4 Facebook Timeline Features You Should Learn Now

Welcomed by morepositive reviews than the typical site upgrade gets, Facebook’s new timeline profile makes it feel as though Christmas came early to its over 800 million active users.

Tucked away into Facebook’s timeline profile design are various submenus that all unlock hidden treasures.

These features, although not the shining stars of the new design upgrade, are worth noting and raving about, too.

Check out these four features you’ve probably yet to fully discover, but most likely will love.

Activity Log

This feature is only visible to the profile owner and makes it easier to find content for publishing or hiding on the timeline.

Facebook lets you feature old posts on timeline, or to even delete them. For most of my posts dating back to ’08, let’s just say I chose the latter.

View As

Although it became available before timeline, “view as” has gained a lot more meaning and relevance with the newest profile.

To the right of the activity log button, there’s an arrow icon that you can click on for a small drop-down menu, and “view as” is the first thing listed in the pull-down.

This feature allows users to view their timeline as if they were one of their friends, subscribers or the public. Long gone are the days you have to log in to another person’s profile — or worse create a fake account, which violates Facebook’s rules — to view your own profile to confirm that your privacy settings are indeed correct.

Life Events

Facebook’s little red heart symbolizing a new relationship is familiar to all; what isn’t so familiar yet is the briefcase, house, apple and flag, all of which appear within pull-down menu that comes from clicking on that book icon labeled “life events.” It’s above the status update field, to the right of the link for tagging a place.

Whether you lost 10 pounds before the new year or you gained a furry roommate, Facebook’s life events serve as profile mementos to all your life’s past milestones, occasions or incidents — happy or sad.

Like scrapbooking, this feature most likely won’t become a huge overnight trend, but it is fun for reminiscers and date-loggers such as myself.

Maps

Maps is Facebook’s new feature which allows users to see in map view all the places they’ve previously checked into through places. Visually, the map is undeniably cool, but whatmakes it stand out is the ability to backlog the places you have been, as well as easily and quickly tag existing photos with locations.

Readers, what have you discovered about timeline so far?

Facebook May Extend Negative Feedback Metrics Pagewide

Facebook continues to emphasize the negative in its insights for page managers, which could be a positive for marketers.

Wise reports that the social network may extend the negative feedback metrics that it launched earlier this month for individual posts throughout pages.

Should this happen, page managers will be able to see how many users still like their pages but have elected to hide posts.

This will help determine their next course of action to try to win back the attention of those so-called fans, and it will allow them to gauge how effective (or ineffective, as it may be) their content has been.

Plus, as Wise points out, emphasizing the negative could also be a positive for Facebook, as marketers may turn to advertising on the social network to try to reach users who have hidden their posts.

Facebook had first introduced negative feedback metrics for individual posts earlier this month; clearly, this measurement is popular with administrators if Facebook is considering doing this on an pagewide basis.

Facebook Sponsored Stories Debut In News Feeds 2012

Facebook’s sponsored stories advertisements will start appearing in the news feed beginning next month.

These promotions that refrain users’ engagement with a brand until recently appeared only in modules specifically designated for advertisements.

This fall, Facebook started moving sponsored stories through the ticker, and so far, labeling appears to have prevented people from confusing the promotions with activities generated by friends.

Ben and Jerry’s has signed up to become the first advertiser to run sponsored stories in people’s news feeds starting next month.

The introduction of sponsored stories in the news feed next month will mark the first time Facebook has incorporated advertisements in this space since 2007 — that was beacon, which had backfired for reasons of privacy.

Some might argue that many of the same privacy problems besetting Beacon are creeping back to the site, just in time to cause problems for sponsored stories joining the main news feed.

However, our peer blog inside facebook says it expects that sponsored stories in the main news feed ought to enjoy strong clickthrough rates by virtue of more targeted placement among viewers receptive to the content.

Already sponsored stories have demonstrated clickthrough rates 46 percent higher than all other types of ads on Facebook, amounting to the most cost effective form of promotion on the social network.

Facebook currently offers seven different variations on sponsored stories, although the ones that refrain likes have been the most popular sp far.

Readers, how do you think sponsored stories will fare in the main news feeds on Facebook?

How To Gain And Lose Facebook Friends: Infographic

The best way to add Facebook friends? Actually knowing the people helps. The quickest way to lose Facebook friends? Offensive comments.

Those were the findings of a survey of 1,865 Facebook users by Nielsen McKinsey’s NM Incite unit, which also cited solicitation comments, depressing comments, too many friends, and updating too much or too little as reasons for defriending.

