10 fascinating Facebook facts

A study released this week revealed that 47% of Facebook users have swear words on their pages. A survey last week, meanwhile, showed that undergraduate men who talk about alcohol on Facebook tend to have more friends.

Here are some fascinating Facebook facts that just might serve as a peek into our 21st-century values.
1. 56% of Americans think it's irresponsible to friend your boss on Facebook

A survey released in February 2010 showed the majority of Americans don't find it socially acceptable to be Facebook friends with their boss. The study of 1,000 people by Liberty Mutual's Responsibility Project suggests that despite an increasing overlap between our work and home lives, we continue to value a separation between the two.

Meanwhile, 62% of those surveyed said it's wrong for a manager to befriend an employee on Facebook. And yet 76% of respondents said it was acceptable to befriend a peer on Facebook, suggesting what we truly value is that our work be judged on its merits rather than getting ahead based on personal relationships.

2. Facebook links about sex are shared 90% more than average

Facebook confirms the adage: Sex sells. From February until May 2010, social media scientist Dan Zarrella processed 12,000 links to news sites and blogs. He discovered that links about sex were 90% more likely to be shared on Facebook than any other subject matter.

He also discovered that links with positive sentiment were more likely to be shared on Facebook than those with negative viewpoints.

3. People in Facebook relationships are happier than single people

In February 2010, Facebook marked Valentine's Day by comparing the relationship status of its users to their happiness -- this was surmised based on the level of positive or negative sentiment in the user's Facebook updates.

The result: Those in relationships were found to be slightly happier than single people. Those who were married or engaged were also happier than single people on average.

However, Facebook users in an "open relationship" -- where the partners are not exclusive to one another -- were significantly less happy than single people. Monogamy, it seems, makes us happy.

4. 21% of people would break up via Facebook

A June 2010 survey of 1,000 Facebook users -- 70% of whom were male -- found that 25% had been "dumped" via Facebook (via their significant other updating his or her relationship status).

Twenty-one percent of those surveyed said they would end a relationship by changing their Facebook relationship statuses to "single." While worrisome, the survey does show the majority of people do not split up via Facebook.

For this uncomfortable task, it seems, we still turn to more personal forms of communication. This particular study also appears to suffer from a little male bias -- a July 2010 survey found that 9% of women have initiated a breakup via Facebook, versus 24% of men.

5. 85% of women are annoyed by their Facebook friends

For women on Facebook, friends can sometimes be irritating. In a March study conducted by Eversave, 85% admitted to having been annoyed by their Facebook friends. Of these annoyances, the most cited was "complaining all the time" (63%).

Other pet peeves included "sharing unsolicited political views" (42%) and "bragging about seemingly perfect lives" (32%).

While I've yet to see a similar survey focused on men, it's probably safe to assume these feelings are universal: Our friends are a source of joy and occasional irritation.

6. 25% of households with a Facebook account don't use privacy controls

A June 2010 survey from Consumer Reports stated that "in one of four households with a Facebook account, users weren't aware of or didn't choose to use the service's privacy controls."

While Consumer Reports chose to interpret this finding in a negative light, I'd propose a contrary view: Seventy-five percent of households did take the time to understand Facebook's privacy controls, suggesting that privacy remains important to our society.

The same study stated that "Twenty-six percent of Facebook users with children had potentially exposed them to predators by posting the children's photos and names."

Again, the positive view would be that 74% of Facebook users with children did not post their photos and names -- suggesting that we value privacy.

7. 48% of parents friend their kids on Facebook

On the question of whether it's OK to friend your kids on Facebook, parents are roughly split down the middle -- 48% have chosen to do so. Respondents in a May 2010 survey by Retrevo admitted that this could be "awkward at times."

Parents were also asked about the minimum age at which their children should be allowed to sign up for Facebook or MySpace. Twenty-six percent of parents replied "over 18," 36% said "16 to 18," 30% said "13 to 15" and 8% said "under 13."

Opinions may be changing rapidly, however. A Consumer Reports survey released this month says the majority of parents of kids 10 and under "seemed largely unconcerned by their children's use" of Facebook.

8. 47% of Facebook users have profanity on their walls

As previously mentioned, a new study by the reputation management service Reppler has found that 47% of Facebook users have swear words on their walls, with these profanities being posted by a friend 56% of the time.

In other words: Nearly half of Facebook users are comfortable with swearing. The most common profanity on Facebook? No prizes for guessing: It's the "F-word."

