The Associated Press is reporting that Facebook is ending its Groupon-like Deals program. After a Beta-like four month testing phase, the social networking giant pulled the plug on the experiment. Available in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Francisco and San Diego, the service will be gradually eliminated in the coming weeks. Facebook will continue to offer “check-in deals”, which is contingent to members checking in thru their pages. The company says it remains committed to serving local businesses through ads, pages and other products. Groupon (and Deals) are online businesses that offer discounts—usually 50-90% off—with popular local businesses. Deals are offered to thousands of subscribers in free daily emails, or social network ads, and local businesses (hopefully) benefit from the increase in foot traffic.
Also this week via AP, Facebook is augmenting their proprietary software to increase the size and loading speed of member photos posted to its website. This comes at a time when half of all american adults are now on social networks, according to a new study. Recently The Pew Internet & American Life Project found that, of the adults using the internet, nearly two-thirds use social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. A marked rise in Baby Boomers aged 50 to 64 have made Facebooking, and the like, part of their daily lives. Seniors also are testing the waters of social networking, said Mary Madden, co-author of the report. This is seen as a direct contradiction to the popular assumption of elder fears and apprehension towards technology.
Facebook said Friday that sharing photos is one of the most popular activities on its social network. Users upload more than 250 million photos each day. Photos will now be 33 percent wider, with a variable height. The changes come the same week that Facebook said it is letting users pre-approve having their names attached to a photo posted by a friend before that photo appears on their profile. the tagged photo will still appear on the friend’s page and could show up in the news feeds of common friends. But users can remove their names after the photos are posted. Online social networks are the most popular with young adults and women, and the “power users” of the social Web are women aged 18 to 29, the report found. Of this group, 89 percent use social networks and 69 percent do so on an average day, according to the Pew report.
Local Michiana social networking users and clubs, like the Social Media Club – South Bend, IN, and the South-Bend-Mishawaka-Networking group should be seeing the effects of these changes over the next few days.
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