Google+Facebook+iPhone: 09/01/11

Thursday, 1 September 2011

Man accused of using Facebook in teen seduction attempt

Bail was set at $75,000 today for a 27-year-old Orland Park man accused of using his Facebook account to try to seduce two New Lenox girls, 15 and 16, over the past two months.

New Lenox Police arrested Joseph A. Bozen of the 9900 block of Shady Lane Wednesday on a charge of grooming, which involves intentionally using a computer on-line service, Internet service, local bulletin board service, or any other device capable of electronic data storage or transmission to seduce, solicit, lure, or entice, or attempt to seduce, solicit, lure, or entice, a child.

Detective Sgt Pete Nelson said Bozen used common mutual Facebook friends to initially develop a relationship with one of the girls, then expanded his efforts to include the other girl. No sexual contact occurred.

"He was definitely sending messages of an inappropriate nature," Nelson said, adding, "He was fully aware of their ages."

Nelson said the mother of one of the girls learned of the alleged contacts Monday and notified New Lenox police, who interviewed the girls and then obtained a search warrant for Bozen's electronic equipment.

Facebook and Lamebook settle trademark dispute

Facebook, the world’s largest social network, and Lamebook, a website designed for mocking funny things people post on Facebook, settled their trademark dispute on August 25, 2011. The two websites finally agreed to disagree after a long battle that started over a year ago.

“We are pleased to arrive at an agreement that protects Facebook’s brand and trademark and allows for Lamebook’s continued operation,” the companies said in a joint statement. “The parties are now satisfied that users are not likely to be confused.”

Lamebook is allowed to continue operating under its current name but it must add a disclaimer to its website disavowing any affiliation with Facebook, which reads as follows: “This is an unofficial parody and is not affiliated or associated with, or endorsed or approved by, Facebook.” Furthermore, Lamebook is not allowed to seek trademark protection for its name, according toVentureBeat.

This might seem like good news for Facebook, as the social networking giant’s main claim was that Lamebook diluted the Facebook brand. One could argue, however, that Palo Alto, California is surrendering to Austin, Texas. In other words, Facebook was not able to force Lamebook to change its name.

Lamebook received cease-and-desist letters from Facebook in March 2010. Lamebook then sued Facebook in November 2010, arguing that its name did not infringe Facebook’s trademarks because it was an obvious parody, meaning it was protected by the First Amendment.

Lamebook’s lawsuit was filed in federal court in Austin (the Western District of Texas). Four days later, Facebook sued Lamebook for trademark infringement in federal court in San Jose, California. Facebook also tried to have Lamebook’s lawsuit transferred to the Northern District of Texas, but failed.

It soon became clear that Facebook did not wish to do battle in Texas where a jury was more likely to sympathize with the two people from the local Austin who run Lamebook. On the other hand, it’s possible Facebook finally realized that the publicity surrounding legally fighting a website that exists solely to call you lame is probably not the best idea.

Music Needs ‘Connective Tissue’ and Facebook Wants To Build It

As details emerge about Facebook's plan to integrate with music services to let friends share their listening experience, one thing is abundantly clear: Music fans and the music industry desperately need this—or something like it—to happen.

Here's the core of the problem. When music fans use an online music service, whether that means free music on YouTube or a paid subscription from Spotify or another subscription service, they're more-or-less alone. If I use Spotify, you use Rhapsody, and our friend Bob uses MOG, the three of us might as well be in different universes when it comes to sharing and talking about what we're listening to. Our playlists, comments, and "likes" don't translate.

The inability to share music degrades the experience for all three of us—perhaps to the point that we won't renew our subscriptions, or would never sign up in the first place.

It reminds me of when I used to DJ a small room in San Francisco. We weren't too serious about it—this was basically a way for us to play music we liked over big speakers and showcase our friends' bands. Still, we had a problem: People would show up throughout the night, and leave when they saw a mostly-empty floor. Another group would do the same thing, and so on. If they all arrived at the same time, that night may have gelled.

Likewise, when people try a paid music service today, they are isolated. The chance that all of their friends will decide to subscribe to the same music service is virtually nil. If you share aSpotify, Rhapsody, MOG, or other link on Facebook or Twitter, only your other friends who have that service can play it. YouTube is a cross-platform exception.

There's not much "connective tissue," as Reuters' anonymous source described Facebook's upcoming music strategy, to bring these paid services together. (See also "4 Ways One Big Database Would Help Music Fans, Industry.")

Facebook will announce an initiative to integrate tightly with multiple music services on September 22, according to various reports. Apparently, and here GigaOm's June 19th report is particularly instructive, the company plans to introduce new sections that show us what our friends are listening to, giving us something else to talk about, which is a reason to stay logged on. Nice move.

You can already share songs on Facebook with multiple services, but the upcoming reported integration would show you what I'm listening to in real time among other things.
We should be able to comment on what they've been doing, in classic Facebook style, and listen to their songs if we use the same service, which is already possible with Spotify, Rhapsody, MOG, Rdio, and others (screenshot to the right).

We might even be able to chat about the same song as we listen, which we've termed "synchronous group listening," and which is already possible on "Google+YouTube".

Hopefully for music fans, Facebook will also figure out a way for people to share songs across music services so more of us can hear shared tracks in full. Even if it doesn't, people will reportedly be able to track each other's listening and figure out how to hear stuff by searching on their own.

We've seen similar functionality elsewhere, but Facebook is massive. People use it daily. Prominent music sharing features there could bring to the mainstream all sorts of formerly nerd-like behavior—stuff like scrobbling music from Turntable.fm.

Social music on Facebook could be big. What will it look like?

First, it will be cool, because the non-stop hangout on Facebook would have a socially-customized soundtrack for those who want it. We can already sit near our Facebook friends at shows courtesy of Ticketmaster, so we should be able to listen together at home, too.

The Social Network makes no secret of letting app developers and outside marketers see what we do there. Earlier this year, we learned that our faces could end up in Facebook ads if we don't set our preferences right, among other seemingly-periodic issues. If Facebook's reported music plan succeeds, it will know who listens to what, who influences them, who they influence, what they did while they listened (to an extent), and more.

