When searching for apps, you will notice that the number of apps available to you is so tremendous, it can be extremely time consuming to just browse through all of the apps that are offered. You will even find that there are over 50,000 different apps to choose from, some of these apps are completely free and some of these apps will cost you a bit of money.

Of the thousands of apps that you will have to choose from, there are certain apps that just stick out from all the rest because of what they have to offer. While each app is good in its own way, some of the apps that you can use on your android phone are just better than other apps. Below is just a short list of the top five apps for the android phone.

Google Sky Map.

http://www.google.com/mobile/skymap/

This is one of the coolest apps for Android especially if you are a fan of star gazing. On a nice relaxing night, when the sky is full of stars, you can stand or sit outside and simply point your phone up toward the sky. Google Sky Map will be able to tell you all about each and every celestial that you see in the sky. This is not just cool; it is also educational for people of all ages! If you love learning about new things and enjoy looking at the stars anyway, this is the perfect app for your android phone.

Google Translate.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.apps.translate

There is an obvious reason why this is a top choice for apps on the android phone. Google translate is a necessity in society today. Google translate will enable you to translate just about any conversation that needs translation. This is definitely important, especially if you find yourself having a conversation with someone who does not speak your primary language. You will also be able to translate your own text into the language of choice so that you can hold a decent conversation in another language.

Beautiful Widgets.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.levelup.beautifulwidgets

A lot of android users love this app and it is definitely an app that you will want to give a try especially if you are a fan of customizing the look of your cell phone screen. This app will allow you to choose what types of features you want to be displayed on the screen of your android phone. You can choose to add all sorts of useful information to the screen of your phone which would include your battery life, a clock, and other cool and customizable features that you will love.

Tiny Flashlight + LED.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.devuni.flashlight

This app can come in handy for all types of situations and is definitely a necessity. If you do not have it on your android phone yet, you should add it as soon as possible. This is, by far, one of the neatest apps you can find for the android. What this app does is, it will turn your phone into a flashlight! This is perfect if you need help finding something or if you are stuck in the dark with no light and need a way to get around. The light will be released through the camera on your android phone. If you are ever stuck in a sticky situation, this app can come in handy for you.

Facebook.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.facebook.katana

Just about everyone has a Facebook page because this is, after all, the most popular social networking website on the Internet right now. Not only does this come in handy for people who love to keep in touch with friends and family members, it is also a free app which means you will never have to pay a cent to use this app. With the Facebook app, you will be able to do everything that you would do on a regular computer. You can upload pictures, like status updates, create your own status update, tag people, and do just about anything you want. You will also be able to state your exact location using this application on your android phone. You will also receive notifications if anyone comments on your status or does anything newsworthy. This is a great app to have because, first of all, it is free and also because it will help to keep you in touch with people from you phone. If you love Facebook, this is an app that you definitely want to have on your android phone.

Conclusion

When it comes to android phones, there are just so many different apps that you will have to choose from. Here are Android market stats from AppBrain:

It can be hard to choose what you want and don’t want to have on your phone. As of right now, there are just about 350,000 different apps that have been created for android phones. When you take into consideration the number of apps available, you will realize how difficult it is to find which ones are the best. These are just a few of some of the best apps that you can find for android phones. Each of these apps is useful in different ways. Google has a long list of apps that they provide for the android phone. And while these apps are some of the best, there are lots of music and game apps that you may have fun choosing from. If you have an android phone, it definitely wouldn’t hurt to add these apps to your phone because they are quite amazing.

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Facebook has not only enabled people to stay in touch with one another, it has also helped many people find family members and loved ones of who them they had lost touch with or never had the opportunity to meet. Facebook is an amazing website for people who enjoy socializing, keeping in touch with friends and family, playing games and much more. There is a lot more to Facebook than just what meets the eye. In fact, there are many features of Facebook that a lot of people do not know about but if they did know, they would certainly enjoy these features as well. Below is a list of the top 10 features of the popular social networking website, Facebook.

Tag your friends in comments.

You might have been used to being able to tag your friends in pictures that included them or pictures that you wanted to share with them. This was always a neat feature that Facebook provided to its users. However, a fairly new feature allows Facebook users to tag their friends in their very own status. So now, if you are hanging out with a friend, you can tag them in the status and let all of your Facebook friends know who you are hanging with. When you tag the friend in your Facebook status, a link to their page will be set on their name so anyone viewing your status can easily click the name of your friend and will be taken to his/her page. This is also a great way for people to find mutual friends that they may share.

Post an MP3 to your status.

This is a cool hidden feature that lots of users do not know about. If you have several music files with URLs that end in .mp3, all you have to do is simply copy and paste the URL into your status update box, press submit, and you will be able to display an actual music player for you and all of your Facebook friends to look and listen to. This is a great way to share some of your favorite music with your friends and family members. If you haven’t yet, you might want to give it a try. It is pretty cool. Click here for FB mp3 upload file app.

Develop your own poll.

Need to find out statistical information for a school project? Interested in finding out which fast food restaurant is most popular amongst your friends? You can create your very own poll on Facebook which will allow all of your friends to answer honestly. This is a great way for you get poll results almost instantly. You won’t even have to leave your bedroom to find the results to your unique poll. To create a poll, go to your status update box. You will notice that when you are writing the status, you have the option to ask a question instead. In the question box, you can ask your question and create multiple choice answers for friends to choose from.