Readers: Have you ever defriended someone on Facebook, and was it for the reasons below?

*Methodology: NM Incite, State of Social Media Survey (April 2011). NM Incite’s ‘State of Social Media Survey’ is based on a representative sample of 1,865 adult (18+) social media users who were recruited from the Nielsen Online Panel to take an online survey. “Social media user” is defined as participating, talking, and networking online through various platforms to share information and resources. This includes Internet forums, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, video sharing, consumer rating and other social networking websites. The survey fielded from Sep 31 to Dec 14th.

INFOGRAPHIC: Privacy On Facebook Versus Google Plus

Which site offers more privacy, Facebook or Google Plus? A pretty good comparison between the two appears in an infographic below.

Created the infographic that illustrates how neither site outdoes the other in the way of privacy.

Hot Tips For Landing Jobs at Google, Apple and Facebook [INFOGRAPHIC]

Google, Apple and Facebook are the tech trifecta, so we found facts that could help you land a job at one of these companies. No doubt, there will be stiff competition: Nearly one in four young professionals wants to work at Google, for instance, but there’s more room in the Googleplex for software developers. Facebook gets 250,000 applications a year and sifts through them to find the cream of the crop, preferring those who build things, whether they’re apps or organizations. And Apple wants, well, Apple fanboys to help create the next generation of gadgetry, but you ought to have a reference from an existing Appler.

The tech field is booming, and the industry needs bright young talent to keep innovating. Some facts:

• An IT manager can make more than $110,000 a year
• Android app developers are especially coveted
• Data mining and statistical analysis are ideal collegiate specializations

So, if you’re like most other young professionals and are looking to nab a job at any of those three companies, take a gander at the infographic below. There are tips on how to optimize your resume, how to land an interview and how to impress the HR team. If you’ve landed a job at any of these companies, feel free to offer tips and insights in the comments below.

Top Navigation Bar Would Scroll Up With The Page

Many Facebook users (us included) noticed that the top navigation bar is now locked on top of the screen even if you scroll the page down. This behavior is new: Before, the top navigation bar would scroll up with the page, and now it’s visible all the time.

This subtle change lets users always access some of the most important features on Facebook: friend requests, messages, notifications and search on the left side, as well as home and profile anchor buttons and account settings on the right.

For comparison, Twitter uses a similar floating design for its navigation bar, which is also always visible on top.

Inside Facebook thinks this may be the first stage in a much bigger redesign, which is to be unveiled at Facebook’s F8 conference. If they’re right, Facebook is looking to lock the ads on the right side of the screen to be always visible, too, which would surely increase the click-through rates but would also make the page a bit more crowded.

Has the new, locked top navigation bar gone live for you? How do you like it? Please, share your opinions in the comments.

The Angry Birds Make a Commercial

September 26, 2011 at 1:37 pm

tags Angry Birds, Chrome, Commercials, Google

Experiencing Windows 8 touch on Windows 7 hardware

As many no doubt know by now, we've released a Developer Preview of Windows 8. This is a build of the software designed for developers to begin developing apps using the new capabilities of Windows 8 and our new tools. The build is substantially complete across subsystems but is not a beta by any measures that we use to define a beta. The rich diversity and creativity you find within the ecosystem of hardware/software/peripherals for Windows can lead to a situation where different parts of an overall experience are available at different times. Windows 8 is in a developer preview state now, but there is not yet a broad set of PC hardware upon which to experience some of the new, hardware-specific, aspects of Windows 8. Of course Windows 8 is designed from the ground up to be an amazing upgrade (or clean install) for any PC that runs Windows 7. But we know many folks are anxious to try out some of the new scenarios and form factors that will also make Windows 8 shine.
There are no Windows 8 PCs yet, but there are PCs we have been using in our labs and that our team has been using to test the new capabilities of Windows 8. We work closely with PC makers to test early systems and will continue to do so. But we also wanted to let you know about the systems we have been working with that have touch capabilities and allow you to experience these new aspects of Windows 8. This is not an exhaustive list, and it is definitely not a recommended, certified or "logo" list. It is merely a list of machines we have experience with, and so we want to share that experience with you. We think if you're looking to experience some of the latest scenarios and aspects of Windows 8 before there are purpose-built Windows 8 machines, this is a good start.
So, this post focuses on the touch interface aspects of PCs designed for Windows 7, which also work with Windows 8. Grant George, corporate vice president for all of Windows test, and Jeff Piira, a test manager on our HIP team, authored this post together.
--Steven

