“Today we are announcing Facebook Connect. Facebook Connect is the next iteration of Facebook Platform that allows users to ‘connect’ their Facebook identity, friends and privacy to any site,” stated Dave Morin, Facebook’s Senior Platform Manager. “This will now enable third party websites to implement and offer even more features of Facebook Platform off of Facebook – similar to features available to third party applications today on Facebook.”

The competition between Facebook Inc. and MySpace is intensifying. A couple of days ago, MySpace made it clear that they are creating a way to make user data portable with a few key partners. They even said that they’d be happy to work with Facebook if they want to join the project. The data portability project that MySpace is working on is called MySpace Data Availability. MySpace also signed on to work with Google on their OpenSocial initiative.

Did Facebook respond by saying that they are willing to work with MySpace? No. Instead, Facebook announced that they are making their user data portable through a project called Facebook Connect. Facebook Connect asks the user if they want to allow third party companies to access their information. For example, Connecting Digg with the Facebook Account will probably automatically connect your name and location to your Digg profile. If your Facebook friends are also on Digg, you can find them through the connectivity options.

Stay tuned to Pulse 2.0 for the official launch of Facebook Connect and MySpace Data Availability in few weeks.

Information Source:
[1] Associated Press:  Facebook to let users carry profiles with them by Michael Liedtke
[2] TechCrunch: Facebook Responds To MySpace With Facebook Connect by Michael Arrington

The first blog post I wrote on Pulse 2.0 was on September 16, 2006 and it was titled, Facebook Opening for Everyone.  This article had to do with Facebook opening their user base to anyone with an e-mail account and not just exclusively for university students.  An influx of pedophiles and sex offenders took advantage of MySpace and Friendster’s openness and now they would have access to Facebook users.

But not anymore…

Facebook is placing 40 more safeguards to protect their users from sexual predators.  Sex offenders will be banned and contacting users under 18 will have limitations.  There will be task forces in place that verifies user age and identities.  Forty-nine states and Washington D.C. officials have agreed to partner with Facebook to ensure safety measures.  Facebook has over 70 million users and already enacting these safeguards.

“Building a safe and trusted online experience has been part of Facebook from its outset,” stated Chris Kelly, Facebook Chief Privacy Officer. “The attorneys general have shown great leadership in helping to address the critical issue of Internet safety, and we commend them for continuing to set high standards for all players in the online arena.”

Companies offering services on the social network will have to comply with privacy and safety.  Tobacco and alcohol ads will not show up for users too young to purchase those items.  Inappropriate pictures will be removed.  Warning messages will be sent if children send personal information to adults over the site.  And lastly children will be monitored if it is discovered that they are masquerading as adults.

This was a smart move for Facebook.  MySpace’s reputation is tainted for the cases involving pedophilia and murder.  A few days ago, I posted a video of a Saturday Night Live skit parodying MySpace’s infested user-base of predators.  MySpace should follow the same initiative as Facebook in this case.

“The walls around the garden are coming down.”
-MySpace CEO, Chris DeWolfe

MySpace has just allowed their user data to become more portable. While MySpace is the dominant social network, Facebook has been taking away a lot of it’s market-share. MySpace data will soon be able to be exported to Yahoo!, eBay, Photobucket, and Twitter. MySpace is already well-established, but may feel that forcing users to pick one social network over the other may not bode well for the News Corp.-owned social network as Facebook is growing at a rapid pace.

“We, alongside our data availability launch partners, are pioneering a new way for the global community to integrate their social experiences Web-wide,” added DeWolfe.

MySpace profile owners spend hours customizing blog posts, music, videos, websites, and adding friends. MySpace will allow their users to transfer a lot of this data to partner websites.

“We believe that the more open and the more social the Internet becomes the better it is for MySpace. We are happy to work with Facebook if they want to join up with us on this project, as with any group that wants to work with us.”

Will Facebook join? Stay tuned.

Information Source:
[1] AFP: MySpace lets users take profile data outside site’s walls by Glenn Chapman

Facebook is a student that values the teachings of web veterans whether it is by allowing investments from Microsoft, hiring open-source experts slash Firefox founders, poaching executives from Google, or getting advice from the founder of the original web browser. Given Facebook is a young company and has grown exponentially in terms of finance and talent, the company could use all the guidance it can get from the experts.

Google was no different when they first started. Google valued Eric Schmidt’s experience at Sun Microsystems enough to appoint him as CEO. Facebook is the new Google.

Facebook poached former Googlers, Gideon Yu (a former YouTuber), Sheryl Sandberg, Eliot Schrage, and even took the Google chef, Josef Desimone.

To gain a better understanding of the power of open source, Facebook acquired Parakey in July 2007. Parakey was started by Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, two of Firefox’s main contributors. Firefox is a web browser gaining market-share quickly and was created with the help of open source developers.

And in today’s news, Facebook is pursuing the recruitment of Marc Andreessen as an advisor. Marc Andreessen co-founded Netscape, the world’s original mainstream web browser. By having all of these individuals contributing ideas to Facebook, there’s no telling where the $15 billion social network will head next.

According to Kara Swisher, Marc Andreessen has verbally accepted the offer.

