Hey, you came back! I feel loved. So you know when I have updated you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. You can find it just to the right of the screen beneath the search box or via the logo in the coffee cup above. Thanks for visiting!

You could call it cheap, but Ill call it social, as Facebook asks the social community for help with translating its pages into different languages.    It makes sense, with a community of people bought into the Facebook phenomenon why not let them provide some translation services for free?

Well, Im sorry Facebook, although I do speak English as requested, thats about as far as my language skills stretch, maybe you should use some of your targeting capabilities to find your translation team?

facebook uses social networking to translate its pages

Reuters has reported that porn is no longer the main past time on the internet with the world of social networking the new leading activity conducted online.  According to the findings not only do people spend more time on social sites than they do viewing pornography but also the number of searches for adult related phrases has dropped in recent years.  One quote from the article..

“My theory is that young users spend so much time on social networks that they don’t have time to look at adult sites.”

..is a little far fetched in my opinion.  If someone is interested in loooking at pornography online then they will find the time to do so!  My opinion is that is just the sheer volume of users now engaged in sites like Facebook and also the fact that they are enticing people who never used to spend too much time online to use the Internet a little more.

Interesting to see that the Internet is not as porn dominated as it once was but it is still pretty dominant as the second most popular online past time and will take some shifting.

It was my birthday yesterday, and of the messages and cards I did receiev there was one from an unexpected source, Facebook!  This may not be new but as it would only occur once a year all I can say is that it wasnt in place last year.  A nice happy birthday message on my homepage when I signed in made me feel loved by the social network.

facebook remebered my birthday

A nurse in Sweden has been reportedly suspended for posting mobile phone pictures of brain surgery and major back surgery on her Facebook page.  The nurse apparently did it to “impress friends with her high-powered job”.  I’m sorry, but how dumb is that!  This isn’t the first time somebody has suffered on a professional level for their social media activities, when are people going to learn?  Remember the story of the budding athlete who was suspended for pictures showing him under the influence of alcohol?  Or what about the public schoolboys suspended for being members of a dogging group?

People have got to start waking up to the fact that Facebook and other social networking sites are mainstream channels of information now.  Just because you have to log in to see information doesn’t make it a secure environment.  People have long been punished in their professional lives for actions in the private lives it is just the case now that people put more information about their out of hours antics in the public domain.  If there is anybody you wouldn’t want to know about something, don’t put it on Facebook!  If you do Big brother will most definitely see it!

The creators of Facebook have given it a facelift!  I have just logged into the new version for the first time and so have probably not seen the full extent of the changes but thought Id post my initial findings.  On logging in for the first time you are displayed a message from Facebook explaining the changes to their interface, nothing  mentioned but I have posted the message below.  Apparently the three goals of the facelift were:

1. make everything clean and easy to use, reduce the clutter.
2. give the user more control over their profile (what, you mean make it more like myspace?)
3. show the most recent and relevant content

Apparently this is all based upon recommendations made by Facebook users although Im sure I was never asked my opinion!  Anyway to the initial observations.  The main change appears to be the introduction of tabs on the pages, both profile and home page.  On the homepage they have separated out top stories, status updates, photos and posted items.  Obviously aimed at objectives 1 and 3.  On initial use I actually think this works really well.  I do agree that peoples profiles were getting far too cluttered and this enables you to see more easily the information you want.  The first page is the wall and minifeed, and expansion on the original minifeed which includes photos and actual wall postings rather than just notifications.  This will satisfy the avid facebook user who wants a snapshot of what everybody is up to and in a way brings Facebook and the status updates function closer to the Twitter concept.

The page layout has also changed slightly, with a reduction of content in the left hand margin whilst keeping the 3 column format.  They remove this in the photos tab though and you get more of a full album view which makes photo browsing easier.  It is also removed when viewing group and fan pages and the navigation which was once on the left has now moved to the header bar.

If I notice anything else interesting I will be sure to post it but the initial observation is that the objective of clean, clear, uncluttered layout has been achieved.  I just hope to god that the point about profile control isnt going to lead to the flourescent flashing profile pages that make Myspace so annoying.