Business-Oriented Apps Climbing The Charts Becoming More Popular
Social Statistics, the application which lets you find social statistics about your friend is the most popular application on Facebook this week. It currently holds 875.401 users per month and has gained 536% in popularity. Xo Hearts Xo comes in second place with 985.666 and has gone up by 207%. This is a new trend where applications for fun or practical use pushes back games as the most popular thing for users to do on Facebook.

SmartFeeds Allows Users to Block Spam on Facebook
SmartFeed provides Facebook users with means to block spam from friends, displayed in their news feed. The feature searches the news feed automatically and removes all spam like content. SmartFeed also groups your friends or family based on communications between them, creates a cloud with interesting topics being discussed within the groups and produces a cleaner custom feed for the user to enjoy.

Facebook Changes Photo Memories
The Facebook Photo Memories sidebar module will no longer display friends who a user was formally listed in a relationship with. Facebook has had a lot of complaints from user about the feature. The new photo memories feature displays photos of people you often interact with and should therefore filter out pictures of previous relationships, and not bother users anymore.

Large Number Of Parents Spy On Their Children On Facebook
According to a recent survey, 85% out of 1000 parents inquired, look at their children Facebook profiles at least once a week. 1 out of ten parents have accessed their children’s account secretly and two out of five parents have been given their children’s user name and password. According to the survey, most parents do feel that they should be given privileges over their children’s accounts and that Facebook should not display address/location, school, full name or phone number publicly.

No More Special Characters and Multiple Languages in Your Names Facebook Requests
Facebook asks users to stop using multiple languages or symbols like these: ♥, ☮, and Ⓥ, in their user-names. This request is made to increase authenticity on the network and to prevent spamming. Users will now get a “Please Update Your Name” prompt on Facebook and a reminder of new policies, if they use symbols or different languages. If name changes occur too often, users may be prevented from changing in the future.

Causes Raises $16 Million
The popular Facebook application Causes, has raised another $9 million by letting people donate to various charity organizations. It is now introducing gift cards enabling users to pay without the use of a credit card. The additional funding will be used to expand the developer team behind the application. Causes reach 119 million users and raises money by asking users for a 10% voluntary tip.

Facebook Does Not Give Up on China
Facebook is concentrating on the last four markets where it has not had the same success as in many western countries; China is one of those low-success countries. Facebook is currently blocked there but CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted that that the company is looking for ways of expanding to China, not this year perhaps but in the near future. South Korea, Japan, and Russia are the other countries where Facebook is looking to expand as well.

Facebook Launches Business Video Series
A new instructional video series for entrepreneurs wanting help driving traffic to their sites, increase engagement and gain valuable customer insights, is available on Facebook. The first episode discusses the creation of Pages and Like Buttons and could help businesses to be more comfortable around similar tools.

Top Five Gaining Facebook Pages
This week’s top five gaining Facebook pages places puts Facebook itself in the number one spot with 1.4 million Likes added and a total of 22 million fans. YouTube is at second place with 1.4 million Likers added and a total of 16 million fans. Eminem scores high with his third place of 17 million fans total, adding 1.3 million new ones and The Simpsons followed on 4th place with a total of 10 million fans, adding 1 million Likers. The artist Rihanna is on 5th place with a total of 11 million fans adding 1 million fans.

Facebook Presents New Drag-And-Drop Interface for Photos
Now Facebook users won’t need to go to “Edit Album Info” to rearrange their photos, or change the order in which albums appear. The new Drag-and-Drop feature allows users to reorder photos instantly, simply by dragging them into a desired location. Tagged photos cannot be moved however and the tag needs to be removed first in order for the feature to work.

Print Your Photos in Kodak Picture Kiosks
The possibility to print your photos stored on Facebook now exists in selected Target stores that holds Kodak Picture Kiosks. Every Kiosk enables the user to log in to Facebook and chose the pictures to be printed without having to pay extra for the service.

