Facebook plays host to more than 250 billion user photos

Facebook recently published a white paper concerning Internet.org, the social network’s plan to get the rest of the world online with the help of Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung. In it, the company shared some rather interesting statistics related to the amount of media shared on the site.

Facebook testing auto-play for videos, precursor to video ads

Facebook is in the process of testing a new mobile feature for Android and iOS users that will automatically play videos embedded in a News Feed as you scroll through it. The clips will initially play silently and if you don’t want to watch it, just keep scrolling. Tapping the video will take it full screen and enable audio.

The feature is only being tested with a small number of users at first to help iron out any bugs. It’s worth noting that auto-play videos will be limited to those posted by individuals, musicians and bands – no YouTube embeds or the like are allowed. Brand pages are also being excluded for now, we’re told.

Early feedback on the new feature is mostly positive as videos are said to load quickly, even over a wireless signal. Clips played seamlessly while being moved around in the feed and once a video dips off the screen, it stops playing to avoid excessive data usage. Overall, the experience is said to be smooth and natural.

Facebook is clearly peddling this as an easier way to watch videos on the social network but the obvious takeaway is that it’s simply a precursor to video advertisements.

Back in July, it was reported that Facebook was planning to launch 15-second television-style ads that would sell for between $1 million to $2.5 million per day. That would translate into an additional (and likely significant) revenue stream for the social network with companies like YouTube paving the way.

Hacking Facebook Account

Can you ever imagine that a single text message is enough to hack any Facebook account without user interaction or without using any other malicious stuff like Trojans, phishing, keylogger etc. ?

Today we are going to explain you that how a UK based Security Researcher, "fin1te" is able to hack any Facebook account within a minute by doing one SMS.

Facebook shared albums allow multiple users to upload photos

Facebook has unearthed a new feature that lets multiple users contribute to a single photo album. The creator of the album can choose to add up to 50 contributors who can each upload up to 200 photos of their own to the album. If granted permission from the album creator, contributors can then invite others to the album as well.

8.7% of Facebook users aren't real people, jury's out on the other 91.3%

In its first public earnings report last week, Facebook revealed that its active userbase increased 29% on-year to 955 million people, with about 552 million using the service daily, up 32%. However, according to information released in its 10-Q filing this week, approximately 8.7% of active Facebook accounts (83.09 million) don't represent real people.

That figure has sharply increased from March's pre-IPO estimate of 5 to 6% accounts, though CNET says this is likely the result of Facebook adjusting the way it calculates bogus profiles. The site also adds that someone can qualify as an "active" Facebook user if they use the service to login on other sites, but don't necessarily visit the social network.

The document shows that 4.8% of Facebook's monthly active users (MAUs) are duplicates or an extra account someone created in addition to their main profile, whether by mistake, to cheat in social games or for various other reasons. This violates the site's terms of service and Facebook says it's constantly trying to detect and suppress such behavior.

Another 2.4% of the MAUs are said to be "misclassified," meaning someone created a personal profile for a non-human such as a pet or business. These types of entities are permitted on Facebook, but only as "Pages," which differ from standard profiles. The remaining 1.5% of MAUs are deemed "undesirable" for nefarious activities such as spamming.

This news follows days after a small startup publicly withdrew from Facebook, claiming that 80% of the site's ad clicks were from bots. The social network's $38 share price has seen a steady decline since its public debut in May. Shares fell below $20 for the first time Thursday, though the market closed at $20.04, down 4.02% from Wednesday.

Startup discovers 80% of Facebook ad clicks coming from bots

A small startup known as Limited Run has publically decided to withdraw their presence from Facebook over concerns about the social network’s advertising practices. According to Limited Run, only 20 percent of ad clicks actually come from real people; the remaining 80 percent are all bot-generated.

The company became suspicious while testing Facebook’s ad system for the launch of their new brand. During these tests, they noticed that the social network was charging them for clicks but they could only verify that 20 percent of those clicks were actually showing up on their site. They tried multiple analytics services which all showed the same results.