Facebook quietly launched Like button Google Chrome extension

Less than two months ago, Facebook quietly launched a Google Chrome extension called Facebook Like Button (via TechCrunch). The extension lets you Like, Share, or Recommend web pages, images, videos (html5 only), and audio (html5 only) on Facebook from any website by just clicking a button. That’s right: even if the owner hasn’t implemented a Facebook plugin on his or her website, you can still Like it with this tool.

Installing the plugin adds a thumbs-up icon to the right of the search and address box in your Chrome browser, as well as a Facebook Like Button option in the right-click menu. If you choose to share content by clicking the button, you are prompted to add a comment and can also control who can see your post before hitting Like. This means that although there are more options than for your typical Like button, you will actually have to click twice to share something.

If you right click on any webpage, the Facebook Like Button menu will also let you Like, Share, or Recommend specific content (such as images, videos, and audio). In the screenshot above, the image on the left is what you get if you right click the webpage but not any actual content and the image on the right is for an image that also links somewhere.

The reason for the HTML5 video and HTML5 audio limitation is simple. Since sharing specific content requires the use of a right-click menu, Facebook needs to be able to access it and make its own submenu. Flash doesn’t let you do that, but HTML5 does.

At all times, the button displays the total number of Likes associated with any website you are viewing. Facebook shares the following information for the extension that you can read while you’re deciding whether you want to install it:

By downloading and installing this plugin, you acknowledge that you have reviewedFacebook’s Privacy Policy and agree to the Terms of Service , which apply to the installation and use of this plugin.

You do not need to be logged in to Facebook to install this plugin, but to like, share or recommend a page you will need to log in to a current Facebook account, or create a new one. While the plugin is installed, it will display the total number of likes for the page you are viewing. To provide a personalized experience, Facebook will see some technical information such as the URL of the page you are on, your IP address and the date and time you visited the site. All information collected before you log into Facebook is anonymous or aggregated and will not identify you.

In short, if you use this extension while you’re logged into Facebook, the company will see your IP address, the URL you are at, and when you visited it. The social networking giant says it will mine this data anonymously, but to be on the safe side, make sure you really don’t care whether Facebook knows what websites you visit and when.

Because Facebook did not make an announcement about this plugin, it has just 555 users according to the Chrome Web Store. It’s quite clear Facebook created it though: the “Verified author: facebook.com” message on the page clearly says so.

The extension was actually launched sometime in early July, but Facebook updated it today (in the same week that Google launched its Google +1 Button for Chrome). The issue appears to be that Facebook did not make any sort of announcement for the extension.

Tillamook Wants Grilled Cheese Shared On Facebook

Grilled cheese enthusiasts will be thrilled to know that you can now imprint your likeness on a creamy, golden-brown sandy and share it with all your Facebook pals.

Yep, as of today, there’s an app for that.

Developed by Culver City, California-based Hello Design for Tillamook Cheese, which claims more than 160,000 fans on its Facebook page, the application is a snap to download and use.

Once you have it, you upload your photo, digitally “grill” it, and presto, your cheese’wich is ready to share.

Scott Arenstein, account director at Hello Design said in a press release:

A lot of apps are built and released on a daily basis. We wanted to launch this in a special way. By connecting Tillamook with celebrities and chefs, we brought Tillamook into the pop culture conversation. We wanted to raise awareness and create buzz around Tillamook brand. It was also a way to establish one-on-one engagement with Tillamook’s active fanbase and to attract and start conversations with new fans.

Well, in this particular case, we could not agree more.

Readers, what do you think about Tillamook and Hello Design’s viral marketing effort here?

Facebook spawning network of ad partners

Facebook is relying on a fast-growing network of independent partners to build an advertising sector that some say may ultimately rival the network of companies that grew up in the past decade around Google's (GOOG) search revolution.

Less than two years ago, there were widespread doubts about Facebook's viability as an advertising business, despite the clear evidence of its runaway social popularity. But Facebook in 2011 has emerged as an online ads powerhouse, leading to speculation that the company's IPO could be worth more than $100 billion next year. The social network has done that with fewer than two dozen in-house engineers working on its ad systems, according to people familiar with the company.

Instead, Facebook is counting on independent partners like Redwood City-based Wildfire Interactive and London-based TBG Digital to build out its advertising "ecosystem." That network is growing rapidly, both in the number and individual size of companies, and represents a sector that some say may ultimately rival the search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing industry (SEM) that grew up around Google in the last decade.Facebook spawned a multibillion-dollar industry in online social games when it allowed independentdevelopers like Zynga to run their software applications on the social network in 2007. In a move with a similar philosophy, the social network in recent weeks opened up its software kingdom to advertising and marketing data companies that work directly with businesses trying to build their presence on Facebook.

"I'd liken it to the SEM or SEO community that grew up around search," said Grady Burnett, Facebook's vice president of global sales and operations, and a former Google search ads executive. "The idea was, this is a new platform, a new form of advertising, a different set of metrics, and what can we do to really accelerate the growth in that?"

The number of businesses, both large and small, using Facebook to reach consumers appears to be exploding.

Involver, a San Francisco social media marketing company that helps businesses design and operate their pages on Facebook, says the number of commercial brands it represents -- ranging from singer Alicia Keys to the National Football League -- has more than quadrupled this year, to more than 550,000.

"Businesses now believe they must be on Facebook," said Jascha Kaykas-Wolff of Involver, "rather than wondering what it is, or whether they should be on there."

The number of brand advertising campaigns on Facebook grew by 104 percent from the first to second quarters of 2011, according to TBG Digital, which also has offices in San Francisco and was one of the initial ad data partners that joined the trial to help fine tune ad campaigns on Facebook.

In online advertising, "there have been two big revolutions," said Simon Mansell, CEO of TBG. "The first big revolution was Google." Facebook is the second, he said.

TBG's list of customers includes Coca-Cola, Dell, Capital One and Heineken. TBG constantly juggles ad-targeting criteria like age and gender to measure which combinations get the best results.

Google Promotes a Daily Deal on Its Homepage

Though Facebook recently shut down its Deals serviceafter just four months, Google could be kicking up Google Offers. The company on Wednesday used its homepage to promote a daily deal, Reuters reports.

