Bugs hit Facebook application verification program

Facebook's Application Verification Program, controversial due to its concept of charging developers to have their applications certified as "trustworthy," has run into technical problems.

Announced in November and launched on Wednesday, the program has system bugs that are preventing developers from reaping some benefits of having paid to have their applications reviewed and approved.

In a thread on the official Facebook developer forum, developers who shelled out the $375 review fee began reporting a variety of system problems on Wednesday.

In that same thread, Facebook on Thursday afternoon acknowledged that at least three of the bugs reported exist and that the company is working to fix them.

For example, the special green checkmark that denotes verified applications' special status isn't appearing in the Applications Directory search results. Consequently, without that special badge, the applications look no different from those posted by developers who didn't pay for the verification.

In addition, some developers are reporting that they can't submit their applications for review because the link to do so doesn't work, another bug Facebook has acknowledged exists for some applications.

Another bug Facebook has acknowledged is that the boost in user notifications and requests that verified applications get isn't always showing up in the developer's control panel stats.

Other developers complained in the thread that they couldn't find their applications at all-- green checkmark or not -- although this may be due to the way the Facebook algorithms work in displaying certain applications to certain people and not others.

The program became instantly controversial when it was announced in November because critics said developers shouldn't have to pay to have their applications labeled "trustworthy." They argued that it should be up to Facebook to ensure that applications built for its site comply with this requirement.

In response, Facebook has said that, in fact, all of the more than 52,000 applications on its platform must comply with requirements and policies that make them trustworthy. The Application Verification Program, which is optional, gives developers a chance to make their applications stand out by adopting an additional set of best practices for them regarding user experience and user communications, according to Facebook.

Still, some Facebook developers remain unconvinced about the value of the program, and even more so now with the technical issues affecting it.

"I will not pay to be approved. It's not worth the money. Any good application will do just fine without it," said Christopher Bourton, games developer and consultant at Lethos Designs in London, which has developed three Facebook applications and is building two more.

Bourton, contacted via e-mail on Thursday, said he fears that the program will create "an elitist two-tier system" in which large developers that can pay the fee will get the benefits, while smaller developers with fewer resources will not be able to afford it.

Applications approved through the system get the verified status for 12 months, after which developers must re-submit them for review and pay the $375 fee again.

Other developers are more positive about the program, like Tim O'Shaughnessy, CEO of LivingSocial, which has created about 10 applications for Facebook, including its very popular namesake and Visual Bookshelf.

"The verification program is a nice way of allowing users to weed through the noise and know [that] if they're adding a [verified] application, there is a sense of trust behind that add," O'Shaughnessy said via e-mail.

Living Social submitted Visual Bookshelf for verification and got it approved, but while the process was fairly simple and straightforward, it took Facebook longer than O'Shaughnessy expected to complete its review. "Now that the initial applicants have been verified, however, my guess is the process will be much shorter in the future," he said.

For O'Shaughnessy, a big question regarding the value of the program is whether it will truly give Facebook users a sense of security towards verified applications. He also hopes that Facebook will continue to evolve the program.

"As new Facebook features and functionality are made available, will the verification program keep up with new, relevant additions? This seems like a necessity in order for the program to have long-term value," he said.

Gartner analyst Ray Valdes thinks that establishing the program was a good move by Facebook. "Facebook's value proposition is having a quality user experience and that includes the experience of applications," Valdes said in a phone interview. "As the number of applications has grown, the quality of the experience has decreased. This is part of their ongoing maintenance and cultivation of the user experience."

IDC analyst Al Hilwa concurs that end users will benefit from having a set of applications that Facebook has certified as meeting special criteria for user experience and trust. "I think this is a welcome move to rein in what could potentially be a tiring process of finding well-behaved and trustworthy apps," he said via e-mail.

