Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Contacting Facebook

Have you ever had Facebook issues and unable to find a solution? Normally, the only option is to report the issue to Facebook. But it can be hard to find exactly the right way to contact Facebook.

Here is a list of links that can help make contacting Facebook a little easier.

It can be difficult to find the right link, the right way to report the problem. So here’s a nice list:

Mobile

Photos

Video

Pages

Groups

Errors

Contacts

Ads

Inbox

News Feeds

Home Page

Wall

Notifications

Disabled Account

Lost Content After Reactivated Account

Chat

Suggestions

Hacked

Scam

Death

Illegal

Minors

Copyright Infringement

Listen to Music With Your Friends (Facebook)

Listen to Music With Your Friends

Music is one of the most powerful and fun ways to connect. Whether it's at a concert with a bunch of people or on a long car ride with your best buddy, we love listening to music with our friends. But what if you could listen to music with your friends when you're alone, like at work, at home or on the go?

Today, with music services on Facebook, there's a new way to listen with friends. This feature lets you listen along with any of your friends who are currently listening to music. You can also listen together in a group while one of your friends plays DJ.

You can listen to the same song, at the exact same time—so when your favorite vocal part comes in you can experience it together, just like when you're jamming out at a performance or dance club.

How It Works

Look for the music note in the chat sidebar to see which of your friends are listening to music. To listen with a friend, hover over their name, and click the Listen With button. The music will play through the service your friend is using.

When a new song plays, you'll come along for the ride, discovering new music while your friend DJs for you.

You'll also have the option to chat about what you're listening to. As other people start listening along, they'll join the party in a group chat.

You can control who you're listening along with through your settings. Learn more here.

Rollout Starts Today

Now, you can experience enjoying music together with your friends no matter where you are. This feature will start rolling out over the next few weeks. We hope you enjoy listening with friends!

Saturday, 21 January 2012

Get Rid Of Some Annoying Facebook Features With These 4 Add-Ons [Chrome]

Facebook keeps changing and changing. Every month or so, users enjoy (or deal with) a new change in Facebook’s interface. While some people are really excited about the recent Timeline profiles, others are still ticked off at things like the news ticker and the chat sidebar.
Another thing Facebook keep changing is the way we view images. While Photo Theater keeps improving and is no longer a major source of agitation to Facebook users, and while thumbnails keep growing, some people are still looking for an easy and quick way to view images in full size.
If one or more of these things are bothering you, I’ve rounded up some Chrome extensions that are sure to make you a happier Facebook user.

Facebook Classic

Facebook Classic is a Chrome add-on for people who dislike the new ticker, but want to be able to easily toggle it on again. It also gets rid of the new top stories and arranges the newsfeed in chronological order again.
After you install the add-on and refresh Facebook, the news ticker will disappear completely, leaving only the bottom half of the sidebar with the chat. You’ll also see the “Latest Stories” header instead of the “New Top Story” and “Recent Stories“. The change is not only to the titles – the small triangle to the left of each newsfeed item will also disappear. This triangle is usually used to mark a story as a “top story”.
facebook add ons

If you want to turn on the ticker, find the “Show Ticker” link on the right side. This will toggle the news ticker on. You can toggle it back off whenever you want using the “Hide Ticker” link.
facebook features

Facebook

Facebook– is another Chrome add-on which deals with similar issues. Once you download Facebook–, the news ticker will be gone. Use this add-on if you really don’t want to see the news ticker, because there’s no easy way to toggle it on and off.
As opposed to Facebook Classic, it also doesn’t leave you with half a sidebar for the chat, but expands the chat so it takes up the entire sidebar, the way it used to be before the news ticker joined the party.
facebook features

Another thing Facebook– does is restore the title bar to the way it used to be. You get your Settings button back, and you lose your name and thumbnail in the title bar. Nice if you miss Facebook’s older look.

Sidebar Disabler

Sidebar Disabler is a Chrome, Firefox and Opera add-on which leaves your news ticker alone in its non-sidebar position, and turns the sidebar into the good old Facebook chat.
facebook features

If the news ticker is not your problem, but you’re just sick of the sidebar as a concept, you’ll be able to forget about it with this add-on. The old chat returns in full glory, along with the old options and friend lists. You also get to see only your online friends again, which is one of the most sorely missed features in the new chat sidebar.