“Yesterday we provided a link on our homepage in New York City to a Google Offer for the American Museum of Natural History,” a Google spokesperson explained to PCMag. “We occasionally include a link on the Google homepage that points users to important information, whether it be about a relevant cause, a new product or an offer. We believe that users can benefit from learning about great deals from local organizations.”

Google rarely uses its homepage for advertisements. It has occasionally promoted other Google products and services like Android phones or Chrome, but this is the first time Google Offers has popped up on the main page.

The deal offered $25 tickets to the museum at the deep discount of $5. This deal will probably not be the last, and Offers will likely begin to pop up in other places; Stephanie Tilenius, vice president of Google Commerce, said at a conference last month that there will be more “density” to Google Offers, meaning it could be integrated with Google + and mobile commerce apps like Google Wallet and Google Shopper soon .

Man Arrested for Stealth Recording of Dressing Room With iPhone

A Hopkins man faces a charge of interfering with someone's privacy after, supposedly, using an iPhone to record video of a woman in the dressing room of the Hopkins Goodwill.

Manuel Mesias Tigre-Brito is in Hennepin County Jail, charged with Interference with Privacy—Surreptitious Device, a gross misdemeanor. He is also on a hold in relation to his legal immigration status.

At 11:10 a.m. on Aug. 29, police responded to a call reporting a woman being recorded in the dressing room of the Goodwill, on Hill Street. The store manager gave police a small, pink, cloth-covered box, which had clear packing tape affixed to it and a small hole cut into the upper-left-hand corner. The manager opened the box, revealing an iPhone—the camera lens of which aligned with the hole, said Sgt. Michael Glassberg, who was one of the responding officers.

Through a friend who translated her Spanish to English for investigators, the woman in the dressing room reported hearing a bang against the door of the changing room as she was trying on clothes. She looked below the gap between the door and the floor to see a shopping cart parked against the door. Taped to the bottom shelf of the cart, she saw the small, pink box with the hole cut into it. She tore it loose and opened it, discovering the iPhone in the process of recording her.

iPhone 5 Cases Invade China: Point to Super Thin Design, Swapped Mute Switch

One way to figure out what the iPhone 5 will look like is to look at the iPhone 5 cases which are already being mass-produced in China. While these cases aren’t always correct, and there’s always a chance that they are imitating rumors, the fact that manufacturers are beginning to mass produce them has led many to conclude that the manufacturers know more about the iPhone 5 than we do.

These iPhone 5 cases come to us by way of M.I.C. Gadgetwhich spotted them on Alibaba and in Shenzen, a known place for knockoff cell phone goods. If these cases are the real deal, we can expect an incredibly thin iPhone 5, perhaps as thin as the iPod Touch, with a swapped mute button. The moved button is presumably moved because of a thinning design.

Do these iPhone 5 cases show what the next iPhone will look like?

We’ve seen several iPhone cases before, which have led to mockups, and until Apple announces something or we find the missing iPhone, cases are about the best info we have.

I won’t go all in on these cases, but it is standard practice for case manufacturers to purchase and obtain information about Apple’s products ahead of launch in order to get their products designed, manufactured and shipped to the U.S. in time for launch. Companies take these steps in hopes that they can capitalize on early iPhone 5 sales, without telling customers they will need to wait 3 weeks for their new iPhone case. We’ve seen companies bet big on this in the past and succeed, so there is a possibility that these cases represent the general design of the iPhone 5.

Read more at http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/09/01/iphone-5-cases-invade-china-point-to-super-thin-design-swapped-mute-switch/

UmeNow: Facebook's Worst Nightmare Is Unleashed

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla., Sept. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- UmeNow.com is positioning itself as the bold new player set to destroy Facebook's lead in the social networking universe. It's the first and only ad-free social communication service in the world that is totally focused on privacy.

Founded by a Latina entrepreneur mom based in South Florida, UmeNow.com officially begins its "Facebook is Trash, National Privacy Celebration" promotion. "We will kill off the Facebook data eating monster," says Evelyn Castillo-Bach.

"Our service is all about privacy. Facebook is a professional data collector. Google is the mothership of all data collectors. It has nothing on us. They're not even in our league. Let's not forget, Google chief Eric Schmidt told the world straight up that Google+ is not even a social network. It's an 'identity verification' service. Anyone still think these giants really care about privacy?

We've designed the perfect anti-Facebook service. We give you everything they won't while still making it easy and simple to connect with friends.

Because we have no ads, we could care less about your private information or collecting data on you. Our only focus is to give you the power to connect and share without risk.

Our belief is that most people crave privacy and resent Facebook for limiting their access to it," says Castillo-Bach, a former single mom poised to be the leading advocate for online privacy.

Facebook helps find stolen puppies

LAKELAND

Facebook helps find stolen puppies: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com

- Facebook has become the new community bulletin board. It's a place for posting anything from yard sales to houses for rent, but can it help you if you're separated from your pet?

With all the Facebook profiles out there and the thousands of status updates that fly by every day, you'd think it would be next to impossible to find a lost pet from a picture posted online... but it happened on the Drotos' farm in Lakeland.

The family has 30 horses and about 20 dogs, all kept as pets. The newest additions are Gracie and Fionia. The two blue pit puppies were born on the farm, but their pen became a crime scene.

"They were stolen in the middle of the night and the next morning when we went to feed them they weren't in there," said Tiffany Drotos.

When she saw the puppies were missing, she knew they were too small to get out of the pen. She also knew whoever had taken them had done so out of view from their security camera.

"There's a camera shooting that way on our barn so we knew it had to be someone who knew to come from this way. They knew the camera was there," she continued.

In other words, it was someone who probably knew her well enough to be in her social network.

Facebook fuels college megaparty in Colorado

The door to the pool area hangs off its hinge, and trash, clothing and vomit litter the area on Aug. 27 after a large party was broken up by police at the Rams Pointe apartment complex in Fort Collins, Colo. A Facebook page fueled the megaparty near Colorado State University, attended by as many as 3,000 people. Four people were arrested and 10 hospitalized. (The Associated Press/Fort Collins Coloradoan)

DENVER — An apartment complex near Colorado State University that used Facebook to advertise "the biggest pool party of the year’" got more than it bargained for — at least 2,000 people, most of them college students, showed up.
It wasn’t long before the police followed.

