Personal details of 100 million Facebook users have been posted publically online.

The list is available as a freely downloadable file from the file sharing site Pirate Bay & has already been downloaded over 3000 times.

Facebook has responded by saying that all the information it contains is already available via publically browsing a users page or via a basic search engine search. “No private data is available or has been compromised,” Facebook said.

What makes this content truly useful though is the manner in which it is presented. It is ordered and collated in such a manner as to be useful & searchable.

So, no private data but this still highlights the amount of information that people freely (arguably unaware they’re doing so) on sites like Facebook by leaving the default privacy settings.

Tags: 100 million, facebook, privacy, profiles

(Another) Attack on Facebook Privacy Policy

Tags: facebook, Germany, ilse aigner, privacy, social media, social networking

Facebook is 500 Million Strong

Sometime this week Facebook will hit the 500 million user mark.

This makes it bigger than the combined population of the USA & Canada.

To celebrate they will be launching Facebook stories a demonstration of the way Facebook has changed people’s lives.

Each story will be limited to around 420 characters (the current limit for status updates) and if you’re story is more popular than others (has more ‘Likes’) then it’ll be visible amongst other most popular stories (think Trending Topics on Twitter).

Facebook already have a way you can submit your own story.

The question is, with Facebook continuing to grow and dominate the social networking landscape, what will it take for people to move elsewhere?



Tags: facebook, seo thunder, social media, social networking

Create Friends Lists -Hide Your Online Status on Facebook Chat from Select Contacts

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In times gone by, you could either be online or offline with regards to Facebook chat. This was annoying because what if you wanted to speak to some people but not others?

Now Facebook has an option that allows you to do just that. It’s called Friends lists.

Basically you create a list, assign a friend to it & can then set your online / offline status in bulk.

Lets say you have two lists: Friends & Family / Business Contacts.

Want to be online to your business contacts during the day, but not available to your friends & family in case they disturb you? You can be.

OK, I get it … but how!?

First thing is to create the lists & assign friends to each list.

Log in and click on Account > Edit Friends

Under the Lists heading, click the Friends option.

Then choose Create New List. A new box will appear where you can name the list and add friends to your newly created list.

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Online or Offline? You Decide

Now that your lists are set up and you’ve assigned contacts to them (don’t worry if you haven’t you can drag & drop from the chat window. You are now in full control of who sees you as online or offline.

Simply open the chat box at the bottom right of the page. You’ll see little sliders, green means online and grey means offline. Simply slide them to toggle whether you appear as online (green) or offline (grey) to that particular group.

Any ungrouped friends will appear in the Other Contacts list.

Adam Gardner is a freelance SEO / Social Media Expert. Follow him on twitter @agseo or subscribe to this blog via RSS.

Tags: facebook, friend lists, social networking

How To: Add the Facebook Like button to Joomla pages

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Here’s a quick guide on how to add the Facebook ‘Like’ button to Joomla pages complete with dynamic URLs.

First you’ll need a plugin that allows use of PHP code in Joomla. I’ve used this free one.

Activate the module and use the following code (Link to text file – Blogger doesn’t allow live php / Iframe code):

Choose your desired module position (I used banner in the screenshot above) and voila!

Tags: facebook, facebook like button, joomla, joomla cms

Invite ALL Facebook Friends to a Group or Fan Page

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How many times have you sat individually clicking every one of your friends to invite them to a group or fan page you’ve created? I know I have!

This little trick will automatically select ALL of you friends & then you can simply click submit … it’ll take 5 seconds rather than minutes.

Best of all, it’s completely allowed by Facebook so you don’t have any chance of getting your account banned.

How?

Simply go to a group and click on Invite People to Join
Remove all text from the web address bar and replace it with the following (Here’s a text file with the code, Blogger doesn’t allow javascript insertions)

It may appear that the invites haven't been sent - they are queued by Facebook. They will be sent.


Tags: facebook, fan page, group page, social networking

My previous post gave instructions on how to Block FarmVille. This one deals with how to unblock FarmVille (or any other app for that matter).

Good news again, it’s simple when you know how!

• Login to facebook and click Account > Privacy Settings

• Select Applications and Websites.

• Click Blocked Applications.

• In that menu you’ll find a list of your blocked apps, just click ‘Remove’ and you’ll have access to it again.

Tags: facebook, farmville, social networking, unblock farmville

Block FarmVille on Facebook (or other annoying applications)

If you’re looking for how to Unblock FarmVille, check this instead.

Are you a bit like me, using facebook (on a personal level) primarily to stay in touch with friends & family? I imagine then that you are also sick of your friends’ status updates about their progress in FarmVille, Mafia wars & I am guessing you don’t want to know about their horoscope predictions?

The solution is simple:

Find a FarmVille (or offending application) post in your news feed.

Click Hide & choose to Hide FarmVille.

Simple, effective & yet surprisingly unknown by most users.

Blocking Farmville Notifications

Sometimes (all the time) you’ll get notifications to start playing FarmVille / Mafia Wars / [substitute application name here].

The easiest way to get rid of existing requests it to click the x beside the invite, simple huh?

So what about blocking future requests?

Hurray! This can be done! The easiest way to do this is to search for the application name and go to it’s page. Under the apps profile pic you’ll see a link that says ‘Block Application’. Click it!

Tada! No more annoying invites to things you don’t want.

Unfortunately (and I believe this is a huge facebook flaw), this is a reactive measure rather than a proactive … surely there’s a way to block ALL apps to begin with?

Enjoy your spam free news wall!

Tags: block farmville, facebook, farmville, social networking, unblock farmville