Remember that Facebook username you rushed to get back in June? Over 50 million users have them, and now all of those people on Facebook can use their username rather than their email to log on to Facebook.com.

The new feature, announced by Facebook today, allows you to skip typing the extra characters that comprise your email and instead utilize your shorter username to access your Facebook account.

The move makes sense – usernames are just easier to remember. It’s a common practice for many websites to allow users to log in with either an email or a username.

So go ahead, log out of Facebook and try logging back in with your username. You know you want to. We won’t stop you.

Tags: facebook

Noticed something … odd about your Twitter stream? Do you see a lot of … colorful birds instead of the pretty faces of your friends? Well, apparently you’re not alone. A flood of complaints is overwhelming Twitter about the new Twitter avatar taking over user pictures.

What’s causing this issue? Well, we’re not sure and apparently Twitter is not either. Twitter Platform Lead Alex Payne has already tweeted about the situation:

“Many people in my timeline suddenly have default user icons. This is probably not intentional. I have inquired with colleagues.”

This is a bug, and it is one we suspect will be fixed soon (along with others that are being reported to us). So don’t panic. If your picture has disappeared into the clouds though, let us know in the comments.

Update #1: Twitter has provided the following update:

We’re working on a bug whereby the default avatar is showing up for users who have previously uploaded their own image. We hope to resolve this soon.

Update (5:30p): We’ve identified the root cause of this problem and expect the issue to be resolved within the next several hours.

Facebook Fan Pages have been become killer community building tools for the social media savvy. Pages bring together fans and supporters with the brands and celebrities they want to keep up with. The only downside for both fans and admins is keeping up with and maintaining Page content.

Seesmic Desktop to the rescue. One of our favorite Twitter apps has just added robust Facebook Fan Page support in version 0.6. Now Page admins can update their content, but better yet, fans can view all their Pages as distinct entities and engage with them like never before.

We recently saw TweetDeck make a major update with more Facebook features, and while great, Seesmic has pushed the envelope even further with their advanced Facebook integrations.

As a fan, you now have instant access to all your Pages or just the ones you love the most. Use the left-hand column, or access Preferences, and navigate to Accounts to find a list of Fan Pages associated with your account. The Pages you click and save will now appear in the left-hand column, where you can select them to view and engage with content.

As a Page admin you can also configure Seesmic Desktop so that you can post to your Pages from the status update bar. You’ll need to make the connection between Facebook and allow extended permissions, but once you do the Page should appear in the left-hand column, as well as in the account options for the update bar. Essentially you can use Seesmic Desktop to crosspost to Twitter, Facebook, and your Pages all with one single update.

Along with the Facebook Page update, the desktop app now supports a reply to all feature. Available from the same menu as the userlist and follow options, the reply to all button gives you a one-click way to respond to multiple Twitterers. On the minor side of things, there’s also now a default column view of favorites per account, as well as a partnership with yFrog.

Today’s update is all about Facebook though, and with Seesmic Desktop accruing over 2.5 million downloads so far, it’s yet another reason that brands should leverage the fan engagement opportunities available via Facebook Pages.

Tags: facebook, fan pages, seesmic, seesmic desktop

YouTube already has a good set of filters that have been emulated many times over by other websites. You can sort videos by most views over the past day, week, month, or all-time — overall or for specific categories and search terms if you’d like.

Nonetheless, none of that provides the same immediacy as real-time information, which is why YouTube has taken a page out of Twitter’s playbook and is experimenting with its own trending topics feature.

The video sharing site discussed the feature, along with a few other updates, in a blog post today:

“When there is a spike in searches on a given topic, we are beginning to tease that out on our browse pages to help you see what the world is watching on any given day. You might see the queries appear in a “Trending Topic” spotlight on that category’s browse page or at the bottom of the page. We’re testing how this performs and if it does well, we’ll find a permanent home for it on the browse page and potentially more broadly on YouTube.”

Not surprisingly, YouTube’s trending topics are much like those found on Twitter or broader tools like Google Trends. People are still searching for video relating to the Kanye Swift/Taylor Swift VMA incident, as well as other pop culture topics like Miley Cyrus’ appearance on The Jay Leno Show and Kevin Skinner winning America’s Got Talent.

