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The Daily Grind: Are social media connections in MMOs useless?
I first started to notice it in Champions Online. Cryptic gave us the ability to broadcast our achievements in the game over Twitter: "CapnCrunch has reached level 10!" At the time, it felt like a silly idea that wouldn't catch on, but for some reason, it has. More and more we're seeing studios working hard to integrate popular social networks into their MMOs, and more and more I'm wondering... why? RIFT has been big on doing this, implementing the ability not only to set your account to automatically tweet achievements ("Hey guys, I jumped off a bridge and didn't die!") but also to post them in Facebook. The game also allows you to record video and take screenshots to post online, which seems to me to be more useful but still probably not as captivating to a potential personal audience as one might hope. So my question today concerns these social media connections in MMOs -- are they useless? Are they just a fad that few people use? Do the ones who do use them end up annoying their followers with a stream of spam messages? Or do people actually enjoy the ability to have their games tie in with their social networks and see how their friends are progressing? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Bing's 'friend effect' search tool uses Facebook 'Like' button to affect your results
If you'll recall, Google has been pushing social integration into its search algorithm quite aggressively for the past few months; lest we forget the versatile +1 button. Not to be out done by Team Google's spider-crawling and link-snatching ways, Microsoft has announced full-on Facebook integration for Bing. They're referring to it as, the "Friend Effect." So, what's the difference? While Google's approach aggregates its standard search results with shared content from the social networks you've manually linked to your account, Bing's approach relies upon the ol' Facebook "Like" button. Basically, Microsoft found that most people usually want opinions from friends and family before they make a decision on something. So by including friends' and families' Facebook-based Likes in the search results the company lets you know their input without ever having to ask. At the same time, Microsoft has added a universal like button to the Bing Toolbar that you can use to mark your approval on anything you find on the web, which in turn, can help out your friends' searches in a socially, antisocial kind of way. Bing uses "Collective IQ" of the internet hive-mind to optimize search results should your friends lack opinions about your interests. Bing's Friend Effect search integration is pretty interesting stuff, and it could definitely offer a compelling alternative to Google's social search approach if your Facebook "friends" can truly be classified as such. Check out the videos after the break if you want more detail, and be sure to let us know what team you're on in the comments below.
Many iPhone owners run apps before getting out of bed
When you wake up in the morning, bleary-eyed and still in bed, do you reach for your phone to check Facebook or read an email? If you answered yes, you are not alone. According to a survey conducted by telecommunications hardware manufacturer Ericsson, 35 percent of respondents grab their iPhone or Android phone and launch a mobile app before getting out of bed. Checking Facebook and other social networks is the most popular activity with 18 percent of people reading their news feed while still in the sack. This trend of early morning Facebook-ing may increase in the future as 20 percent of survey respondents expect to buy a new mobile phone in the near future. One with Facebook, we presume. [Via Computerworld]
RockMelt browser resurrects itself as iPhone app
Remember RockMelt? Neither do we, mostly, but the "social browser" -- which debuted for the Mac and PC late last year -- is back and more portable than ever. The minty fresh iPhone version plays nice with Facebook and Twitter, as well as a few other social-type things you're probably doing with your phone already. If you're a devoted user of the grown-up version, however, the networky app is probably worth a download for its ability to sync with its desktop counterpart. Peppily-soundtracked video after the break, a must-watch for those who believe in second chances. [Thanks, Mikey]
Facebook for iPhone can now change its news feed appearance instantly
The official Facebook client for the iPhone was updated recently and one salient change was an improved News feed. On the surface, the news feed changes appeared minimal, but behind the scenes Facebook re-worked the background mechanism that pulls in this status information. According to Inside Facebook, the iPhone client reportedly now pulls its News Feed information from Facebook's mobile website, m.facebook.com. This server-side mechanism lets the social network make changes to the News Feed without modifying a single line of code on the device. All changes can be made to the backend server and reflected on the iPhone instantly. This system lets Facebook update their app without pushing a new version through the App Store for approval and lets it respond to feature requests and complaints at a faster rate. Pretty cool, eh?
