Categories
Facebook

You Could Soon Be Shopping On Facebook Messenger

If you are a business owner, you may soon be able to take customer orders and attend to support tickets right from your Facebook window. The Menlo Park based social network company has recently filed a patent application that provides a hint of this upcoming feature.

The patent application is titled ‘Techniques for Automated Messaging‘ and essentially describes different ways a business may use Facebook Messaging to automate order taking and communication with their customers. This includes allowing customers to make new orders via Facebook Messaging and letting businesses communicate the status of these orders back to customers. In addition to this, businesses may also set predefined responses to frequently asked questions which is kind of similar to what helpdesk services offer on their platform.

So how does all of this tie in with what Facebook does currently? From the various demo images provided by Facebook on their application, a typical transaction could be something like this.

1. Businesses advertise on Facebook like they do now. Only now, users may also chat with the business or buy from within the Messenger platform

order-facebook

2. The target user may now click on ‘Chat Now’. This should take them to the Messenger where they deal with an automated messaging system set by the business.

facebook-shop

3. The user may pick and choose their product of choice from within the Messenger window

facebook-shop1

4. From the business end, the Facebook Messenger could work like a helpdesk tool that comes with template responses.

facebook-helpdesk

Categories
Facebook

Facebook Testing Threaded Commenting In New Zealand

Threaded commenting on Facebook is one of the long sought requests from users. And Facebook too, many times in the past, has been caught testing the feature in small pockets of the cyberwebs.

The latest report comes from New Zealand. Our reader Chandler reports that his network is now able to reply to comments. It’s not clear how Facebook is testing this among a closed group considering that your Facebook friends can always extend beyond the group that Facebook is testing. In any case, I hope threaded commenting is provided as a feature to the entire Facebook network soon. Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like

Threaded Facebook Comments

Categories
Social Media

How Many Mothers Are On Facebook? Here Are The Numbers

Is your mom already on Facebook? According to the latest report from eMarketer, there is a 69% possibility if she is an internet user in the United States. The report provides some really interesting numbers that show that the number of online moms who access Facebook will grow from 62% in 2010 to well over 73% in 2013. In absolute terms, this means a rise of nearly 4 million users from 20.6 million to 24.5 million. What do these numbers mean? Click on the arrow on the top of this article to read more.

Categories
Facebook

Voice Calls To Facebook Friends Coming Soon?

An interesting bit of rumor has been doing the rounds lately across the blogosphere. According to some Facebook users, the popular social network might be testing a new ‘Call‘ feature on the user profile pages. These users have reported to have noticed this button appear on the top right of their friends’ profile pages. However, pressing this button did not initiate any calls and neither have their friends reported to have received any alerts.

It is being speculated that Facebook may integrate its service with Skype’s VoIP calling service. It is worth noting that both these companies had signed a partnership late last year that will make it easy for Facebook users to call and video chat with their friends using Skype. Is the partnership already bearing fruits? We will await an official confirmation in this regard.

Categories
Facebook Mobile

Facebook Phone Rumors Resurface With INQ Cloud Touch Filing

It has been quite a while since we wrote about the Facebook Phone. For those who are not aware, sometime last year, folks at TechCrunch broke the news about Facebook possibly working on a new “Facebook phone. While no details regarding the phone itself was available, it was seen as a way for Facebook to cater to the heavy social networking users – primarily teenagers.

The rumor itself was pretty audacious. However, Mark Zuckerberg went out of the way to quell these speculations that raised suspicions that there might be some truth in the rumors. A recent Bluetooth SIG filing now sheds more light on these rumors.

In the filing, INQ has filed a new device called “Cloud Touch” that is “an Android smartphone built to make messaging faster and smarter. It’s designed around the way people naturally communicate and has Facebook built into its core. The homescreen features multiple entry points to different Facebook functions, while a dynamic widget displays a feed of status updates, albums, videos and photos.

It is worth noting that a report on Bloomberg that was published soon after TechCrunch broke the story had claimed that INQ could be manufacturer of this new phone. With the recent filing seemingly confirming the news, it will be interesting to see what the official response is from Facebook.