FB Photo Zoom

Moving on to quite a different subject, FB Photo Zoom has nothing to do with news tickers and sidebars, but has a lot to do with the way you view images. Some people still don’t like Facebook’s Photo Theater, and others (like me), are just too lazy to click the thumbnail every time they want to view a full-size image.
With FB Photo Zoom, hovering over a thumbnail with your mouse cursor will automatically open a preview of the full size image. This preview even moves along as you move your mouse, but disappears immediately if your cursor leaves the thumbnail.
annoying things about facebook

FB Photo Zoom also comes with some configurable settings. You can use it to disable Photo Theater if you still hate it. You can create a keyboard shortcut to toggle the zooming effect on and off, and another shortcut to force-enable it even when it’s off. You can even control the delays of the fade in and fade out of images.
facebook add ons

This also works with the tiny “Friends on Chat” thumbnails, which are so small they’re often unrecognizable. Quite an upgrade to your casual Facebook image viewing experience.

Bottom Line

The more changes Facebook makes, the more add-ons like these we’re going to find. I think it’s awesome that so many different ones exist – this way we can each create a user experience that suits us best, and make the most of Facebook without the things that annoy us.

How To Encrypt And Password Protect Your Bookmarks In Firefox And Chrome

How To Encrypt And Password Protect Your Bookmarks In Firefox And Chrome To Keep Them Secure

We live in paranoid times. Prying eyes are everywhere and these days with high digital I.Qs, they can be anyone. Even your kids. Our diligently harvested bookmarks are resources some of us protect with our ‘lives’. From online backup solutions like XMarks to using full-fledged cloning solutions, we go the whole hog. That’s always recommended, but how do you stop someone from clicking on the Bookmarks menu items and accessing the folder?
We all have some sensitive bookmarks that should be kept away from snooping eyes. Protecting the passwords you use to access sites can be protected with a master password on Firefox. What I was looking for was a way to securely encrypt and password protect my bookmarks. I found two:

Secure Firefox with Link Password

Link Password encrypts a URL and stores it as a bookmark in your bookmarks folder. It functions without a hassle and is a single click operation if you discount the password you have to enter twice for verification. When you are on a page that you want to bookmark (and password encrypt), click on Tools – Link Password, Make new Encrypt Link. Enter the password you want to use. You can do the same to any of your existing links by right clicking on the bookmark in your bookmarks folder.

The webpage is secured and can only be accessed if you enter the correct password.

Link Password also works on entire folders of bookmarks. You can encrypt (and decrypt) all links in one go by right-clicking on the folder and setting the password.

What happens if someone disables or uninstalls the add-on? They still won’t be able to open the link as Link Password encrypts the link with secure AES algorithm and you will need to download and install the add-on again to decrypt it back. Link Password also lets you rename the links. But do remember to decrypt the bookmarks if you are planning to uninstall the add-on.

Secure Chrome with Secure Profile

I haven’t found a solution like Link Password that will protect only the bookmarks in Chrome. But the Chrome extension called Secure Profile enables you to protect the entire Chrome profile you are using. The simple Chrome extension stops unauthorized use of your browser, thus protecting your bookmarks from unneeded access. After installation, you have to set the password for the profile you are using (or the default one).

Every time you start this specific Chrome profile you will be prompted to enter the same password. Entering an incorrect password will close the Chrome window closing, thus protecting your profile. This Chrome extension is very handy because you can set up multiple profiles of the Chrome browser on your machine and protect each one individually with this extension.
All the more, Secure Profile also protects the browser in incognito mode. Just open the extensions tab and check the box that says - “Allow in incognito”.

