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Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts

Monday, March 18, 2013

Facebook Gifts

Facebook is introducing a new feature, Gifts!

This new feature allows you to send real gifts to your Facebook friends. When I logged in to Facebook this morning, I saw this:
Facebook Gift link on profile
A new entry called Gifts between  App Center and Games Feed. As you can see in the next screenshot, Facebook has made it really easy to send gifts to friends.

How to send gifts to Facebook Friends
You can send gifts in a few simple steps. Browse for the right gift to send to your friend, Add your message and send!
Facebook Wine Gift
They have a decent collection of gift items, from chocolates to cards to variety of wines.

What are the countries supported by Facebook Gifts?
According to their help page:
Counties supported by Facebook Gifts
"Please note, the ability to send or receive a gift is currently limited to people located within the United States. If you are located within the US, you will only see the option to give a gift to friends also located in the US."
So, if you are living outside of US, you have to wait for Facebook to launch this feature in your country.

Some interesting things to know about Facebook Gifts:

  • You don't need to know your friend's address to be able to send gifts!
  • Your friend won't see the price of the gift!
  • They can choose a different size, color or style(if it's available)
  • They can even swap it for another similarly priced gift before it ships!
  • Your friends gets to decide the shipping address.
Sounds interesting right?  Go to https://www.facebook.com/about/gifts to watch introductory video.Or head to their help page for more information.

Happy Gifting!

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Facebook Year In Review

Facebook just introduced a new feature that showcases 20 important stories from your timeline. This personalized custom story is called Year In Review.

When I logged in to my Facebook account this morning, I saw this new box:


Facebook Year In Review
The box has a link that says "See Your 2012 Year in Review" Look back at your 20 biggest moments from the past year.

Clicking on the link took me to a customized page, that looked like this:
Facebook 2012 Year In Review
The page shows 20 selected stories from your timeline. A big popup shows a familiar Share button that lets you share your Year In Review on your timeline. I noticed the URL of this page. It's
http://www.facebook.com/yearinreview/<my-user-name>

I did some experiment and figured out that

  • You can see your friends Year In Review by using their facebook id in above URL
  • If you are logged in, http://www.facebook.com/yearinreview/ will take you to your Year In Review(there's no need to append your facebook id.
As you can see in the above screenshot, the pop up has one more link See Facebook Trends from 2012. That will take you to page listing Facebook Trends for 2012. Check it out. It reveals some special and interesting stories about how people use Facebook in extraordinary ways.

I liked this feature. Click here to see YOUR 2012 Year In Review. Kudos to Facebook for this.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Updates To Facebook Data Use Policy & SRR

Facebook today announced some proposed updates to their Data Use Policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (SRR).

A new document on their Facebook Site Governance Page announces the proposed change and also gives us links to the new documents.

Excerpt from the document:
Today we are proposing some updates to two documents which govern our site: our Data Use Policy, which explains how we collect and use data when people use Facebook, and our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (SRR), which explains the terms governing the use of our services. These updates provide more detailed information about our practices, reflect changes to our products, and improve how we conduct our site governance process.
          ..................
          .................
  • Ask the Chief Privacy Officer. We’ll be launching a new feature on our Facebook and Privacy Page to let you submit questions about privacy to our Chief Privacy Officer of Policy, Erin Egan.

  • Facebook Live Events. Erin Egan will host webcasts on a regular basis to address your comments and questions about privacy, safety and security.
As you can see from the document they are adding a new feature to address questions about the changes. The document highlights the following changes:

  • New tools for managing your Facebook Messages – replacing the “Who can send you Facebook messages” setting with new filters for managing incoming messages.
  • Changes to how we refer to certain products, like instant personalization.
  • Reminders about what’s visible to other people on Facebook. For instance, when you hide things from your timeline, those posts are visible elsewhere, like in news feed, on other people’s timelines, or in search results.
  • Tips on managing your timeline. For example, you can use tools on your timeline or activity log to delete your own posts, or you can ask someone else to delete a post in which you’re tagged.
However to know what all has changed wrt Data Use Policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (SRR), we have to read the new documents.