Categories
Web

Wikileaks Facebook And Twitter Accounts Stay For Now

Wikileaks, the controversial not-for-profit group has been facing stiff resistance from governments worldwide. The site has already been banned in countries like China, UAE and has been shunned by companies like Amazon, EveryDNS and eBay. Yesterday we wrote about Wikileaks trying to keep their data alive by encouraging supporters to create mirror websites. The organization’s switzerland website has currently listed over 748 mirrors overall.

The only positive thing going for Wikileaks for the moment though appears to be its ability to communicate with their supporters through social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Facebook has issued a statement noting that the company shall not suspend the Wikileaks account anytime soon noting that no terms have been violated. A Facebook spokesperson has said,

“The Wikileaks Facebook Page does not violate our content standards nor have we encountered any material posted on the page that violates our policies.”

Twitter has however maintained a vague stance. While noting that the microblogging service is not meddling with Wikileaks trending on their timeline, the service has however been tight-lipped about a possible ban of the Twitter account.

It’s possible that Twitter caves in pretty soon. But we wonder how Facebook will respond if they are approached by government authorities to suspend its ties with Wikileaks.

Categories
Facebook Web

New Facebook Profiles – Like It Or Hate It?

Facebook has introduced a new version of their profile pages that brings a drastic overhaul of the functionality. You can upgrade to the new Facebook profile by visiting the profile page of one of your friends who has already upgraded and invoking the ‘Get the new profile‘ link on top of the page. If none of your friends have moved in yet, get it from this Facebook engineer’s page.

New Facebook profile

Like with all changes in the past, I am sure that the newly launched Profile pages is sure to invite extreme mixed reactions among the users. Personally, I find the new look profile very cluttered and unnecessarily detailed. A reason for Facebook to migrate users to the new look could apparently be in a bid to dig more information about them – primary details like location and education were until now hidden in the sidebars and are now prominent on the home page. This could instigate the users to keep these details updated all the more frequently.

While I didn’t like it much, that’s just my opinion. What is your opinion on the new look profile page? Do you like them?

Categories
Facebook Web

You Can See Who Checked Your Facebook Profile, Claims Rogue Application

Did you see either this or one of the variants of this message on your Facebook wall?

OMG OMG OMG… I cant believe this actually works! Now you really can see who viewed your profile! on [LINK]

A number of users are reported to have fallen prey to a rogue application that claims to let you see who checked your Facebook profile. The claim however is not true and what the application basically does is to dig into your profile, steal your private data and post messages on your wall – a message very similar to the one you initially clicked upon – to create a viral scam.

Of course you can block such applications by checking out the privacy settings you have set for the particular app on your Account -> Privacy Settings -> Applications and Websites.But that is not before you have the application post messages on your wall thereby adding to the virality of the scam.

Categories
Facebook Web

How To Get A Facebook.com Email Address

You may have already heard about the news that Facebook is launching a new messaging system that will provide a seamless integration of SMS, chat, email and messages. The new service will let users pick their favorite form of communication and can communicate with their friends without having to worry about the recipient being on the same platform. That means, a user may text to a friend who receives it over email and something that can be forwarded to another user as an instant message. Facebook is also offering a @facebook.com email address to users who want one. It’s not a necessity though.

So how do you get one? Facebook has indicated that the new messaging system will slowly roll out to all the 500 million odd Facebook users. So, you can login to your Facebook account to see if you have any notifications in this regard. If not, then check back till you get one.

And in case you want to have it earlier than that, you can request for an invitation by clicking here.

Categories
Facebook Software and Apps

Upload High Resolution Photos To Facebook With Updated Android App

Facebook has announced on their Android app fan page that a new version of their application is now available for download at the Android market. This is just a minor update over the version 1.4.0 that was released less than ten days back. You would remember that the earlier update brought new features like Places and Groups to the Android app.

Unlike the earlier update, this new version primarily fixes a number of bugs in the application. One significant addition though is the ability to upload high resolution pictures from your Android phone to your Facebook profile. Summarizing what the new update is about, Facebook has said,

Hey Android fans, we just released Facebook for Android v1.4.1. This upgrade includes a number of bug fixes and higher resolution photo uploads. It’s available in the Android Market right now.

Facebook for Android v1.4.1

It goes without saying that Facebook for Android v1.4.1 is a free-to-download app. Do check it out and let us know what you think of it in the comments below.