Facebook to start charging membership fees?

Some Facebook users have started posting on their walls a message claiming that Facebook will start charging fees for access and services to users starting this summer. And if you will repost the message, you will get it for free. This hoax is not new. I have seen many Facebook hoaxes from the past and this is the latest.

The picture above is one of the example circulating messages on Facebook. You might read other verions like the following:

IT IS OFFICIAL. IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS. FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES. IF YOU COPY THIS ON YOUR WALL YOUR ICON WILL TURN BLUE AND FACEBOOK WILL BE FREE FOR YOU. PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON, IF NOT YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED IF YOU DO NOT PAY.

And here's another one.

It's official.. signal at 12;20 it even passed on tv. Facebook will start charging this summer. If you copy this on your wall your icon will turn blue and facebook will be free for you. Please pass this message if not your count will be deleted. p.s, this is serious the icon turns blue, So please put this on your wall

Facebook is the most popular social networking site with over 800+ million users. Do you think Facebook needs subscription revenue? If Facebook will charge $9.99 per month to Gold Services, imagine the revenue after a month.

However, this rumor is untrue. Please take the moment to verify the speculations. There is no link or official announcement from Facebook that they will charge for a fee. The message is nothing more but an updated version of an old hoax. Facebook, as written on the homepage of the website is "Free and Always will be."

Google Analytics V5 is out for everyone

Google has improved the old version of Google Analytics into Google Analytics V5. When you sign in you can find a "New Version" link at the top right corner of your account page on Google Analytics. You can access both the old and new version anytime. The interface was redesigned and made faster than the previous version. Google Analytics is now available to all users in all languages.  If you haven't tried it yet, I encourage you to try the new version today. Experience new features and send feedback to further improve the new version.

Here is a list new features: 

• Multiple dashboard feature. You can add up to 20 dashboards per user that can contain up to 12 widgets. 
• Event Goals to track interactions from your site like PDF and video downloads 
• Powerful new custom reports.
• New Term cloud visualization
• Plot Rows to view two report graphs over time.

Google Analytics is soliciting feedbacks from users to improve the new system. More features to be release on the future so stay tune!

Facebook is serving 400 million users with style on its 6th birthday

Facebook is celebrating its 6th birthday and is now serving 400 million users and still rapidly growing. Last two months Facebook hits 350 million users. It took two months for Facebook to have another 50 million. On the other side, Twitter has 18 million users. So far away from that of Facebook. I watched CNN and saw people interviewed about twitter.Twitter is just not so popular compared to Facebook. 

Facebook launches its new design. Few days from now 400 million users will have the new design. I've already have it. With the new homepage, you can view your messages, add friends and see notifications, view photos, groups and other stuffs without ever navigating away to another page. It has more emphasis on search. In fact, the search bar is on top of the homepage. Also Facebook apps are place on the sidebar. You can open them without navigating away. It was usually on the bottom left.

Facebook's new design offers easy messaging. You can view and send messages in drop down menu at the top without again leaving the homepage. Also your  IM contact lists is moved to left sidebar. 

MyBlogLog is Closing this January

MyBlogLog is a famous blogging community. MyBlogLog was founded last 2005 and was bought by Yahoo in 2007.Yahoo bought MyBlogLog for $10M . And now Yahoo is shutting it down. There is no specific reason why Yahoo will shut down the site but according to what I've read from other sources, its traffic is decreasing overtime so Yahoo has no option but to shut it down.

Yahoo have killed Geocities and now its MyBlogLog. What is next to be killed from Yahoo?

Twitter was Hacked by Iranian Cyber Army!

I was going to log on to my twitter account and I was shocked on what I have seen! Twitter has been hacked by Iranian cyber army on 18th DEc @ 12 AM CDT. Check it out for you to see.

Girl dies of Electrocution while Tweeting on Bathtub

A 17 -year old Romanian girl died of electrocution while tweeting on her bathtub. Yes people! Twitter kills. Whatever you do, don't ever do what she did. It will be a twittercide.

The news says that, Maria Barbu was in the tub while using Twitter when she likely reached in to plug her charger with wet hand and electrocuting herself in the process.


But what does she have to tweet in the tub anyway huh? " Washing my legs" ? =D She must have forgot to tweet that she was wet and naked and ready to go! lol peace out!

Be careful and do not be so dumb about water and electricity. That is why it is stated in electrical codes that outlets in the bathroom and kitchen must be GFCI protected. Why would this happen in the 21st century? I thought people are smarter nowadays.

Microsoft criticized by Cuba for blocking Messenger

Microsoft has disabled the use of its instant messaging service to 5 countries: Syria, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Cuba. Internet users from these countries could no longer connect to Windows Live Messenger.