Use the following links to see the proposed changes. You can leave your comments on those pages. 
Click here to comment. Remember that these documents are open for comment till 9:00 AM PST on November 28, 2012. Make sure you read and understand new documents.
Happy and safe Facebooking!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Facebook Messenger for Windows

Facebook recently announced launch of Facebook Messenger for desktop. They are promoting this new Windows app. They want us to keep using Facebook even when we are not using a browser. From their website:
Messenger is a new app that brings Facebook to your desktop. While you surf the web or use other applications on your computer, you can: 
  • Chat and message with your friends on Facebook
  • See the latest updates from your friends in ticker
  • Get quick notifications about what’s going on

Messenger lets you use Facebook without being on www.facebook.com. You will now be able to stay in touch anytime, no matter what you're doing. 
When I logged into my Facebook account today, I saw a small popup box in the bottom right corner of the page suggesting me to install the Windows App.

Facebook Windows app banner

Though I do not use Facebook chat much, nor I like to receive ticker updates from friends, I decided to give this a try. So, I started by clicking on the "Install Messenger" button.

Installing Facebook Messenger for Windows 7
You will need to Windows 7 to run this app. If you are on Windows 7, follow these steps.


  1. Go to Facebook Messenger home page  http://www.facebook.com/about/messenger
  2. Click on the Install button seen on that page. This will download a small setup file called FacebookMessengerSetup.exe 
  3. Double click on the downloaded file to run it. Click on the "Run" button on Windows security alert.
  4. Continue the installation by clicking Install button. 
  5. Make sure your firewall(if you have one) is configured to allow this new application to connect to internet.
  6. You are ready to go! Now you should be able to use the messenger to see ticker updates from friends and to chat with friends.
                                                   
  7. Enjoy Facebooking!
  8. For more information and help, visit Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs).

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

How To Disable Facebook's Tag Suggestions

Yesterday Facebook rolled out a new feature called Tag Suggestions.

According to a blog post on The Facebook Blog, this is what the feature is all about:
"When you or a friend upload new photos, we use face recognition software—similar to that found in many photo editing tools—to match your new photos to other photos you're tagged in. We group similar photos together and, whenever possible, suggest the name of the friend in the photos."
Not surprisingly, this Face Recognition feature is enabled by default! This may be useful for some people who upload photos in bulk and tag everybody in every picture.

For others, if you don't want Facebook to automatically detect your face and suggest tag to friends, here's how you can disable this feature. It's very simple! (takes only 7 clicks!)

  1. Click on Account 
  2. Click on Privacy Settings

    Privacy Settings page
  3. Click on Customize settings

  4. Scroll down to "Things others share" section. Click on the Edit Settings next to
    Suggest photos of me to friends
    When photos look like me, suggest my name

  5. Click on Enabled and change it to Disabled
  6. Click on Okay to save that setting.
  7. Congratulations! Now you can continue with your Facebooking, or whatever else you were doing before coming here :-)

Monday, June 6, 2011

How To Create a Facebook Page For Your Blog

If you like to create a platform for all your blog readers to know each other and discuss about your blog,  Facebook Page is a good start. You can create a Facebook page for your blog. That will not only help your existing readers to network with each other, but also to easily share your blog posts on Facebook and increase readership. After creating the Facebook Page, you can create a 'Like box' and add it to your blog so that people who visit your blog can find the link to your facebook page and can 'Like' your page without leaving your blog.

I just created a Facebook page for this blog. You can find the page here.

Now I will share how to do it.

First you need to create a Facebook page for your blog. Do the following:
  1. Login to your Facebook account. Scroll down to the end of the page. Click on the "Create a Page" link
    OR
    Click here to go start creating facebook page.
  2. Facebook will ask you to choose a category for your page. As of now, it has  6 categories at the top level. Choose "Brand or Product". I chose this because, this is the only category that had 'website' sub-category!
  3. Choose 'website' as sub category.
  4. Enter the name of the page. Keep it same as the title of your blog so that people can recognize it easily! (I used "My Life My Way")

  5. Now your page is ready! And you can see it has URL of it's own.
  6. Click on Edit info link to fill in details about your blog.
  7. Write a brief description in "Description" field.
  8. important: Paste the link to your blog in the "Website:" field. (http://sandeepaonlife.blogspot.com/)
After this, you can follow the steps on your page to..
  1.  Add a profile image
  2. Invite your friends
  3. Tell your fans
  4. Post status updates
  5. Promote this Page on your website
  6. Set up your mobile phone
Now that we have a facebook page, let's see how to add a 'Like box' to your blog.
  1. Click on the "Add Like Box" button.
  2. In the page that shows up, customize the Like Box for your blog
    1. Change the URL to point to your newly created facebook page
    2. Change the width of the widget if you want
    3. Pick a color scheme (to match your blog's theme)
    4. My Like Box looked something like this.
    5. My Like Box Looked like this
    6. As you customize your like box, verify the changes in the preview.
    7. Once you are happy with your customization, click on "Get Code" button.
  3. Get the code for the widget (copy it to clip board)


