Like many, we tuned into the f8 conference a week ago and were introduced to the Spotify music app for Facebook.  Once installed on your desktop, the app shares your music choices via Facebook, which allows your friends to see what your listening to and can join in and listen to your music list.

Spotify even goes as far as allowing users to enable private listening if some of your personal music choices are on the embarrassing side.  For example, I have an unexplainable love for the Backstreet Boys but I am a little too embarrassed to let this secret out.  With Spotify, you can enable the “Private Listening” feature for any song that you feel shouldn’t be shared amongst your Facebook friends.  Founder Daniel Ek comments that the feature is part of a new desktop client and is designed to “temporarily hide your guilty pleasures” and works just like your web browser’s private mode.

Me likey!

Are you currently using the Spotify app and if so, have you enabled the “Private Listening” feature yet?  Leave your feedback in comments section below!

No?  What if we say the annoying news-feed-like window that sits directly on top of your chat window?

The new homepage ticker was pushed out by Facebook on Wednesday September 21st to all users of the social network.  The new feature is programmed to give us more of a “news” insight into our friends activity (in real time) via Facebook.  Creepy right?  The news ticker shows when you have chat open, and if you close chat, it takes residence above the ads and everything else.  Talk about a migraine!

Currently, this news ticker is not optional and we don’t know if Facebook will ever make it optional, fingers crossed.  Until that happens, here are some nifty solutions to getting rid of that annoying Facebook news ticker courtesy of AllFacebook.com:

1. Adjust the size of your browser window           

By adjusting the size of your browser window to a smaller view, the news ticker will (magically – we wish) disappear.

2.  Post-Its are key!       

It will take not just one, but two post-its, because one is too thin and you can still see the news ticker movement from underneath.  It’s not a realistic option but it works for now.

3.  Maximize chat window

This is a somewhat good solution to the ticker but with this solution, another issue arises: chat box.

4.  Switch to Myspace

Quite a desperate solution but with Facebook expecting to release more profile updates, Myspace doesn’t look so bad after all…

5.  Quit Social Media Altogether

It’s not a difficult feat to accomplish but for the other 99.9%, we just can’t quit you Facebook…

What do you think of Facebook’s news ticker feature?  Have you discovered ways of getting rid of the darn thing?  Share with us in the comments below!

Facebook will be rolling out a new site feature, which will allow users to choose exactly what they want to see in their individual News Feeds.  With this new feature, you can block certain friend shares from showing up in your News Feed.  Everyone has that one annoying friend who posts every hour; with the Subscribe button, you can block out this friend completely and easily.

Keep in mind that this new feature is opt in only (at the moment).  If you would like to opt in for this feature, you can do so here: http://www.facebook.com/about/subscribe

The Subscribe button will also allow users to hear directly from people their interested in but don’t know personally – like artists, businesses, and political figures.

The only slightly freakish quality about this new Subscribe button is that you can hear from people, even if you’re not friends and vice versa.  We don’t quite understand why you would want to hear from someone if your not friends with them.  This defeats the whole purpose of not being friends with that person, right?

All in all, this new feature gives Facebook users the ability to tweak their News Feed stories and make them more customized to their liking.  Although there is more freedom in this update for users, be mindful of the “Public” feature if you like your life and Facebook statuses to stay private.

Have you opted in for this new feature?  Do you see yourself using it?  Let us know in the comments below!

If you are one retailer out of millions in the world, how would you go about separating yourself from the herd in order to get noticed?

Hipster fashion retailer Urban Outfitters has found a creative solution via Facebook to get the masses interested and coming back for more.  The retailer’s new interactive campaign will enable Facebook fans to browse through Urban Outfitter’s fall catalog on the brands page. Genius!

Urban is the first retailer to utilize the interactive service introduced by Enter: New Media, a digital media agency specializing in fashion, retail and entertainment.  The questions running in our minds is, why didn’t anyone think of this sooner?  This service is, without a doubt, needed by all fashion retailers who manage pages on Facebook.  As a fashion enthusiast, I love the fact that I can visit Facebook and scan through retailer catalogs without having to navigate outside of the social network.  I am on Facebook constantly and the ability for me to check and see if my favorite store added more fall pieces to their collection by just visiting their fan page is key!

I sure hope that more and more retailers adopt this service as Urban Outfitters has to make all our lives that much simpler.  Moreover, looking forward, it would be awesome to see fashion retailers adopt shopping services directly to their Facebook pages too.  Shopping on Facebook would be the ultimate, wouldn’t it? Anything is possible, only time will tell and I cannot wait!

Have you checked out Urban Outfitter’s interactive catalog on Facebook?  If so, did you find it more convenient than having to scan an old school catalog?  Let us know in the comments section below!

The infographic comes from OnlineSchools, which states that parents spying on their kids via Facebook maybe isn’t such a bad thing:  “Children are vulnerable on social networks and many are on Facebook without their parents’ permission. That’s why many parents feel that they’re not snooping on their kids — they’re protecting them.”

Good point.  If we were parents, wouldn’t we want to know what our children are talking about behind our backs?  Or who is talking about them behind their backs?  These questions bring up an important point, if parents are so interested on keeping their kids safe from harm, shouldn’t they just talk to them about it, person to person instead of finding out by Facebook?  It’s obvious that with the rise of social networks, that the communication barrier between kids and their parents continues to grow larger and larger apart from each other.

Sooner or later, will this communication be lost?  It’s parents’ responsibility to take the initiative and force communication with their kids at all times because in the end, we just can’t rely on Facebook to do the communicating for us.

Thoughts?  Leave your questions and/or comments below for us!

Courtesy of: OnlineSchools.com

The popular Facebook layouts browser app, PageRage, has just launched their first, ever, Facebook layouts contest and they are giving away quite the grand prize.  It’s an exciting opportunity for Facebook users; read on to learn more about contest details.

