Creative SEO News UK, Search Engine Optimisation & Search Marketing News » facebook

Facebook Real Time Status Search to challenge Google, but what about Privacy?

Creative SEO — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:53:04 +0000

Facebook have announced the launch of a new search facility which will allow users to search the last 30days of Real Time status updates for users who have public profiles.

“You now will be able to search the last 30 days of your News Feed for status updates, photos, links, videos and notes being shared by your friends and the Facebook Pages of which you’re a fan. If people have chosen to make their content available to everyone, you also will be able to search for their status updates, links and notes, regardless of whether or not you are friends. Search results will continue to include people’s profiles as well as relevant Facebook Pages, groups and applications.” Taken from the Facebook blog.

Facebooks existing search is terrible and the news of a new real time search facility will be a great addition to the service and open Facebook to new opportunities. Our biggest concern is the content of the status updates. Unlike Twitter, Facebook is a very personal service; users tend to be a lot more open and personal with their individual status comments. With Twitter you are aware that you are Tweeting to your selected audience, it feels a lot more public, but with Facebook a user could be under the misconception that they were only Tweeting to their immediate friends, especially if the user has not correctly updated their privacy setting. This could result in personal status updates being publicly viewed. Obviously this is an existing issue with the service as it stands now, but a new search could massively increase this problem, bringing unwanted exposure to unknowing Facebook users.

Real Time search is a great addition to Facebook and we are really keen to test the service as soon as it’s available.

Article by Creative SEO UK

Twitter, Google & Facebook Denial of Service Attacks part of Russia-Georgia crisis.

Creative SEO — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:52:07 +0000

A Facebook executive has confirmed that the recent downtime issues and Denial of Service Attacks on Facebook, LiveJournal, YouTube, Google and Blogger were all part of the Russia-Georgia crisis and were targeted at silencing one man from reporting.
A blogger, based in the Republic of Georgia, with username Cyxymu, was the victim of a simultaneous attack on the bloggers personal Social Networking accounts, according to Facebook’s chief security officer Max Kelly. The claim reinforces reports that social networking sites are being dragged into the Georgia-Russia crisis for allowing users to report on the issues.

Max Kelly told CNet. “It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard. We’re actively investigating the source of the attacks and we hope to be able to find out the individuals involved in the back end and to take action against them if we can.”

Google, whose infrastructure protect its sites from being taken down by the recent activity are quoted as saying:
“We are aware that a handful of non-Google sites were impacted by a DOS attack this morning, and are in contact with some affected companies to help investigate this attack. Google systems prevented substantive impact to our services.”

The internet is a portal for free speech and allows bloggers to share their opinions without restriction of content. Political propaganda and crisis information is freely available to view and publish on the internet without political censorship, but this obviously poses a threat to political activists. Are we seeing the start of a new wave of Cyber Warfare and will social networking sites need to offer more hardened security to protect against such attacks?

Article by Creative SEO – Search engine consultant

Twitter Down, Facebook is Running Slow as Twitter users flood server

Creative SEO — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:38:25 +0000

Well this is turning out to be a very strange day, Twitter is currently down as a result of a denial of service attack. The team are currently fighting the issue as we speak. So there are millions of bored Twitter users with nothing better to do, where do they all go, Facebook!!

One problem with this tactic, Facebook is grinding under the pressure and yes you guessed it, its up and down more times than a yoyo at a pro yoyo convention. Facebook is struggling under the pressure and we have been receiving reports of error pages and very slow loading content.

Wow it goes to show how amazing powerful Twitter is!! We will keep you informed as we find out more.

Edinburgh Trams use Facebook & Twitter to boost public communication

Creative SEO — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:45:56 +0000

The much anticipated new Edinburgh trams project is to use online social networking services to improve its communication with the public, providing regular ongoing development updates.

The £545 million works have received much press and bosses wanted to find a way of communicating more effectively with the public.

“Followers” of the trams’ Twitter feed will be able to see brief news flashes as and when they are released, and an in-depth Facebook page is being developed.

Mandy Haeburn-Little, TIE’s director of customer services and communications, said: “It is vital that we engage with members of the public during the construction of the Edinburgh Tram system.”

It’s another example of the power of social networking and its ability to communicate effectively with a target audience.

Article by Creative SEO – Search Engine Marketing

Viruses target Facebook and Twitter and other Social Networking Sites.

Creative SEO — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:05:16 +0000

A recent report released by Sophos Inc details the use of viruses to hijack or mimic user accounts on social networks. It seems as though the virus will pretend to be a contact or friend on your social networking account. And send you direct messages asking you to visit websites or click on links. The messages are taking you to locations where your computer could potentially be infected.

