AOL combines instant messaging with Facebook chat

Internet company AOL said Wednesday it will allow users of its AIM instant messaging service to chat with their friends who have Facebook accounts.

AOL said its new version of AIM is connected to the instant messaging feature to the Facebook site, which allows users to discuss the first chat with their friends who are connected to the social network.

When an AIM user download the new version and integrates with your Facebook profile, your contact list will include a list of Facebook friends that are online.

Not including those that connect via cell phones, AIM has about 17 million users, a figure much lower than the more than 400 million who use Facebook.

AOL last year launched a feature that allows users to view the latest update messages from friends on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Technical Failure erases data from 150 thousand users of Facebook

About 150 thousand users of Facebook, the most popular social networking Internet, they lost their account data, photos and contacts after lel website suffered technical problems last week that prevented access to these Internet services. The company has already ruled that the cause of the problem have been pirates.
According to the newspaper El Pais, the change of the home pages of the profiles caused technical problems that occurred around day 3 October, which prevented access to the Internet to their profiles on the website.
As reported by Cnet site, Facebook on Tuesday hoped that the situation is normalized for all users affected by the problems and lost some information in the process. The exact number of people affected was not defined, but could reach the 150 thousand Internet users, a small percentage compared to the 300 million social network members.In an official statement sent to users hit by the problems, the company apologizes for the inconvenience and the Internet warns that "some data may not be recovered" and recommended that they review their profiles. Facebook also admitted that some data can not be updated. The problem affected excluded or recently added photos and content, such as messages and profile updates, or additions sent in recent days.

Facebook knows if we are happy

Facebook has become indispensable for our social care and keep abreast of what happens in our circle of friends, but now aspires to much more: whether or not we are happy.
The popular social network has developed an index to measure the degree of happiness and ensures that it can determine on which days the Americans were when they were happier and more miserable.
The system is simple and uses the personal information that millions of users share every day with the rest of the world: Facebook has analyzed the words used by members of the network in its status bar and answers the question "What are you thinking ?.
"Cluster, these updates are indicative of how we feel collectively," he writes in a blog post on Facebook Adam Kramer, a psychology student at the University of Oregon and one of the leaders of the project.

So Facebook finds good days when words like "happy" or "great" abound in the status bar of the users of social network and negative ones in which many members use terms such as "dramatic" in the description of moods.The result is an indicator that, to paraphrase the GDP, Facebook called "Gross National Happiness" and demonstrates that, like most people, Americans tend to be happier in the holidays.
"Some of the happiest days included U.S. national holidays such as Thanksgiving Day, July 4 and Halloween or religious holidays like Christmas or Easter," says Kramer.
One exception was the November 5, 2008, the day after the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president, in which, according to the study, Facebook members were twice as happy as anyone on a Wednesday.
But there were other moments of very low morale. On Facebook more pessimistic since the survey began two years ago was on 22 January 2008, date of death of U.S. actor Heath Ledger and the collapse of Asian stock markets.He was followed on 25 June this year, when the world was startled by the news of the death of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, and Facebook status bar is filled with terms like "tragic," "sad" or "doubt .
The study is limited to users in the United States and to English, but Facebook has plans to expand into other languages and countries, says Kramer, who, according to the blog, is a 72 percent happier than the average user of social network .
Facebook has become an indispensable tool for millions of people around the world and many do not know and start the day without updating their status or check the news published by its contacts.
The pace of Facebook, which already has nearly 300 million users, is frantic: each user has an average of 120 friends and 20 million people update their status at least once a day.

Many companies even begin to be concerned about the business impact of excessive use of the network among its employees and has decided to impose limits.
According to a recent poll, 54 percent of all U.S. companies prohibit their employees to visit social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or MySpace during work hours.

"The use of social networking can distract attention from the employees of other higher priority tasks, so it is understandable that some companies restrict access," said Dave Willmer, director of Robert Half Technology, Study.
However, one in five employers can use for work, showing that Facebook is also used to do business ... or that some have managed to convince the boss.