Facebook Rolls Out Several New Photo Features
“Photos of you and a friend” is a feature that shows you all the photos you and a specific friend is tagged in. Ajax-enabled wall posts lets the user post comments on another user’s wall without having to leave his or hers current page. There is also a Nintendo Wii interface and a iPhoto importer, which lets Mac users view a photo with comments from friends on Facebook. More details on the complete function regarding the iPhoto importer will be released soon.

Facebook Files Lawsuits Against Spammers
Facebook has filed three anti-spam lawsuits against companies tricking users into signing up for services that had recurring monthly charges. One includes a Canadian company providing mobile services. Another company, attracted users with free discounts if they completed a three-step process. Instead users would be transferred to a third-party offers site. Facebook has also filed law suits against applications that had requested users’ phone-numbers. “We hate spam and phishing just as much as you do, and we work hard to keep it off Facebook,” Facebook, Inc said in a statement.

Facebook Adapting to HTML 5
Facebook has posted a note concerning how the network might be implementing HTML 5 in the future. At the moment the fields of application range a new video player with high definition support, faster page viewing, changes to the chat function and different web storage methods.

QR Codes Can Make You “Like” Things In “The Real World”
The Facebook Like Feature is really popular all over the world and it is now spreading to the “real world”. Providing real objects a QR code it will soon be possible for people to like them in the real world, simply by scanning them with their mobile phone. The Like will then appear on Facebook for all your friends to see. This links the internet with the real world, and offers new means for companies to promote their products.

Facebook Connecting Likers By Releasing Admin Interface
To connect Likers and provide developers with means to contact anyone who had Liked their products on the web, Facebook now releases an administration interface. Communication and monitoring of the Likers will be easier. The interface is a Facebook page made visible to the owner of the website. Developers can now contact users directly in their news feed.

Facebook Like Buttons Begin Appearing In Online Banner Ads
Today Facebook and some of its advertisers are rolling out Like buttons in banner ads, as part of a test. When users click on the Like button within the ad your Like will be recorded on Facebook and in your friends news feed and on your wall. This enables Facebook social content to appear offline and in other contexts, something that hasn’t been possible before.

EchoSign Adds Facebook Authentication to E-Signatures
EchoSign now accepts Facebook log-ins as identity verification for its electronic signature technology. Facebook users can now sign documents and prove their identity electronically, simply by logging in to Facebook and in the end, eliminate the use for fax machines and couriers.

Facebook’s ‘Download Your Information’ Feature Experiences Memory Loss
Last month the Download Your Information Feature was launched on Facebook enabling users to download their complete record of information off the site. One problem however, the records will only include information from your Wall recorded after 2006, since that feature has been reconstructed several times since then. Facebook is currently evaluating on offering users more Wall information in the near future.

Social game developer Kabam today announced the acquisition of social game developer, WonderHill. The San Francisco-based WonderHill developed the strategy
social game Dragons of Atlantis and other games including the Facebook game Tattoo City and the MySpace title GreenSpot. Under the arrangement, WonderHill will officially become Kabam’s San Francisco studio, adding development personell, IP, and over 2 million monthly active players to Kabam’s growing portfolio. Kabam is best known for creating the breakout social game, Kingdoms of Camelot. WonderHill is Kabam’s first acquisition, and terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Ubisoft and CBS Consumer Products have launched an all-new social game based on the world’s most watched television drama – CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The game was developed by Area/Code, an independent game development studio founded in 2005 and based in New York. In CSI: Crime City the player is a CSI dropped in the middle of a teeming metropolis and is challenged to solve difficult murders to bring criminals to justice. Players can explore crime scenes, earn virtual currency and build their very own CSI Lab. They can play alongside their favorite characters while exploring cool Las Vegas locations such as casinos, nightclubs, hotel suites, the desert and the Las Vegas strip.

Developed with the cooperation of the writers of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Crime City includes storylines and cases tied to events on the television show and features tons of unique items, lab machines and forensic tools to collect and use. Players will be able to interact with their friends by exchanging messages, sharing information and working together to solve intriguing criminal cases.