Four people, including two CSU football players, were arrested at the Fort Collins apartment complex on Saturday. Ten people were taken to the hospital, most of them for overconsumption of alcohol or minor injuries.

"Some people came from as far away as Denver for this back-to-school party," Fort Collins police Lt. Hal Dean said on Monday.

The party’s Facebook page had nearly 3,000 registered people. Dean said police estimated at least 2,000 people showed up at the complex about 65 miles north of Denver. Officers had to shut down surrounding streets while they cleared the complex.

The use of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to spread word of everything from parties to freedom movements has increased exponentially in recent months. In some cases, the events have led to street trouble.

In Los Angeles in July, a simple tweet by DJ Kaskade telling his followers about a free block party lured thousands of raucous ravers to the landmark Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

Things turned rowdy, with revelers hurling bottles at police and some jumping on a squad car.

In Fort Collins, firefighters and ambulance crews told police of the out-of-control party at the Ram’s Pointe apartment complex.

VIDEO SHOCK - Hurricane Irene New York kills All (Facebook scam)

As expected, scammers are starting to take advantage of Hurricane Irene and the resulting heavy flooding in the US. Just like with previous celebrity scams, they are leveraging Facebook with sensational headlines to target ignorant victims.

This version says something along the lines of “VIDEO SHOCK - Hurricane Irene New York kills All” followed by a link. The Facebook Page that you are taken to redirects to an Italian version with the description “PER VEDERE IL VIDEO DEVI PRIMA CONDIVIDERE” (loosely translated: you’ll have to share the video before you can view it) and “VEDI IL VIDEO” (view the video), according to Sophos.

Just like the previous “likejacking” scams (a play on the term clickjacking, which means prompting a victim to click something while a different action is taken behind the scenes) any of the above will lead you to a rogue Facebook Page. The fake video player window is overlayed with a hidden iframe; actually clicking on it anywhere will also submit a Facebook Like and spread the post to your Facebook page. You may think you’ll eventually get to see a video, but you won’t.

The scammers’ goal is to drive more traffic towards certain sites. This is how the scammer earns his or her money: a commission for every survey completed, every product purchased, and/or every account compromised. They also use them to spread malware and obtain personal information.

Watch Out Facebook! UNTHINK.com to be Revealed Next Week

TAMPA, Fla., Sept. 1, 2011 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Two weeks ago, UNTHINK burst into the public eye after nearly four years in secret development and immediately picked a fight with social media giant Facebook. Since then, reporters and tech bloggers have been searching for details about UNTHINK. The closely guarded secret will finally be revealed next week, UNTHINK has confirmed.

UNTHINK first announced its existence in a video that challenged the unfair and deceptive business model on which Facebook, Google+ and all existing social media platforms are based: ensnaring users with the 'illusion of free' and then subjecting them to a litany of abusive practices as the sites seek to make money on their users' backs.

UNTHINK then released three humorous videos illustrating Facebook's virtual housing bubble and demonstrating that people build Facebook profiles without realizing that everything they do on Facebook is CONTENT that Facebook owns.

The first of these 'Facebook Follies' demonstrates that Facebook can delete a user's account – the user's online home, along with all the user's content and relationships, at any time without cause or explanation.

Read more at http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/01/3877847/watch-out-facebook-unthinkcom.html#ixzz1Wn7VHLM1

Zynga Debuts Most Feature-Rich, Multi-Dimensional Facebook Game To Date: Adventure World

Zynga teased us earlier this week with a short promotional video of its newest Facebook game ,Adventure World, which allows users to ‘team up, explore lost worlds, and unearth adventures.’ Now we have all the details on the game, which will be live on Facebook in the coming weeks.

Adventure World was developed and incubated in Zynga Boston, which used to be Conduit Labs. Conduit’s founder and Zynga Boston General Manager Nabeel Hyatt tells us that the core technology (a flash-based game engine) to support Adventure World has been developed from scratch over the past year. Hyatt adds this is Zynga’s largest, most graphic and feature-rich game to date in the company’s history. In fact, there are over 20,000 different objects in Adventure World.

Adventure World is set during what Zynga calls the ‘golden age of exploration,’ where players can unlock new universe of exploration, discovery, and puzzle-solving. Think Indiana Jones-meets Super Mario Brothers meets FarmVille. And the social adventure genre is a deviation from the ‘Ville’ and ‘Wars’ themes that have pervaded Zynga’s most recent games.

Here’s how the game works. Adventurers visit five worlds in ‘Mezo-America’ (Deep Jungle, Mountain, Cavern, Volcano and El Dorado), and will enter more than 30 different dynamic environments and embark on 200 different quests during the course of the game, while encountering ancient puzzles, battle nasty critters and unlock clues on the quest to discover the secret to El Dorado, the City of Gold. Players can customize a 3-D avatar and buy virtual goods via gold coins by stockpiling an inventory of specialized adventure tools and gadgets (including machetes, pickaxes, whips, dynamite and grappling hooks) to help them explore the game.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg No. 1 on Vanity Fair's New Establishment list. How does Microsoft's Steve Ballmer rank?

For the second year in a row, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ranks at the top of Vanity Fair's New Establishment list - a ranking of 50 "buccaneering visionaries, engineering prodigies and entrepreneurs."

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, co-founders of Google, are in the No. 2 spot, and Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is No. 3. (up from No. 5 on the list last year.)

Alas, no one from Microsoft is on the New Establishment list this year -- including CEO Steve Ballmer, who was No. 46 on last year's list.

But hey -- no worries. Because Ballmer is No. 10 on a new Vanity Fair list this year called the "Powers That Be."

The "Powers That Be" are "the people who have shaped the world we live in today -- and continue to wield enormous influence," according to a Vanity Fair press release posted on All Things D. "Many are longtime New Establishment members, and their destinies are intertwined with the members of this year's New Establishment."

Yep, Google Is Serious About Daily Deals

Just as Facebook and Yelp put the brakes on their daily deals products, Google is stepping on the accelerator by putting their offers where everyone will see them: Google.com.

