Download Facebook Videos

I was afraid this would happen: there are some family videos on Facebook (if that's not bad enough), that are only on Facebook, the source has been lost, typically because it was on a cell phone, which has a somewhat temporary nature.

What to do? I want to get a copy of those videos, and back it up, even if the quality is bad.

So I googled "download facebook videos". Yikes! Turns out there are two common solutions, both horrible in my opinion: (1) Install a browser helper or download a utility. The problem is all of these seem to be very harmful, and also do not work as advertised. Just read some of the comments about them before you go clicking on them. (2) Get the facebook video URL and plug it at a certain website. As best I can tell that website then has your personal video, and does what it wants with it.

Is there a safer (more secure, more private) third option? You bet! I found the answer here: http://www.wikihow.com/Download-Facebook-Videos-Free . It's in the second section. Basically you get the video going in Chrome's developer mode. Find the video on the network tab, and open the URL in a new window, then you can rightclick on the video to download it. Yay! Problem solved without installing a virus or posting my videos to who knows where.

John C. Dvorak calls Facebook "the next AOL"

John C. Dvorak calls Facebook "the next AOL".

This was on Leo LaPorte's Twit podcast #320 ("Sign Both Petitions"). - http://twit.tv/show/this-week-in-tech/320

The impression is that he is quoting a piece he wrote some time previously.

If you remember AOL in it's heyday then I don't need to say anything more. He nailed it.

Google + Circles, Part 3

http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/
http://www.google.com/+/demo/

I just heard, on Paul Thurrott’s latest podcast http://twit.tv/ww215, where they were actually demo-ing Google +, that you can add people to more than one circle, so there’s that myth busted! Makes me hope for a quick invitation all the more.

Google + Circles, Part 2

http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/
http://www.google.com/+/demo/

So the first post got into why we needed Circles. This second post will hit on why Circles doesn’t go far enough. Remember, the point is to mirror real life, so that the product naturally extends and enhances what we already do.

Yes Circles allows grouping. However what about when the church leader is also your brother-in-law? What about when you hang out with one of your work associates? With Circles, a person can only go in one group. That is a completely artificial, limiting distinction, that I believe will limit Google+ usefulness, perhaps even dooming it to a fate worse than Buzz.

It’s a mystery to me how all these companies can keep getting this wrong. Sure there’s a sneaky reason why they don’t want us to have good grouping. But it’s shortsighted to make something we don’t want and can’t use. The first company to get this right wins.

Google + Circles

• http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/
• http://www.google.com/+/demo/

Well Google beat me to the punch here. I had been meaning to put up a rant about social networks, and how the lack of fine-grained “grouping” was keeping them from getting to the next level.

What I mean by that is Twitter and Facebook (and all the other lesser players in social media) only allow for the concept of a friend. Everybody in the whole world you have any type of relationship with, is a friend. And all of your social interactions go to all of your friends. This is one level below everything you do is public, and belongs on television.

Social networks have to model, mirror even, our real world social interactions, in order to augment them (and provide value we will pay for). That means Facebook needs to grasp the difference between my boss and my wife and my bowling buddy, and allow me to naturally control what I share with each one of them, not just lump them all into a group. This is not just about damage control (the classic drunk at the bar photo). It’s about value. I’ve got a cute story about my kids that my mother and my sister will find amusing, but it’s just clogging up the feeds of the rest of my “friends”.

Well, to get to the point, Google has had the same thought, and built friend-grouping into their newest Facebook-killer/social network, Google+, and is calling it “Circles”.

iPhone Facebook app can’t upload pictures

This applies at least to the iPhone 4, and probably to older models as well. I’ve seen this before from time to time. Here’s the fix that worked today:

1. Go to Settings/General/Location Services.
2. Scroll down to Facebook.
3. Turn on location services for Facebook.

Found it at the following link from a Google search:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=6628568379&topic=22408&post=127058

Facebook Timeline View

Facebook has two "feed" views: "Top News", and "Most Recent". It makes no sense to me, but Top News seems to be the default, I assume somehow due to their unhealthy fascination with Twitter. However that view is useless to me for the way I track Facebook, I need the Most Recent view. Well the iPhone client, and the mobile web client both only provide the Top News view. WHY do something like this to your customers? You already have all the backend functionality and scalability, and you already have the list in the front end, with slightly different data.

Streams versus Pages

http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/17/jump-into-the-stream/

At first glance this quick article, which is more of an op-ed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op-ed) piece really, seems like filler. Nebulous musings on the Internet that pass for news when there is none. The main point will be somewhat self-evident to the target audience.

However I appreciate what the author has done here. He’s recognized a big trend, and isolated it just a little from the background of other things that are trending. He’s teased it out. And it’s not just fluff, there are quotes and facts and links. Even though it is short, I find that refreshing. It feels balanced, like eating a great salad rather than the scalloped potatoes you’d get from some of the reference services.

I found his advice at the end very helpful. I have been trying to keep ahead of the Facebook stream, the Twitter stream, the RSS stream, as in, read everything in my stream. The revelation that it’s going to be impossible, is hard to take, but I can see it’s truth. I will need to first relax and let some stuff go by, and then find a way to filter the streams for the items that are most important to me.

Windows Mobile Facebook apps

Skybook:

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=35590940472&b&ref=pd

http://www.magnifoca.com/

http://www.magnifoca.com/download_snap2face.html

Friendmobilizer

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=16698519604&b&ref=pd

http://faceofmobile.com/

"formerly called the cellphone"

The title is a quote from Elizabeth Corcoran at Forbes from the article http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/11/02/apple-google-iphone-tech-cx_ec_1105innovate.html . Google has certainly done it again with the twin left hooks the "Open Handset Alliance" (formerly the "Googlephone" :)) http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/05/gphone-google-phone-tech-cz_qh_1105gphone1.html (thanks for the link Pete), and the "OpenSocial" toolkit http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/10/31/google-facebook-networking-technology-cx_rr_1101social.html .

Microsoft invests in Facebook

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/ArticleID/97425/97425.html?Ad=1

Microsoft is investing in Facebook. It will be interesting to see where this leads.