You can barely keep up with your own Facebook News Feed, so it’s okay if you’ve fallen behind on the network’s updates – because we’ve summed it all up for you. This week, Facebook is finally paring its ads, rolling out local currency, and more.
Facebook’s cutting down on ad products
Too many ads are bad for business, and it wasn’t until recently that the social network finally realized that it had redundant ad products. It’s a giant step for the company that doesn’t often like to admit where it went wrong, but the social network did just that by discussing why and how it will be cutting down on its ad products.
More importantly, Facebook vows to cut down its ad products down from 27 to “fewer than half of that” starting in July.
How it’s planning on doing this is by starting with getting rid of redundant products. Take for example, the fact that no one really uses the Questions product. Everyone just ends up asking a question in the body of a post anyway.
Facebook is also getting more social with its ads, which sounds bizarre when you think about it, with a combined social-optimized ad. What this will look like are Sponsored Stories that position the text and likes over the image.
And finally, all types of Facebook ads will look more alike, whether it’s an ad for a game, offer, or something your friend liked.
Don’t let Zeus steal your money
A maniacal, not to mention very dangerous, Trojan is back and terrorizing Facebook users, reports The New York Times – so be careful of what links you click on. While the virus has been around for six years, it’s back with a vengeance. In fact, Zeus siphoned more than $1 million from 3,000 banking customers in the U.K. back in 2010.
The way the Trojan works is that if you click on a malicious link, you’ll contract Zeus. But you won’t realize that you’ve got a bug on your computer until it’s too late. And what we mean by too late is your bank account slowly losing cash. Zeus stays dormant on your computer but only wakes up when you’re logging into your bank account. The Trojan is able to log your keystrokes and figure out your username and password.
Facebook listens to its users, updates Home
The update might not be significant, but it’s a step in the right direction. Apps can now easily be accessed via an improved app dock for the apps that you use frequently, and now sharing is a lot easier. Users can send more than one phone in one message by tapping the “+” icon. And content sharing privacy settings are a little more transparent – something that’s welcomed if you tend to forget to set visibility settings in the first place.
As for the speed of the app, which many users complained about, Home should run a lot more smoothly and faster since the app’s memory usage has been tweaked.
Facebook, of course, isn’t finished with rolling out updates. “Early feedback from users focused on a desire for a more robust app launcher and in addition to a dock, Facebook is working on folders and widget support which will come in future updates,” Facebook said in a statement.
With Facebook Credits out the door, local currency is in
Facebook announced in late March that the social network was going to retire Facebook Credits. That, however, was a headache for developers since one credit was worth $0.10, which isn’t a figure that’s very flexible if developers wanted to charge different increments around the world. Remember, the value of $0.10 isn’t the same as the value of $0.10 in a country outside of the United States. Local currency will change all that and give developers the freedom to charge as much as they want without constraints. Developers will have 90 days to integrate the new API into their apps, meaning that on September 12, Facebook Credits will officially be retired for good.
Facebook isn’t helping your relationship
Researchers have found that Facebook is terrible for your relationship. In fact it can be the precursor to a divorce or break-up, reports Daily Mail. Apparently obsessive Facebooking can lead to users checking up on their partner’s Facebook activity, and some even end up semi-cheating when reconnecting with exes, researchers reported in the Journal of Cyberpsychology, Behavioral, and Social Networking.
But if your relationship has lasted more than three years, the study doesn’t apply to you. Wrapping Facebook into a relationship that’s just starting or shorter than the three year mark on the other hand is discouraged. So get off of Facebook until you get to know your significant other better, if you really care about the relationship.