The feature is located in a somewhat awkward spot for the moment, but assuming it generates more clicks and video views, expect to see it more tightly integrated in YouTube’s design in the not too distant future.

Tags: youtube

Bengals Wide Receiver Chad Ochocinco isn’t taking the NFL’s ban on tweeting before, during, and after games lying down, it seems.

A few weeks ago, the wide receiver outlined his plan to tweet while on the field. Using hand signals to a fan, he hoped to circumvent the NFL’s policy. Of course, the NFL didn’t appreciate that, so they released a new social media restrictions that banned him or anyone representing him from tweeting.

Chad nearly deleted his Twitter account (or it was just a stunt), but recently resurfaced claiming that he found loopholes in the NFL’s policy. Now it seems that part of that loophole involves flying lucky Twitter followers to all of his home games.

Chad tweeted out the basic foundation of the contest, although unfortunately he left out the part about how to win:

So there you have it. Ochocinco’s up to something, and if you want to be part of it (and brag to all of your friends), you better follow his Twitter account.

Tags: chad ochocinco, nfl, ochocinco, twitter

So apparently it actually works both ways: careless Facebook use can both get you robbed and get you arrested for burglary.

According to The Journal, a 19-year-old Pennsylvania man was arraigned earlier this week on a charge of felony daytime robbery. How did police catch him? Simple: the burglar left a trail, by way of checking his Facebook account before leaving the house with two diamond rings and forgetting to log out.

Jonathan Parker remains in custody on ,000 bail, facing a maximum 10 year prison sentence if convicted. A friend of the defendant said Parker had asked him for help breaking into the victim’s house the previous night, so things are not looking too good for the perp.

What do you think: is this a case of Facebook addiction, or just a very dim burglar? If robbery weren’t such a serious matter we might consider this story pretty much hilarious. As Homer Simpson would say, “doh!”

Image courtesy of davidsonscott15

Tags: burglary, crime, facebook, robbery

Twitter has been making a series of big announcements outlining changes to the microblogging service such as geolocation tweets and Project Retweet. But quietly Twitter has been making some subtle interface changes too.

A few days ago, some of our readers noticed some font changes to Twitter pages. But two changes that seem to have rolled out today also piqued our interest. First, there is now a new “Follow Bar” which provides a cleaner interface for following, replying, or blocking specific Twitter users. Secondly, the horrendous and ugly default avatar of old has been replaced by a variety of multicolored Twitter birds.

In case you need a refresher, here is the old avatar, which you would have had on your profile until you uploaded a picture. Remember the weird brown smiley face?

Stare into its creepy blue eyes, and you might suddenly find your soul missing. Yes, that’s how ugly it is.

Now, here is the new, updated default avatar for Twitter profiles:

So you may notice that they not only updated the avatar, but they also changed the follow bar. It extends across the page, has hover text, and is just all kinds of win. You’ll also notice that the avatar above is different than the one at the very top of this article. Different people have different avatar colors – orange, blue, green, and others have all been sighted.

It looks like that their slew of new hires are paying dividends, especially Twitter’s Creative Director Doug Bowman, formerly Google’s visual design leader.

We’re glad that the old avatar is going the way of the dinosaur. Almost anything was better than that thing.

Tags: twitter

Back in July, we reported that Facebook had become the Internet’s ultimate time waster, with users spending an average of 4 hours, 39 minutes on it per month, more than any other site on the Web.

Since then, however, that number has only gone up. According to numbers from Nielsen Online, users spent an average of 5 hours, 46 minutes on Facebook in the month of August. To put that in perspective, that’s triple the amount of time they spent on Google!

In fact, the next closest site in Nielsen’s top 10 is Yahoo, which, despite still having huge traffic in time consuming areas like news, sports, and financial data, could only get users to stick around for 3 hours and 14 minutes on average during the month. YouTube, surprisingly, only occupied 1 hour and 17 minutes of the average user’s time.

Of course, one of Google’s stated philosophies is that they “may be the only people in the world who can say our goal is to have people leave our homepage as quickly as possible.” However, that ethos was set in stone long before users started spending an inordinate amount of time on social sites – sites that now want to compete in search.

