Facebook Democracy at Work: The First Step

FacebookFacebook reviews today announced the preliminary results of the site governance vote; an important step in the history of Facebook in which the users were called to vote on the site’s future terms of use. The results aren’t fully processed yet, but approximately 74.4 percent of users voted for the new Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities over the existing Terms of Use.

The incident that kickstarted this initiative was the sudden change in Facebook’s Terms of Use (later reverted) under which all of the content you’ve ever uploaded was Facebook’s to be used in whatever way they want, even if you quit Facebook altogether.

Over 600,000 users participated in the vote. Facebook has around 200,000,000 active users, which means that only 0.3% voted; a very small number if you compare it to, for example, the US presidential elections of 2008, where the overall turnout was 61.6%. Obviously, only a small fraction of Facebook users take the service seriously enough to actively participate in its governance, even if it only takes a couple of seconds to vote.

What does all this mean? Well, the proposed new document should now become Facebook’s new Terms of Use. From the official blog: “Assuming the auditors confirm the preliminary vote result in favor of the proposed documents, we’ll be adopting the Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities as the governing documents for the Facebook site.” Facebook believes that now they can put an end to the Terms of Use turmoil. As Ted Ullyot says on the official Facebook blog, they “strongly believe that our proposed documents satisfied the concerns raised in February.”

It’s not that simple, though. What Facebook did here is offer two choices; what if you liked neither? The new document was created based on the “comments from users and experts received during the 30-day comment period.” Taking comments into consideration is nice; but Facebook had the last word in the actual creation of the document.

Perhaps this entire talk about the democratic process on a social network seems silly, but once you go that way, why not go all the way? A modern democracy has a lot of tools that are supposed to make sure that the will of the majority really gets carried out; perhaps as a next step in its journey towards a real democracy (assuming that’s what Facebook wants) they should consider voting for representatives from the user base, creating a board that will actively participate in the creation of governing documents for the site.

What do you think? Does Facebook really needs to be a democracy? Was setting up a vote for the new Terms of Use enough, or should users have been able to actively participate in its creation? Please speak your mind in the comments.

Facebook Enables SMS Updates for Facebook Pages

You can already become a fan of Facebook Pages with a text message (for example, text “fan mashable” to FBOOK). Now, you can also subscribe to a Pages’ updates via SMS, via a link that has been added to the sidebar of Facebook Pages.

Once subscribed, you’ll get the same updates from Pages that you currently get on your homepage. This functionality is much like that Facebook already offers for regular profiles, where you can subscribe to SMS updates for things like status updates and friend requests from regular user profiles. Unfortunately, some carriers (most notably, T-Mobile) don’t yet work with Facebook Mobile, which makes this feature unavailable to all.

As Nick O’Neill notes, this once again moves Facebook further towards TwitterTwitter reviews, who already lets you subscribe to individual user’s updates via SMS. Facebook Pages – or public profiles as they are sometimes called – are part of the social network’s answer to Twitter, and with SMS now enabled, they have duplicated much of the functionality.

Is it enough to stop Twitter’s torrid growth? Probably not, at least for a while. Twitter currently has enough mindshare with the mainstream media that “follow us on Twitter!” is not likely to soon be expunged from their vernacular. And while anecdotally it would seem that more FacebookFacebook reviews users are using the site in the way they want them to – posting frequent updates of “what’s on your mind” – the volume doesn’t seem to be anywhere near what’s seen on Twitter.

Facebook To Open Your Status Updates to Developers

In another targeted shot at Twitter, Facebook is expected to announce on Monday that developers can take the streams of Facebook status updates on user profiles and mix them into new applications. Just like the massive Twitter ecosystem, this could lead to a blossoming of innovation around Facebook streams.

What’s being made available? Updates, photos, videos, notes and comments, says the Wall Street Journal, but only if you allow access. We’ll be interested to see if such access is provided as a single privacy setting on Facebook (”anyone can mash up my updates”), or done on a case-by-case basis like Facebook Apps and Facebook Connect - the latter is far more likely, and the WSJ appears to confirm it:

To take advantage of the new services, users would have to allow the companies to receive access to their Facebook data, according to people familiar with the matter, and users’ privacy settings on Facebook will extend to any new services built.

