A new female-only social network hopes to offer a space where women can speak freely without the interference of men.
Former Facebook employee Susan Johnson founded Women.com as a stripped-down question and answer forum where users can discuss careers, relationships, health, sex, beauty, parenthood, politics, fashion and more.
One anonymous conversation topic is featured daily, Slate reports, and all members of the Women.com community are able to weigh in.Members simply up vote the most relevant answers.
A well organized community management team keeps the site free of trolling and misogyny and fosters conversations about tough issues in a ‘well-lit, positive manner’.
And if a man tries to join the ladies’ club? ‘We’ve had a couple of men try to break in, and we just escort them out,’ says Johnson.
The site is invite-only and users gain access via Facebook Connect, limiting potential for men to gain access via fake profiles. Transgender women who identify as female, she adds, are 100per cent welcome.
Unlike Facebook, which focuses on photo sharing and status updates, Johnson chose to organize her network around questions and answers because she believes a good question is the foundation of a great conversation between female friends.
Given that female users account for 58per cent of Facebook and 84per cent of Pinterest, Women.com shouldn’t have trouble attracting an audience. The site is currently in an invite-only beta stage, but Johnson hopes to open it up to the general public soon.
She also plans to grow the site into a more complex network. She hopes to include interest segmentation and develop microcommunities around different topics so members can have side discussions about articles they find interesting, events in their area, or books they’re reading. Quora-style expertise identifiers are also in the works.
Source:DailyMail
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It seems social networking site Facebook did not appreciate model-turned actress Poonam Pandey’s Ice Bucket Challenge. ‘Nasha’ actress Poonam Pandey’s Facebook account was deactivated post her ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
The actress, who is very active on social-networking websites, took to Twitter to express her sadness over deactivation of her Facebook account that had over 2 million followers.
Poonam had posted her on-going ALS Ice Bucket Challenge video on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking websites. She opted for a bikini while taking the challenge.
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A Russian music teacher who "accidentally" posted her naked selfie online has refused to resign after the school authorities asked her to do so.
Elena Kornyshonkova, 40, from Tver, in Russia, said she posted the revealing photo by accident on the Russian social network VKontake.
Students and colleagues found her nude selfie and reported this to the school management, media reports said.
In her reply, the teacher said there was nothing wrong with nudity and she led a more "honourable" life than many of her colleagues.
According to her, she only intended her close friends to see the picture taken during a holiday in Spain.
But the school management directed her to resign by Aug 25 else threatened to sack her, reports added.
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What brought you into music?
I got into music by accident. Went to a vocal trainer called Kevin Leo who thought I had natural ability and started to mentor me. When he met my sister one day he thought we would be great as a group and singing with my sister has given me some of the best experiences of my life.
How would you define your style of singing?
I think of myself as a soul singer because I sing from my heart. But I have a lot of grit and power in my voice which I think comes across as quite aggressive at times. I don't know how others perceive what I do. I guess you could define it as raw.
It's hard to break into the scene here because everyone is just into hearing people sing covers. I think it's about time we started to produce and perform more original music that we could take to the world platform. We have world class singers in this country.
Who are your biggest inspirations?
My biggest inspirations are my family especially my mother and sister. They are strong powerful and talented women who inspire me to be the same.
What does music mean to you?
Music means the world to me. My passion for music comes from deep within. It was something I cut out of my life for years when I was struggling with the loss of my father and brother. Getting connected to music again has made me feel alive and I know they would be so proud seeing that I am singing again.
If there was one thing you could do to change the mindset of people in this country who think "musicians are those who have nothing better to do", what would it be?
I don't believe in trying to force people to change their opinions. However what I would say is everyone has a song that has touched them in one way or another and that is because of musicians like us who decided to share our experience with the world. That has to be worth something in my opinion.
How do you connect with the audience?
I usually connect with the audience by cracking jokes or making fun of myself. I think it's important to look comfortable on stage so that your audience is at ease. Laughter always makes people drop their guard so that's usually how I connect.
Your most memorable gig?
One of the most memorable gigs was in Africa. It was in front of 10,000 people with my sister and Fela Kuti's original band.
Tell me about about the competition you were a part of?
I was scouted to audition for the X factor in the UK last year. It was definitely one of the most nerve-racking experiences I have been through. Although I didn't get as far as I would have hoped, the experience gave me the confidence to start singing again and for that I am greatful.
Advice to musicians who are struggling to make it into the scene?
