Spy Blogger » Social Networks

StumbleUpon Launches New URL Shortening Service

SpyBlogger — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:29:10 +0000

It did not occur to me as a surprise, when StumbleUpon decided to launch their new URL shortening service “Su.pr” back in June, 2009. Starting your own URL shortening service is not a new thing these days, Digg and Twit this services are already doing it.

There are other popular URL shortening services also available like TinyURL, bit.ly and is.gd. Ever since the popularity of Twitter, use of such URL shortening services is doubled.

But the features for su.pr are not limited to URL shortening only. It also lets you see live clicks response on your shortened URL. You can also connect directly to Twitter and Facebook and post the shortened URL direct on those web sites.

The best feature it offers is the time setup for your posts. You can choose what time of the day it should submit your post. The Su.Pr WordPress Plugin has also been made available for download.

I personally liked su.pr very much and i’m really looking to make some good use of it.

No related posts.

Facebook Adds Verification Procedure for compromised accounts

SpyBlogger — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 07:25:15 +0000

Facebook continues to battle against cyber criminals, as they now launch “new verification procedures” to get rid of spammers. Yesterday on their blog, Facebook announced the new tool to Secure Compromised Accounts. Now, if you have ever had your Faceboook account taken over by someone to spam your friends, or if you have been the exclusive spam victim yourself, you should be happy to hear that Facebook is doing something about it.

Facebook also describes how they will handle such accounts. Each time an account is suspected to send spam, the user will get an email from Facebook which will take them to a new verification page to confirm ownership of their account by asking them to pick a new secure password.

This new feature will not only help users but also Facebook in enhancing their web site security. Security is being the next big issue for all sites right now. After hacking of Twitter, ImageShack and various such sites, this issue has to be taken seriously.

Google Vs Microsoft

SpyBlogger — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:44:21 +0000

Yesterday, Google has announced it officially that they will have their Operating System. Google has been competing Microsoft in many ways for quite long now. Google has started various projects over the years including Documents, Mobile, Search Engine and now the Operating System.

This shows that battle between Google and Microsoft is not new. Considering this, Ben Parr from mashable has performed some comparisons between Google and Microsoft, let’s have a look at a few highlights:

1. Google Search Vs Bing Search

Google: Google’s Search Engine is right now the most popular thing on web and has a page rank of 9 plus. There is no other search as popular as Google.

Microsoft: Microsoft earlier had Live search, which nobody really liked except Microsoft. But not long time back they brought the new cool “Bing” search engine. This so far has gone quite well and has made Google notice it.

Result: Google still wins from miles in search engine race.

2. Web Browser, Internet

Microsoft: Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is running from ages. 90% of web users still use it. Its heavy and bugs are always easily noticeable. A majority of knowledgeable developer’s worldwide agrees that if people stop using Internet Explorer. Big revolutions can immediately be brought to web browsers. Personally using Internet Explorer sometimes reminds me of old ages in this very fast world

Google: Google’s Chrome is fast, live and growing every day. Google’s OS is also being said to as light as Google Chrome. This browser still misses some important features but Google believes to have a reason for that and will keep adding more taste to it.

Result: Google are ahead now in terms of technology, popularity makes IE win

3. E-mail and IM

Google: Gmail is Google’s best tool as far as instant email communication is concerned. Now with addition of Google Wave it is supposed to be much stronger. It is fast and brought revolution to communications worldwide. GTalk is also very light and is spreading fast.

Microsoft: While Microsoft still has the big picture they have the leading email communication service Hotmail, and the still most used IM “Windows Live Messenger”. So, Google still needs to go a long way to compete Microsoft here. Microsoft has also got the most widely used Ms Outlook Express with a lot of good features.

Result: Microsoft is still very ahead.

4. Operating System

Here comes the big fish now.

Microsoft: Most dominant since the arrival of Windows platform. They generate $60+ billion of their revenue each year from their Operating Systems. Microsoft has brought quite many fantastic GUI platforms to their users.

Google: Google so far has announced arrival of their Web OS. But it’s still to find out what would be so special and challenging in it for Microsoft’s Windows Operating Systems. Being open source for this operating system can be a big advantage over Microsoft in future.

Result: Microsoft is still big winner.

