Posted by on under gross national happiness, status updates, millis, dataset, prototype, citizens, developers, united states | 
With over 300 million users and 40 million daily status updates, Facebook has an immense amount of data that could potentially be used to gauge any number of things, from the hottest up-and-coming bands to the most discussed political issues. Earlier this week some of the site's engineers decided to use this dataset to measure something a bit more fundamental: happiness. Dubbed
Gross National Happiness, this new
prototype application does its best to determine if Facebook users in the United States are happy or sad. Here's how the application's developers describe it:
...Grouped together, the status updates of millions of Facebook users from every demographic in the nation can work together to say something about how we as a nation are doing. Measuring how well-off, happy or satisfied with life the citizens of a nation are is part of the Gross National Happiness movement.
Tagi: gross national happiness, status updates, millis, dataset, prototype, citizens, developers, united states
Posted by on under status updates, browser cookies, facebook, phe, mth, fan page, new features, third party, photo, privacy policy |
Facebook introduced some
changes to its privacy policy today in advance of new features which will be rolling out soon, perhaps during its
f8 developer conference next month. Some of the changes foreshadow new features dealing with location, taking advantage of the expanded "Everyone" settings, syncing contacts on your mobile phone with your Facebook contacts, and sharing your personal data with select Facebook Connect partners. The most significant change seems like it could allow third-party sites to
automatically sign you into Facebook Connect just based on your browser cookies. Another change sets up new location features. Facebook previously
added some location language to its privacy policy back in October, but it's now tweaked it again. It looks like not only will it be possible to associate a specific location with status updates, photo uploads, and other posts, but Facebook will also make it possible to add a geo-component Facebook pages, such as one for a store or a restaurant. So a link to a fan page for a store could also carry with it where it is located.
Tagi: status updates, browser cookies, facebook, phe, mth, fan page, new features, third party, photo, privacy policy
Posted by on under facebook, mobile carriers, status updates, news feed, ly, free access, lt, blog, photos, feed status, data fees |
Facebook just got a lot more accessible to international users. The social network has
launched 0.facebook.com, a special mobile-only site that can be accessed free of charge on select carriers. The lightweight site omits photos but includes core functionality like News Feed, status updates, profile Walls and messaging. And most important, Facebook has partnered with over 50 mobile carriers to offer free access to the site, without any data fees. Not to be confused with the now
defunct Facebook Lite, Facebook 0 was originally
announced back in February (when it was called 'Zero'). Facebook has presumably been hammering out deals with carriers since then, and it has quite a few on board with more on the way (you can see a list of countries supported in Facebook's blog
post or the table below).
Tagi: facebook, mobile carriers, status updates, news feed, ly, free access, lt, blog, photos, feed status, data fees
Posted by on under wder, cloey, angelina jolie, status updates, new tools, celebrities, real time, spain, celebrity |
In the age of location updates, status updates, and tweets, it's a wonder that more people aren't out there stalking celebrities. I mean, people were doing that long before any of these services existed, and these new tools make it significantly easier. And now comes another new tool to make celebrity real time tracking even easier:
JustSpotted. Obviously, they're not positioning the tool to be used for stalking. Instead, it's meant to give fans an idea of what their favorite celebrities are up to at any given moment. Oh look, George Clooney is in Spain right now. Angelina Jolie is in France. And it's being billed as a way for celebrities to better connect with their fans.
Tagi: wder, cloey, angelina jolie, status updates, new tools, celebrities, real time, spain, celebrity
