As part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, we’re taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is “Most Influential Social Good Champion” supported by Yahoo!. Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas!
Social Good is a brand new form of online giving that draws both from small non-profits and large brand cause-marketing campaigns. But like any burgeoning movement, social good requires champions to bring it to the public and promote its growth.
While “social good” and “influence” may not have absolutely concrete definitions (is influence based on Twitter followers? Raising the most money?), it is easy to see when an individual has taken on the cause of social good to create some real change.
Even though the exact parameters are a subjective call, we scoured the web for three social good activists who are using their skills to create change. We’ve highlighted three individuals who are utilizing social media and online campaigns to shape the way that we think about activism.
1. The Free Agent
Beth Kanter and Allison Fine defined the concept of the “free agent” this year in their book, The Networked Nonprofit. A “free agent,” as they defined it, is a “person who is passionate about a social cause, but is working outside of a nonprofit organization to organize, mobilize, raise money, and engage with others.” Using social media tools, free agents are able to make an impact that was once only capable within the infrastructure of an organization.
We’ve covered a number of free agents who had influence this year. Individuals like Shawn Ahmed, who posts YouTube
Kanter, a free agent herself, has played an influential role in helping non-profit organizations accept and cooperate with these social media-powered activists. Among her efforts, she facilitated a conversation at the State Department’s Tech@State Civil Society 2.0 event about how non-profits and free agents can work together.
2. Ben Rattray, Founder and CEO of Change.org
There are two hurdles that almost every cause campaign struggles with. The first is making the complexities and realities of its cause understood. The second is mobilizing people effectively. Change.org, which was founded by Ben Rattray in 2006, helps solve both.
The site has more than 100 writers who contribute in-depth reporting on 15 different causes. When people come to the site to read about a cause they’re passionate about, they also have the opportunity to take action toward that cause by signing petitions. While these cumulative actions lack the drama of a protest, mobilizing a large network toward one specific action has proved a lot more effective than a hodgepodge of independent actions.
Change.org has partnered with thousands of non-profits, and together the community has accomplished more than 100 “victories,” in which they’ve changed an unjust practice, law or policy. The organization connects activists with similar passions, and by doing so it gives them power as a cohort that they would never have as individuals.
3. Scott Harrison, Founder of Charity: Water
Charity: water uses 100% of public donations to fund water projects and is transparent about how donations are used. Both of these qualities make it somewhat of an oddball in the non-profit world — which might be exactly what the non-profit world needs.
When people donate money to most organizations, they’re not sure what happens to their donation or how efficiently it was used. When they give to charity: water, they can look up a picture and GPS coordinates of the project they contributed to. Since the organization relies on private donors for the money that makes it run, there’s no doubt about whether your donation ended up paying for somebody’s flight instead of funding a water project. The organization even covers its PayPal fees on donations.
This model of transparency and accountability has created trust and helped raise more than $20 million for 3,196 projects in the past four years. We hope that its success will influence other non-profits to do the same.
What’s Your Pick?
Who were your social good champions this year? Let us know in the comments or nominate them for a Mashable Awards. The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)
In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the
Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week)
Mashable Awards Category Sponsor:
Yahoo! is an innovative technology company that operates the largest digital media, content, and communications business in the world. Yahoo! keeps more than half a billion consumers worldwide connected to what matters to them most, and delivers powerful audience solutions to advertisers through its unique combination of Science + Art + Scale. Yahoo! is proud to sponsor this Mashable Award because Yahoo! is focused on connecting individuals to a community of millions so they can change the world together. That’s How Good Grows at Yahoo!. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto
For more Social Good coverage:
As we’re all well aware, Facebook doesn’t offer an iPad app. Well, maybe we’re not all so aware of that. Because Friendly, an unofficial app made by Oecoway, has been a massive hit on the platform. In fact, it has over 500,000 active users, co-founder Cyril Moutran tells us. And that’s pretty amazing considering that they have been charging for the app. But you can probably expect that number to explode even further, as they’ve decided to make the app free.
