Dan Levy started at PayPal in October, 2001 as a product manager. Seven years later, he was with the same company and his business cards read "Head of Risk Management, Europe." But in what seems like a loss for eBay and a gain for a certain social network, Levy’s now gone to work for Facebook.
You Don’t Need Facebook Connect or Google Friend Connect to Socialize
Google and Facebook have both released new social features for third-party sites recently in Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect respectively. These are not the only kids of their kind on the block, however, as I am reminded by Gigya, the company behind a platform called Socialize. While Socialize has actually been around since September, its relevancy seems pretty significant now with the launches of the services mentioned above.
Facebook’s French Connection
Facebook has been making a lot of efforts to expand internationally, and that continues today with the promise of a new team in France starting with one guy.
MySpace’s Answer to Facebook Connect
MySpace has launched its answer to Facebook Connect with the MySpace Open Platform. This is the broader suite of products that includes the MySpace Application Platform, ‘MySpaceID’ (formerly Data Availability) and Post-To MySpace.
Embed and Upload High Quality Videos with Facebook
Facebook has just started allowing users to upload higher quality videos, and start embedding them on other sites in classic embeddable-video fashion. Facebook launched its video feature last year, but has not offered the ability to upload high quality videos until now. Chris Putnam at the Facebook Blog writes:
Facebook Puts Employee Stock Sale On Hold
If you’re friends with any Facebook employees, don’t be surprised if your holiday gifts from them wind up being homemade ashtrays instead of multiple DVD sets. The sale of shares that would have allowed some employees to make $900,000 has been postponed.
Worm Rains on Facebook’s Parade
Just as Facebook unleashes its Facebook Connect program that ties the site in with any other site who wants to be involved, some virus has to come along and rain on the parade. The Koobface virus, which has in actuality been around for the majority of the year, is not directly related to Facebook Connect, but casts a shadow of vulnerability on Facebook in general. What to Look For
Here’s How Facebook Connect Works
Facebook has just announced the general availability of Facebook Connect, its new service that allows users to login to other sites using their Facebook IDs and share there activities from these third-party sites with their Facebook friends. The service, "makes it easier for Facebook’s 130 million users to tap into the social graph by extending their Facebook experience to any participating Website, desktop application or mobile device," a Facebook representative tells Murdok.
Facebook Growing Fast In Foreign Countries
It seems that a global financial crisis isn’t about to stop Facebook’s spread. Even as the European Central Bank delivers its biggest interest rate cut ever, a new report is documenting the social network’s impressive levels of growth overseas.
What Does Everyone Think About Facebook Connect?
Facebook Connect was announced back in May and has just recently begun to see the light of day. Since the announcement, the obligatory privacy concerns have been raised, but Facebook hoping to nip that in the bud has made it very clear that users can choose whether or not they wish to share information, a feature that was also available with the resurfacing of Beacon a while back.