And this, I think, is the reason Facebook’s open ecosystem, despite its 200 million-plus users, may not kill off Twitter’s traction with developers: FacebookFacebook reviews’s culture is one of privacy and shared updates with friends. TwitterTwitter reviews is all about public updates, and hence users love for you to mash up their Tweets into public-facing applications like TweetingTooHard.

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Twitter is Still More Open

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We’ll likely see a bunch of new applications to post media to Facebook (think: browser plugins and desktop applications) and explore content from friends, but building an open ecosystem will not change the closed culture of Facebook and our willingness to share with only a small circle of personal friends there. Twitter, then, remains the most open…culturally, at least.

Seesmic Desktop: An Early Look at the Future of Facebook Apps

Make no doubt about it: Facebook’s Open Stream API is huge news.

In much the same way that developers made a mad dash to develop for FacebookFacebook reviews platform, build TwitterTwitter reviews apps, and, to some extent, create FriendFeedFriendFeed reviews clients, developers will now turn their attention to building third-party apps that allow users to engage with their Facebook activity feed outside of Facebook.

In the coming months, we’ll see a myriad of apps push out new iterations to support Facebook Open Stream API. Beta partner Seesmic DesktopSeesmic Desktop reviews is the first of which to give us an inside look at what the Facebook Open Stream API actually means for us end users. Their new release is scheduled to be pushed out to the public in the next few days. This is just a taste of what what the future holds for our favorite applications.

From Loic Le Meur’s blog post on the upcoming version of Seesmic Desktop, we learn that the fresh application will have side-by-side views of Twitter and Facebook. Yes TweetDeck allows you to post to Facebook, but the new Seesmic Desktop will give you a complete view of your activity feed. Essentially everything you visit Facebook to check - status updates, photos, videos, likes, comments - will all come directly to you, on the desktop.

And it’s not just read-only. As a Seesmic Desktop user, once you add your Facebook account, your stream will not only come to you, but you can interact with it. You’ll be able to post status updates and photos to Facebook (just select from the drop down), like and comment on friends’ content, and leverage the myriad of other features that Seesmic Desktop already supports for Twitter.

We asked Le Meur about account support for admin users of Facebook pages and groups, and he says that, “pages and groups won’t have separate views at the beginning, but we are planning to add these.” That feature addition alone could be huge. Imagine being a social media manager for a company and having the ability to track, manage, and engage with a huge portion of your company’s social media presence right from your desktop client.

We’re highly anticipating this new release and look forward to seeing more and more applications leverage the Open Stream API. Let us know your thoughts, and which apps you’d like to see integrate with Facebook Open Stream in the comments.

Status Plug: Should Facebook Page Admins Sell Their Status Updates?

Regardless of our personal feelings, it’s clear there are a growing number of social ad networks, like Magpie and adCause, that capitalize on status updates. We now know that advertisers will pay and some users will gladly accept cash to Tweet about their products.

We don’t think these ads are wise without disclosure that they’re ads, since your followers might see them as a personal endorsement, breaking down the trust relationship. (Some followers might also find them annoying and stop following, but that’s another issue.)

Status Plug, an ad network just for Facebook pages, is one of the newest entrants in the space and hopes to appeal to page admins looking to cash in on their social capital, and advertisers who want to reach page fans and their friends.

Both advertisers and page admins — you must have 10,000 fans or more — can sign up with Status Plug. Interested admins share a bit about their page, audience, and minimum ad buy rates. They’re then listed in a page directory, where advertisers can browse, opt to bid on prospective buys, and create their ad.

Advertisers control the content of the ads which can include text, video, audio, and images. They can also specify the publish date and any additional special instructions. Should the page admin accept the offer, their page will post a rich-media update with said content. Status Plug will pay 70% of the agreed upon amount via PayPal (they keep the rest) within 5 days of the ad being published. You can see demo ads on the Status Plug page.

In true Facebook fashion, Status Plug ads are published as status updates and Facebook users can engage with them — share, comment, like — just like normal status updates. Since advertisers control the content, the boundaries between actual update and sponsored update could easily be blurred. In fact, we see no requirement to disclose that the update is an ad, which puts this on shaky ethical ground: would you trust a page admin who puts ads in his feed without disclosure?

