Facebook // Current

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12 days ago

Facebook Okay with Pro-Rape, Anti-Consent Group

A group of students, both past and present, of the all-male St. Paul's College at Sydney University, decided to create a... more

S3th
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16 days ago

Google Declares War On Facebook

To Google, it’s just a new, relatively minor set of upgrades to one of its many applications. To Facebook, it’s a declaration of war. Google wants in on “social,” and the search giant may just have the size, weight, and leverage to take it.

But a scorched-earth battle over our social networks may leave casualties in its wake, particularly if we start to look at our friends the way either of these companies do.

Google announced this week that it is putting a few new bells and whistles on its Friend Connect software. Users visiting sites that have the application installed will be able to fill out little profiles of themselves and see the profiles of others who have been there. Presumably, regular visitors of the same sites will seek each other out based on shared opinions and preferences. And make friends. Think of it as Facebook functionality without the Facebook.

Of course, Facebook has been working on basically the same thing, Facebook Connect, for about the same amount of time. And while Facebook can’t claim to have come up with the idea of putting a social shell over the otherwise non-social sites of the Web, the company did feel relatively safe as the Internet’s social leader. Social is its turf, and a realm in which Google has yet to make a real dent. Google may own our data, but Facebook owns our social networks.

Each service has its advantages. Google’s is easier to install—in fact, the company automatically turned it on for every site using Blogger. Facebook’s version is a bit more transparent in its privacy policies, and feels like a bit less strange to use since Facebook is already the place and brand through which so many of us do social networking. Letting people be their Facebook selves on a Web site makes some intuitive sense.

The real difference between the two services is the intention of the companies behind them. Facebook has extended its functionality onto the Web in order to draw us back onto Facebook. The more we use Facebook’s apps to find and connect to other people out on the Web, the more committed we become to our profiles, walls, and posts back on Facebook. Google doesn’t have a networking hub to draw us into, so what’s in it for the search giant?

Why of course, as with everything Google does, the real goal is more and better targeted advertising. Indeed, the most important (but last to be mentioned) upgrade to Google’s Friend Connect is a feature that allows Web sites to target advertisements to individuals based on their Friend Connect profiles. No, Google isn’t really providing us access to each other. It’s providing advertisers with better access to each of us.

So who is going to win? Google, of course. And it’s not because the company is better at social. It’s because Google is better at making money, and helping others do so.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-04/googles-war-with-facebook/?cid=hp:mainpromo7To Google, it’s just a new, relatively minor set of upgrades to one of its many applications. To Facebook, it’s a... more

Future_America
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4 comments

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22 days ago

Facebook Wins $711 Million From Spammer

In addition to financial damages, Sanford Wallace, among the first to be crowned "Spam King," may face jail time.... more

knews121
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1 comment

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27 days ago

Facebook 'suggests contacting dead friends'

Changes made to Facebook this weekend have ended up confusing some users and offending others. The site now recommends... more

richjm
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13 comments

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28 days ago

Facebook rolls out revamped news feed

Remember the day when it was only open to college students? Of course those times changed long ago. But Facebook continues to try... more

knews121
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29 days ago

Fall of the Republic: The Presidency of Barack Obama (HQ·2hr24min)

http://www.facebook.com/FallOfTheRepublic Fall Of The Republic documents how an offshore corporate cartel is bankrupting the US... more

Scrump
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7 comments

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1 month ago

Facebook sees ad potential bigger than Google search ads

Facebook's chief operating officer said the social networking company was targeting a bigger ad market than the search ad... more

knews121
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0 comments

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1 month ago

I was in love with a man I met on the internet for over 2 years, when he dumped me suddenly.

I am just now recovering from being dumped by a man I was in love with for almost 2 years.

We met online in a chat room where politics and current events were the main topics.

But after a few months, it got much more involved. Emails....phone calls... web-camming, mailing cards to each other, you name it, we did it.

was head over heels in love with this guy, and he said he felt the same way. Even though we both worked full time jobs, we spent so much time together online, talking and laughing for HOURS each night.

Our phone calls lasted 4-5 hours, about 2-3 times a week. I told him I thought he was the one for me, and he said he felt the same way. The emails we sent each other were incredible. We both talked about our dreams. We looked at house plans online...looked for jobs together....talked about having kids.

After almost 2 years....yes, YEARS.....of sharing our hearts online, we finally met in person, and had the most incredible weekend together.

It was everything I hoped it would be: intimate, fun, downright sexy. We were HOT together. He had made a couple of CD's with songs he said reminded him of me, and we played them on his portable CD player all weekend, whenever we were in our hotel room. We spent hours talking, walking on the beach, visiting all the places he had been telling me about and sending me pictures of for 1 1/2 years.
He even took me to his Mom's antique shop. It was just amazing. Finally being able to look into his beautiful blue eyes and tell him in PERSON that I loved him was a dream come true. Hearing him whisper that he loved me as we were holding each other sent chills down my spine.