Limited Run even went so far as to develop their own analytics software. Data from this program showed that JavaScript was disabled on 80 percent of clicks originating from Facebook. According to a post on their Facebook page (which will soon be deleted), if a person clicking an ad doesn’t have JavaScript enabled, it’s very difficult to verify the click. In their years of experience, only 1-2 percent of users surf without JavaScript, not 80 percent.

To further back up these claims, they built a page logger to keep track of each click coming into their site from Facebook. This data indeed showed that 80 percent of the clicks they were paying for were from bots.

Limited Run co-founder Tom Mango told TechCrunch that his company reached out to Facebook but all they received were canned responses. He further noted that they spent nearly a month testing and confirming all of their data just to be sure but he doesn’t blame the social network for what happened.

Mango says it could just as easily be a competitor running a DOS attack to drive up their advertising rates but he wishes Facebook would at least acknowledge the situation or attempt to do something to stop it.

Facebook closing Face.com APIs and Klik app

Facebook acquired facial recognition technology company Face.com last monthin a deal that was rumored to be valued around $100 million. The social network is already making headway with the new purchase by closing some of the key products from the 2007 startup, presumably to begin integrating features directly into Facebook.

Zuckerberg and company are shutting down the facial recognition APIs used by Face.com over the next 30 days, much to the displeasure of developers that used the APIs. These partners have taken to Twitter andHacker News to voice their opinions, most of which aren’t terribly pleasant. After all, it was only a few weeks ago that these same developers were told that the company would continue to support them.

In addition to the APIs, Klik has also been removed from the App Store. This app allowed users to automatically tag their friends in photos uploaded to Facebook and had roughly 40,000 active monthly Facebook users. Klik users have until July 20 to download any content store within the app at which time the company will dispose of any and all data; it won’t simply be migrated to Facebook.

Face.com doesn’t rule out the possibility of working with developers in the future as part of Facebook’s developer network, however.

In the meantime, developers are looking elsewhere for alternative facial recognition APIs. The Next Web highlights this API from Lambda Labs as an early frontrunner although it’s still in private beta at this point.

Facebook "want" button coming soon, says developer

Facebook already allows members to express themselves in a number of different ways, from posting basic status updates and liking things to sharing what songs you are listening to and even sharing your organ donor status. But according to developer Tom Waddington, the social networking company has added a new “want” tag to their Javascript software development kit.

Inside Facebook points out that the button is not publicly listed on the company’s Facebook developer site alongside other plugins. Waddington says that the button will be a part of Facebook’s Open Graph, only showing up on items that are marked as a product. For example, you could “want” a new car but you wouldn’t be able to “want” your favorite band or movie star.

A similar function already exists as a third party app but users have to authorize them to create stories on their Timeline and News Feed. Many tech savvy users shy away from installing any third party apps on the social site out of fear that an app could end up compromising their account. Getting rid of the third party app and implementing the feature directly into Facebook will no doubt result in greater participation.

Adding the feature will allow Facebook to collect even more data about a user’s interests, something that could be used for advertising purposes. The move would also assist e-commerce fan sites as those companies would no longer have to create their own apps to accomplish the same goal.

No word yet on when exactly this new feature is scheduled to roll out.

UK's Office of Fair Trading to investigate $1bn Instagram deal

The UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to investigate Facebook's April announcement of its planned $1 billion purchase of Instagram due to concerns that the social networking giant could unfairly exert control over the competition by restricting the uploading of pictures via its smartphone apps, the Guardian has reported.

Instagram started back in October 2010 as an iPhone app enabling users to take pictures and then upload them to various social networking sites, or even email them. The service proved so popular among iPhone owners that the free app hit 30 million users in less than 18 months.

The OFT has the power to investigate any merger exceeding £70 million ($110m) in annual revenue, or any deal that would result in a combined market share of 25% or more. Because Facebook has offices in the UK, it does potentially give the British regulatory authority the right to investigate the merger, although the latter was cautious to note that it still needed to clarify jurisdiction.

