How Face(.com) Recognition Could Fit Into Facebook Mobile. Face.com’s CEO has shrugged off rumors that it is being acquired by Facebook for up to $100 million when we asked. But the addition of its facial recognition tech to Facebook’s mobile apps could make sure friend tagging continues as the social network’s user base shifts away from desktops. In fact, about 45% of users of Face.com’s app KLIK end up sharing their photos on Facebook, which shows how popular mobile facial recognition could be. For the record, Face.com people are keeping their cards close to their chest. Face.com’s CEO Gil Hirsch flatly tells TechCrunch: “We have nothing new to announce or share at this time.” But even while Facebook has been pushing a lot of fancy new enhancements to its mobile offerings (its Camera mobile app being the most recent) there are still a surprising number of features that have yet to be covered by the company. Face.com meanwhile offers facial-recognition software both for PC-based and mobile usage, with the key being that it covers mobile.
Facebook Camera Could Backfire and Get All Of FB’s Apps Buried In A Folder. Not everyone loves Facebook enough to give it three, four, or five spots on their homescreen. So yesterday’s launch of Facebook’s third consumer iOS app Facebook Camera could actually end up reducing usage of Facebook’s main app, Messenger, and others by compelling people to consolidate them into a folder. Facebook Camera has shot to the top of the iOS free charts, so lots of people are making the decision of where to put it right now. This issue isn’t one just for Facebook but for any developer looking to break out specific features of a cluttered omni-app into streamlined standalone apps. Is a lightweight feel worth the risk of app overload?
Facebook’s attempt to cram its entire full-featured web-based social network into a single mobile app hasn’t quite worked out. Standalone apps don’t have to load anything unnecessary, so at first it makes sense that Facebook would release Messenger and now Camera, its new Instagram-style photo filtering and sharing app. Americans Now Spend More Time On Facebook Mobile Than Its Website. All those minutes reading your news feed in bed, messaging friends over lunch, and browsing photos on the bus really add up. Time spent on Facebook’s mobile site and apps per month (441 minutes) has finally surpassed usage of its classic website (391 minutes) — for Americans who use both Facebook interfaces according to the latest report from comScore. And that’s actually a big problem for the social network. Facebook usually shows four to seven ads per page on its website, but only a few ads per day in its mobile news feed. That means it makes a lot less money when you visit from your little devices.
In fact, this week Facebook had to warn potential investors in its IPO that the more people who access it from mobile instead of the web, the worse its business is doing. Can Facebook get away with showing more ads on mobile without turning us off? Way back when Facebook launched in 2004 it was just a website, and it hardly showed ads at all. Facebook Hits 488 Million Mobile Users [Infographic] Facebook Rolling out Filters to All Mobile Apps. Instagram. Facebook Developer Explains Company's '1% Finished' Motto. REYKJAVIK, Iceland — A Facebook developer said Friday that the company's journey is only "1% finished" and is on the path to put a greater emphasis its mobile presence. Facebook's developer support manager Charles Dowd based in Dublin revealed during the 2012 Reykjavik Internet Marketing Conference in Iceland that Facebook users are increasingly more engaged on mobile devices than ever before. This means that mobile Facebook users are clicking, posting and interacting on handheld devices.
There are 425 million users currently using Facebook mobile apps, according to Dowd. "Mobile is an extremely important part of our strategy," Dowd told attendees. "People are really engaged on mobile today than on desktop web. Dowd also shed light on Facebook's corporate culture, from its six-week mandatory boot camp for new engineers to how its corporate offices are designed to encourage innovation and creativity. "There is a cadence at the company that is about always moving forward," Dowd said.
Orange Friends Facebook in Effort to Boost Smartphones, Feature Phones - Ina Fried - Mobile. France Telecom’s Orange unit plans to start selling a range of home-grown phones with dedicated Facebook buttons and tight integration with the popular social network. The three new devices are part of an effort that the French carrier hopes will increase its appeal to both younger phone buyers and those in emerging markets in Europe and Africa. The phones will start showing up in a handful of markets next month, arriving in most countries early next year.
One of the phones is a low-end Android phone, while the other two are even less expensive feature phones. All three are made by TCL Communication Technology, the Chinese company that acquired the Alcatel device business and brand name. In an interview, Orange’s Vice President of Devices Patrick Remy said that despite the growth of smartphones, nearly half of customers are still leaving its stores with something other than a smartphone. “We strongly believe we can do a better job, and we need to do a better job,” Remy said. Facebook’s Mobile Monthly Active Users Grew 21% Over Past Four Months. Earlier analyst estimates from December had pegged the monthly active users of Facebook’s mobile apps at around 300 million per month. This number includes smartphone apps, like those for the Android and iPhone, but also apps that run on BlackBerry, Nokia, and feature phones. At the time, that number equated to roughly 40% of the company’s overall user base. Facebook hadn’t revealed an official number for monthly active users on mobile since September, however, which was then at 350 million users for both mobile apps and mobile web combined.
Today, thanks the Facebook IPO filing, we have an update to the official numbers: there are now 425 mobile monthly active users as of December 2011, out of Facebook’s total 825 million users. The company said that mobile usage of Facebook increased in 2011, including in major developed markets like the United States where smartphone penetration has been rapidly growing. Facebook Apps Just Got More Mobile-Friendly. The Facebook Phone: If It Comes, Will It Already Be Too Late? - Ina Fried - Mobile. This is the fourth in a series of posts this week about the Facebook phone. Time stands still for no man, even if that man is billionaire social networking legend Mark Zuckerberg.
And that’s one of the biggest challenges facing Facebook in its effort to build Buffy, a planned phone being designed by the social network and manufactured by Taiwan’s HTC. The device, though arguably years in the making, is still a long way from hitting the market, possibly as many as 18 months away. By that point, Apple will have likely introduced an iPhone 5 and Google Android — which uses desserts in alphabetical order (now Ice Cream Sandwich) — will be up to Jelly Bean at least, if not Karmel Korn or some other code name to make your cellular dentist cringe. In addition, one of the key demographics for a Facebook phone would appear to be that group of people who never owned a smartphone.
And a longer wait means that by the time Buffy might hit the market, that pool will be significantly smaller.