  4. Add it to your blog(Steps for Blogger blogs.)
    1. Login to your blogger account
    2. Goto "Design" tab of your blog 
    3. Click on the "Add a Gadget" link
    4. Choose HTML/JavaScript
    5. Paste the code you copied in step 3 above
    6. And save the widget!
    7. Congratulations! Now you have Like Box for your Facebook page integrated to your blog.
      (You can see the Like Box on the right side of this blog. You can see it working! )
If you run into any problem/errors during this, share it in comments. I would be happy to assist.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Facebook addiction : Too Much


If you are on Facebook, I am sure you will find this hilarious 


The 76-year-old woman walked down the hallway of Clearview Addictions Clinic, searching for the right department. She passed signs for the "Heroin Addiction Department (HAD)," the "Smoking Addiction Department (SAD)" and the "Bingo Addiction Department (BAD)." Then she spotted the department she was looking for: "Facebook Addiction Department (FAD)."

It was the busiest department in the clinic, with about three dozen people filling the waiting room, most of them staring blankly into their Blackberries and iPhones. A middle-aged man with unkempt hair was pacing the room, muttering,"I need to milk my cows. I need to milk my cows."

A twenty-something man was prone on the floor, his face buried in his hands, while a curly-haired woman comforted him.

"Don't worry. It'll be all right."

"I just don't understand it. I thought my update was LOL-worthy, but none of my friends even clicked the 'like' button."

"How long has it been?"

"Almost five minutes. That's like five months in the real world."

The 76-year-old woman waited until her name was called, then followed the receptionist into the office of Alfred Zulu, Facebook Addiction Counselor.

"Please have a seat, Edna," he said with a warm smile. "And tell me how it all started."

"Well, it's all my grandson's fault. He sent me an invitation to join Facebook. I had never heard of Facebook before, but I thought it was something for me, because I usually have my face in a book."

"How soon were you hooked?"

"Faster than you can say 'create a profile.' I found myself on Facebook at least eight times each day -- and more times at night. Sometimes I'd wake up in the middle of the night to check it, just in case there was an update from one of my new friends in India . My husband didn't like that. He said that friendship is a precious thing and should never be outsourced."

"What do you like most about Facebook?"

"It makes me feel like I have a life. In the real world, I have only five or six friends, but on Facebook, I have 674. I'm even friends with Juan Carlos Montoya."

"Who's he?"

"I don't know, but he's got 4,000 friends, so he must be famous."

"Facebook has helped you make some connections, I see."

"Oh yes. I've even connected with some of the gals from high school -- I still call them 'gals.' I hadn't heard from some of them in ages, so it was exciting to look at their profiles and figure out who's retired, who's still working, and who's had some work done. I love browsing their photos and reading their updates. I know where they've been on vacation, which movies they've watched, and whether they hang their toilet paper over or under. I've also been playing a game with some of them."

"Let me guess. Farmville?"

"No, Mafia Wars. I'm a Hitman. No one messes with Edna."

"Wouldn't you rather meet some of your friends in person?"

"No, not really. It's so much easier on Facebook. We don't need to gussy ourselves up. We don't need to take baths or wear perfume or use mouthwash. That's the best thing about Facebook -- you can't smell anyone. Everyone is attractive, because everyone has picked a good profile pic. One of the gals is using a profile pic that was taken, I'm pretty certain, during the Eisenhower Administration. "

"What pic are you using?"

"Well, I spent five hours searching for a profile pic, but couldn't find one I really liked. So I decided to visit the local beauty salon."

"To make yourself look prettier?"

"No, to take a pic of one of the young ladies there. That's what I'm using."

"Didn't your friends notice that you look different?"

"Some of them did, but I just told them I've been doing lots of yoga."

"When did you realize that your Facebooking might be a problem?"

"I realized it last Sunday night, when I was on Facebook and saw a message on my wall from my husband: 'I moved out of the house five days ago. Just thought you should know.'"

"What did you do?"

"What else? I unfriended him of course!"
--
P.S: Got it from a friend in email. Thought this forward email is worth sharing here.