Facebook's Timeline and Other New Features

Recently I have been trying out Facebook's new features and looks that will soon be released publicly.  You can try the future Facebook if you're a registered Facebook developer; the steps to becoming one are listed by TechCrunch.

I find the new Facebook to be a lot easier to use.  It seems more organized and more customizable. (But not Myspace customizable thank Zuckerberg.)  I expect a lot of you and the other millions of Facebook users will complain, if you already haven't and there will probably be many attempted rebellions against the changes.  Maybe Google+'s time to shine is here, or maybe not.  I'm just messing around, of course it's not.

Anyway,  I hope that we can all adjust to it without much trouble.  We all need to realize that the web advances just as fast as technology does in general.  If you're the type of person who wants everything to stay the same then, I am sorry to say, the web is not for you.  Please leave a comment expressing your opinion of Facebook's new features. 

TechWilling

Facebook Paid $40,000 to Bug Hunters

We all are aware that Facebook has money but did you know they spend money?  Facebook said that they have paid more than $40,000 to people who have uncovered bugs on its website in the first three weeks of its “Bug Bounty” program.

The Bug Bounty program is a program that Facebook launched at the end of last month as a way to compensate people who find and report bugs that might otherwise go unfixed or be exploited by malicious hackers.  Some bug hunters have reported of making up to $500 per bug while others reported up to $7,000.  If you ask me, that’s a lot of money just to report a bug.  I wish I knew about this to hop on and make some easy cash.

One bug reporter has reported that they were paid $5,000 for “one really good report.”  Another bug reported getting paid $7,000 for six different issues.  Joe Sullivan says the following:

On the other end of the spectrum, we’ve had to deal with bogus reports from people who were just looking for publicity.

Joe does not specify how man bugs have been reported.

Many people have asked Facebook over and over again if they could extend the bounty program to cover third-party applications and web sites that are part of the Facebook Platform.  Joe Sullivan’s response was the following:

Unfortunately, that’s just not practical because of the hundreds of thousands of independent Internet services implicated, but we do care deeply about security on the Platform.  We have a dedicated Platform Operations team that scrutinizes these partners and we frequently audit their security and privacy practices.  Additionally, we have built a number of backend tools that help automatically detect and disable spammy or malicious applications.

If you knew about the Bug Bounty program, would you have tried to get on the list?  I know for a fact I would have!  Do you agree with Facebook in having this program?  Leave your thoughts in the comment section.

[via TechJohnson]

New Facebook Features

UPDATE: The updates (for me any way) have now seemed to disappeared. This happened one time before when several updates where pushed at once and then returned back to normal (with the no buttoned comments and photo viewer), However I have seen no other publicity from this. I keep regularly checking the official Facebook fanpage but nothing has come to light so far. Once again let us know if you have seen any other news about this. Thanks!

Have you seen that new bar on the top right? Logging into Facebook this morning showed the new real time updates from all of our friends on Facebook, as well as the real-time updates.

Facebook seems to have added some other nice little features, which really are making Facebook that much more enjoyable and easier to be more social, such as the birthdays feature. Clicking on each individual name to write happy birthday, hope you've had a good day, etc. was a pain if you had a lot of birthdays on the same day. Now you click on everyone's birthday and you can write on everyone's wall from the same page.

They have also changed the top navigational bar. There's now no border around the edge; it's the same blue throughout and the numbers where it shows how many notifications, messages and friend/family requests have been moved down, so there is more space (personally I prefer the older version).

What do you think? Are the real-time updates a stalker's paradise? Does it make you want to have Facebook open more often and to see what exactly your friends are doing without having to click on each individual page? Let us know in the comments.

Facebook

Facebook Makes Photos Larger & Faster

Facebook is always upgrading (so they think) their systems to something better.  This update might actually be something that is beneficiary.  Facebook is rolling out with a new version of their Photos app.  This app will increase the load time of each photo and make each image larger.

Facebook’s Justin Shaffer has this to say:

Now, the photos you share on Facebook are bigger (720 pixels to 960 pixels) and load twice as fast, giving you quicker access to more detailed images.  Photos you’ve already uploaded to your profile will also be displayed at this higher resolution.

Facebook’s new updates don’t stop here.  They are rolling out with a revamped photo viewer.  This new view of looking at photos will take up more screen real estate (since photos are now larger) and reduces clutter to the eye so you can focus on the individual photo.

The light box is now set against a simple white background that puts more focus on the photo, and less on the surrounding frame.

Do you like all the new updates that Facebook is rolling out with?  Do you prefer to look at a photo with the black background or white background?  Leave your thoughts in the comment section.

[via TechJohnson]

Find Vulnerabilities on Facebook and Get Paid

Similar to Mozilla, Facebook is now paying over $500 to anyone who finds vulnerabilities which may compromise personal user data on their website. In order to get paid, you must be the first one to send it, and you need to give time to the Facebook team to fix the problem.

If you want to know more about this, go to this link.

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