Advice to those who are trying to make it. Follow your heart. Don't be discouraged by those who say you won't make it. And finally enjoy the journey and not the destination. It doesn't matter if you make it or not. You will have an amazing time trying to find out.
Text by Reihan Stephen
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Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC is the preferred brand for Gen Y, having garnered over 150,000 fans on Facebook. A 165-year history has not deterred Singer from keeping up with the times as evidenced by the company’s populous online presence. Facebook is the number one social media platform in Sri Lanka and the media outlet of choice for Generation Y.
Singer, while maintaining its reputation as the people’s brand and the No. 1 retailer in Sri Lanka, has also succeeded in building a loyal younger audience through Facebook. The most popular age group that engages with Singer on Facebook is between 18 and 24 years of age. The overall statistics create an affirmative outlook for the Singer Facebook platform with a weekly user growth rate of 6.3%, while 10,000 people respond to Singer Facebook updates on a weekly basis.
Singer is catering to a new set of needs when it comes to Generation Y customers. Generation Y customers are worldly, knowledgeable and empowered as a result of their constant presence online. They depend on advanced technologies to progress in society. The high quality, world-class digital media products sold through Singer are therefore a key reason why Generation Y found Singer to be an attractive brand to follow on Facebook.
Today’s World Wide Web evolves daily with new products and offerings being introduced at a hurricane speed. Singer’s digital marketing team has supplied this demand by bringing the latest news and products to the online world. Customers are increasingly reliant on the Singer Facebook page to find out about product announcements and deals. The Singer Website, which doubles as an online store is a valuable counterpart to the Singer Facebook page as both are accessible online to provide a seamless customer experience. A genuine connection with audiences has enabled Singer to rise above the competition and clutter online.
Singer’s aim is to maintain a similar service excellence online to that which customers receive across Singer’s island-wide retail network. A dedicated team responds daily to all queries and complaints made through the Facebook page and provides real-time interactive customer service online.
Brand loyalty for digital media products such as smartphones and laptops is being built online as opposed to traditional media channels. Singer has responded to this trend by including Facebook into the marketing mix. The recent launch events for the Huawei Ascend P6 and the Sony Xperia Z2 smartphones as well as the Singer Fashion Show and Loyalty Card Launch were streamed live on the Facebook page to enable fans to virtually experience the events.
The difficult task of retaining Facebook fans has been achieved by Singer due to such initiatives.
Singer further devised interactive campaigns to communicate with the technologically savvy customer presence online. For the pre-launch campaign of the brand new Huawei Honor 3C phone, Singer Facebook fans were asked to study the features of the new phone and guess the price. An overwhelming 7,000 site visits were recorded on the day and new phones were gifted to the five winners.
A brand as enduring as Singer has crossed borders and generations with statistics indicating that there are Singer fans logging into the Singer Sri Lanka Facebook page from the USA, Bangladesh, Qatar, UAE and India. Singer is able to serve its overseas fans and customers through the Singer Website and Facebook page.
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A pregnant woman has been arrested after posing for selfies on Facebook in a dress she’d allegedly stolen just a few hours earlier.
Now, we’re no experts (honest guv), but we reckon if you’ve nicked a dress from your local boutique, it’s probably not advisable to then pose for selfies on social media showing-off your ill-gotten wares.
Especially when the dress is a particularly distinctive fluoro leopard print number.
That, though, is exactly what expectant mother, 27-year-old Danielle Saxton of West Frankfort, Illinois, is claimed to have done earlier this month.
Shop owners believe Danielle walked out of Mortie’s Boutique with a sizeable haul including a new dress, some shirts and some jewellery, none of which were paid for, before heading home to post pics of her new wardrobe on Facebook a few hours later.
The co-owner of the boutique, Kert Williams, also took to the social media site to help track down the stolen items, saying he’d spotted Danielle making her getaway as he returned to the store on the other side of the street.
‘Her excuse was there was nobody in here,’ Williams said. ‘We were in the back working, and that she could just take it. You know, not really much of an excuse there.’
Williams took pictures from the security cameras and put them on the shop’s Facebook page, along with a request for people to get in touch if they had any information.
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records to become the person with the most “liked” page on Facebook. With over 100 million likes, it is the second most-liked page behind Facebook’s own page.
Shakira joined Facebook in 2007 and has a comfortable lead on her fellow pop stars, trailed by Eminem (91.9 million), Rihanna (89.1 million), Michael Jackson (76.9 million) and Katy Perry (72.5 million).
