Yesterday Facebook Launched Facebook Places.

I can already hear the worriers screaming about how terrible this is, because places is the ultimate stalkers tool.

But seriously.  Watch the video below.  When I did I thought of the millions of meetings that will take place serendipitously thanks to this new innovation.  I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.  I think places is a great thing.

This is not just a social innovation, but also a new way for businesses to reach out to customers in the immediate area.  Already foursquare facilitates special offers for it’s users with deals such as free lattes for foursquare mayors of certain Starbucks locations.

Once everyone has places, imagine how interaction will change.  The world will have another means become more social.  I think that this is the kind of “openness” that Mark Zuckerberg is talking about.  The kind that improves lives.

You might think that facebook places serves stalkers, but it is my position that this small risk is far outweighed by the immense value in the serendipity places will supply.

Here are some links about the new Places feature of facebook:

emarketer.com: The Advertising Opportunity in Facebook Places

mashable.com: A field guide to Facebook Places

techcrunch.com: The Facebook Effect: Foursquare Had Its Most Signups on the Launch Day of Places

Let me know what you think of facebook places in the comments below…

Yahoo has created a tool that makes it so that you can download the emails of your facebook friends.  After doing this you can import those addresses into your address book, so that you can localize your contacts.

By: Garin Kilpatrick

Despite over 400,000,000 users on Facebook there has still been a lack of awesome information in one place about the very best Facebook tips and tricks.  Until now.

While writing this post I scoured the blogosphere, the firefox plugin directory, the userscripts database, and facebook itself for the very best tips and tricks.

Enjoy!

1. Create a Custom Username for your facebook Profile or Page

For example, the custom url of my personal profile is: http://www.facebook.com/garinkilpatrick/

You can customize the URLs of your own facebook profile and pages by surfing to: http://www.facebook.com/username/

2. Export your facebook Status Updates via RSS or Text Messages

If you go to facebook.com/notifications you will be able to choose how you would like to syndicate your status updates, as RSS or Text Messages.

3. Import your Tweets as status updates

With the Twitter app for Facebook. This app will import all tweets as status updates, which may alienate your fb friends with useless @replies if they do not have twitter.

4. Schedule your Status Updates on facebook and Twitter

Sendible.com is a site that allows you to import your contacts from a variety of address books, and schedule status updates to multiple networks.

Status updates supported by Sendible include: your Facebook Wall, Facebook Page, and other Social Media sites like Twitter and Linkedin.

5. Sync Photos of facebook Friends with Microsoft Outlook Contacts

OutSync is a free Windows application that syncs photos of your Facebook friends with matching contacts in Microsoft Outlook.

This application allows you to select which contacts are updated.

With this app you can update all contacts at once or just a few at a time.

6. Customize your facebook Page

With the Static FBML app by faceboook.

Using this app you can create a custom “welcome” tab for your facebook page, customize the sidebar of your wall, and more!

7. Export your facebook Events to your Google Calendar

Add your facebook events to currently logged in Google Calendar.

8. Download your facebook Albums from Friends, Events, and Groups

FacePAD is a plugin for Firefox. better known as the Facebook Photo Album Downloader will allow you to download your friends’ entire Facebook albums with a click of a button.

9. Flickr to Facebook

An unofficial Flickr to Facebook uploader (bookmarklet).

This app allows you to easily upload photos to Facebook from Flickr.

10. Upload photos to your facebook account with Picasa

The Google owned Picasa comes complete with an uploader app for Facebook.

This app also gives you the option of uploading the Picasa captions and resizing your photos before uploading them to facebook.

Add a simple button to Picasa that lets you upload your photos straight to Facebook! You can put photos in an existing album or create a new one.

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By: Garin Kilpatrick

Static FBML is an app that was developed by Facebook to give users some flexibility when it comes to customizing a facebook page.

In order to customize a Facebook page you will need to know some basic html.

To get started customizing your page begin at the Static FBML app page and click the “Add to page” button beside the page you want to customize.

For examples of the static FBML app in action check out the FacebookFlow facebook page. These examples include an “Invite your Friends” tab, newsletter sign up form, and a welcome tab.

See the screencast below for a video I created that will show you how to create a new static fbml app and specify it as a tab on your facebook page!

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February 24th – By: Craig Pen

Imagine life without the internet or the telephone. Imagine walking to the next town to deliver a message. Compared to days past, today’s far reaching and nearly instantaneous social networking technology is magic. With the new third party Facebook Chat Messenger integration, the new Facebook photo uploader and the new Facebook privacy settings, the magic keeps getting better.

Right: Chit Chat for Facebook makes it possible to use Facebook Chat from your desktop like you would another instant messenger network like Windows Live Messenger or Google Talk. The Facebook Instant Messenger supports conversation history, emoticons and sign in status alerts.

New Facebook Chat Messenger Integration

The Facebook Chat Messenger interface has been modified to stand out. It displays how many of your friends are online and lists some of their names. The text is small. The options are few. Facebook Chat Messenger requires an open browser window making it inconvenient when multitasking.

A stand alone application like Chit Chat for Facebook allows you to connect to the Facebook instant message network without dealing with the awkward facebook chat box within your browser. Chit Chat for Facebook can load and sign in automatically when Windows starts. It can log chats and alert you when friends sign in or out of Facebook. It even remembers its window size and hides away with a single click, simplifying multitasking. Chit Chat for Facebook will even let you leave a message on a friend’s wall. It is instantaneous message delivery, with no need to walk all the way to the next town.

Uploading photos to Facebook has never been easier or more convenient. The new uploading tool is easy to download and install. It may even look and feel familiar. It allows you to search your computer for the photos you want to share. You can select them by clicking on their thumbnail image and upload them to your profile. More file formats will be accepted to solve much complained about compatibility issues. The new uploader even allows the photo upload process to continue after you have left the Facebook website. This makes uploading last night’s party photos far less of a chore.

New Facebook Privacy Settings

Back before the internet and the telephone, life must have been very private. New technologies like Google Streetview and Facebook threaten traditional notions of privacy. Facebook used to allow any of the friends in your network indiscriminate access to everything in your profile. Facebook’s new privacy features are set up to be the best to date. To protect your privacy, Facebook now allows you to customize exactly who sees what. The new Facebook magic will ensure your boss, your spouse, and your parents see only what you want them to. You can specify who can have access to each individual piece of content. You can allow access to friends only, to friends and friends of friends only, to everyone, or to custom lists of friends. This will return a little more confidentiality to our modern privacy compromised, technological world.

Today it is nearly impossible to imagine life without the internet or the telephone. Tomorrow it may be impossible to imagine a Facebook without apps like Chit Chat, the new Facebook photo uploader, and the new Facebook privacy settings. Modern social networking breakthroughs are magic and the magic keeps getting better.


About the Author: Craig Pen is a freelance writer writing for a living in Niagara Falls, Ontario. When not out hiking and biking, he can usually be found camped out in front of his 106 inch projector screen writing away.

In just four short days an onion ring has been able to accumulate over 1,300,000 facebook fans.  The name of this newly viral facebook page is “Can this onion ring get more fans than Justin Bieber?”. Update: The day after this post was posted the fan page achieved it’s goal. Now this fan page cannot be found on Facebook so I am guessing that the publicist for Justin Bieber bought this group and had it shut down. The last time I saw this group it had over 2,000,000 fans, meaning it was also more popular then Miley Cyrus.

The case of this onion ring serves as an interesting example of how unique humor, when combined with a cause, can serve up a recepie for viral marketing success!