Blog Networks - A Facebook Application

My favorite Facebook application, one I recommend to all genea-bloggers, is Blog Networks.

The application is a new one at Facebook - it seems to have rolled out in June 2008, just before many genea-bloggers started to come on board. It is growing quickly with more than 300 new blogs added every day.

Touted by developers as a social network for bloggers, the application creates a page for your blog and lists your blog name, url, language, tags, description, ratings (from other Blog Network users) and "popularity" – the number of blog fans who have joined your blog's network. The page also features a thumbnail screenshot of your blog. There are a few glitches in the thumbnails (some are showing up all black) that Facebook is working to correct. [Update 8/1/08: it looks like this has been corrected. Finally, Jennifer's Rainy Day Genealogy Readings thumbnail has arrived!]

From Facebook® Boo...

Sarah Perez of ReadWriteWeb thinks that Blog Networks can bring new readers:

Blogs just got a whole new audience: the casual reader. There has been some concern as of late that mainstream web users don't really read blogs, but a new Facebook app called "Blog Networks" aims to change that. The easiest way to describe this app is by calling it MyBlogLog for Facebook (as the headline says), but besides the ability to build a community around your blog, the two apps are rather different. If anything, Blog Networks may have the power to reach an entirely different demographic than MyBlogLog, whose community made up of a lot of blog owners and serious blog readers. The Facebook app, on the other hand, will appeal to casual readers by providing them with an easy-to-use blog directory and a simplified feed reader.

Sarah's extensive review Blog Networks: Like MyBlogLog for Facebook is a full tutorial on the application, so there's no need for me to re-create it.

If you haven't already added it, please go here to add Blog Network to your Facebook applications. Please be sure to tag your blog with one general category so your fellow genea-bloggers can find you.

While Blog Networks is still in beta, the application requires that a blog have more than 15 fans to have their feed displayed. Help out your fellow genea-bloggers and spread your fan-love to get everyone above the threshold. Search "genealogy" and "family history" to find them.

Overall I find Blog Networks to be fairly intuitive. If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will try and find an answer.

New Facebook® vs. Old Facebook®

I'm not sure that many of the genea-bloggers are using New Facebook® or even know what New Facebook® is. I am still using what I call "Old Facebook® which I believe most genea-bloggers are using.

Unless otherwise mentioned, all tips and solutions on this blog are designed to work with the current version of Facebook® and not New Facebook®. I am certain that at some point in the future, all users will be forced to use New Facebook®. I think they call that progress. Hmmmm.

Here is a brief summary of New Facebook®:

1. You can access New Facebook at http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php.

2. Your Home page will appear as follows:



New Facebook® Home Page. http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php accessed by Thomas MacEntee on July 30, 2008. Certain items have been obscured on this image to protect the privacy of Friends.

3. The Facebook® banner at the top contains the following items:



New Facebook® Home page. http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php accessed by Thomas MacEntee on July 30, 2008.

Your Name - displays your Profile



New Facebook® Profile for Thomas MacEntee. http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1019772152 accessed by Thomas MacEntee on July 30, 2008.

Friends - a list of your Friends listed in descending Status order



New Facebook® Friends. http://www.new.facebook.com/friends/ accessed by Thomas MacEntee on July 30, 2008. Certain items have been obscured on this image to protect the privacy of Friends.

Applications - when clicked a pop-up dialog appears listing the Applications you currently have installed



New Facebook® Home Page. http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php accessed by Thomas MacEntee on July 30, 2008.

Inbox - messages you have received and sent, notifications and updates



New Facebook® Inbox. http://www.new.facebook.com/inbox/ accessed by Thomas MacEntee on July 30, 2008. Certain items have been obscured on this image to protect the privacy of Friends.

As the weeks and months progress, you'll hear more about New Facebook® and remember, right now you are not required to use it but feel free to explore! And remember, just as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz said, you can always go home to the Old Facebook® by clicking the Old Facebook® link in the upper right-hand corner.

Changing Email Notifications Settings at FaceBook

The most important step in recovering from the blogsmacking that was blogglobbing me was to stop the massive amount of emails being sent from GB at FB to my mailbox. All those messages were also showing up at GB at FB whenever I accessed my account there --- so I was sometimes responding twice to the same message. Too much to do and not enough time for that!

So if you are being swamped with excessive email notifications, do as I did and change the notifications settings. Here is how to do it. (Click page snippets for a larger image)

1. Open your FB account.

Across the top of the page, click on the "Settings" tab to unlock that feature. A drop-down will open; click ACCOUNT SETTINGS (I could not capture an image of this drop-down box).

Then a window such as the one below will appear:

Click the tab "Notifications." Wait until a window such as the following opens.

Note that you will get a long list (thirty-six or more various email options) under the general heading "Email Notifications." I went down the long list and clicked "OFF" on all choices. Then at the very bottom of the page find a section which looks like the following:

Click "SAVE CHANGES" --- I recommend you review the entire page to make sure you are happy with all your choices (I "of-ed" all thirty-six options).

Return to the top of the page that opens and find

"LOGOUT." Be sure to click logout to save and close your FB account.