Social networks, virtual relations

There are many users that use them, including political figures, the world of culture and entertainment. Its influence, both positive and negative-increases exponentially.
Some time ago that social networks became an environment where relationships, decreasing, or sometimes replacing the natural act of socializing as always done, not being required spatial or temporal coincidence between the participants.
This type of media encourage interaction among people around the world, allowing photo sharing, videos, comments and what is done at the time.He took off and face to face contact, and equipping of friendship in an impersonal way, virtual, artificial and, above all, comfortable to be born, grow and maintain.
These social networks that support digital emotions can turn a double-edged sword, offering advantages and disadvantages.
If this is successful, Facebook takes the cat to water, is the queen of all platforms of this style. The narrow framework of this network, has managed to catch over 250 million users in the vast sea of Internet, that number grows significantly each minute.

Its creator, Mark Zuckerberg, in 2004, while studying at Harvard University, launched this site, bounded on the environment of its faculty. Five years later, has become the favorite destination connection bands.
The truth is that studies say a Facebook user type account dedicated to its half 4 hours and 40 minutes, time that could have been personally with your contacts, having read 95 pages of a book or have made a dinner for all your friends.H owever, the creators of this revolution on the rise not believe that "prevent physical contact or personal" but "simply facilitate communication, as was already at the time of the chat, as defended Victor Domingo, president of the Spanish Association of Internet users.
Twitter, Hi5, Orkut, MySpace, Sonic, Friendster, Tuenti ... are other examples that share similarities and purpose with those previously named. Seek to gain the largest number of followers and have the widest possible support.There are many people who have an account on these sites, rare cases that do not have one, and increasing the number of youth discharged from different networks at once.
The influential people in society have realized that it is impossible to ignore this reality, and not only become part of it, but use it in pursuit of their interests.
Teen idols the Jonas Brothers as they maintain accounts on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, gaining popularity among the younger population and providing an opportunity for fans to interact with them.
Ashton Kutcher is entertained in his board hanging Twitter photos of his wife, Demi Moore, with a shaved head to blow in Photoshop, or leaving little declarations of love.The world of politics, in constant liaison with the electorate, could not be left behind. At what point in history could know what was the very President of the United States at any time ", now you can.
Barack Obama, president of one of the world's most powerful nations, is an asset "Twittered" and edits a page on Facebook.
Thanks to this we know that Mill Davis or John Coltrane are two of the authors whose music like Obama, his hobbies are "spending time with my daughters," or that the Bible is among his favorite books.However, not surprisingly, are subject to special arrangements for safety reasons.

"I think we'll see a huge increase in the use of social networks on the Internet by the government," said the director of Internet resources and Development Interagency White House, Bev Godwin.
In Spain, the PP (Partido Popular) created a page for its leader, Mariano Rajoy, tired of the proliferation of fake profiles to your identity.
The small-scale world built by Facebook - taken from its effects to other social networks-threatening, according to experts, academic performance, and can even cause emotional disorders."Abusing Facebook may affect the development of human emotions, and the compression or admiration," is one of the conclusions resulting in a report by the Institute of Brain and Creativity at the University of Southern California.
The study focuses on the emotional cost of the large number of inquiries posted on these supports.
The human mind is slow to process feelings of compassion and admiration, and when receiving a lot of negative information about our contacts, a kind of desensitization.
"We need a little time and reflection to process some types of thoughts, especially the moral decision-making on the physical and psychological status of others," said Mary Helen Immordirno-Yang, one of the authors of the report.

In another study conducted by Ohio University, found, after reviewing the academic performance of 200 students, that the misuse of Facebook had a negative impact on school performance.The experiment could not exclude other constraints, however Aryn Karpinski, responsible for the report, said that "no one can say that Facebook made to a student to study less or get worse grades, but is related in some way and have to look at this problem more thoroughly. "
Not just here the stones in the path of these networks. Privacy and data policy have aroused great debate.The photos are uploaded, casually, can be viewed by our contacts as well as personal data such as telephone, email address, age, preferences ... this type of information is a delicious delicacy, highly demanded by companies that rely on it its marketing and sales.
Earlier this year, the hare leaped on Facebook. The company amended the terms of privacy, which are accepted to create an account, and in which almost never be repaired.
For changes, Facebook had all rights to the material published on its website, even after being discharged.
This was denounced by the American blog "Costumerist", provoking protests from many users. Facebook recapped and returned to their previous terms of use, but leaves a big question about the risks of social networks.Remain trapped for millions of people around the world, accompanied by theories such as the six degrees of separation - argues that each person is connected to another stranger for no more than seven intermediaries, these media are used to connect with friends, create new relationships with strangers or know what the neighbor.
The discussion of whether they are destroying traditional patterns, or not, remains open, as new media emerge and expand existing uncontrollably.

