Our thoughts, rants and inside knowlege of web design & development!
Posts tagged Social Media
Social media giant Facebook announces Single Sign-on, Places API, Deals, Mobile App Updates
Nov 4th
Popular social network Facebook announced a torrent of updates to its mobile products, namely four things: single sign-on, opening up its Places API, allowing businesses to attach deals to their Facebook Place page, and updates to its iPhone and Android apps.
Single Sign-on
Facebook are seeking to limit the amount of typing of long passwords and usernames that a user has to go through inside mobile apps by allowing integration with Facebook in a similar way to what you may see on many websites that you visit. People with the Facebook app installed on their smartphone will be able to log in to other mobile apps using their Facebook account, no giving up of private credentials necessary.
The Places API
Developers can now access the popular Places product to utilise in their own apps and websites. Places is a location based tools that allows Facebook users to ‘check in’ at locations and tag their friends, in a similar vein to location based social networks like Foursquare and Gowalla. The API allows developers to link their own products to this tool so that, for example, Foursquare check ins could be duplicated to Facebook Places. Developers will be able to read data from the tool, write More >
Foursquare Introduces Super Duper Swarm and Epic Swarm Badges
Oct 30th
Social Media Location Service FourSquare have rolled out ‘Super Duper Swarm’ and ‘Epic Swarm’ badges for people who convene in the same location in massive quantities.
Previously the biggest quantity badge was ‘Super Swarm’ for groups of 250 in the same place. In major cities like London this has occurred many times prompting the new and improved milestones.
“When we made the original Swarm badge we thought, ‘What are the odds of ever getting 50 Foursquare users together?’ And then we did the same with Super Swarm for SXSW. ‘Will anyone ever even unlock these?’” explains Foursquare co-founder and CEO Dennis Crowley. “And now they are unlocked on a regular basis — baseball games, concerts etc. So we needed bigger.”
When asked Swarm badge would exceed the 1000 mark, Foursquare had no answer…
“In our internal badge meetings, we’re thinking, ‘What’s after this?’ We have no idea,” says Crowley.
Although these badges are pure fun it does go to show the growth of the FourSquare buzz and the use of smartphones to interact with others via social media channels.
Do you use FourSquare and what name would you call the next milestone?
A Tale of Friendship: Facebook Unveils ‘Friendship Pages’
Oct 29th
Popular social network Facebook has recently announced a new feature called ‘Friendship Pages’. The new pages will allow you to view a well presented overview of the interactions between you and a friend. Blogs have lauded the ‘human’ aspect of friendship pages which summarise wall posts, photos, events, mutual friendships, comments and ‘likes’ shared between two users. The potential for the highlighting of old and fond memories is huge and will help to cement the websites position as a ‘go-to’ social hub for not only current and future events and social interactions, but also for the snapshots it can provide of the past.
Some have criticised the ever more ‘intrusive’ nature of Facebook and the increasing complexity of its navigation. Will Friendship Pages exacerbate this problem? Or are they a great opportunity to increase the value and usefulness of social media? Tell us what you think in the comments section.
Website Design Job in Enfield, North London
Oct 29th
We are currently looking for a website designer to help out in our busy website design agency in Enfield, North London. The applicant must have design / layout capabilities and have experience designing websites (any level), brochures etc. also knowledge of computers, email and IT would be an advantage. They need to be keen and have a passion for all that is website based.
If you are the next web star or know of anyone that would like to meet our team to discuss the role please send all CV’s to production@areatrade.co.uk
We look forward to hearing from you.
Staff Member Employed Via Social Media
Oct 29th
We have received great reviews from existing clients on her professionalism and conduct and are very pleased with the way she has settled into our website design agency in Enfield, North London.
We understand that our clients are the most important element of our business and regular contact with them is paramount to enable us to enhance the website design and ecommerce web design services we provide them. Jan will also be managing the quarterly search engine promotion / statistic analysis meetings so we can educate our clients on what their clients are doing on their websites, where they come from, which keywords they use and how this information can help improve their website to return more enquiries.
Due to this success we are now looking for another member of staff to help with website design page layout, website amends More >
Social network Myspace to debut redesign
Oct 28th
The dwindling social network Myspace has revealed a massive redesign as part of it’s efforts to survive through rebranding. A few weeks after revealing it’s controversial new logo, Myspace has posted a video reel giving the first glimpses at its significant shift in functionality and focus.
The video reveals a strong change in focus to content sharing and discovery, with clear links to other social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It is a clear cut and intriguing move for the social network which has seen massive drops in traffic since the rise of Facebook and its buyout by News Corp.
Gowalla Set Up Guide – Social Media Business Location App
Oct 28th
Stamps: Your Passport is a collection of stamps—both everyday and extraordinary—from the places you’ve been. Check in with Gowalla on your phone to stamp your Passport at each place you visit. It’s pretty much like stamping your passport in real life. Only without the jetlag and customs forms.
Connect With Friends: Gowalla makes it easy to keep up with your friends and family. Connect with your favorite people from Facebook and Twitter then enjoy the places they go and the photos they share—both online and from your phone. You can also invite friends to join in your journey from your address book. It’s super simple to set up.
Explore: Enjoy trips created by National Geographic, USA TODAY, CNNMoney and others that guide you to restaurants, through parks and gardens, or on historic walking tours. Of course, you can create and share your own trips with your friends as well.
Pins are added to your Passport to remind you More >
Firesheep Hijacks Facebook, Twitter Cookies
Oct 27th
Did you think you were safe when logging into your social media accounts? Think again.
A free Firefox extension called Firesheep was released this week that exploits a hack known as sidejacking to help users gain access to the social media accounts of other people on the same network. The creator, Eric Butler, developed this extension “to demonstrate just how serious this problem is.” The exploit, which hijacks the unencrypted cookie files sent between the user and the website, can be utilised on a large number of popular websites including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Tumblr.
Most websites encrypt the username and password you use to log in when they are transmitted to the server. However, they often fail to encrypt other data including the aforementioned cookies, which, if obtained by a hacker, can be used to ‘spoof’ a log in session and access your account fraudulently.
We believe that this software has been written to raise awareness of the problem and compel the faulty sites to fix the issue as possible. However, many have noted that fully encrypted all communication between the user and the server can increase the required bandwidth by up to 20 times, making full encryption very costly.
Are you More >