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Yahoo Inc will let users of its email, photo-sharing and other online products link their content and activities directly into Facebook, the world’s No. 1 Internet social network.

Yahoo’s support of the Facebook Connect service, which it said it expects to begin in the first half of 2010, represents an important move inYahoo ’s efforts to tap the popularity of social networking and underscores the growing clout of Facebook, which now counts more than 350 million worldwide users. Earlier this year,Yahoo allowed users to preview messages from their Facebook friends directly on the Yahoo homepage, as part of a broad revamping of the Yahoo front page. Wednesday’s announcement takes the integration between Yahoo and Facebook a step further, by automatically pushing activities performed on Yahoo sites, such as photos shared on Yahoo’s Flickr, into the Facebook news feed. Yahoo said it expects that the content that consumers share on Facebook will drive visitors back to Yahoo . Facebook Connect, which was introduced last year, provides a universal ID that lets people automatically log on to participating sites with their Facebook credentials. It also allows people to notify their Facebook friends about their activities on third-party Web sites. Yahoo’s move comes as the company seeks to revive its growth under the leadership of CEO Carol Bartz, who took the reins in January and announced a controversial deal to hand off the operation of its Internet search technology to Microsoft Corp in July.

In a rare open letter, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced a series of privacy changes, starting with the removal of regional networks.

Since its inception, Facebook has been based on networks. First, it was your college and university, then it was your city or region, and now it’s a combination of those, plus companies and institutions. However, Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook will be removing regional networks in the next few weeks, but will ask all users to review their privacy settings before the change occurs.

Zuckerberg states in his letter that Facebook has concluded that regional networks are “no longer the best way for you to control your privacy.” However, we’re still unclear as to whether this only refers to locations (i.e. San Francisco) or also refers to colleges and universities. We’ve asked Facebook to clarify.

Facebook has been unloading a wave of new privacy features. In fact, the social networking service has already started removing regional networks several months ago. But now those changes will affect privacy settings, and it seems that Zuckerberg and Co. want to be sure that nobody is taken by surprise. We know what happens when you take Facebook users by surprise.

Here’s the letter in its entirety,

Zuckerberg’s Open Letter to Facebook’s Users

“It has been a great year for making the world more open and connected. Thanks to your help, more than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook to share their lives online.

To make this possible, we have focused on giving you the tools you need to share and control your information. Starting with the very first version of Facebook five years ago, we’ve built tools that help you control what you share with which individuals and groups of people. Our work to improve privacy continues today.

Facebook’s current privacy model revolves around “networks” — communities for your school, your company or your region. This worked well when Facebook was mostly used by students, since it made sense that a student might want to share content with their fellow students.

Over time people also asked us to add networks for companies and regions as well. Today we even have networks for some entire countries, like India and China.

However, as Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members and we’ve concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy. Almost 50 percent of all Facebook users are members of regional networks, so this is an important issue for us. If we can build a better system, then more than 100 million people will have even more control of their information.

The plan we’ve come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.

We’re adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload. In addition, we’ll also be fulfilling a request made by many of you to make the privacy settings page simpler by combining some settings. If you want to read more about this, we began discussing this plan back in July.

Since this update will remove regional networks and create some new settings, in the next couple of weeks we’ll ask you to review and update your privacy settings. You’ll see a message that will explain the changes and take you to a page where you can update your settings. When you’re finished, we’ll show you a confirmation page so you can make sure you chose the right settings for you. As always, once you’re done you’ll still be able to change your settings whenever you want.

We’ve worked hard to build controls that we think will be better for you, but we also understand that everyone’s needs are different. We’ll suggest settings for you based on your current level of privacy, but the best way for you to find the right settings is to read through all your options and customize them for yourself. I encourage you to do this and consider who you’re sharing with online.

Thanks for being a part of making Facebook what it is today, and for helping to make the world more open and connected.”

Mark Zuckerberg

With more than 350 million users, Facebook is winning the social networking race by a landslide. But another area they’re winning big (in large part due to that growth) is in portable identity, where their Facebook Connect platform competes with offerings from Google, Twitter and MySpace.

Today, Facebook is getting a massive new partner for Connect: Yahoo. The #2 search engine, which is also one of the world’s most visited Web sites, announced that it will be rolling out Facebook Connect on numerous Yahoo properties that in the aggregate represent tens of millions of users worldwide.

Yahoo says that Connect will be integrated on its Mail, News, Sports, and Finance sites, as well as Flickr, allowing users to do things like leave comments, share news stories, and view friends’ feeds by using their Facebook account on Yahoo. Like any Connect-powered service, Yahoo benefits by that activity being shared back on the Facebook news feed, which in turn drives traffic to Yahoo.

This is a no-brainer for Yahoo, who has been trying for years to make its services more social on its own. Now, they’ll start to see some of the benefits that smaller publishers have seen from Facebook Connect (more comments, extra traffic from Facebook, etc.) on a massive scale. The new features are expected to launch next year.

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.

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.