Facebook Adds Voice Messages, Video Recording On iOS App

Updated to version 5.4.2 over the weekend the Facebook iOS app for iPhone and iPad now brings in more fun and solidarity to the things you can do within the app. Facebook iOS users can now use the app to send their friends recorded messages and photos right from within the app. The Facebook messenger users were already using the voice recording feature and now the app itself has it.

 The Android app was already updated a few days back with the voice recording and share feature. Apart from the voice recording you are also able to share video recordings right from within the app. The UI looks like what you see on the screen capture(from Facebook app itunes page) on the left. As you can see, the buttons are much visible on the screen and you can also decorate your messages with the emote-icons available on the footer part of the screen.

Some people have reported the voice recording has a strange way to be used. The record button needs to be pressed all the while you record the voice message. If that's true its a bit of a surprise and we are sure the users would rather prefer a more start and stop rather than the all the way pressing of the button. However, the current process is to hold the button and once you are done, just release. The release makes the message being sent to the contact as an automatic step in the process. In case you need to cancel the recording, just slide the finger off the recording button, that's it!

Facebook also has quietly updated the relevance of its Nearby tab in the app. As per the company the updates bring in more relevance so you are able to search what you actually are looking for. This also means the checkins gets a bit more accurate. Use the app and let us know how you find it.

 

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Decline of Localized Networks ?

People are still getting used to it and there are still calls about it being a ghost town. But with the social network now getting out of its infancy and some real good updates on its web version and some fruitful, easy to navigate and user friendly updates on its mobile app; Google' social network has been reported to be world' no. 2 social network based on the active users report.

The report published by GlobalWebIndex is based on the data from Q4 2012 and shows an overall decrease in the usage of localized social networks. Facebook has risen from the so called 'Facebook fatigue' to be still the number one social networks with 693Mn active users, a 33% increment from the numbers around the same time in 2011. Twitter has had the best gain in terms of the percentage increments as far as the active usage was concerned. The micro-blogging site saw an increase of 40% to be at number 4. The major surprise(not to everybody though) came through YouTube which was spotted at number 3 as part of the social network gain. A good 21% of the internet population now uses the video upload and streaming site on a monthly basis. Facebook however attracts the major chunk of 51% of users.

Google plus' rise has been an overall rise more for the search giant than the social network that has been the favorite rival to Facebook. If anything this should silence the critics who claim the social network is no good. 

The Other Side
Is this only about Google or Facebook? The other side of this data report is more of a surprise. With the rise in the active usage on these global social networks, what has declined is the usage of localized networks. The data report published has quite a lot of local players, especially from China, but there has been a large decrease in the numbers against these social networks. As much as 57% decline has been observed for these networks.

Viadeo, the social network from France and the one which now operates under the APVO Corporation banner from San Francisco, USA; also figures in the list at number 22. Viadeo is a French player and has started to spread among the other parts of the world. So although it may be somewhere in between the local and global social networks, if anything it has seen an increase in number of active users if the data is compared for the Q2 and Q4 last year.
LinkedIn, the leader in professional networks is at number 5, considering the global players.

Do you think the localized networks are something people don't prefer? Is the trend shifting and is this a move from localized to global networks?

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Google Dumping Passwords

Your laptop, a browsed website and a tap, possibly with your ring, is all that it will take for you to login to Gmail. And possibly to other websites, if the prototype currently being developed by Google comes comes to be a reality.

Google' security team is currently working on a prototype that will enable web users to be able to shun their passwords and instead use a physical key to login to websites. The research details are said to be publishing some time soon in the IEEE security and Privacy Magazine. The paper will contain details; provided by Google security' VP Eric Grosse and Engineer Mayank Upadhyay; on how web users will be able to forget passwords and use their cell phones or a USB and even their jewellery items to be able to login to their Google accounts and even other websites, once they start honoring the protocol and technology.

 According to Grosse and Upadhyay:
Along with many in the industry, we feel passwords and simple bearer tokens such as cookies are no longer sufficient to keep users safe... 

So how does this work? The guys at Google had to modify the browser to support the new unnamed protocol. The good news is that there won't be any software or add-ons to install in the browser. A Yubico type card; that could slid in your USB reader; will be able to login the user to their accounts. For a start though, you will need to register the physical key after you login to the site. But that's only once at the start. From then on, you will not be needing to remember any complex passwords and the browsers will be not needing any more cookies for the purpose too.

The websites being used will however need to support this. Google is aware of the other similar options that were tried in the near or distant past.
Others have tried similar approaches but achieved little success in the consumer world. Although we recognize that our initiative will likewise remain speculative until we’ve proven large scale acceptance, we’re eager to test it with other websites.

They further clarifies:
We’d like your smartphone or smartcard-embedded finger ring to authorize a new computer via a tap on the computer, even in situations in which your phone might be without cellular connectivity.

We know you are looking forward to it, so are we!!

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Facebook Graph Search Takes On Google

So when was the last time you decided to search the web and went somewhere other than Google? For most of you the answer would be a quick no, unless of course the You in this case are people you prefer Bing or Yahoo search more than what the search giant has to offer. For those who almost always use Google' web search, there is yet another option getting out of that cracked egg. Facebook announced its search product today. The search lets you find your interests, your friends photos, places your friends been visiting and anything else that comes under the umbrella Facebook calls the Graph. And aptly the search is called Facebook Graph Search.

With more than a billion users putting in a whole lot of private data in their hands, they have all that is required to build a search engine. Facebook though says its not a web search as you know. So in a way counting on an impression that is different from that of Google' search. It anyway is a search that people on web will use and the very likely end result that Facebook wants is user' spending more time on the search, getting used to it, using more and more of it, staying on it and ... well we know where this leads to. Away from Google!

