Lots of people were expecting the new Facebook user profile layout but the “company” was very slow in delivering. The new layout was supposed to be ready early April, but all we got were more details on their Developers page. Apparently the new layout will contain 5 main tabs : Feed, Wall, Info, Photos, and “Boxes”.
The feed tab seems to be unchanged containing news feeds, but still users may find it hard to “understand” why there is a Wall anymore because it will be text-only from now on. Using a Publisher Tool users will be able to post to their friends’ feed tabs and their own. The tool could be similar to FriendFeed-like conversations but it’s nothing certain until we get more info from the guys.
Existing wide and narrow profile boxes will now appear on a new Boxes tab that every user can enable/disable on their profile.
Though I said there are 5 tabs contained within the layout, users will be able to add their own, too. Facebook will allow up to 5 application boxes to be shown across all tabs but there will be some sort of height restriction.
I’m waiting for the release to give you more info because right now there isn’t much I can dig, except for a not very informative screenshot. Stay tuned.
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The GRID is a a South African location-based social networking service for cellphones. Cow Times guys have developed a free Facebook application that you can access via WAP (wap.thegrid.co.za) on our mobile phone, that allows you to see where your friends are on the map, allows you to organize events and get directions if you’re lost. It was built in partnership with Vodacom.
The application was built in partnership with Vodacom and stands on three big pillars: blips/virtual notes, the navigator and GRID events. Here are a few details about each one.
First of all, the blips and the virtual notes. If you find something interesting in your area you can add some text, images or a video for others to see and be directed there. It also comes packed with a navigator to give you the shortest route from one place to another, and GRID events where Facebook users can setup events and send invites to other.
“The functionality that we’ve introduced to Facebook with this application is not only very handy but a lot of fun too. With its location-based technology, The GRID application highlights what is happening in your area on a social level, by displaying information being shared between friends and other users specific to that location.”
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After launching a new profile layout, Facebook is now testing a new instant messaging service. It should be available to the public (probably) some time this week.
The first thing you should know is that this is a web based service that will be built into your Facebook page and not software you install on your computer.
It was rumored to be built on the Jabber open source platform like GTalk, so Instant Messaging clients like Trillian or web chat service like Meebo or eBuddy could support it, but later info showed that it won’t be, at least not at first.
If you remember AOL buying Bebo for $850M last week, this new announcement with Facebook’s IM service is coming in a very sensible moment. Will people forget about AIM and the Bebo deal will turn out to be a bad investment? Probably, but we can’t say for sure.
TechCrunch is waiting for the first screenshot and will make it available asap.
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Well it was about time for Facebook to come up with a redesigned profile page and they did today. It’s now simpler, relevant and can be controlled better, or at least that’s what Ruchi Sanghvi says on Facebook Developers.
But let’s see what’s new, even if they say these screenshots may not be the final versions. The first thing I noticed is that the profile is wider and there are a few tabs where each user can feature its favorite applications. The tabs may be loaded with a Javascript so the pages aren’t refreshing every time a user clicks a different area of the profile, but this one still needs confirmation.
The second thing I liked was the “Wall” where a member can generate its own content, can add feed stories and friends can leave a wall-post. A member’s recent activity is now available and could be one of the most interesting features the new layout brings. Also, the About tab is re-structured and this is where users keep their personal info.
I see the profile boxes nearly at the top of the page, in the narrow column of the profile and the good thing is the members can now rearrange the order of the boxes the way they like.
The new profiles design is not yet live but Facebook have setup a Profiles Preview page, where fans will be seeing updates and changes.
Overall, the layout is (great) much better and the new features are really appealing unlike MySpace that always seemed to be a little bit chaotic on profiles.
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While a lot of internet minds were beginning to doubt Facebook’s ability to raise more venture capital after getting a huge $15 billion valuation following a $240 million investment from the blue monster, Microsoft, it seems the stakes are not too high for Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, who dropped a $60 million investment in one of the most valuable Internet-only companies on the planet, according to sources close to Facebook.
Ka-shing is not making the investment in Facebook via the companies he controls, but
through another investment entity. He also reserves the right to double his investment in Facebook with another $60 million round.
Ka-shing has plenty of zero’s in his bank account –he is considered the richest man in Asia and was named amongst the richest men in the world by Forbes last March with a personal fortune of $23 billion. Although, dispite his investment and that of Microsoft neither will acquire a seat on the Facebook board of directors.
Facebook has now raised just shy of $340 million in capital. That’s enough to keep them going as a private entity for years, if they choose to do so. It would be interesting to know Facebook’s capital burn rate per month to gage how long they can sit on their funding. It’s also interesting to note that this investment could possibly have strings attached with Li-Ka Shings company doing a joint venture with Facebook in Asia.
