Facebook Adds Skype Video Chat
Facebook has announced a partnership with Skype to add video chat to the social networking site. The move is likely to be seen as a shot across the bow of Google, which recently launched a Facebook rival, Google+, also featuring video calling.
This is not the first time Facebook and Skype have teamed up – they already share some instant messaging tools. Skype is in the process of being bought by Microsoft, which is a major shareholder in Facebook.
The new video-call service was launched by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who also revealed that the site now had more than 750 million users. However, he said that the total number of active users was no longer a useful measure of the site’s success.
Instead, the amount of sharing – of photographs, videos and web links – was a better indication of how people engaged with the site, explained Mr Zuckerberg.
At launch, Facebook’s video chat service will only be able to connect two users face-to-face, whereas Google’s system allows group video calls, known as Hangouts. Mark Zuckerberg said that it was likely that other “premium” Skype functions would be added in future.
He also appeared to offer a back-handed compliment to Google+, saying that its creation was a vindication of Facebook’s vision for the social web. Industry analysts welcomed the announcement.
“Advertisers love anything that keeps users on Facebook for longer and that is something Facebook has been brilliant at – keeping people engaged with the platform for increasingly longer periods of time,” Susan Etlinger of the Altimeter Group told BBC News.
“It stands to reason that the longer you are on Facebook, the happier advertisers will be.”
In California, Skype chief executive Tony Bates welcomed the partnership, calling it a “long-term relationship” that could benefit both companies. At one point he had to correct Mr Zuckerberg on the subject of Skype’s ownership, reminding him that the Microsoft deal was not yet complete and still had to be cleared by regulators.
The tie-in was announced a week after Google announced its own social networking service, Google+.
“The two companies built these products separately and independently over a number of months but they will be compared directly,” said Ben Parr, editor-at-large of social media blog Mashable.com.
“They are going to be in more heated competition in the next year or so and you are going to hear a lot about who is going to win the social networking war – how does Google catch up, how does Facebook respond. This story isn’t going away.”
Source: BBC News
Posted in: Facebook, Social Networks, Web Video
Tech Review of 2010 by Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore
Interesting video interview from Bloomberg featuring Mashable’s CEO Pete Cashmore and his review of the ‘Top Tech’ of 2010 – a very good year for Facebook and Apple according to Cashmore.
Posted in: Social Media, Social Networks, Web/Tech, YouTube
Facebook Connections Map the World
Facebook intern Paul Butler has been poring through some of the data held by the social networking firm on its 500m members.
The map above is the result of his attempts to visualise where people live relative to their Facebook friends. Each line connects cities with pairs of friends. The brighter the line, the more friends between those cities.
After tweaking the graphic and data set it produced a “surprisingly detailed map of the world,” he said in a blog post.
“Not only were continents visible, certain international borders were apparent as well,” he wrote.
“What really struck me, though, was knowing that the lines didn’t represent coasts or rivers or political borders, but real human relationships.”
However, large chunks of the world are missing, such as China and central Africa, where Facebook has little presence.
Source: BBC News
Posted in: Facebook, Social Media, Social Networks
Local Deals Come to Facebook Places
The rumors are apparently true — at an event today at Facebook headquarters, the social networking site revealed that it will, in fact, be launching a deals service for Facebook Places. Watch out, Foursquare.
Deals is a new application within Facebook’s iPhone app (which just got a refresh) that lets you find deals at nearby businesses.
There are four types of deals: Individual Deals (for discounts, free stuff or other rewards), Friend Deals (where you and a pal claim something together), Loyalty Deals (for the regulars) and Charity Deals (which allow you to donate to a cause).
The service is only available in the refreshed iPhone app, but Android users can access deals via touch.facebook.com (as they did when they wanted to use Places before the Android refresh).
So how does it work? Users can find deals by looking for the yellow icon when go to check in using Places (see below). Simply click on the deal to claim it, and then show it to the cashier to cash in. Deals claimed will be shared on your News Feed, which will allow your friends to reap the same benefits if they so choose.
Right now, Deals will be rolling out in the U.S. over the next few days, but Facebook says it will be expanding over time.
Currently, a ton of businesses are offering deals, including Chipotle, GAP and 24 Hour Fitness. You can check out more details on the Facebook blog. Facebook has also posted a video to show other merchants how they can start using the Deals platform.
This announcement is sure to be a big game-changer when it comes to the future of geo-location services.
Source: Mashable
Posted in: Facebook, Social Media, Social Networks
