Just like Facebook is integrating Bing into its graph search, Microsoft’s search engine is getting more cozy with the social network. Bing announced Thursday that more results from users’ Facebook friends will be included next to the main search results if users have connected their Facebook accounts to Bing.
Ever since Facebook acquired his location-based check-in site, Gowalla, around this time last year, co-founder and CEO Josh Williams (now a product manager of pages, locations, and events at Facebook) has been building the next phase of local-social discovery. Despite a roller-coaster year that brought the check-in industry plenty of ups and downs and a fair share of speculation as to what would come next, the scope of the new location project remained under wraps, until now. Last month, Facebook announced, to much fanfare, the release of a bundle of new and updated features collectively known as Nearby.
Location-based mobile application Foursquare launched its counterpunch to Facebook’s new, improved nearby tab on its mobile applications, which was announced earlier this week, with its addition of recommendations from Facebook friends to its explore options.
You know you’ve seen it on your friend’s Facebook profile or Twitter feed: a Foursquare check-in, proclaiming that they are now the mayor of the local burger joint. On Monday, Facebook praised Foursquare’s use of open graph technology, which has allowed the program to grow by leaps and bounds. Foursquare Product Manager Noah Weiss noted that sign-ups rose by 50 percent after Facebook login was added to the application.
It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is already here. Perhaps even more difficult to swallow is the subsequent holiday season and its accompanying pressures. With Black Friday starting ridiculously early this year, you better be ready to put down the pie and shop. The thought of trying to buy presents to please everyone is more than exhausting. How will you know what to buy? Consult Facebook.
Users of location-based mobile application Foursquare via Apple iOS (evices can now include their Facebook friends who are not Foursquare users in their check-ins.
Not all Facebook applications are created equal. While some only require basic information to function, many more want to know your location, access your photos, and post on your behalf. Which apps can you trust? MyPermissions, which helps users rid their social media lives of dangerous apps, shared with AllFacebook the most trusted apps on the social network, starting with the newest member of the Facebook family — Instagram.
Facebook knows how to Facebook. That was the shocking result of a study by Expion that examined how eight social networks — Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Twitter — engaged with their Facebook fans from Jan. 1 through July 31.
Facebook introduced what it calls explicitly shared actions, which allows developers to give users of their applications the option of sharing actions within those apps, such as Foursquare check-ins and Instagram photos, as if they were directly posted to the social network.
As Facebook’s stock continues to plummet, are executives getting desperate? Dalton Caldwell, founder and CEO of App.net, thinks so. Caldwell blogged about a recent meeting with several Facebook executives. He thought it was a friendly chat and demonstration of an application he developed on the Facebook platform. However, Caldwell claims that Facebook said his product was competition to its app center and that the company tried to bully him into being acquired.
