TechGuruHere

There is a Great News for Orkut Lovers.They have rolled out a new interface for orkut. According to the reviews,it seems that they have focused primarily on a clean simple interface,fewer pages,faster browsing and greater personalization.

A Look at the New Interface of Orkut

Features on the New Orkut Interface Look

• Better “What are you up to ?” : If you are eating pancakes or watching tv, you can let all your friend know about it.
• Fewer pages, faster browsing : Making the homepage a one-stop-shop for nearly everything that you’d like to do.
• A clean, simple interface : Reorganized the most important activities on orkut so that they are easy to find and even easier to use.
• Greater personalization : Make your orkut profile and homepage truly your own by choosing the color that best fits your style.
• Video chat : In case if you are bored with text based chatting, video chat is now possible without any software.

Excited about the new version of the site? Then you’ll also be excited to know that they’re returning to orkut’s roots and granting access to it via invitations.

Earlier this year, Facebook was hammered for changes it made to its Terms of Service. The result was an uproar that eventually led to the Facebook Democracy, an initiative by Facebook to let users vote and comment on its governing documents.

The result was positive, but that didn’t end the criticism. Most recently, the Canadian government forced Facebook to make changes in order to comply with the country’s privacy laws. Now Facebook is looking to close that chapter with a brand new Privacy Policy that users will have the chance to comment and vote upon.

Facebook VP of Communication and Public Policy Elliot Schrage made the announcement on the Facebook blog early this afternoon. The social networking company has rewritten its policy in “plain language” and has “included numerous examples to help illustrate [their] points.”

The new policy explains that you have the right to delete or change your profile information, that you can delete your entire account from Facebook’s servers, that there are limitations to removal, and that backup copies can exist for up to 90 days after deleting. It also goes into new detail over advertising on Facebook.

Facebook users who are interested in the document can comment on it on the Facebook Site Governance page. The commenting period lasts until 12pm PT on November 5th. After that, the company will take its next steps – likely another update to the policy and placing it to a community vote.

Let’s be clear: Facebook is making these changes to appease Canada. Still, we commend Facebook for its democracy movement. Allowing users to provide input and vote on changes gives users new and necessary control over a website that’s larger in population than almost every country in the world.

It could be the ultimate admission of defeat, or, a pretty smart move given its current strategy. According to The Telgraph, MySpace is currently discussing a partnership with Facebook where music and video content published to MySpace could easily be shared on Facebook via Facebook Connect.

How far that Connect implementation might go isn’t clear, but Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg tells The Telegraph, “MySpace could become a Facebook Connect partner – which would allow people to share content they liked from MySpace with their Facebook network.” MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, who used to work at Facebook, confirms the talks with the paper.

Why This Would Be Smart

MySpace has one of the best catalogs of music and videos on the Web. Allowing users to share them on Facebook – far and away the most popular social network – would increase distribution for this content, and potentially get Facebook users to re-consider MySpace as a content portal and not a dying social network.

Why It’s Risky

Although MySpace may envision itself as an entertainment portal, its bread and butter is still its social network – diminished as it may be. Encouraging members to use Facebook for sharing content could hasten its demise in social networking at a rate far exceeding its growth in music and entertainment.

The result of that would be even more domination by Facebook, which, it should be noted, is already starting to move into digital music on its own (and already serves as a major distribution point for YouTube content as well).

A Bold Move Is Needed

If MySpace wants to remain relevant it has to be bold, and partnering with the site that toppled it as world’s biggest social network would certainly be that. Given its current goals, and the benefits we already know that Facebook Connect can provide to content sites, don’t be surprised if this deal comes to fruition in short order. We’ll keep you posted.

One of the sticking points with the otherwise highly convenient Google Voice service has been that you had a choose a new number to use with the service. If you had an existing number that everyone already knew and wanted to switch over, you were pretty much out of luck.

Luckily that changes today, with tonight’s Google announcement that you can now use Google Voice with an existing phone number. Also notably, you can now add Google voicemail service to any of the mobile numbers linked to your account. Think of it a bit like Gmail for voicemail.