Whilst its possible no further action will be taken, the OFT is concerned that Facebook could potentially restrict what sites Instagram app users can upload pictures to in a bid to limit competition, or restrict access to Instagram from other apps. It has asked interested parties to comment on the deal by July 5.

The OFT has until August 23 to conclude whether it has jurisdiction over the deal. Photo app developers and competing social networks are invited to lodge their comments and complaints by July 5. If a case appears strong enough to pursue, the OFT can seek undertakings from both parties to clarify whether the deal would have a negative impact on competitors, or refer the entire bid to the UK Competition Commission.

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission is also routinely investigating the deal, a process required for any deal exceeding $68.2 million, and will require close competitors to comment on the acquisition.

"We'll continue to work closely with the OFT and look forward to answering any questions that arise," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

Source : http://techspot.com

RIM to split handset and messaging services into two companies

Research in Motion has been fighting an uphill battle to remain relevant in the handset market for a number of years but according to one report, they will soon concede defeat. RIM is planning to divide their handset and messaging service into two separate entities and sell the handset division, according to Gizmodo as first reported by the Sunday Times (login required).

The newspaper claims that RIM would keep the messaging and data capabilities like BBM, BIS and BES but would license out their usage to third parties. This idea to license BBM has reportedly been tossed around before with some inside the company thinking it would help brand recognition while others believe it would give customers yet another reason to switch to Android or the iPhone.

The newspaper suggests a few other options as well, including the possibility of selling the business to Amazon or Facebook, handing over the messaging division to Google or Apple if the price is right or continue to remain a single entity but sell a stake in RIM to a large company like Microsoft or someone else with handset ambitions.

Forbes points out that none of these ideas are new and some are pretty comical at the core, like Microsoft investing in RIM. After all, they have Windows Phone and Nokia to work with. Adding RIM would seemingly do next to nothing for their handset division.

We’re not sure what will eventually happen to RIM but they certainly can’t continue on their current path without changes for too much longer.

Source : http://techspot.com

Facebook buys facial recognition technology company Face.com

Facebook has acquired facial recognition technology company Face.com for an undisclosed amount of money. Such a deal was rumored to be in the works last month for around $100 million, making Face.com the first post-IPO acquisition by the social networking giant.


Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, Face.com was created in 2007 and specializes in facial recognition using photos. The company’s KLIK app for smartphones allows users to automatically tag their friends in photos uploaded to Facebook. Third-party tracking software AppData reports that KLIK has 40,000 active monthly Facebook users.


Face.com claims to be serious when it comes to user privacy as they require customers to feed information before they can use the software to recognize faces. Furthermore, only contacts that are on a person’s friends list can be recognized and tagged.


“We love building products, and like our friends at Facebook, we think that mobile is a critical part of people’s lives as they both create and consume content, and share content with their social graph,” said Face.com CEO Gil Hirsch. “By working with Facebook directly, and joining their team, we’ll have more opportunities to build amazing products that will be employed by consumers — that’s all we’ve ever wanted to do.”


Since Face.com already works closely with Facebook, some feel that the purchase was more of a staff acquisition than anything else. What still remains unclear is how this will affect Yandex, the Moscow-based search engine that purchased an 18.4 percent share of Face.com for $4.3 million in late 2010. They weren’t mentioned in the blog post on Face.com regarding the buyout.


Stock in the social networking company is up $1.54 as of writing and nearly $3 since opening trades on Friday. The deal is still pending but is expected to close in the coming weeks.

Facebook giving away 200,000 sets of Timeline business cards for free

Facebook is giving away Timeline personal cards for a limited time while supplies last in an effort to help users promote their profiles and a new partnership with moo.com. 200,000 sets of 50 cards each (5,000 per day) are being handed out absolutely free of charge on a first come, first serve basis.

Here’s how you can get a set of Timeline cards for yourself.

1. Visit your Facebook Timeline profile.

2. Click the About link under the basic personal information section.

3. Navigate to the Contact Info section and mouse over the small business card icon.

4. You should see a message from Facebook that says, “We’ve partnered with moo.com to make it easy to print your very own set of custom business cards. The first box of cards is on us.”

