One sixth of world population to be on Facebook by 2012

ALTHOUGH COMPETITOR sites are trying tooth and nail to attract more users, Facebook dominates the market. The number of Facebook users is expected to reach a record 1 billion by next year, according to statistics site Social Bakers. The US boasts of the highest number of Facebook users in the world - 149 million - which stands at around half the country’s population.

 

There has been a significant growth in the number of Facebook users in Brazil as well. Over 1.9 million users joined the site in May. Countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, Mexico and Argentina have also seen a tremendous growth in the number of Facebook users in the last few months. The increasing popularity of the site comes as no surprise to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Last year, when number of site users reached 500 million, Zuckerberg said that he was very happy with the figures, but saw no chance of reaching the 1 billion mark. However, he added that it was “guaranteed” to happen.

 

Around 80 million new users joined Facebook in the first quarter of 2011, increasing from 585 million to 665 million. The young internet entrepreneur stressed that he was quite pleased with the way Facebook was progressing with only four countries left where growth was still required, including Russia and China. If Facebook continues to grow at the current pace the day is not far when Zuckerberg’s dream of floating the site on stock market would come true.

Facebook @ Mentions now work in comments

Facebook has expanded its @ Mentions feature to include comments. This means that users can now mention/tag Facebook friends, Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, and Facebook Events in comments to News Feed stories and wall posts, according to Inside Facebook.

Previously, users could only use @ Mentions on content they were creating from scratch, such as wall posts and status updates, and not when they were adding to already existing content. Now users can type the @ symbol when writing a comment to get the drop-down menu for @ Mentions. When a user is tagged, they receive a notification stating that a friend “mentioned you in a comment.”

Facebook first added @ Mentions in September 2009, allowing users to mention Facebook friends, Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, and Facebook Events by typing an @ symbol followed by the first few letters of whatever they wanted to tag, and then selecting it from the drop-down menu that appeared. The @ does not remain part of your post; it’s merely the syntax that invokes the tagging feature itself. Instead, your post simply gets a link to the relevant page on Facebook.

The ability to use @ Mentions in comments was requested by many users immediately after Facebook added the original feature. Back then, the company said that “it may happen” but did not elaborate as to why it may not want to roll it out. Now it’s finally here.

The update will likely lead to users navigating to more pages and posting more content on the social network. Users are always more likely to be more active if they get a notification about being mentioned. Facebook is once again increasing visits and engagement on its website.

Facebook received 250,000 resumes in 2010

Last year, Facebook received almost 250,000 résumé applications. To help those applying to the company, IB Times put together a list of five questions you should ask yourself to see if you’re ready to work at one of the hottest technology companies:

1. Are you enthusiastic and passionate about Facebook?
2. Do you know anyone who can assess or vouch for your cultural fit?
3. Are you suited to work in a bold and open environment?
4. Can you make a difference?
5. Can you let go of work-life balance (for most of the time, at least)?

How does Facebook’s résumé count compare to other online giants? Well, Facebook is still a relatively small company but it’s very clear that the number is quite large, though definitely not the highest. For example, Google, arguably the largest Web company, receives somewhere around 1 million résumés each year, with the record for one week being 75,000.

Google had some 24,400 employees last year, while Facebook had over 2,000. It’s therefore fairly impressive that a company that is 12 times smaller, and has significantly fewer positions available, received just four times fewer applications last year.

In December 2010, the social network was named the best company to work for in the US. I’d therefore be very surprised if Facebook did not set a new résumé record for itself this year.

Facebook bans 20,000 accounts daily

Facebook chief privacy advisor Mozelle Thompson appeared before the Australian Parliament’s cyber-safety committee this week to discuss Internet-related security issues. Thanks to the event, we learned that about 20,000 users are kicked off Facebook every day for various infractions, including for lying about their age.

“There are people who lie. There are people who are under 13 [accessing Facebook],” Thompson told Federal Parliament’s cyber-safety committee, according to The Telegraph. “Facebook removes 20,000 people a day, people who are underage.”

Although the company requires its users to be at least 13-years-old, the limit is easily circumvented, like on pretty much any website on the Internet. “While the social network has mechanisms to detect liars,” Thompson admitted that “It’s not perfect”.

The original report suggested that the 20,000 accounts banned daily are all for individuals found not to be at least 13-years-old. This is not true; the number actually includes accounts deleted for any serious rule-breaking. Furthermore, it does “not include the proactive efforts that actually prevent fake or under age accounts from being created.”

“At Facebook, we take safety very seriously and we were pleased to participate in a hearing in Australia to talk about our safety policies, practices and systems,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “As we explained in the hearing, these efforts include removing numerous accounts everyday for activities including spamming, posting inappropriate content, and violating age restrictions.”

Google to launch social networking site Google Circles by May'11

The world's largest search engine Google, which has so far not tasted success in the social networking domain, plans to launch Google Circles, which is expected to give head on competition to sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

GIVING NIGHTMARES to popular social networking site Facebook is none other than old rival Google. If reports are to be believed, Google will launch its new social networking site Google Circles by May 2011. The site, which has already been christened as a Facebook killer, will allow its users to share its content with the users of other social networkingsites, and customise the kind of content they want to broadcast.

Rumour mill has it that the user would have multiple circles classified into "Immediate Family," "Extended Family," "Co-Workers," "Best Friends," "Old Friends" so on and so forth. As per the broadcast settings set by the user, the user can designate everything he/she posts according to which circle sees it.

Although Google strongly denies it, the company claims that its strategy is to simply inject more social features into it and eventually more Google products.

The features that are expected to be included are pictures, videos, and status updates - but with greater privacy options.

The news, which more or less sounds like a rumour, is also being touted as the upgraded version of Google Me, another social networking venture by Google, which was scheduled to be launched in 2010.

The site, which was initially rumoured to be unveiled at the I/O conference in San Fransisco has now moved its location to Austin in Texas during a southwest technology event.