With "memorialized" profiles, Facebook sees dead people

With over 300 million active users around the world, it's a legitimate concern for social network Facebook to come up with a solution for what happens when members die. The company has now spelled out the process on its official blog (in a post that's a little bit awkwardly close to Halloween, considering the sensitivity of the subject matter).

Facebook's Max Kelly explains in the blog post: "Obviously, we wanted to be able to model people's relationships on Facebook, but how do you deal with an interaction with someone who is no longer able to log on? When someone leaves us, they don't leave our memories or our social network. To reflect that reality, we created the idea of 'memorialized' profiles as a place where people can save and share their memories of those who've passed."

To "memorialize" a profile, members are encouraged to use a feedback form that asks for some proof of a relationship to the person in question (knowledge of an e-mail address and birthday, for example), as well as a link to proof of death (like a news article or obituary). When a profile has been memorialized, "sensitive" information, like phone numbers, are removed, and the profile is locked up to anyone who was not already a confirmed friend (non-friends can't find the profile in search queries, either).

But for those who were confirmed friends of the deceased, they can continue to leave "wall" posts in remembrance.

Memorialized profiles are also locked to future log-ins to prevent hacking--something that highlights how Facebook will have to be very vigilant about making sure that mean-spirited members don't try to "memorialize" one another's profiles as a macabre prank.

Via CNET.com

Google Social Search aims for Monday rollout

Google is ready to show off its concept for social search while it figures out what to do with Twitter's fire hose of data.

Last week at the Web 2.0 conference, Google's Marissa Mayer demonstrated the service which will go live as a Google Labs project on Monday. Google Social Search links the concepts of so-called "real-time" search with Google Profiles and custom search results, allowing searchers to find content created by friends or contacts with Google Profiles.
Read more »

Google to launch One Box for music

Google will soon launch a music initiative, which the company at this point is calling a One Box for music, to offer song previews, artist bios, graphics, and video.

The search engine, however, will not be selling downloads or offering subscriptions.

TechCrunch reported on Tuesday that Google is entering the music business but said the search engine would launch a music service. That's not really what the One Box for music is, said sources familiar with the deal.

The music initiative, which is expected to be announced sometime next week, will offer people a means to buy songs by featuring links to music sites Lala and iLike, according to the sources. All four of the top record companies are on board, the sources said.
Read more »

Planes that tweet and post Facebook updates

This one's for junkies who can't stay off the social-networking grid even for a couple of hours. Lufthansa's MySkyStatus will put your Twitter and Facebook accounts on autopilot while you're in-flight or departing from/arriving at an airport terminal, i.e. it posts updates on your behalf.

You simply pick the carrier you're flying on, select a departure date, key in your flight number/airport codes and choose whether you want to publish to your Twitter or Facebook. Typical updates will look like "kateobriennyc is now flying over Reykjavik, Iceland. Click here to track their progress on MySkyStatus, powered by Lufthansa."
Read more »

Google Wave addon for Firefox

If you are already on Google Wave, this might come in handy, a Firefox addon. Yes, so soon after the public preview of this online collaboration tool started, someone has already made a notifier for the open-source browser so you know when you get new waves.

The Google Wave Add-on is very basic and simply shows a number which indicates the new alerts you have. We tried it and it works as advertised. Download it here.

Via Red Ferret Journal

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