So far, the only problem I see is that the passwords you enter appear as plain text and not as dots or asterisks.
These two browser add-ons are easily implementable and provide a basic security shield. Of course, if you are ultra-cautious, you can use third-part bookmarking tools like XMarks and Delicious. Industry grade security solutions like TrueCrypt can also be used to make your bookmarks hack proof. Here are a few bulletproof security tips you can consider:

Firefox Add-On Management: 5 Add-Ons For The User Who Installs A Lot Of Add-Ons

How many add-ons do you have stowed away in your Firefox browser? Okay…how many of them do you actually use? If the answer to both is somewhere in the highs, then it means you can be awarded the ‘Firefox Add-ons Power User’ badge.
Installing those little helper applications to do everything from search to security is always a temptation. The numbers keep stacking up and ultimately we are forced to look beyond manual means to a few automatic ways of add-on management.
So, let’s check out a few add-ons that are sure to help out the average Firefox user as well as the user who installs a lot of add-ons.

Restartless Restart

We wish we didn’t have to restart our browser every time we installed a browser extension. Something like the system in Chrome would really help with productivity. Firefox has a few add-ons which do not need a browser restart and it marks them out as such. But if you keep on adding add-ons and uninstalling them, Restartless Restart is the first add-on you should install if you ever have to manually restart your browser. The 12KB restartless add-on works very simply by adding a restart option in the right click menu and a CTRL/CMD + Alt + R hotkey to restart Firefox or Seamonkey. With its help, you don’t have to search for the Firefox start icon every time.

Add-on Compatibility Reporter

As a long-standing Firefox user, you probably don’t wait around for the final release version of the browser; instead opting to try out the alpha and beta releases. That creates a few compatibility issues with your current set of add-ons. The Add-on Compatibility Reporter helps by letting you try out your add-ons with the current version of the browser and test if they fit. If they don’t work as expected, you can send a report to Mozilla that says – This add-on no longer works. You can also let Mozilla know if the add-on does indeed work. This add-on turns you into an add-on tester and helps to ensure the development of your favorite add-ons.

Is It Compatible?

This is a very simple add-on that displays the compatibility versions for each add-on in the Add-ons Manager window. This add-on helps you to make informed decisions about avoiding upgrading the browser immediately or sacrificing a few of your favorite add-ons with an upgrade.

FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension)

This add-on is a one-click solution for all your backup and restore needs. It can help you backup your extensions, themes, bookmarks, preferences, passwords, cookies, and any other file or folder. Then, it gives you the option to selectively restore the ones you want. You can schedule your backups and store them in date stamped folders. All backups can also be uploaded to a Box.net account automatically. For the guy who installs a lot of extensions, FEBE also backs up all or specific extensions and saves them together in a single, installable xpi file.

CLEO ((Compact Library Extension Organizer)

CLEO works like an extension packager. It’s really useful if you have lots of add-ons and want to keep them together. CLEO packages them all in a single installable file which can be kept as a backup, exported to someplace else, or used across multiple computers as a single installable package. CLEO works with FEBE as a multiple add-on packager and installer.
I was a bit surprised that browser extensions to manage add-ons weren’t that large a tribe. In fact, these are the best I could find, with a few others being either incompatible or getting some not-so-hot remarks from users. Of course, I would like to put in a good word for the Mozilla Firefox Add-on Collector. I did a full review of this tool last year. It still remains relevant if you want some help managing your extensive add-on collections.
Do you have a Firefox add-on in mind that you like to include here? At last count, how many add-ons do you have installed?

Encrypt Your Web Browsing With HTTPS Everywhere [Firefox]

HTTPS Everywhere is one of those extensions that only Firefox makes possible. Developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, HTTPS Everywhere automatically redirects you to the encrypted version of websites. It works on Google, Wikipedia and other popular websites.
Encryption ensures no one can eavesdrop on your web browsing. Whether you’re searching on Google, browsing Wikipedia or sending private messages on Facebook, your information is sent in the clear if you’re not using encryption.