Create groups.

This is a feature that has been around for quite a while now but still, there are plenty of people who are unaware. You can create a group, whether it is for a school program, a favorite television show, or a support group, and invite members and allow members to join the group at any given time. This helps people of the group communicate with one another on a more personal level.

Create events and invite everyone.

On Facebook, you can create an event which will save you a lot of time instead of having to send out invitations to people for the events. In fact, when you create an event on Facebook, you can send the event invitation to your friends on Facebook as well as people on FaceBook who are not on your friends list and people who are not even a member of the social networking website.

Find out how “liked” your pages are.

This is pretty cool statistical information that you can find on Facebook without putting in any effort. You can use the “view insights” button or facebook insights page that gives you more insights on the content that users view on your Page. This will tell you number of total likes, friends or fans and people talking about your page.

Block creepy people.

One of the best features of Facebook allows you to block people that bother you, for good. You can put a creepy or annoying person on your block list and when they log onto their Facebook and go to your page, it will look as if you deleted your page and are no longer a member of Facebook. This will help you prevent and avoid stalkers!

Hide status updates and albums.

If you don’t want everyone to know your business or see certain pictures, you can hide status updates and albums from specific people on your list of friends. This comes in handy when you want to hide your “crazy night out” pictures from your boss or a racy status from your family members.

Create designs with tagged pictures.

On the top of you Facebook, there are about eight different small sized pictures that you have been tagged in. This is called a banner. You can create a custom design or use a pre-made banner to make your Facebook page look unique.

Make the new ticker small and unnoticeable.

The new ticker is annoying to some and you have probably noticed it one the right-hand side of your homepage. If it bothers you, make it smaller so that you don’t have to look at it. Use your mouse, click on the ticker and then pull it up so that it will appear much smaller on the homepage

Conclusion

Facebook has a lot more features to it than what meets the eye. These top ten features are cool and interesting aspects of the social networking website that you can enjoy. Now that you have learned about these different features, you might want to start trying them out for yourself.

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The private goes public

It’s actually more accurate to say that Facebook is becoming the epitome of just about every internet privacy complaint ever lodged.  Their bad reputation began in 2007, when their underlying code was leaked onto the Internet.  This was a gold mine for hackers, showing them all of the backdoors they needed to extract all sorts of personal information quickly and quietly.

Once this issue was fixed, in November of the same year, a project called “Beacon” allowed 3rd party websites to embed a small script onto their pages that would automatically send all sorts of user information and statistics to Facebook.  Facebook was now places that Facebook users didn’t even know about, creating a very creepy feeling.  Astoundingly, this program was allowed to continue for almost two years.

Identity games

Facebook makes it amazingly simple for users to make accounts that are in the likeness of someone else, enabling all sorts of easy defamation.   While this has always been a concern online, Facebook’s construct makes this very easy to do, and very difficult to combat.

In one case, a man who goes by the online handle of “Lefty” has documented the lengths that someone decided to go through to impersonate him.  The way that Facebook’s privacy settings work makes people like his stalker extremely difficult to stop, as someone with a new account can block you the moment they create it, making it impossible for you to know they exist unless someone tells you.  “Lefty” went so far as to drive to Facebook’s headquarters to get answers.  Facebook’s response amounted to little more than a shrug.

A worrisome alliance

That Facebook would use, sell, and allow compromising of a user’s personal information is all bad enough.  Worse was that it wasn’t only to other companies that they’ve proved willing to make these deals.  Facebook showed that it was just as willing to bow down to governmental requests as it was to other businesses.

Buckling under pressure is one thing.  Webmasters who face legal action have to confront this question all the time.  Facebook, though, has shown almost a gleefullness in willing to fork over to just about whatever government agencies just about whatever information they want.  They’ve stated that, all that they require of the requesting agency is a “good faith belief” that they will use the information obtained in nothing more than an honest pursuit of evildoers.  Those of us a bit jaded these days at the notion of any government agency earning such “good faith” would rightly get a chill at this naiveté.

It gets worse.  Facebook announced in mid-2011 the launch of its own PAC (political action committee) that would allow its corporate employees to donate money to their favored political candidates.   This is not an unheard of strategy for large software developers or for large web companies; Google and Microsoft both have PAC.  But combine this with the above kowtowking, and then add into that the assertions that Facebook as a whole leans to one side of the political aisle, and you have the recipe for one gargantuan mess of corruption that would make Richard Nixon proud.

Anti-social Extremes

One more area in which Facebook creates problems for the user concerned with privacy is in their sudden, unpredictable update of entire systems of software.  Now, software updates by themselves are normal.  Facebook, though, takes it to new anti-social extremes, with wholesale layout and information access makeovers with no forewarning.  It’s starting to become commonplace to wake up one day and find your feed looking utterly different than it did before.

