Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Facebook Impostors – Tips For Your Profile To Stay Safe From Scammers

Where you go, we follow. That’s the motto of the scammer brigade; those invisible citizens of the web underworld. They populate our inboxes, our blog comments, our forums and not surprisingly, our social networks. What’s their loot? It’s our information.

Social sites like Facebook are built around communities. In the real world, a community is a safe haven, but it’s not so in the digital world because of its faceless nature and facebook impostors. Social hacking is a term that was born from this very phenomenon. Just to give you an example…

You get a link on your profile from a friend (or a username which sounds like a friend). It’s just a casual click on that link which lures you to a web page asking for some personal details. A person who is not aware of terms like phishing or malware falls prey to this cleverly disguised scam attack from Facebook impostors. Malware links can even infiltrate your accounts and leech away profile info like passwords and addresses. Or even more seriously, bank account numbers. That itself can set of a domino effect as the others in your contact book start getting attack mails from your account.

Social networking sites like Facebook have a huge user base. Facebook alone has more than 300 million users. Even if a small percentage of infiltration attempts succeed (and they do), you can do the math.

Protecting your Facebook profile from scammers and spammers requires serious ammo. The first fortifications are of course the security firewalls and countermeasures employed by Facebook itself. But just like any other war, the foot soldier is the most important piece around which the battle can turn. The foot soldier is you and what you do to protect your account. Facebook gives you some privacy controls to help you thwart spammer snoops.

Here’s the checklist on how to configure your profile to protect yourself from scammers –

Stop Facebook Impostors – Configure the Privacy Settings

This is the first port of call. After you log-in, on the top right corner of the blue bar you will see the Settings link. Hover over it to get the dropdown and the Privacy Settings.

facebook impostors

The Privacy page is all about allowing or disallowing others from looking at all the information on your Facebook page. Information can be broadcasted from your profile, a Facebook search result with your name, what gets written on Wall Posts, news feeds of your recent activities, and from the applications you authorize to pull information from your page.

facebook impostors

The great thing about Facebook is that it allows us to configure each small part of our profile (see screenshot above). This is what we should be aware of.

Be aware of your friends

Social sites make it very easy to add friends with a click. Soon enough we have an unmanageable bunch. Organizing friends into groups or Friend Lists is one way. Profile views can be set for Everyone, Only Friends, Friends of Friends or customized for specific Friend Lists. You can also exclude certain friends/Friend Lists.
On the Privacy page, click on Profile. Control who gets to see each bit of information by clicking the dropdown and selecting one. You can also click Customize to further fine tune the selections. Never set it to Everyone – that’s like opening the front door. Also, remember that your friends might have other friends who are absolute strangers to you.

facebook imposter scam

One absolute area that you should keep private is the Contact Information. You can set it to No one.
Save all changes.

Be invisible – remove yourself from searches

Given Facebook’s high search listing, anybody (say, scammers) searching for you or some area of related interest would find it easy. When you sign up, the default setting allows everyone to search for you. Later, one way to discourage that is by removing yourself from public search listing and also controlling your visibility from within Facebook.

From the Privacy page, click on Search to access the settings for search. Under the heading Public Search Listing, deselect the option to create a public search listing of your profile.
To cloak yourself further, you can control your search visibility from within Facebook by selecting Only Friends for Search Visibility. And then tighten up security by setting what they get to see in your public profile.

Caution with applications

Third party applications have given Facebook a good name and sometimes have left it red faced too. Third party applications with doubtful roots could be spyware by another name. Applications which you authorize need your profile info to work and sometimes that of your friends in the network (that also goes for apps installed by your friends). To cite another example, quizzes and puzzles are fun but they can influence you to reveal some personal information. So, tread on the side of caution.

From the Privacy page, click on Applications. The Overview describes the situations in which an application accesses your information. From the Settings page you can checkmark the types of information your friends can see about you through applications.
You can also go to the Applications page (click on Applications on the foot bar) and edit the privacy settings for each individual application. A privacy setting controls the status display on your Facebook profile page.

Screen your messages

A scam behind a Facebook impostor’s message is the oldest trick in the scammer’s book. Beware of messages which ask for personal information or cash/donations. Even if you receive a message from a pal asking for sensitive information or monetary help, verify the request with a phone call. You can also do an authenticity check by asking questions which can be back-checked.

Be wary of direct links

Don’t click on direct links that you get in messages or wall postings especially from unknown sources. They could be a ruse to malware sites or fake login sites. Look at each link carefully before being trigger happy with your mouse. A genuine link can be made out by looking up the domain name with a Google search. Though with a shortened URL, it could be a problem. Many links direct the user to a fake Facebook login page which can compromise your password. Facebook usually never asks you to log-in again to view another page.

Community rip-offs

Joining a community may get you a bunch of contacts in one go. But it can also be a scam trap if the community is a sham. Fake communities could serve as marketing gimmicks, often with the intent of building mass mailing lists. Select your community and look around the member profiles before jumping in.

These are just some of the ways we can guard against scam attacks. The best way of course, is to click logout and pick up the telephone. But that’s like picking up paranoia and ditching the fun of social networking. Simple precautions like choosing a secure password, familiarity with all the security options and safe browsing habits can keep us protected. For more Facebook security tips, check out Mahendra’s post – 10 Solid Tips to Safeguard Your Facebook Privacy.

What other tips do you think can help to keep our guard up? And leave the scammers dry…

Sunday, October 31, 2010

HOW TO: Score a Job Through Facebook

from mashable.com

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If you’re looking for a job, ask yourself if you’ve tapped every possible resource. Have you scoured Craigslist and made Monster your homepage? Have you set Google Alerts for every possible word combination that could land you a job? Have you checked Facebook? And I’m not talking about Facebook’s rather useless Marketplace.

While Facebook is better known for helping people lose their jobs, it’s largely an untapped resource when it comes to job hunting. With 500 million users, it has the potential to be one of the largest. But finding a job through Facebook isn’t about pestering your friends and junking up their news feeds with status updates like “Unemployed and Looking For Work — Help A Dude Out.” It’s about making the most of your network in a positive way, not by being a nuisance.

By joining groups, keeping track of your friends’ updates and just keeping in touch with your network, you can turn Facebook into a site that does so much more for you than just keep tabs on your exes. Here are five ways to turn Facebook into another resource that can help you land a job. If you’ve scored a job through Facebook, we want to hear your story, so leave us some tips in the comments below.

