Beware of Fake Osama bin laden links on web!

I have been receiving posts on my facebook wall that says, “Checkout the photographs of dead Osama” or “Secret Video of Obama Killing”and other similar posts that are nothing but spam fake messages. Once clicked, it gets posted to all my friends’ wall too.

US govt. is yet to decide whether to release photographs of Osama’s body or photos of the D Day, there are plenty of fake photographs that ask you to click; irritatingly is nothing more than a viral chain of wall posts.

Not only facebook walls, since the U.S. led raid that killed bin Laden on Sunday, e-mail inboxes and other social-media sites have been flooded with bad links that, at best, are unwanted spam and, at worst, contain harmful computer viruses.

An e-mail claims to link to a photo of the terror leader holding a newspaper to prove he’s still alive. One e-mail, written in Spanish, uploads a Trojan horse virus when a photo link is clicked. And a phony Facebook page asks users to paste a script in their browsers which, in turn, spams their friends with the same link.

On Wednesday Facebook Security posted a message encouraging users to be careful when clicking questionable links and to use the site’s "Mark As Spam" links to report that content.

Now is probably a good time to take the Facebook security Quiz, if you have not already done so!

FBI also released warning to prevent from clicking on fraud links.

Ensure you take informed steps once you come across some fraud links irritating you with such content.

• Adjust privacy settings on your social-networking sites, like Facebook, to make it harder for friends or non-friends to post items to your wall.
• Do not agree to download new software in order to view a video. This can infect your computer.
• Read e-mails and social-media posts carefully. Malicious messages often contain poor grammar, misspellings and "nonstandard English."
• Report messages that claim to be from the FBI or other security agencies. Their names are often used to try to establish legitimacy.

Is Google in Trouble ?

Google has changed how we search the web and the company has been constantly innovating search. Apart from search it has come up with (or acquired) very successful products like – Gmail, Chrome Browser, Android, Google Docs, Orkut and many more.

Google’s hiring practices consist of bringing in top computer scientists from best schools like Stanford. The culture has been thriving and delivering great products so far.

The only area Google is lacking is ‘Social Networks’ (and everybody is talking about it right now on the web). Google’s attempts to get into mainstream ‘social’ have been largely unsuccessful with – Orkut, DodgeBall, Buzz, Wave etc. They are a company which keeps innovating and there is already ‘Google Me’ in the queue which supposedly could be the Facebook killer!

Why Google needs to worry about Facebook?

Facebook is really a cool social network but there are 100s of social networks around the globe. Why Facebook is the one that is so concerning google?

• Google runs on page-rank. A presumption that internet is a web of HTML links. Their search is built around this. The game is changing. Now, Internet is becoming more of a stream of updates from your friends than a web of pages. Now, It is a web of people!
• Google is great at technology, no doubts but what matters more is people. Facebook is closer to people than what Google is!
• There are alternative search engines and they work pretty well, if not great. So, there is no reason why people won’t be able to switch their search provider – All they are looking for is information.
• Facebook is hard to switch as all the friends are there, great apps, likes and interests and much more things that defines identity of a person.
• Facebook is a ‘Social Platform’ company and they have no shortcomings that can’t be met by partnering with platform developer like Zynga. Google doesn’t have this unique capability.
• The fact that google is doubling salary and letting them lead the teams for the engineers leaving to Facebook is alarming. This makes it evident that Facebook is the future of Internet in Google’s view and fear of it results into irrational decisions.
• Google doesn’t have a social context and approach. They are focused on search and the web is changing and so is the search.
• Partnership of Microsoft Bing with Facebook hurts Google in a big way. They couldn’t foresee this opportunity in the past. Now, Bing is grabbing search arising from Facebook and helping Bing grow their traffic. Google has no access to 500+ million users of Facebook as Bing sits right there!
• The biggest reason why Google needs to worry is time spent by users on Facebook is 3 times the time spent on Google. Following graph demonstrates the same. People giving more time to Facebook and making it more valuable proposition overall!

• Facebook is not just a website. They extend beyond it with Facebook Connect and brings ‘Social Web’ to any 3rd party service. In essence, They are making the whole web more open and social!
• People are generating a ton of content using Facebook and other social networks like twitter. Google has no or very limited control over this vast content. Thus making Google handicapped.