A photo of the singer standing in the Maracanã football stadium in Brazil, where she performed at the closing ceremony of the World Cup 2014, has become her most popular post with 3.6 million likes.
Shakira released her 10th album this year, the self-titled Shakira, to positive critical reception, though it peaked at number 14 in the UK album charts. The album has received Diamond sales certification in her native Colombia however, with 200,000 units sold.
Speaking on the success of her social media page, Shakira said:
“I am honoured and humbled about reaching this milestone, because it’s one that’s purely about connecting with my fans from all parts of the globe. Social media and specifically Facebook has helped myself and other artists bridge the gap between the stage and the audience. We’ve been able to create a conversation, where both artists and fans can share with one another their thoughts, achievements, the most important moments of their lives in photographs and videos, and have a real, ongoing dialogue.”
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, wrote on Shakira’s wall, saying: “Congrats! What an amazing milestone for an amazing person.”
The singer had also set a Guinness World Record with this achievement,
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A team of American lawyers has requested that if nothing has been mentioned in the last will, the access to all the internet accounts should be given to the family members of the owner.
They request from the American government that the relevant laws should be implemented.
The American law commission has stated that in future there will be laws for such access.
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Facebook has acquired LiveRail – a tech start-up that helps companies place more relevant ads in the videos that appear on their websites and apps.
LiveRail also provides a real-time bidding platform for marketers looking to place ads on online videos.
The firms did not reveal the financial terms, but some reports indicate that Facebook paid between $400m and $500m (£233m and £291m) to buy the firm.
Online video advertising is forecast to grow robustly in the coming years.
“More relevant ads will be more interesting and engaging to people watching online video, and more effective for marketers too,” Brian Boland, vice president of ads product marketing and atlas at Facebook, said in a blog post.
“Publishers will benefit as well, because more relevant ads will help them make the most out of every opportunity they have to show an ad.”
According to LiveRail, it delivers more than seven billion video ads per month.
BBC
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If you feel down on Facebook, it could have a lot to do with what your friends are posting
Did your Facebook News Feed seem a little too happy, or perhaps a little too depressing, for one week in January 2012? That may have been because researchers were experimenting with your News Feed to figure out more about how humans’ emotions work when we’re physically apart.
By tweaking the Facebook News Feed algorithm and studying nearly 700,000 Facebook users’ posts, Facebook’s data scientists and researchers found that emotional states can be transmitted between people without face-to-face interaction, according to a study published earlier this month.
For the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers analyzed over 3 million posts containing over 122 million words and used an algorithm to characterize the language as positive or negative. Facebook’s data team then adjusted the amount of positive or negative Facebook language users were exposed to on their News Feeds to see how they would react.
Researchers Adam Kramer, of Facebook; Jamie Guillory, of the University of California, San Francisco; and Jeffrey Hancock, of Cornell University, found that when users were exposed to fewer positive posts, they would themselves produce fewer positive posts and more negative posts. The reverse was true when they were exposed to fewer negative posts. In other words, verbal and textual cues have a big impact on our emotions, even if we don’t hear a person’s tone of voice or see their body language.
“These results suggest that the emotions expressed by friends, via online social networks, influence our own moods,” said the team in the study.
The data was analyzed by computers, so it’s not like a scientist was poring over your Facebook posts. And if you feel weirded out about Facebook looking at your posts without your consent — well, you’ve already given your consent. You just haven’t read Facebook’s privacy policy, which gives the company permission to carry out studies like these.
In any case, the next time you feel your mood changing while you’re on Facebook, it might have something to do with what your friends are posting.
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Facebook has launched a Snapchat-like mobile app that lets users trade ephemeral photo- and video-based messages that disappear after a few seconds.
With the new app, called Slingshot, you can’t view an incoming message until you respond with a photo or video of your own. That’s right: There can be no passive users on Slingshot, which is basically forcing its community to trade photos and video clips, quid pro quo, like schoolkids exchanging stickers or lunchbox snacks.
“With Slingshot, we wanted to build something where everybody is a creator and nobody is just a spectator,” its creators said Tuesday in a blog post announcing the app. “When everyone participates, there’s less pressure, more creativity and even the little things in life can turn into awesome shared experiences.”
Judging by initial reaction, however, at least some users may find this stricture a little annoying.
