Just sixteen months after Facebook launched it’s application platform, the social network released a site redesign Monday July 21st.  The new design, which can be viewed by going to www.new.facebook.com, features a cleaner look that fades away the previous more boxy layout and  now pushes “The Wall” to the forefront with a Twitter-esque status update box.  Facebook is focusing more on user ability and making it easier and faster for users update and generate more content.

On Monday, the company unveiled the simpler site design inviting users to try out the improved features, while still allowing them to revert to the current version.  Since the beginning of the year Facebook has been developing the new design, and over 100,000 users have offered feedback and suggestions on the project.  The new design is limited to begin with, but will be available to all of the 80 million plus Facebook users in the next few days.

The new profile design features tabs, “The Wall” tab being the default.  “The Wall” is now incorporated with the newsfeed.  The new design takes advantage of the ability to split up different types of information with simpler navigation.  There are also “Info”, “Photos” and “Boxes” tabs, as well as the ability for users to add own custom application tabs. It seems, however, that the new layout may not mesh well with some of the 24,000 existing platform applications that have been launched in the last year.

Today the fate of those existing applications may change as Facebook is holding it’s second annual f8 developers conference.  Topics include introducing the new Facebook profile, user experience with applications, advanced application building, mobile, and marketing applications on Facebook.  While many rumors have been swirling, some definite news came early.  It’s sure that we will see the Facebook payments platform in one form or another.  Facebook wants to find a way beyond advertising to help developers make money for their applications, and the iPhone App Store proves people are willing to pay for quality applications.  It is also known that Facebook will launch Facebook Connect, allowing third party services to authenticate Facebook users and merge profile data, with Digg as their launch partner.

It has also been speculated that Facebook will also announce a tier system for applications.  Each tier will have different rules for user engagement.  Top trusted applications that have proven themselves to have as good or better user experience as Facebook, such as iLike, will reside in the top tier.  There will be a middle tier, where the majority of applications will fall, followed by a bottom tier of untrustworthy applications.

With not only the new site design but more application developments breaking today, it seems these changes will live up to Facebook mission to, “…make the world more open and transparent by giving people the power to share.”

The tickets were bought a week and a half in advance.  The talk of the “Dark Knight” had been circulating for some time now.  We were all informed of the impending deadline at regular intervals.  “Be there at 11!”  “We need good seats” “Don’t be late!”  There were four lines outside the movie theatre, all organized for four different showtimes.  There was a camera crew on standby to film the influx of people to see the greatly hyped movie.  People walked in, booed ALL the previews, and prepared themselves with high expectations for what was called “one of the best movies this year.”  It met ALL expectations.

The acting was superb, the graphics were intense, and the actions scenes gut-wrenching.  Christian Bale, along with Michael Caine, Aaron Echkheart and Morgan Freeman, among others, performed fantastically.  The best performance, however, was from Heath Ledger.  He had to have been one of the funniest yet most ruthless villains ever.  You were forced to identify with the man, sometimes laugh with the joker, and at times loathe the lunatic.  A perfect concoction of fear and uncertainty – how far would he go?  Without blowing too much out of the water, his performance really did hold the movie together.  Personally, the villain seemed to have more color than the main character!  All in all, a worthwhile way to spend 2.5 hours of your life.

And from all of us here at Morpheus Media, thank you Rebecca Matt for putting this all together!  It was an excellent event!

We have all been pretty busy here at Morpheus Media over the last few weeks and months.  While getting to know new clients and brining new members on to the team is often an enjoyable experience, it can also be exhausting.  So Sunday night several members of the Morpheus family made our way over a few blocks west to Caroline’s.

The headliner Sunday was Joel McHale of Entertainment Televisions “Talk Soup” and he definitely delivered.  While the entire lineup got the job done, it seems like Joel has a special spot in the heart of some of the ladies here at Morpheus.  I have to admit though, I had more fun than I thought I would and was impressed by all the performers.

So I just wanted to take a moment to thank Rebecca Matt for putting the whole evening together.  Ms. Matt was able to get over twenty colleagues to amass together on a Sunday night in Times Square in July.  This my friends is no easy feat.  I would also like to thank our executive committee for sponsoring the event and keeping Morpheus a great place to work.  As we continue to grow as a company it is wonderful to know that we are still able to keep the feeling of friends and family.  Because in the end, who would you rather share a laugh with?