On a simple usability scale, this is irritating.  On a privacy level, this is nightmarish.  Users never seem to have any notion anymore of what information is private and what is public.  By all measures, there seems to be more help shared between users than there is between those users and Facebook.  It’s an unbelievable bit of callousness, one that has resulted in an amazing phenomenon: there are half a billion Facebook users, and most of them are conscious of the fact that this is a relationship based on mutual disrespect.

Looking forward

Privacy giant EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) has begun to lead the charge to the Federal Communications Commission to look into Facebook and their privacy statement as well as their practices.  Pardon the obvious pun, but at this point it’s hard to not look at Facebook’s approach to its own user base as, literally, an EPIC failure.

What does this mean for their future?  Right now Google+ is starting to siphon off their user base, and it’s likely that both they and other networks will endeavor to do the same.  On the other side, Facebook has not yet shown anything beyond the barest of lip service that they have any intention of changing course on any of these approaches.

At the same time, Facebook is still the largest social networking web site in existence, and that momentum means something.  Look at, for example, the Occupy movements, or for that matter, any of the major political movements that have sprung up in the last 3 years.  It’s a hard sell to try to tell these people to move to a complete different service when they know full well that all of the people that they want to reach are on this one, and time is of the essence.  Many of them would like to do so, but have to consider pragmatics as well as values and privacy concerns.

This is a hard one to predict.  Unless Facebook changes course, what will most likely determine its future is how well sites like Google+ and other competitors make it easy to jump ship.  If they do, all of the things that Facebook is doing to ignore privacy and other concerns just might soon come back to bite them.  Bigger empires have fallen before.

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Introduction

At first, social networking was an idea that many people had never heard of. When MySpace hit the scene, it became popular in a dramatically short amount of time. There were so many things that you could do on the site that were the catalyst for its primary success. Facebook, on the other hand, started off small when it first came out but, like a planted tree, it has grown and expanded into something amazing. As Facebook continued to grow, it began to outshine MySpace and is now ranked higher than MySpace. There are a lot of differences between the two sites right now as both sites have different features to offer their users.

Applications

Both social networking websites have applications that users can play and have fun with. As of right now, it seems Facebook takes the lead with some of its applications. For example, the game Farm Town has received so many users and a lot of people find the game to be addicting.

Demographics

Facebook may win the race when it comes to demographics. The fact of the matter is both adults and children or teenagers own Facebook accounts. It is a cool website to use for people of all ages. On the other hand, a lot of the users on MySpace are younger. When Facebook was first designed, it was aimed toward college students. MySpace still has that spunky appeal that attracts younger visitors while Facebook seems to have a more mature layout that is easily and openly used by both adults and teens alike.

Privacy

When it comes to privacy, MySpace definitely takes the lead. The news is constantly bashing Facebook for violating the privacy of its users. Facebook can show other people exactly what you do, every move you make. It can also show what type of habits you have when you browse the web. Advertisers also use the information on your Facebook page to target you with advertisements which, let’s face it, can be quite annoying! Myspace offers a better sense of privacy all together.

Design

MySpace takes the lead for design as well. While designing your own page is not important to some, MySpace allows its users to design their profile in a unique manner that helps their page stand out from other pages. Facebook, on the other hand, sticks to a simple layout that cannot really be altered, changed or customized according to your preferences. With that said, the latest version of Facebook, slated to roll out in the coming weeks, is said to minim the design of MySpace in many ways, which truly heats up the batter between these two social networking juggernauts.

Entertainment

Both MySpace and Facebook are perfect for entertainment purposes. You can listen to music, play games, and of course, stay in touch with your family and friends.

Promotion/Business

Both of these social networking websites are perfect for entrepreneurs and artists who are looking to promote themselves or their business. Some find it easier to network on Facebook while other people say it is easier to network on MySpace. One really has to try both and see what works best for them.

Spam

As a member of MySpace, you may notice a bunch of junk e-mail in your messages. This can be quite annoying. When it comes to spam, Facebook is better at filtering through it so that you are not bothered by it as much.

Safety/Security

Very recently, there has been a lot of Facebook hacking taking place. However, this can happen with a lot of different websites and the best way to save your Facebook or even MySpace page from getting hacked is to change your password every now and then. When it comes to your safety and security, MySpace is better with providing you with the security you need to prevent your personal page from getting hacked or from your private information being exploited.

Usability

When Facebook first hit the scene, it was simple to use. Now, they have changed so much when it comes to the format of their page, it can be very frustrating, especially for older users who were just getting the hang of the old Facebook.

MySpace has changed its layout and theme over the years but it is still fairly simple to use.  As of right now, Facebook even rolled out a new feature which is referred to as “The Timeline” and basically outlines your life from birth until now with pictures and everything else that is important and significant to you on your timeline.

Conclusion

With the differences between the two social networking websites, it can be hard to choose which is the better one overall. Facebook obviously takes the lead, according to the existing charts, but there are some people who prefer MySpace anyway. With Facebook, you can find friends, message friends and add new people, use different apps and network with other people. The main issue with Facebook is the lack of security and privacy. It is not right that users have to worry about their private information being handed out to advertisers and other third-party people.

