around, even if teens are losing interest in the service. Facebook has announced that its 1 billion+ users have shared over 400 billion open graph actions back to the social network so far, a number that many Facebook marketers love to see. These figures were announced prior to its event being held at South by Southwest (SXSW).

Open Graph actions range from a variety of things, including follows, likes, songs listened to (on a variety of services like Spotify or Pandora), articles read on various news portals, videos watched on YouTube, LiveLeak, etc, images pinned on Pinterest, photos liked or shared on Instagram, and more. Users enabled many of these services to automatically share their information through their Facebook Newsfeed.

So far, Facebook users have shared a total of 110 million songs, albums, and radio stations over 40 billion times, and have shared around 1.47 million books. Facebook makes it easy for users to share their data to their timeline through integrated apps, or social buttons placed throughout a majority of websites and blogs out there. It hopes to make sharing on its network more personable and enjoyable with acquisitions like Storylane.

These kind of numbers should have developers and companies promoting their next projects or campaigns through the social media behemoth. The user engagement looks promising for those that develop on the platform, or those who are looking to get more exposure to the world. Marketers should also be pleased that Facebook is offering new features that will make finding the right, targeted audience easier.

[via The Next Web]

Sharing is caring according to Facebook users is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Carnegie Mellon University performed a seven-year study on Facebook and its users. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon studied data from 5,076 Facebook users from 2005 to 2011 to analyze the correlation between changes in Facebook’s privacy features and user’s sharing their information. The study showed that every time Facebook improved its privacy features for users, users would actually share more information with their friends as well as 3rd party developers and advertisers.

According to the study, from 2005-2009, Facebook users were very picky about the information they shared on their news feed. At the end of 2009, Facebook had changed its settings, and users, who the study say were presumably confused by the new settings, ending up sharing more information on their news feed and their profiles. When timeline was introduced in 2011, people started sharing even more data due to the number of added information fields available, like milestones and history.

Jules Polonetsky, director/co-chair of the Future of Privacy Forum, stated, “I think the study shows Facebook users have reached a reasonable equilibrium now that there is far less data being shared publicly and much more interactions with your friends, which is a good thing.” In a separate study, researchers found that 222,000 posts by Facebook users made over a course of a month were able to reach 61% of the people on their friend’s list.

It shouldn’t be surprising that when Facebook implements more privacy options, users feel more safe to share their personal information. The privacy features allow people to freely share their thoughts and photos without the fear of there being a maniac out there stalking them. With the news feed being redesigned frequently, it also entices users to test out the new features and see how they like it, even if they initially hate it.

[via ABC News]

Facebook study shows users are engaging more with friends is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Facebook is apparently marking down gifts from its marketplace in order to get more people to use it. Not only that, but you’ll also be given the option to “give a gift” whenever your friends get a new job, a promotion, or give birth to a child. Facebook is going to great depths to market its own marketplace. Perhaps it should utilize its own, newly updated custom audiences tool. It could benefit from better targeted marketing, and it can’t really boast about the success rate of its tool if its own marketplace isn’t doing so well.

The mark downs were discovered by CNET, and they seem to appear when you want to send a gift to a friend for their birthday. It seems a bit desperate because the message that you’re greeted with is, “Send a gift of $5 or more and get $4 off.” That’s a whopping 80% markdown. Yes, the company is willing to lose money in order to get more people to try out their marketplace, which they hope in the future will bring in the returns it had lost. Facebook’s marketplace doesn’t generate the revenue it wants, so its hoping these specials will turn that around.

Alongside essentially turning part of its marketplace into a Dollar Tree store, Facebook is trying various methods to get its marketplace some publicity. Special sales will emerge around certain holidays, like Christmas or Valentine’s Day, and there will most likely be sales centered around the seasons (keep an eye out during Spring and Summer time). However, Facebook does deserve some credit for reminding people to give gifts to those who have something special to celebrate. It’s a bit of a guilt-trip, but it is smart.

So if its your co-workers birthday, or your acquaintance’s birthday, you can give them a small, little treat to brighten up their day and show them how thoughtful you are. A nice cup of coffee can go a long way in terms of your relationship with your peers, and it’s only going to cost you a dollar.

[via CNET]

Facebook marking down gifts as much as 80% is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.