Google Analytics, the super dominant free web analytics platform, has to date offered analytics that were roughly 24 hours behind. The wait to stop waiting has come to an end and today the company announced that Google Analytics is now rolling out real-time reporting to its users.
via Google Analytics Finally Goes Real Time (Plus New Premium Accounts).
Sure, it’s easy to say you’ll quit Facebook. Even without the most recent changes, its sheer size and near-ubiquity is enough to make the more paranoid amongst us want to opt-out. After all, the world existed for billions of years before Facebook; certainly life would continue to be just fine without it.
This is true. Still, quitting Facebook is much more difficult than it sounds. After all, what happens when someone sends you a link to a photo, video or conversation, but requires a Facebook login to see? Facebook is unique in its broad social reach. Unlike earlier social networks like LiveJournal, Friendster or MySpace, Facebook isn’t just for younger users. Despite getting its start on college campuses, Facebook is now just as popular amongst adolescents as it is with Baby Boomers.
That broad social reach means cutting the service out of your life is easier said than done. Sure, it’s fun to say “I’ll delete my account and never log in again,” but as soon my cousin posts photos of her new baby and makes those photos only visible on Facebook… well, that kind of kills my resolve.
Google Plus’ big killer feature from the start has been that it lets users organize their friends and acquaintances into Circles to control what is shared, and with whom. But creating all these curated groups seemed a little like a half baked feature seeing as you couldn’t let anyone else in on that perfectly organized group. Well, now you can. Google is rolling out the ability to share circles on Google+.
To share a Circle, just click on the Circle in question and choose Share. This will pull up the familiar composition field where you can choose who to share it with.
ZipShare is an application from WinZip that quickly and easily allows users to share up to 100 megabytes worth of data on Facebook, either to their groups or on their Wall. The app brings you through Facebook Connect, asks you to upload your files and where you want to post them (group or Wall). The app then converts this data into a zip file and publishes a download link.
via ZipShare Allows for Sharing of 100MB Worth of Files to Your Facebook Wall, Groups.
Companies that must grapple with whether to maintain their Facebook pages in-house or outsource them to firms – thus adding another line item to their budgets – are finding the decision harder to make.For while Facebook is indeed enhancing its own features for DIY users, third-party providers are also beefing up their own offering. The latest example of the former is new functionality Facebook appears to be testing that gives page administrators “per post” data.
via DIY Facebook Page Management: The Choice Gets Harder – MarketingVOX.
The applications that grew the most on our emerging list by monthly active users this week included some love quizzes, the German Phrases app, a few Page tab apps, video, greeting cards and more. The apps on our list grew from between 147,600 and 613,900 MAU, based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook. We define “emerging” applications as those that ended with between 100,000 and 1 million MAU in the past week.
via Love, Phrases, Page Tabs, Videos, Cards and More on This Week’s Top 20 Emerging Facebook Apps by MAU.
Users part of the initial roll out of the news feed redesign announced yesterday are also receiving several other unannounced changes to Facebook’s interface. These include an expansion of the character limit on posts from 500 to 5,000, a rollout of the floating navigation bar we saw tested last week, the ability to edit bookmarks in the home page’s left navigation bar, and a more convenient way to leave birthday greetings. Over the last few days Facebook has also buried the poke button within a drop down menu, and removed the ability to accompany a friend request with a message.
By launching these interface alterations now rather than amongst other sweeping updates at the f8 developer conference on Thursday, Facebook may be able to reduce the shock to users. The timing will also help the site keep attention focused on Platform-related updates that directly impact developers. Unfortunately, the combination of so many changes with the prompts necessary to explain them gives the home page a foreign look that may turn off some users.
Facebook has made two significant changes to how users interact with Pages. Now, users don’t need to have Liked a Page to be able to post on a Page’s wall or comment on its updates. This allows more users to join conversations, which could add more perspectives to discussions but also dilute them with unrelated comments, or drown them with complaints.
via Facebook Allows Users to Comment on Pages Without Liking Them, Adds Friend Activity Tab to Pages.
The company did some internal research and found that users, especially younger ones, were afraid to “Like” because of the implied endorsement. Less Liking, or sharing, means less interesting content on Facebook and fewer posts about what these users are doing.
Facebook’s bet is that more people will click a button that says they’ve “Listened” to a song or “Watched” a video, rather than simply liking it. That’s why Facebook will be rolling out “Watched,” “Listened” and “Read” buttons, as has been previously reported. But at Facebook’s f8 conference, the company will give developers the power to create their own actions.
If you are owner of one of these branded pages or if they fall in the area of your industry benchmark, take a look at this interesting distinction, which in easy numbers outlays the difference between these two social influencers.
via Do Top Facebook Brands Top Twitter as Well? – Socialbakers.