Facebook launched Facebook Ads in November 2007 to give brands and businesses a way to create a presence on Facebook and interact with users. Starting next week, says a source with knowledge of the new product, those pages will be substantially redesigned.
Today there are countless pages (example) that highlight brands. These pages are free to set up, and the Facebook sales team then encourages those brands to buy Facebook ads that point back to the pages. The brands get users who become fans of the page and maybe leave a wall comment. Facebook gets ad dollars, and users never leave the Facebook site.
Those pages include standard Facebook features like a Wall for user comments, a News Feed showing changes and updates to the page, and places for photos and videos to be uploaded. Many advertisers also spend a great deal of money customize the page with applications and widgets showing off various products as well.
Look for a much more streamlined look to Facebook Pages next week though, with a multitab interface very similar to what Facebook launched to users in 2008. The default view will show the Wall (which may include negative comments unless they are routinely deleted). All the custom apps will be pushed to a second Boxes tab. The Pages will also likely mirror the look of normal user profiles, with an image in the top left corner, etc. → Read More
Pwn2Own, a sort of Gray Hat extravaganza, is going to be cracking browsers and phones for the third year in a row this March. It’ll go from the 18th to the 20th and thousands of dollars in prizes. Many will enter, few will pwn. → Read More
We fawned all over it when it was revealed, corrupted it with our pawing hands at CES, and marvelled at its recently-revealed big brothers. And now the X320 and X340 have specs and release dates.
More hinkfo after the bizump. → Read More
Although I don’t get the feeling that Ian Fleming would have been a big e-book fan (he was a paperback kind of guy), that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be awesome to have a 007-themed Sony Reader. Unfortunately the Reader itself is standard issue — but the cover for it is embossed leather, and the Reader comes with two free Bond books. → Read More
As the economy worsens and our wallets slim, an AirScape whole house fan sounds like a simple way to go green and save some money. While traditional whole house fans are noisy and power-hungry, the AirScape fans are ultra-quiet and energy-efficient. Payback on the AirScape is much faster than solar. Also, reducing electricity use means reducing CO2 emissions, so you’re reducing your carbon footprint while saving costs. → Read More
From blogs.adobe.com
Adobe AIR Marketplace is a central resource that allows developers to make their applications available to millions of potential users and makes it easy for consumers to find them.
Don’t pretend this hasn’t been on your minds, parents. You bought the kids Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, and the like, but are you making sure they’re getting the proper lessons they need from these games? The Onion presents a few valuable viewpoints on this subject. → Read More
You remember these guys, right?! Of course you do. I wrote about their TwistTogether lamp back in ’07. Anyway, now they have a TwistTogether shelving system that consists of two lamps and three shelves. It comes in candy or chocolate and retails for $110. This would make a really cool gift. Want one so bad now. → Read More
Sonim’s XP1 is supposed to be virtually indestructable, and although it’s put up with quite a lot of hammer blows, Sonim felt they could confidently state that the thing could take a 22-caliber bullet.
Well! What did they think was going to happen when they make a claim like that? → Read More
Yes, that’s Ghostface rapping in this, the first official trailer of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Like all good trailers, there’s minimal actual gameplay shown, but worry not! Rockstar has also launched the game’s official site today, and there’s more footage of actual, true-to-life gameplay for your to view. → Read More
JPG Magazine, the innovative photography magazine that was composed of user-submitted photographs and shut down last month, has been revived. The magazine’s assets have been acquired by a group of investors who will also continue to employ some of the magazine’s staff, we’ve confirmed with a source with knowledge of the deal.
JPG launched in late 2006 with the novel idea of cutting back on publishing costs by accepting user-submitted photos and relying partially on the community to edit the magazine. But despite reaching near-profitability, the periodical announced that it was shutting down on January 2nd when its parent company 8020 Media ran out of money. Within a few days it became clear that JPG might still have life, as a number of potential buyers including Smugmug entered talks, but until now the future of the magazine was in limbo. → Read More
The frequent criticisms of the Wii are, unfortunately, very apt today. The accusations of fluff games and kids games find their targets easily here, yet Nintendo seems optimistic as ever.
With the sole exception of Punch-Out (itself the subject of other criticisms – franchise milking), the highlights of the 2009 lineup are looking mighty unexciting.
Let’s see here… Personal Trainer: Walking. O be still my heart! → Read More
Tonight Ning will introduce new chat functionality, giving Ning network administrators the oft-requested ability to integrate a rich chat environment similar to the one launched on Facebook last April. Ning’s new chat system is Flash-based, presenting users with a persistent chat bar along the bottom of their screens as they browse through a Ning network. Users have the option of chatting through an interface at the bottom of their screen, or can ‘pop-out’ their chats into their own windows. While the interface will remain consistent across each network, users won’t be able to chat with members outside of the Ning network they’re currently browsing.