New York City marks April 16th as Foursquare Day, Mayor feeling good about his chances
16 is the product of squaring four, so naturally the date of April 16th is the most logical one to be called Foursquare Day. Just why such a celebration should exist is less obvious. As it turns out, a grassroots movement of Foursquare users built up steam around the idea of dedicating a day to the online check-in service, that concept then filtered through to Foursquare's founders who decided to go "100% in on this," and now, somewhat surprisingly, so has New York City Mayor (the elected one) Mike Bloomberg. As Mike sees it, Foursquare represents a fine example of NYC's startup-friendly environment, which is why he's giving it and its heretofore informal Foursquare Day celebration the official NYC seal of approval. He even went so far as to deliver a Mayoral Proclamation to the Foursquare offices, which you can see for yourself after the break.
Blame the 2010 elections for your parents being on Facebook, Twitter
Most of the so-called "young folks" would argue that Facebook lost its innocence the day that parents were invited to play along, but there's no question that politicians would disagree vehemently. A recent study published by the number crunchers at Pew Internet found that over half (54 percent, if we're being precise) of adults "used the internet for political purposes in the last cycle, far surpassing the 2006 midterm contest." A total of 58 percent hopped online for political news, while one in five (22 percent) used Twitter or a social networking site for "political purposes" in 2010. Taken as a whole, a staggering 73 percent of online adults took part in at least one of these activities in 2010, and judging by the power of these networks in the recent Middle Eastern / African uprisings, we get the impression that figures will only be rising in elections to come. Too bad you can't "Like" a politician to give them your vote -- haven't these polling places realized what century we're in?
inPulse Bluetooth smartwatch gets Facebook Places check-in app for Android (video)
Ever since Allerta released an SDK for its well-hyped inPulse smartwatch, it was only a matter of time before we start seeing more practical applications that take this Bluetooth peripheral beyond the BlackBerry ecosystem. For instance, the latest example comes from the inPulse's very own Lead Designer Eric Migicovsky, who happens to be a fan of Facebook Places and possibly an Android convert. Rather than having to pull out his Nexus One for every check-in, Migicovsky can now use his simple app on his inPulse to grab a list of nearby locations off the phone, and then check in with just a click of a button. Pretty neat, eh? For those interested, you can grab the project code off inPulse's website and get programming.
Google disables contact sync in Facebook for Android, but only Nexus S for now
You know that Android 2.3.3 update that's trickling out to Nexus S smartphones right now? Google's decided to take this opportunity to push its data portability agenda with regards to Android. Simply put, the feature of the Facebook for Android app to provide the social network's stored contact information to your Nexus S has been revoked from here on out, and as soon as you get the update all that contact information will disappear from your contacts app on your phone. We've spent a while chatting with a Google rep, and they explained that the company is actually just reinstating the official rules -- typically, apps have to use Android's contacts API, but Facebook was granted an exception which allowed its contacts to remain in the cloud. In effect, what Google's claims it's doing here is the same thing that would happen if you uninstalled the app, or deleted your Facebook account -- your contacts created and stored in the network would no longer be visible in your contacts app. In other words, Google's attempting to push Facebook into making that data available to itself, which would be handy (think of the other apps that could use your Facebook data on the go) but potentially worrisome in terms of privacy as well. Either way, the argument is not likely to directly affect many individuals in the short term -- Google tells us that Facebook's sync privileges will only be revoked in the Nexus S (not the Nexus One) and other "lead devices" yet to come. Read the company's full statement after the break, and decide for yourself if this is worth arguing about.
