Facebook has released Timeline to the entire world, and now you can access some of its features from Facebook for Android 1.8.1 and the HTML5 mobile site m.facebook.com. You can scroll through Timeline posts, photos, and third-party app activity reports. Sometimes you can open the apps themselves. However you cannot change the privacy settings of your posts.
For the first time, the Facebook for Android mobile app has eclipsed the daily active user count of Facebook for iPhone. The Android app launched in September 2009 more than a year after the iPhone app. Both are developed by Facebook and the Android app this week started to pull away with 58.3 million DAU compared to the iPhone app’s 57.4 million, according to the AppData tracking service.
With the Android device base growing at 550,000 activations per day and Timeline now available for Android but not yet for iPhone, I expect this gap to widen.
Facebook for Android‘s monthly user count of 85.4 million still lags behind the iPhone app’s 99.1 million MAU. However, this stat isn’t as important as DAU, or stickiness — the percentage of monthly active users that return daily. Android’s stickiness is 68.2%, compaed to iPhone’s 57.9%. This could indicate that Android devices appeal to a younger, more Facebook-engaged audience, or to more hardcore technology users in general. The iPhone’s role as a fashion and status symbol may be drawing less engaged users.
Another explanation for the Android app taking the lead is that Facebook released an official iPad app in October which now has 5.5 million DAU. Though many users likely switched from using the unoptimized iPhone app on their iPad, some probably came from unofficial third-party apps.
Until Facebook for iPhone is updated to support Timeline, some of the app’s users some may stray to the HTML5 mobile site and slow the app’s growth. Meanwhile, Facebook for Android 1.8.1′s ability to access Timeline can help the app grow its lead. For reference, Facebook for BlackBerry has 29.9 million DAU, and Facebook for Windows Phone has 360,000 DAU according to AppData.
User counts of the Facebook apps matter because they can influence where Facebook devotes mobile development resources. For years, features were first released for the iPhone version, possibly because its higher user count made it more of a priority. If the Android app becomes significantly more popular, Timeline might be the first of many features it gets early. [Update: This could set an example for other companies to develop for Android first as well.] And that could sway people choosing what phone to buy.
This is a coming of age moment for Android.
Cityville, Zynga’s most popular Facebook game currently has 75 million monthly average users, however Facebook takes 30% of any money generated.
To increase its player levels and profit margins Zynga has introduced Zynga Direct, the new digital home for their games. This new game portal will live outside of Facebook and should help to reduce their dependency on Facebook for game sales.
Zynga games include Farmville and CityVille, CastleVille, Dream Zoo, and Zynga Bingo. The company also revealed Hidden Chronicles.
Here we go again
Today Facebook released “Instant Personalization”, a feature that allows granted Facebook partners to use your public information in your Facebook profile and use it to personalize their own pages. This would be websites like the Bing search engine, Pandora, and Yelp, that can use your name, picture, gender, and connections, to potentially personalize the results.
This is yet another breaking down of the Facebook privacy wall and what bothers me the most is that the change is enabled by default. Many will probably never know the change occurred.
Here’s an interesting overview of how privacy has changed at Facebook over time with the Electronic Frontier Foundation timeline.
Bottom line is, know what information of yours Facebook deems as “public”.
If you haven’t already done so, you should review what information of yours is determined to be public at Facebook and clean it up accordingly. (more…)
I look back over my last few posts and I see they are all about Facebook. It’s surprising really, since I’m not a big Facebook fan. However, Facebook is shaping our future and this last couple paragraphs in this article on The Guardian I think is pretty accurate of where we’re headed;
“If you “like” on a third-party site, why not “like and buy”, with Facebook, which already has your name and contact information?”
Here’s Facebook’s Blog post about Deals. Deals is Facebooks answer to Foresquare and Groupon and it offers a free way that businesses, even small businesses can entice and/or reward their customers or tribe. With Deals and your smartphone (using touch.facebook.com or Facebook for iPhone) you can now search for a local business and see what deals the business may be offering. Business with Deals will show a yellow icon beside their name.
The deals could be anything and the service is available to businesses of any size. If you are a small business owner you can check out the details at http://www.facebook.com/deals/.
As business start to use this I’m sure they will find intriguing and new ways to take advantage of this service. Facebook wants to be your one-stop-shop and this is another push in that direction.
What’s your thoughts on this?
Facebook now offers the ability to browse their site using HTTPS, which will help to eliminate hacker problems with the likes of Firesheep and others.
Be aware though that this feature is not turned on by default, you must go you your Account Security section of your profile and click on Secure Browsing (https) to activate it.
This is a good Facebook security update, especially if you are a road warrior and/or spend time browsing Facebook in coffee shops and other public places.