For now, Google’s answer seems to be extending its reach in search through other products – primarily its Chrome web browser and upcoming OS. But not having a strong presence in social networking remains the company’s Achilles’ heel, becoming ever more apparent as Facebook pulls away from the pack in usage stats.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, hidesy

Tags: facebook, Google, stats

In between the realm of full-featured blogs (e.g. WordPress, Typepad) and the microblog (e.g. Twitter), there is the dead-simple blog platform Posterous. It has won the hearts and minds of many users with its bookmarklet, its easy photo sharing features, and of course, its ability to create blog posts via email.

While these features have been winners, Posterous has lacked one major feature that larger competitors such as Tumblr offer: custom themes. Ever the Posterous blog has had the same yellow-and-white layout. The lack of this much-requested feature has likely turned some potential users away.

Well guess what? Posterous now has custom themes. And it isn’t just installing a template – you can adjust the colors, the header images, and even make your own themes via HTML and CSS.

Posterous Theming

Let’s explore Posterous theming for a moment. The company actually provides a useful theming overview on its blog. Here is the gist of how to theme:

The five themes essentially are five different page layouts, affecting where your bio, sidebar, title, and other information are placed. Color editing is simple as well; if you don’t know the hexadecimal code for your color, you can just use the dropdown color picker. And finally, if you’re a true designer (like me), you can go all out and create a beautiful, custom layout for your Posterous.

I actually tested out theming on my Posterous and in just a few minutes I had a new layout set up:

I didn’t have time to dabble in a full CSS/HTML overhaul, but it seems simple enough for any experienced designer. The final kicker is that Posterous themes are Tumblr friendly – you can just drag and drop your Tumblr theme into Posterous and it’ll work reasonably well. This is a savvy move that drops the switching cost for current Tumblr users.

Posterous finally has a long-overdue feature that could be a flash point for more widespread adoption of the platform.

Also See: HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Posterous

Tags: blogging, microblogging, posterous, tumblr

There’s a new dustup in the long and rocky transition to digital music publishing. This time the industry has its sights on collecting performance fees for downloads of music, film and TV as well as licensing fees for the 30-second song samples Apple uses to let iTunes customers preview tracks.

CNet reports that the two major agencies in charge of collecting royalties in the U.S., ASCAP and BMI, have been unsuccessful to date in negotiations on these points with electronic music retailers. They’ve since begun lobbying Congress to pass legislation that would require any music retailer selling downloads to pay a performance fee.

Performance fees are typically collected when music is performed in public: at radio stations, in restaurants, in sports stadiums and other venues for example. The argument that ASCAP and BMI are trying to make is that downloading a song from the web should be considered a performance and thus subjected to this fee.

The courts thus far have not been favorable to this argument. Past rulings have tended to side with music retailers, with a precedent-setting ruling from a U.S. district court finding that streaming music should be subject to performance fees but not downloads. ASCAP has since appealed the decision, with the case returning to court later this year.

The royalty agencies are also going after performance fees from downloads of movies and TV shows. The argument goes that when music is included in film or TV that is shown on broadcast, cable or satellite, a performance fee is collected. So when that same TV show is downloaded over iTunes, music industry representatives say, they should also be subject to this performance fee.

30 Second Song Clip Licensing

Lastly and likely even more controversially, the licensing agencies are going after licensing fees for the 30 second track previews used by iTunes to give customers a taste of the music they presumably may want to buy. Apple has obtained the necessary legal licensing to use these song previews, but music publishers complain that no money changed hands in the deal — and they want their pound of flesh.

We tend to agree with Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association that represents web-based media services like Apple and Pandora: “They aren’t getting paid for the public performance in a download because there is no public performance in a download.” How is a download a public performance? When I click the “buy now” button my friends don’t spontaneously gather ’round to hear the glorious “ding” sound of a completed transfer or anything. It will be a hard argument to make, and the courts seem at least initially to agree.

As for the 30 second samples brouhaha — since when did it become smart business to spend time and money actively preventing your potential customers from finding out if they want to give you money or not? It’s unfortunate that in the shift to a digital media ecosystem licensing agencies are getting squeezed, but some of these tactics reek of desperation.

What do you think: does the download of an MP3 file constitute a performance? Should Apple be forking over money to ASCAP and BMI for track previews? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Tags: ASCAP, BMI, itunes, licensing, music, performance fees, royalties