MySpace definitely takes the lead over Facebook when it comes to privacy. Most people, however, choose Facebook, because it easier to use to stay connected with the people they care about. Some people second guess their decision to use Facebook due to the lack of privacy. However, even with a certain lack of privacy, Facebook is still the number one social networking website on the Internet right now. Deciding which one you will use is entirely up to you. If most of your friends are using Facebook, it would be understandable as to why you would prefer to use this social network as well. After all, these websites are designed with the purpose of connecting people with one another. Many people have even been able to find long lost friends and family members through Facebook. What a great phenomenon!

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What does Facebook offer?

The two different websites both have positive things to offer its users. Facebook is much like an online hangout that allows people to keep in touch with one another even after graduating, moving to another state or even across the world. Facebook keeps families, friends, and acquaintances connected with one another. The “like” feature on Facebook allows users to choose things they like along with their friends statuses and picture updates.

Top Notch Privacy Settings

Facebook recently changed their privacy settings and some love the new change while others are not a fan. While your wall was once visible to everyone, you have the option of making your wall private or semi-private to specific people. Don’t want your family members to see what you are saying in your status update? You can simply block them from being able to view your status updates. It’s quite simple and easy to follow. Facebook privacy settings are definitely great for people who don’t want their information available to random people.

Networking and Business Friendly

Facebook is not only a good website for people who want to stay connected. It is also perfect for small business owners. Small business owners have the opportunity to build a fan page for their business on Facebook. This page will allow them to keep in touch with customers, customers can leave feedback and comments, the business owners can post pictures of merchandise, take orders, and use the link for their business page on Facebook to spread the word about the business. Facebook is also network-friendly for people who are into networking themselves.

Not So Positive Things About Facebook

While Facebook has a lot of positive features, there are some negative features as well. Facebook is constantly making changes that most people don’t like. In fact, some users have been so upset with the changes that they started their own Facebook page to express their dislike for the new layout and format of the site. While it takes some getting used to, it is not absolutely terrible.

What is worrisome, though, is the fact that many of the Facebook applications and features can find out a lot of your private information, much more than you would be willing to share. Because your private information on Facebook is not really private after all, it may leave you wondering how user friendly Facebook really is.

What does Google Plus offer?

Google Plus, the relatively new social networking platform, has lots to offer its users as well. Google Plus offers video chat to its users. This feature comes in handy for those who would normally use other video chat programs. Now, users are able to stay in touch and chat through video which is quite cool. Google Plus also has a feature that is referred to as Circles which enables you to choose who is in which of your circles. Once you set up who is in your different circles, you get to decide what those people can see on your Google Plus page. Because the site is new, there are still plenty of features to come.

What are the negative features of Google Plus?

Google Plus users are supposed to use their real name when they sign up. This means your name will be displayed as it actually is. Whereas Facebook gives you the opportunity to use nicknames or fake names, Google Plus wants you to be honest and use your actual birth name. For some people, this is just not good. Google Plus is also relatively new and seems to be a bit too exclusive to some people.

Which Is Better?

As of right now, Facebook is definitely still the better social networking platform out of the two selections. Why is that? Well, as the number one social networking platform, Facebook continues to change with its users. The reason changes are constantly being made on Facebook is because the creators want the website to grow with users instead of users growing out of the Facebook trend. Myspace is another one of the competitors that Facebook is constantly dealing with. At one point, Myspace was the number one social networking platform. Facebook was able to beat Myspace for the lead and is working hard to make sure it keeps that spot and prevent websites such as Myspace and Google Plus from reaching the number one spot.

Facebook is paying close attention to competitors, especially Google Plus, and is making even more changes to keep up with these other social networking sites. It is obvious that Facebook does not want to lose its number one spot on the list of top social networking sites. As Google Plus grows with its new features, Facebook continues to produce new features as well. This benefits the users much more than it benefits either of the sites. With these two websites in constant competition, they will likely work on making the sites even more user friendly and listen to what user have to say about the site.

If these different social networking platforms are willing to listen to your suggestions and make changes based on what you and others have to say about the website, then that is a good thing. That means that the website actually care about their users and not just making business and money. Even more changes are expected to come for both Facebook and Google Plus. It is hard to say if Facebook will have the number one spot in just a few years from now but with the way they operate, it is quite possible.

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There are many platforms that allow individuals to communicate. Of course, the social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace are the most popular; however, forums and web discussions are becoming increasingly popular as well. These platforms allow users to discuss various topics and it is very possible that, depending on the subject you are interested in, there is some type of forum that exists that specifically targets that subject. The process of creating a forum or web discussion is dependent on the skills the person has within web hosting and code. Forums and web discussions are still not quite as popular as other social networking sites, but they have the versatility to become anything the creator wants it to be, which is making it popular among individuals.

Who are social networking sites for?

Almost everyone has some type of social networking site and businesses are now creating their very own which would allow them to connect more deeply with their customers. By creating such sites, businesses are now able to see what their customers truly think in a relaxed, comfortable state. Individuals and businesses alike want a social networking platform that is easy to use and popular.