Status Plug is currently not available to regular FacebookFacebook reviews users; you must have a public page with more than 10,000 fans. Those same admins, however, can completely sell out and turn over page administration to the right buyer for the right price.

Right now the directory of hopeful page admins consists of region-specific pages. Denver, Tucson, Oregon, St. Louis, and even my hometown, San Diego, have put their updates for sale. Since most of these are pages for users by users with a shared interest, one could take the stance that the admins shouldn’t sell ads to communities that have previously existed ad-content free (outside of Facebook’s more obvious ads). But there’s always two sides to a story, so we’ll let you weigh in on this hot topic.

Are Celebrities More Interesting on Facebook?

This morning I found out that Shaq is on Facebook, by way of a friend giving a “like” to one of the NBA superstar’s very amusing videos. From there, I became roughly the 350,000th fan of Shaq and started poking around his Page, which, must be rather new, because updates only go back to April 19th.

Shaq was one of the first megastars to land on Twitter, and as we’ve documented, a tidal wave of celebrity users soon followed, culminating in the recent arrival of America’s mainstream measuring stick: Oprah. But Oprah is also on Facebook, as is Ashton Kutcher (Twitter’s top user), and a ton of other famous people.

Although both platforms are essentially broadcasting tools for engaging with fans, which is most interesting when it comes to following the famous? A few thoughts:

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Facebook: A Multimedia Experience

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The thing you’ll notice immediately about any of these stars’ Facebook Pages is that they are rich with multimedia. Videos and pictures are included on the Page, along with their more Twitter-like text updates, and by way of Facebook’s new design, broadcast to user homepages as well. Stars also share pictures and videos on Twitter, by way of services like TwitPicTwitpic reviews and 12seconds, but viewing them requires clicking off-site, and you don’t get the all-in-one view you do on Facebook.

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Twitter: A Sense of Engagement

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On TwitterTwitter reviews, fans can @the_real_shaq or @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher) to communicate with their favorite stars. Mind you, even though Shaq and Kutcher do respond to some people, it’s unlikely the vast majority of followers will ever get a personal response, simply because the volume is too overwhelming (much like the fan snail mail you might’ve sent as a kid).

FacebookFacebook reviews allows users to comment on each item that someone posts to their Page, as well as “Like” it and see other people that have done the same. In some ways, this is a better experience, as it provides an easy way to see all the people that are interacting with the stars’ content. But because there is no way to easily reply directly to individual commenters, the chances of actual interaction with the star are probably about nil.

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Twitter Probably Wins, But Maybe It Shouldn’t

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The sense that you’re interacting with your favorite stars is powerful, and why Twitter probably wins, despite Facebook having a more engaging environment for actually keeping up with whomever it is you care about.

But if you’re a realist – which I tend to be – I know that Shaq will probably never respond to my Tweets, so I might as well follow him on Facebook instead, where I can get a far better idea of his latest happenings and view it all in one place.

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Which Do You Prefer?

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Clearly, Facebook Pages - and the Facebook homepage - were re-designed with Twitter in mind. And when our favorite stars (or more aptly, their teams) utilize all of the features at their disposal, they can be a very fun experience. But it’s a lot different than Twitter, and that comes with both pluses and minuses. Which platform do you prefer for following and interacting with the famous? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Facebook Overtakes MySpace (Again)

MySpaceMySpace reviews is running out of surveys that still place it as the #1 social network in the US. After yielding the position to FacebookFacebook reviews earlier this month in stats released by Compete, today, the social network slips to second place in the latest numbers from Nielsen Online.

According to data from January, Facebook saw 62.4 million unique visitors, besting MySpace and its 60.6 million uniques for the first time in the survey. At the end of 2008, MySpace still held a narrow lead, with 58.4 million unique visitors in December compared to Facebook’s 55.2 million.

As for those engagement numbers that MySpace likes to cling to? It can no longer claim a lead there either – engagement fell to one hour, 35 minutes per user in January, down 32 percent from last year and barely more than half of Facebook’s two hours, 50 minutes per user.