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Zuckerberg announced today (read liveblog at TechCrunch) the new monetization scheme, Social Ads, to finally turn their billions of page views and detailed user information into dollar signs for Facebook, inc. I’m glad they’re looking at things other than the sidebar skyscrapper, because we, as users, STILL DON’T SEE IT. Whether it’s relevant or not, there’s so much to see and do at Facebook that we zone it out, worse even than the TV commercials that we half listen to.
Microsoft won’t be serving Social Ads. This will be controlled by Facebook. Zuckerberg clarifies: “Microsoft is the exclusive third-party provider of IAB standard ads. This is not going to go through Microsoft. We think it is a different kind of advertising.”
“The pricing mechanism will be completely auction-based. People can either bid for a CPC or a CPM.”
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I believe this is the first peek of Facebook’s new ad scheme. You can see the ads down the left column. It was widely believed they would be similar to AdWords and they are.
The ads are not contextually accurate but this is obviously a pre-beta rollout. They will have no trouble attracting advertisers to plug the 10’s of thousands of targets once the platform is live. My first impression is the ads are unobtrusive and properly placed, although as mentioned these particular ads seem very run of the mill spam style advertisements.
More Facebook news
Microsoft buys 2% of Facebook for $240 Mil
Rumour: Facebook To Launch MP3 Store?
Facebook friend grouping on the way
Web stats are in: Facebook up 117%, Xanga the big loser -44%
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Microsoft has won the fight to be Facebook’s new investor and advertising partner, beating Google in some heated negotiations and getting a stake in the company. Microsoft has not bought Facebook, but it now owns 1.6%-2% of the fastest rising social network, paying $240 million for the stake and setting Facebook’s value at $15 billion.
Under the $15 billion valuation, other investors in Facebook now have some idea how much their stakes are worth. The New York Times explains:
The Microsoft investment throws the value of the holdings of Facebook investors into the stratosphere. Mark Zuckerberg, the 23-year-old Facebook founder who dropped out of Harvard to build the company, owns a 20 percent share which is now valued at $3 billion. Accel Partners, the venture capital firm that invested $12.7 million in May 2005 and owns 11 percent of Facebook, now holds stock worth $1.65 billion.
The two companies will work together on new forms of advertising, including data from Facebook.
Among things this money will be spent on: Facebook expects to hire a lot more engineers, doubling the number of employees to over 700 next year. Microsoft on the other hand gets a piece of what is going to be essentially the biggest people search engine on the planet.
So what does this all mean to me? Well as a facebook app developer, it means there will be much better monetization options coming, more robust infrastructure, and a lot more money flowing into the facebook eco-system. The Facebook economy has just had a major booster shot.
[Via TechCrunch]
More Facebook News
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The launch of the Facebook Platform led to a massive increase in Facebook’s user base, not to mention a slew of applications that developers are hoping will manage to generate some kind of revenue.
As expected, Rupert Murdoch and Chris DeWolfe announced the upcoming MySpace platform at the Web 2.0 Conference tonight, with the new platform being a competitor to the Facebook platform. Check out Mashable’s coverage here.
From the looks of it, MySpace will be firstly offering up a directory of third-party widgets that have already been created for use of MySpace, helping users find content for their profiles more easily. This is a move that Apple has done a couple of days ago as well, acknowledging the benefits of supporting the developers that support their platforms. The open platform is schedule for release in the next couple of months, which will provide a set of APIs for developers to create apps that incorporate MySpace data, such as friends lists.
An interesting twist to the rumor of other social networks also readying their open developer platform is that, Tagged, the 7th largest social networking service on the web, (according to comScore) are building an almost exact replica of the Facebook API, to make it as easy as possible for developers to add their creations to the social network. This is a clever move for Tagged which will allow a stream of already created Facebook apps be launched on their network.
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Is Facebook planning on launching an MP3 store? Mashable this morning linked to a post on All Facebook that notes an “extremely reliable anonymous source” tipped off blogger Nick O’Neill that Facebook is prepping to launch an in-house competitor to iTunes.One of the things that has driven Facebook’s popularity since it opened to the general public was its clean interface. MySpace had gotten so over run with ads that you could barely navigate the site any more. Now Facebook wants to follow what could possibly be the same route, and not only that, but branch in to a market that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense for a social network.
Facebook has reportedly “been searching for a CEO to head up this new subdivision” and has “been pursuing agreements with a number of record labels.” O’Neill writes that his most recent unnamed informant actually knows one of the people being interviewed for the job. We put in a call to Facebook to inquire further into the matter, but haven’t heard back yet.
While “rumor” seems to have become Facebook’s second name lately, maybe this lead has some substance. Facebook’s roughly 40 million users are clearly music fans — iLike, the third-party music discovery app, is the eighth most popular application on the site which means it could be a good fit.
More Facebook news
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