Here are the top five social networking platforms:

These five social networking websites are in the lead over all other social networking sites online. One may wonder how the rankings for the top five social networking platforms are decided. The decision is based on a number of factors. These factors include:

• Profiles
• Security
• Features for Networking
• Support
• Friend Focus

These few factors are what determine whether or not the social networking platform is a success. Profiles are the most essential factor because this is how a user expresses themselves and who they are to the public and to the people who they know. On a profile, users can talk about their likes and dislikes, hobbies and interests, and literally be themselves. Users value being able to have a profile that is easy to use and allows them to talk about themselves and what they are into. A user profile should be easy to set up and understand, but also decent enough to allow the user to show who they are and their personality through their profile.

The Importance of Security

Security is definitely another major factor on what makes a social networking platform successful. Users value their privacy and security. Who would want to be a user of a social networking website that didn’t value the security of its users? Surely, no one would. Each and every successful social networking platform should have security options for its users. These options include giving the users a block button so that they are able to block anyone they want, especially people who may be bothering them online. Users should also be able to block off certain parts of their profile from other people if they wish.

Available Features

The features for networking are definitely an additional bonus. If a social networking platform wants to have success, it will need to offer tons of features to its users. It is important that social networking platforms remember they are in constant competition with others. Features that should be offered to the users include picture updates, video update, groups, status updates, and tons of other features that the users want.

Support is a necessity especially for those who are new to using social networking platforms. The last thing that a platform should want to do is to leave a user feeling unsure and left out. The platform should offer support and advice to new users and there should always be a section available to users that answers some of the most frequently asked questions.

Connecting with Friends

Last but certainly not least, friend focus is essential and it is the main way that a social networking platform will grow. Users want to be able to connect with their friends and family members. If a social networking platform wants to be successful, they have to make the friend focus easy for users to keep in contact with one another.

In Conclusion

Overall, it seems as though Facebook has mastered most of these features because it is number one on the list of top five social networking platforms. Facebook has received a 4 star rating for security, support and friend focus. Facebook also received a 3 star rating for profiles and 3.5 stars for networking features. Facebook currently takes the lead as the number one social networking platform, but the website does have some fairly stiff competition.

MySpace comes in as a close second. The website received a 4 star rating for all features except for the friend focus feature. When it came to friend focus, MySpace received a 3 star rating, which is what put the social networking platform at number two in the list. MySpace is in constant competition with Facebook for the number one spot. If Facebook wants to keep its number one spot or if MySpace wants to reach that number one spot, changes will need to be made on both ends. The same goes for the other three social networking platforms and all of the other platforms that have not been able to make it within the top five.

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In the Beginning:

It all began with Usenet and the creation of “threaded” conversations held on bulletin board services.  This allowed people to have interactive conversations and keep them organized so that information was easier to find and easier to understand.  To this day, Usenet still exists and is blooming with hundreds of thousands of new messages every day.  Usually grouped by interest, a Usenet group would be listed as, for example, rec.games.computer.quake for discussion of the PC game Quake.  There are Usenet groups on just about any topic you can imagine from fan groups for Janet Jackson to discussion groups about knitting.

Fast forward a few years to 1998/99 and the introduction of Open Diary and LiveJournal.  Open Diary was the first to recognize that there were many people out there who were using word processing software to make online diaries for themselves, which at the time was difficult and often expensive, as web hosting was comparatively more expensive than it is now.  With this knowledge, the founder who goes by the handle “TheDiaryMaster” created a service wherein users would sign up for an account, choose a template and start publishing from the services interface.  It streamlined the process and also added on many other features that would have been difficult, if not impossible, for those who were publishing on their own. Open Diary introduced security levels so that posts could be friends only or public as well as options for changing fonts and allowing visitors to leave comments on your posts, something that until this service was not available anywhere.  Also available on the service was the ability to add friends, so that you would have a type of reading list to keep up with your favorite diary writers. In fact, Open Diary can be seen as the first step that the world took towards social networking.

In 1999, a newer service came to the forefront with even more options available to users called LiveJournal.  At its inception, it was an exclusive club: you needed to know someone to get an invite to sign up.  There was a point where people were selling their invite codes for $25-30 apiece!  LiveJournal offered much in the way of customization of your individual space, ability to host photographs and other multi-media creations as well as also having a friends list and commenting abilities.  The biggest draw to LiveJournal in the beginning was their new “community” feature which allowed a user to create a group journal where ongoing conversations could be held by multiple users (up to 500 at a time).

The dawn of Web 2.0

While it is a hotly disputed topic of when “Web 2.0” became a reality, it is well known that the term was coined at the 2004 O’Reilly Mass Media Web 2.0 convention in late 2004.  What the term has come to mean however, in everyday terms is that the web instead of being a place where a person seeks out information, like in a library catalogue, it has become interactive. People have real experiences through virtual worlds and text-based chat rooms, and even now through video conferencing.  Thanks to file sharing sites and services, people are trading music and books and any other type of media imaginable.  The experience of Web 2.0 has moved to also take place on our cell phones where the new Android, iPhone and other devices are allowing for remote access to email, websites, navigation and news all at the tip of your fingers wherever you happen to be.