We’ve been documenting the ascent of Facebook versus MySpace on a monthly (if not more frequent) basis, but for some longer-term perspective, check out this post from mid-2007 to see just how big a shift this represents. Back then, MySpace claimed 3x more traffic, 3x more engagement, and claimed to not only be America’s most popular social network, but its most popular website.

All of this despite Facebook’s ongoing efforts to shoot itself in the foot with News-Feedgate, Beacongate, and most recently TOSgate.

The latest stats for the top 20 US social networks are embedded below:

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Tags: facebook, myspace, social networking

Facebook Tests an Ad Network for Application Developers

FacebookFacebook reviews is testing its own advertising program for application developers. According to a post to the social network’s developer blog, “starting today you may notice a few applications occasionally serving Facebook Ads directly in their canvas pages as a part of a small alpha test. We will use the results of this test and other tests that we do to determine the best ways we can help you monetize.”

The company isn’t disclosing any details on the revenue sharing agreement, and notes that the test will dictate whether or not they decide to roll this program out to a wider audience of developers. But the move has to give pause to the dozens of ad networks that specialize in selling ads on Facebook apps, both to brand advertisers and other developers looking to attract more users to their applications.

Some of these companies – like VideoEgg and RockYou - already have huge installed bases – but, if Facebook moves in on application ads, they already have a large and growing ad sales force, and can offer the additional scale of the rest of the site and all of its demographic data, in addition to the apps.

That said, Facebook looks to be treading cautiously here. The news comes amidst a host of other monetization announcements for developers – including a wiki where they can share links to other monetization options, including ad networks. Nonetheless, this is a development to keep an eye on if you work within the walls of Facebook.

5 Facebook Features We’d Like to See Integrated Into Mobiles

The Wall Street Journal claims that Facebook is talking to Nokia, but also Palm and other mobile phone manufacturers, trying to get a deal to better integrate FacebookFacebook reviews’s services into mobile phones.

True, there’s a Facebook application for most smartphones out there today, but there are ways to make the entire mobile Facebook experience smoother, more intuitive, and better overall. Let’s go through some examples of what we’d like to see on our phones as far as Facebook integration goes.

Contact Merging

This one is a no-brainer; when you browse through your phone contacts, wouldn’t it be nice if you could choose whether you can send them an SMS, call them, or send them a message on Facebook? It definitely beats having to fire up a Facebook app and then going through your Facebook contacts.

Photos and Videos

Facebook’s current mobile apps already lead you instantly upload a photo to Facebook right after taking it. But, when you check out the photos on your mobile phone, provided you have an internet connection, it’d be nice if you were able to see the photos on your Facebook account right there in one integrated album. The same should also be true for video.

Music

Nokia is trying very hard to integrate various music features with their phones; their “Comes With Music” program lets you buy a Nokia phone with access to millions of audio tracks. There are a couple of ways your mobile music experience could be integrated with Facebook: sharing playlists with your friends is one example, Last.FM-style tracking of your listening habits is another.

Status Updates

Facebook offers a world of possibilities to its users, but most of them (that includes me) spend most of their time there reading people’s status updates. Which is not bad at all, with the ability to like or comment on them, Facebook has turned them into a FriendFeedFriendFeed reviews-style feed of useful info. I’d love to have the ability to receive status updates directly to my smartphone, push-style, especially if I were able to filter them to come only from certain persons or only if they have a certain amount of “likes.” Then again, I’d like to have this for FriendFeed also, but unfortunately FriendFeed isn’t big enough to negotiate a direct deal with Nokia or Palm.

Posted Items

So, you’re browsing on your mobile and you’ve found an interesting link, a photo or video you’d like to share on Facebook. Why not have the option to do that directly from the mobile browser with one click? Similar to that, if you’re writing a note, it’d be nice to have the option to save it to Facebook as a new note in addition to saving it to the phone’s memory?

Your Thoughts?

There’s plenty more that can be done, GPS-related features and events come to mind, for example. What Facebook features would you like to see integrated in your phone? Please share your opinions in the comments.

Social Media Break: 5 Facebook Apps to Combat Workday Blues

Let’s face it, work is a drag. You’re probably overwhelmed by your burgeoning inbox, trying to prep for a big meeting, or just plain overworked, under-recognized, and poorly paid. Maybe we can’t help you with any of that, but we do think you deserve a break.