9. 48% of people say they look at their ex's Facebook profile too often

In a January study by YouTango, 48% of respondents said they look at their ex's Facebook or other social-networking profile too often. The statistic illustrates one danger of social-networking profiles -- ex-partners are more accessible than ever.

But the survey also points to a degree of self-awareness among the respondents. While new technologies provide new temptations, it seems that many of us are able to control these behaviors.

10. 36% of under-35s check Facebook, Twitter or texts after sex

An October 2009 study by Retrevo suggested that social networks are becoming an increasingly important part of young people's lives. Among under-35s, 36% admitted to "tweeting, texting and checking Facebook after sex." Forty percent of respondents admitted to doing so while driving, 64% said they do so at work, and 65% use these communication channels while on vacation.

Here, we might conclude that the next generation is driving society into a less desirable direction: a world in which digital devices are never put down, even in the most inappropriate of situations.

On the whole, we continue to value privacy. We try to look out for our kids. And as we have been since time immemorial, we continue to be fascinated by sex -- after which we go straight to Facebook to find out what our exes are up to.
Source: CNN

Coming soon: make your phone your wallet

Today in our New York City office, along with Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint, we gave a demo of Google Wallet, an app that will make your phone your wallet. You’ll be able to tap, pay and save using your phone and near field communication (NFC). We’re field testing Google Wallet now and plan to release it soon.

Google Wallet is a key part of our ongoing effort to improve shopping for both businesses and consumers. It’s aimed at making it easier for you to pay for and save on the goods you want, while giving merchants more ways to offer coupons and loyalty programs to customers, as well as bridging the gap between online and offline commerce.

Because Google Wallet is a mobile app, it will do more than a regular wallet ever could. You'll be able to store your credit cards, offers, loyalty cards and gift cards, but without the bulk. When you tap to pay, your phone will also automatically redeem offers and earn loyalty points for you. Someday, even things like boarding passes, tickets, ID and keys could be stored in Google Wallet.

At first, Google Wallet will support both Citi MasterCard and a Google Prepaid Card, which you’ll be able to fund with almost any payment card. From the outset, you’ll be able to tap your phone to pay wherever MasterCard PayPass is accepted. Google Wallet will also sync your Google Offers, which you’ll be able to redeem via NFC at participating SingleTap™ merchants, or by showing the barcode as you check out. Many merchants are working to integrate their offers and loyalty programs with Google Wallet.

With Google Wallet, we’re building an open commerce ecosystem, and we’re planning to develop APIs that will enable integration with numerous partners. In the beginning, Google Wallet will be compatible with Nexus S 4G by Google, available on Sprint. Over time, we plan on expanding support to more phones.

To learn more please visit our Google Wallet website at www.google.com/wallet.

This is just the start of what has already been a great adventure towards the future of mobile shopping. We’re incredibly excited and hope you are, too.

400 Percent Increase In Android Malware; Mobile Security Threats At Record High

Juniper Networks today released a study concerned with potential threats to mobile technology, revealing a 400 percent increase in Android malware. The study also found that both enterprise and consumer mobile devices are being exposed to a record number of security threats, including highly targeted Wi-Fi attacks.

One of the most unsettling findings of the study was the fact that the greatest distribution point for mobile malware is the application download. With the 400-percent increase of Android malware, now would be as good a time as any to choose an antivirus app. Still, the vast majority of mobile users neglect to employ any form of antivirus software on their mobile devices. And Android isn’t the only medium under attack, either. According to a different study from AVG Technologies, Facebook (along with Android) has seen a huge jump in malicious campaigns, specifically three times that of last year.

The study also revealed the risks of SMS, which is particularly upsetting, as it is the most used activity on a cell phone for about a million years running, and may just be the preferred form of communication in the next few years. To that end, it is certainly worth noting that 17 percent of all reported infections came from SMS trojans, which sent texts to premium rate numbers, incurring major charges to the victims. The study also mentioned that 20 percent of all teens admit to sending explicit or inappropriate material from a mobile device.

Let this be a wake-up call for all of us. If hackers have spent their lives devising ways to ruin our computers, what makes us think our precious smartphones are any exception? Food for thought.

Google and Samsung to Announce First Chrome System at I/O?

I/O, Google's development conference, hits San Francisco next week, but don't expect any big Chrome OS announcements. Well, not technically, at least. Samsung and Google will be hosting an event as the conference is wrapping up on the evening of May 11th at a nearby location, reportedly to launch a new Chrome-powered netbook.

