Facebook App Gogobot Attracts 1 Million Users

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GoGoBotGogobot, 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…]

Foodily Utilizes Facebook To Provide Recipe Sharing Among Friends

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FoodilyFoodily on Tuesday announced a new Facebook application that allows users to share recipes on the social network.

The new program provides users with a dedicated, real-time feed of recipes their friends have saved on the site, while allowing users to view the recipe boxes of their Facebook friends.

Furthering the social experience, when you save a recipe to your Foodily account the friend who initially shared the recipe is notified, allowing them to ask you what you thought of the recipe, thus creating more recipe user engagement. [Read more…]

Sell Weed On Facebook, New Game Challenges Your Drug Skills

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Weeds Social ClubZynga may have cornered the market on selling corn, lima beans and other farm based produce but there’s one crop you won’t find on Farmville, marijuana and now Ecko|Code is planning to change that fact.

A new game, titled Weeds Social Club launched on Monday in “closed beta” and the game allows users to build a weed growing and selling empire.

The game is based on the hit Showtime TV series Weeds and plans to fully launch in August 2011.

The premise is simple, cultivate and grow enough marijuana to save your home from foreclosure, a premise fans of the Showtime show will understand the moment they begin playing. The game shows players how to grow marijuana, while a time time clock will show growing cycles and selling responsibilities for the players virtual pot.

Along the way players must avoid police, ensure that organized crime agencies don’t end their run, even pay taxes among other responsibilities to showcase a “legitimate” organization to authorities. [Read more…]

Facebook “Spare Key” Security Flaw Existed For Years

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Facebook SecurityFacebook user information was passed along to advertisers and third parties for years according to a Symantec report passed along to the social network last month.

The issue occurred when more than 100,000 Facebook applications accidentally passed along user access tokens. Those tokens, known as a “spare key” could then be used to access a users account, allowing third parties to post info to a user’s wall and access other parts of their accounts.

Anyone with access to an access token would also be able to mine for personal information, gain access to a user’s friends’ profiles and access other parts of a users accounts, however no reported evidence of such events occurring were reported, in fact it’s believed that third parties were not even aware that they were receiving the extra information. [Read more…]

Facebook Giving App Developers More Access To Your Personal Data

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Facebook Phone Number Approval Screen

The next time you find yourself staring down a “request for permission” screen on your Facebook account you might want to think twice, then three or four more times before you choose”Allow” for your new application.

Facebook has announced that they are now allowing developers to grab extra personal data from users, including their address and mobile phone number.

In the past Facebook privacy settings has barred sending phone numbers and address information to developers, relying instead on the users name, gender, a list of their friends and other already available public information.

Facebook is rushing to ease user fears, stating that developers can only access information when users explicitly give them permission and that all data use is governed by Facebook’s Platform Policies, which in most cases hold absolutely no guarantees to users and instead rely on app developers to properly use data they have received.

On the one hand, users have to choose whether or not to allow for their data to be mined, on the other hand, many users have “programmed” themselves to simply click “Allow” when signing up for new third party programs.

[Read more…]

2nd Most Popular Facebook App? You Wouldn’t Think So

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Microsoft Live Messenger LogoFarmville might be the most played game on Facebook with 16 million daily users, but some visitors might be interested to know that the 2nd most popular application isn’t a popular game or gift sending app, it’s Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger Facebook application.

ReadWriteWeb reports that 9 million Live Messenger users are currently logging into Facebook and then chatting to their friends through the application, rather than using Facebook’s own chat application.

The application is a smart move for Microsoft who may be able to etch out a name for themselves by providing the type of chat functions users fail to love on Facebook.  It could be a great way for Microsoft to introduce their own users to Facebook, while possibly rolling out new features that could provide a further social network reach for the company. [Read more…]

Which Facebook application developer is making more than $1m monthly?

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At Allfacebook, Nick O’Neill claims that at least one Facebook application developer is making more than $1m/month, but won’t say who it is:

There’s a pretty well known secret among top Facebook application developers: one developer is generating over $1 million a month. Who is that developer exactly? Well, most people won’t talk about it and after some prodding around we’ve narrowed down the suspects. We aren’t going to post them though because ultimately it doesn’t matter who the individual is. All that matters is that a top application that is used for entertainment purposes is generating over $1 million a month.

So who is it? [Read more…]