Xiaonei is a social network that is pretty much an exact replica of Facebook, but is based in China.  Interestingly, Xiaonei has raised much more money than Facebook.  Facebook’s total investment to date is about $378 million from investors such as Peter Thiel, Li Ka-Shing, Microsoft Corporation, Accel Partners, etc.  Xiaonei now has $430 million in funding from several different financial companies.

Xiaonei even uses the exact same feature-related icons to talk about the site’s capabilities.

[Note: I took this screen shot after searching for Xiaonei in Google and using the Translate feature]

Notice the icons on the left?  Same color scheme, same features, same everything.  I wonder if Facebook will respond in any way to this.

Xiaonei was acquired by Oak Pacific Interactive in October 2006.  If anyone who the parties involved are for the new round of funding for Xiaonei, feel free to comment.

Information Source:
[1] VentureBeat: Xiaonei, the Facebook of China, raises $430M — better funded than Facebook by Matt Marshall

There is a lot of hype in the Web 2.0 community revolving around setting up an ideal homepage. Within the last decade, a simple search engine was common to have as a browser starting point. But today’s web users want widgets quickly telling them what their stock values are, how much money they’re making on AdSense, who wrote on their Facebook walls, what their favorite blogs wrote about today, and how to dress to plan for today’s weather. We want all this information consolidated and fast because we’re all an executive in some way and don’t have time to look at each page individually.

Now developers can apply for sandbox, a plethora of OpenSocial APIs available for developing applications on iGoogle. OpenSocial is a Google initiative where many other social networks and mobile companies are coming together to create a united platform. Some see this initiative as a way to compete against Facebook Applications.

When a user updates information in their social network, it can be connected to an Updates widget within iGoogle. iGoogle is an RSS and widget consolidation web site to enable users to get personalized information faster.

Below is a sample of what the OpenSocial APIs can do from an Updates standpoint. It works very similarly to the Facebook profile Mini-Feed and homepage news feed.

Facebook’s response will be interesting. With OpenSocial emulating one of their ideas and all of the investment Facebook has received for building the company to a bigger level, I expect more interesting things to come out than just an IM platform.

Information Source:
[1] TechCrunch: Hints of iGoogle Turning Into Its Own Social Network by Erick Schonfeld

Facebook Chat has officially been launched on a few networks and will be integrated into other networks in the coming weeks. This is huge, people. I think that this feature is just as important as when they started allowing unlimited photo upload. Recently I read somewhere that social networking isn’t very social. Writing a testimonial or on someone’s wall is as significant as leaving a stick note on someone’s fridge when they’re not there.

Seeing your friends online and talking to them is an easy way to catch up with someone in real time. I haven’t said it much since Facebook spammed me with 3rd party Applications, but well done. Maybe Digg should consider this feature for their member-base too. I’d rather have it built into the site than having to donwload additional chat software (Pownce).

Here are some screenshots I got from Inside Facebook:
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Some of your friends are trigger-happy when it comes to sending out applications on Facebook.  This can be very pesky.  Now you can straight up block specific users from sending you any kind of applications.  Nice move for users, bad for developers.

Below is a screenshot of the ignore button.  All you have to do is click “Ignore All Invites From This Friend” and their invitations are now history.

Thats what you get, Nate Kennedy.  Maybe I’d reconsider if you sent a Detriot Tigers application.

Information Source:
[1] Mashable: Facebook Now Allows You To Ignore Selected App Invites by Sean P. Aune

Dave Morin, a Senior Platform Manager at Facebook answered questions at Snap Summit earlier today. During Morin’s keynote, he gave updates regarding Facebook Chat, preferential treatment for certain applications, the fbFund, OpenSocial, and a payment system.

Around a week ago Facebook first showed a video of how Facebook Chat would work. This allows friends that are online to chat with each other similar to AIM. Morin stated that the new feature should be available by sometime next week.

The NCAA Bracket application on Facebook powered by CBS also was given preferential treatment by Facebook. Facebook capped the number of users that can be invited per day on a given Facebook Application. The number for a given application was capped at 20 users per day, but the CBS application was granted the ability to invite 100 users per day. The difference is that CBS paid Facebook to sponsor March Madness on their site.

Users weren’t happy with the CBS application since it had heavy flaws with tracking the winners and losers of the bracket and had a hard time tracking who was winning in the tournament. In turn, this directly affects who would win CBS’ $10,000 prize. Will Facebook continue to give preferential treatment to certain applications? “I can’t say it won’t happen again,” stated Morin.

The fbFund made a few investments in application developers. The average investments made were roughly $200,000. The fbFund was set up by Facebook, Accel Partners, and the Founders Fund.

Will Facebook become part of Google’s OpenSocial? Only “if it becomes interesting” quipped Morin. OpenSocial is Google’s response to Facebook Applications for creating a universal platform to work across several social network platforms.

And lastly, Facebook will be introducing a new payment system within the coming months. The payment system will be a way for application developers to collect bills directly from their users.

Information Source:
[1] TechCrunch: Facebook Tidbits From Snap Summit In San Francisco by Mark Hendrickson