Facebook Now Highlighting Tagged User Names

It is always difficult to tell when Facebook is testing new features / formats because they roll out so many variations to differrent user segments. So with that caveat, below appears to be a new format for tagged users. When you tag a user on Facebook, the name now appears highlighted fully in a Facebook-blue shade. The result is a clearer indication that the name is an 'entity'- it is hyperlinked, non-editable, etc. More interestingly, it occurs at a time when Facebook has rolled out Places - where user tagging is a key feature (and a differentiated one too). It is my hope that this is the beginning of a more robust tagging experience.

Facebook Places Gorgeous Mobile Promotion

A few weeks ago, I wrote about YouTube's terrific mobile promotion of their new html5 experience. Here is an even better, more eye-catching promotion by Facebook for the new Facebook Places product. As background, to access Places, users had to download the new iPhone app. Upon opening of the new app, the screen animates to highlight the new Places tab and experience. It is great looking but entirely distracting... Which is clearly the intention. I have written before about making sure that new products and enhancements somehow get "into the river" - my reference to ensuring that features are not relegated to the edge of the experience... After all, they then are not core to the experience, rarely used and therefore not impactful. This one way for Facebook to get Places into the river - and considering it's currently a mobile-only product, it is as effective as can be:

Facebook Advertising: 500m Users is Attraction for Ads, Jobs

Facebook often runs their own advertisements as sponsored units on the main newsfeed. The ads typically promote new features, job openings, their ad platform, etc. So these below promotions for Facebook jobs and Facebook's Ad Platform are nothing out of the ordinary... but what is noteworthy is how Facebook has now begun using their 500m user milestone as a marketing message:

Advertise on Facebook Promote your business to 500m+ active and enaged users on Facebook. Develop your brand online by connecting with your audience.

Wanted: Ops Engineers! Want to keep Facebook running for over 500m active users? Apply today!

Interestingly, the marketing message isn't too dissimilar to that of the upcoming Facebook movie ("The Social Network"):

Quora Opens to Google, SEO is Rocking

A little over a year ago, I wrote about Facebook's new vanity URLs and the immediate SEO boost that ensued. Quora recently opened up their content to Google... and it appears as though it too is the beginning of an SEO boom. It makes sense considering how deep, rich and unique Quora's content is - which to Google is a goldmine. Furthermore, the questions and answers format has always been relevant to search engine queries. Two great examples are Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com) which was built with this in mind and Yahoo Answers, which for years has ranked terrificly in Google.

SEO has emerged from a talent (usually buried within the organization) to a business. Folks like Demand Media have turned it from art to science - and for folks like Quora, it can be an important lever for traffic acquisition, findibility, etc. Ultimately, it boils down to the lasting value of the your site's content - and Quora (and others) are in a great position for that because of its community and the dynamic nature of site (content evolves over time - it is not a static, one-time piece).

Here is a simple example of just using my own name as a query. Within a week Quora has emerged on the first page... which is impressive:

Twitter Launches Tweet Button; Publishers to Allocate Pixel Real Estate

Twitter has officially launched their Tweet Button - a natural move which will place them beside Facebook's like buttons... and across millions of pages on the web (soon to be on this blog!). The question is what happens to everything else? There is only so much space on each page and ultimately publishers will only devote real estate to those buttons that deliver the most traffic / engagement. Twitter and Facebook will clearly qualify - but who else? My favorite example is this post from Mashable which leaked the Tweet Button a couple days ago. The Tweet Button screenshot sits below the Facebook Like graph and beside Tweetmeme, Digg, and Facebook Share. Of course there are others: For instance, I use Apture and Disqus. And more will come - like Facebook's long rumored social bar.

Twitter's Earlybird Launches Madden 11 for $39.99 on Buy.com; Sells Out But Doesn't Translate to Twitter Followers

Yesterday was the launch of Madden NFL 11 (coverage here). Yesterday was also my first purchase through Twitter's Earlybird. Earlybird had a big offer on the new Madden NFL 11 video game - it normally retails for $59.99 but was sold through Buy.com (sans @Earlybird) for $39.99.

Considering the savings and the timing - it was a compelling offer... and it sold out after three offer releases over a two hour period.

Interestingly, the promotion did not lead to a significant increase in Twitter followers for Buy.com (@buy_com). Despite the offers buzz, Buy.com only gained ~300 Twitter followers. Ultimately, I imagine that they are valuing the promotion in part to increased social buzz / presence (as I imagine most purchasers were like me: in and out with only a discounted video game).

Madden 11 Launch Campaign vs. Madden 10

Last year I covered the Madden 10 advertising blitz that took over ESPN and YouTube's homepage with slick, expanding units that interacted with the pages' content. I have always been impressed by ad units that disrupt a page's live content - but ultimately the units are built individually for each site and thus don't scale.... so it's no wonder that the Madden 11 advertising blitz is different: Madden 10 YouTube Takeover

Unsurprisingly, the Madden 11 ad units are quite different. In addition to being contained within their pixel real estate... the big focus is Facebook and social sharing.

Here is the primary unit on ESPN.com's homepage. The unit itself contracts after several seconds of viewership. Most interestingly, is the order of the ad's three call to action buttons:

1. Like This (on Facebook) 2. Buy it Now 3. Get the Demo

By getting the demo, you are able to view HD video content within the ad unit:

Notice that the Madden 11 campaign extended beyond ESPN's homepage... or even their NFL section. Here is a more aggressive takeover of the MLB Scores section. There is more Madden content above the fold than actual content:

And lastly, when you visit the Madden Facebook page - the focus again is to drive "Likes". Drew Brees points towards the Like button and the 'Get Started' button begins with driving Facebook fans:

Twitter's Who To Follow vs. Facebook's People You May Know

It was a long time coming, but Twitter released their "Who to Follow" tool... and it's terrific. It makes Twitter more navigable and more socially relevant: For me at least - this translates to richer content, more frequent usage and a deeper Twitter social graph. It is powerful because the "Who to Follow" recommendations are very, very good. I am not sure what the recommendations are based on - but they are highly relevant and have a high hit rate. Below each recommended user is a list of other Twitter users who are particularly relevant... they of course add valuable context. But perhaps the most compelling part is that Twitter includes a bio for each user. This is unique because:

1) Facebook doesn't have user bios, and 2) Twitter users work hard to craft < 140 character summaries of themselves... so they are compact, promotional and interesting

In contrast, Facebook's People You May Know tool lacks the same relevance and information (there is no user bio and you have to work to find friend's in common). More importantly, Facebook doesn't seem to have as powerful of a recommendation algorithm. Now users have plenty of ways to find other users of Facebook: their Friend Finder, the Facebook feed itself, the like graph, etc:

Facebook Questions' Profanity Filter is a Little too Sensitive...

Tonight I tried using Facebook Questions to ask the "best way to cook chicken breats"... I was specifically looking for advice on temperature and timing. I was not allowed to ask the question due to "profanity". Seems that their filter is a little too aggressive! A more important note, I have encountered several bugs since Questions rolled out: tagging, @ replies, auto-detection on URLs in status updates, etc. But this takes the cake: