Facebook roundup: photo tags, privacy, Crunchies, Cleantech and more

Facebook re-enables photo tag suggestions – Facebook announced Thursday that it is re-enabling the photo tag suggestion feature in the U.S., which uses facial recognition to help users identify  friends in their photos. The controversial feature launched in late 2010, and was removed temporarily last year while Facebook made technical improvements and considered privacy matters. The feature uses algorithms to group photo uploads by those with similar faces, then it suggests friends those faces may belong to by matching them with previously tagged photos of friends. Users can adjust or approve those tags. The feature is on for users by default.

Facebook launches Ask Our CPO feature -  Facebook this week launched an Ask Our CPO feature, which allows users to submit questions, concerns and feedback about privacy issues to the company’s chief privacy officer, Erin Egan, who will respond to some questions each month. The feature works as an app on the Facebook Privacy page and is part of Facebook’s attempts to give users more opportunities to raise important matters and get responses from the company, especially after the social network eliminated the option for user votes on policy changes late last year.

Facebook makes payout policy stricter for developers in some countries - Facebook has added new requirements for authentication for new developers using PayPal in China, India, Brazil, Australia, Japan, Norway and some other markets, according to TechCrunch. Facebook now requires identification in the form of photo IDs or incorporation papers for a developer’s business. The social network previously did this for developers in these regions who requested direct deposits, but now those using PayPal will also be under additional scrutiny.

Zuckerberg, Systrom win tech awards – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom took home “Crunchies,” tech awards voted on by the public. Zuckerberg won CEO of the Year and Systrom won Founder of the Year. Karma/Facebook Gifts was the runner-up in the Best E-Commerce Application category, but was edged by Fab. The Crunchies are hosted by TechCrunch, GigaOm and VentureBeat to honor startups, founders and venture capitalists.

Facebook partners with Cleantech for contest – Facebook partnered with market intelligence firm Cleantech Group for the Cleantech Goes Social contest to support the development of ways to use Facebook to promote the use of clean energy and environmental education. Contestants can submit pitches for products, apps or services that integrate Facebook to promote environmental sustainability. The winning submission will be awarded a $25,000 prize and receive personalized guidance from Cleantech Group and Facebook on further development of the concept.

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Yahoo, bubble games, photo apps and Open Graph integrations on this week’s top 20 growing Facebook apps by DAU

Yahoo’s web integration gained the most daily active users this week on our list of top growing Facebook apps by DAU. Yahoo’s Open Graph news reader application was another top gainer at No. 12.

The titles below grew between 330,000 and 2.7 million DAU, based on AppData, our data tracking service covering growth for apps on Facebook.

Top Gainers This Week

Zynga’s Bubble Safari led games on the list at No. 2 overall, though competitors Lost Bubble and Bubble Blitz picked up a few hundred thousand DAU as well.

Streaming service Spotify gained 1.1 million DAU this week following a dip near the end of May. Bing is growing again since its latest redesign, which includes further Facebook integration. Microsoft also had its Microsoft Live and Skype apps make the list this week.

Socialcam came in at No. 5, with the video sharing app reaching more than 10 million DAU for the first time on Wednesday. Photo sharing applications 60photos, Photo Love and Photo Roll all more than doubled their DAU this week.

Pinterest rebounded after a slight drop in DAU at the end of May. Social Q&A site Formspring is also back up, though still not reaching as many DAU as its peak of 860,000 in April.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for our look at the top emerging apps on Friday.

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Facebook tests photo viewer designs

Facebook is testing a new way to display photos that puts captions and comments to the right of the image rather than below.

The new format takes advantage of horizontal space so that photos can be presented larger and the information and conversation are still visible, instead of forcing users to scroll down to see comments as they do currently. The team at Facebook also appears to be talking to professional photographers for feedback, according to public status updates and comments from employees.

We’ve seen screenshots of two versions of the new display. Both are lightbox style, meaning the image is shown in an overlay rather than a new page, which Facebook first implemented in September 2010. One version uses buttons similar to the design used on Timeline and the activity log. It puts the “Tag Photo” and “Edit” options above the image.

Another version makes some calls to action more prominent by putting them on top of the image when users hover over the photo. A user with the new photo viewer says the display adjusts to the size of the browser, but we have not been able to test the responsiveness ourselves.

On one screenshot we’ve seen, two ads were very prominent. The other screenshots we received were of photos that had several more comments, pushing advertisements down or away completely. Currently most ads are not visible in the photo lightbox unless a user scrolls down.