Why is Google not able to innovate in Social Web?

This is an interesting puzzle and here is how I look at it:

• Google has not given serious attention to ‘Social Web’ and they thought Facebook is just another social network and assumed that their growth will stop at certain point. But that has not happened and now they’ve been a threat to Google itself.
• Google’s products save time and are result oriented. The ‘Social Networks’ are about ‘wasting more time’ in a fun way. Google’s philosophy of making great and efficient products doesn’t go well with Social Products.
• Google has been focused on search and it is best at it. It is generating a ton of revenues for Google. So, Google was not concerned about making web more social.

Startup Guide: How and when to use Facebook Ads

Many a times I have seen web startups saying that Social media ads doesn’t work as effective as Google/Search based ads. We have tried and tested both Social Network ads and Search based ads, and have found that they both are equally efficient depending upon the need.

There are not many forums which actually guide startups how to use such networks to get a good value for their money. Let me give you some of my own examples which would help you in deciding when and how to use Facebook ads to get best results.

First and the foremost, the thing to understand is that Social network ads serve a completely different purpose as against search based ads. People click on search based ads in hope of finding something useful in relation to what they are searching. If they find relevant content they get hooked to the site!

But Facebook is a different platform and it is a place where people go to connect with friends and enjoy their time on various activities like ‘Playing Games’ and engaging over friends’ activities and other page updates. The problem is in making user notice your ad among so many other engaging activities which he/she is already doing on Facebook.

When we (iDubba team) used facebook ads for the first time to promote our special “Australian Open alerts/T-shit give away” feature we faced a bad response. Not in terms of ad not getting clicked but in terms of efficiency. Bounce rate was high and click through rate (CTR) very low.

But when we did the ad for our “IPL alerts/T-shirt giveaway” we got a great response with high CTR, low Avg. CPC and very low bounce rates. [Check the image]

So here are some tips:

When to use Facebook Ads:

1. Do not promote your usual website or stuff with Facebook ads. In other words don’t promote anything from a long term perspective.
2. Always use Facebook when you need to do a short promotion with referral/reward program.
3. If you want to promote your Facebook page related to your website, do use Facebook ads as they can get you some real good customers.
4. When you think that the keywords for a particular area of business are going to be costly, opt for Facebook as against Google.

How to use the Ads:

1. Make it Attractive

Biggest Challenge for any ad maker is to make the ads interesting enough, so that users get attracted even when they are busy doing their regular stuff.

2. Target only the right audience:

Don’t get lured when Facebook says ‘targeting 1 Million users’, instead carefully choose your target audience by searching for correct keywords. As you can see in the image our ad targeted only those people who were interested in Cricket/IPL.

3. Try it first and then put your money:

Start with amounts as small as 2dollars per day, and as you see traffic coming and CPC going down, increase the budget.

4. Keep a check:

If you think the ad is not performing as you expect it to. Pause it and edit it, try to tweak it till the time you get a satisfactory response.

Google Plus: Will Businesses & Brands adopt it?

Google Plus is going to be a hit! Forget the scramble for invites & initial euphoria – Just the fact that it keeps attracting people back to itself (thanks to that black bar) is a reason why Facebook’s & Twitter’s of the world have to start worrying!

I nearly spent better part of the entire day yesterday on it and I am still not done exploring it completely – After Google’s half baked and feeble attempts at Social Networking earlier, Google Plus is a refreshingly fresh & honest attempt at making people’s lives Social.

The biggest factor that Google Plus takes care of – Individual Privacy. It probably has simplest of privacy policies and user can control everything as to what is supposed to be public and what is not. Yes, initially users do have to spend time in creating circles (aka groups of people), but once you are done with that, it becomes far more easier.

Most of the serious users of Facebook & Twitter are already on Google Plus, or are waiting for Google to open up.

But what about brands? Will Google Plus be adopted by Businesses & Brands?

I would say, YES – but adoption may be slow!

Facebook, is a great place for businesses and so is Twitter – It really helps brands to interact and share with their fans & followers. Facebook’s Business & Community pages have made huge positive impact on Businesses world-wide. On the contrary, Google Plus currently looks like it has been purely  targeted at individuals (and it might change as it matures).

FB & Twitter are hit with businesses because self-promotion is an integral part of these platforms. Most of them look at these platforms as Marketing Channels (which they are). Brands brag about “no. of followers” they have and how big they are in Social Media.

