Facebook have announced a new video calling service. The video calling service is powered by Skype and will allow you to easily add video to your conversations with Facebook friends.
Facebook are currently extending the prominence of their chat service even more by introducing a new ‘messages sidebar’ that appears along the right side of your window with on Facebook.
At this stage, Facebook have released a promotional video launching Facebook Video Calling, although the video reveals little about how the service works.
This ‘awesome announcement’ (in the words of Mark Zuckerberg) is slightly dampened as it follows the recent Beta launch of Google+. Google+ is a social network created by Google and boasts video group calling for up to 10 people in ‘Google Hangouts’. You can either enter a public hangout and wait for people to turn up, or create a hangout for a specific ‘circle’ of accounts that you have previously included in the circle.
Google’s video shows a bit more of how the service works.
To this extent, when it comes to video calling, it’s fair to say Google+ is a step ahead of both Skype and Facebook simply because of the sheer number of people that can be included on the video group call, as well as the clever integration with Google Circles.
However, Facebook has the benefit of being a well established social network with more than 750 million active users, while Google is still in an invite-only beta testing stage. So it could be said that Facebook has a head start while Google cements the transition from ‘search’ to ‘search and social’.
Initial thoughts from the NZS.com community suggest that Facebook could remain strong as a more personal social networking tool, while Google+ will act as a more professional and public form of social networking, perhaps hitting the mark that LinkedIn have been aiming for all this time?
What do you think? Will you be spending your time more on Google+ than Facebook over the next year? Or is Facebook enough of a social network for you?
P.S. Kudos for Facebook’s much nicer version of an embedded video than YouTube! Doesn’t it look much smarter without those controls at the bottom?
Recently, Facebook changed their “Become a Fan” to a simple “Like”. This could help to boost those who are subscribed to a Facebook Page and the overall social networking presence of your blog as it softens the connection – it’s possible that many people will not even realise they are subscribing to a Facebook Page’s updates through the act of liking.
One nice little touch of this is that it can encourages new subscriptions from friends of people that like your Facebook Page (it was easier to say fans wasn’t it!). Take our search engine optimisation pals at Search Engine Land as an example. On their blog they have the Facebook Social Plugin. If you’re not logged into Facebook, this shows a random selection of people that “Like” Search Engine Land. So what? Good for them.
However, if you ARE logged into Facebook, this plugin quietly looks in your contacts list and then shows you which of your contacts like the blog. You may not even realise you’re logged into Facebook when this happens. I was on this blog and saw no one I knew in the social plugin. I refreshed a few times with the same result. I then logged into Facebook and refreshed the page. Instantly, Kalena (an SEO buddy of mine) appeared in the social plugin. I refreshed a few times and she appeared every time.
What does this do for readers of the blog? Seeing a friendly face instantly helps you to connect with the blog. If a trusted friend is a fan/liker then you are far more likely to trust the blog and feel like you should also become a fan/liker.
For more information on the different plugins available and what they do for your site, check out our guide to Facebook Social Plugins.
Clever stuff, Facebook.
P.S. Incidentally, don’t forget to like NZS.com on Facebook for more insights into the New Zealand web space.
Microsoft has paid US$240 million for a 1.6% stake in social networking site, Facebook, making the company instantly worth US$15 billion.
Does this statement ring true? My view on this is that it’s a ridiculous theory.
Sure, if you do the maths considering current equity positions, it might come to $15 billion, but is that really what Microsoft is buying into? The most important part of the press release tells us that Microsoft is now the exclusive advertising partner for Facebook until the year 2011. The 1.6% equity stake is just extra gravy.
Similarly, Google paid US$900 million for exclusive advertising rights for MySpace a few years ago. If they had received a 1.6% share, does that make MySpace worth some multiplicative factor of $900 million?
If the press release had simply said, Microsoft pays $250 million for exclusive advertising rights, no one would have batted an eye. Microsoft has not paid US$15 billion for Facebook, but rather has purchased advertising rights. But I think it’s brilliant on Microsoft’s part taking 1.6% equity; the equity has little monetary value – it’s unlikely that Facebook will ever be worth $15 billion – but look, aren’t we all talking about it?
This is a win for Microsoft. And naturally, a win for Facebook.
Initial thoughts from the NZS.com community suggest that Facebook could remain strong as a more personal social networking tool, while Google+ will act as a more professional and public form of social networking, perhaps hitting the mark that LinkedIn have been aiming for all this time?