1. Read Your News Feed

Amanda Flahive is known as the Diva of the Details at Sevans Strategy, a Chicago-based public relations and new media consultancy. She wears many hats in her job working with social media maven Sarah Evans. But Flahive landed the gig just from reading her Facebook feed.

Both Flahive and Evans attended the same college but were in different programs — while they knew of each other, they didn’t know each other well. About a year and a half ago, they were brought back together by a mutual friend’s wedding. Evans threw an engagement party, and the two reconnected. “At that time Sevans wasn’t in existence,” says Flahive. “[Sarah] was still at her old position as the director of communications at a community college. We talked about what we were both doing, but the conversation wasn’t too serious. Sevans might have been something in the back of her brain at the time, but it wasn’t something we discussed that night.”

Since they were both going to be in the same wedding, they decided to keep in touch on Facebook, the way many old acquaintances re-connect.

“I’m a person who pretty regularly reads my Facebook news feed. If it’s not something regarding Farmville or Mafia Wars, then I most likely read it,” she says. “So I was reading through updates on a random day, and had been in one sales and marketing position, and moved to another, and I was OK, but wasn’t loving it.”

Flahive was keeping an eye out — looking on Monster, looking on Career Builder, but wasn’t really hitting anything. “Those sites are quite often so flooded with people that are looking for jobs, that it was my experience that you don’t get very far on those sites. I would send a resume in and either not have it go anywhere or in a direction that wasn’t right for me,” she says.

So on a random day, Flahive saw that Evans had posted that she was looking for a three-quarter time assistant. “From the exact Facebook post: Live in Chicago and love details? Looking for someone to work about 30 hours a week, checking e-mail, booking travel etc. E-mail Jen (her then assistant) for more details.”

Flahive didn’t respond right away, but figured she had nothing to lose since she knew Evans on both a personal and professional level. Evans called her for an interview, and they had a good laugh about it. “I said, I can’t believe we are having this phone call, but if it weren’t for Facebook, we wouldn’t be having it.”

In fact, Evans didn’t post the job anywhere else other than Facebook and Twitter () (also the method that Sevans uses to hire its interns). The two had a conversation about the position and Evans ultimately offered Flahive the job through a direct message on Facebook.

“It’s not what I expected to get out of Facebook,” says Flahive who says it’s typically used to catch up with friends and look at baby photos. “I never thought I’d get a job out of it. But now that I have, it makes all the sense in the world. And what’s more, my job got a whole lot bigger after I accepted via Facebook. Now it’s full time, I’m doing development and marketing; it led to a much bigger job.”

2. Get Active in a Group

Web developer Enrico Bianco works at Post Rank but found his previous job creating web applications for the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants, just by joining a Facebook group.

Bianco was in the middle of job search, looking to switch gears. At the time, he’d been doing mostly Java enterprise development and wanted to get into Ruby on Rails instead. “I started doing rather vigorous networking, and other job searching stuff. I used to answer posts on Craigslist (), go to professional networking events for social media and Ruby on Rails.” On a whim, he says, he found a Facebook group for the Toronto Ruby on Rails community and left a message in the discussion board saying that he had something to offer, if anyone was looking for someone to do some Ruby on Rails development.

Lo and behold, he got a message back from the systems manager at CSIC, who asked for his resume, which in turn lead to an interview, and Bianco landed the job. “So it was really, very much a fluke, but a fortunate one,” he says. “She ended up telling me later that one of the key reasons she hired me was that she saw I was active in the community, and that I was engaging with others on the Internet ().”

But Bianco casts it off as a fluke, and he admits it cost him nothing to do. “I wouldn’t use it as a primary tool for job searching, but at the time I was willing to use any resource I could.”

3. “Like” or “Friend” Companies You Want to Work For

Sandra Aaron is a Toronto-based event planner who was looking to expand her knowledge of the destination wedding scene, but she found it a difficult prospect. “It’s really hard to properly plan destination weddings without full knowledge of the travel industry,” she writes via e-mail. “So I decided I wanted to find a side job with a travel agency.”

Aaron spoke with many companies in her search to break into the industry, but the one company she really wanted to align herself with was difficult to get into, as their average new hire had 20 years of experience in the travel industry — something Aaron didn’t have.

Aaron says she spent a few months trying to find her way in, asking everyone she knew if they knew anyone with the company. Then one day, she saw a status update from the company’s Facebook Page that they were seeking experienced travel advisers. “With nothing to lose I commented, asking if they ever hired destination wedding planners. A couple of weeks later their marketing guy sent me a note on Facebook, saying he would be happy to pass on my resume to the right person.” Aaron’s resume ended up in the hands of the general manager who was so impressed with it, that within a few weeks, Aaron scored an interview.

Today, she’s an independent contractor for the company. She works from their offices, and says it’s a great situation. “I have access to their resources, and their staff has access to my knowledge and resources within the wedding industry. I would have never gotten the meeting if it weren’t for Facebook.”

4. Participate in a Contest

Andrew Miller scored his internship at Fast Horse, a Minneapolis marketing firm through a contest on Facebook (). The company announced that its newest intern would be the candidate who could gain the most “Likes” in a week. Miller was tipped off to the contest by a college professor and quickly went to work on his campaign.

“I tried to tap into every single social network I had ever been a part of,” he said. “And just send out messages that said, hey if you have a few minutes can you help me win this dream internship? All it takes is liking my Page.”

Miller says he didn’t even start out with the most Facebook friends, but he was able to mobilize people by giving them simple directions to vote. That strategy won him 725 “Likes” and the internship.

“Having to market myself in this process has helped me in thinking about how to market actual products. The mobilization that I was able to accomplish is something I do all the time now, contacting blogs and newspapers, trying to get them to run stories,” he said.

Miller, who moved 1,700 miles from Portland, has completed his three month internship and it was extended another three months, which he says is a typical track to full-employment.

“If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that social media can be such a powerful tool for establishing those relationships. There is something so hollow about submitting your standard application, resume and cover letter. With this I was able to be in communication with the decision makers and be sure this was going to be a good fit for me. I would absolutely use social media again to engage with those decision makers.”

5. Start a Dialogue

Fast Horse, the company that hired Andrew Miller as an intern, is a big believer in the Facebook hiring process, according to its creative director and founder Jorg Pierach.

When Fast Horse launched its Facebook Page, it didn’t want the campaign to just be a megaphone for the work they were doing, but rather they wanted to use it as a place to interact with job candidates, sort of a digital informational interview, says Pierach. The company directs job seekers to its Facebook Page so its employees have a place to share information about the company, their culture and what they do.

