Creating Facebook Public Profiles Now Requires A Digital Signature

Following a massive large brand land grab by Facebook users, the site has begun requiring electronic signatures in order to create a Public Profile Page. The added step could have been added for a number of reasons, but given all the changes Facebook has made to the public profiles, the increased security measures are just another aspect of growing concerns Facebook may have regarding the more integrated way in which Public Profiles now work.

When you go to create a new Public Profile page, you’ll now be required to provide an electronic signature in order to complete the setup process (as pictured below). I imagine that this has been added as another level of security that preserves the privacy settings Facebook has been able to provide to users on its network.

Now that Facebook’s Public Profile pages act more like regular user profiles, they’re far more integrated with fans’ news feeds. The ability to share more media, integrate more deeply with Facebook applications, and interact better with users means that there’s a potential for a great deal more activity to occur within the social graph associated with the Public Profile page.

Whether brands are concerned with the types of users that are utilizing their logos or brand names in order to create their own presence on Facebook, or the increased sharing functionality has increased any concerns regarding the misrepresentation of a brand (considering increased activity can become the equivalent of spam on Facebook), the added security measure is protecting both brands and users.

Perhaps this will be something that Facebook applies to applications as well. Remember the Starbucks app that was created by a third party, and not Starbucks? The app gained a great deal of traction and was eventually taken over by another app developer that wanted to take advantage of the high monthly user count. To that end, Starbucks missed out on a branding opportunity.

The added security measures could also indicate that Facebook is looking to work more closely with brands themselves, in providing the preservation measures that would discourage squatting (something that’s become rampant on Twitter) as well as misrepresentation of brands. As Facebook looks to broaden its revenue potential and the application platform as well as the revised Public Profile pages are easily used for marketing purposes, it looks like Facebook has taken a vested interest in the protection of brands, possibly for its own long term benefit.

Do you think this will decrease the number of brand poachers on Facebook?

Facebook vs. MySpace: The battle for global social network dominance

MySpace still has a hefty traffic lead over Facebook in the U.S., so it was big news when ComScore released 2008 data that showed Facebook gaining quickly on MySpace in international traffic. According to the data, Facebook already gets more international page views than MySpace and is gaining quickly in unique visitors. In January, Facebook had 100.7 million unique international visitors compared to MySpace's 109.3 million; a difference of just 8% compared to a year ago when the difference was nearly 400%. While some other social networking tools dominate in specific international markets, no other platform comes close to the two U.S. giants in overall audience and reach.

To many, Facebook's international gains came as a surprise. MySpace had a head start getting into the global market, launching its first international site in Britain in April 2006 before rolling out sites in other European countries, generally with success. More recently, MySpace has begun launching in countries that are more difficult for U.S. companies to penetrate, including India, Russia and, this week, South Korea. In contrast, Facebook's first non-English site didn't launch until February 2008. MySpace still has more countries in which it is embedded in the local language -- there are 29 translated versions of MySpace specialized for 25 countries. Facebook is currently available in only four languages: English, Spanish, French and German. Facebook has also faced some widely publicized hiccups with its international strategy, including the failure to purchase all of its localized domain names, such as Facebook.fr.

But while MySpace plans and launches its international sites in a more traditional way -- setting up local offices, getting entrenched in the culture and then launching, -- Facebook is building out its foreign language versions with the help of its vast and committed user base. Instead of setting up an office and a staff before launching in new countries, Facebook is putting its audience to work with an online Facebook application that allows translation by the Facebook community. To participate, Facebook users add a Translation Application to their account that they can use to translate, review and vote on translations in their language. Once the language translations are completed and quality has been verified by the community, the Facebook site in the new language is launched for all Facebook users.

Facebook is currently working on 22 more language translations, and many hundreds of users have left suggestions about other languages that they would like to see translated -- and have volunteered to help with the work.

This savvy approach to new markets will be what wins the international audience for Facebook. In combination with the widely used Facebook Platform, which will allow international developers to build Facebook applications for local audiences, Facebook's international strategy is the better one. MySpace, with its less innovative international approach and still-new and largely untested developer's platform, will not be able to catch up.