To be clear, there will still be a $0.99 version of Friendly, but the only difference from the new free version is that it won’t have ads. Undoubtedly, most users won’t care about that and will opt for the free version. And the app will rack up even more downloads because 1) again, Facebook doesn’t have an official app and 2) Friendly is a very solid way to use Facebook on the device.
“We’re making Friendly for Facebook free, because we want to expand our user base and put Friendly for Facebook in as many people’s hands as possible,” Moutran says. The service essentially takes the touch-optimized version of Facebook’s site and wraps it in their own native app wrapper. But this allows them to add more functionality, such as the ability to change fonts and colors. Plus you can browse the web within it and quickly share back to Facebook. You can also easily manage multiple Facebook accounts from the app.
The app also brings a native app look, feel, and performance to Facebook. That may not sound like much, but given the usage numbers, it definitely can’t be overlooked.
But while Friendly is very good, let’s be honest: if Facebook had their own app, most people would likely use that. People currently searching for “Facebook” on the iPad only have the third-party options — and this has tricked some people. And considering that many of these apps are paid apps, that has cost people money — something which Facebook can’t like too much.
So did Facebook pressure Friendly to go free? It doesn’t seem that way. Moutran says that Facebook has been very supportive of what they’ve been doing. “The Facebook Platform team in particular deserves kudos for their around the clock dedication at providing help and guidance to developers on iOS SDK,” he says.
Maybe we should take Friendly going free as a sign that an official app is coming? That also doesn’t seem all that likely given Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent words about the possibility.
While Moutran declined to talk about their revenue numbers, if you simply take the 500,000 user number and multiply it by the one dollar the app had sold for, you get $500,000 (before Apple takes their 30 percent cut). Of course, Moutran did say the 500,000 is active users, so it’s possible the app has been downloaded quite a bit more, bringing Oecoway even more money.
Now they’ll likely have to replace a lot of that money with ad revenue. Will it add up? Who knows, but this move will undoubtedly bring them a lot more users.
“We’re really excited because Friendly for Facebook has been an extremely successful paid application. It’s held the top overall spot for paid applications for more than 40 days, and it’s been the top paid social media iPad app since we launched version 1.0. But we want as many people as possible to be able to experience Friendly for Facebook so that’s why we are making it free,” Moutran reiterates.
That’s great news for Facebook users and iPad lovers alike.
You can find the free version of Friendly here. And the paid version here.
bench craft company rip off
Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence
The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...
Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?
Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...
NEW ABC <b>NEWS</b> PRESIDENT NAMED | Studio Briefing
ABC has named Ben Sherwood, a former executive producer of Good Morning America, to replace David Westin as president of ABC News. Sherwood, who is the very.
bench craft company rip off
Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence
The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...
Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?
Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...
NEW ABC <b>NEWS</b> PRESIDENT NAMED | Studio Briefing
ABC has named Ben Sherwood, a former executive producer of Good Morning America, to replace David Westin as president of ABC News. Sherwood, who is the very.
bench craft company rip off
Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence
The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...
Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?
Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...
NEW ABC <b>NEWS</b> PRESIDENT NAMED | Studio Briefing
ABC has named Ben Sherwood, a former executive producer of Good Morning America, to replace David Westin as president of ABC News. Sherwood, who is the very.
bench craft company rip off
Rompiendo <b> Noticias </ b>: Añada un gigantesco bucle Solar ProminenceThe Observatorio de Dinámica Solar nunca deja de ofrecer imágenes absolutamente impresionante desde el Sol: de 18:49 UT hoy en día, la imagen de arriba es lo que el Sol parecía en el espectro ultravioleta. La importancia que está viendo en bucle ...
Cambios en Facebook Perfil: Más medios de comunicación de jugar que <b> Noticias </ b> Facebook que ha llegado la hora de establecer los medios de comunicación tradicionales, ya que utiliza 60 minutos (de manera más ...
NUEVA ABC <? <b> NOTICIAS / b> NOMBRADO PRESIDENTE | Estudio BriefingABC ha llamado Ben Sherwood, un ex productor ejecutivo de Good Morning America, en sustitución de David Westin como presidente de ABC News Sherwood, quien es el verdadero..
bench craft company rip off
Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence
The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...
Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?
Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...
NEW ABC <b>NEWS</b> PRESIDENT NAMED | Studio Briefing
ABC has named Ben Sherwood, a former executive producer of Good Morning America, to replace David Westin as president of ABC News. Sherwood, who is the very.
bench craft company rip off
As part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, we’re taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is “Most Influential Social Good Champion” supported by Yahoo!. Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas!
Social Good is a brand new form of online giving that draws both from small non-profits and large brand cause-marketing campaigns. But like any burgeoning movement, social good requires champions to bring it to the public and promote its growth.
While “social good” and “influence” may not have absolutely concrete definitions (is influence based on Twitter followers? Raising the most money?), it is easy to see when an individual has taken on the cause of social good to create some real change.
Even though the exact parameters are a subjective call, we scoured the web for three social good activists who are using their skills to create change. We’ve highlighted three individuals who are utilizing social media and online campaigns to shape the way that we think about activism.
1. The Free Agent
Beth Kanter and Allison Fine defined the concept of the “free agent” this year in their book, The Networked Nonprofit. A “free agent,” as they defined it, is a “person who is passionate about a social cause, but is working outside of a nonprofit organization to organize, mobilize, raise money, and engage with others.” Using social media tools, free agents are able to make an impact that was once only capable within the infrastructure of an organization.
We’ve covered a number of free agents who had influence this year. Individuals like Shawn Ahmed, who posts YouTube
Kanter, a free agent herself, has played an influential role in helping non-profit organizations accept and cooperate with these social media-powered activists. Among her efforts, she facilitated a conversation at the State Department’s Tech@State Civil Society 2.0 event about how non-profits and free agents can work together.
2. Ben Rattray, Founder and CEO of Change.org
There are two hurdles that almost every cause campaign struggles with. The first is making the complexities and realities of its cause understood. The second is mobilizing people effectively. Change.org, which was founded by Ben Rattray in 2006, helps solve both.
The site has more than 100 writers who contribute in-depth reporting on 15 different causes. When people come to the site to read about a cause they’re passionate about, they also have the opportunity to take action toward that cause by signing petitions. While these cumulative actions lack the drama of a protest, mobilizing a large network toward one specific action has proved a lot more effective than a hodgepodge of independent actions.
Change.org has partnered with thousands of non-profits, and together the community has accomplished more than 100 “victories,” in which they’ve changed an unjust practice, law or policy. The organization connects activists with similar passions, and by doing so it gives them power as a cohort that they would never have as individuals.
3. Scott Harrison, Founder of Charity: Water
Charity: water uses 100% of public donations to fund water projects and is transparent about how donations are used. Both of these qualities make it somewhat of an oddball in the non-profit world — which might be exactly what the non-profit world needs.
When people donate money to most organizations, they’re not sure what happens to their donation or how efficiently it was used. When they give to charity: water, they can look up a picture and GPS coordinates of the project they contributed to. Since the organization relies on private donors for the money that makes it run, there’s no doubt about whether your donation ended up paying for somebody’s flight instead of funding a water project. The organization even covers its PayPal fees on donations.
This model of transparency and accountability has created trust and helped raise more than $20 million for 3,196 projects in the past four years. We hope that its success will influence other non-profits to do the same.
What’s Your Pick?
Who were your social good champions this year? Let us know in the comments or nominate them for a Mashable Awards. The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)
In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the
Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week)
Mashable Awards Category Sponsor:
Yahoo! is an innovative technology company that operates the largest digital media, content, and communications business in the world. Yahoo! keeps more than half a billion consumers worldwide connected to what matters to them most, and delivers powerful audience solutions to advertisers through its unique combination of Science + Art + Scale. Yahoo! is proud to sponsor this Mashable Award because Yahoo! is focused on connecting individuals to a community of millions so they can change the world together. That’s How Good Grows at Yahoo!. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto
For more Social Good coverage:
As we’re all well aware, Facebook doesn’t offer an iPad app. Well, maybe we’re not all so aware of that. Because Friendly, an unofficial app made by Oecoway, has been a massive hit on the platform. In fact, it has over 500,000 active users, co-founder Cyril Moutran tells us. And that’s pretty amazing considering that they have been charging for the app. But you can probably expect that number to explode even further, as they’ve decided to make the app free.
