Articles about Facebook

Those of you who simply want to chat with your Facebook friends can now access Messenger through its own dedicated site. The interface is similar to that of the Android, iOS and Windows Phone mobile apps, and there is even support for desktop notifications, so you won't miss any of your friends' important messages.

However, because you have to access Messenger through a site, you have to keep a tab open in your favorite browser. But if you're using a Mac you can also try this new unofficial OS X app, which effectively turns the site into a dedicated client.

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Today Facebook launches a new standalone website for its Messenger service. The separate interface means that it is now possible to chat with your Facebook contacts without having to visit the main Facebook website where you might run the risk of whiling away too much time reading through your timeline as well.

On mobile devices, Facebook has moved users to a dedicated Messenger app rather than allowing them to chat within the main app. By bringing the web-based version of the social network's chat tool in line with the iOS, Windows Phone and Android versions, Facebook has made chatting a distinct feature that can now be conducted completely separately in its own tab.

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If you’re feeling a bit depressed lately, try logging off Facebook. No, seriously, get off Facebook.

According to a recent study, there is a link between people becoming depressed, and them scrolling through Facebook all day. It’s not the social media itself which causes depression though, it’s a bit more complicated than that.

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Today Turkey blocked access to a number of websites including YouTube and Twitter. The ban came after the sites published images of a prosecutor being taken hostage at a court in Istanbul earlier in the week. Google has vowed to getting things back up and running, but it's not the same story for everyone.

While a block was also put in place on Facebook, the social network sidestepped the ban by agreeing to comply with a court ruling. This is not the first time Mark Zuckerberg's site has bowed to pressure from Turkey. At the beginning of the year, despite previous claims to stand up for free speech, Facebook bowed to pressure to block pages that insulted or offended the Prophet Mohammad. Now it looks as though history is repeating itself.

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Facebook is about more than being social; it's about presenting a version of yourself to other people. When you share a photo of your meal, you're making a statement: "look at this delicious expensive meal I can afford", "look at the fancy restaurant we're visiting", or "gosh, aren't I healthy for making this salad?". But of course Facebook is not just filled with photos of food -- there are also photos of kids, presenting an image of family life.

Starting today, Facebook is rolling out a new scrapbooking feature designed specifically for pulling together photos of your child. The idea is to make it easier to collect together photos into one place so you can view all of your memories without having to jump from place to place.

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On the first day of the F8 developer conference, Facebook finally pulled the trigger on something we had expected for months. Facebook messenger is now a platform along the lines of WeChat and other Asian messaging apps. While this isn't necessarily "novel", it tells us something about Facebook's vision for mobile.

Facebook announced the SDK for messenger along with the fact that 40 apps, including ESPN, Dubsmash, and Talking Tom and Giphy had already signed up for the program. Their willingness is simple to explain -- app stores have fixed the app distribution problem, but have consequently made app discovery far more difficult. Easy app distribution and low entry barriers have created a deluge of app developers with more than a million apps and counting. But with these numbers, app developers have found it increasingly difficult to reach consumers through all the noise. This is where Facebook Messenger comes in:

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History. It's so much more reliable than the future. You know where you stand with things that have happened. This is possibly why they are often looked back upon (is that not the only way to view such things?) with such fondness. Unless they were bad things, of course.

Latching on to the general liking for getting moist-eyed and nostalgic, Facebook is rolling out a new On This Day. It's something that borrows heavily from services like TimeHop, and gives users of the social network a new way to check back on the content they've posted. It's something Facebook has experimented with already with its Year In Review, but this is a more wide-reaching feature.

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Mobile and digital payment systems may be on the rise but according to a new report eight out of 10 consumers still have doubts about the technology.

The Future of Retail report from PR company Walker Sands points to a major player being able to take the lead in digital payments if they’re able to connect with what consumers want.

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Facebook is introducing support for sending and receiving money through Messenger. Starting in the US in the next few months, users of the social network will be able to make electronic payments free of charge. While this is not a service that will rival the likes of Apple Pay or PayPal, it provides a way to quickly send money to a friend.

This is not a payment system that has been completely built from the ground up. It's based on the same backbone that's used to process payments for gamers and advertisers. Security is understandably of paramount importance, and Facebook stresses that as well as encryption and PIN protection for all, iOS users will also be able to take advantage of Touch ID.

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Facebook has just updated -- or rather clarified -- its Community Standards document, which outlines the type of content that are not allowed on the social network. Among the list of banned topics is, as you might expect, terrorism.

Anonymous has been battling terrorism online for a while now, taking down Islamic State related sites and Twitter accounts via its #OpISIS campaign. The aim of this operation is to prevent the terrorist organization from spreading its message online, but now Facebook has taken steps to prevent Anonymous from spreading its own message on the social network.

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Facebook has updated its Community Standards document, outlining the type of content that is not permitted on the social network. When it's not forcing people to reveal their real names, blocking 'offensive' content, or encouraging users to vote, Facebook is often to be found removing content that has been reported for one reason or another. But what's acceptable, and what's not?

A little while back, the site revealed a simplified version of its privacy policy, and now the Community Standards document has received the same treatment. Facebook has set out the types of pictures that are permissible, along with specifying guidelines for other content. So, what's OK, and what’s not?

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Facebook is often a breeding ground for controversy. When it's not being used as platform for mindless idiots to air their dirty laundry, the social network is busy upsetting people for one reason or another. We've had censorship of one sort or another. We've had the debacle surrounding the requirement to use a real name and opening up of custom gender options.

If you're the sort of person who likes to express the way you're feeling through the medium of emoji rather than words, you may well have used Facebook's built in 'I am feeling...' feature. Feeling excited? Don’t type it, just select a starry-eyed smiley. But following a Change.org petition, you can no longer select a predefined option to indicate that you feel fat. Why? Because Mark Zuckerberg is completely spineless.

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Like just about any online service, Facebook has a huge number of dead and dormant accounts. It could be that the owner has died, they might have lost interest, or they may be spam accounts that are no longer used. Facebook is now having a spring clean, sweeping aside inactive accounts, and this could have an interesting side effect for page owners.

Accounts that have been purposely deactivated, or memorialized after a death, are currently still factored into the 'like' count for pages. This is set to change, so many page owners should brace themselves for a sudden drop in likes over the coming weeks.

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Seven hours is all it takes to crack the encryption that is in place on some supposedly secure websites. Security experts blame the US government's ban on the use of strong encryption back in the 1990s for a vulnerability that has just come to light. Named FREAK (Factoring attack on RSA-EXPORT Keys), the flaw exists on high-profile websites including, ironically, NSA.gov.

Restrictions that limited security to just 512-bit encryptions were lifted in the late 90s, but not before it was baked into software that is still in use today. The ban on the shipping of software with stronger encryption apparently backfired as it found its way back into the States. Security experts say the problem is serious, and the vulnerability is relatively easy to exploit.

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It's fair to say that of all of the social networks there are to choose from, Google+ is one that has failed to set the world on fire. Facebook may annoy users from time to time but it dominates the social web, and Twitter has carved out a healthy niche for itself as well. But Google is, uncharacteristically, unwilling to give up on Google+ just yet.

In what seems to be an attempt to breathe new life into a flagging product line, Vice President of Google, Bradley Horowitz is taking control. Interestingly he is not looking after Google+ as a whole, just a couple of its branches. Announcing the news, he said that the recent rumors surrounding Google+ splitting up are true.

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