“So instead of a resume disappearing into a file somewhere, we have a way to keep in touch, and the Fast Horse experience is the way to do that,” he said. “We started this about a year and half ago and we’ve hired about four or five people this way. They started a dialogue, and when a position opened up we already had a good idea of what that [person] was about.”

Pierach says that the intern search was about more than just finding candidates; it was a way to assess them as well, so the candidates could show off their marketing chops. The company asked for video introductions and interviewed 15 candidates before narrowing it down to three finalists who competed for the most “Likes.”

“In a sense it wasn’t about hiring one candidate, but seeing three strong people and their talents. As our needs continue to grow, we know that there are people out there that we liked. It’s about talent cultivation and about them showing us what they can do. But ultimately [it's] about keeping in touch with really talented people.”

Pierach looks at it as a different kind of interview — one that requires people to take the initiative to weigh in with their own thoughts. It’s also a method that saves the company a lot of time when looking to fill a spot. “We have a pre-qualified group of people we can turn to very quickly,” he said, noting that the company saves itself from having to post on job boards and slug through cover letters. They can bring in candidates they know are going to rise to the top, because they have been watching each other on Facebook.

“We recently had a new opportunity that was a very, very quick turn around. We needed a designer the next day. We turned to our Facebook Page and within a couple of hours we had six or seven people who raised their hands, all people we knew, to say they were available. We were able to get them in the next day and keep moving.”

In the future, you can expect to see more companies looking at the hiring process this way, and Pierach suggests that people coming out of college would do well to be aggressive in identifying the companies they want to work with and start the dialogue.

Social Media Job Listings

Every week we put out a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we post a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the social media positions from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!

Social Media Marketing Manager at M in Washington, DC.
Director of Social Media Strategy at Likeable in New York, NY.
Social Media Strategist at Sierra Club in San Francisco, CA
Social Media Manager at Bloom Avenue in New York, NY.
Social Media Manager at PETA in Los Angeles, CA.

More Job Search Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Ways to Get a Job Through YouTube
- 10 Tips for Aspiring Digital Marketers
- HOW TO: Land a Career in Digital Public Relations
- 10 Tips For Aspiring Community Managers
- 5 Tips for Aspiring Social Media Marketers

For more Social Media coverage:

Follow Mashable Social Media
Subscribe to the Social Media channel
Become a Fan on Facebook
Download our free apps for iPhone and iPa

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

5 Scams You Might Be Falling For

By Kimberly Palmer
Posted: March 10, 2009

At least one group is finding the recession to be a boom time: Fraudsters. The Better Business Bureau reports an uptick in complaints about scams, especially those relating to the stimulus package and mystery shopping. "There are definitely going to be more rip-offs because of the economy," says Ed Magedson, founder of the Tempe, Arizona-based Ripoff Report.

Here are five scams you could be falling for:

Paying for information on how to get money from the stimulus package. Almost as soon as the stimulus package was signed into law, scam artists created blogs and websites purporting to help people receive grants from the bill, according to the Better Business Bureau. Blogs that were set up to look like someone's personal story on how they received thousands of dollars of stimulus money directed visitors to websites that charged as much as $69.95 per month for information.

The Better Business Bureau, which has already received hundreds of complaints on stimulus-related scams, warns consumers off any website claiming to help them win federal grant money, and to avoid paying any money for information. The Federal Trade Commission also issued a warning after it noticed websites using images of President Obama in an effort to look official. Government websites, which always end in ".gov," such as www.grants.gov, www.recovery.gov, and www.govbenefits.gov, provide information on the stimulus package and government grants for free.

Getting hired to be a mystery shopper by a fraudulent company. Becoming a mystery shopper sounds like the perfect job, paying you to do what you're already doing. Because so many people are out of work, interest in mystery shopping has grown, says Alison Southwick of the Better Business Bureau. So have the scams associated with it.

Here's how the typical mystery shopping scam works: You are offering a few hundred dollars to become a mystery shopper. The company sends a check for $3,000 to be deposited in your bank account. You're told to spend part of it at various stores, to keep $300 as payment, and to wire the rest—often a couple thousand dollars—back to the company, which is frequently based in Canada. Then, after wiring away that money, it turns out the original check was fake, and you have just given away thousands of dollars to a scam artist.

Of course, mystery shopping is also a legitimate activity. To tell the real offers from the fakes, Southwick recommends sticking with one basic rule: Never wire money to anyone. That is how most victims get tripped up. Also, she adds, mystery shopping usually pays around $20 per assignment, or perhaps a free lunch. Offers of more money, in the hundreds of dollars, should raise a red flag. The Mystery Shopping Providers Association, an industry group, adds that shoppers never have to pay a fee to become a mystery shopper. It lists legitimate opportunities on its website, www.mysteryshop.org/shoppers.

[Read "Beware the Latest Credit Card Scam."]

Paying an illegitimate company to modify your mortgage. With thousands of homeowners looking for mortgage relief, Magedson says that an increasing number of companies are offering mortgage modifications for upfront fees. "They're slick sales people, taking these fees upfront and then doing nothing," he says. If any company asks for an upfront payment, Magedson recommends walking away.

Believing that you won money in the form of a grant or lottery in the mail. The old "You are a winner" trick might pre-date the Internet, but it's still going strong; in fact, says Magedson, he calls it one of the most popular scams today.

Typically, consumers receive mail that says they've won something, usually the lottery, sweepstakes, a grant, or some other form of money. Then, the company sends a check with instructions to deposit the money and then pays taxes on it by wiring money into an account. If the check is for $5,000, they might pay $2,300 in taxes.

Of course, as with the mystery shopping scam, the check turns out to be bogus and the consumer just lost the wired money. "Consumers should know that nobody's picking them out. Nobody would give them money," says Magedson. In other words, any offer that sounds too good to be true probably is.

Corrected on 3/11/09: An earlier version of this article provided an incorrect Web address. The correct address is www.govbenefits.gov.

source: http://www.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2009/03/10/5-scams-you-might-be-falling-for.html

Boy Sues Mother For Changing His Facebook Password

Posted by Neil Vidyarthi on April 7th, 2010 4:16 PM

Share194 13 Comments

angrykidlogo A disgruntled Arkadelphia boy is hitting back at his social media savvy mother after she went through his Facebook and posted things that “involve slander about his personal life”. His preferred method of revenge: litigation. He’s filing charges against her and is requesting a no contact order.