No more email notifications to your email addy --- blogglobbing under control. And the beauty of this is it's reversible --- when you wanna be blogsmacked again with all those email notifications, just go in and click ON. Before you do that, however, THINK. And if that is really what you wish to do, admit that you are a blogglobber addict. Call a friend.

by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com

BLOGGOBBLED or BLOGSMACKED?

TOO MUCH GBering on FB?


OVERWHELMED?


My Five Step Plan to remedy that dreadful feeling of being completely swamped or blogglobbled. I'm smacking back by


1. Getting FLAIRE outa my HAIRE --- no more pieces of flaire for me nor flaire for me to send.


2. Ending my gardening days --- no more growing plants to attend nor to send.


3. Deleting most of the "clutter" of messages on my wall of who was friends when and with whom --- what does that all mean anyway? [But do you know it took nine attempts to delete some of those clutter messages --- some all but refused to go!!!!!]


4. Resetting my options on email notifications --- no more emails notification on any topic from GB on FB. Now I retrieve my messages directly at the group GB on FB when I wish to retrieve them --- and my email box is back to normal.


5. Resolving to help and to welcome all of the members of GBers on FB.


Now that I've completed my five step plan (well, of course, # 5 will be an on-going project), I hope to get back to reading again. I've been missing, I think, lots of good articles by my Genea-Blogging friends --- but then all of you may have been so blogsmacked with GB on FB that you haven't written anything. Now I have time to go see.


Terry Thornton
HILL COUNTRY OF MONROE COUNTY MISSISSIPPI

What Items and Applications Are Included in a Facebook® Profile?

When you first sign up for a Facebook® account, you are given a basic set of items for your profile including Photos, Friends, Information, Education and Work, The Wall, and Mini-Feed.

As you make Friends and look at other Profiles, you may wonder about other items appearing on those applications. Here is how to add and remove Applications and some words of advice on using Applications.


What Applications Do I Have?



As the image above illustrates, Applications are displayed in the left margin of Facebook®. The list will always remain on the left even if you navigate to your Profile or other pages.

To see all applications, click the More link and the list will expand. Click the Less link and the list will return to its original state.


Editing and Removing Applications



Click the Edit link in the Applications section and the Edit My Applications page appears as shown above.

Click Remove to remove any application.

Click Edit Settings and the Edit Settings dialog will pop-up.



In the Edit Settings dialog, you can designate who can see the Application when visiting your Profile, where to display the Application, whether to receive News Feed or Mini-News Feed stories about the Application, and more. Make any changes and click Save Changes.


Adding New Applications

While on the Edit My Applications page, you may click the Browse More Applications button to explore other Applications available for your various Facebook® pages. The Application Directory will appear:



The majority of Applications have been developed for Facebook® profiles. Other types of Applications are listed in the right hand margin:



To learn more about an Application, click the Application name and the Application page with an Add Application link will appear:



Click Add Application and the Add Application page appears:



Use the various checkboxes to change your settings for the application and then click the Add button.

Once the Application appears, you may be prompted to Send the application on to your Friends. This is one of the more controversial, and to some, annoying aspects of Applications on Facebook® - see Applications Best Practices in an upcoming post.



All images on Facebook® at http://www.facebook.com accessed by Thomas MacEntee on July 30, 2008.

Applications Best Practices

Here are some best practices to keep in mind when using Applications on Facebook®:

• You are not required to send Applications to your Friends when you add them. In fact, if you want to keep someone as a Friend you might be better off not sending the Application. Try telling a Friend via email or a Wall posting about an Application that you find fun or useful.
  
• Realize that when you send an item such as a Pieces of Flair, or (Lil) Green Patch, the Friend has the option to ignore the request and may not accept the item. Accepting an item often means having to add that Application and this can confuse and frustrate some Facebook® users.
  
• There is a difference between Applications developed and sanctioned by Facebook® and those created by third-party developers. There are very few official Facebook® Applications while there are literally hundreds of third-party Applications.
  
• When selecting an Application you may find several Applications that are very similar. A good indication of which one to select is to see how many users there are for that Application. The higher the number of users, the more reliable the Application will be.
  
• Feel free to add an Application, explore it within your Profile and then remove it if you find it just doesn't work for you. The Profile page is your space and some Facebook® users like to keep things very focused or very streamlined and not cluttered with Applications.

What This Blog Is About

Being the first post, we want to let our future readers know what this blog is all about:

While many genealogy and family history users of Facebook® have been joining the Genea-Bloggers group, many have questions involving the technical side of Facebook®. including how to add/remove applications, the best practices for setting up a profile, etc.

There have been tutorial posts over at the Discussion Board but these are easily buried as other discussion topics are updated or new topics are added. And given that it is not easy - almost impossible - to add Applications to a Group page in Facebook®, this blog will be the next best thing.

Here you will be able to find topics related to how Facebook® works from a genea-blogger perspective. We realize that many of the postings here will be helpful to non-genea-bloggers as well and we welcome them as new readers as well.

Your feedback is always welcome through the Comments section on any post. And, if you are interested in contributing as an author with your own helpful Facebook® tips, please drop us a line!