Google Plus on the other hand does not have this “Fans” or “Followers” concept. Google Plus users don’t have to  follow a brand, business or a person. Users just have to add them to a circle and even if they do not add you to a circle you can still follow their public shares. Its not a compulsion!

So for a Google Plus user, he has a choice as to whether an update should go only to his “circles” or it can be made completely public – and I assume these will get into Google Index sooner rather than later.

Google Plus Adoption by Businesses / Brands

Google Plus adoption for Brands & Businesses might be slow initially, but over a period of time, it will surely catch on. It will be a place where Brands can put up their profiles, their “+ses” and it will be accessible to anyone and everyone without having to actually “follow” the brand.

Having said that, a lot will also depend on how open Google Plus makes itself to developer ecosystem. They need to release the APIs at the earliest to ensure that apps are build around it. And looking at how well Google has put up the Apps Marketplace, I am personally confident we will soon see a large developer ecosystem around Google Plus.

So, Brands & Businesses need to move fast and start making their presence felt on Google Plus. Some are already on it – MTV India is the first Indian Brand on Google plus !

Facebook is Passé. Pt. 2 – Here Comes the Mob(ile) and Those that Do no Evil!

I Say: Facebook is not a mobile network.

You Say: WTF!!? Call yourself a serious blogger – Facebook has 200 million mobile users – roughly 40% of its users access using mobile devices. Also Facebook’s launch of Zero – Facebook’s lite text-centric version – proves it’s serious about the mobile space.

But I am making a different point. A mobile social network to me is different from mobile access of a conventional social network.

The userbase, features, functionalities, and the value proposition are distinct from conventional social networks.

Let’s take a step back and examine fundamental differences in mobile vs. PC/Laptop usage behaviours:

1. Impulse

Mobiles work great for spur of the moment actions. It’s an always on, always with you device – the thought to action cycle is rapid and mostly uninterrupted, unless it’s your boss or significant other who is hollering at you!

2. Convenience

No BIOS sequence, no Windows is updating Registry files…  And shopping or making payments (soon in India) is a breeze compared to if you were doing it on a PC.

3. Synchronicity

A voice call by definition is synchronous; Text messages get uncannily answered way faster than an e-mail or a comment on someone’s Wall. The only time PC/Laptop users are really synchronous is when they are on Chat.

4. Form Factor/UI

Long a bugbear of mobile devices for more complex and immersive experiences, this is now no longer the case.  Especially, if you include an IPad or any tablet in your definition of a mobile device and it’s a whole new ball game!

Now let’s examine some applications and use cases of mobile networks:

• Chat: Before Facebook or Orkut came along wasn’t your default social network Chat – Gtalk/Yahoo/MSN? Those chats were synchronous. One of the most popular mobile networks isMig33 and QQ messenger trumps Facebook in China. Btw, Facebook chat sucks.
• Instant Polling: So it’s a Friday evening, a bunch of friends working in different places across town want to fix a watering hole to meet at. What are you going to do – voice conference people? Use Facebook’s polling option on your Wall and wait for people to indicate preference? Or push out a poll on everyone’s mobile screens and get instant feedback.
• Event-driven Social Networks: Following on from Pt.1 of the post, where I emphasized the fact that it’s not just friends = social networks, people also enter into certain temporary but high focus social networks.

Watch a match at a stadium with 50-60,000 people.  Attend a business conference with 3-  4,000 delegates. Marketers looking to get people to participate and engage at events are  going to want a real-time, always on social network and organizers of such event will value the deeper experience and engagement that participants will be involved in.

Augmented Reality gaming: Just as social games took off once they had the right platform with SNS, better mobile networks and mobile devices will power an augmented reality gaming revolution allowing people to combine real and virtual activities – at parks, zoos, festivals!

Mobile devices and the mobile internet will become the primary rather than secondary way for us to go social, and in a real time synchronous way – Facebook better watch out!

And now to the threat from Google!

Though momentum is currently with Zuckerberg and co., they need to carefully consider the following:

1. Google dwarfs Facebook in ad revenues. This is not Sex Therapy 101. Size Matters.Currently that is approx. $20 billion for Google vs. $2.5 billion for Facebook.