Google's Chrome operating system has been two years in the making and is currently only seen on CR-48 pilot laptops not sold to the public, but with Samsung as one of Google's hardware partners, it appears that is about to change.

Here's a run-down of what we think about the Samsung netbook and Chrome systems in general.

- the Samsung netbook is code-named "Alex." It is reportedly 10 inches with a 1.5 GHz dual-core Atom N550 processor and 2 GB of RAM, as well as a Qualcomm Gobi 2000 3G card, Bluetooth, WiFi, webcam, and Synaptics touch-pad.

- Google's Chrome systems will be designed to be swift, low-power affairs optimized for web surfing and cloud-based storage. There's also been talk of a subscription model in which Chrome systems are given away to users that agree to pay a 10-20 dollar a month fee.

- At least one other Chrome-powered system--from Acer--has also leaked recently.

- Under pressure from developers and enterprise users, the latest update of Chrome now includes a file explorer, as well as VPN support.

- Google claims Chrome notebooks will boot in ten seconds, resume from sleep instantly, and include all the goodies such as Flash support. A 3G package with Verizon wireless for Chrome systems includes 100 MB of free data per month.

- Google will likely push Chrome OS users to adopt its web apps over traditional software, much like the apps available for the Chrome browser, an extension of the concept that Chrome OS is primarily meant to take advantage of the cloud.

Royal Wedding Viewed More Than 100M Times On YouTube

The story of tech is largely about adoption, and adoption often comes into focus in the wake of cultural events. Last Friday’s wedding of Prince William to Katharine Middleton was the epitome of an event, bringing together YouTube watchers, Facebookers, Flickrers, Twitterers and even Colorers in a mass collective online experience of the festivities.

Taking place at 11 am in London (4 am in SF) the wedding itself was live streamed 72 million times, to people watching in 188 countries. With the addition of rebroadcasts that day, the streams reached 101 million by the end of April 29th.

(In case you missed it you can still view the entire 3 hour and 37 minute long affair on YouTube or above.)

During the 10 second Royal kiss, the Royal YouTube Channel received 100K additional requests, at 10K requests a second. Unsurprisingly the top five countries watching the spectacle were the UK, the US, Italy, Germany and France.

The official Royal Wedding website was bombarded with traffic, and has seen around 37.7 million page views and 13.7 million unique visitors since its launch on March 2. The event has also spawned the already beloved memes Frowning Flower Girl, Cartwheeling Priest and Princess Beatrice’s Hat.

Princess Beatrice’s ridiculous hat has over 100K fans on Facebook, beating Aretha Franklin’s inauguration hat at 94K. But seriously, what were they both thinking?

A world of curiosity: a peek at searches around the globe

Every day, people come to Google Search to ask questions. Through Google, questions become answers, and answers lead to the next set of questions. These people come from around the world and all walks of life, speaking hundreds of different languages, typing in search queries every single day.Sharing the Search Globe, a new visual display representing one day of Google searches around the world—visualizing the curiosity of people around the globe.


This visualization was developed and designed by the Google Data Arts Team using WebGL, a new technology for modern browsers that uses your computer’s hardware to generate fast, 3D graphics. As a result, you need a WebGL-enabled browser, like Google Chrome, to see the Globe. You can learn more about the technology behind the Globe on the Google Code Blog.

The Search Globe visualizes searches from one day, and shows the language of the majority of queries in an area in different colors. You’ll see a bright landscape of queries across Europe, and parts of Asia for instance, but unfortunately we see many fewer searches from parts of the world lacking Internet access—and often electricity as well—like Africa.

Android To Surpass Apple’s App Store In Size By August 2011: Report (Exclusive)

There’s no doubt Android Market will at some point offer more applications for download and/or purchase than Apple’s App Store, as the latter’s growth has been slowing down of late, while the Android application store’s growth rate has been accelerating.

In a recent report, app store analytics company Distimo forecasted that Android would surpass the App Store in size before the end of July 2011.

Another research firm, Germany-based research2guidance, corroborates Distimo’s findings; the firm forecasts Android to blow past Apple’s App Store by August 2011.

Provided current growth rates for new app uploads are maintained, research2guidance expects Android Market to reach 425,000 apps next August, effectively overtaking App Store in size.

According to the firm, Android Market added 28,000 new apps in April 2011, whereas Apple lagged behind with only 11,000 new apps.

