Facebook aims to help prevent suicide

binjaitech--Help is just a few clicks away on Facebook for people expressing suicidal thoughts.

The social networking site launched a new feature Tuesday that enables users to connect with a counselor through a confidential chat session triggered after a friend reports distressing content.

The new tool has several benefits, experts say, in the quest to reduce the number of nearly 100 Americans who commit suicide every day.

First, it brings quick intervention at times when it can be of most help. Second, it enables troubled people to start a chat over an instant messaging system that many find more comfortable than speaking on the phone with a counselor.

“We’ve heard from many people who say they want to talk to someone but don’t want to call. Instant message is perfect for that,” said Lidia Bernik, associate project director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

The service is the latest tool from Facebook aimed at improving safety on its site, which has more than 800 million users. This year, it announced changes to how users report bullying, offensive content and fake profiles.

“One of the big goals here is to get the person in distress into the right help as soon as possible,” said Fred Wolens, Facebook’s public policy manager.

In recent years, distressed people have posted their final words on Facebook.

In one high-profile case in September 2010, Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge after his roommate allegedly used a webcam to spy on his intimate encounter with another man.

Clementi had posted on his Facebook account: “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.”

Last month, authorities in Pittsburg, Calif., said a man posted a suicide note on Facebook before he killed his wife and in-laws, then himself.

In July, police in Pennsylvania said they believed they were able to help prevent a man’s suicide after his friend in California alerted police about a distraught Facebook posting. Police met with the man, who was admitted to a hospital.

Google">Google and Yahoo have long provided Lifeline’s phone number as the first result when someone searches for “suicide.” Through email, Facebook directed users to the hotline or encouraged friends to call police if they perceived someone was about to do harm.

The new service goes a step further. Here’s how it works:

A user spots a suicidal comment on a friend’s page. He then clicks on a “report” button next to the posting that leads to a series of questions about the nature of the post, including whether it is violent, harassing, hate speech or harmful behavior.

If harmful behavior is clicked, then self-harm, Facebook’s user safety team reviews it and sends it to Lifeline. Once the comment is determined to be legitimate, Facebook sends an email to the user who originally posted the thoughts perceived as suicidal. The email includes Lifeline’s phone number and a link to start a confidential chat session.

The recipient decides whether to respond. Facebook also sends an email to the person who reported the content to let the person know that the site responded. If a suicide or other threats appear imminent, Facebook encourages friends to call law enforcement.

The vetting process guards against any misuse and harassment and keeps the experience within the user’s control, Wolens said.

Facebook, however, has not created any software that searches the site for suicidal expressions. It would be far too difficult with so many users and so many comments that could be misinterpreted by a computer algorithm, Wolens said.

“The only people who will have a really good idea of what’s going on is your friends. So we’re encouraging them to speak up and giving them an easy and quick way to get help,” he said.

The Lifeline currently responds to dozens of users on Facebook each day. Crisis center workers will be available 24 hours a day to respond to users selecting the chat option. taiwannews

Google joins fight against slavery with $11.5 million grant

binjaitech--Google Inc. announced Wednesday that it's providing $11.5 million in grants to 10 organizations working to end modern-day slavery and human trafficking.

Gary Haugen, president and CEO of International Justice Mission, one of the grant recipients, called the move a "game-changing investment." IJM is a Washington-based human rights agency that works to rescue victims of slavery and sexual exploitation in about a dozen countries.

"This is the largest corporate step up to the challenge that is beginning to apply direct resources to the fight against slavery," Haugen said.

According to estimates by grant recipients, Google's support will free an estimated 12,000 people from slavery and prevent millions more from being victimized. Numbers vary widely, but policymakers, activists and scholars estimate the number of modern-day slaves at somewhere between 10 million and 30 million people worldwide.

Google's director of charitable giving, Jacquelline Fuller, said the company chose to spotlight the issue of slavery because the topic of freedom -- "the most basic of human rights," as she puts it -- resonated with company employees around the world.

"Many people are surprised to learn there are more people trapped in slavery today than any time in history," Fuller said. "The good news is that there are solutions. Google is supporting organizations that have a proven track record and a plan to make a difference at scale."

Google made the announcement through a link posted on its web page. The gift is part of a total of $40 million the Internet giant is giving in charitable donations during the holiday season.

The grant will be shared by newly formed coalitions of international anti-trafficking organizations. The bulk of the donation, $8 million, will go to two coalitions led by IJM in India, with about half going toward direct intervention and government-led rescue operations, and half toward advocacy and awareness projects. In addition, $1.8 million will go to the U.S. Anti-Trafficking Initiative -- a partnership between Polaris Project, which operates the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline, Slavery Footprint, an interactive Web site and mobile app that estimates how much of a user's lifestyle relies on forced labor, and IJM.

IJM says most of its funding comes from private donations. In 2010, it notes, less than 1% of its funding came from major corporations or corporate foundations.