Facebook deletes fake profiles used by criminals

Safety features of the website Facebook are working to remove some fake profiles that would be used for fraud against the social network users. The crime involves the theft of user passwords and use their profiles to borrow money from friends of the victim.
According to The Guardian, the site was seriously challenged in recent weeks. Called "419 Fraud", the number of people affected would still be uncertain. Even the FBI sent an alert message to loa social network users on thousands of crimes which occurred recently in the website profiles.
In a statement posted on the official blog of the social network, Alok Menghrajani, the Facebook software engineer warned users about the crime and stated that safety equipment registered an increase in the number of occurrences of fraud. "While total number of people affected is small, we take seriously any threat to security and we are redoubling our efforts to combat fraud, "wrote Menghrajani.

In this scam in particular, the login information of individuals are stolen through phishing and then their accounts are visited without permission to borrow money for the friends of the victim. The criminal visit Facebook as if he were the owner of the account and talk with friends through chat or message explaining generally that is lost in another country and need money. He then directed the victim's friends to send money through money transfer companies like Western Union.
Facebook has prepared a special page safety alert, which provides hints and tips to prevent your users from becoming victims of virtual criminals anywhere. The social network also asks people to report any unusual or suspicious activity in their accounts.
"We improved our systems to better deal with this type of fraud and we are striving to make sure that we will get respond to these scams as they change," wrote Menghrajani. "Meanwhile, our security team is working with suppliers of e-mails and other specialists to identify criminals.

Some of the links contains fake accounts, which, if given by unsuspecting users click, they can get viruses on computers, leaving them vulnerable to the actions of hackers, says the Guardian.

The Swiss government officials to block making access to Facebook

At work, you have to work. That's what I thought the Swiss government, which has announced that its officials blocked access to Facebook from next week. Of the seven ministries that form the administration, only Foreign currently not block access to social network.

"The employee who needs access to the social network for professional reasons may request an exemption," the federal government in a statement.

The blockages from social networks in the workplace have not been increasing in recent weeks. Zurich and took this step, and yesterday's second largest city in Indonesia was announced that would follow the same path.

"In early 2009, the investigations made by the Federal Office of Information and Telecommunications showed that Facebook was the second most visited site within the federal administration," said the Swiss government.

In May this year and asked the officials to "exercise restraint in the private use of the Internet, especially Facebook. Then the private use of the Internet during working hours "decreased slightly" but "in most ministries, the amount of data transferred through the social network continued to grow."

Facebook friends will tag status reviews

Soon Facebook will let users "tag" their friends in the comments to publish status, similar to how they can do with the photographs.

The product manager Andrew Huang said the state labels that appear within a few weeks are about "commitment." He said that Facebook wants to let users place a reference to his contacts in the real world of state publications.

For example, if an update of the state, a user mentions that she is having lunch with a friend, you can tag in publishing the name of that friend. That will make it easier for someone to draw all state publications mentioning that particular friend, no matter who has been posted.

It's similar to how someone can now easily take pictures of a friend, regardless of the user who has taken and shared. People may also make references to brands and businesses that have pages on Facebook, as well as events, groups and applications.

To use the new attribute, users should put the "at" sign in their publications. This will activate a menu that is displayed down the input line, from which users can select friends to whom they refer. The symbol for "at" will not appear in the commentary itself, only a link will appear with the name of the person.

Buy your friends in facebook

Who says you can not buy friends? An Australian company is selling online marketing friends and admirers to Facebook members after offering a similar service to Twitter users.

"Women are swindled on Facebook for U.S. $ 4,000.
The company advertising, marketing and promotions uSocial (usocial.net) said that targets social networking sites because of their huge advertising potential.