Google on Wednesday featured an offer for $5 tickets to the American Museum of Natural History with a link right below the Spartan search box, space it considers sacrosanct and which it rarely uses to promote products. What's more, it was geo-targeted, so only those with a New York IP address saw the link to the deal.

Google has kept its homepage pretty pristine to date. So far, it's only occasionally promoted its products like the Chrome browser or public causes, like fundraising for natural disasters. Recently, it posted a deal for a free Nexus S -- its own Android-powered smartphone -- from Best Buy.

"We occasionally include a link on the Google homepage that points users to important information, whether it be about a relevant cause, a new product or an offer," said a Google spokeswoman via email. "We believe that users can benefit from learning about great deals from local organizations."

Infographic: Fake Facebook Accounts, Just $15. Click Here

Data collected by social media analytics firm Impermium show that a surprising amount of social media accounts – up to 40 percent in some cases – are fraudulent, and designed to promote spam.

And are you in the market for a fraudulent or hijacked Facebook account? It can be yours for just $15, down from $135 last year, the Impermium study reports.

The "Impermium Index" collected data on more than 104 million social media transactions across a 100 day period between June and August, and from more than 90 million users across 72 countries. Social networking sites, blogs, social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon, and other sites were used.

"For site owners, the rampant issue of registration fraud has many significant ramifications including a company's ability to accurately value its user base and determine the actual cost of new customer acquisition," Impermium wrote in its report.

The study examined the impact of spam on social media accounts, and vice versa. Taken withcomplementary reports that show the amount of spam sent by email is dropping, Impermium's data seems to indicate that spammers are hitting users where they live, on social media sites.

Among the disturbing trends was a rise in spam by otherwise legitimate small businesses - a reaction to the poor economy that has small business owners using any available means to promote their business.

The Index also provides an interesting backdrop to the so-calleed "real names" debate, a low-level but important issue that has divided users and operators of social-media sites. Some sites, like Google, have stated that they want to force users to use their real names on the site; however, some of their users, who have cultivated online personas, pseudonyms, or professional stage names, have objected. Oddly enough, that issue came to light last year, when Blizzard began requiring World of Warcraft players to adopt real names within its discussion forums, to overcome a wave of personal attacks.

Facebook Also Quietly Rolled Out A Like Button Chrome Extension

Yesterday, we noted that Google quietly rolled out their +1 Button Chrome extension a couple days ago. It’s more powerful than it may seem because you can now easily +1 any page you’re browsing on the web regardless of if the owner of that content placed a button on their site. Just imagine if Facebook has such a extension for their Like Button.. Actually, you don’t have to imagine.

Shortly after our post went up, we were pointed to this extension in the Chrome Web Store. Sure enough, it’s a Facebook Like Button extension, that according to Google’s “verified author” service is indeed built by Facebook itself. What’s surprising is hardly anyone knows about this extension, it has just 500 users!

Perhaps Facebook isn’t touting it at all yet because it is kind of weak. When you click the thumbs up icon, you get a drop-down menu asking you to click an actual Like Button in an overlay. So it’s two-clicks to “like” something. But it does also come with the nice ability to leave a comment as you share something (which the +1 Button extension doesn’t do yet). And it adds Facebook share options to your right-click menu items. From here, you can like a page, share a page, or recommend a page.

It’s certainly possible that this was just a quick hackathon project that one developer threw together at Facebook. It may also be related to their tie-in with Rockmelt, the social browser that is built on top of Chromium (a screenshot on the extension page references it). Quite frankly, it’s surprising this extension exists at all, given the heated relationship between the two companies. It looks like it has been live since July.

After yesterday’s story about the +1 Button extension, a number of readers seemed concerned about Google’s ability to track all of your web movements. Obviously, they’ll have the same concerns about Facebook with this button. Here’s what Facebook has to say on the matter:

How Social Can Improve Customer Service: Expert Advice

Social networking has changed the face of many organizational functions, but perhaps none more so than customer service and help desk--for both internal and external customers. Companies can leverage social networking capabilities to provide help to customers and employees, and the open platforms provide a forum for anyone with expertise to weigh in--and anyone with a similar issue to gain knowledge. But integrating social networking into your organization's customer service strategy has to be more than, say, popping up on Facebook and answering a question or two now and then.

"Thanks to social media, customers have a voice like never before," said Laura Thomas, marketing communications senior consultant at Dell. "When customers wanted to discuss a product or service in the past, they'd dial a call center and their problem would be addressed behind closed doors. Only the customer and the company would hear the complaint or praise. Now, these issues are aired publicly to potentially huge audiences of potential buyers. At Dell, we still rely on a number of traditional channels for help desk services, but are increasingly looking to social networking to actively engage with our customers and ensure they have a good experience with us."

Kate Leggett, senior analyst at Forrester, said it's important for organizations to understand what communications channels customers want to be interacting on, then develop a social networking service model from there. For example, "once you have established that Facebook is the right medium to engage with your customers, you can offer customer service either from a separate tab on your Facebook page or by listening to comments on your Facebook page and engaging customers who need help."

Leggett added that there is no right way to set up customer service presence on a social network, but that there are some basic tenets companies need to follow. For example, if you do decide to leverage Facebook, "ensure that your customer service services are tied back to what is offered by your company on your site, and ensure that you follow the same business processes for inquiries routed over Facebook as what you offer from your company website [so] that Facebook is not seen as a backdoor to your customer service organizations."

Social networks can provide important data on the problems customers are having most often, as well as the products they would like to see changed (and how)--but only if you listen.

Dell's Thomas said that the company has found that listening and engaging with customers via social networking can directly result in improved customer satisfaction scores, customer loyalty, and brand metrics.

"Last December, we opened the doors to our Social Media Listening Command Center, which allows us to monitor over 22,000 daily posts related to Dell as well as mentions on Twitter using the analytics tool Radian6," she said. "Since the launch, we've seen a significant decline in negative commentary about our products and services--proof that the ability to listen and respond instantly is a smart investment in any company's future and a way to continually improve both business and customer relations."

Adam Mason is the director of client services at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He deals with all frontline support for faculty and staff on campus and works with the group that provides support to students.

Mason said the university has used Yammer for internal communications and is currently using ServiceNow Social IT, experimenting with the platform to make communications with other groups more transparent.