Now when you first sign up for Google Voice you can choose between using your own number or choosing a new Google number. You still get many of Google Voice’s features when using your own number, including the Google voicemail feature you can now add to linked phones.

Unfortunately it’s not a full number port, and you won’t get all of the Google Voice features when using your own number — at least not yet. But especially if you have an older phone that doesn’t already have a nice visual voicemail interface, the Google voicemail feature alone might be reason enough to switch. The company also says it plans to roll out a full service compatible with your existing number, including other great features of Voice like conference calling, call screening, and listening into calls before deciding to pick up.

Check out the video about how Google voicemail works below. And if you’re still hunting for an invite to Google Voice, you can ask a us for one.

Do you use Google Voice? If not, will you consider using the service now that you can keep your existing number? Let us know in the comments.

Another new virus is overextension through social networks, this time, via Facebook. This one – accepted as Bredolab – masks itself as a “Password Reset Confirmation Email,” appears to appear from Facebook, and attaches a book that purports to accommodate a new password.

That file is actually a trojan horse that will download a host of nasty files from the Web and infect your computer with them. Email security firm MX Lab explains further:

“Bredolab is a trojan horse that downloads and executes files from the Internet, such as rogue anti-spyware. To bypass firewalls, it injects its own code into legitimate processes svchost.exe and explorer.exe. Bredolab contains anti-sandbox code (the trojan might quit itself when an external program investigates its actions).”

The way to avoid this one: if you didn’t request your password from Facebook, there’s no reason you should be getting a password reset confirmation email, so don’t open it. Further, even if you did, Facebook would not send your new password as an attachment. Finally, f you’re still not sure, take a look at the full details of the email – if the mail server’s don’t belong to Facebook, you know the message is not legit.

If you haven’t been following the data ownership scuffle, it’s been a back-and-fourth mélee with Facebook first filing suit against Power.com for allegedly using Facebook user data (primarily a member’s user name and password) without authorization. Then in July, Power.com counter-sued Facebook with claims of unfair competition, and stopped supporting the site as part of their social media aggregating service.

Today the Power.com counter-suit has been dismissed, though a Facebook representative assures us that their original legal matter against Power.com is still pending. Power.com, however, isn’t ready to concede defeat, as indicated in the official statement below. It looks as if they’re planning to re-plead their case in 30 days.

Power.com has issued this statement on the dismissal:

“Earlier in the case Judge Fogel granted Power’s motion to require Facebook to provide a more detailed pleading of its claims.  Yesterday’s order essentially does the same thing with respect to Power’s counterclaims and affirmative defenses.  The Court determined that Power’s pleading did not provide enough detail with respect to the fair use defense and other affirmative defenses, and also with respect to the counterclaims under the unfair competition laws.  The Court gave Power 30 days, until November 21, 2009, to re-plead their defenses and counterclaims with more detail.  Power intends to do so.

This is a routine type of order that often occurs in the early stages of litigation, where the parties dispute the sufficiency of the pleadings in terms of the level of factual detail that is provided.  Power is confident that it will be able to amend its pleading within 30 days to satisfy the Court’s concerns.”

With over 300 million users, Facebook is undeniably one of the best places to keep in touch with friends, and one of the reasons it’s so popular are its applications. Most of Facebook’s user-favorite features, like its massively popular photo sharing, video sharing, user groups, or events functionality, are powered by applications. These core apps come installed by default on every user’s profile and cannot be removed.

But Facebook is also home to over 350,000 other applications created by thousands of third-party developers across the world. With so many apps, the Facebook Application Platform can be a little bit overwhelming to navigate and finding the best apps can be difficult. This guide will show you how to find, add, and manage Facebook applications.

What Are Facebook Apps?

Launched in May 2007, the Facebook Platform allows outside developers to create applications — such as games or other programs — that run inside of Facebook and have access to your social data (if you grant such access). The platform has become of the most popular developer ecosystems on the Internet.

