Facebook SoLoMo-fies The Platform, Lets Apps Tag Friends and Places

attachmentGet ready for another wave of social location-based mobile apps. Facebook has just opened new APIs that allow apps on its platform to tag posts with friends and Places, read the location of your old posts, and search for specific posts by coordinates and distance parameters. Additionally, Open Graph apps can now play back video and display big photos in news feed and Timeline.

By allowing apps to tag Places, Facebook can use the location data to show their posts to nearby friends. That means posts from Foodspotting, Gogobot, Path and other apps will be able to inspire serendipitous meetups just like Facebook check-ins. This is a big step towards Facebook becoming a hub of activity stories from around the web rather than just hosting its own content.

Lees meer

Friendsheet: The Zuck-Approved Pinterest-Style Facebook Photo Browser

Friendsheet Screenshot DoneA weekend hack called Friendsheet went from 60k uniques a month to 150K in 24 hours when Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg Liked it yesterday. Friendsheet employs Facebook Connect to turn the photos from your news feed into a Pinterest-style browsing experience. Thankfully it’s hosted on Amazon S3, Friendsheet’s creator Zach Allia tells me. Otherwise the Zuck Effect caused by his Facebook subscribers clicking through the news feed story generated by the Like could have crippled Friendsheet.

Turns out it’s not just Pinterest’s product, but the wide-screen, medium-sized photo panel layout it uses that resonates with people.

Lees meer

Social Enterprise Company Jive Debuts New Customer Service Software

jiveEnterprise software company Jive is launching a Social Customer Service software, which aims to help enterprises manage all things customer service while also tapping into social channels like Facebook and Twitter.

As you may know, Jive is one of the giants on the social enterprise space. Modeled to offer Facebook-like features to enterprises, Jive’s software combines computing with social collaboration to offer fully-featured social networks for businesses. Its suite of applications help businesses collaborate on a variety of tasks, including holding discussions, communication, sharing documents, blogging, running polls, social networking features and more.

Lees meer

Social Marketing Startup BlogFrog Raises $3.2M

blogfrog logoBlogFrog, a self-described “social activation platform,” has raised $1.2 million in a Series A round of funding.

The company was first known as a community for “mommy bloggers”, allowing them to add social features to their sites. In the last year or so, however, BlogFrog has shifted direction, using its technology and audience for a new end — helping marketers reach an influential audience.

Lees meer

Facebook Already Made Friend Finder Changes Demanded By German Court

Facebook GermanyA German court ruling against Facebook this morning is likely moot because the social network had already made changes to address the court’s mandates.

See, back in 2010 a German consumer organization complained Facebook’s Friend Finder inviter feature didn’t adequately inform users their imported contacts would be used to send invites, according to Friending Facebook Blog. But Facebook has since made numerous changes to Friend Finder, including adding a disclaimer, providing an improved contacts manager, and adding unsubscribe options to email invites. It probably won’t have to make any significant changes in response to this ruling.

Lees meer

All The Location Apps You Have To Use At The SXSW Royal Rumble

location-brawl1It’s turning into a battle of apps at SXSW – the sheer number of location-based networking apps hoping to emerge from the conference as this year’s breakout hit is nearly overwhelming. What’s worse, the apps are often so similar in nature, it’s hard to discern the advantages of one over another.

Is the app for business networking or making new friends? Does it use check-in data from other networks like Facebook and Foursquare, or does it just connect you with friends? How does the app know who’s nearby? Does it kill your battery?

Lees meer

Glancee To Release Big SXSW Update With Past Encounters, More Location And More Android

glancee2.6.12Let’s say you want to use your phone to find interesting new people or reconnect with nearby friends — without revealing your exact location. Glancee is the app for you, particularly if you’re an Android user. And the polished competitor to Highlight is getting a big update today, ahead of South By Southwest. The changes should please the people who want what it already offers.

The most obvious alteration since I covered the app last month is a nod to location precision. The Radar feature now shows you how many “steps away” somebody is, as measured in number of feet. Before, you’d see people as either “nearby” or as X number of miles away. While subtle, the difference could make it easier for connections to happen. If you only have to walk a few feet to meet someone, you’re more likely to do it than walk half a mile, particularly if you’re in the middle of a giant party in Austin, Texas.

Lees meer

First Major Acquisition Gets Big Fish Games Into Mobile, Social, Location — And The Bay Area

Screen Shot 2012-03-06 at 9.35.21 AMBig Fish Games is having some significant firsts this year, a decade after Paul Thelen founded the casual game developer and publisher. One is its largest acquisition to date: Oakland-based Social Concepts, the parent company of mobile social casino game developer Self Aware Games. Another is strong revenue growth — up 30 percent over 2011, to above $180 million, he tells me today.

Now, with Social Concepts, Big Fish will also be able to crack some areas that it has mostly stayed out of so far.

Lees meer

INTRO Wants To Be The LinkedIn Of The Ambient Location Apps

intro-mainJust when you thought this space couldn’t get any more saturated, yet another ambient location app throws its hat into the ring as SXSW prepares to kick off. Introducing INTRO. But wait, before you groan “enough already!“, you should know that INTRO at least has a unique take on the location-based social introductions market. Unlike the majority of this year’s crop of location-based networking apps, INTRO’s angle is business introductions. Built on top of LinkedIn, the app lets you specify who you’re looking to meet by both industry and profession, then enables you to make that connection.

Lees meer

Social Collaboration Platform For Classrooms Edmodo Opens To Third-Party Developers With New API

ed-1Edmodo, an online social learning and communications network for teachers and students in K-12 schools, is opening up its API to third–party web developers to enable the creation of educational applications built on top of the platform.

Edmodo, which just raised $15 million from Greylock Partners and Benchmark Capital, is a free service that allows teachers to create and maintain their own safe and secure, collaborative classroom communities across mobile and web platforms. It’s sort of similar to a Facebook for the classroom. But Edmodo is completely private and secure, and allows teachers to also manage class content, collaborate and more within the platform.

Lees meer