To be clear, there will still be a $0.99 version of Friendly, but the only difference from the new free version is that it won’t have ads. Undoubtedly, most users won’t care about that and will opt for the free version. And the app will rack up even more downloads because 1) again, Facebook doesn’t have an official app and 2) Friendly is a very solid way to use Facebook on the device.
“We’re making Friendly for Facebook free, because we want to expand our user base and put Friendly for Facebook in as many people’s hands as possible,” Moutran says. The service essentially takes the touch-optimized version of Facebook’s site and wraps it in their own native app wrapper. But this allows them to add more functionality, such as the ability to change fonts and colors. Plus you can browse the web within it and quickly share back to Facebook. You can also easily manage multiple Facebook accounts from the app.
The app also brings a native app look, feel, and performance to Facebook. That may not sound like much, but given the usage numbers, it definitely can’t be overlooked.
But while Friendly is very good, let’s be honest: if Facebook had their own app, most people would likely use that. People currently searching for “Facebook” on the iPad only have the third-party options — and this has tricked some people. And considering that many of these apps are paid apps, that has cost people money — something which Facebook can’t like too much.
So did Facebook pressure Friendly to go free? It doesn’t seem that way. Moutran says that Facebook has been very supportive of what they’ve been doing. “The Facebook Platform team in particular deserves kudos for their around the clock dedication at providing help and guidance to developers on iOS SDK,” he says.
Maybe we should take Friendly going free as a sign that an official app is coming? That also doesn’t seem all that likely given Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent words about the possibility.
While Moutran declined to talk about their revenue numbers, if you simply take the 500,000 user number and multiply it by the one dollar the app had sold for, you get $500,000 (before Apple takes their 30 percent cut). Of course, Moutran did say the 500,000 is active users, so it’s possible the app has been downloaded quite a bit more, bringing Oecoway even more money.
Now they’ll likely have to replace a lot of that money with ad revenue. Will it add up? Who knows, but this move will undoubtedly bring them a lot more users.
“We’re really excited because Friendly for Facebook has been an extremely successful paid application. It’s held the top overall spot for paid applications for more than 40 days, and it’s been the top paid social media iPad app since we launched version 1.0. But we want as many people as possible to be able to experience Friendly for Facebook so that’s why we are making it free,” Moutran reiterates.
That’s great news for Facebook users and iPad lovers alike.
You can find the free version of Friendly here. And the paid version here.
bench craft company rip off
Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence
The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...
Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?
Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...
NEW ABC <b>NEWS</b> PRESIDENT NAMED | Studio Briefing
ABC has named Ben Sherwood, a former executive producer of Good Morning America, to replace David Westin as president of ABC News. Sherwood, who is the very.
bench craft company rip off
Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence
The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...
Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?
Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...
NEW ABC <b>NEWS</b> PRESIDENT NAMED | Studio Briefing
ABC has named Ben Sherwood, a former executive producer of Good Morning America, to replace David Westin as president of ABC News. Sherwood, who is the very.
bench craft company rip off
Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence
The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...
Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?
Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...
NEW ABC <b>NEWS</b> PRESIDENT NAMED | Studio Briefing
ABC has named Ben Sherwood, a former executive producer of Good Morning America, to replace David Westin as president of ABC News. Sherwood, who is the very.
bench craft company rip off
Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence
The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...
Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?
Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...
NEW ABC <b>NEWS</b> PRESIDENT NAMED | Studio Briefing
ABC has named Ben Sherwood, a former executive producer of Good Morning America, to replace David Westin as president of ABC News. Sherwood, who is the very.
bench craft company rip off
Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence
The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...
Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?
Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...