Over many years in the PC ecosystem, we have seen the machine <--> human interface evolve many times. The first era was the command-line interface, where we only needed the keyboard to be able to type out commands on a black screen. The next era was the graphical user interface, where we enabled support for a mouse, in addition to a keyboard. The mouse made it easier for users to interact with “windows,” icons, menus, and pointers. Recently we have seen more and more emphasis on a natural user interface, where users interact not just with a keyboard or mouse, but also with touch. The way people interact with technology has evolved, such that touch interfaces are now more common than ever, and they can be found today across a myriad of devices ranging from 3-inch mobile phones to book readers, notebooks, large desktop displays, point of sale devices, kiosks and more. Touch is everywhere and it’s here to stay.
In Windows 8, we are taking the next step in adopting touch as a truly first-class input mechanism by evolving not only our UI, but many other platform elements as well. The goal of this blog post is not to introduce the overall story of touch for Windows 8 (that will come later), but to tell the story of hardware, how it is evolving, and what we think Windows 8 will bring to the ecosystem of touch.
Every touch interface has its own challenges to develop and perfect. However, to the end user, what matters most is the smooth, responsive, and natural experience of interacting with a device using touch. This sensation of performance is something we have prioritized heavily in Windows 8.
Performance of touch is not an easy thing to quantify, and there are many elements to consider. The speed at which the software input stack responds to the hardware is a primary factor. As much as we can make advances in optimizing the software, hardware pays a huge role in the “feel” of an immersive touch experience. For Windows 8, one of our approaches is to partner deeply with industry leaders on this aspect of touch, something which has paid off tremendously.
Another aspect of change in Windows 8 has been how we have approached the touch experience. Early on we decided to concentrate on ensuring the key user experiences are not only designed, but are fully optimized for touch. While this decision may seem trivial, it fundamentally changed how we evaluate Windows 8 on existing hardware and how we communicate with hardware partners. All of our requirements and tests are built off the user experiences rather than specific hardware centric capabilities. This helps to ensure that there is no gap between what the hardware can do and what the software expects.
So how do we define a good touch experience in Windows 8?

• Panning and touch response are precise and smooth (we call this “stick to your finger” panning).
• Touch visualization is direct and immediate.
• Targeting UI with your fingers is seamless and confident.
• Typing on the screen is quick, efficient and responsive.
• Touch application experiences are consistent. Touching these applications will work the same regardless of the device they are run on.

Touch hardware coverage

As the market for touch-enabled Windows PCs is broad, we focused our efforts on existing in-market devices to guide our initial development. Here are some of the newer Windows 7 systems that we use most commonly:

• HP Elitebook 2740p and 2760p convertible
• ASUS EP121 tablet
• Dell Inspiron Duo convertible
• Lenovo x201, x220t convertible
• 3M M2256PW 22” display

We also test Windows 8 on a broader set of in-market systems. Touch quality is not only about the touchscreen and its relationship to the user. When we’re testing complete systems, things like bezel design, graphics, CPU and cover glass can impact the Windows 8 touch experience as well. We are committed to supporting the hardware that is running with Windows 7 today and working hard to bring a good experience to our customers who upgrade. As we continue through our development cycle on Windows 8, we will update this blog and call out how progress is coming with existing in-market systems.

Below is a list of the devices we currently have in our test labs.

3M M2256PW	Dell ST2220Tc	HP TouchSmart_IQ526t
Acer Aspire 1420p (PDC)	Dell Studio 1747	Lenovo C320
Acer Aspire 1825PT	Dell Studio One	Lenovo S10-3T
Acer Aspire 5738PG	Dell SX2210T	Lenovo ThinkPad T410S
Acer Aspire Z5610	Elo 1522L	Lenovo ThinkPad X201T
Acer Iconia	EXOPC	Lenovo ThinkPad X220T
Acer T230H	Fujitsu Lifebook T4310	Lenovo ThinkPad_X60
Acer W500	HP Compaq L2105TM	NEC MultiSync LCD175M
ASUS EP 121	HP EliteBook 2740P	Planar PX2230MW
ASUS TCA70	HP Mini 5102	Samsung Series 7 XE700T1A
Dell Inspiron 2305	HP Pavilion_tx2000	Sony V J series
Dell Inspiron Duo	HP Pavillion DV3T-2000	Sony V L series
Dell Inspiron One 2305	HP Tablet 500	Sony VPCL113FX/B
Dell Latitude E6420	HP TouchSmart 610	Sony VPCL-218FW
Dell Latitude XT	HP TouchSmart IQ500	Toshiba Portege_M700
Dell ST2220T	HP TouchSmart TX2Z	Toshiba Sattellite Har/Kar

Touch tests

Here are a couple of examples of tests that we run to see how hardware and software works together. The first test covers new Windows 8 features  that you access by swiping a finger in from the edges of the screen, like Search, Share, and Settings. (We will talk more about these features in future posts.)