MySpace does have one huge advantage in the U.S. market -- it completely dominates Facebook in music. This could be the one area in which MySpace is able to build out its international presence and counter Facebook in new markets. However, the recent announcement of MySpace Music and its support by three of the four major record labels also included the news that MySpace Music would not be rolling out internationally until issues concerning international rights were solved. This was the final nail in the coffin of MySpace's international hopes. The one area in which it had a chance will instead have the opposite effect of alienating its international users by making them an afterthought.

(Obviously, Facebook and MySpace are not the only social networks, and there are a large number of other social networks that are #1 in various countries, including Orkut in Brazil, Live Journal in Russia and Bebo inNew Zealand. For a rundown of the social networks that lead in various countries, check out “Social networks and international audiences.”)

written by: Melissa Chang is the founder of Pure Incubation, an Internet incubator based in the Boston area. Her blog is at www.16thletter.com.

5 Facebook Privacy Settings to Keep Teens Safe

Facebook privacy settings are an important part of keeping teens save from predators who are everywhere just waiting for naive teens to introduce themselves. That's why you need to use Facebook privacy settings to keep teens safe while they have fun on Facebook. These Facebook privacy settings will help keep your teen safe on Facebook. Facebook is a fun place to spend time on the Net. With all the games and gadgets, teens could spend hours just playing around and having a good time. At the same time, they're conversing with their friends and keeping up with the latest gossip. We know these are not the only things that can happen on a website like Facebook. There are predators everywhere just waiting for naive teens to introduce themselves. That's why we need to find out the best ways to keep teens safe while they have fun on Facebook. Before We Start Changing Facebook Privacy Settings Here are some Facebook safety settings that you can use to keep strangers away from teens on Facebook. Before we can start changing Facebook privacy settings you'll need to get to the right page. At the top of your Facebook page you'll see a link that says "Settings". When you hold your mouse over that link a menu will pop up. Click on "Privacy Settings" from that menu. Now we're ready to change your Facebook privacy settings to keep your teens safe.

1. Who Can See Your Teen's Profile Information?

It's important to make sure that strangers (aka those not on the friend list) can't see your teen's profile information. This includes such things as photos, personal information, videos, their friend list, and anything else they may include on their profile. To adjust your teen's Facebook profile security settings start at the privacy settings page. Then click on the "Profile" link. From here you can change the privacy settings for your teen's Facebook profile. For the safest setting choose the option to allow only friends to view all of the settings on the page.

2. Who Can See Your Teen's Photos?

Don't let just anyone see the photos your teen puts up. Teens like to post photos of themselves and their friends, definitely something you don't want a predator to see. This is a setting you'll have to teach your teen to use, or go in occasionally and do yourself. Each photo has it's own setting so every time a photo is added, the security setting will need to be changed. To adjust individual photo settings on your teen's Facebook profile start at the privacy settings page. Then, as before, click on the "Profile" link. Scroll down the page a bit and you'll see a link that says "Edit Photo Albums Privacy Settings", click on this link. Now choose "Only Friends" as the privacy setting for every photo to keep your teen safest.

3. Who Can See Your Teen's Personal Information?

These are things like your teen's IM screen name, email address, website URL, address and phone number. There's no way you want this information out there for all to see. Go in and change this Facebook privacy setting immediately. From the Facebook privacy page again click on "Profile". This time also click on the "Contact Information" tab to change these privacy settings. Change all the security settings on this page to "No One" for the most secure setting.

4. Who Can Find Your Teen's Profile?

As a default setting on Facebook, anyone can do a search and find anyone else using Facebook's search tool. Keep people from finding your teen's profile in the first place by changing this Facebook privacy setting. Starting from Facebook's privacy page click on "Search". Where it says "Search Visibility" choose the options that says "Only Friends". Then under where it says "Public Search Listing" make sure the box is unchecked. These settings will ensure that only people on your teen's friend list will be able to find him in search.

5. How Can people Contact Your Teen?

When someone comes across your teen's profile they may want to contact them for some reason. Maybe to ask to be added to her friend list or maybe to ask her a question. You can control what that person can see on your teen's profile while they're there. Starting from Facebook's privacy page click on "Search". Then scroll down to the bottom of the page. There you'll see the "How Can People Contact You" section. Choose to disallow strangers from seeing your teen's photo or their friend list. Then choose whether to allow or disallow people from adding your teen as a friend. Most importantly, you'll need to decide whether you want strangers to be able to contact your teen at all.