Chevy Cruze to read back Facebook status updates, make / ruin your night (video)
We knew good and well that Chevrolet was planning to integrate Facebook read-backs into its OnStar technology, and now it seems all but confirmed... at least on the Cruze. An early Super Bowl ad peek has revealed that the aforesaid automobile has the ability to read back statuses on command, giving you one less reason to keep your mind on the task at hand (read: driving) and one more reason to make The Zuck even richer. Go on and mash play below, but don't expect any details on how exactly this whole setup works. Something tells us it's tied to a BT-enabled smartphone, but hopefully we'll find out the nitty-gritty sooner rather than later.
Mark Zuckerberg meets the fake Mark Zuckerbergs on Saturday Night Live (video)
Mark Zuckerberg, the man who invented poking and the subject of a major motion picture in 2010 just met his nemeses on the set of Saturday Night Live. No, not the Winklevoss twins, we're talking Jesse Eisenberg, the man nominated for an Academy Award after playing Zuckerberg in The Social Network. Toss in Andy Samberg and we've got a comically uncomfortable situation from Web 2.0's very personification of awkward. All hail the Zuck Bergs!
EVE Online to get shiny new forums as part of Incursion
Despite calls for some new features, the EVE Online forums haven't changed much at all since their release in 2003. A search feature was added several years ago, but it failed to produce reliable results. As usually happens when there's something missing in EVE, the community filled in the gaps with Chribba's popular EVE-Search forum archive and search tool. In a new devblog, CCP Alice has revealed that the forum will finally get a face-lift during the Incursion expansion. Players will be happy to know that a useful advanced search feature is definitely on the way, with some handy innovations like the ability to subscribe to an RSS feed of your search results. In addition to displaying the shiny new avatars we'll create with the new character generator, the new forum has a quick-reply feature, a "like" button next to every post and a share option to link the post on various social networking tools. Each thread will also post to an RSS feed, so you can subscribe to interesting threads and receive replies on any device with an RSS reader. Players will also have a favourite thread list, which could be handy for saving a list of the various guides and information posts players find themselves looking up on a regular basis. The new forum will be integrated with EVE Gate, and the old forum will be left as an archive for posterity. The exact release schedule of the new forum isn't yet decided, but as it's part of Incursion, it will have to be released before the summer.
@MeTees shows your Twitter handle to the world, gets you one step closer to #trending
Twitter-related messages on t-shirts aren't unheard of, but tossing your actual handle on a tee? Now that's an idea we're down with. We can't exactly say we're boastful enough to toss our own name on a shirt, but it might not be a bad idea to throw your company Twitter account on there and force all of your employees to rock one on a trade show floor. Watch for The Situation to roll into B.E.D. rocking one of these in 3... 2...
Mayor of Newark, New Jersey starts Twitter blizzard cleanup snowpocalypse revolution
Newark, New Jersey's popular Mayor, Cory Booker, has had a novel reaction to the problems the blizzard is causing for his people: he's listening to them, and trying to help. Shocking, we know. Even more interesting, of course, is the fact that he's using Twitter to do so. While phone lines all over the tri-state area remain a joke (try calling an airline or public hotline), Twitter has presented Newark's Mayor with a unique, and incredibly direct way of interacting with people who need help with everything from getting their streets plowed to delivering diapers -- personally in many situations. While it's not exactly enough to make us consider a move to Newark, it's certainly impressive.
ComScore: Facebook overtakes Yahoo, is now the third most trafficked website in the world
ComScore -- a common metric used to measure internet traffic -- is showing off some impressive stats these days. In the month of November, for instance, Facebook overtook Yahoo! for the first time in worldwide traffic, with the social network nabbing 648 million unique visitors while the portal named after Gulliver's Travels pulled in 630 million. What does this mean to? Well, to point out the obvious, it seems that while Facebook continues its epic growth, the relatively flat state of Yahoo!'s traffic is simply not enough to retain its third place spot behind Google and Microsoft's sites, which grab up places one and two consistently. One note about these ComScore statistics, just in case you're wondering about that last one: it 'groups' sites together rather than counting individual URLS, so for instance, the Microsoft sites take the number two spot en masse. In terms of U.S. traffic, Facebook still trails Yahoo! a bit, with 152 million visitors and 181 million, respectively, so if they're truly hoping for world domination, they have their work cut out for them. We're looking at you, Mark!
