Facebook

Although most people tend to use Facebook in order to keep in touch with friends and family and to expand their social networks, it is also possible to do a number of other things on the site. You can, of course, follow bands and various public figures on the site and you can also play social games with other users.

Some of the social games found on Facebook include things like FarmVille, Mafia Wars and City of Wonder. These are games that users participate in alongside other users from all over the world.

The global expansion of Facebook is now set to include gift cards for the social games found on the site. Initially only available to customers of the United States retailer Target, the gift cards will allow users to buy applications that are available through Facebook so they can enhance their experience of the site. The cards are to be available in $15, $25 and $50 increments.

Mark Schindele, who is the senior vice president of merchandising for Target Corp explained the retailer’s decision to embark on the partnership with Facebook. In a statement, Schindele said:

With social gaming becoming increasingly popular, Facebook Credits gift cards provide an easy and convenient option for Target guests to purchase virtual goods.

Facebook has shown a real dominance in the world of social networking online that its competitors have really struggled to keep pace with. One of the best known rivals of Facebook is MySpace which used to enjoy immense popularity, but whose stature has dwindled as Facebook’s has grown.

Now it appears that MySpace has elected to take a new approach in order to gain a little momentum. Instead if directly competing with Facebook, a site more than twice as many registered members as MySpace (Facebook has 146 million members to MySpace’s 61 million), it is actually to synchronise with it.

Users of MySpace, like users of Twitter, will be able to cross-post on their Facebook pages, sharing information on all the social media sites they are signed up to. Those with a keen eye will note that although Facebook is more than willing to negotiate with MySpace on the matter, Facebook itself does not have any facility for cross-posting to MySpace.

This just goes to show that Facebook’s dominance has put it in a remarkable position to go forward. MySpace, meanwhile, is set to go through something of a rebirth over the next few months to go with its new look design.

Facebook has announced that it is embarking on legal proceedings against a new website called Teachbook that aims to improve links between teachers in the state of Illinois. The dispute centres on the use of the suffix ‘book’ as Facebook aims to try and protect the brand as aggressively as possible.

Teachbook is being developed as a way of helping teachers in Illinois to share techniques to help improve education. It is also intended as a resource for students, parents and communities to interact with educators. The site has not yet been launched and it has already spent time negotiating with Facebook regarding trademark issues. However, the social media giant has no determined to take legal action.

Facebook claim the following as their motivation:

If others could freely use ‘generic plus BOOK’ marks for online networking services targeted to that particular generic category of individuals, the suffix BOOK could become a generic term for ‘online community/networking services’ or ’social networking services’. That would dilute the distinctiveness of the Facebook Marks.

Those behind the Teachbook site have responded to the proceedings with incredulity, but have vowed to fight Facebook all the way. Greg Shrader, speaking on behalf of Teachbook, said:

We’re trying to understand how Facebook, a multi-billion dollar company, feels this small enterprise in Chicago is any type of threat.

Security is something that social networking sites have to be constantly on their guard against. With so many members connected in a large chain, sites like Facebook and Twitter are the ideal platform for spammers who want to reach as large an audience as possible.

Recently users of Facebook and Twitter, the two largest social networking sites, with millions of members worldwide, have been expressing concerns about the security of their accounts because of the activity of spammers. The users in question have been made aware of their own accounts spamming their contacts with offers for free iPads.

Twitter is currently taking steps to reinforce the security of the affected members, releasing a statement saying:

If you’ve received a message promising you a new iPad, not only is there no iPad, but also your friends have been hacked.

Facebook users are also being affected. The message that many are receiving off compromised accounts contain the following text:

u have to check out this website its glitchin right now and sending out ipads to everyone for free!

The message also provides a link to a website known as better-gifts.net which then directs users to websites of other companies, but there are certainly no free iPads on offer.

It has been reported that the social networking giant Facebook is now valued at around $33 billion.
Facebook is immensely popular with people of all ages and has recently announced the registration of its 500 millionth member. As a result, the site reaches an unprecedented amount of people around the world. This is obviously particularly valuable to advertisers. Marketing via Facebook can also be targeted according to information provided by users themselves.

The Facebook company is about float on the stock market and investors have been shelling out a fortune in order to get a piece of the pie.

According to David Gelles of The Financial Times anticipation is high. He said:

Common stock in Facebook is trading as high as $76 a share as investors scramble to get a piece of the company before it files for an initial public offering, which analysts say could be the biggest technology IPO since Google’s $1.67bn flotation in 2004.

The feeling is that when Facebook does eventually float on the stock market, its share prices will shoot up to an even higher price. Facebook was launched just six years ago by Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg who continues to head the company.