5. Click Print Cards to proceed.

With only 200,000 free sets of cards available, it’ll likely be pretty tough to get a free set considering the site has over 800,000 million registered members. As such, you can optionally visit moo.com and order a set for yourself right away. Prices start at $15 for 50 cards including delivery.

The customizable Timeline cards may seem like a silly idea on first thought but print cards are a great way to network with new contacts, especially if you have a business of your own that you are looking to promote in a new and creative way. Thinking outside of the box is one of the best ways to garner attention for yourself.

Google earns top spot in Nielsen's Tops of 2011

Google narrowly edged out Facebook as the top Internet destination for US web surfers in 2011. The data was compiled by market researcher Nielsen as part of their Tops of 2011: Digital series that also includes the top social media sites, video destinations and smartphone devices.

Google recorded an average of 153.4 million unique visitors each month in 2011, just ahead of Facebook with 137.6 million monthly unique. Yahoo, MSN / Windows Live / Bing and YouTube rounded out the top five with 130.1 million, 115.8 million and 106.6 million visitors, respectively. Data was collected from January through October 2011 on home and work computers.

Facebook earned the top spot as the most popular social network / blog by a landslide at 137.6 million average monthly unique visitors. Blogger ranked second at 45.7 million followed by Twitter, WordPress and Myspace with 23.5 million, 20.3 million and 17.9 million each. The same set of data and collection process was used to record these stats.

YouTube outpaced all other contenders as the most popular destination for online videos with 111.1 million monthly visitors. VEVO ranked second with 34.5 million uniques followed by Facebook with 29.8 million. Hulu came in seventh place with 13.1 million unique and Netflix ranked 10th with only 7.4 million.

Apple ranked first in the smartphone manufacturers list with a 29 percent market share. HTC earned the silver medal with a 21 percent share followed by RIM at 17 percent. Samsung and Motorola both held an 11 percent market share during the data collection timeframe of August to October 2011.

Facebook's Timeline feature goes live worldwide

Facebook has officially begun rolling out the new Timeline feature to its entire 800+ million user base. Announced in September, the move represents a complete reconceptualization of profile pages, where instead of just the most recent updates, users will see a timeline of life events containing photos and other updates that stretches back to when you joined Facebook. As Zuckerberg puts it, Timeline is the story of your life.

Anyone viewing your Timeline can click back to any year where there are updates and see what was going on at the time. Facebook automatically selects the most important updates and highlights them on your profile page, though users can of course remove certain updates and highlight others that might be important to them.

As you would expect, the idea of reviving old -- and potentially embarrassing moments -- in their profile pages hasn't sat well with some users. In an effort to appease critics, the social network is giving users a seven-day review period to tweak their Timeline before it goes public for viewing by others on December 21st. (Update: Facebook's PR people wrote to clarify that December 21st is not a deadline for everyone to review and set up their Timeline. The seven-day review period starts counting whenever users opt-in to the new Timeline profile. There's no announced date for when Facebook will make the change mandatory but the opt-in period will apparently last for a few weeks.)

Users can get the new profile page now, by going to the Introducing Timeline page and clicking "Get it Now".

Facebook first rolled out Timeline in New Zealand last week in order to monitor speed and performance before a global rollout. Before that it was also available to developers -- as well as faux developers interested in trying out the feature early. According to Facebook, over one million people signed up for the beta.

Facebook fixes bug that exposed private photos

The apparent result of flawed design, Facebook's flagging feature is to blame for allowing any user to view private photos contained in any account. The flaw affected everyone, including Facebook's very own CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook promptly disabled the flagging feature and has since fixed the issue.

A forum user from bodybuilding.com has been widely credited for exposing the flaw. As it turns out, no expertise was required to take advantage of the exploit. Here's how it worked:

First, find a user and report them for having an inappropriate profile picture. During the reporting process, Facebook would display that person's photos, completely disregarding their privacy settings. If this person was not on your friends list, you could only view scaled down photos. If this person was on your friends list already but had blocked you from seeing certain photos, you could view these pictures at their full resolution.