For the purposes of this article, we’re going to define a Facebook app as any application that runs inside of Facebook itself and can be found in the official App Directory. We’re also going to focus on consumer apps, rather than those made to run on Facebook Fan Pages.

The App Directory

The main place to find Facebook applications is the site’s official App Directory. You can access the directory by click on the “Applications” button in the lower left hand corner of the Facebook screen (on the bottom navigation bar), and then clicking on the “Browse More Applications” link.

The directory also lists external web sites that connect with Facebook, mobile and desktop applications, and “prototypes,” which are new features and applications that Facebook is testing out. For this guide, we’re concerned mainly with the apps found “On Facebook.”

The App Directory lists every application available to you on the social network and offers five ways to find new applications:

Featured by Facebook – At the very top of the the App Directory page, the first thing you see are featured applications. These apps, shown two at a time with left and right arrows to page through the entire list, are apps that the Facebook staff have selected as particularly noteworthy, well-made, or unique. All of these apps are “Verified” (more on that later).

Applications You May Like – The second section on the page, is a list of applications that Facebook thinks you may enjoy. This list is generated based on which apps are popular with your friends, which apps are popular with all of Facebook, and which apps closely resemble the type of application you have already installed.

Search – If you’re looking for an app that accomplishes a specific task, then the search function (found in the upper left-hand corner of the App Directory page) is the place to start.

Browse – If you’re less sure about what you’re looking for, you can browse the App Directory in the categories of: Business, Education, Entertainment, Friends & Family, Games, Just for Fun, Lifestyle, Sports, and Utilities. Each category page will also have featured and suggested applications.

Recent Activity From Friends – Finally, on the bottom of the page, is a familiar news feed of recent app-related activity from your friends. This section gives you a birds eye view of the types of apps your friends are interacting with.

When you search or browse for applications you’ll see a brief overview of each app, as well as a star rating out of five, the number of monthly active users, and the number of your friends that use that application. You also may see a little green check mark next to some apps. The check mark signifies that that application is a “Verified App.” Verified applications have passed through a rigorous review process by Facebook and are deemed safe and trustworthy by the site.

Clicking on the application will bring you to its App Page, which closely resembles a Facebook Fan Page. The page will give you a lot more information about the application, including which of your friends are using it, reviews and discussions from users, as well as news and any other information about the app from its developer.

The App Directory is really the best way to find new applications on Facebook, but you should also pay attention to your Facebook news feed. That section will sometimes include updates from popular apps that your friends are adding and interacting with. Further, keep an eye out for app suggestions and invitations from your friends.

Installing an App

Once you’ve selected an application to add, navigate to its App Page. From there you can add the application, block it (so that you won’t get updates about it in your news feed if friends are using it), become a fan of the app, or add it to your favorites.

To add an app, click on the “Go to Application” button beneath the app’s logo. If you have the app installed already, clicking this button will bring you to the actual app. If you don’t have it installed, you’ll be directed to a page asking you to grant the application permission to access your Facebook data. Some apps may have additional steps as part of installation or set up, such as creating a character for games.

Managing Apps

Once you have apps installed, it’s a good idea to go to the Application Settings page to tweak the privacy and notification settings of your apps, or to remove an application. To access this page, click on the “Applications” button on bottom left of the Facebook screen, and then click on the “Edit Applications” link.

By default, the Application Settings page will list your most recently used apps. You can change this by clicking on the “Show” drop down menu and choosing which apps to display. To see a list of all applications you have installed, choose “Authorized.”

Once you have found the application you wish to manage, you’ll see three links to the right side of that application’s name: Edit Settings, Profile, and an X. “Profile” will bring you to the app’s Application Page (where you can leave a review or rating or discuss issues you are having with the application with the developers). “Edit Settings” will pop up a settings dialog box that has three tabs allowing you to control how the app interacts with your Facebook profile.

Profile – On this tab you’ll find privacy settings about who can see this app, as well as the ability to add or remove a profile Box or Tab for the application, if available.

Bookmark – This controls whether a link to the app appears in the “Applications” menu on the bottom navigation bar.

