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In response to some Facebook users who asked if they could have the option to use the old design instead of the new one, Zuckerberg said it wasn’t possible for technical reasons. “It’s tempting to say that we should just support both designs, but this isn’t as simple as it sounds,” he wrote. “Supporting two versions is a huge amount of work for our small team, and it would mean that going forward we would have to build everything twice. If we did that then neither version would get our full attention.”

“In the last four years, we’ve built new products that help people share more, such as photos, videos, groups, events, wall posts, status updates and so on,” the post read. “As people share more, sometimes we need to change the site to accommodate how much information people are posting.”

A post on the company blog, authored by Zuckerberg, wrote that the site’s new focus–which emphasizes the sharing of media and information–is “an important step for us.”

Facebook’s team isn’t exactly tiny–they have said they hope to hit 800 employees by the end of 2008–but running two Web sites that run the same property differently probably is a pain in the neck. Kind of analogous to Microsoft’s dealing with those holdouts who are still using Windows 98.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

And as for the members who have banded together to form Facebook groups protesting the new design (a bit meta, yes), Zuckerberg claims he’s not offended. “We appreciate the thousands of you who have written in to give us feedback,” the post read. “Even if you’re joining a group to express things you don’t like about the new design, you’re giving us important feedback and you’re sharing your voice, which is what Facebook is all about.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has caught on to the fact that a sizeable handful of his 100-million-plus users say they aren’t too thrilled with the site’s new redesign. But he won’t change anything, as Facebook occasionally has in the face of user revolt.

Some Facebook users freaked out over its News Feed in 2006, and its Beacon advertising program last year. But the concerns voiced there dealt with privacy, not user interface. That was something that could’ve resulted in much more PR damage than a design that a slim percentage of users vehemently dislike (and which most, it seems, don’t really care much about).

“Many people disliked News Feed at first because it changed their home page and how they shared information,” Zuckerberg’s post read. (”How they share information” is putting it lightly.) “Now it’s one of the most important parts of Facebook. We think the new design can have the same effect.” He added the company had gone through months of a “feedback” stage and that the final product was shaped largely in part by users’ input.

Amen. Oracle may not have had much to say, but it’s great to see Oracle’s Ellison reminding us that enterprise software as a whole may even have less to say than we’ve collectively been pretending. At least Oracle is honest about it.

One area in which Oracle did shine was in CEO Larry Ellison’s shot at cloud computing, calling the infatuation with the cloud “complete gibberish.” For those of you who wonder why everyone continues to blather on about “the cloud,” Ellison’s comments will be welcome, as CNET’s Dan Farber notes:

CIO.com’s Thomas Wallgum captures the void of breaking news succinctly:

The problem is that every tech company now wants to be associated with cloud computing, no matter if their products and services meet the basic criteria. At least Ellison isn’t afraid to address the hijacking of the phrase by marketers, including Oracle’s.

(There weren’t even any) shots at Oracle’s major competitors–SAP, Microsoft, or soon to be Cisco in the collaboration space. Instead he picked on Teradata and Netezza?” Might Larry be losing his fastball?!

That’s the feeling some reported coming out of Oracle’s OpenWorld conference last week. Yes, bloggers and others dutifully reported on Oracle’s Beehive (new collaboration product) and its new hardware device (data warehousing tool that will now play catch-up with Greenplum), but Oracle didn’t break much new ground…for once.

But when your biggest and most exciting announcement revolves around a data-warehousing deal with HP, and your signature and most intriguing product–Fusion, which everyone is talking about–is now not going to be available until 2010 (after years of delays), then things are getting pretty rough. (”Enough with those questions about Fusion! Did you know that Elvis Costello and Seal are playing tonight!”)…

commentary

Is Oracle losing its touch? Or has it already conquered the enterprise software world and now lacks a compelling story to tell?

The iPhone has risen to prominence on Flickr, rivaling most SLRs in popularity. These statistics from Yahoo cover the last 12 months.