Many of the fashion and luxury markets of today are very hesitant to dip their toes in the water with social networking.  Before they hesitate again, they may want to view this new Comscore study which suggests that frequent users of social networking are also visiting and engaging in commerce on luxury and fashion sites more frequently than average internet users.  The numbers are quite amazing.  This article by fashion-fox.com claims that “95% of social networkers visited luxury and fashion retail sites in August”.

Read the full article with Comscore metrics >>

No, I’m not talking about the feeling you get when you install Office 2008 for Mac and realize the new excel is worse than it was in the 90’s and you can no longer get any work done.  I’m talking about a new FREE (yes FREE) application I’ve discovered called Anxiety.  If you are overloaded and inundated with tasks in iCal, and need a way to keep that list in front of you at all times so you don’t miss a beat, and really just need to work through a detailed checklist to get through your day, then this is the app for you.

If you operate on a split screen (like me, laptop on one side, monitor on other), it’s a bit more convenient.  Anxiety provides a small partially transparent window on your screen, that stays on top at all times.  You can display any calendar you’d like.  So if you have tasks on multiple calendars, you can flip between the different calendars with ease.  Once you check off a task, it turns green, blinks and then softly disappears (actually displacing your anxiety with a nice finishing touch).  Explaining this app doesn’t fully do it justice, so I invite you all to give it a try on your own.  I’m personally addicted, and my anxiety is now at a controllable level… sigh.

Like a majority of you I too rushed to download the new Firefox 3 browser. I really didn’t care for the whole world record thing Mozilla was trying to achieve, I just really like the Firefox browser and its customizing options.

Before the official release I had tried a few of their Beta platforms, I think Betas 2 and 3. I didn’t use them too often because many of my add-ons weren’t yet compatible with them so I just reverted back to the latest 2.0 build. After installing version 3.0 yesterday I noticed that it ported my entire tool bar set and plug-ins from the previous versions. I thought this was a nice touch being that I really didn’t want to go through and re-download all of them again from the Mozilla add-on site. Thankfully this time all the add-ons that I use were ready for build 3.0.

One problem of note was that one of my heavily frequented pages www.msn.com would crash the browser when I tried to view it. After trolling the discussion boards I got the impression that a certain
plug-in was the culprit but I wasn’t too sure exactly which one it was. After some trial and error of turning one off at a time a reloading I caught the little bugger red handed. Microsoft’s Silverlight plug-in apparently isn’t compatible yet with Firefox 3. I don’t think this is a really big deal as not too many websites are utilizing MS’s Silverlight tech, a competitor to Flash.

So, if you find that your new browsing sessions with Firefox 3 are abruptly ended with a crash and burn, check that maybe you have the Silverlight plug-in installed and disable it.

Well, today is the day that Mozilla drops Firefox 3 on the world.  I have to admit I am a little excited.  Having switched from a pc to a Mac just about a year ago, I quickly become a MacHead.  I now not only use the machines at work, I have invited them into my home.

I don’t believe there is  better compliment to Macs than Firefox, and I am not only referring to the SEO work we do here.  Sure Firebug is fun and provides a utility, but Firefox’s multiple tab organization and ease of use allows for even the most novice of users to effectively navigate the web.  The Industry Standard has a nice piece covering the details today.

Enough of a sales pitch though, since I still get charged full price at the Apple Store downtown.  Mozilla is looking at breaking a record on number of downloads in a day.  The fun and games start today at 1pm (est).  Love to hear your feed back once you make the jump.

I just came across a sneak-peek of the new Firefox interface for mobile on TechCrunch. And I have to say I’m pretty impressed. I am not sure how close to complete the project really is, but so far so good.

Firefox Mobile Concept Video from Aza Raskin on Vimeo

Either way I am excited about the new browser that may finally appear next week. Once this new edition makes its way to my desktop (which will be very quickly) I will be kicking the tires on it and reporting back.

Until then, love to here your projections as to the viability of the new mobile interface.