NEW ABC <b>NEWS</b> PRESIDENT NAMED | Studio Briefing
ABC has named Ben Sherwood, a former executive producer of Good Morning America, to replace David Westin as president of ABC News. Sherwood, who is the very.
bench craft company rip off
Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence
The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...
Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?
Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...
NEW ABC <b>NEWS</b> PRESIDENT NAMED | Studio Briefing
ABC has named Ben Sherwood, a former executive producer of Good Morning America, to replace David Westin as president of ABC News. Sherwood, who is the very.
bench craft company rip off
As part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, we’re taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is “Most Influential Social Good Champion” supported by Yahoo!. Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas!
Social Good is a brand new form of online giving that draws both from small non-profits and large brand cause-marketing campaigns. But like any burgeoning movement, social good requires champions to bring it to the public and promote its growth.
While “social good” and “influence” may not have absolutely concrete definitions (is influence based on Twitter followers? Raising the most money?), it is easy to see when an individual has taken on the cause of social good to create some real change.
Even though the exact parameters are a subjective call, we scoured the web for three social good activists who are using their skills to create change. We’ve highlighted three individuals who are utilizing social media and online campaigns to shape the way that we think about activism.
1. The Free Agent
Beth Kanter and Allison Fine defined the concept of the “free agent” this year in their book, The Networked Nonprofit. A “free agent,” as they defined it, is a “person who is passionate about a social cause, but is working outside of a nonprofit organization to organize, mobilize, raise money, and engage with others.” Using social media tools, free agents are able to make an impact that was once only capable within the infrastructure of an organization.
We’ve covered a number of free agents who had influence this year. Individuals like Shawn Ahmed, who posts YouTube
Kanter, a free agent herself, has played an influential role in helping non-profit organizations accept and cooperate with these social media-powered activists. Among her efforts, she facilitated a conversation at the State Department’s Tech@State Civil Society 2.0 event about how non-profits and free agents can work together.
2. Ben Rattray, Founder and CEO of Change.org
There are two hurdles that almost every cause campaign struggles with. The first is making the complexities and realities of its cause understood. The second is mobilizing people effectively. Change.org, which was founded by Ben Rattray in 2006, helps solve both.
The site has more than 100 writers who contribute in-depth reporting on 15 different causes. When people come to the site to read about a cause they’re passionate about, they also have the opportunity to take action toward that cause by signing petitions. While these cumulative actions lack the drama of a protest, mobilizing a large network toward one specific action has proved a lot more effective than a hodgepodge of independent actions.
Change.org has partnered with thousands of non-profits, and together the community has accomplished more than 100 “victories,” in which they’ve changed an unjust practice, law or policy. The organization connects activists with similar passions, and by doing so it gives them power as a cohort that they would never have as individuals.
3. Scott Harrison, Founder of Charity: Water
Charity: water uses 100% of public donations to fund water projects and is transparent about how donations are used. Both of these qualities make it somewhat of an oddball in the non-profit world — which might be exactly what the non-profit world needs.
When people donate money to most organizations, they’re not sure what happens to their donation or how efficiently it was used. When they give to charity: water, they can look up a picture and GPS coordinates of the project they contributed to. Since the organization relies on private donors for the money that makes it run, there’s no doubt about whether your donation ended up paying for somebody’s flight instead of funding a water project. The organization even covers its PayPal fees on donations.
This model of transparency and accountability has created trust and helped raise more than $20 million for 3,196 projects in the past four years. We hope that its success will influence other non-profits to do the same.
What’s Your Pick?
Who were your social good champions this year? Let us know in the comments or nominate them for a Mashable Awards. The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)
In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the
Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week)
Mashable Awards Category Sponsor:
Yahoo! is an innovative technology company that operates the largest digital media, content, and communications business in the world. Yahoo! keeps more than half a billion consumers worldwide connected to what matters to them most, and delivers powerful audience solutions to advertisers through its unique combination of Science + Art + Scale. Yahoo! is proud to sponsor this Mashable Award because Yahoo! is focused on connecting individuals to a community of millions so they can change the world together. That’s How Good Grows at Yahoo!. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto
For more Social Good coverage:
As we’re all well aware, Facebook doesn’t offer an iPad app. Well, maybe we’re not all so aware of that. Because Friendly, an unofficial app made by Oecoway, has been a massive hit on the platform. In fact, it has over 500,000 active users, co-founder Cyril Moutran tells us. And that’s pretty amazing considering that they have been charging for the app. But you can probably expect that number to explode even further, as they’ve decided to make the app free.