From virtual worlds to brain expanders, we’re sharing 5 FacebookFacebook reviews applications that make our days just a little bit brighter. So close your office door, kick your shoes off, and cozy up to Facebook for an afternoon delight. You won’t regret it.

Social Media Break is supported by Cheetos Boredom Busters. Have your own social media boredom buster? Add it to the comments.

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YoVille

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A là the Sims, YoVille is a virtual world right within Facebook where you can create your character from a variety of physical features and clothing options, redecorate your apartment, and interact with other players.

The great thing about YoVille is that if your Facebook friends are already playing (and no doubt there will be at least a few), you can instantly interact with them in the YoVille Courtyard, visit their apartments or houses, chat, perform actions (like throwing a water balloon) to earn cash, and start parties.

You can waste spend your time making your room extravagant, exploring the YoVille village (there’s even a night club), or running around town making friends and chatting people up. You pretty much can’t go wrong with any option, and you just might find yourself spending more time with friends in YoVille’s virtual world than in your actual world. This former Sims addict knows what she’ll be doing after she finishes this post — see ya in YoVille?

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Friends For Sale

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Friends For Sale is so ridiculous that you can’t help but get intoxicated by this crazy popular Facebook game that’s kind of a big deal. With the app, essentially everyone on Facebook becomes a pet you can purchase for the right price.

See what your friends are selling for on the open market, buy them, give them a new and embarrassing nick name, put them to work, tag them for sale, and watch yourself move up the Friends For Sale ladder. It’s really pretty banal — until people start buying your pets out from under you — that’s when the fierce competitor in you kicks in and Friends For Sale starts to come alive.

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Who Has The Biggest Brain

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Who Has the Biggest Brain is reminiscent of Brain Age and is a fun way to challenge yourself or your friends to see who has the biggest brain. Games are relatively easy in concept (how hard can counting blocks be?), but as you play, the difficulty increases, and when time starts to run out you’ll notice that counting those blocks is actually a lot harder than you originally anticipated.

Of course since the game is right within Facebook, you can compare brain sizes, challenge people to duels, and see how you rank worldwide. Bonus, the game told me I’m the proud owner of a “geek” brain, as opposed to Brain Age telling me I’ve got the brain age of my grandma.

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Crusades

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Crusades is great way to distract yourself for ages while on Facebook. In this strategy game, players create a warrior name, pick a religion, and get plopped into a town with venues to visit, like the Sanctuary or Merchant Shop.

You’ll need to complete quests, which take up energy, to score gold, wood, and stone to be used to buy more weapons for battle — battles earn you experience, strip you of health, and may prove to be your purse’s friend or foe. Once you accrue enough gold, you can also build land to continue passively earning gold as you play. To earn a few extra bucks and build up a strong army, you may want to recruit warriors (ie. your Facebook friends) to your cause. Of course, the more you play the more extras you can unlock.

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Word Challenge

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Word Challenge is from the same people behind Who Has the Biggest Brain, which means it brings with it a flashy interface, fun game play experience, and paid pro options.

The game is very much in the style of Text Twist and tasks you to create as many words as possible from provided letters in a limited time frame. Of course, the bigger the words you can concoct the better your score, and some word combos might even put time back on your side. Word Challenge is pretty darn addicting, especially since the game automatically pits you against your Facebook friends, and knowing that you’re just 500 points away from out-ranking your rival is a huge incentive that may keep you playing for hours.

Social Media Break is supported by Cheetos Boredom Busters. Have your own social media boredom buster? Add it to the comments.

Facebook’s Monetization Plan? Polls. And Lots Of Them

FacebookFacebook reviews finally has a plan on how to monetize its vast user base: according to the Telegraph, they will allow market research companies to poll Facebook users on various details of their personal life.

Yes, that means your sexual orientation, your interests, your habits - everything you ever did on Facebook will be up for grabs. And Facebook will be making a lot of money out of it. However, it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds.