What sits next to your TV these days? The cable/DVR box, DVD player, Xbox/PS3, or

maybe even an Apple TV? Well, it looks like there are too many “boxes” taking up your TV stand space and I ha ve to say Panasonic is coming out with a solution that might help your situation. Panasonic’s new Plasma TV series, TH-PZ850U, features their latest technology called, Viera Cast, which is an interface that includes a live access to YouTube and Picasa as well as widgets such as stock ticker (courtesy of Bloomberg) and a weather widget (provided by The Weather Channel).

For the YouTube feature, the user can actually search by keyword, sort videos by popularity, or access your own list of “favorites.” According to Panasonic, although the entire collection of YouTube videos are available through Viera Cast, it may take a day or two to view the new videos.  Secondly, this TV can access Google’s photo sharing site, Picasa and view digital photos stored at your Picasa account directly on the TV screen.  At this time, Panasonic did not confirm any additional features or partners on Viera Cast but the main menu interface does show “coming soon” sections for additional cool features!

The concept and the idea of Panasonic’s Viera Cast mirrors the idea of Apple TV but keep in mind that this is all within the TV!  The fact that this TV doesn’t need a PC but directly connects to Internet with an Ethernet jack, it is simply convenient and user-friendly.  Although, there are few things that compare to Apple TV, such as a hard-drive where you can store your own music or movies, I still believe Panasonic took a huge step to incorporate such technology in a TV.  This is only the beginning of the exciting new adventure that is Viera Cast. We’ll see whether this technology will blast off and start a new trend in  TV business, OR just a small bump and a failure…

After attending the ESM (Executing Social Media) conference in mid May, my brain started working on overdrive. Flowers seemed to give off a sweeter smell, the sun shines stronger, and everything tastes a little better. Meeting and discussing things with PR Gurus and Social Media “Top Dogs” was an excellent opportunity for me to gain knowledge. For some reason everyone at this event thought I was 18 years old, which definitely gave me an advantage to say the least.

Many questions came up at the conference, but one was recurring; “What tool should I use to track my clients in the Social Space?” As usual the same answers were coming up as I have heard so many times before. Google Blog Search, Google Alerts, Technorati, Blog Pulse, etc. These are extremely important tools however I wanted to learn about programs like, Radian6 which is a buzz tracking tool available for purchase. I am always interested in new ways to track buzz.

A few questions that came from the crowd were really important ones; “How do I track new social platforms?”, “How do I produce metrics?”, “How can I prevent poor brand reputation?” Now we got to the good stuff. Using Summize Sentiment, Summize, Ask.com’s Blog Search, as well as some other hot new tools are great ways to track progress of your clients in the social space. There is yet to be a fully functional tool outside of Page Manager to track your clients Facebook metrics, as well as many restrictions on doing so. Friend Feed, was not voted on as being helpful as of yet, but still a really cool tool to see what large groups of social networks are doing as a whole.

While I was at the conference, Trackur was released by Andy Beal. It has been released with a two week free trial that is fluff free. This tool searches images, blogs, articles, and video all at once. It also has the power to search Twitter statuses which is so important to us and our clients being the buzzword of the year.

It can be expensive depending on the rate you need it. The pricing ranges from $18 to $197 per month depending on the amount of keywords you need tracked. It comes from somebody as trusted as Andy Beal, so there is no going wrong. I have seen him speak at previous conferences and his intelligence should be rewarded. Beal admits; there is no big office and he operating Trackur from his home. Additionally, he is definitely readily available for questions and comments on the tool.

After trying the tool out for two weeks, I find the tool extremely useful and important. This tool might be outdated in a few months by the next tool but in the meantime it is great for brand management, news alerts, competition analysis, and blog research. The only noted downside is the lack of a noise filter. Trackur will return lots of noise surrounding your keywords, while Google Alerts can filter out garbage. However, the amazing upsides to this tool that goes beyond all other tools are described well in the Trackur FAQ:

* Trackur can cover data sources outside of Google’s Index;
* Trackur has a more sophisticated management, web-based interface (Google Alerts just uses email;)
* Trackur allows you to store a history of alerts, whereas for Google you have to keep holding onto emails; and
* Trackur shows you a larger list of sources that mention your keywords - Google Alerts only shows you up to five items that appear in a 24-hour period.