ffwd, the video player that provides recommendations based on personal preference and social interaction, is expanding its social realm to include Facebook Connect. The integration of Facebook Connect makes it easier for an existing user or potential new user that already has a Facebook account to login to ffwd and participate in the video viewing features of the player.
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer paid “lip service” to a Yahoo! deal and cleverly set the stage for acquiring Facebook, during his keynote at the Digital Hollywood Media Summit.

Yahoo!’s stock price shot up on the news of his comments, but I think the press and the markets are missing the big picture: Microsoft’s is using the “potential Yahoo! deal” as a red herring with investors. Ballmer is using Yahoo! to convince the market that Microsoft needs to buy Facebook to compete with Google, and to set a price floor of 50 billion for the acquisition.   Microsoft may be facing a situation where Facebook usage grows so fast that its costs skyrocket, creating a cash crunch, and in this difficult fundraising environment it’s best bet is just to buy Facebook.
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Last night it appears that Facebook decided to switch the way that guest lists are now viewed for individual events. Previously, you would have to click through individual pages to see who was attending an event. Frequently, deciding whether or not to attend an event is based on who will be in attendance. That’s why the guest list is one of the most visited sections of any event.
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Facebook has made a huge update today which lets public profile administrators add mobile support to their public profiles. This means public profiles now have the same mobile functionality that Twitter currently provides, including the ability to update status updates and receive mobile updates from public profiles. Users can also choose to be come a fan of a public profile via their phone.
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This afternoon Tom Krieglstein sent me a video of an interesting glitch that took place to him which gave him administrative access to a number of large brand pages including Star Wars, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and a number of others. He also was able to send out updates to the Stars Wars page (aka “public profile”) which has over 800,000 fans currently.
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I’ve received countless emails over the past two weeks from users that have been confused about integrating their blog into their new public profile. I don’t blame them for the confusion as it took me days to figure out how to get this working. Finally after a little bit of exploring, I figured out how to get your blog imported via the Facebook Notes application.
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Facebook appears to have it out for the developers of large family applications on Facebook. The company has created a new landing page where users can create groups specifically targeted to their family. While there is nothing unique about the end product, what is unique is the way in which Facebook is promoting the creation of new groups that are private only to family members.
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Moments ago I wrote about the ability to hide applications now but it appears that Facebook has actually pushed out all the new changes to their homepage. The requests have now been added to the top right, the applications have been merged with friend lists on the left hand side, there is now the ability to create new friends lists, and there is also the ability to hide applications.
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As expected, Facebook has just launched an updated version of their feed filters which enables you to stop viewing stories from individual applications. For example in the image to the left, you can choose to block out the Google Reader application from your feed. What I’m not sure about is whether or not hiding an application is just for that individual person for for all instances of that application.
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Mattel put up quite a fight when a game application called Scrabulous appeared on Facebook. But after losing the court battle towards blocking a game in the likeness of Mattel’s own Scrabble, the company has since welcomed the powerful branding opportunities that a Facebook application could provide. The latest gaming application from Mattel is for the well-known UNO, which is being launched with partner company Gamehouse.

As of today, the UNO application is in public beta. The application itself is simple enough: you can play the game, or leave feedback. There are no solo options for the popular card game; you’ll have to wait until there are enough available online players (4 players total), in order to participate in the UNO application. There is a live chat option so you can converse with fellow players during the game.
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