Evidently, there’s always the question whether this matters at all. After all, the bulk of applications that are available for both platforms don’t see much traction anyway, so how relevant it is whether there are 100,000 apps or 200,000 apps that are rarely, if ever, downloaded by anyone? (note that this goes for most if not all mobile application stores)

In fact, notes research2guidance, Android Market’s high growth rate does not necessarily mean that the average mobile app developer will have a better shot at generating revenues from the store. In fact, the firm posits, the opposite may be true:

On the contrary, the success of an app store is negatively correlated to the success of an average developer. All analysis on the early months of an app store including the Android Market shows that average download numbers decrease dramatically after the first months or even weeks after the launch of the store. The long tail gets longer and longer while the top 5% gets richer and richer.

Be that as it may, Android Market’s stunning growth is worth noting, especially because it came out the gates fairly slowly.

Google Dissolves Search Group Internally, Now Called “Knowledge”

Google has seven major product groups. Advertising, Commerce & Local, Mobile (Android), Social, Chrome, YouTube and Search. Search is, of course, Google’s first and most important product. But that group actually no longer exists internally. As of April, when Larry Page took over as CEO of the company, the search group was renamed the “knowledge group” internally.

Google confirms the change. And, they point out, it was actually publicly announced in an SEC filing made on April 11. Nobody seems to have noticed that someone was named the SVP of a Google product group that previously hadn’t existed.

Why the change? That’s a longer story.

Leadership of Google search, like most other Google products, was previously split between Marissa Mayer as product lead and Udi Manber as engineering lead. Late last year Mayer moved over to run Local. Alan Eustace now runs the group, and Manber reports to him. There’s a single leader of the group, and he reports to Page.

Page, say our sources, has for a long while been thinking of search as much more than Google’s original mission to “organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” His goal is about more than organizing that information, though. It’s also about enhancing people’s understanding and facilitating the creation of knowledge.

The problem is, “search” still means “search.” And as Google has expanded that product over the years, first bringing in results from Google’s vertical search engines via Universal Search in 2007, and later via Google Squared, which structures information on the Internet.

And there have been other experiments as well. Google Base, for example, as well as Google Knol.

In fact, look back at this 2007 Google blog post about Knol, where Manber says “The challenge posed to us by Larry, Sergey and Eric was to find a way to help people share their knowledge. This is our main goal.”

These product efforts have generally been led by Manber in the past. And they remain in the search/knowledge group today.

Here’s how Google currently views the group. Remember that previously they split it up between Mayer (product) and Manber (engineering). But today Eustace is the overall lead. Manber reports to Eustace and focuses on finding ways to improve the knowledge out there and to encourage more high quality content creation, whether it’s on Google’s servers (Knol) or not.

Amit Singhal, Manber’s peer, focuses on the more traditional goals of search, such as the recent algorithm changes called Panda targeting content farms.

One way of thinking of this, says a source with knowledge of the group, is this. Singhal does the weeding (removing and pushing down low quality content in search), and Manber is focused on the seeding (encouraging “good stuff” to grow).

This isn’t supposed to be information that helps outsiders understand how Google operates, which is probably why Google made the SEC statement in as few words as possible and didn’t publicize it at all. Instead, it’s to make sure that the team inside Google understands that they aren’t just working on search. It’s not just about organization, it’s about enhancement of knowledge.

Other than confirming the creation of the Knowledge group to supplant the Search group, Google won’t comment on the personnel changes or the subtle shifts in strategy. For now, says one source, all Google wants to do is align everyone internally. When, and if, Google talks about this more publicly is a mystery.

Internet Explorer and Firefox Continue to Slide

New browser market share data shows that both Internet Explorer and Firefox lost ground in April. While Microsoft and Mozilla trumpet their latest browsers, publicly trade jabs, and beat their chests at one another, Chrome and Safari are quietly gaining market share.

Firefox declined by nearly two tenths of a percentage point overall, while Internet Explorer fell just over eight tenths of a percentage point to a new low of 55.11 percent. IE still has two and a half times the market share of its closest competitor--Firefox--but it has been losing ground slowly, but surely over the past year or two.


Meanwhile, Chrome--which is the third place browser with a little less than 12 percent of the overall market--has seen a 65 percent increase in its piece of the pie since last June--climbing nearly five percentage points. Apple's Safari browser isn't doing too bad either with a nearly 50 percent increase over its June 2010 market share--most likely a reflection of the success of Apple's iPhone and iPad.

For Firefox, there is good news for the latest version, but still disappointing news for the browser overall. Firefox 4 market share more than tripled from 1.68 percent to 5.43 percent. However, those gains were almost entirely wiped out by the drop in Firefox 3.6--an indication that most of the Firefox 4 growth is coming from cannibalizing existing Firefox market share. Add in some minor losses by other Firefox versions and you have a slight drop in overall market despite the impressive gains of Firefox 4.