The son cannot be named, but the mother, Denise New, proclaims that she’s within her rights to watch her child and have a conversation with him about his activities.

“You’re within your legal rights to monitor your child and to have a conversation with your child on Facebook whether it’s his account, or your account or whoever’s account. It’s crazy to me that we’re even having this interview,” said Denise. “I read things on his Facebook about how he had gone to Hot Springs one night and was driving 95 m.p.h. home because he was upset with a girl and it was his friend that called me and told me about all this that prompted me to even actually start really going through his Facebook to see what was going on.”

Arkansas’ harassment law is defined as “A person commits the offense if with purpose to harass, annoy or alarm another person without good cause, he engages in conduct or repeatedly commits acts that alarm or seriously annoy another person.”

What’s interesting here is that New and her son had a great relationship, and this really drove them apart, as they’re both going to fight. Denise thinks this may be a precedent-setting moment for mothers who want to get involved in their sons’ and daughters’ lives. Facebook in this case acts as a medium which allows a higher level of visibility into family members’ lives, and brings the issue of how to raise your children squarely into the light.

source: http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/04/boy-facebook-password/#more-13322

The Latest Facebook Scam Uses Your “Friends”

By Kimberly Palmer

Posted: March 31, 2010

If you get an email from a friend telling you that he’s been mugged and needs you to send cash immediately, you might want to give him a call first. Chances are, he’s safe at home and doesn’t need your help at all.

The latest scam to circulate on social networking sites works like this: Fraudsters hack into an unsuspecting Facebook user’s account and change his status update to read something like, “I’ve been robbed and need help now!” That person’s friends receive the alert by e-mail or by logging onto Facebook, and, as any good friend would, spring into action. They send cash or money orders to their “friend,” but in reality, they are sending the cash to scammers who steal it.

“If a cry for help arrives from a friend, and his picture is next to it, it’s pretty easy to fall for,” says Bob Sullivan, author of Stop Getting Ripped Off. On his blog The Red Tape Chronicles, Sullivan describes how Bryan Rutberg of Seattle discovered his Facebook account had been hacked into and a message had been posted that he was in urgent need of help. His friends tried to help him; one sent $1,200 to the hackers.

Why do people believe such fraudsters? “Facebook friends enjoy a trust level that others do not,” Sullivan says. It’s also easy to be lulled into a false sense of security when you’re using social networking sites – the same sites you post baby pictures to, talk about your dinner plans on, and use to communicate with close friends. It’s easy to start to think of Facebook as the local coffee shop, full of familiar faces, instead of the anonymous website that it can sometimes be.

Facebook, which has gotten some bad press because of this and similar incidents, says users should use anti-virus and anti-phishing programs to help protect themselves, and to be skeptical of anyone who asks for money. Never send money, the company says, without verifying with your friend on the telephone first. Facebook also says that people should be savvy about their passwords, and not use the same one for multiple accounts.

The folks at Google are also on the case. The company recently launched a warning system that lets users know if the company detects any suspicious activity. If it seems like something fishy is going on, it posts a warning that alerts the user.

[See Fraud Protection: Debit Versus Credit Cards]

There’s also a lower tech way to alert your friends to potential trouble with your account. If you have any reason to believe that your account has been accessed, then send an email to your contact list explaining your concern. After my former high school teacher suspected he might be at risk for an attack, he sent out the following message: “Over the past several weeks, a couple of my friends have had their identities stolen… Since I travel a lot and since the [scammers] have my E-mail… it is not impossible that the same thing might happen to me. So, if you get such a request from me, ignore it. If I need money, I know who to call and will do it by phone.”

Have you been the victim of a Facebook scam? Share your experience and tips for others.

source:http://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/alpha-consumer/2010/03/31/the-latest-facebook-scam-uses-your-friends

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Facebook Lite

Facebook Lite

Facebook Lite is a stripped down version of the website that runs fast and eliminates a lot of the current clutter. The first thing you will notice missing are apps, you won’t see any applications or games/quizzes clogging up your timeline. I use the “Hide” feature seemingly daily on my timeline to filter this stuff out, but now in the new Lite version there are gone. Also noticications now appear in the Lite version on the bottom of your screen, keep an eye out for them because at first you may miss them as they pop up. Highlights are gone in the Lite verion, these were all the photos, videos and notes that were most viewed in your network.

The new Lite version was originally built for foreign countries where high speed broadband was less likely to be found. But the interface was so fast and furious that it was introduced this week on a wider scale, including here in the States, as an alternative option.

Below you can see several screen shots. The first is the “old” Facebook timeline, followed by the new Lite timeline. The third shot is the new Lite profile screen, which features bigger buttons and a much cleaner interface:

fblitescreensa

fblitescreensb

Facebook Tagging

Another very cool feature rolled out this week is Facebook Tagging. Very similar to Twitter, you can now tag people as you post a status update. You can see this in the screenshot above. It is done by using the “@” symbol before their name. You can also tag groups and pages. What is cool is that when you start to type in a name or group, Facebook automatically pops up suggestions to make it easier. The person you tagged will be notified (same as Photo Tagging works now) and also if someone is reading your status update they can click on the person’s name to go direct to their profile.

Facebook Tagging is available now for some and will roll out for everyone in the coming week or two, so keep an eye out for this powerful new feature.

If you would like to try out Facebook Lite, just go to http://lite.facebook.com

Facebook has been focused and agressive on improvng their service and these two great options are very welcome. I already love the new Lite version after using it for only a day or so and will

source: facebook.com/franklinmcmahon

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Reader Redux: How Many Times a Day Do You Check Facebook

Mar 25 - 9:30AM by GeekSugar

Wow! I suppose I should have expected the results of this poll to show up as they did given that I'm talking to a bunch of geek girls, but it turns out that 60 percent of you check Facebook more than five times each day, with another 24 percent logging in between two and five times. I already confessed that I'm guilty of checking in multiple times — some days, definitely more than five! Here's what some of you had to say:

"I log in a bunch of times, but usually I only scroll through my news feed for a minute then close it. " — bethinabox
Several times a day. I like to quickly read the new feeds and play the games, I'm especially addicted to Sorority Life." — pinkmystic
"Once or twice . . . unless I find something that really needs to be shared." — littlemzfit
"I never use Facebook for the "social" function. I prefer calling or e-mailing. However, I check my Facebook daily for my Facebook games." — Rosay77
"I don't check it at all, because I don't have a Facebook." — WildLikeFox

geeksugar.com/How-Many-Times-Do-You-Check-Facebook-One-Day-7891146

Teen Gets Fired From Job Via Facebook

I don't think SavvySugar will take too kindly to this news: we've all heard of your social networking accounts and Twitter TMI possibly getting you in hot water with current and future employers, but what if your boss does the dirty work of firing you on Facebook!? Crazy talk, right? Wrong. This actually happened to a teenager in the UK recently after she lost the ten-pound note she was supplied with (about $15) to buy her and her fellow employees some cookies. (Side note: she worked at a cafe called Cookies in Leigh. Go figure.)