If you are unfamiliar with PageRage it is the first web application that allows Facebook users to place graphic layouts right on top of their existing profile.  More than 1.6 million people visit PageRage.com every day, and more than 40,000 custom Facebook layouts are created every day with their custom Facebook layouts tool.  PageRage is a free ad-supported Facebook layouts browser app and if users wish to experience ad-free Facebook layouts, they have the option to upgrade to PageRage Premium.

Now that you’ve learned a little more about the browser app, here is how you can go about entering the contest and possibly winning an Xbox 360 with Kinect!

To enter the contest, users must create and submit their own original Facebook layouts to be judged by the online community.  The Facebook layout with the most votes will win the grand prize of an Xbox 360 with Kinect and a video game package depending on if a boy or girl wins.  Second and third place Facebook layout winners will receive Amazon.com gift cards.

Interested in entering this contest?  Follow our steps outlined below on how to enter the PageRage contest:

1. Visit www.PageRage.com
2. Install the free PageRage browser app by clicking on the green “Click to Download” button.
3. Once you have clicked to download, your computer will be prompted to install PageRage.  Keep in mind that PageRage is compatible with the following browsers:  Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Firefox.
4. After you have installed PageRage successfully, click on the Create Your Own Layout tab at the top of the page.
5. On this page, you will see the NEW PageRage CYOL tool.  Use this tool to create your contest winning Facebook layouts!  In the final step of creating your layout you will need to save the image of the layout to your desktop by right clicking on the image of the layout and clicking, “Save As.”
6. ALMOST DONE! After you have saved the image of your layout to your desktop, go back to PageRage’s homepage and click on the contest banner to submit your layout.  You can also click on this link to enter the Facebook layouts contest.
7. Once on the contest page, click on the “Enter” button and the app will guide you through the appropriate steps to submitting your layout.

Contest goers will have up until August 26th to submit their layouts to PageRage’s contest and until August 29th to get those votes in towards their Facebook layouts.

Get your submissions in and be sure to tell your friends to vote for your layouts too.  Remember, the layout with the most votes wins!! Good luck everyone!

Have you heard the news?

Who would of thought that Lady Gaga herself would of come-up with the mastermind plan for the best Facebook contest we’ve seen to date.  She announced a contest in which fans can vote for their favorite charity on Lady Gaga’s Facebook page and become eligible to win tickets to her sold-out May 9 performance.  This is probably the most genius way to get not only more “likes,” but also a great way for her audience to get involved.  If more music artists or celebs did efforts like these, more followers would be inclined to check out their page more often and therefore, become more loyal.

There are five selected charities offered for fans to choose from and these charities all benefit the same end-goal:  to support disconnected youth (young people ages 16 to 24 who are not in school and are not employed) in New York.  Lady Gaga comments, “NYC is my hometown and I think investing in these kids’ futures will go a long way.”  It is too often that this specific age group gets swept under the rug to become forgotten and we are more than ecstatic that Lady Gaga has taken the time and money out of her busy life to make this positive change take effect.

If you are interested in participating in the contest, visit Lady Gaga’s Facebook page to apply.  Via her page, you can learn more about the five selected charities.  Gaga will announce the winning charity during her May 9 performance where she will donate a total of $1 million.

We don’t know about you guys, but we’re rushing over to Lady Gaga’s Facebook page right now to apply, don’t miss out on this wonderful and fulfilling opportunity!

Can’t get enough of Angry Birds?

It’s your lucky day!  Starting in April, the very popular Angry Birds game will become  available to users on Facebook.  This Angry Birds edition for Facebook will be somewhat different from its classic phone app; the pigs in Angry Birds will be featured in a more prominent role.  Also, Angry Birds for Facebook promises to reveal more information in due course to those who “like” the Facebook feed as well as their page.  The company is also getting ready to release a special version of the game to coincide with the release of the animated movie, Rio. In more Angry Bird watch news, there have been rumors circulating the web that a movie and TV show is in the works.  It seems like we all have gone a little Angry Bird mad!  Do you think this Angry Bird frenzy is too much?  Will you become an avid player of the game’s Facebook version once it becomes available next month?

See how Conan O’Brien rolls, Angry Birds style!

Let’s get your take, sound off below!

Who would of thought that this thing we call Facebook could lead to stress?

A new study has suggested that the more friends you have on Facebook, the more likely you are to feel stressed out by the social network.  Edinburgh Napier University conducted a study, where psychologists quizzed close to 200 students on their use of Facebook.  The study concluded that “for a significant number of users, the negative effects of Facebook outweigh the benefits of staying in touch with friends and family.”  So, what is considered a negative effect of Facebook?  The doctor leading the pact for this study, Kathy Charles, points out these types of negative effects in full:

1. There is much ambivalence amongst Facebook users, although there is great pressure to be a part of the social network.
2. There is a significant minority of users who experiencing Facebook-related anxiety.
3. Facebook users with the most friends, those who have invested the most time on the site, were the most likely to be stressed.

These three main components of the study doesn’t entirely persuade us that having more Facebook friends leads to more stress.  But one of the main findings that Dr. Kathy Charles points out is that the actions that Facebook users deal with regularly may cause the most psychological strain.  An action as simple as rejecting a friend request or delaying a friends request caused most of the 200 students in the study to feel guilty.

It’s quite interesting to see, that with growth of a social website like Facebook, causes people to have some sort of stress or psychological strain.  Dr. Charles adds, “Like gambling, Facebook keeps users in a neurotic limbo, not knowing whether they should hang on in there just in case they miss out on something good.”

What do you think?  Does having more Facebook friends cause you stress or just being a part of the social network cause it? Sound off below!