"It gives us a sense of what's possible," said IJM's Haugen. "We can actually change the whole balance of resources between those who are the criminals, hurting human beings and those who are on the side of those who need freedom today."

CNN has also joined the fight against modern-day slavery and collaborates regularly with many advocacy groups, including the recipients of these Google grants. Since launching the CNN Freedom Project in March, CNN has broadcast more than 200 stories and a half-dozen documentaries on the issue of human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Nearly 2,000 people have come out of slavery, either directly or indirectly, as a result of those stories. cnn

AOL TV gets HuffPost makeover

binjaitech--The retooled site, huffingtonpost.com/tv, launched Wednesday morning as part of editorial boss Arianna Huffington's ongoing makeover of AOL's editorial properties.

Following the model established at The Huffington Post, it will feature prominent bloggers such as Aaron Sorkin, Norman Lear, Bill Maher and Dr. Phil McGraw.

"It's going to be a sophisticated, bordering on obsessive take on the most buzzworthy shows," Michael Hogan, executive entertainment editor at Huffington Post Media Group, told TheWrap. "But I also think we're going to be looking for ways to connect what's happening on TV to the broader culture."

Hogan said that Jaimie Etkin, former associate culture editor for Newsweek and The Daily Beast, has been hired to serve as editor. AOL TV's five staffers will move to the new site.

Hogan said that HuffPost TV will retain the television listings and show pages from AOL TV -- but will have a different color. Moreover, its tone will better reflect the Huffington Post's.

"People really love to talk about TV, and they know that the Huffington Post is a place to have conversations online, so to me it's like the internet and TV were kind of made for each other," Hogan said.

"One of the primary objectives here is not just to kind of hear ourselves speak and pat ourselves on the back, but to really engage with an audience that we know is there," he said. "They're already there reading The Huffington Post and commenting on The Huffington Post, but also, we know there are all these communities around all these shows, so we want to provide the best possible venue for people to talk about the shows."

He said that people want to talk about the shows they've just watched -- and that HuffPost TV will give them a place to do that.

AOL acquired The Huffington Post for $315 million this past February. When it did, it installed Arianna Huffington as president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which includes AOL properties. reuters

Google’s Eric Schmidt envisions Google TV on majority of new TVs by summer of 2012

binjaitech--Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has become the unofficial chief bearer of good news for his company at the LeWeb Conference in France this year, in his onstage interview just today. Known for lofty predictions (such as his anticipations for self-driving cars and semantic search engines) when he speaks at conferences, Schmidt spoke about his big plans for Google TV, which he believes will embedded in the majority of new television sets by the summer of 2012. That’s quite a prediction to make, even for the Google Chairman, especially since not much ground has been broken by Google TV, at least at the moment.

“By the summer of 2012, the majority of the televisions you see in stores will have Google TV embedded in it,” Schmidt said onstage at the LeWeb conference, although the optimistic claim seems to contradict the current standing of Google TV, which isn’t something users rave about these days, has faltering reported sales numbers, and stands to face with rising competition in the television entertainment industry, possibly from Apple, just to name one company.

When asked about the comparative quality of Android apps versus iOS apps, Schmidt said that the Android Market was on the verge of overtaking that of Apple’s App Store, saying that Android could possibly become the first-choice mobile platform to develop for in due time. These are all some lofty claims, and we hope that Google, with Eric Schmidt’s visions, will succeed in them. slashgear

Facebook flaw exposes Zuckerberg’s photos

binjaitech--Newly unearthed private photos of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg may be a letdown if you were expecting raucous party scenes like the ones in “The Social Network” movie.

Facebook, Google users should be censored: India

binjaitech--India, the world’s largest democratic country has urged social network companies including Facebook, Twitter and Google to pre-screen content before posting it.

India’s acting Telecommunications Minister, Kapil Sibal has asked them to censor their content and remove any defamatory or disparaging content before it goes online.

India has also told internet giants Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo to block online content that risks offending “Indian sensibilities”.

Government officials are upset about web users posting derogatory comments about Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi and major religious figures.

Kapil Sibal said Tuesday that if Facebook and Google cannot censor derogatory statements on their sites, the government will have to step in. He said his ministry was working on guidelines for action against companies which did not respond to the government’s requests, but did not specify what action could be taken.

Kapil Sibal told a press conference he had met with the companies’ representatives several times over the past three months and have repeatedly asked officials from major internet companies to voluntarily censor some users’ comments. The internet companies told Sibal they worked to US norms. The minister called for them to adapt instead to local standards.

Kabil Sibal has met with the Indian executives most recently on Monday. No agreement, however, emerged between the parties.

The minister wants to ensure that “insulting material” never gets uploaded. He wants internet companies to “give us the data, where these images are being uploaded and who is doing it.”

Facebook responded in a statement Tuesday that it would remove content that “is hateful, threatening, incites violence or contains nudity.”

“We recognize the government’s interest in minimizing the amount of abusive content that is available online and will continue to engage with the Indian authorities as they debate this important issue,” the social network said.