To be clear, there will still be a $0.99 version of Friendly, but the only difference from the new free version is that it won’t have ads. Undoubtedly, most users won’t care about that and will opt for the free version. And the app will rack up even more downloads because 1) again, Facebook doesn’t have an official app and 2) Friendly is a very solid way to use Facebook on the device.
“We’re making Friendly for Facebook free, because we want to expand our user base and put Friendly for Facebook in as many people’s hands as possible,” Moutran says. The service essentially takes the touch-optimized version of Facebook’s site and wraps it in their own native app wrapper. But this allows them to add more functionality, such as the ability to change fonts and colors. Plus you can browse the web within it and quickly share back to Facebook. You can also easily manage multiple Facebook accounts from the app.
The app also brings a native app look, feel, and performance to Facebook. That may not sound like much, but given the usage numbers, it definitely can’t be overlooked.
But while Friendly is very good, let’s be honest: if Facebook had their own app, most people would likely use that. People currently searching for “Facebook” on the iPad only have the third-party options — and this has tricked some people. And considering that many of these apps are paid apps, that has cost people money — something which Facebook can’t like too much.
So did Facebook pressure Friendly to go free? It doesn’t seem that way. Moutran says that Facebook has been very supportive of what they’ve been doing. “The Facebook Platform team in particular deserves kudos for their around the clock dedication at providing help and guidance to developers on iOS SDK,” he says.
Maybe we should take Friendly going free as a sign that an official app is coming? That also doesn’t seem all that likely given Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent words about the possibility.
While Moutran declined to talk about their revenue numbers, if you simply take the 500,000 user number and multiply it by the one dollar the app had sold for, you get $500,000 (before Apple takes their 30 percent cut). Of course, Moutran did say the 500,000 is active users, so it’s possible the app has been downloaded quite a bit more, bringing Oecoway even more money.
Now they’ll likely have to replace a lot of that money with ad revenue. Will it add up? Who knows, but this move will undoubtedly bring them a lot more users.
“We’re really excited because Friendly for Facebook has been an extremely successful paid application. It’s held the top overall spot for paid applications for more than 40 days, and it’s been the top paid social media iPad app since we launched version 1.0. But we want as many people as possible to be able to experience Friendly for Facebook so that’s why we are making it free,” Moutran reiterates.
That’s great news for Facebook users and iPad lovers alike.
You can find the free version of Friendly here. And the paid version here.
bench craft company rip off
Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence
The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...
Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?
Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...
NEW ABC <b>NEWS</b> PRESIDENT NAMED | Studio Briefing
ABC has named Ben Sherwood, a former executive producer of Good Morning America, to replace David Westin as president of ABC News. Sherwood, who is the very.
bench craft company rip off
Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence
The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...
Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?
Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...
NEW ABC <b>NEWS</b> PRESIDENT NAMED | Studio Briefing
ABC has named Ben Sherwood, a former executive producer of Good Morning America, to replace David Westin as president of ABC News. Sherwood, who is the very.
bench craft company rip off
Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence
The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...
Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?
Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...
NEW ABC <b>NEWS</b> PRESIDENT NAMED | Studio Briefing
ABC has named Ben Sherwood, a former executive producer of Good Morning America, to replace David Westin as president of ABC News. Sherwood, who is the very.
bench craft company rip off
Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence
The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...
Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?
Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...
NEW ABC <b>NEWS</b> PRESIDENT NAMED | Studio Briefing
ABC has named Ben Sherwood, a former executive producer of Good Morning America, to replace David Westin as president of ABC News. Sherwood, who is the very.
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