This “Mailbook” advert appeared on Scrabble, just below the normal Facebook toolbar.
Seems dodgy to me. It’s a quite misleading way to try and get you to click on the ad.
Surprised Facebook would allow something that appears so similar to their own navigation.
Maybe they haven’t spotted it yet. I wonder if the icons are pixel-for-pixel copies?
Oh Scrabble, you bastards.
This new advert appears when opening up Facebook Scrabble (the international version).
Gripes:
Apparently we weren’t paying the adverts enough attention, now they want to shove it in our faces.
Way to piss off your users.
Looks like I can stop recommending Scrabble on Facebook to people.
I just want to look at a photo a friend has posted. No doubt the app in question makes it very easy for my friend to post the photo, but it’s difficult for me to see it without handing over a bunch of control to the app.
Now, I know it’s not Facebook’s fault specifically, but c’mon, why do I need to give an application access to my Profile and details of my friends just to look at a photo? I don’t want to do that.
Surely they could change the FB API around so it’s easier to have simple interaction with an application (eg to just look at the photo, not post my own) without handing over this kind of permission?
But then the app wouldn’t spread so fast virally, would it.
The fact that this kind of stuff is so typical is not exactly training users to be careful about minding their privacy online.
Fortunately in this case, it appears that the app is just re-broadcasting a photo from the user’s existing collection of photos, so I’ve been able to hunt it down and look at it there.
Of course, it’s in the FB photos standard lowish resolution, no bigger copy available, but that’s another story.
Facebook, seriously, WTF?
I mean, what the hell is that? Some kind of deformed Pac-Man? The Man in the Moon?
I’ll tell you what it is — some unrecognisable blob, that’s what.
And I bet they knew, too. When I clicked “Try different words”, the blob was replaced by the word “unusable”.
Facebook has new simplified privacy options.
Including one for About Me, which it claims “refers to the About Me description in your profile”.
“About Me”? I don’t remember that.
So I went looking in my profile. It was nowhere to be found. I thought maybe somewhere on the Info tab. Nup, couldn’t see it.
Eventually with some clues from someone on Twitter pointing me to it, I discovered it’s invisible unless you’ve set it to say something. Very helpful.
So to find it, it’s under: Profile / Info tab / Personal Information, then if you can’t see About Me, click the Edit button for Personal Information. Only then will it appear.
And just to confuse things, the “Write something about yourself” box underneath your photo in your Profile is different.
So here’s the thing. The other day I was looking at Facebook, at the Wall of a friend of mine, Jason.
And for a few minutes there, Facebook decided I was logged-on as Jason.
Except I wasn’t. I didn’t have any permissions to look at his private stuff, nor change things, but every time I clicked on the Profile button it showed me his Wall, not mine.
When I clicked Home, it thought I was me again. Clicking back to Profile, Jason again. I just couldn’t get to my own Profile.
In the bottom-right it said I had a bunch of notifications. But it wouldn’t let me see them; they must have been his.
Then I clicked logoff, and became me again.
I had a look at a couple of other friends’ Walls, it didn’t do it. But back on Jason’s, it got stuck again. I let him know, of course.
Makes me glad it didn’t just assume I was him and let me do and see anything he could. All I ever saw (apart from the number of notifications he had) was stuff I could see anyway as his friend.
All very odd.
Want to appear in adverts to your friends on Facebook?
I don’t. I don’t see why an advertiser should be able to imply that I use or recommend their product. And I had been wondering why people I know started showing up in ads like this:
Note that all three suggested dates are wrong. Pretty stupid.
Anyway, you can stop your profile image appearing in adverts by going to this Facebook settings page.
Or if that doesn’t work, go to Settings / Privacy / News feed and wall / Facebook Ads. Nicely obscure, isn’t it.
(via Rae… who also pointed me over to this article about recent changes by Facebook in this area.)