That’s a notable accomplishment. I’ve been watching the Flickr Camera Finder for two years, and that’s the first time I recall a camera phone placing so highly. The top ranks have been dominated by SLRs, the camera of choice for many of Flickr’s heaviest users.

What’s more interesting is extrapolating from the trend. Certainly the iPhone’s image quality doesn’t hold a candle to even old point-and-shoots, much less new SLRs, but the phone taps straight into the social features of Flickr–the ability to photographically share with friends and family what’s going on in your life, for example. There are innumerable expert photographers at Flickr, but it looks like the yet larger herd of ordinary snapshooters are going to leave them in the dust once liberated with the ability to post pictures at will.

My guess is the iPhone’s better-than-average network abilities are responsible for the prominence. For the same reason, iPhone users also use Google Maps and other online services more than most mobile device users. The BlackBerry is good at e-mail, but the Internet has other attractions.

The iPhone is the mobile device of choice these days for doing most things that need a network. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that the phone has carved out a prominent place on Yahoo’s photo-sharing site, Flickr.

(Credit:
Yahoo)

The Flickr Camera Finder, Yahoo’s statistical counter of camera use among its members, shows that since the arrival of the
iPhone 3G model earlier this year, the phone has vaulted not only over all other camera phones, trouncing the Nokia N95 in second place, but also almost all ordinary cameras.

With the debut of the 3G model, Apple's iPhone surged to a commanding lead among camera phones used at Flickr. These statistics from Yahoo cover the last 12 months.

Though the trajectory is clear, there are caveats. First, Flickr measures popularity on the basis of the number of users who’ve uploaded a photo on a given day. In other words, the camera used by a person who uploads one photo a day will fare better than one who uploads 100 pictures one day a month. Second, many camera phones don’t identify themselves to Flickr, so their use isn’t logged. Last, these statistics fluctuate daily, and who knows what kind of anomalous behavior is going on during the holidays.

I sent my iPhone photos to Flickr using the site’s upload-by-e-mail service (see Yahoo’s instructions), but there are several iPhone applications that will do it for you if you prefer. Apple’s photo e-mailing software scales photos to 640×480, but I don’t mind, given feeble image quality and the unlikelihood that these shots will ever make their way beyond a computer screen.

Right now the iPhone is in a virtual tie with Canon’s Rebel XT and Nikon’s D80, two SLRs whose popularity is waning with the arrival of newer models from the dominant makers of such cameras. Only Canon’s newer Rebel XTi outranks the iPhone.

The total number of photos uploaded from the Rebel XTi is about 51 million, compared with 5.8 million for the iPhone. However, there are nearly 3,000 people uploading daily from their iPhone compared with about 6,500 for the XTi.

(Credit:
Yahoo)

I’ve been playing around with Songbird for about a year now, and it’s great to see this innovative program come as far as it has. Although I’m curious to see how it adapts to being forever tied to
Firefox improvements, that’s also an ongoing concern for that other multi-use Firefox mash-up, Flock.

Songbird mimics the iTunes interface, but rolls in Firefox-powered Web surfing and Web-based music discovery.

With the exception of that playlist feature, which is unusual for jukebox playlist behavior, these changes make Songbird’s interface as familiar-feeling as possible.

Music jukebox and Web browser mash-up Songbird has begun to pull away from the beta gate. In its first release candidate for Windows, Mac, and Linux, the Gecko-powered browser aimed at audio junkies locks down a final list of features.

(Credit:
Songbird)

Also of note, the last official version of Songbird for PowerPC Macs was v0.6.1. According to the developers, this was done to save on developer resources.

The improvements over the previous release, version 0.7, make changes both important and minor. Absolutely the most noticeable is that the program runs and feels faster. Responsiveness had been an issue, too, but this release candidate marks a strong improvement in that area as well.

Throw in these drastically different Firefox-based browsers with the current browser battle going on between Internet Explorer, Chrome,
Safari, Opera, and Firefox itself, and you’re looking at a wide range of quality choices.