It’s frustrating, not exciting when a friend sends you a shot and you can’t immediately view it,” wrote Ellis Hamburger in tech-news site The Verge. “Slingshot is a new and strange example of a messaging app that raises barriers instead of tearing them down, and increases the friction to viewing a friend’s photo instead of reducing it.”
In fairness, the app is designed not for sending urgent information — we have texting or even phone calls for that — but for exchanging spontaneous moments or snippets of creativity.
Slingshot, which leaked briefly last week before Facebook pulled it offline, is the social networking giant’s latest attempt to compete with Snapchat, a rival messaging app that is popular with teens and young adults.
Snapchat is estimated to have more than 30 million users and reportedly turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook last fall. Facebook later went on to buy WhatsApp, a messaging app that’s especially widespread overseas.
Slingshot succeeds Poke, a messaging app that Facebook launched in 2012 and shut down last month after it failed to gain traction with users.
Slingshot messages are photo and video only, although users can superimpose bits of text on the images. Like Snapchat (and Poke), Slingshot messages self-destruct after a few seconds unless the user adjusts his or her phone settings to save them.
“Photos and videos that don’t stick around forever allow for sharing that’s more expressive, raw and spontaneous. We can connect the same way we like to live: in the moment,” Facebook said in its post, which takes the unusual step of crediting its competitor.
“We’ve enjoyed using Snapchat to send each other ephemeral messages and expect there to be a variety of apps that explore this new way of sharing,” it said.
Unlike Snapchat, Slingshot allows users to send, or “sling,” messages to multiple friends at once. A push notification will appear when somebody sends you something.
CNN
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Miley Cyrus is showing skin yet again. This time the pop star took to Instagram to share a random topless photo of herself. So did she do it because she hasn't been getting enough attention lately, or is she continuing her fight for the right of women to show off their bodies without getting censored or shamed?
On June 14, Miley shared a topless Instagram snap that she captioned, "#preshoweralfalfaselfielife." She styled her hair like a kid playing in a bubble bath, and of course she stuck out her tongue. Miley used a cartoon octopus to cover up her left nipple, so she didn't risk getting kicked off of Instagram to show her support for the "Free the Nipple" campaign.
Back in December, Miley Cyrus showed her support for the cause by sharing a photo of herself holding a giant fake nipple in front of her left eye. So Miley has a dream that someday she won't have to censor her breasts with cute cartoon characters. The Free the Nipple campaign was started by activists who think that America's values are totally screwed up – the media glorifies violence in movies and on TV, but nudity is taboo. Just look at a show like "The Walking Dead" and you'll understand why these activists are so upset. You won't see a nipple on that show, but you will see a lot of disgusting dismembered body parts.
Miley Cyrus isn't the only celeb fighting to "decriminalize the female body" by showing a lot of skin. Scout Willis, the daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, recently protested Instagram's nudity policy by walking around New York City topless (this is actually perfectly legal). And according to Cosmopolitan, her sister Rumer Willis has followed Miley by joining the Free the Nipple movement. Rumer starred in a PSA about breastfeeding in public that points out that "Everybody's got to eat." She's also promoting the documentary based on the movement titled "Free the Nipple."
Other supporters who have some skin in this cause include Lena Dunham and Suki Waterhouse. So what do you think: Are celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Scout Willis doing women a favor by fighting for their rights to bare their bodies?
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Facebook has announced two major changes to its advertising policy that will let it track users across the web and give them access to the advertising profiles created by the social network of their likes and interests.
The site creates profiles in order to sell targeted adverts tailored to the individual but has never before let users view or edit the information in those files.
Users’ web browsing activities outside of Facebook will also be added to this profile through the Facebook ‘Like’ button. Even if individuals do not click this on third-party sites it still registers their presence if they are logged into Facebook in the same browsing session.
Similar buttons from Twitter and Google have identical abilities, but this is the first time Facebook has chosen to utilise this wealth of data. If users don’t want to be tracked in this way then they can opt out via the Digital Advertising Alliance or for mobile browsing adjust their settings on their handset.
Brian Boland, Facebook’s’ vice president of ad product, told the New York Times that people “want more targeted advertising” and that the aim of the new policies was to make it clearer to individuals why they were seeing certain ads.
Adverts on the site will have drop down menus in the top right-hand corner that gives users more control over these adverts. Individuals can find out why they are being shown an advert based on the likes and interests that Facebook has logged – or they can choose not to see any more similar adverts in the future.