Getting the Extension

You won’t find HTTPS Everywhere in the official Firefox add-ons gallery; you’ll have to get it directly from the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s site. Just go to the HTTPS Everywhere page and click the big Install HTTPS Everywhere button.
encrypt your web browsing

Taking a Tour

HTTPS Everywhere adds a button to Firefox’s toolbar; you can click the button to view its status and change its settings. Let’s head over to MakeUseOf with HTTPS Everywhere installed and see what it does.
encrypt your web traffic

HTTPS Everywhere is enforcing encrypted connections to many services we use on MakeUseOf, although many may use encryption by default. With HTTPS Everywhere, you don’t depend on the webmaster to set up their site properly; you get encryption everywhere you go — with every service that supports it, of course.
Plug a search into the Google search box included with Firefox and you’ll go straight to Google’s encrypted search page. Any searches you make with Google’s HTTPS site are encrypted before they’re sent to Google, so no one can eavesdrop on them. Without the extension, people on public Wi-Fi networks can see all your searches.

Sure, you could head over to encrypted.google.com and start your search from there, maybe even install a search plug-in for Google’s encrypted search engine and use that instead. But HTTPS Everywhere does everything for you.
Click a link to Wikipedia and you’ll see the same thing. HTTPS Everywhere turns every Wikipedia link on the web into a link to Wikipedia’s secure, encrypted site.
encrypt your web traffic

What It Really Does

So what does HTTPS Everywhere actually do? We can sneak a peek at our web browsing traffic with WireShark and see for ourselves.
Let’s plug “super secret search” into Google’s normal, unencrypted search engine. With Wireshark capturing our traffic, this is what we see:
encrypt browsing

There it is. Our super secret search is being sent in plain text for all the world to see. On an open Wi-Fi network? People around you can see your super secret search. Now imagine you’re sending a private message on Facebook and you’ll see why this is important. Facebook has a secure browsing option, but having HTTPS Everywhere installed will automatically enable it for you. You won’t have to worry about finding the option on every website you use.
Now let’s turn on HTTPS Everywhere and perform the search again. HTTPS Everywhere automatically uses Google’s encrypted search engine.
encrypt browsing

Our communication with Google is happening over HTTPS now. An eavesdropper can see we’re contacting Google’s servers, but that’s all they can see — they don’t know the specific page we’re using or what type of data is getting sent back and forth.
Tools like Firesheep do the same sort of thing, but with an easier-to-use interface. You don’t have to understand networking to snoop with Firesheep.

Configuration

HTTPS Everywhere has a pretty barebones configuration screen. You can see the list of websites it supports and disable them if you encounter problems. You can also enable rules that are disabled by default, possibly because they break certain features on a site.
encrypt your web browsing

Want to add your own HTTPS Everywhere rules? You can’t do that from this window, but the EFF has a guide for doing that yourself. Bear in mind that you can only enable HTTPS for a site if that site has an HTTPS version that isn’t used by default. HTTPS Everywhere includes most popular sites that have HTTPS versions, so you probably shouldn’t have to create any rules yourself.

Merge Google+, Facebook & Twitter With The Help Of G++ [Chrome & Firefox]

The spotlight of the social networking realm is currently on Google+. It’s still very young, but the user growth is amazing. The latest data says that there are already more than 18 million Google+ users out there.
While most people are busy comparing Google+ with Facebook, and trying to figure out which one they should choose and use, there are those who have built tools to combine all of these social networks together and have the best of all worlds. One of these tools is G++, a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox which will help you put your Facebook and Twitter stream into your Google+ interface.

Plus Plus Plus

People have put time and effort into building their Facebook universe, so most Facebook users might reject the thought of switching to another social network and rebuilding their universe from scratch. Keeping and updating two social networks simultaneously might also be a tedious effort for some. With G++, you don’t have to make the choice.
To put your Facebook and Twitter streams in your Google+, visit the G++ site using either Chrome or Firefox (or both), and click the “Add” button to download and install the extension.

Your browser will ask for your permission to do the installation, click “Install” to confirm it. Then sign in to your Google+ account to see the extension in action.

After your Google+ stream page is loaded, you will see three checkboxes at the top of the page: Google+, Facebook and Twitter. All you have to do to enable or disable the stream is to check or uncheck the boxes according to your preferences. You can even disable Google+ and view only the Facebook or Twitter stream via the Google+ interface if you want to.

The first time you enable Facebook and Twitter, you will be asked to authorize G++ to access your accounts. First time users have to go through one activation process before they can continue with the second account.