Of course, with the invention of ever greater technologies we come face to face with some of the problems of these opportunities. More than ever, privacy and identity protection are at the forefront of everyone’s minds as they use credit cards to purchase items for themselves and their loved ones, subscriptions to online video games and even use online services to send and receive faxes and attend university.  This concern is a very real one as sensitive and private identifying information is shared over the network of the Internet and opens users up to identity theft and fraud like never before.  While the Web 2.0 has made life simpler and more streamlined for the legitimate users, it has also made life simpler and more streamlined for those who would steal your information to use for their own ends.  This had led to a rise in the creation of privacy, anti-virus and other security software.  This has become a thriving occupation all on its own from websites offering virus protection scanning and programs to fix problems found to people who have taken the time to get training to do it manually and will come to your home and fix your computer for a fee.

What you see is what you get:

Thanks to the introduction of Web 2.0, the life blogging that has come with it, we are now seeing the Internet open up to new users at an amazing rate. Anyone who wants a website can pay a few dollars for a domain name of their choice and the majority of web hosts have a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor that requires no programming knowledge whatsoever.  This brings the world of website building to the newest computer user and for fans of the most obscure hobbies.  As time goes by, the World Wide Web looks to become more and more interactive.  Eventually one day, perhaps, a person will not need to leave their homes at all to conduct their daily business.  It is an exciting and uncertain time for people everywhere as regulations are imposed and new ways of communicating are built.  Pull up a chair, dear reader and come along for the ride!

Related posts:

• November 23, 2011 – Top 5 Social Networking Platforms
• August 22, 2011 – How to Use Twitter for Business
• April 30, 2009 – E-commerce Hosting and Web 2.0
• December 13, 2011 – Top 10 Features of Facebook
• December 6, 2011 – Facebook vs. MySpace – The Battle for Supremacy
• November 30, 2011 – Facebook vs. Google Plus
• April 27, 2010 – Best Methods for Generating YouTube Traffic
• December 8, 2009 – Understanding Your Community Hosting Options
• October 7, 2009 – Introducing the IntelBuilder CMS
• August 21, 2009 – Incorporating SEM and SMM into Your Marketing Campaign

Thankfully, those days are now over. When Google announced its newest social networking initiative, Google+, most people were, of course, skeptical. After all, Buzz shared all of their contacts information and their own publicly and angered their users to no end. It also brought the company under an oversight committee with the FCC for the next 20 years. So on June 28^th 2011 when a limited field trial of Google+ was announced on the official Google blog, there were those who were generally not that interested or impressed. However, as time went by and invitations were beginning to circulate, an amazing thing occurred: IT was proclaimed that Google finally got their user-friendly privacy laden social networking engine!

Spam Infested Walls and Poorly Managed Groups

The timing of this release could not have been better, truly. During this time period, FaceBook had begun making improvements to how the social networking giant handled everything from personal details and security to how friends lists were displayed, and there were very few users who were satisfied, let alone happy with the changes. Their news feeds were being dominated by those applications that now had free reign to post on friends’ walls crowding out the actual status updates with games like “Fish-ville” and “Sims.” Users were also finding that their groups were being attacked and changed, a move that made it impossible for the group leader to interact with their group members no matter how long the group had been in existence without beginning again from moment one and re-inviting them to join the group.

Many users had been asking for the option of further defining their friends groups so that updates could be further managed. While FaceBook made a move to have options for showing a particular post only to XYX friends list or to exclude XYZ person or group of friends, it was clunky and the rules must be set for each post. Google+ learned much it seems from the problems that FaceBook has been facing. With a neatly streamlined interface, users are given “circles” of friends that are user defined. When posting, you are given a prompt to choose which circles you wish to share this with, or if you want to share it publicly, with all users.

Profiles, Interests, and User Choice

Another feature of Google+ that users find to be a better executed version of a FaceBook feature is how interests appear. On FaceBook, in the sidebars of your page, there are listings for interests such as: actresses, movies and establishments. There is the option to “like” them, adding a listing in your profile of goodness only knows how many listings. From the most inane like “sleep” and “food” to the names of bands and movies, your profile becomes cluttered with this mess! Taking a lesson from these oft voiced issues, Google+ Created what they call “sparks”. These are user interests and, when searched for and chosen, only the ones that you mark specifically are added to your sparks file and you receive updates on your news feed for only those that you chose.

Chat and Archiving

When it comes to chat, Google+ uses their ever stable G chat which rarely, if ever, freezes or otherwise disrupts the browser of the user, and saves conversations within your G mail in a special folder meant for them. Unfortunately, FaceBook seems to not yet understand the need for a stable chat engine or for easy archiving of said conversations. Regularly FaceBook chat will freeze a user’s browser and messages get stashed away in your in-box, making it impossible unless you have an excellent memory to tell a conversation from an in-box message.

Also, a much clamored-over feature that FaceBook users have been rallying for is Video conferencing and group chat. While these features are now available on FaceBook, Google+ was launched with them available and working without any freezing or slowing of your system or even distortion of sound.

Privacy

FaceBook has been charged with many privacy issues, especially lately, including:

• Data mining: Where information is gathered about a person through their website usage and used to advertise other services to them. The information gathered is often sold to a third party.

• Customization Issues: FaceBook only allows for plain text to customize your site, unlike some of its more popular contenders. Due to this however, innovative minds have begun creating and using hacks to customize their sites, causing others to become infected with their hacks (usually Java Scripted) and slowing down their system.