The issue was resolved shortly after Facebook released the following statement:

Earlier today, we discovered a bug in one of our reporting flows that allows people to report multiple instances of inappropriate content simultaneously. The bug allowed anyone to view a limited number of another user's most recently uploaded photos irrespective of the privacy settings for these photos. This was the result of one of our recent code pushes and was live for a limited period of time. Upon discovering the bug, we immediately disabled the system, and will only return functionality once we can confirm the bug has been fixed.

The privacy of our user's data is a top priority for us, and we invest significant resources in protecting our site and the people who use it. We hire the most qualified and highly-skilled engineers and security professionals at Facebook, and with the recent launch of our Security Bug Bounty Program (http://www.facebook.com/whitehat/ ), we continue to work with the industry to identify and resolve legitimate threats to help us keep the site safe and secure for everyone.

While facing the exaggerated threat of being taken down on November 5, most analysts seem to agree that Facebook's security was top-notch. Despite Facebook's hardened security against hackers, there have been a number of seemingly blunderous oversights like the attachment bugwhich resulted in a slew of pornography and macabre photos, unauthorized users posting to public profiles and measures taken against data mining not living up to expectations.

As the statement mentions, the company currently offers a bounty program, paying people who report vulnerabilities up to $7000. I wonder if the person who shared this on bodybuilding.com missed his or her chance to cash in?

Facebook reaches agreement in privacy case with the FTC

Facebook has settled its ongoing privacy dispute with the Federal Trade Commission after being charged with failing to keep promises it made regarding the privacy of its users, and for deceiving them. Resolving the dispute and agreeing acceptable terms is a major step forward as the company prepares for its estimated $100 billion initial public offering next April.

The FTC investigated multiple claims centering around the social network's privacy policies. The commission accused Facebook of systematically "invading" user privacy on seven specific counts. They specifically addresed Facebook's claims about its privacy policies that were "unfair, deceptive, and violated federal law."

Under the proposed aggrement, Facebook will have to obtain consent from users before making any changes to how their information is shared with other users or advertisers. This means users will have to opt-in to any new features or privacy settings before the changes can take place within their profile, which is in contrast to the current approach that requires them to proactively opt out from anything they are not comfortable with in the social networking site. The company will also be required to undergo an independent review of its privacy policies bi-annually for the next 20 years, the results of which will be inspected by the FTC.

"Facebook is obligated to keep the promises about privacy that it makes to its hundreds of millions of users," said Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the FTC. "Facebook's innovation does not have to come at the expense of consumer privacy. The FTC action will ensure it will not."

In a blog post published yesterday, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gave his thoughts on his commitment to the Facebook community: "Overall, I think we have a good history of providing transparency and control over who can see your information. That said I'm the first to admit that we've made a bunch of mistakes."

He further commented, "In particular, I think that a small number of high profile mistakes, like Beacon four years ago and poor execution as we transitioned our privacy model two years ago, have often overshadowed much of the good work we've done [...] Privacy principles are written very deeply into our code. Even before the agreement announced by the FTC today, Facebook had already proactively addressed many of the concerns the FTC raised."

Facebook identifies violence, porn imagery culprits

Today, Facebook announced they have identified the unscrupulous individuals responsible for propagating objectionable material across their user's accounts. The questionable photos and videos included beastiality, excessive violence and pornography. No details were provided by Facebook regarding the identities of the perpetrators.

A Facebook spokesperson stated, "In addition to the engineering teams that build tools to block spam we also have a dedicated enforcement team that has already identified those responsible and is working with our legal team to ensure appropriate consequences follow".

Being labeled by some media outlets as the "Guy Fawkes virus", the script reportedly exploits a browser vulnerability which allows the malware to post unsavory images, videos and links under the afflicted user's Facebook account. Please bear in mind the name brewing for this attack is misleading as there are no clear indications that Anonymous was involved, aside from the bogus Guy Fawkes day attack that never materialized. Anonymous has denied ties to the incident.