To activate Facebook, you have to disable the pop-up window blocker. To allow the pop-up window only for this one time activation process, click the “Log In | Facebook” link in the warning window.

After the authorization process, you will be brought back to the stream page. Make sure the boxes are checked, then click the “Refresh Stream” button to fetch your streams from Facebook and Twitter.

You can quickly distinguish the entries by the color and the small logo at the top right corner of every entry. Aside from viewing the streams, G++ also allows users to retweet Twitter entries, as well as Like and comment on entries from Facebook.

The advantage of combining Google+ with Facebook and Twitter is the ability to post to all these accounts at once. All you have to do is type what you want to share (along with images, videos, links, and location tags), check the Facebook and Twitter boxes next to the “Click to Post to FB/Twitter” button, then click the button.

To check whether the extension is functional or not, I immediately went to my Facebook wall and I saw that the post was already sitting there.

The post also appeared in my Google+ stream page – both the Twitter and Facebook version. I saw a comment to my post from one of my friends. I clicked the “Comment” link, typed my reply, then clicked the “Submit” button. A moment later, my reply appeared under the comment, as if I was using Facebook in its native environment.

You can easily disable G++ if you want to by checking one of the on/off boxes at the top right corner of the web interface.

After playing with G++ for a while, I think that this is a very useful tool. But, if I could request one thing to the developer, it would be the ability to connect to other popular social networks.
Are you a social network freak? Do you think you need G++ to help you keep up with your Google+, Facebook, and Twitter account? Do you know of other similar alternatives? If so, please share your thoughts using the comments below.

How To Control Your Privacy With The Facebook Timeline

The new Facebook timelines are a neat way to display Facebook profiles and have therefore been embraced by many. Although it’s being rolled out to all users as I write, many have jumped the queue by using quick hacks because they like the look of the timeline so much.
Now, while the Facebook timeline looks fantastic, there are a few privacy concerns worth keeping in mind. For most people, certain things will need adjusting before you can be completely sure that your posts aren’t being exposed to the public unintentionally. We’ll take you through some of the major things you should check.
Note that even if you have chosen to use the new timeline it still needs to be published in order to be seen publicly. You can do this yourself after enabling the timeline, or Facebook will do it for you eventually. This gives you a chance to test your privacy settings before they’re live.

1. Testing Your Settings

There’s so many aspects of Facebook that can be controlled with different privacy settings that it can get a little bit confusing. Remember though, that at any time you can check how your Facebook profile looks to any person you are friends with. Simply go to your profile and click on the cog-like edit icon and choose “View as…” to choose a person to view the profile as.
If you’ve been setting your privacy settings by using custom filters, a good idea would be to check a family member, a colleague, a good friend and an acquaintance. This will give you an idea how these different types of people can see your profile. Check your profile like this before and after checking the following settings.

2. Limit Your Past & Future Default Post Settings

There is a way to limit the audience for past posts easily. If you think it’s possible you made some embarrassing public posts when you first joined Facebook and hadn’t yet friended your boss, this is the tool for you. Go to Home > Privacy Settings and find the section for “Limit the Audience for Past Posts“, clicking on the “Manage Past Post Visibility” link. Follow the prompts and confirmation to limit all of your “More than Friends” posts from your past to just your friends.
This will include public posts and friends of friends, so it should catch all those unexpected posts. There’s no way to reverse it with one click, so make sure it’s what you really want to do.
facebook timeline privacy settings

Also keep in mind that this setting is entirely different from future posts you make. If you want to limit default privacy for future posts, there’s a simple choice to make on your privacy settings page.
facebook timeline privacy settings

3. Manually Tweak Individual Items On Your Page

This is the tool for you if you’re fairly sure your privacy settings are what you want. For instance, if you’ve already viewed your profile as your boss and there’s just a few things you want to get rid of or feature on your profile.
facebook timeline privacy settings

Head to the box containing the post you want to feature or delete. You may realise in hindsight that the update was a little silly, or it might be an update that you want everyone to know the second they see your profile. The feature/hide buttons are right next to each other in the top right of every update.