"Facebook is an extremely effective marketing tool," Leon said in a statement Hill, chief executive of uSocial.
"The simple fact is that with a great track on Facebook, you have an instant target group of people with whom you can connect and promote whatever you're promoting," he added.

"The only problem is that it can be extremely difficult to get this up and this is where we" he said. The company offers packages for Facebook, the Internet social network in the world, beginning in 1000 friends and reaches 10,000, at a price of between 177 and $ 1167.

"Everything we do is send them a welcome message or a friend request of the customer. If you decide to go ahead and add this person as friend or fan will, if not, then no," Hill told Australian media.

Facebook is now the fourth most visited website in the world. However, uSocial packages are not without controversy.

According to Australian sites, Twitter tried to block uSocial accusing you of sending spam to its members, while the Los Angeles Times newspaper reported that Digg.com, a website where people vote for their favorite news sites or, also tried to shut it out selling votes.

Facebook gives a touch-mail to Ramadan

Congratulatory messages and tips on how to eat healthy when breaking the fast and invitations to donate money to the poor have invaded Facebook, a mass phenomenon in Egypt that gives the current Muslim holy month of Ramadan an electronic touch.
If you want to know the Egyptian television programs during Ramadan-a month in which dozens of soap opera-premieres you ask your friends in Facebook, and moments after receiving the response.
So do many Egyptians internet every day if they want to know the exact time of "iftar, the meal which breaks the fast of Ramadan, which must be maintained from dawn to sunset.
"My friends and I always use Facebook during Ramadan to exchange greetings and ask for the television programs this month. It is a way to communicate faster than calling," he told Efe Noha Mohamed, a Muslim girl.
Both Mohammed and many of his friends use Facebook even to read the Qur'an during the prayer of "tarawih, typical of Ramadan after the" iftar ".
For Mohamed, "nothing happens if you use Facebook in a reasonable manner, without losing time to be devoted to religion in this holy month."
As for Indy Awad, a Muslim girl who is unemployed, Facebook occupies a large area of your life.
"I'm addicted to Facebook and use it to ask Ramadan and inform my friends from concerts and television programs," Awad told Efe, after hanging on this social network a part of a comedy show during Ramadan.
This year it has become fashionable in Egypt to use Facebook to invite users to donate money to the poor and prepare meals for the less fortunate.
"I've got many invitations from Facebook charity groups and NGOs to help the poor during Ramadan," said Mohammed, whose image appears with the typical profile of Ramadan lantern.
Virtual groups as "Ramadan for us" and "Ramadan charity campaign" encouraging Internet users to offer a bag of food to a poor or build a table in the street to feed the less fortunate.
And it is customary to offer food to the poorest people in tents that are mounted on the streets and especially for Ramadan in Egypt are called the rahman mawaíd or tables of mercy.
In addition, the group of Ramadan charity campaign "coordinated its activities among its members to come together and cook together for needy families.
There is no shortage of new clothes this season and give it away to those who do not take the holiday "Eid el Fitr," which will be held at the end of the fasting month. All through Facebook.
Even some experts at the University of Al Azhar, the most prestigious Muslim institution in the Arab world, encourage people to use Facebook during Ramadan, which should be a time of recollection, although whenever a useful manner.
"Not at all to urge people to boycott Facebook during Ramadan," he told Efe Abdel Moti Bayumi, cleric of the Center for Islamic Studies at Al Azhar.
"Allah has placed in each of consciousness to distinguish between useful and other harmful use (of Facebook). It is the user who can say if you use it in a way that contradicts or morals of Islam and the spirit of Ramadan" added Bauymi.
Twitter, another social network unstoppable growth, has also served the faithful Muslims and Christians to exchange congratulatory messages such as "Ramadan Karim (generous)" and "Ramadan mubarak (blessed)".
Questions about how to lose weight during this time, rich in sweets, or what the tent or marquee nicest Ramadan abound on Twitter.
Some Twitter users have moved beyond the social use of the network and have dedicated themselves to encouraging others to deepen in Islam, providing a list of websites that can help them.
Whether Facebook or Twitter, Ramadan is also lived in the virtual world.