The attack itself is based on a self-XSS vulnerability exploit. The exploit reportedly works on most Internet browsers, although Google Chrome users will be pleased to know they are unaffected. The attack spreads itself through spam with links, often posing as a "tagged photo" message or involving celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Justin Beiber to entice users to click. It is said the origin of problem began when less sophisticated users were asked to paste a malicious line of JavaScript in their Internet browser's address bar. Since then, it has spread to an unknown number of Facebook users.

As many of you may be aware, if the true originators of this attack took any steps to obfuscate themselves, they could be very difficult or even impossible to track down. However, doing so successfully is not without precedent. Facebook recently managed to catch the spam king, Sanford Wallace, who surrendered to the FBI after a two-year investigation.

If you or someone you know has been affected, there are three basic, generic steps to take to stop most attacks like this. First, keep your browser up-to-date. In this case, as usual, Chrome was unaffected. Certain browser extensions can help keep you safe too, like no-script and adblock. Secondly, remove any Facebook apps tied to your account, especially those you do not fully trust or use. And lastly, scan your computer for malware and virus infections by using tools like Malwarebytes (free version is available) and Microsoft Security Essentials, a completely free virus scanner.

Facebook, Fox News survive threats by Anonymous

It has been long rumored that Anonymous, the well-known hacktivist group, was planning to target Facebook on November 5th. Fortunately, for Facebook users everywhere, Guy Fawkes day has come and passed without incident.

There has been much skepticism over whether an attack on Facebook could be carried out at all. In late October, a supposed Anonymous member upped the ante by lumping Fox into the mix.

Anonymous expressed their discontent with Facebook after the company made a series of privacy blunders a few years ago. Since then, Anonymous has criticized Facebook for its complex privacy controls and the "opt-out" nature of its service. The hacktivist group has also denounced Fox recently for their purportedly biased coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Anonymous typically uses DDoS attacks to take down websites, a method that leverages the power of millions of computers to overwhelm a specific target. Of course, Facebook sees hundreds of millions of users active on a daily basis, so it is difficult to imagine Anonymous capable of deploying an effective DDoS attack against Facebook. Afterall, one website's DDoS nightmare probably looks like Facebook's off-peak, hourly traffic.

The other well-known attack vector for Anonymous is SQL-injection. In its most basic form, SQL-injection can be as simple as typing escaped code into a submission form and hitting submit. Such attacks can be far more sophisticated that this, however, the ultimate always being to run arbitrary code on the target server.

Despite the regular publicity Anonymous receives and although it offers various channels through which it provides information, Anonymous is still, well, anonymous. This makes it difficult for people to know who really represents Anonymous. As a result, anyone can claim to be a member and post a video on YouTube, make a tweet about the next AnonOp (planned target), create a blog, upload a new document at Pastebin and so on. This seems to pose a uniquely mutual problem for both Anonymous and news media alike.

Facebook to build massive server farm near Arctic Circle

Facebook will be building a massive server farm just 62 miles south of the Arctic Circle in Luleå, northern Sweden. The facility will include three 300,000 square feet server halls, according to the Washington Post.

This will be the first time that Facebook has built a data center outside of the US, which has become a trend for large American companies as of late. In 2007, Microsoft looked to build a server farm in Siberia but the deal was never finalized. Google is currently building a similar data center in Hamima in southern Finland.

Key to Facebook choosing Luleå is the cold climate. A large server farm requires massive amounts of cold air to keep operating temperatures down. The average temperature in the area is around 2C (35.6F) and the temperature has not been above 30C (86F) for more than 24 hours since 1961. The plan is to pump in cool air from outside to aid in temperature management.

Despite the ability to use natural cool air, the server farm will still require a lot of power; 120 MW to be exact. This will primarily be supplied by the Lule River which produces twice as much hydroelectric power as the Hoover Dam. The reliability of the local power grid didn’t hurt matters, either.

Facebook Director of Site Operations Tom Furlong is overseeing the project and was responsible for selecting the site among more than 40 other locations. Facebook users in Europe and surrounding areas should expect a performance boost once the new data center goes online in 2014.