Facebook: Will You Add The Send Button?

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Not content with dominating the like button wars and invading our comment sections, Facebook is launching a new feature that could make sharing posts and webpages by email obsolete.

The Send button drives traffic by letting users send a link and a short message to the people that would be most interested. They don’t need to leave the web page they’re on or fill out a long, annoying form. Compared to the alternatives, the Send button has fewer required steps, and it removes the need to look up email addresses by auto-suggesting friends and Groups. (Facebook Developer Blog)

Facebook is also planning on integrating their real time metrics system within the Send button, which will make the feature much more attractive than traditional email sharing options.

It may also help the social giant to convince more blogs and web masters to rely upon Facebook stats (which report in real time), instead of rivals like Google Analytics.

Currently users have to manually install the Send button upon their sites until a geek free solution can be devised, although if anyone knows of an easier way of installing the code (without placing it within the footer), feel free to comment below.

Google Video: It’s Time We Said Farewell

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For the few users who actually still use Google Video, you’ll be disheartened to hear that Google is terminating the service and giving less than 2 months to download any videos from the site.

Later this month, hosted video content on Google Video will no longer be available for playback. Google Video stopped taking uploads in May 2009 and now we’re removing the remaining hosted content. We’ve always maintained that the strength of Google Video is its ability to let people search videos from across the web, regardless of where those videos are hosted. And this move will enable us to focus on developing these technologies further to the benefit of searchers worldwide. (Google Video Team)

Google is recommending users switch to YouTube, which has more bells and whistles although the service only limits videos to 15 minutes instead of over an hour (which made Google Video popular in spite of YouTube’s growth).

Although Google Video will live on as a search service, the technology behind the service will live on thanks to Blogger (not to mention premium Google Docs users as well).

Did you use Google Video? If so, will you miss it?

New Twitter For Blackberry Sheds Beta, Goes Public

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RIM has rolled out the latest update for the Twitter for Blackberry app (which they were beta testing for several months) to the masses, which should bring it closer to its iOS and Android cousins.

Although the new app includes a few extra features such as push notifications, mentions and auto-completion of hash tags (a feature long overdue).

However Twitter for Blackberry’s newest feature will help bring Twitter’s unofficial app into the 21st century.

[Y]ou can pinpoint your location in a neighborhood and include it your Tweets. […]

Viewing someone else’s location – if they have enabled this feature – is really easy too! All you need to do is select the location icon that appears in the bottom right corner of their tweet and a map view will open, allowing you to see where they were when they submitted that Tweet. (Official Blackberry Blog)

Adding location will help RIM remain competitive against rivals like UberSocial (formally known as UberTwitter), who embraced tweet location months (if not years) ago.

Unfortunately the latest update does not yet support video uploading (through third party services like TwitPic, Posterous or yFrog), although hopefully RIM will consider adding that feature when they roll out the next update.

Need A Kidney? Just Ask Facebook

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Facebook LogoWhile social networks are known for reuniting lost family members and organizing protests against dictators, it looks like they may also help those seeking an organ to skip the waiting lists.

After suffering a stroke as well as being told by doctors that he could expect a kidney within a few years at best, Jeff Kurze’s wife became desperate to find a donor for her husband and decided to turn to her Facebook friends for help. [Read more…]