Daily Bits

Facebook Had a Better Christmas than Google

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For the first time in its history, Facebook has become the most visited website in the United States on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. According to Experian Hitwise via a Twitter post, Facebook which was number two most visited website on the same day last year has dislodged Google which was now at the no. 2 spot.

Of course this is not surprising since Facebook users have probably used the site to communicate with their family and friends through the site, exchanging Holiday greetings and sharing photos of their celebration. And this might seem that email has become a thing of the past during this time of the year.

Interestingly, all through out 2009, Facebook has been running third behind Google and Yahoo! Mail despite being the most popular search query from all major search engines, as noted by Hitwise.

That’s worth noting. HitWise reported last year that Facebook was number two behind Google on Christmas. People say that Facebook vs. Google will be the Web’s biggest battle in coming years – but it looks like Facebook has already won the battle for Christmas.

Another interesting point to mention is the fact that the surge of site visits on Facebook happened amidst controversial privacy issues hurled at Facebook this year. Either users no longer mind these issues or they just couldn’t find a better and faster way to communicate with their friends and family during the Holiday Season.

With 2010 just a few days away, it would be interesting to see whether Facebook can sustain this trend and how Google will possibly react.

LinkedIn iPhone App Updated to Look More Like Facebook

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LinkedIn couldn’t wait until the new year before launching new features of its iPhone app. So, before we all bid 2009 goodbye, here are some new features and enhancements of the LinkedIn iPhone app.

First thing you’ll notice of course is the new home screen interface with the most common and important features of the LinkedIn app on top of the home screen – All Updates, Status, Profiles and Discussions. These options are arranged in a 4 by 3 square similar to the layout of Facebook app’s main screen.

Next improvement is a completely revamped search interface that display search results faster than you can imagine. Likewise, the profile screens were also improved with summary of details about the LinkedIn member, review of their education and experience, list of people you both know in common and the ability to mark that person as a favorite. This Favorite feature would be most useful if you want a quick look on some of the most important people you’ve searched on LinkedIn.

And then the LinkedIn app also makes it easier to check updates  through four new modules – all updates, status udpates, profile updates and discussions. The app even allows you to filter updates based on your favorited connections. You can make comments on the updates as well.

Other new features of the LinkedIn iPhone app include – more powerful inbox and Address Book Integration and a cool feature that lets you find and connect with LinkedIn members real-time in person through Bluetooth. Provided of course that the LinkedIn member is using the iPhone app also.

Alright folks, here’s the LinkedIn iPhone app download link.

Facebook Preps Up Help Center for 2010’s Surge in Userbase

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As early as now, Facebook is already gearing up for possibly a surge in membership base come 2010.  And first from Facebook’s list of feature improvement is something that we may have never checked at all in our entire Facebook life – the Facebook Help Center.

Yes dear readers, there is such a thing. If you’re aware of this Facebook section, let me ask, when was the last time you’ve read it? Or did you read it at all before you begin your Facebook life?

If you haven’t check it out before, now is probably the best time to do so, as Facebook recently made some changes to the Help Center to make it more – helpful especially for Facebook newbies.

Some of these improvements include, a new search interface, navigation filters on the left side, separate user-to-user support, new privacy and safety pages, separate user-to-user support navigation and unique web addresses or URLs.

The Facebook Help Center is loaded with useful information about making your lives better, easier and more fun as you become part of the Facebook community. So, there’ s no harm in actually visiting it from time to time.  What? You don’t know how to access it? Just hover your mouse cursor on the Settings tab and select “Help” from the pull-down options. Better yet, just click on this link to visit the Facebook Help Center.

Cool Weather App for Star Wars Fans

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There are many great weather apps out there but nothing comes close to the coolness factor of Tom Scott’s weather app which was made for Star Wars fan. You see, apart from telling you the weather in a particular place which you enter on the site’s search box, the site also gives you different backgrounds and commentaries mentioning the different locations in the Star Wars universe.

So depending on which city you’re from, you will get weather commentaries such as:

“Oh, 9C Fair. It’s like Naboo out there. Temperate, dry and fairly pleasant.”

“Hmm, 9C, Partly Cloudy?, It’s like Endor out there. Temperate but grey and cloudy”

Well, of course aside from the commentaries, the weather report is actually pretty accurate because the site fetches weather data from Yahoo Weather.

And while you’re at it, you might want to check out Tom Scott’s other creation which includes – Two Drums and Cymbal Fall Off a Cliff, The Corruscant Juggling Club and more. They are pretty cool stuff and makes you think that this guy is really enjoying his work.

Who is Tom Scott? Here’s a short bio:

Tom Scott is a geek comedian. He won the 2008 Kevin Greening Award for Creativity at the Student Radio Awards, once got in trouble with the Cabinet Officefor his version of their Preparing for Emergencies site, and has been described as a”sometime internet funny man” by The Register.

He runs the British part of International Talk Like A Pirate Day, and accidentally got elected as president of his students’ union after running as “Mad Cap’n Tom”.

His work has been shown on BBC One, Channel 4, and at the paraflows net-art exhibition in Vienna.

He also once got five gold runs on ‘Blockbusters’.

So, go check out the the Star Wars Weather app and tell us, how’s the weather out there?

Via Download Squad

Adult Internet Users Spend 13 Hours Online Weekly

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Harris Poll has released some interesting numbers on the daily usage patterns of Internet users. The survey which was conducted through telephone interviews with respondents reveal that the number of hours spent online by adult Internet now totals to 13 hours on a weekly basis. The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive between July 7 and 12 and October 13 and 18.

It’s interesting to note that over the years, the average hours spent online by Internet users have increased consistently. From 1999 to 2002 it was only 7 hours. This increased to 8 to 9 hours in 2003-2005 then to 11 hours in 2007 before reaching  14 hours in 2008.

While this year’s 13 hours is less than the number of hours spent online in 2008, it is quite understandable since more people resort to going online due to the economic recession and the start of the U.S. election campaign. And now that the economy has gone back to its feet, Americans are gradually shifting from doing things online to going back to their daily chores in the offline world. [Read more…] about Adult Internet Users Spend 13 Hours Online Weekly

FarmVille, FML, Swine Flu Top Facebook’s Status Updates in 2009

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Following the tradition of year-end list, Facebook released its Memology: Top  which according to the Facebook blog is a study of how “memes” or new ideas and trends spread on Facebook, through member’s status updates and wall postings. Facebook mapped the top trending words and phrases in the U.S. Facebook members to come up with this 2009 list.

If you’ve been following similar annual trend list released by other websites including Google, Twitter and YouTube where the top trends are mostly entertainment and global affairs related, the top trends on Facebook clings more on personal topics. This is of course understandable since Facebook networks are more personalized.

Here’s Facebook’s explanation on how they came up with the list:

To generate the list, we started by looking at how many times each phrase with length from one-to-four words occurred in U.S. Facebook status updates, then we computed the rate at which each phrase occurred in 2009 compared to 2008. Using some data-mining methods detailed here, we analyzed important bursts in activity around words and series of words to find the key trends for the year. All personally identifiable information was removed from the status updates to conduct this analysis, and no one at Facebook read the individual status updates.

So, here goes Facebook’s Top 5 Status Trends of 2009:

1. Facebook Applications – specific words: Farmville, Farm Town, Social Living

2. FML – specific words: F_ _ k My Life

3. Swine Flu – specific words – Flu, Swine Flu, H1N1

4. Celebrity Deaths – specific words: Michael Jackson, Patrick Swayze, Billy Mays

5. Family – specific words: family, mom, dad, son, daughter, kids