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People Do Matter To Facebook: Social Network Launches Official Privacy Settings Page

Posted June 3, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb11 People Do Matter To Facebook: Social Network Launches Official Privacy Settings Page

Seeing the discontented reaction of the people with its ever confusing privacy settings and that they were actually searching Google on how to delete or deactivate their accounts Facebook gave it’s privacy settings a makeover and simplified those. How many of you found them simplified enough? Well that’s another story, but just a tip, the social network now has an official Facebook and Privacy Page. Like it or not.

Users were left surprised and shocked out of their wits when news broke forth that Facebook, MySpace and other social networks were leaking user data to advertising networks. That surprise was fueled by anger when a few instant messaged from Zuckerberg revealed that he thought users were stupid for trusting him and the network with their information. It has taken a lot of time for the management, especially its CEO and founder to realize and admit the privacy flaws. To cut the long tale short, Facebook is gearing up  to portray a more user friendly image of itself for its valued users and now providing them a central page to communicate in connection to privacy settings.

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Facebook Brings US Politics To The Social Network With A Fan Page

Posted June 3, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb10 Facebook Brings US Politics To The Social Network With A Fan Page

No matter how determined I am to not write on Facebook, something just pops up which has to be shared. The social network has launched a dedicated Politics Page for United States, which you can access here.

The page was launched in a bid to monitor how the US Officials are utilizing the social networking site to build better connections with people. I bet the connections are going to be pretty tough to handle given that you can’t really control the crowds on the social network if they decide to break free on criticizing any action of the government. I am not surprised seeing this inclination of the US governments towards Facebook, given the fact that the President Barrack Obama had actively used these social networking sites for his presidential campaign, his page has over 8 million fans to date.

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Facebook Has Its First CTO And He Is FriendFeed’s Co-Founder Bret Taylor

Posted June 2, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb8 Facebook Has Its First CTO And He Is FriendFeed’s Co Founder Bret Taylor

Looks like FriendFeed is set to get more of its influence on Facebook as the social networking site promoted FriendFeed founder, Bret Taylor to the position of its CTO. We had reported the acquisition of FriendFeed by Facebook for $50 Million back in 2009. Bret has been the man who has tried to make it simpler to Facebook anyone, not sure how many have actually benefitted though.

If I be not wrong, I had stated that the social network is adopting more and more from FriendFeed. It’s evident, I mean ever since the acquisition, we have seen more FriendFeed like features, for example the Like button, share, comments, etc. In fact the reworked Facebook has a lot coming in from Bret’s brainchild. Given that there is a lot of influence of FriendFeed on Facebook, Bret has rightly been given the long vacant CTO position, where he will be able to more easily bring in FF ideas and further improve the Facebook platform. In email from Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO defines Bret’s role as follows:

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I Quit You Facebook! At Least Video Parody Can Bring Something Fun To Quit Facebook Day

Posted June 1, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

So how many of you left Facebook on May 31? The day was called Quit Facebook Day by many who think that the social networking site has just lost it with safeguarding user privacy while in Pakistan many celebrated the Day of Deliverance. While not many would have deleted their profiles, for the obvious reason that you can’t delete your accounts but at least SeanieMic put up a parody titled, I Quit You, Facebook.

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Facebook Malware Feeding On Clickjacking – A New Day And A New Malicious Attack

Posted June 1, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb Facebook Malware Feeding On Clickjacking – A New Day And A New Malicious Attack

Facebook was finally accessible yesterday after the lifting of the ban on the social networking site in Pakistan on May 31. And guess what, nothing changes with news associated to the network, privacy issues, people talking about quitting Facebook and the ever popular malware. The latest is the Clickjacking worm and a lot of people have fallen prey to it, as always.

The good news is that there has been no theft of user data reported so far. It is simply posts links on user profiles with senseless messages to get them clicking or liking the posts which then spread virally. If you do click on the link it takes to you to a blank page which asks you to click here to continue. The page however is clickable anywhere and once you do click on the page it simply posts the link to your profile as a status update. I guess hat that is pretty simple to understand, given that implementing the like functionality on third party sites has been made really simple by Facebook.

