Social Media Access via Mobile Browser Sees Triple-Digits

Access to social media sites via smartphones has increased 8.3 points in the past year, from 22.5 percent in January 2009 to 30.8 percent in January 2010, according to recent data from comScore. Access to Facebook via mobile browser increased 112 percent in the same time frame, while Twitter experienced a 347-percent increase.

The study also found that 11.1 percent of all mobile phone users accessed a social networking site via mobile browser, an increase of 4.6 percentage points from last year. According to comScore, much of this growth has been attributed to smartphone owners, 30.8 percent of whom accessed social networking sites on their mobile browsers.

ComScore also revealed that a whopping 25.1 million mobile users accessed Facebook via their mobile browser in January 2010, a 112 percent increase from the previous year. MySpace attracted 11.4 million users in January, while Twitter attracted 4.7 million users.

“American Idol” pulls plug on Twitter, Facebook pages

“American Idol” producers have pulled the plug on individual contestant Twitter and Facebook pages. According to the Los Angeles Times, they have all been consolidated into one shared social media page used by all of the contestants.

Followers of individual contestants on Twitter received the following message on Wednesday night as the switch happened: “Thanks so much for following me! All my updates from now on will be on our Official Ai9 Twitter Page, please follow me there @AI9Contestants” A similar message directed Facebook fans of contestants to the AI9 Contestants fan page on that site.

The report speculated that producers made the switch because the discrepancy between the number of friends and fans on social media sites was giving an obvious clue as to the popularity of certain contestants and might have been an influence in voting.

U.S. Military Can Now Use Social Media

CNN reports that U.S. military personnel are now allowed tweet. According to the article, the Pentagon announced Friday that military personnel can use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube “from non-classified government computers as long as the activity does not compromise operational security or involve prohibited activities or Web sites.”

“The world of Web 2.0 and the Internet provides these amazing opportunities to collaborate,” David M. Wennergren, deputy assistant secretary of defense for information management and technology told CNN. “It not only promotes information sharing across organizational boundaries and with mission partners, but also enables deployed troops to maintain contact with their loved ones at home.”

Farmville Monthly Subscription a Hoax

An email claiming that Facebook users will soon have to pay to play the popular game Farmville is a hoax, according to Caroline McCarthy at CNET. A fan site had posted an email that a reader said had come from Farmville parent company Zynga, claiming that the game was moving out of “beta” mode ending March 31, with a new subscription model costing $5.95 month and offering advanced features.

Of course, that also means that the first day of the “new” Farmville would be on April 1, leading McCarthy to speculate that it was an early April Fool’s Day joke. For their part, spokespeople from Zynga have denied that they will be moving out of their current model, which sees the company make money from 75 million monthly users who use real-world money to purchase virtual goods to use in the game.

Possible Lawsuit against Facebook and Social Media Sites

CNET News reports that in response to a massive snow ball fight that took place yesterday in Center City Philadelphia, two members of Philadelphia’s city council are requesting that legal action be taken against social media sites, which were reportedly used to organize the event.

More than 150 teenagers rampaged through Macy’s department store at the Market East mall, knocking over displays and causing nearly $700 worth of damage, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Although no one was reportedly hurt, some pedestrians were knocked over including a Center City attorney and a doctor.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the event was organized through text messages and possibly Facebook, but is not clear whether Facebook or any other social networking site was used. CNET News reports that council members Frank DiCicco and James F. Kenney wrote a letter to Mayor Michael Nutter requesting the permission to “pursue the possibility” of a lawsuit.

“While they certainly owe this city an apology and deserve to be punished under the fullest extent of the law, we believe that social media outlets should also bear some of the blame.”

However, CNET News staff writer Caroline McCarthy disagrees. She writes, “On one hand, suing Facebook in this case is like suing the phone company if telephone calls were used to plot a bank robbery. It’s not the responsibility of a social network with 400 million members around the world to monitor conversations between mischievous high schoolers.”

Malware and Spam Increase 70 percent on Social Networks

Cybercriminals have increasingly focused their attacks on social networking users, with an explosion in the reports of spam and malware in the past 12 months, according to a new report from Sophos, an IT security and data protection company.