The new policies will likely meet with a mixed reaction from privacy advocates and the site’s users. Although Facebook is giving people more control over what sort of adverts they see they’re also becoming more aggressive regarding the types of data they collect. The changes will appear for US users in a few weeks and in other countries over the following months.
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In an unprecedented, three-year cyber espionage campaign, Iranian hackers created false social networking accounts and a fake news website to spy on military and political leaders in the United States, Israel and other countries, a cyber intelligence firm said on Thursday.
ISight Partners, which uncovered the operation, said the hackers' targets include a four-star U.S. Navy admiral, U.S. lawmakers and ambassadors, members of the U.S.-Israeli lobby, and personnel from Britain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The firm declined to identify the victims and said it could not say what data had been stolen by the hackers, who were seeking credentials to access government and corporate networks, as well as infect machines with malicious software.
"If it's been going on for so long, clearly they have had success," iSight Executive Vice President Tiffany Jones told Reuters. The privately held company is based in Dallas, Texas and provides intelligence on cyber threats.
ISight dubbed the operation "Newscaster" because it said the Iranian hackers created six "personas" who appeared to work for a fake news site, NewsOnAir.org, which used content from the Associated Press, BBC, Reuters and other media outlets. The hackers created another eight personas who purported to work for defense contractors and other organizations, iSight said.
The hackers set up false accounts on Facebook and other online social networks for these 14 personas, populated their profiles with fictitious personal content, and then tried to befriend target victims, according to iSight.
The operation has been active since at least 2011, iSight said, noting that it was the most elaborate cyber espionage campaign using "social engineering" that has been uncovered to date from any nation.
To build credibility, the hackers would approach high-value targets by first establishing ties with the victims' friends, classmates, colleagues, relatives and other connections over social networks run by Facebook Inc, Google Inc and its YouTube, LinkedIn Corp and Twitter Inc.
The hackers would initially send the targets content that was not malicious, such as links to news articles on NewsOnAir.org, in a bid to establish trust. Then they would send links that infected PCs with malicious software, or direct targets to web portals that ask for network log-in credentials, iSight said.
The hackers used the 14 personas to make connections with more than 2,000 people, the firm said, adding that it believed the group ultimately targeted several hundred individuals.
"This campaign is not loud. It is low and slow," said Jones. "They want to be stealth. They want to be under the radar."
ISight said it had alerted some victims and social networking sites as well as the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and overseas authorities. An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment.
Facebook Inc spokesman Jay Nancarrow said his company had discovered the hacking group while investigating suspicious friend requests and other activity on its website.
"We removed all of the offending profiles we found to be associated with the fake NewsOnAir organization and we have used this case to further refine our systems that catch fake accounts at various points of interaction on the site and block malware from spreading," Nancarrow said.
LinkedIn spokesman Doug Madey said the site was investigating the report, though none of the 14 fake profiles uncovered by iSight were currently active.
Twitter declined to comment and Google could not immediately be reached for comment.
POST-STUXNET ERA
ISight disclosed its findings as evidence emerges that Iranian hacking groups are becoming increasingly aggressive.
Cybersecurity company FireEye Inc reported earlier this month that a group known as the Ajax Security Team has become the first Iranian hacking group to use custom-built malicious software for espionage.
Iranian hackers stepped up their activity in the wake of the Stuxnet attack on Tehran's nuclear program in 2010. The Stuxnet computer virus is widely believed to have been launched by the United States and Israel.
ISight said it could not ascertain whether the hackers were tied to the government in Tehran, though it believed they were supported by a nation state because of the complexity of the operation.
The firm said NewsOnAir.org was registered in Tehran and likely hosted by an Iranian provider. The Persian term "Parastoo" was used as a password for malware associated with the group, which appeared to work during business hours in Tehran, according to iSight.
Among the 14 false personas were reporters for NewsOnAir, including one with the same name as a Reuters journalist in Washington; six employees who purportedly worked for defense contractors; a systems administrator with the U.S. Navy; and an accountant working for a payment processor.
A spokesman for Thomson Reuters Corp, which owns Reuters, declined to comment.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Tiffany Wu)
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A Thai beauty queen has renounced her title after being criticised on social media for saying that certain political activists should be executed.
Weluree Ditsayabut, 22, was in tears as she announced her intention to give up her Miss Universe Thailand crown.
The comments which led to her departure refer to the Red Shirts – supporters of the recently ousted government.
“I am so angry at all these evil activists. They should be executed,” she wrote a few months ago on Facebook.