The overall look of Songbird hasn’t changed, but a lot of the must-have UI features are finally in place. Keyboard shortcuts have been added, as has a comprehensive list of them accessible from the Help menu. The right-click accessible Context menu and the File menu from the Menubar now allow users to open up the folder location of a track. Column headings properties are now easier to manage, too. New buttons control toggle individual panes, and smart playlists can be used as rules within other smart playlists.

Audiophiles should appreciate that Songbird has switched over to Gstreamer as their playback engine across all platforms. This means that Songbird can play MP3, FLAC, and Vorbis files on all platforms, WMA tracks on Windows, and AAC on both Windows and
Mac.

Intel is an existing client of Telligent.

“This significant investment from Intel Capital will allow us to grow our team, our capabilities, and our reach during a time of market expansion,” Telligent CEO Rob Howard said in a statement. The investment will be directed toward geographic expansion, hiring more sales professionals, and increasing Telligent’s advertising and marketing budget.

The two companies have not disclosed a valuation for Dallas-based Telligent. Part of the $20 million stake has already been acquired, the companies said Tuesday, with the rest to follow within 12 months.

Telligent manufactures a product called Community Server, which provides clients with blog, forum, wiki, and other collaborative and social software; the software is used primarily for customer relations and marketing. Those clients include the Associated Press, MySpace, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Visa, Honda, Dell, and the NFL.

Intel Capital, the chipmaker’s venture arm, has signed a deal to acquire a $20 million stake in Telligent Systems, which specializes in social-networking software for businesses.

The Amazee dashboard lets you manage your causes.

The problem is, you have to solve your Love/Belonging issues before you can address Esteem, and Amazee is so theoretically pure that it cuts itself off from the real and messy world where the mass of users congregate.

Within the site, you can set up a project, such as raising money for a cause, organizing a rally, or building an ark to save the planet’s animals–whatever. Amazee, unlike most social networks, is built around workflow modules, like a discussion forum, a file repository, a calendar, and other functions. The company’s team plans to layer in Basecamp-like tools for deeper task tracking.

Amazee CEO Gregory Gerhardt told me the goal for the site is to drive collective action. The tools the service offers are in support of that. But while Amazee has got the tools part of the equation well in hand, the collective part is lacking.

Furthermore, Amazee is being built as a destination site. People who want to launch a cause on their own site can point users to the cause’s page on Amazee, but they can’t get their own branded version, nor (yet) hook the service in to whatever network of users they already have.

The lack of a white-label version of Amazee is its greatest business fault and the service’s biggest opportunity. Facebook users already have the popular Causes app where they can talk about action and raise funds (although without Amazee’s workflow tools), but you can’t co-brand or remarket Causes for your site, and that, to me, represents an opportunity. (Amazee plans to make money by offering “private” pages, but as of yet those pages cannot be branded.)

See also: Ning, Karma411, FixMyStreet, Change.org.

Amazee looks like a good service with the technical framework for delivering on its promise. And while it has the social dynamic worked out within its own universe, it doesn’t have the hooks it needs into the rest of the world. As I was recently reminded when I tried Yammer here at CNET (it’s deathly silent in our little room), building a social service is only one part programming. The other 99 parts are social engineering.

Switzerland’s Amazee on Wednesday is launching its site for building social projects. It’s a solid effort. The collaboration tools look good, and I like how it puts the focus on the project, unlike most other social nets that focus on the person. However, in its current form, Amazee is more impressive in theory than practice. I don’t want to say the project suffers from hubris, but I do believe it will need to climb down from its ivory tower to succeed.

Part of this is due to the pure theory that Gerhardt is basing Amazee on. His was the only pitch in recent years that I’ve seen where Maslow’s hierarchy of needs played a key part. Gerhardt puts Amazee at the “Esteem” level: The service is about achievement and respect. He puts Facebook and social networks a slot down, at “Love/Belonging.”