Ning originally introduced a more basic chat feature last summer, but that version uses either dedicated chat pages or sidebar iFrames, which means they aren’t always visible as users navigate through a network. But even the basic version has proven to be very successful – Ning’s chat traffic has skyrocketed, as seen in the Compete graph below pitting Ning’s IM domain against Meebo’s homepage. To be fair, the graph probably doesn’t take into account Meebo’s traffic that occurs offsite (like Meebo’s Community Chat product or its chat widgets), but it’s clear that Ning Chat is rapidly gaining traction. → Read More
Apparently if you work at LEGO, you get a miniaturized LEGO person of yourself with your contact info on the (your) back. When someone asks for your business card, you hand them the figure. That is, how you say, outstanding. Never mind the gigantic bulge of LEGO figures in everyone’s pockets and the incessant noise that must fill every hallway at LEGO headquarters when people walk around, it’s the principle of the idea that makes it so wonderful. → Read More
The successor to Acer’s popular and well-reviewed Aspire One netbook is appearing on the net today in the form of some hands-on photos and specs from German site NetbookNews.de. To be honest, the specs aren’t exactly inspiring, but it looks like they are simply polishing the previous Aspire One and not trying to make a whole new class here. → Read More
• PutPlace.com spotted that HP-Upline is getting out of the consumer backup business and closing down the Upline service. They are putting together a discount plan for HP-Upline users, but in the meantime you can use the invitation code “joe” to get started with a free plan for three months. Something to do with founder Joe Drumgoole perhaps… • Comedian David Mitchell is the newest signing for video startup ChannelFlip. David Mitchell’s Soapbox has been the most popular thing on iTunes for the past week, beating out Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross, Ricky Gervais. ChannelFlip served 10,000 video ads in October, 80,000 video ads in December and 500,000 video ads in February. Looks like something interesting in online video is going on then… • Predictions market Hubdub got 6 out of 6 right in their Oscar predictions. And managed to beat esteemed stats whiz Nate Silver who got a measily 4 out of 6. • Flirtomatic, the web and mobile social network, is now using Xtract’s Social Links solution, which analyses the social networking behaviours of members. • Small businesses are missing out on savings and collectively wasting £7billion a year according to Humyo, by relying on traditional server technology and remaining unaware of new technologies. Humyo reckons SMEs could save themselves around £1,200 per year if they were a little more savvy with their IT spending. • Price comparison site Twenga says it has had a 500% growth for 2008. Talk about a company positioned for the credit crunch. • Embedded content is now one of the key factors in determining which new mobile handset consumers choose, according to the results of a poll published by GetJar, the independent mobile app store. 69% of respondents said the content provided with a new phone is now more important to their purchase decision than price, design or even touch screen capability. In other words, plenty of phones do the job, but it’s applications and content which are starting to matter more. • The University of Oxford has been ranked as one of the top 10 university startup communities worldwide by YouNoodle, the online platform for the global entrepreneurial community. The data-driven leaderboard ranked the University of Oxford 6th overall based on data compiled from more than 10,000 startups. • Mobitsu is a new service-based platform which enables people to make money from their mobile phone by uploading media. Members of Mobitsu can → Read More
Motorcycle and ski enthusiasts, among others, have known about d3o’s polymer compound for years and it actually saved my brother’s limbs from a nasty motorcycle accident last year. I first saw this material in the summer of 2007 at Spyder’s SIA booth.
Well, the British Army has finally wised up and contracted d3o Labs to line their 20-year-old Mark 6A helmets with the shock-absorbing material. The contract is worth £100,000 to be exact. But the Ministry of Defense isn’t stopping at just helmets. They’re hoping that it can be applied to the rest of the infantry’s armor because we know how restrictive those body suits can be or so I’ve been told. → Read More
Tomorrow’s Cloud Computing Roundtable is sold out. But we have good news. For those of you who can’t join us in person, we will be live-streaming the event. Thank you to Sun Microsystems for sponsoring the roundtable stream (powered by ustream and camera work by FutureWorks.) Tune in on TechCrunchIT or Sun.com/cloud
TechCrunchIT editor Steve Gillmor and I will be grilling our panel of cloud-computing heavyweights about where we are with this technology and where we need to go. As Gillmor wrote in a post on TCIT:
Short term, cloud computing will slip in as a cost-saving rationale. Near term, the social clouds will expand across workgroups, across business domains, and finally cross-cloud. Then the Golden Age of the Cloud will occur, where applications and services only possible in that environment will guide the next wave of business architecture.
On Friday, the dialogue will be about when, not if. When did cloud computing begin? How far are we into the cycle? Is cloud computing a baby or an old man in diapers, and are we going backwards or forwards so fast that we can’t tell the difference? Or are we and cloud computing meeting in middle age, each ready for the other?
I am also happy to announce the startups who will be giving the main demos prior to the roundtable and the panel of judges who will be evaluating them. Here are the companies and what they will be showing off: → Read More
The first two EA Sports MotionPlus-compatible games for the Wii will be shipping on June 16th, according to a company press release. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Grand Slam Tennis will both make use of the super-precise MotionPlus add-on for the Wii-mote. → Read More
Scientists in the U.S. and Sweden have created a substitutional alloy using aluminum, cerium, a little theoretical math, and a whole lot of pushing. Normally, aluminum and cerium don’t play well together, because their atomic radii and electronegativity are too far apart. But just like Oscar and Felix were able to get along in their apartment, so too can these two elements combine when forced to do so. → Read More
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