It is a similar story at Microsoft. IE9 more than doubled its global market share over March--coming in at 2.41 percent. However, the decline in IE8 market share is virtually equal to the IE9 gain--again seeming to show direct cannibalization of IE8 users. At the same time, IE6 and IE7 usage declined as well, but the decision by Microsoft to limit IE9 to only Windows 7 and Windows Vista means that many of those IE6 users are jumping to alternative browsers.

Because IE9 has a limited audience, Microsoft likes to view the data through that lens. If you narrow the scope of the discussion to only Windows 7, IE9 has a more impressive 7.46 percent--more than double the share it had on Windows 7 the previous month. It is interesting, however, to note that Firefox 4 actually has a larger presence on Windows 7 than Microsoft's IE9.

Still, if IE9 can just replace IE8 for Windows users, as the general population continues to migrate from Windows XP and embrace Windows 7 it will work in Microsoft's favor eventually.

Apple's Popular Apps Not Exclusive to iPhone: Analysis

Apple has the largest app store by a long shot: Currently i Phone users can choose from 350,000 apps. But how many apps do people really use--and should the size of the Apple App Store sway your next smart phone purchase? It shouldn't.

Analysis of the top apps on competing smartphone app stores reveals that the majority of the iPhone's most popular apps are also available on Android, Windows Phone 7, Palm, RIM BlackBerry, and Nokia phones. This dispels the smartphone buyers' myth that claims: "The bigger the app store, the better the phone."

After reviewing the top 35 iPhone apps, it was found that a larger store doesn't always win, especially when it comes to core and popular apps. For example, Google's Android Market, currently a little more than half the size of Apple's App Store (200,000 apps), has the same selection of popular apps--with the exception of games. Even in the newer and less-populated app stores such as Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace (11,500 apps), you can get most of the same top apps.

Compared Apple's App Store with Google's Android Market, Research In Motion's BlackBerry App World, Nokia's Ovi Store, Palm's App Catalog, and Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace.

Started with Apple's App Store list of the most downloaded apps of all time. From that list, we selected the top 10 paid apps, paid games, free apps, and free games, removed the duplicates, and added a couple of all-time favorites--ending up with a list of the 35 most downloaded iOS apps of all time. Compared that list with available apps for competing smartphones.

App Category Breakdown

Popular app categories (click to zoom)Popular app categories. Image: Nielsen Media Research Games: If you're addicted to Angry Birds, the only big no-no for you would be the BlackBerry platform (the game is arriving on Windows Phone 7 in May). Several other prominent titles--such as Bejeweled, Doodle Jump, and Flight Control--are also available for most platforms; iOS has a few exclusives, such as Cro-Mag Rally and Cut The Rope (copycat games aside).

Business apps: Serious smartphone shoppers seeking serious apps have a much wider choice. For example, if you want to view and edit Microsoft Office documents, you can get an app for that on all the platforms in this comparison. One exception is the Bump contact-sharing app, which is available only for iOS and Android.

Music and audio: If you want to listen to online radio, Pandora is available for all platforms, with the exception of Nokia and Windows Phone 7 handsets. There you can get Slacker Radio as an alternative. If you want to chat with Skype buddies, you can also achieve that across all platforms, via an official app or Fring (an equivalent).

Productivity and social media: Monitoring calories or tracking your flight? Check--you can do so with iOS, BlackBerry, Android, Nokia, Palm, and Windows Phone 7. Facebook and Twitter? Check. Weather and Yelp? Check. Bible reading? No problem. You can pretty much find the same or equivalent app on all modern smartphones, regardless of brand and operating system.

Entertainment: Your options narrow a bit when you are looking for other popular apps. For example, you can't get the official Amazon Kindle app on a Nokia or Palm smartphone. Netflix is limited to iOS and Windows Phone 7. And Flixster and IMDb are not available on Nokia smartphones.

For perspective, here is a list of other notable TPS event records:

* The all-time record is still NYE 2010 in Japan, with 6,939 TPS at its peak

* On the day of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami (On March 11th) Twitter usage reached 5,530 TPS. (Passing the 5,000 TPS mark five times that day).