2. Google drives Android – the open source mobile OS. In the context of mobile devices and mobile networks that is a huge advantage. It’s also a revenue stream that will scale rapidly.

3. Google has a stake in Zynga. How many people would watch a TV channel if all their hit shows went off air. Facebook’s Achilles heel is that its top properties all come from the Zynga stable – a company where Google has made a hush-hush investment.

4. Facebook may be the social network but Google is my internet ecosystem. Browser – Chrome, Instant Messenger – Gtalk, Mobile Phone OS – Android ( and Chrome OS), Youtube, Blogger, Desktop Search etc. etc. – I just have more Google Friends in my computing ecosystem than Facebook.

Twitter Facebook bandwagon joined by Delhi Police – Will give you traffic Updates

Twitter & Facebook are getting mainstream – There is no doubt about that. Now, the latest to join these social networking bandwagon are Delhi Police. Residents of the capital city will now get updates about traffic situation on Twitter & Facebook.

Now, I must say they are both great initiatives – Twitter will be of great help when it comes to doing short updates regarding traffic snarls and accidents, while Facebook can serve as a place where the community has direct conversation with Traffic Authority.

The main reason for doing this is Commonwealth Games, however, if the popularity grows (which I am pretty confident of), this can probably serve as great foundation between Delhi Traffic Police and Delhi-ites.

Check out the latest Twitter timeline of Delhi Traffic Police.

Like on Twitter, Delhi Police have also opened a Facebook Account

Already the Twitter has attracted more than 650 followers , whereas Facebook community has already touched 3363 people. What is heartening to see is that on Facebook, Delhi Police are also answering citizen queries. Here is one such example (although quite funny – I am sure couple of beers should do nobody any harm….wtf)

 

While Twitter updates are only short messages on traffic situation, Facebook discussions are far more interesting. They are all primarily complaints, questions and suggestions.

I think all the other cities should take a cue from this – It will be of great help no doubt for ordinary citizens like you and me. It will surely serve as a public forum where senior officials can keep a tab on regularly.

Facebook’s Project Titan – Gmail killer or just some hype?

Facebook seems to be giving Google one blow after another. Just when you thought Google had the upper hand by banning Gmail users from importing their contacts on Facebook, Facebook comes up with a killer idea. It is planning on revamping its messaging system. Yes the same messaging system, which a few changes here and there aside has been mostly static since its inception.

Dubbed ‘Project Titan’, Facebook is coming up with a full scale webmail client like Yahoo Mail, Hotmail and Gmail for that matter. But then it has already crossed many landmarks such as being the top most social networking website in the world with over 500 million users and being the most visited website on the net. If it were a country today, it would be in the top 5 on the list in terms of population.

So then, why does Facebook need to come up with an email application?

• An average user has more than 130 friends on Facebook. This makes entry into email an interesting option as Facebook already knows the friends a user interacts with most of the time. This can be much better than the recently introduced Priority Inbox by Gmail in filtering messages

• Millions of people log onto Facebook via Facebook Connect and more than 80,000 third party applications. The fact that Facebook Mail is expected to have both POP and IMAP will make it all the more easier for people to login through third party sites

• Facebook has the best products like Facebook Photos, Facebook Events, Places etc. and the fact that this could be shared via Facebook Mail could make it a competitor for Gmail to watch out for. Microsoft is also working with Facebook to integrate the Office Web Apps with Facebook Mail to exchange and share documents.

• Facebook has more than 500 million users which is much more than the most popular webmail client currently – Hotmail with 400 million users. Though all the users may not use it, this definitely could prove to be a turning point in the history of email

Facebook Mail will give users an opportunity to have @facebook.com addresses. From social networking to search to now a webmail client, Facebook is showing Google that it has the ability to constantly innovate and come up with new products. The fact that Google had to recently raised the salaries of their employees by 10% to prevent them being poached speaks volumes of how much they are feeling the heat.

Think about it – Who will not want @facebook.com email IDs? There will be huge rush…there is no doubt about that !

There is a long time to go before Project Titan can be hailed as a Gmail killer. But one thing is clear, Facebook is ready to take on Google, HEAD ON!

Whats your take – Will Facebook Mail be Gmail Killer or not? On a side note, why no body is calling Facebook Mail as Yahoo mail killer or Hotmail Killer….Something to ponder on :)