Her manager, after failing to get a hold of her on the phone actually gave her her walking papers on her Facebook page! To see what she said, just read more.

This note was left on the teen's Facebook page:

hiya Chelsea its Elaine from work. Sorry to send u a message like this but bin tryin to ring u but gettin no joy. I had to tell the owner bout u losin that tenner coz obviously the till was down at the end of day. she wasn't very pleased at all and despite me trying to persuade her otherwise she said I have to let u go. I'm really sorry.

I'm a little shocked that a manager at any place of business would consider this a proper termination, not to mention how embarrassing it would be to see that note on your wall! Have you ever witnessed an embarrassing termination, or have been completely humiliated in a similar way while being fired?

source: geeksugar.com/Teen-Fired-over-Facebook-7874908

Beware of the Latest Facebook Scam

Mar 18 - 4:47AM by GeekSugar

I've already told you how to avoid getting hacked on Twitter, but there's a new Facebook scam out there that's not only hacking into your accounts, it's also downloading a virus onto your computer. If you receive an email with the following message, beware — it's a scam:

Because of the measures taken to provide safety to our clients, your password has been changed. You can find your new password in the attached document.

Sneaky little scammers, right? Whatever you do, don't download the attachment! This one could fool you because the email is coming from help@facebook.com, but trust me, it's not from the Facebook team. Facebook will never send you an email with an attachment or ask you to reset your password anywhere off of the site. Pass the warning around to your friends, and if you do end up getting hacked, head to the Facebook help page to see what to do next.

Source: geeksugar.com/New-Facebook-Scam-Asks-You-Download-Attachment-7808592

Latest Facebook scam could affect millions

A new spam attack against Facebook users could lead to millions of computers being infected with a password stealing programme.

By Jennifer Scott, 19 Mar 2010 at 16:18

The latest scam to hit Facebook could affect millions of user, security experts are warning.

A blog post from McAfee has claimed the spamming attack, where cyber criminals are posing over email as the social network’s officials, could enable a password stealing programme to be installed on the computer.

The phishing email, addressed to "dear user of facebook", reads: "Because of the measures taken to provide safety to our clients, your password has been changed. You can find your new password in the attached document."

By clicking on the attachment in the email, the malicious programme would be installed. This in turn could take any combination of username and password used on said machine, not just the Facebook account.

“Facebook would never send an email alerting a user that they changed his or her password,” the blog post said.

“Another clue that can signal a user has received a spam email is the use of poor grammar and awkward phrases such as in the… greeting 'Dear user of facebook'."

Users who receive the spam email are advised to delete it immediately.

McAfee said a huge number of Facebook users could be affected, with it estimated that over 400 million users are signed up to the site.

source: itpro.co.uk/621652/latest-facebook-scam-could-affect-millions

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

ALERT: Facebook Antivirus Is Completely Fake

While protecting your computer from potential hazards on Facebook is a great idea, the latest Facebook Antivirus application is completely fake. The application automatically tags your friends walls with antivirus-like images but doesn’t really accomplish anything. Ironically it doesn’t even appear to manipulate its results, it just reuses the same image (pictured to the right) over and over again.

As F-Secure points out, “once installed on one friend’s account, this application tags 20 friends into a picture”. While it doesn’t claim to truly solve any problems, the application is misleading enough. My guess is that Facebook will simply remove this application if it hasn’t been removed already, however more important is simply to avoid any application that claims to be a Facebook Antivirus.

Not only is the image misleading, but it also includes Facebook branded icons. Most users have figured out that this application accomplishes absolutely nothing but if you happen to get tagged in a photo by one of your friends, don’t fall for this trick: avoid installing any Facebook antivirus applications. While we’re not sure that there’s any damage done by this application, there’s no benefit of installing it as it will spam all your friends.

Has this image been showing up in your profile? Have any of your friends been affected?

source: allfacebook.com/2010/03/facebook-antivirus-fake

Latest Facebook News

Facebook Upgrades Events, Integrates Wall Publisher

Posted by Nick O'Neill on March 30th, 2010 12:42 AM

The publisher is rapidly becoming the central tool for publishing information through Facebook to the feed, with events being the latest product to integrate the feature. This evening Facebook began rolling out an upgraded version of events which places a publisher directly within the wall, enabling event administrators to publish content with tags. We believe that all confirmed attendees will also see the content within their stream.
Read the rest of this entry »

Yahoo! Mail Increases Integration With Facebook

Posted by Nick O'Neill on March 29th, 2010 7:57 PM

Yahoo! continues to increase their level of integration with Facebook, with the latest implementation enabling users to update their Facebook status from Yahoo! Mail as well as view their contacts profile photos when they’re emailed. While these new features are only being rolled out to a few select markets initially, it will be pushed out more broadly over the coming weeks and months.
Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook Wants You To “Like” Everything On The Web

Posted by Nick O'Neill on March 29th, 2010 6:08 PM

More details are emerging about Facebook’s plans to develop a Like button for the entire web, and part of that involves moving away from “Become A Fan” for Facebook Pages to “Like”. This message was sent to advertisers via a confidential document (which was subsequently leaked to multiple outlets) and highlights initial rumors of a “Like” button for the entire web.
Read the rest of this entry »

ALERT: Facebook Antivirus Is Completely Fake

Posted by Nick O'Neill on March 29th, 2010 3:42 PM

5 Tips For Finding Long-Lost Friends on Facebook

Posted by Raj Dash on March 29th, 2010 11:43 AM

You might be familiar with the concept of Six Degrees of Separation, which refers to how closely connected we are with other random human beings, but did you ever think to leverage this connectivity to find long-lost friends on Facebook? An online friend of mine mentioned the other day that he was trying to find an old crew of friends whose surnames he had never known, and to whom he had no current connections. Now that’s quite a challenge, but it’s not impossible. If you’re looking to find forgotten friends on Facebook, there are a few simple techniques discussed below, after a quick overview of Six Degrees of Separation.
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YouTube Increases Facebook Connect Functionality