Loyola Marymount is not actively using public social networks to provide customer service at this point, but Mason said he wants to embrace the platforms moving forward: "That's where the students are going to be," he said. "They're not going to be on our internal email systems; they're going to be on their cellphones saying, 'The projector is not working in this classroom,' or 'something stinks,' or 'I really love this professor.' And, honestly, if we're not paying attention to it, they're going to say it anyway, and we're going to miss it."

Indeed, "missing it" can cost your company money and potentially customers if questions and concerns are not dealt with in a timely manner. After all, with social networking, it's not just one person who sees that a question has been left hanging; it's everyone who follows the page or is a fan of the company.

To that end, providing customer service via social networking requires much more than answering questions. Organizations will need to develop a dedicated presence, as well as a plan for what questions to answer live, how to publicly smooth ruffled feathers, and what to take offline and how.

"The key is to embed it throughout every facet of the organization--from sales to marketing to engineering to customer service to HR to finance," said Dell's Thomas. "While social media needs to spread across all aspects of the business, it's necessary to have a centralized process for customer response and a team dedicated to this. Initially at Dell we had more than 20 employees with Twitter accounts, not all of which were effective. While we had a number of employees focused on Twitter who were able to answer questions and direct customer issues or compliments to the right departments, it wasn't an efficient use of their time, nor the best way to solve problems."

Can Facebook Find a Hit with Music? Probably Not

We've heard a lot about Facebook's musical ambitions over the past year with not a peep coming from Facebook on its' actual plans. Now comes fresh speculation from the website Mashable that claim Facebook is prepping a music service to go live September 22 at the F8 developers conference held in San Francisco.

Mashable claims Facebook wants to be your online destination for music streaming from services such as Spotify and Rdio in the same way you go to Facebook to play games such as Farmville and Scrabble. At launch, Facebook would purportedly offer access to Spotify, MOG and Rdio, but other streaming services such as Rhapsody may also be included. Facebook might also expand its video streaming offerings in the future by including access to services such as Netflix, according to the Mashable report.

Under the rumored music scheme, Facebook wouldn't actually host any content, but instead would provide access to its more than three-quarters of a billion users. Third-party music streaming services would then deliver content via their servers to your Facebook page.

So far, Facebook isn't talking about its music plans, but the company didn't rule out the possibility of a forthcoming music service either.

"There's nothing new to announce," a Facebook spokesperson told PCWorld. "Many of the most popular music services around the world are integrated with Facebook and we're constantly talking to our partners about ways to improve these integrations."

Facebook has long been rumored to offer some kind of music integration with popular services such asSpotify. GigaOm in June reported similar music rumors to Mashable's. In July, traces of a purportedmusic service called Vibes showed up in the code for a Facebook video chat plugin.

iLike Music
If the latest rumors are true, this also would not be the first time a music service has integrated with Facebook. MySpace's iLike, for example, has allowed you to stream music clips via Facebook for some time.

However, Facebook has never partnered with popular streaming services that would presumably operate on Facebook the same way they do outside of the social network. Spotify, for example, lets you stream ad-free music to your mobile device and store playlists for offline listening for $10 per month. The company also offers a free ad-supported streaming-only option. Rdio costs $10 for unlimited streaming and offline storage, and MOG offers a similar deal. Would these services allow you to stream music under the same terms inside Facebook?

Facebook's Base
For music services, Facebook could be a boon for winning over more music fans. Facebook has more than 750 million users--that's just over half the size of China, the world's most populous nation--who collectively spend more than 700 billion minutes per month on the service and share more than 30 billion pieces of content every 30 days, according to Facebook statistics. Add to that the fact that music itself is an inherently social activity involving sharing, commenting, and attending concerts together, and Facebook sounds like the perfect online location for music.

But is it? Spotify, for example, already offers Facebook integration on its desktop applications for Windows, Mac and Linux. These apps let you share songs with friends and view your friends' public playlists right on your desktop. That integration is part of the reason Spotify became such a popular service in Europe before its recent launch in the U.S. You can also post links to your public Spotify playlists or favorite songs in Facebook and other online services.

If Zuck Builds It, Will They Come?
The average American spent about 5 hours a month on Facebook in July, according to metrics firm Nielsen (the company warns its recent Facebook measurement may be underreported due to technical changes). But it's not clear what the average visit is in consecutive minutes spent on Facebook. Based on Nielsen's numbers, U.S. users spent roughly 10.5 minutes per day on Facebook in July. That's barely long enough to listen to three, 3-minute songs in 24 hours. Would a rumored new Facebook music service convince people to spend more time on the site than other popular Facebook diversions such as Farmville, photo viewing, and instant messaging?

Facebook Movies
A limited number of Warner Bros. movie titles have been available for rent via Facebook since March, and Miramax recently started offering movies on Facebook as well. But movie rentals haven't put the social network on top of competing sites such as Netflix, Hulu and UStream in terms of time spent watching videos online per user, according to Nielsen. In fact, Facebook doesn't even rank in the top 10 video sites for June when you look at time spent watching content.

iPhone 5 vs iPhone 4 vs iPhone 4S: Comparison Based on Previously Leaked Icon Image [Apple Rumored Again to Launch Two New iPhones This Fall, One Smaller & One Bigger Than the iPhone 4] Read: iPhone 5 vs iPhone 4 vs iPhone 4S: Comparison Based on Previously Leaked Icon Image [Apple Rumored Again to Launch Two New iPhones This Fall, One Smaller & One Bigger Than the iPhone 4] | TFTS

A leaked image of Apple’s Photo Stream beta showed us yesterday a strange iPhone icon, and by strange I mean it didn’t look like any of the current iPhones sold in stores. The image suggested that the upcoming handset will come with a new design, which will feature a bigger, edge-to-edge, display, and a larger Home button.

While this could have been just a negligence from Apple’s part, since next to the icon one could clearly read: “take a photo with your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch,” I highly doubt that’s the case from a company that’s know for its precision and attention to detail; with this counterexample coming specifically to mind.

9to5mac has further explored the icon and came up with renders for the upcoming smartphone, as suggested by the icon. According to “received word,” the iPhone pictured in the icon is the smaller handset Apple would launch, (therefore the iPhone 4S?).

