Webby News

Earlier this week we brought you exclusive screenshots of a new Facebook homepage design featuring, among other things, a “Top News” filter for your news feed.

This morning Facebook announced those changes will be rolling out today, and broke down the reasoning behind the updates, which it says were largely a result of user feedback.

As we reported earlier, when you log in you’ll now be able to toggle between two views: your News Feed, which is essentially what used to live in the Highlights section, and the Live Feed, which is the same real-time feed from your friends that you’re used to. You can edit what appears in that feed via an “Edit Options” link at the bottom of the page.

Your News Feed is now a “summary view of the most interesting activity that’s happened in the last day,” powered by the stories Facebook thinks you’ll most enjoy and based on your past history interacting with the site. Factors include how much activity and attention an item has seen (from friends liking and commenting) and how likely Facebook perceives you might interact with that story.

Also as reported previously, older items have been added back to the News Feed based on user feedback, including when your friends have been tagged in photos or become fans of Pages. Birthdays and events have also been made more prominent again in the right column of your home page.

The changes should be rolling out to all users today — have you seen them yet on your Facebook home page? What do you think of the new views?

Reviews: Facebook

Tags: facebook, redesign

We all get solicitations from charities and, I suspect, we give to those most closely aligned with our personal philosophies. And from time-to-time those causes that we feel inclined to support may result from a heart-wrenching story we’ve seen on the news or an affliction that’s come too close to home.
With the economic situation being [...]

read more

Is there such a thing as a “bad” apology? I think so…
(By the way, this post is NOT meant as legal advice…this is a professional, business recommendation. That’s my field of expertise, not the law. However, my personal experience is that if you do what’s right for customers, you end up with a lot fewer legal problems, anyway.)
PepsiCo’s iPhone app for AMP Energy drink features 24 types of women, according to news reports, including “nerd”, “foreign exchange student” and “treehugger”, and offered possible pickup lines including “Wasn’t …

read more

Last month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made a splash when it proposed net neutrality rules that would treat all traffic on the Internet equally by enforcing mandates upon ISPs such as Comcast and AT&T, as well as wireless service carriers.

As expected though, the FCC’s new rules have created a division in opinions. But while ISPs and the world’s largest Internet companies (including Facebook, Twitter, Google, Digg, eBay, and Amazon) have been duking it out, longtime Arizona Senator and former U.S. presidential candidate John McCain has stepped into the ring by introducing a bill to stop the FCC’s rules from coming to fruition.

The new rules, approved by the FCC earlier today, have raised significant Republican dissent, mostly on the grounds that it’s government intervention and “onerous federal regulation.” The bill that Senator McCain introduced today, the Internet Freedom Act of 2009, would keep the FCC from enforcing its new rules on ISPs.

In a press release, McCain stated his belief that net neutrality as it now stands would “stifle innovation, in turn slowing our economic turnaround and further depressing an already anemic job market.” He also specifically objects to the FCC regulating the wireless industry, saying that a lack of government intervention has been central to its growth.

While Senator McCain has introduced a bill to stop the FCC, it’s unlikely to gather enough votes in the House and the Senate, and even then it’s very unlikely President Obama would sign the bill. The bill is more likely McCain taking a public stand on the issue. Regardless, it looks like the FCC’s rules are about to be put under the microscope and thrown into the fire.

Tags: fcc, john mccain, net neutrality

The first Android-powered phone launched in Japan last June. Users were able to access free apps on the Android Market, with paid apps to become available at a later point. Paid apps for U.S. users came to the market in February. Now it appears that paid apps have finally come to Japan.

As we wrote in May, the country’s largest telecommunications company, NTT, has picked up the rights to distribute the first mobile phone that uses the Android OS in Japan. The first paid apps hit the Android Market today for Japanese users. The apps are listed on the Japanese version of AndroLib, which lists applications and games for Android for various countries.

It’s been a good year at Facebook. Traffic to the site is up over 200%, from 40 million visitors per month at this time last year, to nearly 125 million now — and that’s just US traffic. Growth is equally impressive for active users Facebook-wide. The company started the year with 150 million active users and they’ve already blown by 300 million. Facebook is easily the most popular social network in the world, and their growth, which doesn’t show any signs of letting up, isn’t just happening in raw user and visitor numbers. Other Facebook initiatives are also growing steadily this year.

