Call Friends for Free With Facebook’s Messenger App

Here’s the second thing people were hoping to hear about earlier this week at the Facebook announcment - Facebook Messanger Calls.

About the App, users can make calls via Wi-Fi or through their data plan and it works much like a standard web call since its powered by Skype. To place a call, go into the Facebook Messenger app, click on a user, then in the upper right hand corner there is a little “i” icon at the top. When you tap this icon users are given the option to call that user or view their Timeline. Note, only users with the standalone Messenger app can receive calls.

How big of a deal is this to Facebook? Well, they announced it via a Press Release and updating the app in the app store. Translation, not a big deal at all.

Next stop? Video calling. But lets see if this works first.

Source: Mashable

There’s a lot of buzz this morning regarding the Facebook announcement happening at 12pm CST. Most tech sites are predicting the announcement is a new phone or search feature. My money leans towards search and not a phone. Why is that? Apple finally integrated Facebook into iOS after it being years in the making. Ok, maybe not years in the making but it was something users wanted for a long time. If Facebook releases a phone that’s going to put Apple on the defensive and potentially remove that integration. Now, search on the other hand is a lot more intriguing to me. Remember, Facebook stores everything you post including your links, captions on photos, location from photos, check-ins, interaction with apps, etc. so they have a ton of information about you and your friends. Since this information is available to your friends, they could release a product that searches your network of friends for recommendations, interactions or activity for nearly any topic. Releasing a feature like this is a win-win for Facebook. For users, they get what they are looking for with friend recommendations and endorsements. This also follows Facebook’s mission “to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” Search does this. Hopefully users start using Facebook’s search product for content within their network and not on Google. Which is another win for Facebook - Revenue. Google is making money hand over fist with search so with a new search in Facebook its likely they would expand their ad model to mimic Google’s Adwords making investors very happy. Google dominates search right now holding 65% market share and its been growing since Yahoo and Bing have had little innovation over the years. I think Facebook has identified this opportunity, knows they have rich data on their users and will be making a run at Google’s market share. As you can see, my hopes are pretty high their announcement is a search feature. What else could it be? Lowering the bar for myself, it could be something small like the announcement for their next F8 conference or a new area on their campus focused on connecting their users. Only time will tell.
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There’s a lot of buzz this morning regarding the Facebook announcement happening at 12pm CST. Most tech sites are predicting the announcement is a new phone or search feature. My money leans towards search and not a phone. Why is that? Apple finally integrated Facebook into iOS after it being years in the making. Ok, maybe not years in the making but it was something users wanted for a long time. If Facebook releases a phone that’s going to put Apple on the defensive and potentially remove that integration.

Now, search on the other hand is a lot more intriguing to me. Remember, Facebook stores everything you post including your links, captions on photos, location from photos, check-ins, interaction with apps, etc. so they have a ton of information about you and your friends. Since this information is available to your friends, they could release a product that searches your network of friends for recommendations, interactions or activity for nearly any topic.

Releasing a feature like this is a win-win for Facebook. For users, they get what they are looking for with friend recommendations and endorsements. This also follows Facebook’s mission “to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” Search does this. Hopefully users start using Facebook’s search product for content within their network and not on Google. Which is another win for Facebook - Revenue. Google is making money hand over fist with search so with a new search in Facebook its likely they would expand their ad model to mimic Google’s Adwords making investors very happy.

Google dominates search right now holding 65% market share and its been growing since Yahoo and Bing have had little innovation over the years. I think Facebook has identified this opportunity, knows they have rich data on their users and will be making a run at Google’s market share.

As you can see, my hopes are pretty high their announcement is a search feature. What else could it be? Lowering the bar for myself, it could be something small like the announcement for their next F8 conference or a new area on their campus focused on connecting their users. Only time will tell.

LA Times Tech: Tumblr more popular than Facebook?

As much as I would like to believe this survey, I don’t. This afternoon the LA Times released a story that Tumblr and is more popular than Facebook for people aged 13-25. Complete image below:

Don’t get me wrong, I like Tumblr. Not only is it very entertaining, but its a very easy platform for blogging with their easy posting options for quotes, photos, video, etc.

With all that, I don’t buy for one second that its the #1 site for people aged 13-25. There are only 1,000 people surveyed here so I’m thinking they sat out in the parking lot of a high school 2 blocks away from Tumblr’s headquarters. Popular, yes. But not the absolute top.

