Video – How to Get the New Facebook Timeline Now
So the last couple of weeks have been pretty manic from a Facebook perspective – numerous updates across the platform including the big news about the all new Facebook ‘Timeline’ replacing the current profile layout.
The new timeline is due to be rolled out across accounts from 04th October 2011 – but if you’re super keen and want to upgrade to the new timeline now, you can – it’s pretty straightforward and this great video walks you through how to do it.
I did it a couple of days ago, my initial reaction to the new timeline is really positive, I’m a big fan of chronology as a way of organising things anyway, so this layout really feels comfortable for me – it’ll be interesting to see how it goes down with other Facebook users, maybe it’ll even encourage some people to switch to Google+ which is now open to all.
What do you think about the new Facebook timeline?
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
China Rebuffs US Internet Demands
According to the BBC, China has denounced US criticism of its internet controls, saying it could harm ties between the two countries.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Thursday for China to lift restrictions on the internet.
Mrs Clinton also urged Beijing to investigate Google’s complaints that cyber attacks had originated in China.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said the US should “respect the facts” and stop making “groundless accusations against China”.
“The US has criticised China’s policies to administer the internet, and insinuated that China restricts internet freedom,” he said in a statement posted on the foreign ministry website.
Censored searches
“This runs contrary to the facts and is harmful to China-US relations.”
An article in the Communist Party’s Global Times English language news website called Mrs Clinton’s criticisms “information imperialism”.
Source: BBC News
Posted in: General
Google Adds Twitter Real-Time Search Results
According to this BBC article Twitter has signed deals to put messages sent via the microblogging service into the Microsoft and Google search indexes.
The deals will see messages, or tweets, show up in Bing and Google search results almost as soon as they show up on Twitter.
Microsoft has moved quickly to set up a stand-alone Twitter search page accessible via its Bing site.
Google said its Twitter search service would debut within the next few months.
While some parts of Twitter already show up in some search results they tend to be for individual accounts or messages that have been archived. Both deals will take a feed of all public Twitter streams to make them searchable almost as soon as they are sent.
Read the complete article here.
Posted in: General
Google launches internet browser called 'Chrome'
Yesterday Google launched an open source web browser to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox.
The browser is designed to be fast, and to cope with the next generation of web applications that rely on graphics and multimedia.
Called Chrome, it will launch as a beta for Windows machines in 100 countries, with Mac and Linux versions to come.
The new browser will help Google take advantage of developments it is pushing online in rich web applications that are challenging traditional desktop programs.
The launch of a beta version of Chrome represents Google’s latest assault on Microsoft’s dominance of the PC business. The firm’s Internet Explorer program dominates the browser landscape, with 80% of the market.
For further detail, read ‘Google takes on Microsoft with browser’ from Tuesday’s Times.
Posted in: General
Move over Google…Yandex is the top internet search engine in Russia
So you think that Google is the world’s favourite internet search engine? Not in every country so I’ve learned!
In Russia, Yandex is the leading search engine, with 55% of the market compared to Google’s 21%. Check out what Wikipedia has to say about Yandex.
According to an article in today’s Sunday Times, Yandex – set up by mathematician Arkady Volozh eight years ago, is now worth an estimated £2.5 billion and is the world’s second most popular non-English search engine after China’s Baidu.
Yandex is also planning to open an office in Silicon Valley, headed by one of Yahoo’s former senior vice presidents and this autumn will very likely be floated on the Nasdaq exchange – making it the largest IPO yet in Russian technology.
Posted in: General
Talent Management Google Style
One company that seems to excel at talent management is Google.
Liane Hornsey, Director, EMEA Human Resources and Staffing told a CIPD conference in London “We are 100% reliant on talent therefore we only want the best people. Google is very hard to get into. We get 1,000 applications for every vacancy, every candidate goes through at least four interviews to get a job.”
She explained that once Google gets the right candidate they make sure they keep them. “We make our people feel important. As soon as the contract is signed we send them a present, then before they join we take them out to lunch and on their first day balloons and a cake welcome them.”
Hornsey says newcomers, also known as Nooglers, are assigned a buddy, have weekly meetings to discuss issues and training needs and attend support groups. Once working for Google, employees spend only 70% of their time on core jobs, with 20% on improvement activity and 10% doing anything they want.
“Many organisations make a mistake with training, they think training is the same thing as development – no, it isn’t. Development is about giving people the time to learn” said Hornsey. “At Google, talent is not just about the top people, it is everyone, it’s about broad succession planning.”
Posted in: General