Microsoft vs. Everyone

These were the few main highlights discussed above but Google still have a long way to go, because Microsoft still has everything everyone needs today. Here is a small comparison of some of the other features Microsoft and everyone is providing:

5. Windows Live vs. Facebook

6. Microsoft Office vs. Open Office

7. Microsoft Expression vs. Adobe CS

8. Microsoft Silverlight vs. Adobe Flash Player

9. Microsoft Live Calendar vs. Google Calendar

10. Windows Live Translator vs. Google Traductor

11. Winows Live Mail (Feed, also in Outlook Express) vs. Google Reader

12. Windows Live WorkSpace vs. Google Docs

13. Windows Live Maps vs. Google Maps

14. Microsoft Virtual Earth vs. Google Earth

15. Windows Live Spaces vs. WordPress

16. Zune vs. iPod

17. Zune Software vs. iTunes

18. MSN SoapBox Video vs. Youtube

19. Microsoft Encarta vs. Wikipedia

20. XBOX 360 vs. PS3

21. WorldWide Telescope vs. Google Sky

and the list keeps going. If anyone really wants to battle Microsoft, they have a very long way to go.

Download Facebook videos

SpyBlogger — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:02:31 +0000

There are two ways you can Download Facebook Videos, Using the browser Mozilla Firefox or Safari. Lets do it using Mozilla Firefox first.

1. Go to www.firefox.com and download the latest version of Mozilla Firefox if you don’t already have one.

2. Open your firefox toolbar and click on the option “Add-ons”, a small add-ons window showing you any currently installed extensions will open.

3. Click on the tab that says “Add-ons” located at the extreme left side.

4. Now in the displayed search box, search for extension “Facebook Video” and press the search button next to it. An extension list matching your search will appear there, click on “Facebook Video” extension which looks exactly like the one in picture.

5. Click on “Add to Firefox”, an small prompt window showing you the install button will appear. Click on “Install Now” button and installation will start.

6. After the installation you will be asked to restart Mozilla Firefox.

7. Click on “Restart Firefox”

8. Make sure “Facebook Video” is enabled so go to tools, click add-ons and click enable on facebook video, if it isn’t already enabled.

9. Now logon to your Facebook account and this is how your account would look like:

Firefox 3.5 Approaches 6 Million Downloads; Watch In Real Time

Facebook New Privacy Presentation

SpyBlogger — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:46:30 +0000

As we reported earlier, Facebook is about to launch some new privacy features. These features are being considered very good for the users and will further help enhance new upcoming search feature on Facebook.

The Company today ran through the changes with members of the press on WebEx this afternoon, but now slides from that presentations have been made publically available to all. These slides elaborate quite well the upcoming changes with the screen shots.

The interesting part these slides include is the admin view i.e. How Facebook Views them

Related Posts: New Facebook Status Publisher

How To use Facebook Privacy Settings and secure profile

Twitter updates Following and Followers Pages

Spy — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:30:48 +0000

Twitter has updated their pages with some new cool features. These pages, which you get to by clicking following/follower counts on any any user profile now show more details about other Twitter users.

A much needed functionality, to check who is following you is available. Twitter now shows a check mark of the people you follow back. There’s a drop-down menu that includes options for direct message, sending them an @ mention, following them or blocking them.

Meanwhile on the page listing people you follow, there are options for sending them a mention, unfollowing, or if they follow you, sending them a direct message.

This was a much needed feature, now its very easy to keep track if someone is following you or not.

The most interesting Twitter has launched within this update, these options are not only available on your profile but also on any profile you visit. So, you can check any friend or co-worker’s profile and check the same for them. In all, it appears that Twitter is more focusing on user desired features.

Twitter Marketing

SpyBlogger — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:23:35 +0000

A few days earlier twitter has announced in their blog that all twitter users now can only follow 1000 other users each day. This dicision is based upon the regular scam spread on twitter these days.

This dicision may not matter to normal users who just use twitter to get in touch with their family and friends but it will definately matter to marekters or self-promoters to rapidly increase their Twitter follower count by following many people. Because the strategy of following excessive number of users does matter really. Unlike many may expect people do follow you back which is a positive sign for marketers.

People among who follow such methods are social media enthusiasts or consultants, some are internet marketers or bloggers. All of them are people who want to get something in return. Major focus of all such people are the following things:

Money. The goal is to monetize Twitter users by linking and recommending products or services, either their own or others if they are an affiliate. They do this by tweeting out links and sending automated direct messages with the same offers when someone follows them back.
Build their Name/Brand. Such followers aim to improve their reputation and build their brand. If you have thousands of followers on twitter that also gives the impression that you or your theme is popular. People tend to follow such people more. They also use their followers to boost their prominence on other social arenas like Digg or Facebook.
Get more visitors. Followers = Visitors, more visitors means more subscribers, readers and contributors to your website. Once you have all these things, you do have a successfull website and more money.

It’s a simple strategy. The more followers you have, the more people listen to you, and the easier it is to spread your messages.

But do you really need a large number of followers to promote yourself successfully on Twitter? The answer is no. Not at all. But many people still persist in mass following users. Let’s look at some of the reasons why you don’t need to use this marketing tactic.

More to Follow ……..