* The 2011 Super Bowl reached 4,064 TPS

* Japan’s victory over Denmark in the World Cup reached 3,283 TPS

* Final game of the 2010 NBA finals peaked at 3,085 TPS

* Last Friday’s Royal Wedding reached a peak of 3,966 TPS at 4pm London time

Bin Laden Announcement Has Highest Sustained Tweet Rate Ever, Spikes Higher Than The Super Bowl

Twitter has just revised its preliminary measurements of 4,000 tweets per second from last night’s announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s death, tweeting out the new measurements below. At the event’s peak (11pm EST) there were 5,106 TPS, beating out Super Bowl 2011 (with 4,064 TPS) but not NYE 2010 (with 6,939 TPS).

The event also had the highest sustained rate of tweets ever according to Twitter, reaching 3,000 tweets per second in the 3 hours and 35 minutes between 10:45 and 2:20am, and averaging 3440 TPS from 10:45 to 12:30pm EST last night. For comparison, this year’s Super Bowl had sustained 20 minutes at 3,000 TPS.

From Twitter PR:

“Last night saw the highest sustained rate of Tweets ever. From 10:45 – 2:20am ET, there was an average of 3,000 Tweets per second. At 11p.m. ET, there were 5,106 Tweets per second. At 11:45p.m. ET, when Pres. Obama finished his remarks, there were 5,008 TPS. Note: The TPS numbers we reported last night were incomplete”

The timeline of the event on Twitter was as follows: At 1:00pm EST last night, Sohaib Athar (@reallyvirtual) unknowingly liveblogged the helicopter raids that eventually killed Bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. At around 9:45pm EST White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer notified the press corps that Obama would make an impromptu announcement at 10:30 EST, then tweeted out the same information to his followers.

At 10:25pm former Donald Rumsfeld Chief Of Staff Keith Urbahn tweeted, “So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn.” ABC, NBC and CBS then followed suit, announcing the death of Bin Laden on television at 10:45pm EST. Obama’s speech began at 11:30pm EST and by 11:35 EST the President had confirmed Osama’s death. At 11:45pm EST the announcement was over.

Bin Laden’s Compound Gets A Bum Review On Google Maps

Google Maps users have been busy as the news of the raid on Osama bin Laden’s mansion was breaking. A pretty large compound listed on Google Maps in the city of Abbottābad, northern Pakistan has been picked out by users as being the genuine article – and with huge walls around it, it does indeed look quite suspect.

Whether or not it is the genuine article is unknown, but that is not stopping people leaving a slew of comments on the “venue’s” Google

Some choicer reviews include:

“Great hideout would use again.”
“Heat sources are undeniable. This place is blazing! ”
“Cold and drafty at night, walls full of holes. ”
” on the menu was goat flesh, and the place reeked of burning garbage. ”
“Located in cozy, quiet neighborhood. Interrupted only occasionally by machine gun fire.”

Perhaps the best so far:

“Aside from the complimentary dialysis machine use, easy underground access to Pakistan’s beautiful vast cave system, and free toaster waffles, it’s a pretty big dump. The food wasn’t organic, the wifi was spotty at best, absolutely no cell coverage, (yelp reviews were so wrong on that one) and no one spoke English. To make it worse, the country’s best basketball player, some 6’7″ dude with a turban, gets shot our first night there. And the coffee was cold. We’re so not coming back.”

With A New Suite Of Games, Arkadium Lets Gamers Play Right On Their Facebook Walls

Arkadium, the casual and social game developer, is announcing today the release of the Arkadium Stadium, a suite of 12 Flash-based games that users can post and play right from their Facebook walls. Now you don’t have to deal with the hassle of playing the game in-app. I joke, but this functionality is very cool, as it allows you to quickly publish the game app to your profile, or your friends’ profiles and play right there. No fuss, no muss.

Arkadium Co-founder and President Jessica Rovello told me that few gaming companies have yet explored this method of “wall play”, so through the Arkadium Stadium, the company hopes to begin setting the groundwork for people to be able to enjoy and share games like they would videos, photos, and links.

Arkadium has been making casual games for the last 10 years, but has only moved into creating games for Facebook in the last year. With the growth in popularity of Facebook games (back in September Zuckerberg said that 200 million people are playing games on Facebook), the company’s transition made sense, Rovello said. And, while most Facebook games are currently played in-app, this functionality might signal a growing trend in social gaming, especially on Facebook. It’s a logical next-step, and will only make sharing and playing that much easier.

The Arkadium games suite, which includes puzzles like Sudoku, a Tetris-like dice game, 52-card pickup, and other simple (and addicting), casual games. In fact, in writing this post, I was distracted at least once by the ability to post a game to my Facebook profile, play the game embedded-as-is in my wall, then pause and stalk a few ex-girlfriends.