• Lack of live support: In our 24/7 lives, customer service that is live and reachable at any time around the clock is crucial. Especially since FaceBook sells credits for its widely-used games, questions about billing are sure to arise.

Google+, while in its infancy, is working out the kinks as they go along.

• Privacy: Google+ is fueled by your Google profile which in its default settings is 100% search-able.

• Service Linking: Google is fond of linking all of its services to create a suite of programs that can be used together or separately. Be certain of what Google products are being drawn upon when you sign up and begin posting.

• Copyright: A not well known clause in their terms of use make anything that you post using Google+ the property of Google and can be used in any way that they see fit. This, as I am sure you can imagine, makes some waves.

In conclusion

While FaceBook and Google+ both have their flaws and their upsides, it is being shown now that what was once the product or service on every person’s lips, there will always be new innovations in social networking. It has become such a large part of how to communicate with our loved ones, coworkers and friends that seeing more streamlined and more secure services will be the path that any and all social networking sites must take if they wish to survive. Google+ is here to stay. However, so is FaceBook, as they will eventually serve two different demographics. Our prediction is that Google+ will become the social network of the 20-30 something business people while those younger and older will gravitate towards busier FaceBook.

Related posts:

• December 7, 2011 – Facebook and Privacy: A Strain too Great?
• December 14, 2011 – Arm Yourself with the Top 5 Android Apps
• December 13, 2011 – Top 10 Features of Facebook
• December 6, 2011 – Facebook vs. MySpace – The Battle for Supremacy
• November 30, 2011 – Facebook vs. Google Plus
• November 23, 2011 – Top 5 Social Networking Platforms
• November 4, 2011 – Life Blogging and the Web 2.0
• October 26, 2011 – What is Tor? A Closer Look at The Onion Router
• October 15, 2011 – Exploring The Social Networking World
• October 13, 2011 – Facebook is the New King – How to Advertise in Their Kingdom

A recent study released by EMarketer officially tolled the bell.  Facebook, with its half-billion users, is about to become king of the advertising world.  The estimates are that Facebook will receive $2.2 billion dollars in advertising revenue this year, accounting for 17.7 percent (or better than 1 in 6) of all online advertising dollars spent.  Former champion Yahoo! will account for 13.1 percent.

If you are attempting to procure advertising for your site or service, then these are numbers that you cannot ignore.  It also means that you are going to be fighting against other advertisers for the attention of those half-billion users.  If you are new to this game, you could use some pointers.  Here are some of the best bits of advice we found from those who are experienced in this game:

Split your ad campaign and test the results

The marketing world is long familiar with the fact that the change of so much as a single word or image can alter the flow of traffic to your destination immensely.  To see this in action yourself, split your ad campaign.  Post at least 2 different ads simultaneously, with some slight change between them.

What should you change?  Here are a few suggestions others have listed:

• Ad text – This one is obvious, and yet still undervalued.  Change one adjective.  Make one ad short and one long.  Make one serious and one lighthearted.
• Image – There are entire schools of thought based on how different images elicit different emotional and instinctual responses (look up “Semiotics” if you are curious about this field).  Switch it up and see what happens.
• Market targeting – Use Facebook’s different behind-the-scenes parameters to target different audiences. Facebook allows you to adjust your targeting by age, geographic location, education and interests, just for starters.

One important rule for all of the above: if you make any changes, make them one at a time.  If you change multiple parameters all at once, and you see a difference in response rates, you’re not going to know for certain which ones were responsible for the differences you saw.

This leads us to the second major piece of advice:

Keep close tabs on your ad’s response rates

This is non-negotiable.  If you want to know how well your ads are doing, you cannot just go on instinct or anecdotal evidence.  You need to keep a close, scientific eye on their results.  One page suggested that you would need to use third-party software to analyze the information, but from the reports we saw it seems like even the beginner user should be able to decipher it without too much assistance.  Go to your ad’s “Report Manger” and download the information.  You can easily upload it into a basic spreadsheet program from there.

The terms in your report are explained by Facebook, so we won’t waste space here repeating it all.  What we will do instead is to remind you that you have several target goals that you are going to be looking at simultaneously.  For your dollar you are going to have raw numbers of “Impressions”, “Clicks”, “Actions,” “Social Impressions,” and “Unique Impressions,” with corresponding proportions and percentages for each (“Click Through Rate” is Clicks divided by Impressions, for example).

You will need to decide which of these is how important to you on a per-dollar basis.  If your goal is simply to generate higher name recognition, then “Impressions” is going to be more important for you.  If you measure ad effectiveness by user participation, then “Actions” is going to be a greater target.  Decide ahead of time which metrics matter the most to you, and focus on what most efficiently increases their values.