Posted by Nick O'Neill on March 29th, 2010 11:06 AM

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While YouTube first implemented Facebook Connect on their site last June, the company has since increased the functionality, including the ability to find what YouTube videos your Facebook friends are sharing. According to the official YouTube blog, “knowing which videos your friends are sharing on social platforms is one of the best ways to discover those clips that you, in turn, just might feel compelled to pass along.”
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Facebook Summarized In A Single Picture

Posted by Nick O'Neill on March 29th, 2010 10:49 AM

Infographics always serve as great eye-candy and the latest Facebook infographic produced by website-monitoring.com is no exception. The chart breaks down Facebook’s history as well as some of the most important facts and figures from the company. Included in the chart is information about the site’s user base as well as the impressive engagement levels that Facebook is able to maintain. Check out the chart below to see Facebook summarize in a single image.
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7 Better Ways To Wish Someone Happy Birthday On Facebook

Posted by Neil Vidyarthi on March 29th, 2010 9:52 AM

With every passing day, the number of friends on our social graphs increases, and our daily “birthday” list increases proportionally as well. Unfortunately, this means that we may sometimes just shoot out the standard “Happy Birthday” message on someone’s wall when we mean to show them a bit a more attention. I came up with a few interesting ways to better wish someone a happy birthday on Facebook.
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Facebook Creates An Application User Creativity Contest

Posted by Nick O'Neill on March 28th, 2010 6:08 PM

This afternoon Facebook began requesting feedback from users about which applications they like to use the most. Some of those videos will then be included in a video at the company’s annual f8 even that is taking place less than a month from now. While it’s not exactly a formal awards program, Facebook is soliciting developers to encourage their users to submit their own videos about why they use certain applications.
Read the rest of this entry »

This Week In Social Games - March 27, 2010

Posted by Neil Vidyarthi on March 27th, 2010 8:21 PM

This week we had a chance to interview Trip Hawkins, the founder of Electronic Arts and Digital Chocolate about his new NanoStar platform, Nick wrote a report from SXSW about the economics of Facebook Games, we looked at 3 ways social gaming is mimicking the Atari games revolution, we reviewed Gangster City and Friends for Sale and published a report that suggests Users Buy More Virtual Goods on New Years and Valentines Day Than Christmas.

Read the rest of this entry on Social Times »

source: allfacebook.com

Saturday, March 13, 2010

What to do if your Hotmail account got hacked – the recent spate of attacks on Hotmail accounts

If your friends and contacts have received an email or IM message from your Hotmail account with wording along the lines of "I would like to introduce a good company who trades mainly in electronic products... etc" - it is highly likely that your Hotmail account has been compromised.

IF YOU ARE THE POOR SOUL THIS HAPPENED TO, THEN YOU SHOULD READ ON AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE.

In most cases when a spam email is sent in your name to someone else, the spammer doesn't need access to your account. All they need to do is spoof your email address - i.e. make it look like it was sent from you. That's very simple to do, and is very common.

However, the latest spate of spam from Hotmail accounts is different in that the attackers actually hack into your Hotmail account and then do some or all of the following things:

They send a spam email to all your contacts.
They may send a spam IM message to all your Messenger contacts
They may delete all your Hotmail contacts
They may set your autoresponse (the one you set when you go away) to send this spam message
They may set your email signature to include the spam message

You know that they have hacked into the account because you can see clearly that they have sent an email from it to all your contacts, or even an instant message. They would not be able to do this if they did not have access to the account.

HOW IT HAPPENS
I don't have a definitive answer, but I do have a theory which, based on the evidence, looks likely. If your password is a common name or a word that appears in a dictionary, then your account is vulnerable, even if it has a year of birth or number attached to it.

This is how the hackers do it:

They employ an automated script that is fed your Hotmail address and then goes to work./li>
It feeds the entire dictionary and common passwords and names into Hotmail one by one, trying to log in.
After several attempts Hotmail "locks" the account and present a CAPTHCA (i.e. a string of wonky letters and numbers that are supposed to stop scripts from doing exactly that, because only a human can read these letters, supposedly).
Unfortunately the CAPTCHA method no longer stops scripts, because hackers have found ways around them. One of those ways works by using sophisticated character recognition software that can read the wonky letters. Another is to feed the letters to "CAPTHCA farms" - the letters are fed to human users, employed by the hackers to read and enter CAPTCHAS, and they are often paid by the number of CAPTCHAs they enter (for example 1 cent per entry). This becomes viable financially if the spam is part of a bigger scam. The scale of the deception means it makes more money, especially because people are much more likely to trust spam messages sent by their friends. This achieves greater returns for the hackers and means they can attack many accounts, bypassing email security systems.
Sometimes the scripts do their work over days, and sometimes weeks, to escape being caught by Hotmail's attack detection systems.

There are of course other ways for hackers to achieve this kind of attack, such as spyware on your computer, or you being deceived by a rogue website. My instructions below would help you tackle these as well.

WHAT SHOULD I DO IF MY HOTMAIL ACCOUNT GOT HACKED?
Go through the following steps, one by one:

1. Before you do anything else, change your Hotmail account password to something very safe. Not a dictionary word or name, or even a word and numbers. Use symbols such as $ and & in your password, and make it long. I know it is difficult to remember, but if you don't want to be hacked, you'll have to start using strong passwords.

2. Now check that your autoresponse and email signature on Hotmail do not have any spam text added to them, as this would go out to your contacts automatically.

3. Then check that your computer does not have spyware or viruses, by following the instructions here.

4. From now on keep your passwords safe, and be extra careful when using public computers (such as those in Internet cafes). If in doubt - change your passwords.

5. You may want to alert Hotmail support to the problem. It seems to be happening all over the place, and the more they know about it, the better it is for their efforts to address it.

And please note: if for some strange foolish reason you decide to go to the site advertised by the spammers, and you are even more foolish and decide to buy something on it, don’t be surprised if it never arrives. This is a well known scam, and you will never get your goods, you muppet.

http://www.thatdanny.com/2009/04/18/what-to-do-if-your-hotmail-account-got-hacked-the-recent-spate-of-attacks-on-hotmail-accounts/

What do I do if I have a Virus

This article covers what to do if you have a virus, or suspect you have a virus on your computer.

THE CAUSE
You are usually vulnerable to a virus under the following conditions:

1. You have virus protection on your computer, but it is not up-to-date.
2. You have virus protection on your computer, but the virus got through anyway.
3. You have no virus protection at all.