Kickstarter project aiming to make Mustache Mercenaries, a 'fun' Facebook game
Scott Macmillian is an indie game developer in Boston (one of the organizers of the IDGA chapter up there) who has taken on a seemingly insurmountable goal: Make a fun Facebook game. Yes, despite the fact that Facebook games are rolling in dough, none of them offer much gameplay beyond a lot of cow-clicking, and so Macmillian's Macguffin Games is going to attempt to change all of that with a game called Mustache Mercenaries, starring giant robots and historical figures. Intrigued? Then Macmillian wants your money -- he's funding the project through Kickstarter, a site that allows donations of various sizes in an NPR-style pledge drive. As little as $3 will get you a place in the game's credits, $50 or more will get you a lifetime supply of the eventual game's Coal currency, and for $1000, you can actually get a robot built for you and named after you in the game. The final title is supposed to be turn-based combat, pitting steam-powered robots against each other, piloted by real-life people like Abraham Lincoln and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Sound a little crazy? Yes, and that might be why the company has only raised around $2500 of its $15k goal as of this writing. But then again, if you've ever actually played Farmville or Mafia Wars, you'll probably agree that there's a lot of fun lacking in the social network game genre. If Mustache Mercenaries can add that, we can't help but support the cause.
Ping sneaks onto iPad
It's no iOS 4.2, but it's an interesting little update nonetheless -- through the magic of an iTunes backend overhaul, Ping has come to the iPad. Now, the untold millions who enjoy broadcasting that they've purchased an iTunes track can do so on a larger screen. Assuming, of course, that they didn't migrate their Ping experience to Twitter yesterday evening.
Twitter teams up with Ping
It's a social network... for music. Get it? Well, now it's sort of two social networks, because Twitter is getting some pretty deep Ping integration. Basically, any of your Ping activity (posts, purchases, likes, reviews) can be tweeted, all it takes is linking your Twitter account to your Ping account from within iTunes. Unfortunately, right now it looks like the Tweets are an all-or-nothing affair (you don't get to choose which aspects of your Ping activity you want broadcast), so get ready for everybody to know you bought that Colbie Caillat album. The good news on the Twitter end is that Ping tweets will include album art and song previews right from the fancy new Twitter UI, along with a purchase link, of course. Can you taste the synergy?
The British Monarchy launches official Facebook fan page
So, everybody has a Facebook page now: your parents, your next door neighbor's cat, and now even the Queen of England... or more specifically, the British Monarchy. Yes, the Crown of England has launched an official fan page for itself on everybody's favorite and most hated social network. Apparently, the page managed to rake in over 40,000 likes in its first hour of operation -- no small feat considering it took Miley Cyrus something like three days to get that many. Regardless, the Queen is posting tons of candid photos and we're hoping to get some videos of her getting crazy with the Cheez Whiz any day now; we'll let you know if / when they appear.
Twitter adding 370,000 new users a day, only half of them weight loss spammers
If you weren't out egging cars all weekend, you may have noticed The New York Times profile of former Twitter CEO Evan Williams. Among other things, the article contains some interesting nuggets of information about the service's user base and rate of growth... and let's just say that it's growing. Fast. According to the Times, Twitter is adding nearly 370,000 users per day to its current (as of the writing) user base of 175 million. Yes, that's heading ever closer to the 200 million mark, a truly huge number. No further information was spilled about where those users are coming from and what their level of engagement is (it's been reported that as much as 55% of users never make a single Tweet and that many of them don't follow anybody at all). However, we're pretty sure of one thing: newcomers to Twitter won't have any trouble fitting in if they just stick to talking about food and drink (or dieting, if you want to fit in with the bots). Hit up the source for the full, riveting portrait.
