Facebook Watcher

Somebody has created ten Facebook fake profiles and is trying to make a profit from selling these fake profiles on eBay. These profiles are said to have a minimum 200 friends each. In January this year, CNet reported that 43% of Facebook messages are spam, now I wonder how many of the Facebook profiles are fake?

via [AdRANTs]

Update: I checked out the eBay link, it showed “This listing (260249755056) has been removed or is no longer available.“

I tried to log-on to Facebook, but unfortunately it is down. A big question is, why does Facebook is down, and what’s the problem that cause the “Error?” I like to figure out what is going on behind the scenes at Facebook. To me, Facebook is not what I read from some China blogs, that Facebook Chinese translation name is “非死不可,” sure going to die in China. Will the history repeat of itself in China? That most of the well-known U.S. Internet startups can’t make it in China. I like Facebook very much, this down incident give me a reason to think about what this world would be like without Facebook.

Aha, I tried and tried again to log-on to Facebook, I see a small notification icon appeared and disappeared for a second. I had a new friend accepted my friend request, whom he/she is?

Facebook has already created a China version of its site. For Facebook China users, they log-on to Facebook, Facebook will redirect them to this China site. In fact, this China version is not a new and separate Facebook site, it is an original Facebook site that Facebook simply translated it into the Simplified Chinese.

CNBeta said after China users log-on to this China Facebook version, users will see the familiar Facebook home.php in English. Only if they re-register a new account, their profile will thus show in Simplified Chinese next time they log-on to it.

How to behave yourself and act in a highest online decorum in the Facebook environment all the time? Frankly, most of us are confronted with managing ourselves when come to making friends in a social network such as Facebook. Here’s the 5 golden rules, compiled by a UK social etiquette advisor called Debretts with the jointly effort of Orange, a Telecoms company.

1. You don’t have to make friends with people you don’t know. Think before you poke.

2. Wait 24 hours before accepting or removing someone as a friend. The delay will help you gather your thoughts.

3. Birthdays, engagements and weddings are not “virtual” events. Always send cards or phone friends when there is an important event.

4. Think before posting a friend’s photo what you would feel like if it was you.

5. Think carefully about your profile picture. Would you want it to be appearing in your local newspaper?

via [Reuters UK]

Facebook has rolled out some of the new updates to its users’ profile pages. Two changes I noticed are the mini-feeds and the new feature of adding friend to your Facebook. From now on, mini-feeds is no longer can be collapsed based on one’s preference. It was not merely a tiny column appeared on user’s profile page; it was served as a permanent box for all your stories/history of what you’ve done on Facebook, albeit with stories are restricted to a list of ten (10) maximum to be shown.

Users are allowed to remove any stories that they do not want to show, but not advised to try to remove the whole mini-feeds, as told by Facebook.

Meanwhile, when you adding your friends to your Facebook, the add friend box now featured an advanced friending capability, by directly adding your new friend to a new Friend List. This save you time and effort in categorize your friends into different list after your friends accepted your Facebook friends request.

In addition, one of the Facebook’s high-profile features such as “People You May Know” reflected Facebook’s well known prowess in recommendation technology. Justin Smith of Inside Facebook said that there was a new tab called “Apps You May Like,” however, I still only see my first tab in the Application Directory remained as “Recently Popular.” I’m not sure this new application recommendation feature is only available to the U.S. users, as all the bloggers announced this news are from the U.S.

I’ve been reviewed some of the Facebook clones in China recently. To know the background of these clones, check out these here: Xiaonei, QQ Xiaoyou, and Hainei. Or if you dare to build your own social network, and not willingly rely on the features of the social platforms such as Ning, a software company based in Chennai, India called Agriya Infoway India Pvt Ltd. said that they can help. Agriya Infoway India now offered a software package namely Kootali which cost $399 that will let you to replicate everything, from design to features from Facebook to your own site.

Does this mean that the Facebook clones will become a new emerging trend in the social networking industry? Hardly.

Facebook has quietly released a new search feature for users. Now whenever users type a letter onto their profiles’ search bar, a small dialog box will prompt out and show all their friends, groups, or applications that match those keywords. See the picture below.