"Relying on market forces to sort out the wheat from the chaff may work in the long run and sounds good as an ideal, but with the velocity of business these days, and the ephemeral stickiness of online sites, it is maybe too late for a platform to be successful to wait for that process to settle down," Hilwa added.

On Wednesday, Facebook launched the program with an initial set of 120 verified applications, but it expects developer interest to pick up considerably now that the program has been launched.

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Facebook Gets New Governing Rules

The votes are in, and the initial tally shows that Facebook users want a new set of governing documents.

The vote came about a few months after thousands of outraged Facebook users slammed the social networking site for taking too much control over their content. In a move to make amends, and to give the angry users more say in what happens to their content, Facebook late last week announced that it would let them choose between two terms-of-service options - the current terms of use and a new set of rules called the Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

Voters overwhelming selected the new set of principles and rights rules over the existing terms of use. Ted Ullyot, Facebook's general counsel, said in a blog post today that the new rules were preferred by 74.4% of the 600,000 voters. Voting closed at 11:59 p.m. last night.

However large, the turnout was far smaller than Facebook had hoped for.

In a blog post announcing the vote late last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that at least 30% of active Facebook users -- that's 60 million people - would have had to vote for the results to be binding. But Ullyot said that while only 600,000 users voted, Facebook will nonetheless adopt the Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities as the governing documents for the site.

"We'd hoped to have a bigger turnout for this inaugural vote, but it is important to keep in mind that this vote was a first for users, just like it was a first for Facebook," said Ullyot. "We are hopeful that there will be greater participation in future votes. In the meantime, we're going to consider lowering the 30% threshold that the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities establishes for a user vote to be binding."

He added that he believes the new documents satisfy concerns that unhappy users had raised a few months ago.

"We're pleased that users supported the proposed documents and validated our efforts to respond to their concerns," wrote Ullyot. "You can expect to see the new documents on the site in the coming weeks. After that, all future proposed changes to the Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities will be subject to the notice, comment and voting provisions of the documents."

"I think these new terms on data ownership and usage will go a long way toward assuaging the feelings of those who protested earlier," said Dan Olds, principal analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group Inc., in an earlier interview. "Facebook's new terms and conditions are much more readable than the typical legalese in the last version. It clearly outlines Facebook's terms of service in a way that should be understandable to the majority of users. The terms are also more user-friendly."

Five-year-old Facebook announced earlier this month that it had hit a major milestone as an influx of older users helped it reach the 200 million user mark.

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Facebook Changes Set TOS

After the voting phase to determine the changes in the TOS (Term of Services) for a week ago, the Facebook parties agree to make changes that fundamental rights in terms of setting up each account data members. Article TOS that the new member states that have full rights and control the information they post of their respective their Facebook account. By the changes outlined in Facebook Facebook Statement of Principles and Rights and Responsibilities.

Voting and decisions on changes to this TOS is a form of protest against Facebook's millions of its member rights associated with ownership and control access to member information in this social networking site. Previously, in its TOS Facebook has the right to declare member data information that has been posted in it.

Open to encompass the aspirations of the Facebook member is conducted for about one week, followed by about 600 thousand Facebook member. This amount was expected to represent more than 200 million Facebook members worldwide. Steps taken by the changes that Facebook is considered by many as a step responsive and aspiratif, given as one of the social networking site, Facebook is currently the largest social networking in the world.

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Some University to Learning About Facebook and Twitter

A university has to offer master's level teaching students about social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo. The course was held for 1 year at Birmingham City University, who will teach the importance of social networking sites as a tool of communication and marketing. Courses are planned to be held in 2010 to come, and have been advertised in the video website in the university.

However, unfortunately, this course is not free, or have to pay quite expensive, is $ 6,564. This course not only discusses the social networking site, but also a matter of setup a blog and podcast publication. Jon Hickam, pioneering the course said that he has received a good response from students. "Homework is not just for IT geek, but also the laity and all the people. During the course, we will provide information on what can be done with Facebook and Twitter, as well as how the site can be used for the purpose of communication and marketing. This course will teach you how to become a professional in the field of journalism or PR (Public Relation). "Hickman said.