To get the best experience when swiping in from the edge, touch must be responsive across the entire active screen starting at pixel 1 on each side, so we’ve developed tools to ensure that swipes are always properly detected at the edges of the screen.
To ensure a smooth panning experience, we have requirements for the latency of hardware response and panning with touch. We use a high-speed camera to measure input lag or delay between when a user touches the screen and when that action is reflected on the display. The less lag or separation between the user’s finger and the object being dragged the better!

Building new touch hardware for Windows 8

Keeping the user experience at the top of the requirements, Windows 8 will kick off a new generation of computing devices, and it is only natural that touchscreen technologies will evolve with it. Our goal on the Windows team is to work in lock step with external hardware partners in the development of new hardware that will more fully support Windows 8 requirements, and ultimately provide the smooth, responsive, and natural touch experience that Windows users expect. Our continuing work with our touch hardware partners, suppliers, IHV’s (independent hardware vendors), and PC manufacturers will help us together deliver an immersive and intuitive touch experience in Windows 8.
--Grant and Jeff

Tell Your Story with Timeline

 Thursday, 22 September 2011 at 23:00

Since the beginning of Facebook, your profile has been the place where you tell your story. People use it to share everything from the small stuff, like their thoughts on an article, to the most important events of their lives, like the photos of their wedding or the birth of their child.

The evolution of your profile

Back in the early days of Facebook, your profile was pretty basic – just your name, a photo, where you went to school…stuff you'd cover in the first five minutes you met someone.

Over time, your profile evolved to better reflect how you actually communicate with your friends. Now you can can share photos of what you did last weekend, and updates about how you feel today.

But since the focus is on the most recent things you posted, more important stuff slips off the page. The photos of your graduation get replaced by updates about what you had for breakfast.

Say you're catching up with an old friend – would you rather find out that they had eggs this morning, or hear about their new dream job?

The way your profile works today, 99% of the stories you share vanish. The only way to find the posts that matter is to click "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page. Again. And again.

Imagine if there was an easy way to rediscover the things you shared, and collect all your best moments in a single place.

Introducing timeline – a new kind of profile

With timeline, now you have a home for all the great stories you've already shared. They don't just vanish as you add new stuff.

Timeline is wider than your old profile, and it's a lot more visual.  The first thing you'll notice is the giant photo right at the top. This is your cover, and it's completely up to you which of your photos you put here.

As you scroll down past your cover, you'll see your posts, photos and life events as they happened in time. You choose what's featured on your timeline. You can star your favorites to double their size or hide things altogether.

Filling in the blanks

If important parts of your story aren't included on your timeline, you can go back to when they happened and add them.

Or go to your private activity log. This is where you'll find everything you shared since you joined Facebook. Click on any post to feature it on your timeline so your friends can see it, too.

Add apps to your timeline

Introducing a new kind of social app that lets you show the things you like to do on your timeline – the music you listen to, the recipes you try, the runs you take and more.

These apps also help you discover what your friends are up to. You can even join in if you want: play the song they're listening to, or watch the same TV show.

You can start adding some of these new apps today, but timeline won't be available for a few weeks.

When you get your timeline, you can choose to publish it immediately or take a few days to review what's there and add anything that's missing.

Now, you and your friends will finally be able to tell all the different parts of your story – from the small things you do each day to your biggest moments. What will you create? We can't wait to find out.

Incredible Startpage 1.3 is released!

Welcome! We have released Incredible Startpage 1.3 which includes lot of improvements. Enjoy!

Improved theme editor!! 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ncdfeghkpohnalmpblddmnppfooljekh

Beside using a custom URL, you may now use local file as background image.

Note: A normal wallpaper of around 100 to max. 500K in size is recommended. If the file is too large it might be slow to load the new tab and even crash the new tab.

We also have enhanced the photo picker for you to easily choose amazing photos from Flickr.com

Edit bookmarks directly in the main panel

To begin edit a bookmark, mouse over the bookmark item and click the 'wrench' icon at the bottom right corner. A pop up will appear and you may edit the bookmark title or delete it.

Handle local links
The main panel can now links like chrome:// or file:// are handled properly