The image below, which shows a comparison between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S, suggest that the smaller fifth-gen iPhone will come with a 3.7-inch display. The Home button seems to be elongated but in fact it’s smaller in order to accommodate that larger display.

Jetpack Joyride Shows Addictive Power of iPhone Games

Jetpack Joyride, the new endless game from Halfbrick, is the latest in a long line of 99-cent iPhone apps that have seriously challenged my dedication to console and computer games this year. Like most people, I don’t have enough time for gaming. Yet in two days with Jetpack Joyride I have somehow played almost 300 games in close to nine hours, and have no interest in ever stopping. In contrast, the fantastic but finite art game El Shaddai sits completed on my shelf, closed like a book. The open-ended cyberpunk universe of Deus Ex: Human Revolution is still shut inside shrink-wrap. Halfbrick, the creators of App Store favorite Fruit Ninja, have crammed a compelling world into a few megabytes of data and a few minutes of my time.

This is a good opportunity to reassess the state of things. Every week a couple of major titles are put on store shelves, and a slew of small games are released on the App Store. While it’s a nice feeling to walk to the game store in my neighborhood, chat with the owner at the counter, and grab a new game, the sense of discovery in a physical game store doesn’t compare with that of a real record or book store. The real discoveries occur on the screen at home; and in any case, we all know exactly what we’re getting from the game store from the moment we wake up on release day. On the App Store, meanwhile, the game can be had the instant it is stocked; and new experiences, gameplay insights and artistic visions are gained as quickly as the Krispy Kreme conveyer belt can glaze donuts.

It’s a good system because it is adapted to the information overload of modern life. Jetpack Joyride has received more pre-release hype than many iPhone games, in the form of previews and promotional trailers, but one’s first encounter with it is likely to be one of wonder, rather than wondering in which ways the game measures up to expectations. Like a song, it’s simple to tune in and play it for yourself.

Jetpack Joyride presents the following scenario: tough guy Barry Steakfries bursts through a wall, straps on an experimental jetpack, and flies through a laboratory that unfurls to the right like a Looney Tunes chase. Barry inevitably hits an obstacle and dies and the game starts over, with the lure of a higher score. Like the iPhone’s best endless games—Canabalt, Bumpy Road, Hook Worlds, Doodle Jump, Mechanic Panic and Solipskier—it’s made to be played in spare moments between daily tasks, and so it must make its case quickly. The art of these games lies in suggesting a much larger world. Halfbrick’s last game, Monster Dash, sent Barry across continents and centuries, and packed more sightseeing and supernatural forces into two minutes than an Uncharted game could in two hours.

Jetpack Joyride continues to push the art of distraction forward. On one hand, it’s a decked-out remake of the ubiquitous “helicopter game” in which a chopper bobs up and down to avoid crashing. Barry must avoid hitting “zappers” that float on the screen, as well as lasers and missiles; you send him upward with a touch. The further he goes, the faster he runs, and eventually the game is simply too fast to survive. The slightest bad touch does Barry in. The joyride revolves around being paradoxically slow enough for you to understand and admire the action, yet fast enough to stretch your reflexes and keep you at bay, like a dog chasing its tail. Obstacles are arranged on the fly so that danger is always in Barry’s way.

But a solid dodging game isn’t enough. You can drive bombastic vehicles—including a motorcycle; a mechanical flapping “Profit Bird” that’s a backhanded tribute to competitors Angry Birds and Tiny Wings; and a “Crazy Freaking Teleporter” that lives up to the moniker—that have unique behaviors. You collect coins between the zappers, which you later use to buy new clothes, jetpacks, upgrades and utilities for Barry. The latter two affect gameplay, and the former are purely cosmetic. Items called Spin Tokens flit through the lab, and you must chase them down like the Golden Snitch in Harry Potter’s game of Quidditch. After Barry’s demise, you can feed the tokens into a slot machine that offers Barry a second chance at life, or a head start in the next game, or heaps more coins for the store, or more Spin Tokens that afford more chances. On top of these micro-games, you’re assigned discrete “missions” to accomplish during your games, which then increase your rank for more coins and eventually a badge. The badge is the Jetpack Joyride’s final carrot, and it doesn’t do anything. I felt a little cheated when I achieved the highest rank and the game asked me to start all over for a different badge, making clear that it is a circular exercise. Then I realized this would allow me to earn coins faster and finally buy Barry that green mohawk.

From second to second, Jetpack Joyride feels like several things at once. It’s a videogame in the classical sense, asking you to move quickly and avoid failure. It’s a bit like gambling—in slots, and in the risky chase for a Spin Token and a handful of coins. It’s something like going to work, having you prioritize your various goals and missions and finally come home with a respectable income. It also resembles games of boredom you may have played as a kid. Missions like “brush past 15 flashing red lights in one game” or “high-five 75 scientists” remind me of counting red cars on road trips, and stepping between cracks in the sidewalk. All the while you must keep Barry bobbing up and down like a spinning top. It’s a hard-to-define experience that touches on, if not explores, a surprisingly wide range of feelings: joy, idleness, responsibility and greed.

Smartphone Wars Hinge on Undecided Buyers

The smartphone wars are heating up, as 40 percent of mobile-device users in the United States now own iPhones, Android devices, or BlackBerrys instead of feature phones. Handsets powered by Google's Android OS are still tops among American smartphone owners, taking up 40 percent of the market. The iPhone is a distant second at 28 percent, while BlackBerry has dropped to 19 percent of the smartphone market in the U.S., according to the latest survey from the Nielsen Company.

Android vs. iPhone: The Standoff Continues

Among those shoppers looking to purchase a smartphone in the next year, Android and the iPhone each claim about one-third of potential new buyers. But when you break users down into different groups based on their willingness to adopt new technologies, Android ends up leading in several categories, according to Nielsen's findings.

About 40 percent of the earliest of early adopters (Nielsen calls them innovators) surveyed are looking for an Android phone in the next year, while 32 percent want the iPhone. Among the next tier of early adopters, iPhone and Android are about even, and the same is true for the early and late technology-adopting majority of mobile-device users planning to buy a smartphone. Late technology adopters (about 19 percent of those surveyed) also favor Android over iOS, 32 percent to 23 percent, respectively.