I have a feeling this functionality is only going to increase the potential of virality, which is of course exactly what Arkadium is hoping. Of course, if you’re not a fan or are a little sensitive to multimedia Wall posts, this is a great way to be bombarded by game-spam at any turn on Facebook. Though I think people are starting to let down their guard a little bit in terms of how willing they are to have content shared on their walls. And, hey, if it gets annoying, you can just remove the post, or play the game in-app.

Whether or not it’s needed, this adds another layer to “Social”, considering I can now pop over to friends’ profiles to see if anyone else has taken the bait and is enjoying a little Sudoku during work hours. And if they’ve posted a game I happen to enjoy, but am a little hesitant to add the game to my own wall (I’m careful like that), then I can just roll a few dice right on their Facebook wall. Then leave them a message on their wall reminding them how much better I am at the game.

At any rate, it’s kind of a neat feature, and I’ll be interested to see whether or not its embraced by fellow Facebook gamers. (And how well Flash holds up across browsers — in Chrome, it works like a charm.) I have a feeling it will be, if Zynga isn’t already planning to roll out similar functionality for their lineup.

Top 5 Financial Facts about Royal Wedding 2011 – COST

5) Wedding Ring cost Prince William $11,000

At fifth spot of this list, we have the Wedding Ring given by Prince William to Kate Middleton which cost him $11000. That is not too expensive however the engagement ring worn by Kate Middleton is of her late mother in law Princess Diana and is worth $1 Million now.

4) Royal Wedding Cakes cost $80,000

At fourth place in this list, we have the royal wedding cakes. First one of them was multi-tiered fruit cake covered in white cream and icing, decorated with flowers and was designed by using the Joseph Lambert technique. The second one was Prince William’s favorite, a chocolate biscuit cake made using a royal family recipe.

3) Wedding Dress of Kate Middleton cost $450,000

The third most notable financial fact about the royal wedding is the money spent on the dresses of bride. Kate Middleton’s wedding gown and other outfits that she’ll wear to receptions have cost around $450,000 and this sum of money was reportedly paid by Kate’s parents.

2) About $800,000 spent Flowers

At second spot of this financial facts list on royal wedding 2011 is the money spent on flowers. The Queen and Prince Charles shared the responsibility to beautify Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace and spent about $800,000 on flowers.

1) $32 Million spent on Security

Thousands of police officers accompanied the bridal procession and armed military personnel escorted the couple from church service. Since, it was a national holiday the officers were paid double time and that makes the security expenses top the list of financial facts about royal wedding 2011.

