Facebook Timeline: How it works

After the f8 developers conference the main attraction that came out was the Facebook will get a new Timeline. In other works you are getting a whole new profile page and you had better like it. well it is not really all that bad and has a way of converting all Facebook users into curators of their Facebook lives. With the new profile you have space which is being called a cover. Therefore right on the top of your profile you now have more space to place a large photo of yourself, as a welcome sign. The Facebook timeline has been divided into three parts.

What is Facebook Timeline and how does it work

1. The Cover: Represents a wide and open space to fill in with your best image. Will definitely become a big hit with Facebook users as people find more and more creative uses for it.

2. Your Stories: This section allows you to highlight your most memorable posts and photos etc. This can be from the beginning of time when you started using the service. Now if you have been a longtime user of Facebook and there are posts in there you do not want your current friends to see, you can get rid of it. Facebook will give you the option to choose what shows up. With this service you can see everything you have done from the time you joined Facebook and arrange things in such an order that when people visit your profile they can see a timeline of your events and all that you have been up to on Facebook. There are privacy options so no problem. Let your creative juices flow. You can choose to highlight certain likes and friends and a whole lot of options.

3. Your Apps: Show your friends which movies you watched on Netflix, what music you have had on repeat and a whole other range of Apps. This part of your profile will be to share all your activities related to movies, music and travel etc. Pretty neat and this is really social sharing.

To view pics and screenshots please check the video below.

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Sociolatte

Facebook Ticker: How does it work

This week has been a big one in social media with Google+ and Facebook making a lot of announcements and adding a host of new features. Facebook has just updated their lists and added the all new subscriptions button. And just a few days after that Facebook has two more announcements to make the all new Ticker and News Feed update.

Facebook wants your news feed to be link your newspaper. As soon as you login to Facebook all the top stories will await you in your news feed. The Facebook algorithm will show you all the top stores and headlines from your friends activities on the social site. 

How does Ticker work on Facebook

fb says that the all new ticker will allow users to connect with their friends in real-time. The Ticker will work a little differently that your News Feed. Unlink just seeing updates that appear in your news feed the Ticker will help you connect and show your your friends updates in real-time. This is what Facebook says about the new Ticker."Ticker shows you the same stuff you were already seeing on Facebook, but it brings your conversations to life by displaying updates instantaneously. Now when a friend comments, asks a question or shares something like a check in, you'll be able to join the conversation right away. Click on anything in ticker to see the full story and chime in – without losing your place."

How to view real-time updates on Facebook Ticker

There is a new link just above you ticker bar on Facebook which says " See what your friends are up to right now, Hover or click here for more details'. Click on any of the stories listed on the ticker to read the latest.

Source: Facebook Blog

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Sociolatte

Google Wallet how it works

So what is Google Wallet and how does it work.

Google Wallet is an electronic payment system based out of your smartphone. With Google wallet you can convert all your plastic credit cards into virtual ones, with which to make payments. Google Wallet wants you to do away with your physical wallet and when it comes time to make a payment all you need is your smartphone. 

When Google Wallet launches it will support two types of cards, Citi MasterCard and Google Prepaid card. To setup a Citi MasterCard all you need to do is to open Google Wallet and enter your information after Citi verifies it you're free to use the card. If you already have a card and you want to confirm that it works with Google Wallet you can click here. A Google Prepaid card is not really a card but a virtual card that gets stored on your phone. This card can be funded by any of your other credit cards. Also after you activate the Google Prepaid card you get $10 in your account and this is on Google. Will last till the end of 2011 at least. Google Wallet can also store your gift cards from all participating merchants.

Google Wallet is first going to be available only in the US before launching in other countries.

Where to pay - You would need to look for the symbols found below to see if Google Wallet can be used for your current purchase.

Read more 

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Sociolatte

Facebook Subscription Recomendations

Facebook have taken their subscription a step further. You now get recommendations as to who to subscribe to. This feature works the same way as on Twitter and on Google+. If you click on the 'Suggested Subscriptions' link you get to see a list of people to follow. Now this list looks to be the same set of people who get recommended on Twitter and on Google+. You can bet you're going to see Kevin Rose and Robert Scoble, with minor deifferences here and there for e.g on the Facebook list the top of the list is Randi Zuckerberg the sister of Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zunckerberg.

