Facebook this week began testing a new Facebook Timeline output that cleans up the first bit of information users see when they access a users page.

Posted on Talking Points Memo on Tuesday morning the new version of Timeline features a condensed area for user details, specifically the information that shows their name, occupation, education and location. Those options now appear on top of, rather than below the cover photo.

Facebook has then taken the carousel thumbnail images that shows friends, photos, places, likes and other information and compressed them next to sit on the same level as their main page thumbnail.

Users will also notice that before the carousel images Facebook has added a “Summary” section which we assume will highlight key events inside a users Timeline. read more

Facebook “power users” are the most addicted social network users the site has to offer and they make up nearly 20-30% of the social networks user base. If you log into your account multiple times per day, leave messages on friends walls, post constant “Likes” and more you are probably a “power user.”

The team at DemandForce wanted to highlight some of a power users typical site uses and released an infographic to showcase that use.

According to the company a “power user” will “like” content up to 14 times per month and they will share at least nine status updates and contribute 21 comments during that same one month period.

Not only do Facebook power users share more content, they are invited to share more, according to the company 11% of those users are invited to join a Facebook group and 63% of those users have received friend requests in the last one month period. read more

When a new user joined Twitter’s microblogging service they are given a set of recommendations that are fairly similar to everyone else’s recommendations, that’s because Twitter has no way of knowing your interests to make better recommendations. Now Twitter is testing a new feature in some countries that dives into your browser history and makes recommendations accordingly.

In a blog post on Thursday Othman Laraki, Twitter’s director of growth and international business wrote:

“After all, even though millions of people love Justin Bieber, FC Barcelona or Kim Kardashian, not everyone using Twitter may want to follow them.”

Twitter buttons and widgets are located on millions of sites which means the company will be able to use data collected from their own pieces of already installed technology to gather information for the recommendation engine.

As Laraki explains:

“By recognizing which accounts are frequently followed by people who visit popular sites, we can recommend those accounts to others who have visited those sites within the last ten days.” read more

Twitter on Thursday gave privacy advocated a big win by announced a new “Do Not Track” setting that allows users to opt out of being tracked by Twitters platform.

The plan was unveiled at an Internet Week panel in New York Thursday morning by chief technology officer for the Federal Trade Commission, Ed Felten.

Twitter also revealed the new Do Not Track button, tweeting:

“The Federal Trade Commission’s CTO, Ed Felten, just mentioned Twitter now supports Do Not Track. We applaud the FTC’s leadership on DNT.”

Users can take advantage of the Do Not Track option using any browser that already support the option. The new feature prevents Twitter from collecting information about users through the use of cookies which are typically placed on a users computer. It should be noted that the Firefox Do Not Track feature only works if websites agree to enable the feature as Twitter has done. read more

Gogobot, a Facebook travel app that just launched in January 2012 announced on Wednesday that it has passed the 1 million registered users mark.

Gogobot officially launched in private beta 18 months ago but came out of beta in January. The company now claims that a new users signs up for the program every 15 seconds and that more than 5 million locations have already been shared on Gogobot.

The travel app allows Facebook users to share vacation photos with friends and strangers while giving recommendations to people who post questions about general travel and specific destinations.

Users of Gogobot can also create a “passport” that lists the places they have been alongside reviews and recommendations for those locations. read more

Foursquare users checking in with Facebook permissions synced to their accounts will now find their check-ins plotted across their Facebook Timeline maps thanks to deeper integration announced by the location based service on Tuesday.

Until this point in time only Facebook check-ins and Instagram geo-tagging options were plotted on the Facebook Timeline maps.

Using the program means integrating your Foursquare account with Facebook and then simply checking in at which point your locations will be plotted on the Facebook Timeline map using standard pin placements.

Facebook and Foursquare have also made it so check-ins already map have been updated to mapped out pinned location markers.  read more

Before the days of LinkedIn and the Facebook app Branch Out recruiters looking for employees had to rely on resume websites (Monster, CareerBuilder), emailed resumes from interested parties and even headhunting agencies that specialized in finding resumes online.

Now thanks to digital recruiting platforms employers can quickly and efficiently find potential employees with the skills they require.

Thanks to the team at  Jobvite we now have a nicely integrated infographic that shows how far “social job recruiting” has come since the 1990s.

According to a recent Pew Research estimate 65% of job seekers now use social media to look for new jobs. Jobvite found that 49% of people already holding down a job will use social recruiting websites to find a new job in 2012 while 55% of company’s plan to invest more money for social recruiting this year. read more

The Google+ App for iPhone was updated on Thursday and with its upgrade comes larger profile images, easier photo and video browsing and new visual cues that makes looking for options far more simplistic.

In a blog post Google says the app has been upgrade to “focus on the most personal of personal computers: your mobile phone.”

On the visual side the program now allows users to see photos, articles or text in a new visually stimulating manner, while new crisp fonts, larger profile pics and a nicer homescreen have been added.
The company hopes that its new layout will allow users to distinguish between Google+ and other apps that are not quite as “crisp” in design. ogle also said of the layout “We’re making the stream easier to scan, and easier on the eyes with overlays, gradients and other visual elements.”

Along with its visual updates Google also has some functional upgrades: read more

Just one week after announcing its organ donor program Facebook is once again jumping into the “public good” sector with a new crisis tool meant to flag the profiles of military personnel when they post content deemed to be harmful or suicidal.

The new tool is an extension of the suicide prevention program Facebook launched in December 2011 which allows other Facebook members to alert then network when suicidal thoughts are expressed by clicking a link next to that persons comment. When the link is clicked Facebook sends an email to the user with suicide prevention resources.

According to military support organization Blue Star families:

“While this is helpful for a military family, there are several specific resources provided to our nation’s military that we wanted to make sure they were aware of at their time of need.”

The new program sends military specific resources such as the Veterans Crisis Line. read more

Social video sharing app Viddy wants to be the Instagram of mobile video sharing and the company is on its way to reaching that goal after attracting more than 26 million users and a market valuation of $200 million.

A recent report by The Wall Street Journal has also found that Viddy is currently signing up 1 million new users per day.

The company’s $200 million valuation comes after the company’s launch just one year ago.

After Instagram’s success many company’s decided to focus on video to differentiate themselves, for example the application Color which started as a photo app is now offering streaming of live video that can be shared on Facebook, however that app just passed 1 million users.  read more