Meanwhile, a student from the same University, Jamie Waterman (20), it is revealed that the course is not only useful and discard the time-course. "In fact all people have the networking site Facebook and Twitter, and blogs, and podcasts. The virtual, all content of the course is still on the basic level, so that it can actually be yourself. All this is just to remove the time and resources university course. "Waterman said.

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150 Million Photos Pictures Has Been Lost?

Facebook is still a matter of facing a new problem. What if the image of those who are lost in Facebook suddenly?

In blog.facebook.com, mentioned that Sunday (08/03) yesterday, as many as 10 to 15 percent or about 150 million images from the billions of photos on Facebook, has experienced problems in the database storage. Photos are missing, as quoted in the blog is then replaced with the image question.

However, according to Facebook engineer, Evan Priestley, the loss of the photographs are not permanent, and his side are improving around the third and hope to improve in all consecutive. "We still have all the images the user because we save by using multiple copies of data, in order to guard when there is damage to hardware such as this." Priestley said. However, the company Facebook is still debatable with the cause of the occurrence of incident.

"During our routine software upgrade since Friday (06/03), we conducted a pilot project with the image problem that we have in storage, and in fact some of the drive where we store the image the user, a failure at that time also. We try to understand the conditions that occur, because the hardware is very rare when used at the same time, direct experience failure. "Priestley said.

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Save Your Facebook

Lately we hear flare businesses piercing Facebook account around us. How this can happen? While most of us have been very trust social networking service in this day-to-day communication. Then, at least the next question is how do we secure the Facebook account of this threat .

In the following steps are anticipated to be taken to secure our Facebook account.

1. Avoid Login http://www.facebook.com through, as this page is not encrypted. Your login information is encrypted, but because the login form is in a frame, the user can not see whether or not all encrypted.
2. Make the process of your login page: https: / / login.facebook.com / login.php? Login_attempt = 1. You can ensure that the login you would secure the right to check the bottom of the browser to display the 'lock signed'.
3. Login Do not continue the process if there is a danger warning (security alert). You can immediately stop the process that are 'not safe' with key 'ESC'.
4. Do not forget to always do after Logout access your Facebook account. With only turn off the browser without the Logout process, means that you have to leave 'session' for you to access other people. Therefore it is important to always make you Logout.
5. Do not work to the right as the system administrator. Akan very dangerous if you open the email, images and documents with the practice administrator account, as this will open the possibility for cyber criminals to get your computer.
6. Vigilant against Malicious Facebook Widget. Widget or application can provide additional opportunities for the author to work in coding the program to access important information from the target computer. Until now, there are two types of Malicious Facebook Widget is reported that the Facebook users, and the Secret Crush Error Check System.
7. Be careful in selecting a computer for use. If your computer to use a public or keep changing the computer, such as rental or in Internet cafés (cafe), then you should be careful in selecting and practice. This is not a guaranteed maximum security update from the computer. While the computer has been infected Koobface Worm, or Keylogger can steal user data and its password.
8. Be careful in selecting the network connection Wi-Fi Internet. Only the Facebook login process handle encrypted SSL / TLS (https). Mean while cookies Facebook will very easily be taken from the air (through the signal connection Wi-Fi Internet). Wi-Fi protected with a WEP encryption easy to be broken within 10 minutes. Currently, anyone can easily create any hotspot and provide free-access to you. But you must be carefull level of security access is offered, because access to the Facebook network connections that are not protected, the same private data you provide for free.
9. Think about security issues before you make a click on the 'Wall'. Post on the Wall is a way Koobface dissemination or other malware, so you should be careful access.
10. The latter is how we will increase awareness of safety hazards on Facebook is the people around us. Due to the increasing awareness in the people around us will also support our security.

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