Enterprise Mobility: Samsung Galaxy S II Aims to Outshine Apple iPhone

Samsung's Galaxy S II marks the next stage in the manufacturer's attempt not only to combat Apple's iPhone on its own terms, but also to establish itself as the preeminent Android smartphone maker. Certainly, the Galaxy S II offers some powerful specs: In addition to running Google Android 2.3 ("skinned" with Samsung's proprietary TouchWiz interface), the device features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 4G support, two cameras (8-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front), and a 4.3-inch screen with Super Active-Matrix Organic LED Plus (Super AMOLED Plus) high definition. On top of that, Samsung is continuing its quest to establish a substantial multimedia presence with a series of content Hubs, including a Social Hub, Readers Hub, Music Hub and Game Hub. Combined with the Galaxy Tab tablets and the Galaxy Player, the Galaxy S II (and its predecessor, the Galaxy S) is a big part of Samsung's strategy to develop a hardware ecosystem based on Android. The strategy could be working: The original Galaxy S supposedly sold some 10 million units in the U.S. last year, and the Galaxy S II seems on track to produce similar numbers even before it debuts on these shores in September. Three carriers—AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint—will offer the Galaxy S II to start. Even as Samsung and Apple battle over patent violations in courtrooms around the world, the company seems determined to take the fight to Apple in the one arena that ultimately matters: retail store space.

As Others Scale Back, Google Ramps Deals Program

Facebook and Yelp have both recently expressed doubts about the daily deals phenomenon, with Yelp explicitly raising questions about the sustainability of the large margins that companies such as Groupon and LivingSocial have generally enjoyed. Both sites will continue to offer deals of various kinds, but have scaled back their efforts.

But what about late-entrant Google? Does Facebook’s decision not to continue distributing daily deals, after only four months, foreshadow a similar decision from Google in the future? After all, it takes a considerable local sales effort to generate the necessary deals “inventory” to make the model work for consumers.

Offer on the Homepage
In contrast to recent decisions by others, it would appear that Google is quite committed to daily deals — at least for the time being. The company recently bought deals and coupons aggregator The Dealmap and yesterday promoted Google Offers on its homepage. The promotion was called a “first” by Reuters; however Google has from time to time used its homepage to promote products and services (e.g., Android phones).

Instagram CEO: we’re not afraid of Facebook

Photo-sharing startup Instagram has just six employees and isn’t even a year old, but it has already been adopted by 8 million users. Earlier this week, we learned Facebook is rumored to be entering Instagram’s turf by adding photo filters for its 750 million users. Despite the fact that Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with the most popular mobile app on the planet and the biggest repository of photos on the Internet, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom isn’t worried.

“I understand why someone like Facebook, where photos are core to their experience, would have things like filters,” Systrom told the Guardian. “But the core experience is so different. We use asymmetric follows like Twitter, which is a really big differentiating point. My friends network doesn’t necessarily take the best photos. The major reason why Instagram works is that you can follow anyone out there and start following their photos immediately. It’s more of a press-cycle thing: it’s been sensationalised beyond the reality of what the situation is.”

In short, Systrom believes adding filters makes sense for Facebook, but that the social networking giant will not directly compete with Instagram. His company’s free iPhone app lets you modify photos by applying filters to photos and then share them with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and other social services. Facebook’s own apps will of course still be limited to just Facebook, Systrom points out.

Charge: Man uses iPhone to record woman in Hopkins changing room

A 31-year-old man has been charged with using his iPhone to secretly record a woman undressing in the changing room of a Hopkins store.

Manuel Mesias Tigre-Brito, of Hopkins, was arrested at the Goodwill store near Excelsior Boulevard and Blake Road after he responded to the manager's loudspeaker announcement that a phone had been found, according to charges filed Tuesday.

Tigre-Brito was charged with a gross misdemeanor of invasion of privacy while using a surreptitious device. He was jailed in lieu of $6,000 bail.

According to the criminal complaint:

A woman said that she entered a changing room late Monday morning. Its door had a 12- to 14-inch gap at the bottom.

While in her underwear, she heard something bang against the door and saw a shopping cart. Taped to the cart's bottom rack was a small box with an iPhone inside that was in recording mode.

The woman took the phone to the manager, who announced to patrons that an iPhone had been turned in to him.

Tigre-Brito came to the front counter, claimed the phone and started pressing icons. The manager, suspecting that Tigre-Brito was erasing evidence, grabbed the phone and called police.

Police noted that the iPhone's lens was lined up directly with a hole cut in the box.

iPhone 5 Lost in Bar, Venus Williams Has Sjogren's Syndrome: Daily Scoop

An iPhone 5 was somehow lost at a bar, Venus Williams has Sjogren's Syndrome, Obama pushed back his jobs speech, and more in Thursday's Daily Scoop.

Another new iPhone was lost at a bar?
In what can't possibly be another coincidence, somehow another highly anticipated iPhone has been left at a bar. CNET said Wednesday an Apple employee left an iPhone 5 prototype at a San Francisco bar, and now the phone has gone missing.

Apple is said to be desperate to secure the phone's safe return. According to CNET, Apple electronically traced the phone to a two-floor, single family home in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood. Police searched the house but didn't find the phone, according to CNET.

Last year, an Apple developer lost an iPhone 4 prototype at a German beer garden. The phone was later sold to technology blog Gizmodo for $5,000.

Unlike last year when Gizmodo posted pictures and specific details of the phone, CNET has only reported that the phone is missing, but has no details about the new iPhone 5.

Still, this latest news is sure to set off even more speculation on when Apple will release the new iPhone 5.

Venus Williams Has Sjogren's Syndrome
Tennis star Venus Williams was forced to drop out of the U.S. Open on Wednesday due to Sjogren's syndrome, an autoimmune disease that causes fatigue and pain.

The illness isn't considered life threatening, but could keep the 31-year old tennis star away from the court for the conceivable future. The two-time U.S. Open champion is nearing the end of her career and the new diagnosis could only expedite that process.

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Thursday, 1 September 2011

Android vs. iPhone: The Standoff Continues