According to the report, 57 percent of respondents said they have been spammed via social networking sites in the last 12 months, an increase of 70.6 percent from last year. In addition, 36 percent said they have been sent malware through the same medium, accounting for an increase of 69.8 percent from last year.

“Computer users are spending more time on social networks, sharing sensitive and valuable personal information, and hackers have sniffed out where the money is to be made,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. “The dramatic rise in attacks in the last year tells us that social networks and their millions of users have to do more to protect themselves from organized cybercrime, or risk falling prey to identity theft schemes, scams, and malware attacks.”

When asked which social network they believed posed the biggest security risk, 60 percent said Facebook, while 18 percent said MySpace. Twitter and LinkedIn followed behind with 17 percent and four percent, respectively.

While Cluley acknowledged that Facebook is the largest social networking site “and you’ll find more bad apples in the biggest orchard,” he also noted that the social networking company took a backwards step last year when after rolling out its new recommended privacy settings it encouraged many users to share information with everybody on the Internet.

Social Media Leaders Meet in Switzerland

The Los Angeles Times reports that the heads of the major social media sites are meeting at a conference in Davos, Switzerland to discuss ways to monetize the incredible popularity of social media tools. According to the report, top executives from Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn met with world leaders at the World Economic Summit to share their experiences and try to help other businesses become successful while using social networking tools.

However, this meeting comes at a time when many social media networks themselves are struggling with ways to make money off of their own success.

“What’s important for them is to become indispensable to consumers,” said Augie Ray, a senior analyst for social computing with Forrester Research Inc.

“For Facebook, one of the interesting things is the value of advertising that is super relevant and also increasingly involves the preferences and actions of your friends,” he said.

Global Time Spent on Social Media Sites Increases Year-to-Year

Global consumers spent more than five and a half hours on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in December 2009, accounting for an 82 percent increase from the same time last year, according to The Nielsen Company. The new study found that overall traffic to social networking sites has increased over the last three years.

When ranked by average time spent online in December 2009, social networks and blogs were the most popular category, followed by online games and instant messaging. Facebook secured the number one spot as the most popular global social networking destination in December 2009, with 206.9 million unique visitors.

U.S. statistics from The Nielsen Company also reveal that Americans are spending more time on social networking and blog sites than ever before, with total minutes increasing 210 percent year-to-year and the average time per person increasing 143 percent year-over-year in December 2009. According to Nielsen data, year-over-year growth in terms of average time spent by U.S. users for both Facebok and Twitter.com, outpaced the overall growth in the category, increasing 200 percent and 368 percent, respectively.

Although month-to-month unique visitors decreased 5 percent, Twitter.com secured its first place slot as the fastest-growing U.S. social networking site in December 2009, increasing a whopping 579 percent year-to-year.

Pope Benedict Calls on Catholic Church to Embrace New Technology

CNET.com reports that Pope Benedict XVI has called on priests in the Catholic Church to embrace technology, particularly social media sites including Twitter and Facebook, as a tool to communicate with followers. In a message for the Catholic Church’s 2010 World Day for Social Communications, Pope Benedict encouraged the ministry to use new technologies to preach the gospel and interact with church members.

“Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, Web sites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization, and catechesis,” said Pope Benedict in his message.

Along with having a main Web site, the Vatican also has launched a Facebook application, YouTube videos and an iPhone app.

Social Media Becomes Focal Point of Haitian Philanthropy Efforts

Social media sites have become a focal point of humanitarian relief efforts after a massive earthquake in Haiti on Tuesday that may have left hundreds of thousands of citizens dead. The Chronicle of Philanthropy lists several efforts that have been started on sites such as Facebook and Twitter to raise money or supplies for Haiti.

• Anyone who texts the word “Haiti” to 90999 will have a $10 donation to the American Red Cross for disaster relief automatically applied to their phone bill.
• Donors can also contribute to the earthquake relief fund of Yele Haiti, a nonprofit started by musician Wyclef John, by texting “Yele” to 501501.
• The Global Philanthropy Ground is encouraging its celebrity donors such as Ben Stiller and John Legend to take to sites such as Twitter and Facebook and encourage their fans to give to UNICEF.

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