Now this is taking the fight straight to Twitter and Google+. Yes, Facebook is getting criticism for the copycat nature of the whole thing. But it is a free world and companies feel quiet free to copy features that works best for others and use it for themselves. All is fair in love and war.

How to find suggested people to subscribe to on Facebook. 

Visit this link to see people who Facebook recommends as suggested users to subscribe to. http://www.facebook.com/subscriptions/suggestions/

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Sociolatte

Facebook Friend Lists: How does it work

Facebook have announced the rolling out of a new set of features know as Friend Lists. 

What are Facebook Friend Lists and how do they work.

When Facebook automatically creates a list for you there will be three improvements that will be used

Smart Lists: Will help you stop going through the tedious process of creating list and automatically create lists for you. This will cut down on the time consuming process on who to share what to. Smart Lists will be offered in the following four categories initially. Work, School, Family and City. So people among your friends lists who fall into the following categories will be automatically grouped together.

Close Friends and Acquaintances Lists: This can be further broken down into two separate lists Close Friends and Acquaintances list. So when you click on your close friends list. Only posts from these people will appear on your news feed. This way if you want to only keep track of those people you can filter out all the rest. The same goes for the Acquaintances list.

Restricted Lists: Put your boss and other people you do not want to share with in this list.

Better Suggestions: Expect Facebook to give you better suggestions as to who goes where. Once you accept a friend request on FB you can now add them to a list directly from there. 

Facebook lists FAQ

Will people be able to see the name of the list I have put them in: No, the name of your lists are not shown publicly. However people on your lists can see the others that are included. 

Will I still be able to use my old lists: Yes

Can I create my own separate lists: Yes

Source: Facebook Blog

Please let us know what you think in the comments section below. 

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Sociolatte

Facebook has New Privacy, Sharing, Tagging and Check In features [Photos]

Facebook has released the latest set up dates and has a lot to do with privacy and tagging options. You can now decide right from your status bar who gets to see your updates. If you are tagged in a status or a photo you would need to approve it before it gets publicly posted via Facebook. You can also see your profile as others see it right from your profile page. Actually this is an old feature that has been brought back. Another thing is that after you post a status updated you can also add changes it it at a later time. You can now tag anyone in Facebook even if they are not your friends. You now don't need a smartphone to check-in to Facebook you can do it on the web right from your Facebook.

You can now view your profile as others see it with this link on your profile page

Control who can see your status updates right from your status bar

Tag options present more clearly with actions you can take to protect your privacy

You can now add location and check in right on the web

Choose who you want to share with right from your status bar with just a single click

These options are located right on your profile page and with just a click you can control who sees this part of your profile

Accept a photo tag before it goes public on Facebook

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Sociolatte

Gmail's New Look [Photos]

The Google team has rolled out a whole new look for Gmail. Starting from the sign-in page right through the entire Gmail experience.

So what's new with the Gmail New look

For starters the look is more elastic and modern it feels like something that is light and easy to use. The reason for the elasticity is that Gmail would like to become more flexible and easily fit into any screen size and any browser. It will be something that looks and feel very modern, easy to play with and with a fewer rough edges.

Gmail also has a whole new set of themes to use. With the new look you have a whole new set of customization themes and colors to use and give your inbox a feel that you want. You can also create a your own custom theme.

There will also be less clutter as you inbox has a totally new feel which looks beautiful which Google says should match the power of Gmail.

How to get the new Gmail look
1. login to Gmail
2. Click on the Cog Icon found on top top right-hand corner
4. Your settings open up
5. Click on Themes
6. Right at the bottom your have preview and preview dense choose either one
7. You're done

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Sociolatte

Kibin: Proofreading and Editing for free

Kibin offers to get your writing proofread and edited for free, does not actually work like that but there is a principle involved. So how does Kibin work, you can get your writing edited for free if you have enough credits and the way to get credits is to do the same for other papers. So the more papers you edt and edit the more credits you earn and you will need lots of credits if you papers are long. All this gets done in 24 hours as promised by Kibin and it gets done by human eyes. This is a community based effort and no software involved, other than some  algorithms running in the background to prioritize and get things right. 