Facebook has said they will keep the privacy of the users as their main concern. But what more is there than searching say, "photos that my friends like"? May be the first impression is not much. But hey, do you know there are around 240 billion photos that Google may not be able to index? Does that change your answer about the previous question? Maybe Yes, ok it may not change your answer but will force you to keep an eye on something else than your Google search page. Lets face the fact that people like to be on Facebook, you can't have trillion connections otherwise. Yes we know there are Google fans reading this, and we know what they are thinking. Google plus is an answer to Facebook. Well we agree to an extent. But like Google search has the advantage of a start and being arguably the best place to search on web, we also agree that Facebook has the same advantage in terms of a social network. 

As I write this post someone just reminds me not to miss the Plus One Your World that the search giant introduced. The idea is same: building a personal web search that completes or fulfills user needs in its entirety. Weather of not Google has been able to take a lead on that is not an important question as of now. The competition has just began. In our minds, Google was winning it till now. Spanning the access to all of its products in the same way. Google plus came a little late but we all know Google learned from Buzz and Orkut. People like the feature. The social network itself has a lot of user' private data that they use in their Knowledge Graph. So while Facebook Graph Search will let you find out "who liked the posts that you liked", Google plus lets you search what people are interested in on the network.

Gmail on the other hand has been a complete separate product that collects a huge amount of data that Facebook like search still misses. Gmail now lets you search the private data that you need. Then there is YouTube that has may be as many videos as there are connections on Facebook(exaggeration is intended).

Facebook is taking help from Bing on the searches it can't find with its own data. So its essentially a 2 service competition with Google till now favored service. Google is a leader as of now but Facebook has signaled its arrival, finally. And, like we always say it finally turns out to be good news for users. Just watch out for the privacy concerns ;)

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Viadeo Acquires Pealk

From the "#1 hunting app for LinkedIn" to a "#1 hunting app for Viadeo". Yes we know that isn't what the home page for Pealk says for now, but it may not be the case a few days from now. Viadeo, the French based PSN, announced today via a press release that the acquisition has been completed.  

Pealk has been a real favorite app for the recruiters, mostly for its ability to search through the user base on LinkedIn. But that was sometime back and the association with LinkedIn ended a few months back when LinkedIn cited some breaches in the terms of services between the two. That anyway is history and the future for Pealk is now in SF, right where Viadeo has an office and as told to TNW, that might be where Viadeo will be eying an opening to its innovation lab.

So while the acquisition and a near future opening of the Innovation lab sounds really some exciting news for both the world's second largest professional network as well as the only co founder coming on board Viadeo; the company also cited in the press release that the user base has now grown to 50Mn members worldwide. The focus on emerging markets still continue as far as the growth is concerned.

Pealk was co-founded by Boris Golden and it seems he will be the one leading the innovation lab that Viadeo will set up in San Francisco, US. Pealk as a product will continue to be able to provide its users with a number f professional contacts on the social networks so people can connect to each other. That however will take some time as it seems the app will need a makeover as per the Viadeo platform, at least in its backend processes. So while the company which though is quite a distant challenger to LinkedIn with the later having amassed 200Mn members recently, makes such a good inroad and plans to further enhance the advantage they get with Pealk getting together, Dan Serfaty; co founder and CEO of Viadeo had this to say:
“A PSN’s value depends not only on the size of its member base, but on how members can use it to their advantage,” states Dan Serfaty, co-founder and CEO of Viadeo. “That makes Pealk the most innovative product we’ve released in the last five years, thanks to its ability to democratize social networking for business purposes.”

And it is just obvious that Boris Golden seems very excited on the new role he will be playing in the company from now on. Here is what he pens down:
“We’re very proud and pleased with this buyout, which we consider to be the happy ending to an exciting adventure,”
“It’s also the beginning of a new adventure for us, since there are plenty of applications just waiting to be invented that will give professionals more ways to unlock Viadeo’s full potential!”

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200 Million Members Now Onboard LinkedIn

Not a surprise we are sure but it is a milestone nonetheless. And a rather impressive one at that. LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network site, recently announced via a blog post that the site now has 200Mn members onboard.

The site has presence in around 200 countries and territories and operates in 19 languages around the world, as declared by Deep Nishar; senior VP LinkedIn on his blog post. As far as the members in each country is concerned, US leads the way and by a big margin too, with 74Mn from the country using the services from LinkedIn. Here is a breakdown that we took from Deep' blog post.

It isn't a surprise that the network sees 1,72,800 registrations per day. Why not head over to Deep' blog post and checkout the Member' success stories for yourself.

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Sound Search For Google Play Widget

Ever listened to a song while traveling in the train or a bus or in your car and wanted to download it once you gt time only to realize that you forgot what it was? Well, that happens to quite a few of us. And this isn't a surprise since through the day we go through so many things, forgetting the tune or words of a song is not a big deal. The Android team of Google seems to have a few members who face the same. And they have come up with a widget to solve the problem. Sound Search for Google Play Widget is here.

Now "you can start identifying music playing around you, directly from your Android device’s homescreen". And since the widget syncs up your music on all your devices, you can identify the music on the go on your Android handset and can later schedule a download on your Android tab.

For devices that are running on the latest version of Android Jelly Bean (# 4.2), you are able to add the widget directly to your device' lock-screen, making it easier to use the search feature without having to unlock your device and lose anytime n the process. Here is a list of features the widget provides you: 

• Identify songs, directly from your home-screen
• Purchase identified songs straight from Google Play, and add them to your Play Music library
• Keep a song identification history, synced across all of your Android devices, so you can purchase a song laterAdd the widget directly to your lock-screen, so you can recognize songs even faster (for devices running Android 4.2)

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