[Infographic] Facebook Reaches 488 Million Mobile Users

About fifty percent (50%) of the total Facebook users have the Facebook mobile app installed in their phones according to the recent IPO (Initial Public Offering) filing of Facebook company, showing that their mobile application has reached an outstanding 488 million users across the globe, with United States recorded to be the top country of the mobile app and Nigeria recorded to have the highest Facebook mobile penetration at 81.2%. 

The infographic below courtesy of SocialBakers show the current statistics of the facebook mobile application across all platforms, the top 10 countries with the highest Facebook mobile app users and the top countries with highest penetration of the said mobile app based on the recently submitted IPO of Facebook.

Three Forms of Your Facebook Password

If you haven't knew about this yet, your Facebook password has 3 variations which will still log you on to the site whichever variation you use: your original password, your original password with the first letter in CAPS LOCK, and your original password in all CAPS LOCK.

In an article update at ZDNet written by Emil Protalinski, He described how he was still able to log on to Facebook, one morning, with his keyboard caps lock button on. Upon his "accidental discovery" he then conducted a little research through a series of communication with Facebook which clarified the issue.

The three variations has its own reason why Facebook decided to allow them during sign in. The first password is the password you provided during sign up and you're expected to enter this information by default. However, since there are cases that you might also be logging in without noticing the caps lock keys on, Facebook realized to accept 2 additional variations for your convenience. The second password as shown above is for the case when you're logging in using a mobile phone wherein the first letter is always set to be capital when entering information. While the third password variation is for the case when you just forgot to off the caps lock button when logging in using your computer.

His second update in the article reads:

“Nothing is more important to us than the security of our users and their information,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. “Our passwords are not case insensitive. We accept three forms of the user’s password to help overcome the most common reasons that authentic logins are rejected. In addition to the original password, we also accept the password if a user inadvertently has caps lock enabled or their mobile device automatically capitalizes the first character of the password. We feel this does not significantly impact the security of the user’s password or their account. Additionally, we do not store our passwords in plain text we use several encryption technologies and techniques to maintain the security of our information.”

So don't be confused when you accidentally log in to Facebook with your password reversed.  the toggled password would still work on it.

Facebook to Acquire Instagram For $1 Billion

Social networking giant, Facebook is buying Instagram, the company behind the popular photo-sharing app 'Instagram' as confirmed by Mark Zuckerberg today.

"I'm excited to share the news that we've agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook."

This is the first time that the said company is acquiring another company and the product that has a well established community and Zuckerberg is looking forward to bringing the two companies working together.

"This is an important milestone for Facebook because it's the first time we've ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.


We're looking forward to working with the Instagram team and to all of the great new experiences we're going to be able to build together."

The popularity of Instagram started  way back its release on iTunes last October 6, 2010 and just two months later (December 2012), Instagram had reached 1 million registered users. It continues to grow the next year with five million users on June 2011 and surpassed the ten million mark of registered users by September of the same year. As popularity becomes unstoppable, developers of Instagram further pushed it to a larger market by releasing an Android version of the app last April 4, 2012. It reached as high as 1 million within 12 hours after the release. As of today, there are 227,919 android users who are using Instagram.

It seems that both parties are happy with the acquisition. In a blog post wrote by Kevin Systrom, Instagram CEO, he describes the humble beginnings of Instagram and how it reached a large community that never once imagined and how he hopes to have an exciting future in the arms of facebook.

"When Mike and I started Instagram nearly two years ago, we set out to change and improve the way the world communicates and shares. We’ve had an amazing time watching Instagram grow into a vibrant community of people from all around the globe. Today, we couldn’t be happier to announce that Instagram has agreed to be acquired by Facebook.


Every day that passes, we see more experiences being shared through Instagram in ways that we never thought possible. It’s because of our dedicated and talented team that we’ve gotten this far, and with the support and cross-pollination of ideas and talent at a place like Facebook, we hope to create an even more exciting future for Instagram and Facebook alike." - Mike (Instagram CEO)

Both Facebook and Instagram CEOs further clarified that the acquisition of Instagram will not put the photo-sharing app into nowhere but will continue to be as it is and both will strive hard to bring the popularity of Instagram to a much wider people. Instagram CEO further said they will work on adding new features for the app and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience.

Spammers and Malwares Find new Targets Through Facebook for Android Mobile App

Today as I browse on youtube, like I used to do most of the time, I happen to encounter an unexpected notice that disallow me to share or post videos to my facebook profile. The notice says:



Until now I keep wondering how it happened until I read one of the headlines on my Google News and Weather app regarding the mobile malware spreading over targeting Android OS users through Facebook app!



This is alarming in a way that the youtube as well as facebook apps are now prone to malware and spams and although I am planning to report this to legal authorities, there are no assurance that my phone would be back to safe and normal.

I hope that this post may serve as a note or a lesson to everyone who are also active in video sharing and posting status frequently on youtube and facebook.

posted from Bloggeroid

The Rise Of Mobile Social Media Use

Year 2011 has been dominating for smartphones and tablets. In fact, more than half of all mobile phone sales are occupied by smartphones already. It is the year where consumers sought and realized that the use of these devices can bring yet another effective and convenient way of computing.

Powerful mobile OS (Operating Systems), highly interactive and useful applications, increased phone memory and the ever-powered storage over the cloud which allowed users flexibility to access files wherever, whenever! These are only among of a hundred reasons why smartphones and tablets are overtaking feature phones.

Related: Top Social Networking And Blogging Sites Of 2011

MOBILE SOCIAL MEDIA USE IS ON THE RISE

Whether it is a feature phone or a smartphone, the ability to access social media is a commonly used feature among mobile owners. About 43 percent of users access the web through mobile device such as mobile phones, iPad, e-reader and handheld music player. In the figure below, the 97 percent for computer use only suggests that still, computer is the most convenient way to use and access social media contents.

How do consumers access social media (Source:Nielsen)

SMARTPHONE FEATURES AND HOW USERS HAVE VALUED THEM

With wide capability ranging from the basics of making and receiving calls to checking out different places nearby down to mobile payment transactions and updating social status and news feeds plus the practicality of use over other devices, smartphones continue to be the most preferred gadget. The next figure below lists down the features commonly available in a smartphone device and how these features have valued by users.

While downloading and playing music is the most available feature for smartphones and global positioning system (GPS) is the most valued feature, applications for social networking has been the second available and most valued feature.

How does social networking compare to other features consumers have on
their phones? And what features do they value most?

MOST USED APPS FOR SMARTPHONE USERS

The on-the-rise popularity of smartphones and tablets which allow users install a wide variety of applications also made it possible for mobile social networking apps to be the third most downloaded app and used by smartphone owners. The most popular app for social networking across all operating system is Facebook  while Twitter is the number five most used app on Blackberry and Windows mobile operating systems.

Gaming apps (the most popular of which include Angry birds, Fruit Ninja and Tiny Tower) are still the most downloaded and used applications for smartphones While Weather applications are also highly in demand. Other categories for the most downloaded and used applications by smartphones users include music (Google Music is the most popular) , news, entertainment, banking/finance and dining/restaurant.

Top 10 Categories of Apps Used by Smartphones Owners Who Downloaded Apps

USERS WHO ENGAGED IN MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING

As teeny as thirteen (13) and eldest as fifty five and over (55+) years of age have installed apps for mobile social networking. The most highly downloaded app of which is Facebook followed by twitter with LinkedIn, a site preferrable for professionals, as the least most downloaded app. Ages twenty five to thirty four (25 - 34) have the highest percentage of social networking app users.

Percentage of Social Networking App Users by Age