Articles about Facebook

Facebook said it might allow businesses to contact users through their chat app WhatsApp, Bloomberg said in a report on Tuesday.

This might be the first hint on how the social media giant plans on making money off the app that it bought for $22 billion (£14 billion).

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Mark Zuckerberg probably thought the world would bow down to him when Facebook announced the Internet.org project. The idea of bringing internet access to those in developing parts of the world seems, on the face of it, to be something of an exercise in altruism. Of course, it's not quite that simple.

Many companies complain that the project goes against the idea of net neutrality -- a claim that Zuckerberg vehemently denies. But now the vocal opposition to Internet.org is getting louder. Privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has several concerns with the project, and a collective of 67 digital rights groups has signed a letter to the Facebook founder expressing concerns about the approach Internet.org is taking.

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For a site like Facebook, which has become sort of a synonym for the Internet itself, it’s hard to say there are things we still don’t know about it. Everything’s already been said, everything’s been discovered and the site is as transparent as it gets.

But there are still things we (or at least some of us) still don’t know about it, and those include some awesome, but long lost and forgotten options the site has to offer, like:

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Facebook and privacy are not words that generally belong in the same sentence, but a Belgian watchdog has expressed surprise at just how little regard for European law the social network shows. The Privacy Protection Commission says "Facebook tramples on European and Belgian privacy laws", and warns users to take action.

Mark Zuckerberg's site is accused to tracking users even if they are not logged into a Facebook account, and sidestepping questions from European regulators. Although the Privacy Protection Commission is not able to impose fines for failure to abide by European law, it is in a position to offer advice -- and the advice to people is to use software to block Facebook's tracking regardless of whether they use the site or not.

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The earthquake that struck Nepal two weeks ago has claimed the lives of more than 8,000 people, while a second has caused the death toll to rise further still. Natural disasters such as these shine a light upon the fragility of human life when faced with powerful tectonic forces.

Despite advances in earthquake prediction, it is still nearly impossible to say exactly where and when an earthquake will strike. Experts have been predicting that a huge quake would hit Nepal eventually, but when it did there was still little that anyone could do.

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The rise of social media has meant that marketers are keen to create contextual adverts that reach their target audience, but to do it in a way that isn't intrusive or annoying.

Analytics and marketing application company Teradata is launching a new solution in the form of a digital marketing capability that enables marketers to deliver highly targeted Facebook advertising as part of an integrated solution that incorporates social advertising with email, mobile and web.

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There's now less than a year until people will be able to get their hands on Facebook's virtual reality headset, Oculus Rift. Writing on Twitter, Oculus VR's vice president of product Nate Mitchell confirmed that the device will begin shipping in the first quarter of 2016.

The announcement was echoed on the official Oculus Twitter feed as well as in an official blog post. While the launch is slightly later than many people had hoped -- initial plans had the release pegged for some time in the latter half of 2015 -- it brings to an end months of guessing.

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All advertisers are keen to use the power of the Internet to deliver the right message at the right time. From today IBM and Facebook will be collaborating on the delivery of tailored marketing to help with that process.

IBM's marketing cloud clients will be able to utilize Facebook's powerful ad capabilities such as Custom Audiences, along with IBM's deep analytics and design features, to target their customers across applications, devices and time.

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The aim behind Facebook's Internet.org program is to bring internet access to the wider world. While an undeniably praise-worthy venture, it came in for criticism for going against the principles of net neutrality.

Today the company launches the Internet.org Platform with a view to countering this criticism. The platform opens up Internet.org to more developers, giving them the chance to bring "free basic services" to people around the world. There's also the promise of greater transparency.

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If you have a small business, and that business doesn’t have its own Facebook page, then you’re doing your business wrong.

Come on, people’s pets have Facebook fan pages, and your business doesn’t. Many will agree that having a fan page is essential to your business, but with basically everyone on there, the rules have changed.

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Facebook’s Messenger app has over 600 million users. Facebook-owned WhatsApp has over 800 million monthly active users. One would wonder why the social juggernaut maintains two instant messaging clients. The company has started to answer this question. While WhatsApp remains a standalone IM, Facebook is aggressively growing its Messenger app. Recently, the company opened the app to developers, and added the ability to easily transfer money to friends, and today, the company is introducing free video calls.

The video calling option has been one of the most anticipated features in Messenger's mobile apps. For those who can recall, Facebook introduced the video calling feature in its Messenger web app in 2011. The company had then partnered with Microsoft to use Skype technology to facilitate the video calling. Things changed in 2013 when Facebook dumped Skype’s technology -- which required users to install an additional plug-in -- for its homegrown video calling features that didn’t require users to download and install any extras.

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The terrible repercussions of the earthquake in Nepal and the aftershocks continue to be felt. With thousands of people yet to be accounted for, Google and Facebook have already launched services to help connect with people in the affected areas.

Now Microsoft has entered the fray, offering free Skype calls to both landlines and mobiles in Nepal. Starting immediately, Skype users can make calls from within Nepal, or place them to the country regardless of whether they have any credit.

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When disaster strikes, technology can often be put to good use. Following the devastating earthquake that struck Nepal this week, Google and Facebook are among the companies helping those in the area, as well as people looking for friends and relatives.

Google's People Finder does very much what it says on the tin. It's a very simple website that enables people to publish requests for information about loved ones, as well as giving those with information somewhere to share it. Facebook's Nepal Earthquake Safety Check provides a similar feature.

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It's easily forgotten with the number of apps available, but mobile phones are primarily designed for making calls on the move -- whodda thunk it? When you receive a call you'll usually see the number of the caller, but this may not be helpful in identifying them before you decide whether to pick up. Facebook's answer to this problem is Hello.

This new app comes from the Facebook Messenger team and aims to tell you more about the person getting in touch with you even if you don’t have their number saved in your address book. Currently available for Android, the dialer app also allows for the blocking of calls from individuals.

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Facebook is, once again, making changes to the algorithm that controls what appears in newsfeeds. If you had ever been under the impression that you were going to see a chronological list of status updates from your friends in your newsfeed, numerous changes over the years will have put paid to that notion.

It has been a source of many a social networking grumble, and now Facebook is taking steps to address the issue. Depending on how you use Facebook, you may be connected to not only real-world friends, but also companies, celebrities and even TV shows. Your newsfeed has likely turned into less of a collection of bon mots from your mates and more of a stream of updates from entities you're only vaguely interested in. Now your friends will be given greater priority.

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