Additional Permissions – This tab allows you to control what other types of things the app can do, such as notify you about new activity, or post stories to your news feed or wall.

To remove an application, simply click on the “X” link. Facebook will ask you to confirm your decision and will allow you to optionally rate the app. You’ll notice that some applications cannot be deleted; these are official Facebook apps that are vital to the core functionality of the site. While you can’t delete these apps, you can effectively disable them by denying all of their permissions and setting up strict privacy rules.

Popular social networking site Facebook has launched a slimmed down version for those with slow or poor internet connections – read India. The Lite site will be faster and simpler because it will offer fewer services than the main site. Those who switch to Facebook Lite and don’t like it can switch back to the fuller version of the site.

Facebook Lite will only allow users to write on their wall, post photos and videos, view events and browse other people’s profiles. There is no room for apps or special boxes. Very Twitter-like.

This Lite version will be available in other languages according to Facebook who acknowledged this as a possibility in a statement on the site.

As of now this Lite version is available in India and the US.

Facebook is fast gaining popularity as one of the safer social networking sites and adding to that popularity is the fact that now Facebook users can access their Orkut accounts with the MyOrkut application, created by Jeetu Mirchandani, an ex-IIT Mumbai student, without leaving the site.

The social networking site also allows members to add an
application through which they can access their Gmail account.

Facebook allows its users to create and develop applications and has over 5,000 applications and 39 million active members.

A Facebook user has to add The MyOrkut
application to his/her profile by providing the URL of his Orkut profile id. Once added, he can access Orkut within Facebook without logging on to Orkut.

Gmail can be accessed on Facebook by using an
application called Fmail that has been created by two US-based students of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Courtland Allen and Aaron Rosado. The only feature missing in this
application is Google Chat.

The Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco has just started, but the conference has already brought some heavy hitters on stage, including Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and Paypal CEO Scott Thompson.

Just moments ago, Twitter Co-Founder and CEO Evan Williams took the stage with Federated Media CEO John Batelle to discuss revenue models, Facebook, potential acquisitions, and Twitter’s (potentially stagnating) growth.

Here are some of the highlights:

- On revenue models: They’ve done a lot of thinking about it, but they’re spending “approximately 97% of their efforts” on perfecting and growing the Twitter platform. Basically, he was coy about the company’s revenue strategy. John brought up the idea of “TweetSense” and “TweetWords” (a play on the popular Google AdSense and AdWords platforms), but Evan didn’t admit to anything.

However, he did say that they are optimistic on revenue, with so many brand advertisers and “theoretically monetizable information” available on the Twitter platform, the Twitter CEO isn’t worried about generating significant revenue in the near future.

- On Twitter’s growth: Evan admitted that Twitter’s U.S. traffic has stalled the last few months, but that some new features (such as Twitter Lists) should help solve this problem. He also pointed to international and mobile growth.

- On user retention: He stated that they have never been very good at finding that “killer application” for using Twitter for individuals, but that is now their focus. Twitter Lists is a big way to address this problem, Evan quickly added. They see it as a problem, but one that they can fix with some focus.

- On potential acquisition: Twitter is going for a long-term strategy rather than a “grow and be acquired” strategy. Part of it is that Twitter has potential, and part of it is that Evan Williams doesn’t feel the same pressure other entrepreneurs have to sell, since he’s already cashed out once before with the sale of Blogger to Google. He doesn’t believe Twitter’s interests align with being part of a bigger company.

- On Facebook: Evan discussed the increasing role of Facebook as a competitor to Twitter, but summed it up with this: “The world is big enough for Facebook and Twitter.”

- On Google Wave: He thinks Google Wave is awesome. He doesn’t know what Google Wave will become, though.

- On developers and revenue: Evan made it clear that developers can reliably invest in their platform. He believes developers are crucial to the Twitter experience.

- On international growth: The top five countries in terms of users: U.S., UK, Brazil, Japan, Indonesia (surprising!).

- On Twitter Lists and the suggested user list: “It’s time to retire the suggested user list.” He thinks they need to do something better and that it has indeed created a distortion in terms of influence.