“Thailand is contaminated by people like you who want to overthrow the monarchy… You’re wicked – you won’t die peacefully in your beds.”
Social media users quickly fired back at Ms Weluree.
Many said she was not fit to represent Thailand in the Miss Universe competition, while others said that beauty queens should talk about world peace not executing people.
She was also accused of being too fat.
In her resignation speech on Monday, the actress and former talk show host said she could not cope with the vitriol that was being directed at her.
“I felt under pressure. I tried to improve myself but what I could not stand was to see my mother stressed,” Miss Weluree told reporters.
“I have decided to sacrifice my status as Miss Universe Thailand.”
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A deputy minister in the Burmese government has had to apologise after his wife spread a fake image of pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi wearing an Islamic headscarf.
The picture of Aung San Suu Kyi wearing a hijab and a tiara was shared by Khin Shandar Tun, wife of Deputy Information Minister Ye Htut, after it was posted by another Facebook user under the title “Woman of the Week”, the news website The Irrawaddy reports. She also shared a post speaking out against tentative plans to teach the world’s major religions at school.
Burma has seen a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment accompany political reforms, especially more relaxed rules around freedom of speech. There have been outbreaks of violence between the Buddhist majority and minority Muslims in the western state of Rakhine in the past two years – and sites such as Facebook have sometimes been blamed for spreading rumours and hate speech.
Facebook users appeared outraged by Khin Shandar Tun’s shares. “It shows discrimination and taunting of Muslim women,” one user says, adding, “People with this kind of shallow point of view will also do the same thing to Christians or whoever.”
Ye Htut – known as the “Facebook minister” for his enthusiasm for social media – issued an apology on his own page. “We have to take care with the posts that we ‘like’ and share, for there may be hateful posts and defamation,” he writes. “Apologies to those who respect and support Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and to those who visit my Facebook for my failure.”
BBC
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A baby that was kidnapped Monday in Canada has been found thanks to four Facebook users.
Newborn infant Victoria was abducted from hospital in in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, by a young woman disguised in a nurse’s uniform. Alerts by the local police, featuring details of the suspect’s vehicle, together with a security image of her, went viral on Facebook and Twitter. A Facebook user thought she recognized her former neighbor in the picture and decided to drive, together with three friends, to the former neighbor’s apartment building. They found the wanted car parked outside and called the police.
The police arrived on the scene within minutes and found the suspect and the unharmed baby.
In an emotional Facebook update, the mother of the child described how she and her husband lived through “the worst time of their lives” until their baby was found.
“Four wonderful people, who we’ve had the chance to meet, identified this woman thanks to Facebook. It is the only reason that explains why Victoria is in my arms at this time,” Mélissa McMahon wrote in a Facebook update that has been shared more than 20,000 times, before going on to thank people who shared and retweeted the police alerts.
“In less than an hour, the photo [of the suspect] was everywhere … You were among the more than thousands of people who shared the photo of this woman on social media … Know that it was this that saved her, our little Victoria. Every click, every share made the difference.”
The suspect is in custody and has been hospitalized for mental evaluation.
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Facebook Inc is developing its own video-chat app, known internally as Slingshot, after its failed attempt to acquire mobile messaging startup Snapchat, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
Facebook has been working for several months on the planned video-chat app, which would allow users to send short video messages using a touch-screen, the FT said, citing people familiar with its plans.
Slingshot could be launched this month, the paper cited one source as saying, while noting that Facebook might ultimately decide not to proceed with the launch of the app.
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has been overseeing the “top-secret” project after the social network company was unable to win Snapchat’s creators, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, with its $3 billion takeover offer late last year, the FT said.
Snapchat, popular among teenagers, allows users to send smartphone photos that automatically disappear after a few seconds.
