Facebook, Twitter and most web sites are free. All you need is a $500-800 device, and $100 per month to a phone company.
Posts tagged Facebook
Facebook in Excel
Most office workers like to look at Facebook on their PCs. But not only is it easier for the user to view their ‘news feed’ on a desktop, it’s also easy for passersby to see. For privacy and job security reasons, the user would prefer to conceal the content and source of data. The Facebook page design is well known and distinguishable from afar. The solution for desktop browsing of a News Feed is to use a desktop application, which is now possible using Adobe AIR technology and the Facebook Feed API (which developers use to tap into the FB server).
I propose making a desktop application that resembles an Excel sheet. Each row could contain, in one column, a friend name, and in the next column, their status or news item. In subsequent columns, the user could ‘like’,'unlike’, and ‘comment.’ In this way, instead of having to “Alt-Tab” away from the Facebook web page to an Excel sheet, the very act of using Facebook would look productive.
Other features: Maybe a workbook could have a sheet for each of Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. And, you could customize the look of the app to resemble your office’s version of Excel (Mac, 2003, 2008 etc). It’s also easy to insert advertising messages. The mockup above innocently includes messages from Del Monte and Coca Cola.
I’m hesitant to create this application because it would likely decrease productivity and because another developer could easily create and market such an app. TweetDeck for example could skin its app to resemble Excel.
But I thought it would be a good sample in my portfolio for an AIR and Facebook app. What do you think?
Facebook Ad System: Go Clippers
Facebook displays advertisements within its News Feed, listing an ad as if it was something personal, like your friends’ quiz scores.
Facebook says that it collects “rich” user info, and thus can target ads. Sounds fun, but there is a glitch. The system gives greater weight to user attributes than to the advertisement object, producing irrelevant ads. Here is today’s News post–with an ad to see the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team. It is true that I live in LA, and enjoy basketball. But the most important fact regarding the Clippers is that the NBA is in playoff season, and the Clippers did not make it to the post-season (by far).
Oh, and by the way, I have no interest in the Clippers.
Facebooks Puts Enemies in Your Face
** Updated 6/6/2008 ***
~~~ Facebook has added the functionality called for in this post. ~~~~~~
Facebook puts a panel in your Home page “People You May Know.” It randomly displays 3 of the multitudes who share a connection with you, and links to a page that shows all such friends of friends.
For each of these people, there are action buttons such as “Add to Friends”, “Send Message.” But there is no button “Make Disappear.” Some of these friends of friends can be Enemies: or at least, major dope bags. I’m not asking that they be smited from the face of the Earth, only that their face be wiped out from the face of my Facebook. There should be a button: “Don’t Show this Person Again” or “Remove From List (Always).”
Facebook has shown a commitment to allow users to customize their experience. But for every feature and connection-promoter, there are more implications regarding privacy and peace of mind. To make this right, Facebook should allow for Hiding Content/Function Segments from the Home Page just as it allows you to Remove/Collapse boxes from your profile. Secondly, it should always allow the ability to Block an Individual: not just to prevent that person from viewing your profile, but to avoid any chance of you having to see their face.