4. Controlling Who Sees Things Others Post On Your Timeline

If you had previously controlled which of your friends can view posts on your wall, this setting will have migrated to cover your timeline. Sadly, Facebook won’t let you control which of your friends can post to your wall/timeline. It’s either all of your friends or just yourself. So, you need to instead control who can view what your friends write.
facebook timeline privacy

Head to Home > Privacy Settings > How You Connect and click on the control for “Who can see posts by others on your timeline?” to set things up properly. This is best controlled using custom friends lists to both nominate who can see the posts and who can never see the posts your friends make. Just think, your high school friends, relatives, boss and current friends can all write on your wall/timeline. Who do you want to see those messages? Who do you NOT want to see them?

5. Check The Privacy Of Your Contact Information

Now’s a great time to check just how public each bit of your profile information is. Go to your profile and click on “Update Info” to see your work history, education, relationships, contact details and other details. Each piece of information can be limited to friends, custom friend groups or just yourself. Who should know where you live? Your phone number? Edit the section, then click on the icon to the right of any piece of information in order to change who can see it.

4 Things To Do Immediately When Your Facebook Account Is Hacked

For most people, having their Facebook account hacked is a nightmare. Imagine if someone had access to all your private messages, could contact your friends, abuse your Facebook page, and delete your personal information. To avoid this, you should regularly update your password and keep other security settings tight.
Once it’s too late, however, you must act fast. The most important thing is – don’t panic! You can regain access to your account.

How Do You Know Your Facebook Account Was Hacked?

First of all, how do you know your Facebook account was hacked if nothing obvious was changed…yet? If a hacker managed to get into your account, they will leave a trace. While their session is active, it will be listed under > Home (top right corner) > Account Settings > Security > Active Sessions (click edit). Here you can end the activity of suspicious sessions.
facebook hacked

More information about How To Check If Someone Else Is Accessing Your Facebook Account or How To Find Out If Your Facebook Account Has Been Hacked can be found in the respective articles.
It is recommended that you enable Login Approvals for logging in from unrecognized devices. For increased security, you should also set app passwords.

1a. Change Your Password

In case your password was not changed you got lucky! This is the time to update your password! Be sure to end any suspicious active sessions first (see above), then go to > Home > Account Settings > General and click > Password to confirm your current password and then enter a new password.

When you’re done, review our articles regarding Facebook security (see resources below) and see what other measures you can take to secure your account.
hacked facebook profiles

From here, proceed to step 3 if you think that your account was abused.

1b. Reset Your Password

If your password was changed, act quick! Try to regain access. There is a > Forgot your password? link underneath the Facebook login.
hacked facebook profiles

It will let you retrieve your password in several different ways. You can either enter the email address you registered to Facebook with or any other secondary email address you added, as well as your phone number and username.
hacked facebook profiles

If you’re not sure whether the person that hacked your account was smart enough to change your profile information, you should go with the last option and enter your name and that of a friend. This will give you an idea of which information is currently added to your account.
hacked from facebook

If you don’t have access to any of the email accounts or to the phone number associated with your account, click the > No longer have access to these? URL. This will take you to a page where you can enter a new email address, which Facebook will then use to assist you in recovering your account.
hacked from facebook

This is not all. If you believe that your account was abused by the person who has access to it, proceed to step 2.

2. Report Compromised Account

If your account wasn’t simply hacked, but is sending out ads and spam to your friends, you must report it as compromised.
hacked from facebook

From here, immediately proceed to step 2.

3. Do Damage Control

After doing everything you could to regain control over your hacked Facebook account, inform your friends about what is going on, just in case the hacker has abused or currently is abusing your account. If you presently can’t access your account, contact your Facebook friends through other social networks, by email, or have a mutual friend inform them via Facebook. Once you can log in again, proceed to step 3.

4. Remove Suspicious Applications

Oftentimes, it’s not an evil person that randomly hacked into your account. More likely than not you granted access to a malicious application which subsequently hijacked your account. To remove suspicious applications, go to > Home > Account Settings > Apps and go through the list. Click the > X next to any application you wish to remove or click > Edit to change what the app can do.
facebook hacked