Source: j.mp

thenextweb: The revamped Timeline has gone live for users in New Zealand, which is regularly Facebook’s first port of call for new rollouts. As screenshots from TNW contributor Owen Williams show, all communication from friends and status updates placed in the left-hand side column only. This left side column has been made larger to place greater emphasis on messages, with the right hand side now made smaller as a result. For example, the Friends box is now 3×3 instead of 2×4. Update: A Facebook spokesperson tells TNW that the company has “no other details to share right now”. That means that New Zealanders will be the only ones to enjoy it, for now, but we’ll keep tabs on future developments. (via Facebook begins rolling out new single-column Timeline with greater emphasis on messages [Updated] - The Next Web) Minor updates to improve Facebook’s Timeline are coming. Currently live in New Zealand.
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thenextweb:

The revamped Timeline has gone live for users in New Zealand, which is regularly Facebook’s first port of call for new rollouts. As screenshots from TNW contributor Owen Williams show, all communication from friends and status updates placed in the left-hand side column only. This left side column has been made larger to place greater emphasis on messages, with the right hand side now made smaller as a result. For example, the Friends box is now 3×3 instead of 2×4. Update: A Facebook spokesperson tells TNW that the company has “no other details to share right now”. That means that New Zealanders will be the only ones to enjoy it, for now, but we’ll keep tabs on future developments. (via Facebook begins rolling out new single-column Timeline with greater emphasis on messages [Updated] - The Next Web)

Minor updates to improve Facebook’s Timeline are coming. Currently live in New Zealand.

Filtering coming to Facebook

When I found this article on The Verge today I got really excited. I thought, FINALLY filtering is coming to Facebook News Feed. But, no. It’s only coming to messages and allows you to restrict messages coming from strangers. Bummer.

I hope at the next F8 (Facebook’s version of Apple’s product announcements) they allow filtering on the News Feed. What is this? I’m sure we’ve all been stung by a spoiler alert in your news feed. At least I have. I wish they would allow the option to remove posts that contain certain keywords or phrases.

Take The Voice finale for example. NBC changed the timeslot of the finale to 8pm-10pm and we missed the beginning of the show. We said, oh well, we’ll just view it On Demand when available and avoid the news. Sure enough, 9:58pm my News Feed filled up with the winner. It would have been nice to hide all mentions that contain “The Voice” in Facebook.

Another great example would be around the elections. I’m everyone had at least one friend who you wanted to stick in the corner until voting was over. Maybe some the entire week. How nice would it have been to filter out a topic without having to unfriend them?

I’m sure brand pages and advertisers would disagree with this because people could filter out their messages but I don’t care. This would be a great addition.

Source: theverge.com

Want to learn about the history of music?  Yes, you could go to Wikipedia to get a very in-depth review and likely fall asleep 2 pages into it.  Or, you could visit Spotify’s Timeline page where they list over 1,000 years of music history with links to play that music within their profile. One of the coolest and interactive Timelines I’ve seen so far.
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Want to learn about the history of music?  Yes, you could go to Wikipedia to get a very in-depth review and likely fall asleep 2 pages into it.  Or, you could visit Spotify’s Timeline page where they list over 1,000 years of music history with links to play that music within their profile.

One of the coolest and interactive Timelines I’ve seen so far.

Source: facebook.com

Still on the fence about building out your Timeline for your Facebook brand Timeline?  You shouldn’t be.  Simply Measured released some metrics this morning that show brands who have moved to Timeline are seeing 46% increase in engagement per post.  Read more the complete article by Mashable. Remember, Timelines go active April 1 regardless for everyone (brands and personal pages) so you need to get converted before that time.
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Still on the fence about building out your Timeline for your Facebook brand Timeline?  You shouldn’t be.  Simply Measured released some metrics this morning that show brands who have moved to Timeline are seeing 46% increase in engagement per post.  Read more the complete article by Mashable.

Remember, Timelines go active April 1 regardless for everyone (brands and personal pages) so you need to get converted before that time.

Source: Mashable

Friendsheet Gets Approval From Zuck

Zuckerberg Likes App That Turns Facebook Into Pinterest

An app that takes the photos from your Facebook News Feed and puts them in a layout strikingly similar to Pinterest got the seal of approval from Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday.

The Facebook CEO pushed the “Like” button on the Friendsheet Facebook app, which launched in January but is now likely to gain plenty of traction from Zuckerberg’s thumbs-up. Nearly 12 million Facebook accounts subscribe to his Facebook Timeline.

The app displays public Facebook photos in small panels, just like popular social bookmarking site Pinterest showcases images on Pinboards. Although Friendsheet resembles Pinterest at first glance, the mastermind behind the app said it was also inspired by Facebook Timeline.

Source: Mashable

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