But what if you do not have credits and want you editing done faster Kibin offers a way out. For a flat rate of $0.01 you can get it done in 24 hours and if you want it faster be ready to spend more. Bloggers can count this as a blessings as many of them really could do with an  extra pair of eyes. 


If you would like to demo this whole thing, please click here. If you want to join the community and start editing all you have to do is start highlighting text. You'll then have three options: comment, modify, or strikeout. You can login with your Facebook account. 

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Sociolatte

Foursquare Events - Collective check-in and sharing for Movies, Music and Sports

Foursquare have launched their newest update: FourSquare Events. So what exactly is FourSquare events and how does it work. with hundreds and thousands of events being held adn thousands of people attending it is only logical that Events on FourSquare is the next big thing. To make Events a success FourSquare now has a number of partners including ESPN, MovieTickets.com and SongKick for concerts. 


FourSquare says that with more than 50,000 events happening in the coming few months. You will be able to check-in to the event a few hours before it starts. That way people can use the event which appears and check-in rather than sending individual check-ins to their friends. This clears up a lot of clutter on their UI. This way big events are added to FourSquare and people can automatically check-in using the one feature event.


With Events for movies you can also see which of your friends viewed which movie and if you friends actually say the movie you want to check out. This comes as a whole new way of checking out the movies and who of your friends have see what.


With Events for Music you can begin to see what your friends taste in music is like and which concerts they attended.


With Events for Sports you can check out which events your buddies have attended and which events there are at now.


FourSquare events is now on the iPhone with no upgradation needed and coming to all other platforms soon.

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Sociolatte

Klout: lets you know your clout across your favorite social networks

So what is Klout and how does it work.


Klout is a San Francisco based company that provides you with social media analytics. Once you singup using your social media Id from across your social media profiles your standing will be analyzed to see where you stand among your friends and the sites in general. Klout now measures your influence across Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Flickr, Instagram, Last.fm, Linkedin, Foursquare, YouTube and Tumblr (Google+ to be added soon). The social media analysis is based on a scoring system from 1 - 100. Higher the score means wider the range of your influence. and true reach being determined by how people react to what your share and the response you receive. True influence will be how interactive and engaging you are with your audience and vice versa. Klout uses over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.


So if you want to measure your Twitter influence Klout will check the number of followers you have, how many of your messages are Retweeted and comments you receive. Head over now to measure your social media effectiveness and influence.


Klout also has a +K button that users can use to give other users a +K on topics. There are a lot of brands heading over to offer perks to uses who have high klout scores.  

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Sociolatte

How to find Images from a specific region or country on Google

Google Images have come out with another update to help people looking for images, photos and pictures from a specific country or region. To do this you will need to go to images.google.com and then click on Advanced search. You are taken to this page, scroll all the way down and look for the option 'Region' from the drop-down menu you can then select your country or region and click on search images to continue searching for images that come from a specific country or region. You can keep changing your region this way to continue exploring.

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Sociolatte

Facebook Mobile Messenger App available now

The new Facebook App dedicated to messaging is available from today for both the iPhone and Android. This standalone App is not a part of the Facebook App but comes separate and is dedicated solely to messaging. The new Facebook Messenger for Mobile delivers your messages instantly and there is no need for a refresh. All communication on the App happens in real-time. The App allows from group conversations a feature that many companies have been trying to cash in on. With group messaging everyone who is  part of that group can carry on conversations in real time. Texting is taking on a new meaning all together with group texting. The technology that is used in the App is from Beluga the group messaging app company that Facebook acquired for the same purpose

If you do not have a smartphone you can still reply to messages by confirming your mobile number. 

How does Facebook Messenger work

Messages are delivered through texts and notifications

You can message all your friends whether they are on Facebook or a part of your phone contacts by typing the persons name

The Messenger App is an extension of Facebook messages and so all your texts, chats, emails and messages are stored in one place. So you can still see the full history of all your conversations whether you're on the wed or mobile device.

It is quick, fun and easy to start a group conversation and message everyone at once. 

You can also choose to add your location or turn off the feature. 

The App has a message alert system and you can choose to have them delivered at a specific time or choose to turn it off completely. 

You can also send photos using the App

To download for iPhone or Android you will need to search for the App as 'Facebook Messenger' and hit download in your phone's App store. 

If you want a link texted to your phone you can click here. 

Source: Facebook Blog. 

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Sociolatte