Facebook Warning: Ligromind Scam

SpyBlogger — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:54:47 +0000

A word of warning: don’t click links to “Ligromind [dot] com” or “Killselfz [dot] com” if they turn up in your Facebook mail. These both links are spam which seem to be spreading quickly through out the social network.

These scams usually propagate themselves by downloading malware to your machine, then blasting messages to all your friends – either to spread the malware further, or to drive traffic to spam sites, or both. You must have seen such scam already on Windows Live Messenger. When anyone from your buddy list generates an automated spam message with links. You click on the links it then propagates ahead towards your buddy list.

Facebook has become increasingly good at blocking these URLs as soon as they become an issue, hence the “link” you’ll receive (seemingly from a Facebook friend) isn’t hyperlinked, but has a space between the site name and the dot-com.

In case you also happen to receve such e-mail, just delete it without opening it.

Also if you find your account is sending these mails to your friends, do run a full virus/malware scan, clear your browser cookies and change your Facebook password.

Have you received one of these Facebook spam mails today? Let us know in the comments.

Ligromin Scam Looklike

Twitter to launch Verified Accounts(beta)

SpyBlogger — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:49:31 +0000

A lawsuit was the final thing required to push twitter into launching verified accounts now. Twitter has been dealing with a lawsuit from St. Lous Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa. The lawsuit is about an individual impersonating La Russa on Twitter. Twitter still does not have any systematic way to verify if any tweets were real or bogus.

This seems to be the reason that Twitter has announced verified accounts beta program so they do not have to handle any future lawsuits for such reasons.

Twitter Accounts Beta

Yesterday, Twitter stated the following on the La Russa case:

Reports this week that Twitter has settled a law suit and officially agreed to pay legal fees for an impersonation complaint that was taken care of by our support staff in accordance with our Terms are erroneous. Twitter has not settled, nor do we plan to settle or pay.

Actually, Twitter did not settle on this case but it pushed them to announce for these verified accounts program.

So what and how exactly will this verified account system will work? According to the Twitter blog, there will be a special seal on any account that is verirified by Twttier as being authentic. You can see this very seal in the image above, will appear at the top right of profile pages. This is targeted towards public officals, public agencies, athletes, celeberities and other high-profile indviduals.

As to how actual verification will work, it seems that Twitter will look to see if an official channel of the person in question links to his or her Twitter account from a place like an official website. This is a perfectly logical way to verify accounts, in our opinion. Details are scarce on the full plan, though.

The Verified Accounts program will begin as an experiment this summer and will expand as Twitter gets more feedback. We’re glad to finally see a system in place that will hopefully put an end to impersonators and expensive lawsuits.

Facebook Vs Twitter

SpyBlogger — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:02:48 +0000

What is twitter? What is so good about tweeting? Why it is popular? Is twitter the future? These and many more are normally the questions my friends are very keen to know these days and when I explain them the tweeting concept, they ask start comparing it to facebook

Well, the answer is not as simple as many of you may aspect. Both have very strong impact on social media. Facebook therefore is superior I would say right now as compared to twitter.

Facebook has a bigger picture; friends and family members use it to reconnect with each other, share pictures, videos and what they are doing whenever they want!

Twitter on the other hand, encourages you grab ideas in byte-size chunks and use your updates as jumping off points to other places or just let others know what you’re up to at any given moment.

Twitter is social marketing
twitter is news reporting
twitter is social messaging
twitter is blogging

Why People Love Facebook

Facebook is definitely the one which brought heaven to social animals that are addicted to make new acquaintances and stay in touch with people. People now don’t even bother to write emails, they just do facebooking!!!

Facebook addicts prefer a single social platform to stay in touch as compared to other social portals, AIM, Yahoo, Windows Live Messenger, Gmail etc This largely explains the explosive growth Facebook continues to experience and why the company reportedly invested $200 million in data center upgrades last year to keep up with demand!

Why People Love Twitter

Twitter is not readily as obvious to some people as facebook but trust me its more addictive once you get the taste of tweeting you get response more quickly and it seems to live somewhere between the words of email, instant messaging and blogging. It builds up constant linking between people. People like to update their status more on twitter than they do on facebook.

But if we compare both in terms of the fame, twitter has grown faster than the facebook. Actually in a way, anyone with something to promote seems to find twitter extremely valuable. It can be a cause, business or anything!

Twitter addicts claim it’s like the old fashioned water cooler, where people can gather to shoot the breeze on whatever topic is on their minds. Twitter is like a communications stream you dive into for an invigorating swim.

So Which Social Network is the Best?

Well as different people have different opinions about both of them so it’s very hard to decide which one is better. It depends which one suits your mood more….Both have some advantages and disadvantages which I am going to discuss in this blog later.

Twitter started as a very simple concept of sharing status and staying in touch with friends in august 2006. So Which Social Network is the Best?