He kept telling me how much he loved me, and wished we could be together. Hearing that, and knowing how deeply I loved him and that he said he felt the same way about me...I began the process of making arrangements for us to be together permanently. Then, disaster struck.

He said that I 'obviously thought there was more to him and I than he did, and that he hadn't felt the same way.' He said 'I wasn't in love with you.' and he said 'Where was I when we supposedly talked about a future together?' His parting shot was...'I'm sorry you feel I have hurt you. But I didn't use you. You got as much out of it as I did.'

(more at source)I am just now recovering from being dumped by a man I was in love with for almost 2 years. We met online in a chat room... more

arcticspirit
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3 comments

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1 month ago

When internet love goes toxic.

Normally I am attracted to guys who don't treat me well. I had been dating this guy for few weeks and he was a real... more

arcticspirit
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3 comments

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1 month ago

One-in-five U.S. drivers admit to texting!

WASHINGTON - Nearly one-in-five U.S. drivers surveyed have read or sent a text message while behind the wheel even though nearly... more

arcticspirit
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1 month ago

Thank you for our freedom...

I am posting this in honor of those who served because they wanted to... ONE OF THE BEST EMAILS EVER It is the VETERAN,... more

arcticspirit
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4 comments

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1 month ago

Uganda's mountain gorillas are preparing to "tweet" for their survival, as in Twitter

BWINDI IMPENETRABLE FOREST, Uganda (Reuters Life!) - Lurking deep in the mist-glazed forests of east Africa, Uganda's... more

arcticspirit
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2 comments

added
3 months ago

Feature release: facebook connect and shortened urls

Our latest feature release includes a way to connect Facebook and Current. Get all the details after the jump:... more

sgwhites
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10 comments

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3 months ago

What Facebook Quizzes Know About You

FB Quizzes > Privacy

"The Northern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has put together a campaign to raise awareness of privacy issues surrounding Facebook applications, in particular quizzes. According to this group, the millions of Facebook users taking quizzes are revealing far more personal information to application developers than they are aware of. This is mostly due to the fact that Facebook's default privacy settings allow access to all your profile information whether or not your profile is set to "private." Even worse, the ACLU reports that even if you shun quizzes yourself, your profile info is revealed when one of your friends takes a quiz. Want to see how bad the problem is? Just take the ACLU's Facebook Quiz and prepare to be shocked.

As any regular Facebook user knows, quizzes are some of the most popular applications in use on the social network. Every day, our News Feeds are filled with everything from the latest variation on the "5 Things" theme to the "What (insert popular movie title) character are you?" and more. But these seemingly innocuous time wasters could have dangerous privacy implications if they ended up being distributed by malicious app developers who want access to Facebook's treasure trove of personal data.
The Danger of Quizzes

With each question in the ACLU's Privacy Quiz, you're not only told what information a quiz author can see - you're shown it. For example, after answering the first question, you learn that almost everything on your profile, even if you use privacy settings to limit access, is available to the quiz. Then, a graphic is shown which reveals selected information retrieved from your profile including hometown, groups you belong to, events attended, favorite books, and more.

The second question is even more disturbing. It informs you that everything on your profile is made available to the developers when your friends take a quiz. To drive this point home, the ACLU's Quiz loads up information pulled from your friends' profiles and displays that data below the answer for your perusal. Here, information on your friends is shown including hometowns, favorite books, political views, networks, birthdays, number of wall posts, and even personal photos. Thanks to the quiz, all that info which you can see on your friends' profiles is now available to the quiz author, too.

Lest you think your info is safe because somewhere, somehow Facebook is looking out for you, the third question shatters any illusions you may have about that, too. According to the answer to this quiz question, not only do Facebook's default privacy settings do nothing to prevent application developers from scouring your information, Facebook also doesn't screen developers for trustworthiness, nor do they require the developer to comply with a privacy policy (something we've mentioned before). It's also noted that Facebook does not use any technical measures to limit how developers can collect and use personal information. Says Chris Conley, a technology fellow with the ACLU, it's difficult to know how developers use this data, which could, in theory, be collected and sold for marketing and advertising campaigns.

Finally, the last question prompts you to take action. When the quiz asks you what you should do, the correct answer is: "demand the right to control my information without sacrificing the right to use new technology." To get the word out there, the ACLU suggests you update your privacy settings, share their quiz on Facebook, and sign their online petition.
Is This True?

The nature of the quiz makes it sound a bit like fear-mongering, especially with statements like this: "Once details about your personal life are collected by a quiz developer, who knows where they could end up or how they could be used. Shared? Sold? Turned over to the government?" However, outside of these overly dramatic tactics, the claims made by the ACLU are true. According to CNET" (more at linkFB Quizzes > Privacy "The Northern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has put together a... more