If speculations from Tech Crunch were to be believed then Facebook was working behind the concept of a smartphone that will be designed keeping in mind the features of Facebook so that the social networking experience for Facebook users proves to be amazingly awesome. Founder of Tech Crunch speculated:

But I’d speculate that it would be a lower-end phone, something very affordable, that lets people fully integrate into their Facebook world. You call your friend’s name, not some ancient seven digit code, for example. I’d imagine Facebook wanting these things to get into as many hands as possible, so I’d expect a model at a less than $50 price. Pay your bill with Facebook Credits. Etc.

In no time Facebook representative released a public statement via Mashable proving TechCrunch’s claims to be baseless:

The story, which originated in Techcrunch, is not accurate. Facebook is not building a phone. Our approach has always been to make phones and apps more social. Current projects include include everything from an HTML5 version of the site to apps on major platforms to full Connect support with SDKs to deeper integrations with some manufacturers. Our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they were social, so integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems is a good way to enable this. For an example, check out Connect for iPhone and the integration we have with contact syncing through our iPhone app. Another example is the INQ1 phone with Facebook integration (the first so-called ‘Facebook Phone’). The people mentioned in the story are working on these projects. The bottom line is that whenever we work on a deep integration, people want to call it a ‘Facebook Phone’ because that’s such an attractive soundbite, but building phones is just not what we do.

Of course this forced TechCrunch to come up with answers to the messup that they had started but this messup for sure left open a debate which doesn’t seem to last. Do we really need a smartphone especially for Facebook and will anyone buy a smartphone if Facebook is the manufacturer for the same? Image you getting updates like “Your mother commented on your missed calls.”

© CompuWorld - because The Genius Inside You Is Still Sleeping.

All that this person did was created a script that ran through the publicly available profiles of facebook, zipped them together in one bundle and made them available for download as a torrent. What is wrong in this if someone is using the already available public information. One can argue that few new users might not be aware of privacy options of facebook and henceforth have their profiles open to public but we just can’t help such users. They have to learn by their mistakes or else read a lot before going online.

Since the ‘leak’ of information on the Internet people from around the world have reacted harshly against facebook and condemned the same for not understanding this as a security flaw. Whereas facebook rightfully says that no private data has been compromised and all that was already available on the Internet has been made available as a torrent file. What is the issue with that?

Just have a look at the Google Profiles that Google has made public. They reveal a lot of information too. Why isn’t anyone against Google? Take a look at the public directory of LinkedIn. This directory also reveals plenty of information. Then why is everyone against facebook? Is it just that being against facebook has become a trend and everybody is enjoying that? Is it really that cool?

© CompuWorld - because The Genius Inside You Is Still Sleeping.

Few minutes back I saw StumbleUpon down and displaying a HTTP error and after around 5-10 minutes break its back once again. Start Stumbling all over again.

© CompuWorld - because The Genius Inside You Is Still Sleeping.

Oops! This is weird? StumbleUpon is down? Did they give any prior notices?

© CompuWorld - because The Genius Inside You Is Still Sleeping.

Though Twi5 features some of the best apps collection yet I think there are many area in which Nischal needs to work. Let me jot down few of them:

• With 9000+ followers on twitter, Twi5 deserves a new and improved logo. 
• The word “Beta” in the current logo. Gmail was tagged as beta for many years and I guess that was the time when many of us learned what actually beta is! Unfortunately, the word ‘beta’ was overhyped and almost every website started to use it. Though the word beta won’t kick back any of the Twi5′s readers but I really don’t see any reason why every other website should use it. 
• Hey Twi5 has a blog too! But, i don’t see any mentions of the Twi5 blog on the Twi5 website? I came to know about this blog from Twi5 twitter page. Not every reader will digg down this much and henceforth most will never come to know about Twi5 blog. So, it needs a mention on Twi5.com’s homepage.
• Won’t it be great if the blog is integrated with the current website so that the traffic count of Twi5 website and “Twi5 blog on blogspot” merges? It will truly work as booster for Twi5. 

Lastly, a great website which needs few more touch ups from an experienced webmaster. By the way, where did you get that domain from?

P.S. This is NOT a paid review. Nischal wanted me to check his website and tell my readers about the same and I did so!

© CompuWorld - because The Genius Inside You Is Still Sleeping.

Although nothing is sure about the exact number of users that are using twitter yet the amount of traffic that these sites generate is something that we can study to estimate the popularity of StumbleUpon and Twitter. As per the latest traffic graph from Compete.com, StumbleUpon has something to cherish about. Though Twitter recently registered exponential growth in its traffic due to huge media response yet StumbleUpon.com has higher traffic when compared to www.twitter.com. Yeah! StumbleUpon.com beats www.twitter.com in terms of traffic but when compared to twitter.com then  the story is totally different. One must remember that Twitter URL redirects to a non-www URL which is shown in the image below.

This means if you type www.twitter.com in your browser then www is omitted and twitter.com is loaded. On the other hand StumbleUpon uses www with its domain which means if you type stumbleupon.com into your browser then it will load www.stumbleupon.com as shown in image below.

This simply means that the real URL that Twitter is using for their service is twitter.com while for StumbleUpon it is www.stumbleupon.com. Hence, these two must be compared and other data (the one pointed above) is for SU to boast about itself!

© CompuWorld - because The Genius Inside You Is Still Sleeping.

Half of my classmates have Internet at there homes and they socialize after university hours on the Internet. And the ones who have no Internet access at homes also socialize on the Internet. How? They utilize the free time at our Institute and many a times even proudly bunk classes to check there scraps!

And what the heck do these social networking websites provide that glues the neitzens of today to there own 17” world? Linking up without there firewalls (our parents/elders in this case) knowing about it.

Still there has been a rage around the topic that too much of computers has actually made the youth of today forget there social life. They do not know what is happening around them but they know what is happening with there online friend sleeping in other part of the world!

But don’t you think the concept of social networking websites kills this very point? If a computer addict is glued to the Internet, it is not because of isolation. For many these websites are the only resource where they can socialize, make friends, express there thoughts, share content, and most importantly – communicate to the “like minded”

Think! People might create virtual identities at SecondLife saying they want to be someone else for sometime but the major reason is, they want to connect with more humans even though it is virtual!

Don’t you think I gave you a strong point which you can easily use to argue to your parents when they ask you not to be glued to your computer for hours?

© CompuWorld - because The Genius Inside You Is Still Sleeping.