Some miscellaneous tips

In addition to these major ideas, there are some minor ones worth remembering:

• Work with Facebook – This means a number of things, but the primary point you want to remember is that it is still people that approve or disapprove ads.  You don’t get some automatic place just by throwing Facebook some money.  In particular, read and follow the ad submission guidelines.  If your ad runs into any trouble, work with their account representatives.  Remember also that they are working on Pacific Standard Time (Facebook is based out of California).  During business hours it takes about 1-6 hours to get your ad approved.
• Consider your destination – You have the choice of sending your users to either a page on Facebook or your outside web site.  Different authors have a differing opinion on which is better.  It probably comes down to personal preference, though note that you will get more support from Facebook by keeping it “in the family”.  Whichever you do, though, do it right.  If you send them to a Facebook page, make sure the page is well-developed and maintained.  If you send them to your external site, send them to a landing spot designed specifically for them.  You’ll probably want to complete the loop by making your external site Facebook friendly.
• Consider using Friends of Connections – Using this option will give your advertisement greater impression weight to people whose friends have interacted with it.  This does narrow down your field of who might see the ad, but most marketers believe, rationally so, that it will increase your click-through effectiveness.
• Test by time – This is only an option to those who can really stay on top of things, but one option to consider is to test your ad’s effectiveness by time of day.  Facebook does not give you the automatic ability to select when you want your ad to run, but they do allow you to manually turn your ad off and on.

Keep up with the times

As a last bit of over-arching advice, keep tabs yourself on Facebook marketing.  When we did our research, a common suggestion was to use the “Reveal Tab”.  That seems to no longer exist.  Facebook will probably continue to change their system on a rapid, unpredictable basis.  As long as they do, and you want to succeed with your marketing, you will need to react just as quickly.

Related posts:

• December 14, 2011 – Arm Yourself with the Top 5 Android Apps
• December 13, 2011 – Top 10 Features of Facebook
• December 7, 2011 – Facebook and Privacy: A Strain too Great?
• December 6, 2011 – Facebook vs. MySpace – The Battle for Supremacy
• November 30, 2011 – Facebook vs. Google Plus
• November 23, 2011 – Top 5 Social Networking Platforms
• November 4, 2011 – Life Blogging and the Web 2.0
• October 25, 2011 – Competition in Social Networking: The Rise of Google+ and the Status of FaceBook
• October 5, 2011 – Social Networking Wars – A Great Show, and an Educational One
• August 22, 2011 – How to Use Twitter for Business

Just in the last few months alone there have been a number of major news items in the war between these two behemoths.  Even for the webmaster who has no interest personally in taking part in them, there are a number of significant lessons that can be gleaned from these battles that every webmaster could potentially use.  Here are some of what’s gone down and why they’re important:

The Facebook redesign debacle

It’s common for multi-user web sites of any kind to partake in some redesign, usually unleashed with little forewarning.  Typically there’s not too much complaint about these, since the point of them is to ease usability, add features or make everything a little more pretty.

Try telling that to any of Facebook’s users right now.  The redesign met with such a thunder of boos that it made CNN.

Lessons:

1) Listen to user feedback at all times.

2) Don’t just copy a rival mindlessly (it’s generally felt that this was Facebook’s attempts to pilfer Google+’s ideas).

3) Don’t fix what isn’t broken.

Google+ API

Google+ API was released recently.  “API” stands for “Application programming interface”.  It’s sort of an open-source middle ground.  It doesn’t entirely reveal an application’s underlying code.  What it does instead is to tell programmers how to interface their own code with it, giving information on what routines and functions do what, and how.

For most programmers this is good enough.  The user community has responded with excitement to this development, one that Facebook has not so far followed.

Lessons:

1) Don’t fear letting your own users be a part of your own development.  This doesn’t apply to a whole lot of small-scale web sites, but, if nothing else, encourage discussion among the people who visit it via, say, a BBS or mailing list.

Privacy developments

Even when it was at its peak and there was no major competitor to it, privacy on Facebook has always been a major user concern.  They’ve typically responded to it about the same way that Microsoft has always responded to security concerns: “I’m the only game in town.  You’ll take it and like it.”

There’s a new game now, and the NY Times has already given Google+ a higher privacy rating than Facebook.  The cynic should arch an eyebrow at this development: blindly trusting the world’s largest information broker as a vanguard of privacy should be a curious development at best.  Nonetheless just making an observable point of pushing this ideal is already generating for Google positive word amongst users.

Lessons: Respect your user base, especially when it comes to their private data.

There is amongst all this one larger lesson that everyone in any field could well take to heart: all giants fall.  The world is littered with the corpses of kings who once seemed invincible.  Our modern attention span has has caused us to lose sight of this, but it remains true to this day.  If you are #1 in whatever area, don’t ever just rest on your laurels and expect to still be #1 tomorrow.  If you aren’t, there’s always a way to be so.

Related posts:

• December 14, 2011 – Arm Yourself with the Top 5 Android Apps
• December 13, 2011 – Top 10 Features of Facebook
• December 7, 2011 – Facebook and Privacy: A Strain too Great?
• December 6, 2011 – Facebook vs. MySpace – The Battle for Supremacy
• November 30, 2011 – Facebook vs. Google Plus
• November 23, 2011 – Top 5 Social Networking Platforms
• November 8, 2011 – Are The Growing Google Concerns Fair?
• November 4, 2011 – Life Blogging and the Web 2.0
• October 25, 2011 – Competition in Social Networking: The Rise of Google+ and the Status of FaceBook
• October 13, 2011 – Facebook is the New King – How to Advertise in Their Kingdom