“What’s needed is a period of introspection — for the big Web 2.0 companies to examine their systems and determine how, now that they have gathered a huge number of members, they are going to protect them from virus writers, identity thieves, spammers and scammers,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, in a statement. “The honeymoon period of these sites is over, and personally identifiable information is at risk as a result of constant attacks that the Web sites are simply not mature enough to protect against.”

This new form of virus is growing in popularity, so if it looks strange, don’t click on it, report it.

Article by Creative SEO UK

Facebook now has 250 Million Users Worldwide

Creative SEO — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:52:54 +0000

In under a year Facebook have managed to double there Worldwide users to an astonishing 250 million. This really is an impressive number and is a testament to the service Facebook are offering there users. With this volume of users why would Facebook worry about Twitter, how could they even be a threat? Facebook understand that in order to maintain online growth and keep their existing customers entertained and happy, they will need to continue to develop their platform and experiment with new technologies. Facebook applications are a cleaver way of allowing users to change and update their Facebook accounts which maintains there interest in the product. Facebooks success can somewhat be contributed to the community integration of the product and the multiple ways Facebook has found to engage the users interest. MySpace is a good example of a social network that just seemed to stop developing and lost the interest of its users. Let’s hope Facebook learns from these mistakes and maintains its growth.

Video at CrunchUp, New Real Time Search Applications followed by Discussion Panel, Danny Sullivan, Matt Cutts

Creative SEO — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:47:44 +0000

This is a great video of part of the Crunch Up event which took place recently. The video starts with an introduction to some new, Real Time search applications including Seemic, Brizzly, Lazy Feed, People browser and Wowd. What’s particularly interesting is the different directions each company has taken into bringing together real time search into one location. Twitter, Friendfeed, facebook, blogs and more all in one location with many features which allow categorised and filtered views of data and even a direct message IM style thread based conversation function. It really give a feel for what the future holds for the technology. As always we are waiting to see exactly what Google has put together with the launch of Google Wave later in the year.

The Video continues, there is a bookmark applied by Matt Cutts, with the Real Time Search Panel which includes Gerry Campbell of Collecta, Matt Cutts of Google, Kimbal Musk of OneRiot, Vipul Ved Prakash of Topsy, Edo Segal an Investor and founder Relegance, Sean Stutcher of Microsoft, Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch and Danny Sullivan. This is a fascinating insight into the future and is well worth watching.

Article by Creative SEO UK

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iPhone applications – Facebook Connect -Social Networking Development Tool

Creative SEO — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:48:06 +0000

Facebook connect finally lands on the iPhone. Its a web development tool which has been designed to help sites add social networking. The application is currently directly in competition with Google Friend Connect. The Facebook Development team have now released a version for the iPhone application developer. This will allow developers to incorporate social networking into there applications. The features include:

- Making Api Phone Calls allowing your app to access user profiles and share information
- Publish directly to Facebook
- Ask other users to extend permissions for offline access and interaction with data

It will be interesting to see how the next wave of iPhone Applications will utilise this technology.

Google and MySpace Team Up to take on Facebook!

Creative SEO — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 10:39:11 +0000

It had to happen as some point, MySpace.com is teaming up with Internet search giant Google Inc. in a bid to extend MySpace’s exposure and to take on the rapid growth of their rival Facebook Inc.
Facebook’s unique social environment and user experience has seen the company grow at an astonishing rate. With over 130 million active users Facebook is the 4th most visited website in the World (comScore). It’s also the number 1 photo sharing application in the world (comScore), with over 10 billion photos uploaded to the site and over 30 million photos uploaded daily. The potential advertising exposure and revenue generated by the company is huge, but Facebook did not decide to partner with Google, the largest supplier of internet advertising content, they controversially went to Microsoft.

Myspace could be considered one of pioneers of Social Networking, established in 2004 and acquired by Fox Interactive Media in 2005, MySpace currently has over 127 Million active users. It came to fame as part of the MTV generation, a place for bands, actors and film companies to showcase their work and interact with their fans.

The details of the alliance between Google and MySpace were released on Monday in Paris. Over the past seven months MySpace have been working on easier ways to allow their users to connect their MySpace accounts to other social networking sites. MySpace will be working with Google’s existing services to allow this to happen. Smaller sites with blogs and limited technical ability will be able to use Google Friend connect in the future, which will allow them to add social networking elements to their sites.

MySpace and Google started working together over a year ago on a service known as “Open Social” which was designed to compete against Facebook’s massively popular online software plug in repository. But the news of a new alliance must come as a shock to Facebook and their potential marketplace domination.

Article By Creative SEO -Search Engine Optimisation