Mobile music, along with other data services like mobile Web surfing and e-mail, are important for Verizon as it tries to get its customers to spend more each month on additional services. So far, its efforts seem to be working. On Monday, the company reported that mobile data, which includes music downloads, accounted for over 20 percent of the company’s total wireless revenue in the first quarter of 2008. And it said that customers on average spent nearly $12 a month on data services. These are fees that are above and beyond what customers pay for basic voice minutes.

Verizon has been racking up deals with individual artists, such as Prince, Timberlake, John Legend, and Shakira, in an attempt to promote its music store and service. The company claims it is the second-largest music store on the market behind Apple’s iTunes, with more than 3 million songs in its library. And in the first quarter of 2008, it sold a total of 34 million “units,” which included ringtones, ringback tones and full music tracks, according to Ed Ruth, director of digital music for Verizon.

And it’s this ability to sell the same piece of content in multiple ways that is likely the main reason that artists and record labels are working with mobile operators like Verizon. A consumer who really loves Madonna’s “4 Minutes” single can spend $2.99 for a standard ringtone, $1.99 for a ringback tone, and another $1.99 if he buys the full track using his phone or 99 cents if he downloads it from his computer. (Verizon also offers a 20 percent discount for subscribers buying the song as both a ringtone and ringback tone.)

Verizon Wireless and Vodafone are teaming up with the pop diva to promote the new album Hard Candy, which hit stores on Tuesday. And as part of this deal, the wireless operators will deliver a live global mobile simulcast of Madonna performing four songs at New York’s Roseland Ballroom.

Madonna fans who can’t get tickets to the intimate concert kicking off the release of her latest album in New York City on Wednesday night can catch a glimpse of the show on their cell phones.

The concert simulcast is part of a larger mobile content distribution and promotion deal that Verizon Wireless and Vodafone have worked out with Warner Music International to promote the new album. Earlier this month, Verizon Wireless offered subscribers an exclusive “mobile underground remix” of the new Madonna single “4 Minutes,” a song that also features Justin Timberlake.

“The big problem that the music industry is facing is that physical sales of music are failing,” he said. “And digital music is trying to catch up. But what we offer is a unique ability to offer consumers content in multiple formats.”

A handful of lucky Verizon Wireless subscribers, who downloaded the full-song, ringtone, or ringback tone of “4 Minutes” through V Cast, have won tickets to the concert.

While it’s clear that mobile music can have big benefits for Verizon, the company also believes that it offers the music industry an opportunity it can’t get using any other distribution method. As an example, Ruth noted the huge success of Shakira’s 2006 single “Hips Don’t Lie” when it was offered exclusively on V Cast. The song was originally offered as a ringback tone. And when it was eventually released as a full track and aired on the radio, demand was so strong for the song that it immediately hit the top of the charts when it was widely released, Ruth said.

The simulcast, which is the first time Verizon or Vodafone has ever streamed a live event to cell phone subscribers, will begin at 7 p.m. PDT on Verizon’s V Cast Performances channel on Wednesday, April 30. And it will be offered on Vodafone’s Live broadcast channel starting at 3 a.m. GMT May 1 for subscribers in several international markets including the U.K., Germany, Spain, Italy, and France. The four songs will be archived on the V Cast Performances channel for 30 days, giving fans who couldn’t tune in a chance to see it later.

An AOL spokeswoman said the company does not comment on pending litigation. However, she said AOL subscribers can opt out of receiving the ads and the company tells anyone who complains about the ads exactly how to do it.

The lawsuit seeks class-action status and more than $5 million in damages. It alleges fraud, unjust enrichment, and California business code violations.

AOL has been offering free e-mail for the past two years but still sells dial-up subscriptions that include e-mail and other services.

By now, most of us are used to the ads we see in our Web-based e-mail . But if you are paying for the e-mail service, those ads might be extra annoying.

Frank Cecchini claims in his lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, that he shouldn’t have to see any of the “intrusive and misleading” ads that appear as text in the e-mails because he pays $25.90 a month for his service, according to a MediaPost article.

At least one California man thinks so, enough to sue AOL.