Google and Microsoft declined to comment. According to Google, the Indian government has made 68 requests this year to remove or block content. The government has also expressed concerns that Google Earth could be used by terrorists to examine targets in preparation for an attack. truthdive

Google Celebrates 10 Billion Android Downloads

binjaitech--Google is closing the “app gap” in the smartphone market, at least when it comes to downloads. The company announced on Tuesday that Android users have downloaded some 10 billion apps to date on the Android Market, and that its monthly download rate has crossed the 1 billion mark.

As you can see in the chart above, those download numbers have been increasing at a brisk rate over the last 18 months or so as sales of Android devices have exploded around the world.

The numbers show that the Android ecosystem is healthy, but with any set of numbers, it’s easy to make of them what you will. For instance, Apple has been at a billion downloads per month for some time, but there are more Android devices in use now than there are iPhones.

That shows that Android users are downloading fewer apps per user than Apple’s iPhone customers, which suggests (to us) there are aspects of finding apps on Apple’s App Store or actually using them on Apple’s iPhones that are better than Google’s Android ecosystem.

At the same time, Android lags far, far behind in paid apps. In November, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster found that Apple’s App Store generated some twelve times more revenue than the Android Market. At that time, his research showed that 1.3% of Android downloads were paid apps, while 13.5% of iOS apps were paid.

Still, the law of numbers is inexorable. As Android gains more smartphone market share—currently at the expense of everyone but Apple—even that smaller percentage of paid apps will add up, giving more developers more reason to make more apps.

To encourage Android device owners to get used to the idea of paying for their apps, Google is offering a ten day promotion for ten cent (US$0.10) paid apps, starting with the following: Asphalt 6 HD, Color & Draw for Kids, Endomondo Sports Tracker Pro, Fieldrunners HD, Great Little War Game, Minecraft, Paper Camera, Sketchbook Mobile, Soundhound Infinity and SwiftKey X.

The company said that it will offer a new bunch of apps every day at the price during the course of the ten day promotion, which starts today. If you have an Android device, get ‘em while they’re hot and cheap.

We should also point out that these downloads don’t count the apps sold at Amazon’s Appstore for Android or the myriad of other services that offer Android apps. That means that the total worldwide download numbers for Android are higher than the subset represented by Google’s own Android Market, though Android Market certainly represents the lion’s share of that total. macobserver

Zynga, Facebook close in on IPOs

Binjaitech--Zynga, the company behind popular social gamesCityVille and Farmville, is expected to file its final initial public offering prospectus as soon as today, paving the way for a stock offering by mid-December, said a person familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because the plans are private.

The San Francisco-based company intends to start an IPO roadshow on Monday in New York, the source said. Zynga's IPO is expected to debut at $8 to $10 per share, and raise $900 million on a $10 billion valuation. Zynga declined to comment.

Zynga is one of the social-networking world's success stories, with 227 million monthly users. Through September, it has notched $829 million in revenue, twice as much as in the same period a year earlier. Zynga has earned $121 million since the start of 2010, according to its S-1 filing.

The IPO fortunes of Zynga are a crucial litmus test for the tech IPO market. Despite the success of LinkedIn, IPOs for Groupon and Pandora have sputtered. Groupon closed its first day of trading in early November at a $16.5 billion valuation but has lost nearly 40% since and is now valued at about $10 billion.

Zynga's performance will also weigh on the outlook for Facebook, which is expected to go public in the first half. As the largest gaming company on Facebook, Zynga is a major contributor to Facebook's revenue. Zynga purchases advertising on the site and shares a portion of virtual goods purchases with the social network.

Facebook is expected to file for an IPO in April, when it is required to disclose financials now that it has reached 500 shareholders. A public offering could reach a valuation of up to $100 billion and raise $10 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter who is not authorized to speak on behalf on Facebook.

Facebook's revenue will climb to $4.3 billion this year, double the $2 billion it rang up in 2010, estimates market researcher eMarketer. Advertising will comprise a huge chunk — $3.8 billion — as it did in 2010, when Facebook registered $1.86 billion in advertising revenue.

By 2013, Facebook is expected to earn $7 billion in advertising revenue, according to eMarketer.

Facebook's challenge, after a public stock offering, will be to grow revenue to match IPO expectations, says Internet analyst Greg Sterling. "There will be pressure to use more ads, and convert (members') personal data into revenue," Sterling says.

Zynga also faces issues, including its heavy reliance on Facebook, which grabs 30% of any revenue Zynga generates by the selling of virtual goods that users buy when playing its games. In addition, CEO Mark Pincus, who owns 38.5% of Zynga's voting power, exerts a great deal of control over the business.

Zynga is making moves to wean itself off Facebook as a platform where most of its customers play its games. In October, Zynga discussed plans for its own platform, code-named Project Z. Zynga has a deal with Facebook that runs through 2015. Ustoday