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After nearly a year of anticipation, Facebook is finally launching its long-awaited new video ad format following limited beta testing in Q4 2013. Video ads will start appearing in the Facebook newsfeed starting in April, thus bringing closure to a very lengthy and complicated product launch. The ad unit’s initial launch date was delayed several times due to the ad unit’s apparent superiority to the native content experience. Facebook senior management, including Zuckerberg himself, was apparently reluctant to disappoint users and show any bias to the advertising community.Facebook walks a very fine line with the launch of this new ad unit. On one hand a new video unit will help it capitalize on the growing migration of TV AV spend to the Internet. Facebook’s recent quarterly results have pleased Wall Street; continuing such stellar growth will require new sources of media investment, and online video is certainly one such source.However, Facebook will also need to carefully monitor reaction from its users. Any backlash will further fuel rampant but largely unproven industry speculation and discussion around a user exodus, particularly amongst fickle teens. In response, Facebook will likely limit the number of campaigns and brand’s in the US during 2014 as testing continues. Ad frequency is also capped at one ad per user per day; a user should not see more than one video ad in their newsfeed on any given day. DETAILSThe new video advertising unit will automatically play without sound. Auto-play begins when the user scrolls through the newsfeed and the video comes into view. Time-length of the ad is limited to 15 seconds. Once the user clicks to play, sound is initiated. Two subsequent carousels are also available, which can house additional video creative up to 15 minutes in length. Each brand will be entitled to a maximum of three 15 second creative executions per buy. These spots are not currently permitted to be split across a portfolio but are limited to a single brand per buy. Facebook is heavily involved in the creative process in an attempt to make the ads as non-disruptive as possible. The emphasis is on enhancing the user experience as opposed to completely disrupting it – a tough balancing act to achieve, particularly given the massive amount of mobile users. For the initial beta campaigns, video ads had to be approved at the highest level by Facebook. Going forward Facebook Creative Consultants will provide creative guidelines and be part of the asset development process. A video will not go live on Facebook in the early days without Facebook approval on the creative. Eg: In a recent study, Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings measured a campaign for a beauty care brand that was hoping to improve its image among younger women (Figure 1). The advertiser designed a campaign focused on women 18-34 and ran 213 million impressions across 14 websites and ad networks for a six week period. Nielsen analysis showed that 33 percent of these impressions reached the desired audience (W 18-34), while 40 percent of the impressions were served to men. Clearly, these figures were disappointing to the advertiser. They never expected the campaign to deliver more impressions to men than their young female audience! Video ads cannot currently be targeted based on other audience factors e.g., language, interests, behavior, etc. unlike other Facebook units. Video will not be accessible via FBX (Facebook exchange). As the platform evolves we would also expect to be able to buy against demo plus interest, making the video targeting space more robust, as well as potential inclusion in FBX. IMPLICATIONSA level of scale is being offered in an area where quality video inventory has been traditionally scarce online, albeit in a social versus premium content setting. That the video doesn’t play until in view supports advertisers with objectives of increasing the percentage of viewable ad experiences for their audiences. The creative experience can be in-depth and also acts as a forum for longer form content; traditionally a tough paid format to effectively place although interaction potential is still unknown. The audience being guaranteed against OCR also gives Facebook a competitive edge over Google; YouTube has yet to fully embrace OCR. Pricing points may be prohibitive for many advertisers; this new ad space is not cheap. Facebook will argue and seek to prove that when contrasted with a cluttered TV environment, an exclusive Facebook newsfeed emotive ad may prove to be a more impactful and effective investment. Other than media cost, the next biggest barrier is likely to get creative agencies and clients organized far enough in advance to go through a ridged creative approval process. Most creative agencies don’t start ideation with Facebook consent in mind.
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Despite what your Facebook profile might indicate, it's pretty unlikely that you have hundreds (or thousands) of friends who you desperately want to stay in touch with. In fact, if you've been on Facebook for a while, chances are you've amassed a collection of strangers you couldn't even pick out of a crowd.
If you're ready for a little social network spring cleaning, there's a recently released Facebook app called Duster that may do the trick.
Developed by Carter Wheatley and Adlai Gordon, two computer science students at Boston University, the app connects to your Facebook account and combs through your friends list to pick out the people you haven't been interacting with lately.
Essentially, the app tries to find the Facebook "friends" who are friends in name only.
Duster provides a scrollable list of casual acquaintance, giving you the option either to "Hide" them from your News Feed (hidden friends will never know they're hidden) or to "Dust" them altogether (the app's euphemism for defriending).
Of course, just because you forgot to wish someone happy birthday on Facebook doesn't mean you want to hide or unfriend them. This is Facebook we're talking about, the place where we stalk our friend's walls closely but our enemies' walls even more closely.
You may rather get a root canal than sit down for a meal with that old high school acquitance who turned out to be an Obama birther, but that doesn't mean his status updates aren't immensely entertaining.
That said, we all probably have some non-entertaining non-friends who are worthy of the boot. Just make sure you're cool with burning those bridges before "dusting" anyone. Nobody likes to be unfriended.
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