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We Are Now Posting 50 Million Tweets Daily

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Funny how a short post on the Twitter blog could spark an online discussion that even led to the long-standing Twitter vs. Facebook war.  Yesterday, a post on the Twitter blog announced that we, Twitter users are now sending 50 million tweets into the Twitter-sphere everyday. Now, how’s that for another issues that says Twitter is not growing?

But anyway, yes Twitter has just grown to 50 million tweets a day. Up from 5,000 times a day in 2007, 300,000 in 2008 and 2.5 million in 2009. Right now, it’s at a 50 million per day or 600 tweets per second. If you won’t call that exponential growth, I have no idea what else you can call this phenomenon.

And that doesn’t include spammy tweets. Twitter has removed tweets from accounts that were identified as spam.

Now, the issue that were raised by some analyst is whether Facebook has all the reason to be afraid of Twitter’s growth. Facebook updates were last reported at 60 million per day.  That means that Twitter is fast catching up. But that is in terms of daily updates. When it comes to total number of users and even monthly page views – Twitter is still far inferior to Facebook.

I really think that there is no point of comparison here and we should all try to pause for awhile and rethink how we view Twitter vis-a-vis Facebook. I’m more inclined to think that Twitter compliments Facebook. Facebook is more of a social networking site while Twitter is more of a real-time online communication tool.

But then, who am I to change this predominant mindset, anyway?

Facebook Allows PayPal Payment for Ads, Virtual Goods

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If there’s one important point that you can get from this news, it’s got to be the fact that Facebook wants you to advertise on the social network. And to make it easy for you to do that, Facebook is now accepting payments through PayPal.

With PayPal activated as a form of payment, you can now run your ad campaigns and get wide visibility through the this planet’s most famous and widely used social networking site. Like what the Facebook PR said, the site reaches 400 million people, 70% of whom live outside the United States. Can you imagine how huge your the audience for your ad campaigns would be?

If you’re running a small business which caters to exporting and importing, here’s your chance to expand your market.

In addition to accepting PayPal payments for ads, Facebook is also doing the same as a payment option for Facebook credits that ca be used for games and apps as well as for buying items from the Facebook Gift Shop.

“We want to give the people who use Facebook, as well as advertisers and developers, a fast and trusted way to pay across our service,” said Dan Levy, director of payment operations, Facebook.

And PayPal’s VP of Platform and Emerging Technology  sums up what this development is all about:

“Put simply, PayPal’s business is payments. We make it easier for customers to send and receive money online in 24 currencies and 190 markets around the world,” said Osama Bedier.

So, if you don’t have a PayPal account yet, now maybe the right time to create one and proceed with your advertising plan on Facebook.

YouTube Still King of Online Video, But Facebook is Growing Fast

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NielsenWire has just published their latest online video metrics report and as expected like it has been the past couple of years, YouTube is still the most visited online video site. But what’s interesting to note from Nielsen’s stats is how fast Facebook is growing as an online video channel.

First,  some facts and details. According to the NielsenWire’s report, the number of unique viewers of online video increased y 5.2% year-over-year, from 137.4 million unique viewers in January 2009 to 142.7 million the same month this year. And the fastest growing online video sites include the likes of Disney Online with 23.3% growth, MSN/WindowsLive/Bing with 15.6% and of course Facebook with 18.6% growth during the said period.

YouTube on the other hand managed to posed only a 6.7% growth but it still remains at the top of the list with a commanding 112.6 million unique viewers.

Now, as I said, it’s quite interesting to note how fast Facebook is growing as a video channel. It only goes to show that more Facebook users are sharing online video as well as watching them online via Facebook. What is ironic about this is that most of those videos were actually embedded from the YouTube site.

Perhaps, Google has not yet noticed this trend especially since YouTube continues to be the number 1 online video site. But at the rate that Facebook is growing, it might just be a matter of time before it catches up with YouTube. Unless of course Google does something to prevent this from happening. Hopefully Google won’t do something drastic in the future.

Facebook Teams Up with McAFee to Offer Free Security Software

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Facebook just announced that it has signed-up a year-long deal with McAfee to offer free download of its security software. That’s putting McAfee’s software available for download to 350 million people, although not all of them might be PC users.

The deal would allow Facebook members to download and use the security software for a free six-month subscription after which those who opt to continue using it can renew the subscription at a discounted cost. Again, thanks to Facebook’s deal.

And the reason why Facebook is doing this? To help its members protect themselves against security threats that could otherwise hamper them from using their computers which might include accessing Facebook.

It’s a nobel effort from Facebook. Although we could not discount the fact that it’s also a marketing ploy for McAfee and Facebook. Either way, there’s no harm in getting the free security software even if you can use it only for six months.

And in case you’re computer is already compromised even before you got the McAfee software, Facebook will detect it once you try accessing its site. It will then ask you to go through several processes which include running the McAfee virus scan procedure. Again, another one-of-a-kind service from the world’s no.1 social networking site.

To get the free McAfee security software, simply head over to the Protect Your PC tab on the McAfee Page on Facebook.

Facebook Discourages Members from Visiting the Site Just to Reply to Comments

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If you’re the no.1 social networking site worldwide, with all the monthly numbers practically going into you, you can practically do anything without fear of losing your grip. I’m alluding to Facebook here, which just announced something that’s getting into me in a different way.

According to the Facebook Blog,  members who opted to receive email notifications whenever comments are made on the posts they created on Facebook can now reply to those comments directly from the notification email. The reply will then be automatically posted on the specific thread where the comments were made. So, this means that you can opt not to go to the Facebook site just to reply to comment.

Now, while this maybe a useful feature especially for users, I don’t really think that Facebook is encouraging site eyeballs on the Facebook site. Or perhaps this Facebook’s way of helping users who can’t access Facebook at work to at least stay active on Facebook even when they are in the office?

Anyway, the reply-to-comment feature works for email notifications regarding comments on status updates, photos, videos and wall posts. It basically allows you to stay informed about your Facebook friends’ activities even if you don’t log-in to Facebook

And in case you’re not receiving any email notifications or you have not activated this feature yet, now may be the right time to do so. Just go to your Facebook account settings and enable email notifications from the Notifications tab.

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.