Both designs offer a cleaner interface than Facebook’s existing photos product, which includes more than a dozen buttons, some with repeating functions (see image below). The new format seems to put all of these options under a single drop-down menu. Some users might not realize all the actions they can take, but this way the focus is mostly on the photo and the conversation around it.

According to Facebook, more than 250 million photos are uploaded to the social network each day.

Thanks to Zoltán Faludi, Ivan Brezak Brkan and Rehman Abdur for the tip and screenshots.

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Facebook Finally Releases Official iPad App With Multi-Conversation Chat, Photo Browser and More

Facebook has just released its official iPad app. The tablet device was unveiled in January 2010, but development and negotiations with Apple stalled the release of Facebook’s app until now. Facebook for iPad is now available in App Store.

A slide-out navigation bar will allow users to briskly move between the app’s many features. Persistent access to notifications, messages, and requests means users can check for new alerts without having to losing their place as they do with Facebook for iPhone’s dedicated navigation grid screen. Other features include multi-conversation Chat and a full-screen photo browser.

With the iPad app available, Facebook today also announced the launch of its mobile application platform, which you can read more about here. Users will be able to access third-party apps and games from the official Facebook for iPad app, with bookmarks opening previously installed native apps or leading to the App Store where users can download them.

Users have been requesting an official Facebook app since the tablet device’s launch. The developer of the Facebook for iPad app left the company late last month, citing frustration that the app had been ready for so long but not shipped due to stalled negotiations with Apple. The issues were likely surrounding how the iPad would act as a portal to third-party apps.

Apple was likely fighting for bookmarks to open native apps. Facebook wanted them to lead to HTML5 web apps where it could earn revenue from in-app purchases made using Facebook Credits. In the meantime, users have had to use Facebook for iPhone on their iPad, which didn’t provide an experience optimized for the tablet’s screen size.

Alternatively, they could use third-party Facebook for iPad apps, some of which grew to support over one million daily active users. Developers of these apps have been scrambling to differentiate themselves in anticipation of the official Facebook for iPad app launch.

We reviewed much of the iPad app’s functionality in July when it leaked as part of a Facebook for iPhone software update. Here’s a summary of the app’s design and features:

Slide-Out Navigation – Users can slide out a navigation menu from the left sidebar to switch between core in-house apps. Notifications, Requests, and Messages can be accessed from the top of every screen via overlaid drop-downs.

Multi-Conversation Chat – A two-pane interface lets users select between conversations on the left and send instant messages from the right. The Chat buddy list can be revealed while using other features so users can quickly check to see if a friend is online.

Full-Screen Photo Browsing – Photos can be viewed and browsed full-screen on the iPad. A thin, revealable photo strip at the bottom of the screen lets users quickly scroll back and forth within an album or feed. Gestures permit zooming, and users can also record HD video or watch it in-line from the news feed.

Mobile App Access – From the navigation menu, users will be able to access bookmarks to open Facebook and native iPad apps they’ve already installed. Users can also search for new apps or discover them through friends. When uninstalled apps are clicked, Facebook for iPad will open the Apple App Store or the app’s web interface.

Third-party Facebook iPad app traffic may plummet, but developers of these apps knew it was only a matter of time. The rest of the development community has just gained a powerful new channel through which users can discover and access their apps.

Users have finally been granted their wish of an official Facebook for iPad app. . There are many times when users want a richer Facebook experience than available from their phones, but they don’t want to have to lug around their laptop or return to their desk. The iPad app’s laidback experience may drive users to spend more time on Facebook while relaxing on their couch or traveling.

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Facebook Finally Releases Official iPad App with Multi-Conversation Chat, Photo Browser and More

Facebook has just released its official iPad app. The tablet device was unveiled in January 2010, but development and negotiations with Apple stalled the release of Facebook’s app until now. It should become available in the App Store soon.

A slide-out navigation bar will allow users to briskly move between the app’s many features. Persistent access to notifications, messages, and requests means users can check for new alerts without having to losing their place as they do with Facebook for iPhone’s dedicated navigation grid screen. Other features include multi-conversation Chat and a full-screen photo browser.

With the iPad app available, Facebook today also announced the launch of its mobile application platform, which you can read more about here. Users will be able to access third-party apps and games from the official Facebook for iPad app, with bookmarks opening previously installed native apps or leading to the App Store where users can download them.