Worlds People In Technology: These are men of TECH

Rank	Name	Net Worth	Age	Source	Country of Citizenship
2	Bill Gates	$56 B	55	Microsoft	United States
5	Larry Ellison	$39.5 B	66	Oracle	United States
24	Larry Page	$19.8 B	38	Google	United States
24	Sergey Brin	$19.8 B	37	Google	United States
30	Jeff Bezos	$18.1 B	47	Amazon	United States
36	Azim Premji	$16.8 B	65	Software	India
44	Michael Dell	$14.6 B	46	Dell	United States
46	Steve Ballmer	$14.5 B	55	Microsoft	United States
52	Mark Zuckerberg	$13.5 B	26	Facebook	United States
57	Paul Allen	$13 B	58	Microsoft, investments	United States
95	Robin Li	$9.4 B	42	Internet	China
110	Steve Jobs	$8.3 B	56	Apple, Pixar	United States
136	Eric Schmidt	$7 B	56	Google	United States
141	Hasso Plattner	$6.9 B	67	SAP	Germany
141	James Goodnight	$6.9 B	68	SAS Institute	United States
143	Cher Wang & Wenchi Chen	$6.8 B	53	electronics	Taiwan
145	Pierre Omidyar	$6.7 B	43	Ebay	United States
179	Terry Gou	$5.7 B	60	electronics	Taiwan
182	Hiroshi Mikitani	$5.6 B	46	online retailing	Japan
182	Shiv Nadar	$5.6 B	65	Information technology	India
208	Ma Huateng	$5 B	39	Internet	China
268	Walter Haefner	$4 B	100	Software	Switzerland
268	Gordon Moore	$4 B	82	Intel	United States
297	Xavier Niel	$3.7 B	43	internet, telecom	France
310	Ray Dolby	$3.5 B	78	Dolby Laboratories	United States
323	Henry Ross Perot Sr	$3.4 B	80	computer services, real estate	United States
323	John Sall	$3.4 B	63	SAS Institute	United States
347	Jeffrey Skoll	$3.2 B	46	Ebay	Canada
376	Barry Lam	$3 B	62	electronics	Taiwan
420	Dustin Moskovitz	$2.7 B	26	Facebook	United States
440	David Sun	$2.6 B	59	computer memory	United States
440	John Tu	$2.6 B	69	computer memory	United States
440	William Ding	$2.6 B	39	Internet	China
488	Jay Y. Lee	$2.4 B	42	Samsung	South Korea
512	Andreas von Bechtolsheim	$2.3 B	55	Google	Germany
540	John Doerr	$2.2 B	59	venture capital	United States
540	Yoshikazu Tanaka	$2.2 B	34	social networking	Japan
540	Hans-Werner Hector	$2.2 B	71	SAP	Germany
540	Bharat Desai & family	$2.2 B	58	Syntel	United States
540	Jack Dangermond	$2.2 B	65	mapping software	United States
564	Marc Benioff	$2.1 B	46	Salesforce.com	United States
595	Zhang Zhidong	$2 B	39	Internet	China
595	N.R. Narayana Murthy & family	$2 B	64	Software	India
595	Walter Scott	$2 B	79	construction, telecom	United States
595	Henry Samueli	$2 B	56	Broadcom	United States
595	Klaus Tschira	$2 B	70	SAP	Germany
651	Mike Lazaridis	$1.9 B	50	Research in Motion	Canada
651	Lin Xiucheng & family	$1.9 B	55	electronics	China
692	James Balsillie	$1.8 B	50	Research in Motion	Canada
692	Henry Nicholas	$1.8 B	51	Broadcom	United States
692	David Cheriton	$1.8 B	59	Google	Canada
692	Nandan Nilekani & family	$1.8 B	55	Software	India
692	Gong Hongjia & family	$1.8 B	46	electronics	Hong Kong
692	Michael Moritz	$1.8 B	56	venture capital	United States
736	Thomas Siebel	$1.7 B	58	Siebel Systems	United States
782	Eric Lefkofsky	$1.6 B	41	technology	United States
782	James Kim & family	$1.6 B	75	microchips	United States
782	Eduardo Saverin	$1.6 B	29	Facebook	United States
782	Sean Parker	$1.6 B	31	Facebook	United States
782	Kavitark Ram Shriram	$1.6 B	54	Venture capital, Google	United States
782	Jack Ma	$1.6 B	46	Internet	China
782	Senapathy Gopalakrishnan & family	$1.6 B	56	Software	India
782	Irwin Jacobs	$1.6 B	77	Qualcomm	United States
782	Gil Shwed	$1.6 B	43	Software	Israel
833	Ralph Dommermuth	$1.5 B	47	internet service provider	Germany
833	Michael Chiang	$1.5 B	58	TPK Holdings	Taiwan
879	David Filo	$1.4 B	45	Yahoo	United States
879	Romesh T. Wadhwani	$1.4 B	63	Software	United States
879	Scott Cook	$1.4 B	58	Intuit	United States
879	Henry Ross Perot Jr	$1.4 B	52	computer services, real estate	United States
879	Jiang Bin	$1.4 B	44	electronics	China
879	Vinod Khosla	$1.4 B	56	Sun Microsystems, venture capital	United States
879	Michael Federmann & family	$1.4 B	67	defense, hotels	Israel
938	David Duffield	$1.3 B	70	PeopleSoft	United States
938	Jerry Yang	$1.3 B	42	Yahoo	United States
938	Steve Case	$1.3 B	52	AOL	United States
938	Meg Whitman	$1.3 B	54	Ebay	United States
938	Tsai Ming-kai	$1.3 B	N/A	semiconductors	Taiwan
993	Chen Tianqiao	$1.2 B	38	entertainment	China
993	John Morgridge	$1.2 B	77	Cisco	United States
993	K Dinesh & family	$1.2 B	56	Software	India
1057	Michael Krasny	$1.1 B	57	CDW Corp	United States
1057	S.D. Shibulal & family	$1.1 B	56	Software	India
1140	Li Zhongchu	$1 B	48	Information technology	China
1140	Wang Wenjing	$1 B	46	Software	China
1140	Mark Pincus	$1 B	45	Zynga	United States
1140	Yuri Milner	$1 B	49	social networking	Russia
1140	Marius Nacht	$1 B	45	Software	Israel
1140	Morris Kahn	$1 B	81	Software	Israel