FUTURE SHOPPING BAZAR

Lypp.com (site is not yet live) is a new group calling service set to launch a private beta in September. There are a lot of conference calling services out there already, not least among them being the full blown meeting applications (GoToMeeting, WebEx). However, Lypp wants to make initiating a conference call dead simple (download free) over IM, SMS, and email. The service will be free at the time of launch (each user will get 500 minutes of free calling, no per-min charges, no monthly fees).

IM will be the first mode for initiating conference calls. Users will associate an IM ID with their service and add Lypp as a friend. You’ll then be able to initiate a call by sending a command to that IM buddy, such as call [number, number, number]. Lypp will call your phone and those of your friends, connecting you all in a conference call. Most likely the calls are initiated and tied together over a VOIP bridge. Typing in my friends numbers instead of just selecting contacts on a downloaded application seems like it could get annoying, though.

They’re keeping it simple for launch, but have plans for an API, advanced in-call controls, recording, and possible location based. The API will integrate with calendaring, address books, and other complementary applications.

Labels: $, Calling, Coming, Conference, Facebook, in, Lypp’s Free-n-Easy, September

AdaptiveBlue has announced that their SmartLink Feeds for books, music, movies, and stocks are now “viral.”

The new SmartLink Feeds from the companies flagship Blue Organizer Firefox Add-on now include a “Grab Me” button that allows anyone to copy a list of favorites and place it on their web sites and social networking profiles. SmartLink Feeds can also be customized in appearance, content and users can also plug in their personal affiliate ID to monetize traffic to participating sites.

AdaptiveBlue will also now publish and update popular SmartLink Feeds to enable anyone to paste them into their own sites without having to be a regular user. SmartLink Feeds include the New York Times Bestsellers, Netflix Top Rentals, Amazon Hot Gadgets, iTunes Top Albums, and Wine.com Top Wines.

See our previous coverage of AdaptiveBlue Smartlink here.

Labels: $, Adaptive, Blue, Facebook, Feeds, Links, Makes, Playboy Launches Social, reena dhaka, Series, Smart, Viral

Some of the most popular Facebook applications are using highly questionable tactics to spread themselves virally. Users have noticed and complained, and Facebook took action today to put stop the most egregious behavior.

There are two ways application developers are breaking the rules to get new users. The first: When a user looks at an application on his/her profile the application can show something different than when other users view the profile. So a user adds an application that looks nice to them. But everyone else sees, say, a big yellow box with an advertisement that says the user wants you to add this application, too.

The second and more devious scheme is being used by many of the largest application developers. They all involve some sort of notification fraud. Generally, you add an application. Then, every one of your contacts is notified that you’ve “written on their wall” or “have asked them a question,” even though you never did. To view the content the contact must add the application. They then find out there is no wall comment, or its a canned question like “is it ok to kiss on the first date?”

Super Wall (RockYou, 4.5 m installs), My Questions (Slide, 6.9 m installs) and FunWall (Slide, 3.6 m installs) all do this (and users complain loudly in the comments area to the apps - see here and scroll down).

Facebook Hits Back

Facebook took measures today to stop these kinds of activities. The first is dealt with in the new release (1.1) of FBML, the markup language used to build Facebook applications. Developers will no longer be able to show a different profile to friends than the one the user sees him/herself:

One of the key parts of the success of the design of the Facebook profile is that the user is always aware of exactly what their profile looks like to their friends who stop by to view their profile. This enables users to understand exactly how they are expressing themselves to others by simply deciding whether or not they like an application’s profile box and the content that the developer has decided to put into the box.

Right now, we have made a few FBML tags available that are causing users to not trust the content in the profile box. Tags such as: fb:if-user-has-added-app, and other fb-if tags. These tags are currently being used to deliver content to profile boxes which users are unaware of. Content such as big yellow boxes which say “ADD THIS APPLICATION!” or “ADD SOME OTHER APPLICATION!”.

Starting today, these tags will no longer be available for use in profile boxes. We will be migrating FBML to version 1.1, and adding a new set of tags called fb:visible-to-. They are:

fb:visible-to-owner
fb:visible-to-friends
fb:visiible-to-user
fb:visible-to-added-app-users
fb:visible-to-app-users

Facebook also notified developers today that they will be blocked from sending misleading notifications to users. This will stop Slide, RockYou and others from mass spamming users with false notifications:

Over the last few weeks we have noticed several developers misleading our users into clicking on links, adding applications and taking actions. While the majority of developers are doing the right thing and playing by the rules, a few aren’t – and are creating spam as a result. Going forward, if you are deceptively notifying users or tricking them into taking actions that they wouldn’t have otherwise taken, we will start blocking these notifications. The bottom line is that if the notifications you send are the result of a genuine action by a Facebook user and that action is truthfully reported to the recipient so they can make an informed decision, you should have no problems. If you do find some notifications blocked, it was probably because this wasn’t the case and we will be happy to inform you of some best practices by other developers that have prevented this issue.

Facebook has done a great job in managing their platform since opening it up to developers of applications. They have had to accommodate application developers while at the same time protect users interests and the general security of the site. The changes that Facebook have made today, while they may inconvenience some application developers, have clearly been done to protect users from spammy tactics that some applications have employed.

Labels: Action, Against “Black Hat” Apps, Facebook, FutureBazarOnline.com, handsfree speaker, Marketplace; Users, Names, neeta lulla, painkillers, sharp, Takes

Vancouver based MyProgress offers a service that provides progress monitoring features (generally used in computer role playing games) for life tracking.

MyProgress allows users to track their personal finances, skills, “knowledges”, wealth and health dynamics.

The site tracks every piece of information users enter, from a new purchase, capital gains, an hour of photographic or driving experience, or a rental price change, and provides a detailed overview on how fast they are progressing in comparison with the others across multiple categories, such as age, occupation, and location. The service provides analytics about user’s life and build forecasts based on past data.

MyProgress is billed as the world’s first online application “designed to helping an individual [not a corporate] manage their progress and read their life log as an RSS feed.”

Labels: Edward, Facebook, FutureBazarOnline.com, handsfree speaker, integrated handsfree speaker, Lets, mp3 capability, Mueller, My, Pictures”, Progress, samsung, Track, You, Your

A pairing of the two most hyped tech products of the year: Facebook released what is arguably the single best iPhone-customized website to date at iphone.facebook.com. Like the Netvibes iPhone site which launched late yesterday, it isn’t much to look at in a normal browser. But open that thing up in an iPhone and you’ve got a very usable site.

The site uses javascript to avoid page refreshes, although there is still some lag in moving around the site (this is an iPhone issue). The main navigation tabs - Home, Profile, Friends and Inbox - are at the top of the site. Click on any person and see their profile, wall or photos via a horizontally scrolling interface.

Overall I’d give this a top rating except for the occasional javascript error that crashed it out. Given that this hasn’t officially launched yet, I’d actually expect more bugs than I was able to find.

I have not seen a better iPhone website than this one. If you have, let me know. A lot of startups are going to look to this as the gold standard. At least for now.

Labels: + iPhone, = Ultra, calendar, Cool, Edward, Facebook, mobile, phone, The Future