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Facebook Thinks That The Future Of The Social Network Lies In ‘Questions’

Posted May 31, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb89 Facebook Thinks That The Future Of The Social Network Lies In ‘Questions’

Looks like there has been quite a lot in connection to developing something on Facebook that keeps users more engaged while we were facing the Ban on the social network by the government of Pakistan. The latest attempts is to get users build the future of Facebook, with Questions. Pretty inquisitive.

The app is in beta testing and Facebook is looking forward to some great questions being posted by the testers along with the answers to each. The questions of course have can be on anything that you are interested in and can provide the best answers. Of course here your writing skills and expertise will count a lot and since you are one of the few beta testers out there, chances are you can get a chance to be featured to the millions of Facebook users by creating the best beta application and more importantly a chance to win a trip to Facebook headquarters in California. Quite an offer to leverage upon and get many people make it go viral.

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The Lahore High Court Lifts The Ban On Facebook In Pakistan: Let May 31 Go Down As D-Day In Pakistan’s History [BS]

Posted May 30, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb86 The Lahore High Court Lifts The Ban On Facebook In Pakistan: Let May 31 Go Down As D Day In Pakistan’s History [BS]

After Armageddon wreaked havoc in Pakistan’s online community beginning from the appearance of the blasphemous pages on the social networking site, Facebook and the ban imposed on it by the Lahore High Court, things will finally settle down. Why? Because we have finally got the ban lifted today by the High Court as was promised around ten days back.

Phew! I was already uttering this that the ban was temporary and there was no need to panic. But there were of course clouds of unpredictability circling the Cloud and had the ban been permanent we would have seen massive movement taking place within the country, fueled by increased frustrations and probably a mass immigration of the liberal class that was snatched the freedom of speech and action. Thank God for His mercy for giving patience to everyone to see through this ban period and the government of Pakistan finally favoring the lifting of the ban.

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Mark Zuckerberg Donates To The Diaspora Project: ‘I See A Lot Of Myself In These Kids!’

Posted May 29, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb83 Mark Zuckerberg Donates To The Diaspora Project: ‘I See A Lot Of Myself In These Kids!’

When you get assisted by a leader in the industry for an idea that is totally off track their line of work, chances are that you have a pretty good idea worth spending money on. Diaspora, the more private social network to be has received a similar assistance from Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook founder and CEO admitted that he had donated an unspecified amount of cash to this project from 4 NYU students stating that he sees his own self in them, honestly speaking that is scary, I will tell you why.

While it wont obviously hurt Facebook or even Mark to donate a few thousand dollars to such a startup, the idea they are donating for is simply against their own interest. I mean the kids want to have a social network which gives back privacy to the users, completely and not sharing it with anyone for any purpose.

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Ban On Facebook To Be Lifted In Pakistan..

Posted May 26, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb77 Ban On Facebook To Be Lifted In Pakistan..

After all the issues arising from the publishing of blasphemous content on the Facebook Page, to the Ban of the social network in Pakistan the authorities are loosening the grip on it and might soon lift the ban. However it will continue to block any and every link that connects to any blasphemous content. Sounds justified enough.

Honestly speaking you can’t the censor the Web, it is next to impossible given there is just way too much data out there, which is why the PTA blocked almost 800 sites in Pakistan, including YouTube and Wikipedia. PTA itself had stated that the ban was to last till May 31 but there was speculation that the ban would be last longer or might even end up being permanent, given that almost 70 percent people favored it. While there is still no confirmation on the date when the ban is officially to be lifted, we are just hoping that things like these don’t happen again, primarily from Facebook; which I think must exercise its terms and conditions appropriately.

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Why A Clever Social Media Idea Can Do Big In Pakistan And Not Half Hearted Copy/Paste Stuff

Posted May 25, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb74 Why A Clever Social Media Idea Can Do Big In Pakistan And Not Half Hearted Copy/Paste Stuff

Earlier today I mentioned how the current situation in Pakistan on the Facebook ban is quite an opportunity for developers, aka smart people. You have the largest social network blocked, people craving to have it unblocked for numerous reasons and others favoring a permanent ban on the site. I for one would favor this ban even if it lasts till Armageddon, Judgment Day, if some one capitalizes on the issue and gets the 70 percent people favoring the ban to be your new social network’s loyal users.

You have too much to exploit here and I am not joking. Just summarizing my earlier post:

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