THE SYMPTOMS
Your computer is behaving strangely or in an unexpected way, for example files disappear or become corrupted, your email program seems to be sending emails but you don't actually see anything being sent or your Internet browser keeps redirecting to websites that you didn't want to go to. There a re many other possible symptoms, but in most cases you will notice that something is wrong.

For all of the above, there are perfectly reasonable explanations that may not be a virus, such as hardware and software malfunctions, but they could also be the result of your system being infected, so it is wise and prudent to do something about it, bearing in mind that you can do so for free.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU SUSPECT YOU HAVE A VIRUS ON YOUR COMPUTER
Disclaimer: These steps would help in most cases, but if your system is so badly damaged that it is beyond repair, the following steps may be too late, and some of your data may be lost. You follow them at your own risk. Then again, if you have a virus on your machine, you probably need to do something about it anyway.

If you already have virus protection on your computer:

a. Make sure it is up-to-date and in licence. If it has expired and you no longer have virus updates, then it is as good as not being there at all. Either renew your licence and scan your computer for viruses, or uninstall it and follow the steps below.

less, not more

NOW FOR VIRUS SCANNING
My approach uses three sets of tools to ensure that if you do have a virus, it is detected and removed:

free Virus detection and removal tool from Trend Micro

free virus tool from McAfee, stinger

Ad Aware

Important note: The above programs tend to detect "tracking cookies" as a "threat". It is likely that quite a few of those would be found on any computer. Though unwanted, they are NOT the risk that is causing you problems. Remove them when asked, but if they are the only thing your scans have found, then your system is very unlikely to have a virus on it.

AND FINALLY - PROTECT YOURSELF FROM FUTURE ATTACKS
By this stage you are likely to know if your computer has indeed had a virus. The scans would have revealed it, and helped you fix the problem. Now is the time to think about protecting your computer longer term.

GET A ORIGINAL VIRUS PROGRAM

http://www.thatdanny.com/2008/07/14/what-do-i-do-if-i-have-a-virus-virus-removal-and-virus-protection/

Applications for Facebook

You all know that we are celebrating the month of September as the Anniversary month of Hacking Truths. As per the promise made by us that this month is going to be special and so here we are with the first gift to all of you.

Facebook has become very famous in last 1 year. Orkut which was considered to be the best Social networking website has been sidetracked by emerging Social Networking Websites like Facebook and Twitter. Considering the popularity of Facebook we have collected the Most Essential Hacks of Facebook and presented them to you.

Facebook Platform: 30+ Awesome Applications for Facebook

The Facebook Platform, which goes live today, means you can use lots of cool new applications within Facebook (). We’ve tested most of them, as well as gathering together all the announcements made today. Here are more than 30 of the best, with more being added as they are announced – come back later for updates. More than 70 partners have already signed on.

Editor’s tip: We probably shouldn’t tell you this, but you can gain access to all these apps by logging in to Facebook and going to http://apps.f8.facebook.com/apps . Soon they’ll move over to the main Facebook domain, but for now, let’s keep it between you and me.

Add CollegeHumor content, be it videos, images or articles, to your Facebook profile with one click. You can send the content to another Facebook user as well, adding to the viral nature of CollegeHumor content. CollegeHumor has also included the ability to add applications that showcase the newest and the most popular content, content from their school, as well as an application to insult their friends. Should be fun.

FeedBurner has built its Headline Animator on the Facebook Platform, and it will display the latest headlines from your FeedBurner blogs, podcasts and RSS feeds to Facebook users. The Headline Animator is a dynamically generated graphic that can be customized as well, and will show on your Facebook profile. This feature isn’t an added reader option, but it will enable you to create a Headline Animator for your blog and put it on your Facebook profile.

Splashcast lets you create your own channels to which programming from across the web can be added, including videos and images. These can then be embedded into your blog or social networking site, and now your Facebook profile. You can create a channel specifically for Facebook, and it looks like the integration into Facebook through its new platform will let you create and edit your channels from within Facebook as well.

With iLike’s integration, you’ll be able to personalize your incoming iLike information based on your Facebook music and friends, and be alerted as to when your favorite artists is going to be in town as well as which of your Facebook friends will be attending. You can also search and add streaming music to your profile, and discover new music based on what your friends are listening to.

Slide’s integration is simple enough: slide shows that you’ve created can be integrated into Facebook. Send them to your own Facebook profile or to a Facebook friend. In addition, its added Slide Guestbook, which lets friends add video, photo and text comments to create a collaborative slide show, and Slide SkinFlix, letting you personalize videos with skins and themes.

With the Forbes integration into Facebook, you can track company stocks and access related financial information, along with the latest headline news from Forbes. You can track up to ten companies by their ticker symbols, view the three most recent news headlines, and get immediate access to relevant financial data. This can be displayed on your profile page and shared with friends.

The Internet tv broadcaster will let you add a Favorites () player to your Facebook profile, and is fully integrated with the Veoh platform and favorite videos feature. It enables Veoh to increase its reach, tapping into Facebook’s 24 million users.

The community for dog lovers has a couple of features for its Facebook integration, starting with the Dogster Rescu Application. This allows Facebook users to feature photos of dogs around the country that are in punds and shelters, awaiting a good home. Dogster is also adding the Dogster Cute application, enabling users to showcase photos of the cutest dogs and puppies on their Facebook profiles. Catster will have the same offerings.

The slideshow app allows Facebook users to create music videos and slideshows mixing images, text and effects with a large music library, which has recently been expanded to include APM music, a joint offering from EMI and BMG. Fliptrack is holding two contests over the holiday weekend, including “make the best music video” contest featuring Plain White Tees’ single “Hey There Delilah” and the final week of the “make a video” contest for the band A Shoreline Dream. Finalists will receive a gift pack from the band and will be featured on their website.

Ma.gnolia’s social bookmarking app built on Facebook’s platform lets member’s latest bookmarks be available for friends to see. The links will be provided for other Facebook members that have also added the Ma.gnolia application. This is obviously an easier way to see what your friends have bookmarked, as it’s displayed within Facebook’s larger community, offering additional info like ratings and tags.

The event finder application lets users discover new happenings all over the country, at the local level. You can search for events or peruse suggested events from within Facebook, and set mobile reminders or add the events to their iCals.

The file sharing application built on Facebook’s platform lets users display files directly from their Facebook profiles, granting more ways for Box.net’s widget to become visible and easily used by more people. Box.net lets site visitors access these files directly, offering a collaborative file sharing application to be used within Facebook’s larger network.