The initiative is called Engagement Ads, and it was demonstrated at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Basically, it’s the next step in market research; instead of those boring telephone polls which most people don’t bother to answer anymore, now we’ll have Facebook polls, which are only slightly less annoying, but it’s still better than, say, Facebook just selling access to their database to market research people. The polls will merely show up in your feed; whether you want to answer them or not is up to you.

At first glance this is nothing special: polls, right? You have those on every site in existence. However, what Facebook can do, is precisely target certain demographics; for example, it can serve a poll only to Canadian girls between 20 and 25 years of age. Not everyone on Facebook gives their real details, but I’m guessing the percentage of users who answer truthfully when asked about name, age, residence, and other personal info, is high enough for Facebook to have a solid foundation for market research.

Once again, this proves that Facebook has a much better monetization strategy than competing social networks; as many have guessed, they’re methodically turning their user base into a huge marketing tool. Remind me again, why am I a part of all this? Ah, yeah: because Facebook is fun and addictive. That’s how you do it, folks.

Mindblowing Numbers From the Obama Inauguration

FacebookFacebook reviews and CNN have released numbers for their live streaming partnership today, which allowed Facebook users to provide live commentary on the CNN feed.

The stats released, as of noon ET:

1. There were 200,000+ status updates through the Facebook integration on CNN.com

2. at that time, 3,000 people commented on the Facebook CNN feed per minute

3. Obama’s Facebook Fan Page has more than 4 million fans and in excess of 500,000 wall posts

As of 11.45am, CNN:

-had served 13.9 million live video streams globally since 6am

-had broken its all time total daily streaming record (from Election Day) of 5.3 million live streams.

Impressive numbers indeed.

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Updated Afternoon Numbers

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Update: Facebook sent us fresh numbers for the period up until 1.15pm ET. These totals include the morning figures:

1. 600,000 status updates posted through the CNN.com Live Facebook feed

2. Facebook averaged 4,000 status updates per minute during the broadcast

3. 8,500 status updates were posted during the first minute of Obama’s speech

4. “Millions” of people logged into Facebook during the broadcast

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Mid-Afternoon Numbers

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Update 2: these are the last numbers released by CNN on the day’s traffic.

As of 3:30pm ET Tuesday:

1. CNN had generated more than 136 million pageviews

2. CNN.com had served more than 21.3 million live video streams since 6am

3. At its peak, CNN served 1.3 million concurrent live streams (this occurred immediately before Obama’s speech)

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More Obama Inauguration Coverage from Mashable

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Top 10 Online Tools to Connect With the Obama Administration: A guide to the websites of the new administration.

Study: What Are Voter Expectations of How Obama Will Use the Web?: After a campaign that drew heavily on the Web and social media, voters expect the Obama administration to continue to leverage technology once in power.

How Will President Obama Use His Massive Social Media Influence?: Speculation on the possibilities of how Obama can leverage the reach he gained on social networks during the campaign.

Obama White House to Broadcast Weekly Radio Address on YouTube: The President’s Weekly Radio Address is getting an upgrade - it’ll now be available on YouTubeYouTube reviews.

Change.gov: Obama’s Campaign Slogan Becomes a Website: The Obama team moved quickly to establish a Web site for tracking cabinet appointments, finding jobs in the new administration, and sharing your own ideas for America.

Obama Dominates Content Sharing as Election Approaches: A pre-cursor to what was to come on Election Day - content relating to Obama lit up sites like DiggDigg reviews far more than content relating to rival John McCain.

Just Words? Obama Dominates Political Online Video Views : An early sign of Obama’s impending success - his domination of video views on YouTube.

Obama Does the Twitter: The Obama team was relatively early to TwitterTwitter reviews; by Election Day, the then Illinois Senator had become the site’s most popular user.

Obama Girl Gets a New Home at Next New Networks: The biggest viral star of the Obama campaign, Obama Girl cashed in on her success.

Obama Spoils the SMS Surprise and Still Hits a Triple: VP choice Joe Biden is announced via text message.

The Obama Inauguration Speech Generator: A fun mad-libs tool for creating your own inaugural address.

Make Your Own Obama Logo, With Your Face: Create a version of the famous Obama campaign logo, using your own face.

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Tags: cnn, facebook, obama, Presidential Inauguration