This year, Facebook has become one of the web’s most popular application platforms, and has seen especially strong growth among casual games. The Facebook Application Platform now has over 350,000 applications and tens of millions of users interact with apps each month — in fact, 70% of Facebook’s users are active monthly application users. Well over 100 applications have over a million users, according to AppData.com, and Facebook’s most popular application, the game FarmVille, which had 11 million users in August, has grown to an amazing 60 million users today.

Off the site, Facebook’s Connect initiative, launched in July 2008, is now in use on over 15,000 web sites. The service, which allows external web sites to gain secure, permission-granted access to Facebook accounts, has been used in some verycreative ways, and continues to be a huge success for Facebook.

Another bright spot for Facebook has been Pages. Millions of people become fans of Pages each day, according to Facebook, and the platform has been fully embraced by celebrities, such as Vin Diesel, bands like Linkin Park, and major brands as their main channel of communication with fans and customers.

Vote for your favorites

Facebook is truly one of the most exciting areas of the social web, which is why we’d like to know what your choices are for the Best Facebook App, Best Facebook Game, Best Facebook Fan Page, and Most Creative Use of Facebook Connect as part of this year’s Open Web Awards.

The nominating process is simple, just visit the Open Web Awards site, sign in with Twitter or Facebook, and tell us your favorites. Nominations will remain open until 11:59 PM, ET on Sunday, November 15th.

Some of the leaders in the Facebook categories so far are (in no particular order):

Best Facebook App

- Mousehunt

- Ghost Trappers

- FarmVille

- PackRat

- Pet Society

- Battle Stations

- Eyesores

- Mafia Wars

- Restaurant City

- Zoosk

Best Facebook Game

- Pet Society

- Ghost Trappers

- Mousehunt

- PackRat

- Battle Stations

- Restaurant City

- Mafia Wars

- Fish Wrangler

- Cafe World

- Bejeweled Blitz

Best Facebook Fan Page

- Twilight

- True Blood

- Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

- Paulo Coelho

- Sugarland

- Being Latino

- Girls Guide To

- Newegg

- Pooflinger’s Mousehunt Tools

- Rent

Most Creative Use of Facebook Connect

- Girls Guide To

- Startlike

- OCBC Cycle Singapore

- JibJab

- OrgSync

- Digsby

- Test Tube Telly

- Gaia Online

- Livra.com

- The Gamers Force

Continue to nominate your favorites at Mashable.com/OWA

Thanks to our Partner: MOTOBLUR

MOTOBLUR from Motorola was built expressly for the way people communicate today. It’s the only service that automatically delivers and organizes your conversations, contacts and content from all your favorite sites and sources in easy-to-manage streams. Whether it’s Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, text messages, Gmail or work e-mail, MOTOBLUR keeps track of it all and serves it up on a customizable home screen and integrates it through the phone. Plus, with MOTOBLUR you have peace of mind, because all of your info is backed up and secure. Discover MOTOBLUR on Motorola CLIQ available at T-Mobile. It’s time to spend less time managing life and more time living it.

Reviews: Digsby, Facebook, Gmail, MySpace, Twitter

Tags: facebook, facebook apps, facebook connect, facebook platform, fan pages, open web awards

A new study released today by King Fish Media finds that a structural change in the world of media is driving marketers to rethink the business of reaching customers and prospects. The King Fish Media 2009 Survey on Marketing, Media and Measurement, conducted in partnership with HubSpot, Junta42 and the Upshot Institute, reveals that where traditional advertising was once a foregone conclusion and a focal point of all marketing efforts, companies are now revising old formulas and creating new ones. Above all, their ability to use new media channels to reach audiences directly and to measure the value of their response and interaction is advancing a trend: companies are abandoning other’s media platforms in favor of creating their own original channels and content. To download the complete King Fish Media 2009 Survey on Marketing, Media and Measurement ebook, visit www.kingfishmedia.com/2009research.

read more