The game creator now lets you add and access its games through Facebook, giving you a wide selection of games to play directly from the Facebook sidebar. Users can play Bunchball games with other Facebook users, increasing the type of interactivity that can occur within the Facebook network.

Channels.com has been integrated into Facebook to delivery daily video clips based on your favorite television shows, as listed in your Facebook profile. These clips come from cable and broadcast television programmers.

The Ether voice-commerce application is often used for business purposes, and will now let you place a “call me” button on your Facebook profile, and earn money by communicating their knowledge and expertise over the phone. This can be used for tutors, consultants, experts, bloggers and a few other professions we can think of that involve a call-in line.

Atomic Moguls has created FantasyMoguls to provide Flick Picks and Box Office O/U as a distributed model for social and fantasy gaming. Facebook friends can share which movies they’d like to see, and find out what movies others are interested in, rate them, and make predictions about how well a movie will do at the box office. These predictions can be stacked against other Facebook users as a fun game.

The style community is extending its Fashion IV rating game in Facebook, letting users enjoy some fun features offered in Fashion IV’s network, which includes ways for users to share their style statements and get feedback about their clothes, straight from the community.

Flixster () is launching Flixster-on-Facebook for rating movies and offering recommendations. This provides users with access to Flixster’s rating, sharing and discovery tools that are used on Flixster’s main website service.

The fashion and style informative will let Facebook users express their fashion choices using products they own or desire, to be shared with friends. Create personalized lists from Glimpse’s catalog of over 250,000 items, which can then be named, annotated and published to their Facebook profiles. Friends can create their own Glimpse lists, and also receive notifications when friends’ styles are updated.

Their integrated application involves an interactive travel map, enabling Facebook users to place color-coded maps on their profiles, indicating all the countries they’ve visited, and all the places they hope to visit. Updates to users’ maps will be shared with friends via the Facebook Newsfeeds. Users can contact other members with similar travel plans and get info about destinations they’ll be going to in the future.

The integration with Facebook is pretty apparant; Jangl will offer Facebook users a way to communicate with each other, using their land lines, VoIP or mobile phones, without giving up any personal information. Tying in its announcement from earlier this week, Jangl users on Facebook will also be able to call anyone that has an email address, regardless of geographical location.

Jobster’s application will let Facebook users search for jobs and connect them with people, information and opportunities necessary for furthering their careers. This integration is simply a seamless way to tap into the Facebook user base, which is heavily comprised of college students and recently graduated adults.

The service that lets you make personal loans out to people is now accessible through Facebook, making it that much easier to borrow and lend money. Facebook’s demographic seems to be right up the alley for Lending Club, considering the initiative of Facebook’s college community, which bleeds well into adulthood.

MOG is introducing the “Last Songs Played” and “My Top Songs This Week” applitions, enabling users to automatically display the songs they’ve just listened to on their computers and iPods. This adds personalization options to Facebook users’ profiles, and more ways for song discovery amongst the larger community.

This app lets Facebook users start sports and entertainment pick competitions with other Facebook members. You’ll be able to publish and promote your picks, including scores, rankings and weekly averages, to be shared with other Facebook users.

Prosper introduced its Fantasy Banker game for Facebook users to take part in. Within Facebook, your scoreboard appears with those that you’re playing against, betting on real-time loan listings displayed on Prosper’s website. When the listings players pick gets funded, they earn points. This educational and financial twist on Hot or Not is another way for Facebook users to interact with each other.

This offering gives Facebook users a way to convert digital photos and illustrations into prints, photo books, posters, postcards, mugs, T-shirts and more items. Facebook users can order products for themselves or share reorder links and product views with friends, so they too can order these products.

Radar’s Facebook integration lets you share selected pictures and videos with your friends, and embed Radar-style browsing and commenting tools on your profile. Commenting interaction is displayed in real time, and offers yet more ways to interact, this time around content, within the Facebook community.

Providing travel-planning tools for Facebook users, you can share your experiences with others using SideStep’s Trips application. This lets you list upcoming trips and future travel interests, which can then be displayed on your profile. You can also search for other Facebook users with similar travel interests to get more information from them.

Terralever’s stuffCloud app allows you to apply a weighted list of favorites on your profile, which incorporates the brands and products you like or want to have. This visual representation displays trends across a personal network and the larger Facebook network as well. Terralever also introduced Photo Flipbook, providing users the ability to interact with online photos as if they’re in a book.

The Uber music player is now available for Facebook use, letting you grab, listen to and share music within Facebook. To celebrate this launch, Uber will feature an exclusive track “Transformer (Live from Abbey Road)” from Gnarls Barkley. This player is customizable, letting you choose from skins created by Uber and other artists, including Gnarls Barkley.

The interactive digital entertainment service is offering Facebook users a way to discover new music, videos, movies or television show, and learn more about them based on the entertainment their friends are currently watching and listening to. More features to come.

Viagogo launched a tickets application on Facebook, letting users buy and sell their tickets to live events. You can now manage your ticket listings on viagogo, and add the list to your Facebook profile, where friends can see. Installing this particular application will automatically update changes made to your list, including price change and other updates.

The Widgetbox gallery is now available to Facebook users, for selection and embedding on their Facebook profiles. This offers a pretty inclusive level of customization that has previously been unavailable to Facebook users. The widgetbox gallery for Facebook also links directly to the RockYou app inside Facebook, giving quick access to both widgetbox and RockYou. Pretty nifty.

The Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive is offering two political applications built on the Facebook platform, giving Facebook users more access to current political affairs. It’s “Compass” feature allows users to answer questions that determine where their views fall along the political spectrum, and these results are then shared with their Facebook friends, which are invited to answer as well. The network of friends gets a map displaying how their answers compare to each other.

Another voice-enabling service, YackPack offers WalkieTalkie and Tag, letting Facebook users talk to one another by clicking the buttons on each others’ profile pages. This service lets you use your computer and a microphone to chat with other users, and doesn’t require set up or registration.

Scrapblog will let you mix photos, videos, audio and text to create a multimedia scrapbook online. You can aggregate several types of media from all over the web, including YouTube (), Flickr (), etc. and now share them on your Facebook profile for all your friends to see.

This offering lets Facebook users share online classifieds through its “WantList” application, which lets you share things your looking for with your friends. Oodle also introduced its “BandTracker” application, which tracks and shares information about over 200,000 bands and upcoming concerts with other users.

http://mashable.com/2007/05/24/facebook-platform-30-apps/