> Read the rest on Inside Facebook.

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Facebook Roundup: Photo Apps, Video, Movies, AT&T, Pageviews, Places, Credits, Growth and More

UK Won’t Ban Facebook – Facebook, Twitter and Research In Motion met with United Kingdom officials Thursday regarding the social networks’ role in summer riots there. The government ended up not moving to restrict access to the social networks in emergencies such as riots.

Facebook Takes Third Spot for Video – Facebook becomes the third largest video site on the Internet, comScore reported. That is 51.5 million people who watched videos on the platform in July.

AT&T to Discontinue Facebook Phone – AT&T is reportedly set to drop its “Facebook phone” called the Status, according to TechCrunch.

Places More Popular Than Foursquare – London developer Golden Gekko reports its clients report much more Facebook check-ins than Foursquare in Europe. Magnus Jern reported that the ratio ranged from 5-10 to 1. However, the future of the service is unclear.

Facebook Hit 1 Trillion Pageviews - Facebook surpassed 1 trillion pageviews according to Google’s Ad Planner tool, although comScore says otherwise.

Facebook Mobile App to Offer Photo Filters - Facebook looks to be competing with Instagram’s classy mobile app by offering almost a dozen photo filters to its mobile own application — following Facebook’s attempt to buy the startup, according to The New York Times. News of the feature first leaked out in June.

Recapping Facebook’s Bug Bounty – Neal Poole did a basic rundown of Facebook’s Security Bug Bounty program, which included information about multi-line JavaScript URI, redirects preserving fragment portions of URLs, XSS filters and more.

Facebook Wraps Up Farm Bureau Dispute – Facebook and the Farm Bureau had a dispute over Facebook trademarking “FB,” but it seems like the lawsuit is set to be wrapped up.

Milyoni Chart for Credits – Milyoni created a nice chart and whitepaper that includes ways that Facebook Credits can, and cannot, be used.

Facebook to Open Second Campus - Facebook is set to open up an additional campus from its current Menlo Park, Calif. headquarters. The second campus pwill be southwest of the current location, to be constructed in 2013 to accommodate about 2,800 employees.

Ticketmaster Allows Users to Find Friends – Line Nation’s Ticketmaster service launched an app that allows users to see where their friends are sitting on seat maps and tag themselves.

BBC Does Facebook On-Demand Video – BBC has developed an on-demand Facebook application allowing users to rent episodes from the show “Top Gear” for 48 hours.

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Photo, iPad, Video, Mobile and Profile Banner in This Week’s Emerging Facebook Apps

Several profile banner applications, in addition to video apps, a few photo apps, games and others composed our list of top 20 emerging Facebook apps this week. The list of top 20 emerging apps was compiled based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook and covers apps that grew the most in the past week, ending at between 100,000 and 1 million monthly active users.

Top Gainers This Week

Profile Top Banner was the top app on our list this week with 818,400 MAU; the app, like a handful of others that have been appearing on our top app lists creates a photo album of matching photos to decorate a user’s profile. A similar app, Profile Customizer, was on the list this week with 677,200 MAU.

My Friend Map shows you the geographic location of all your Facebook friends, asks you to invite friends and posts the map to your stream; the app grew by 467,200 MAU. ???????????????? is a Thai quiz app that says it analyzes your friends’ brains; it (the quiz app, not your friends’ brains) grew by 321,200 MAU and posts photos in an album to a users’ stream, tagging their friends in the process. Another app that uses photos, Photo Sticker, grew by 293,600 MAU and publishes decorated photos in an album to a users’ stream. Spot The Difference, which grew by 472,200 MAU, also incorporates photos, but asks the user to locate five differences between a nearly matching set of photos.

There were three video-related apps on the list.  Kamerali SOHBET grew by 166,400 MAU; it’s a video chat application. Komik Videolar is a Turkish video sharing app that saw 147,300 MAU. VidyoTV Video grew by 219,800; it’s a Turkish video app allowing users to Like and share them to the stream.

Flipboard, an iPad app for reading news and social media updates in a magazine layout; the app saw 227,900 MAU this week. Likelicious is an app that allows users to create phrases and Like them or Like other phrases to share to the stream; the app grew by 212,800 MAU this week. Famous Status Update grew by 190,900 and finds your most popular recent status update for you and automatically generates a news feed story. Finally, Facebook by Snaptu grew by 134,700; the company provides mobile Facebook apps.

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