Last Friday, Cuba criticized Microsoft Messenger to block its instant messaging service to the islands and other countries under U.S. sanctions, calls this another example of Washington "inhumane" treatment of Havana. The Windows Live Messenger was used to island for a decade, without interference from Microsoft.

The technology giant recently announced the availability of programs in Cuba, Syria, Iran, Sudan and North Korea to comply with a U.S. ban on transfer of software licenses to countries subject to embargo.

Juventud Rebelde, a technology writer, says in an article published by state youth newspaper that the move was " just the latest turn of the screw in the United States' technological blockade against the island". He stressed that the ban for the transfer of technology was a severe violation of Cuban rights.

Read full article on sfgate: Cuba criticizes Microsoft blocking Messenger

From the five countries that Microsoft blocked, only Cuba had criticised Microsft and I have not hear from the other countries.

Bing is Now Open for Beta

I thought the launch will be on June 3rd as what I've read on Mashable . But then It was now on its Beta phase. Or I guess I read it wrong or something. You should be now trying its Beta phase and compare it to Google. I got a little comment on the Beta page. I am not surprise with it. It is decent but, I did not feel something new with it.

I've tried the search. I entered other blogs name like PinoyMoneyTalk and other authority sites like YouTube and the results were great. I notice that when I try to search it displays related searches on the left side. It also gives short summary of the content when you point your mouse over the result and auto plays videos. But it is not that different to the Live Search. Nothing was surprising as promised.

I've search my blog on Bing but nothing appears. Of course I haven't submitted my URL to them because Google was my priority. But I did submit my URL while writing this post.

Enough of my comments and try it for yourself now. Comeback here and tell me what did you experience new about it, if in case there is :D

Microsoft's New Search Engine: Google Killer?

After weeks of speculation, Microsoft Company has announced the launch of Bing on June 3rd. Will these be a Google killer? Well, Bing has a number of innovative features and it is expected that we will see some changes in the search industry. But Google will not be standing there doing nothing.

Here's a quote from Search Engine Watch

But Google isn't going to stand still, as we saw with last night's stealth increase in Google's index to a reported 8 billion pages, which means Google is likely working with a full index of more than 10 billion items—roughly twice the size of Microsoft's web index.

There are rumors that Microsoft plans to attack Google in their upcoming ad campaign. Bing is significantly different form Microsoft's current search engine - live search. But is it really better than Google? Microsoft would be working hard to make people try the new search engine. Well, I've read on a forum, a comment from the New search engine. He said that it will be a failure because they're just changing the name and that tactics won't help. I guess he knows what he is saying =D.

The question now here guys is, Will Bing, be our next search engine?

Testing Macuha's Twitter Followers Method

I would like to thank Carlo for this. Macuha have added 2000+ targeted followers in one week! I got curious on how he did that. I got a copy of e-books on black hat methods on how to increase twitter followers. I also got some software for that. But I've never use them anyways. I wanna try Macuha's method starting this week and I'm gonna report to you what I have achieved the following week. Meanwhile here's a quote from Macuha's blog regarding the method.

I’ve been following John Chow’s advice since last week on how to get more targeted Twitter followers. Here is his advice in a snapshot:

1. Search on search.twitter.com for keywords in your niche.
2. Follow all the twitter users on the search results.
3. These users will starts following you back.
4. After 48 hours, unfollow all those that did not follow back using friendorfollow.com.
5. Rinse and repeat.
Just like what he said, this is a slow and painful way, but still effective on getting followers. For just a week of doing it, I already have 2300+ followers, I started with 300+ followers last week. See the graph below!

However, I did not strictly follow his advice and did some change of plans to make it faster, almost semi-automatic. Here’s what I actually did:
Instead of doing a search for the keywords on my niche and painfully following each user on the result, I simply follow John Chow’s followers! Why? Following each user on the search results takes time: you click on one of the search result to open his twitter page, wait for the page to load, then you click the follow button, then close the page and move to the next user. That really takes time. However, following John Chow’s user is simple. You open his follower’s page and click the follow button all the way from the top to bottom. You can follow 20 users in less than a minute. Since we are on the same “Make Money Online” niche, I’m sure that his followers are of the same interest as mine. Easy, isn’t it?
I also modified step 4 to make my life easier. Instead of using the friendorfollow.com site, where you get a list of people you follow who don’t follow you back, then you open their twitter page and unfollow them that takes a lot of time, I used tweepular.com instead! With Tweepular, you can get the list of people who don’t follow you back and you can easily unfollow them with a single click of your mouse. No visiting their twitter page. A single click, and 200 of them are unfollowed in an instant. Almost instantly. Almost automatic!
What’s the purpose of getting tons of Twitter followers? Lots of followers mean lots of people reading your tweets. It’s easier to get your voice out there, specially if your followers are targeted and know exactly what you are tweeting about. Some people are actually making lots of money because of this. And I want to be one of them. Maybe, in the near future.