You and I are both very much familiar of Facebook right? Therefore, most of the features of this social media network are indeed so recognizable to you, including search result feature.

Search results in Facebook are very important to a user, particular to me since I am a very avid user of this social site. Usually, I search for my long-time-no-see friends and relatives, my favorite bands, singers, movies, and everything that I like. Usually, they have their own fan or group page in Facebook; so how am I going to seek for it then? Well, plainly, the search toolbar is provided to let Facebook users search on what they wanted.

Well, with regards to their search results, Facebook is now innovating to improve it then! According to Matt McGee, “Facebook has changed its search results display — the drop-down that appears as soon as users begin typing in the Facebook search box.”

In other words, the search results display provides possible options of the things you are searching for even before you completely type the word or group of words. In addition, “the new display is organized into different content types, replacing the old version which showed results in a straight list format with no organization.”

So when you type the word “Google” for example, just like Matt McGee illustrated, the search results organizes the outcomes accordingly: Groups, Pages, Questions and People. At the bottom of the drop-down, there is a link that leads you to “more results on…” depending on what you actually search for from the beginning. On the next link, you will be provided with more options to satisfy your needs.

Right now, Facebook is constantly making their users become more interested in logging in to it in almost all times, and this includes the simple search bar that we often overlook at.

Facebook has surpassed the expected revenue for the year—reaching up to $2 Billion dollars for 2010. Mark Zuckerberg, regarded as times person of the year is truly making history in the social media age.

Everyone knows Facebook and definitely, no one would question its popularity. Posting pictures, everyday status, and communication with relatives as well as loved ones are the forefront usage of the social media network. But now, Facebook has engaged into the business and advertising giants.

Virtual gaming is one of Facebook’s profitable services. Zynga and their other partners are actually earning millions with their addictive social media games via virtual products. The private company doesn’t disclose their earnings on public but looking at the outer details provided by other entities gives us the idea of how Zuckerberg is a full time millionaire.

The data center lease is said to be $50 million annually which excludes about $1 million per megawatt per year of electricity. Additional data centers were built in Prineville Oregon amounting to $215 million, while $450 million for newer centers in Forest City, Rutherford County, Western Carolina.

Employees have gone from 300 in 2007 to 2,000 in 2009. Facebook employs the top-notched software engineers in the land and paying a base salary of $110, 050 for new software engineers.

Zuckerberg has 90 % approval rating from his employees which means a nice working environment and probably a number of employee benefits as well. Advertisements are the other source of profit for Facebook. An estimated 1.3 billion is generated by display ads.

No wonder Zuckerberg deserves the title as Times Person of The Year. The man didn’t only revolutionized the way we look at social media but introduced the mutual link between business processing, marketing and consumers anchored through the ever powerful social media domain—Facebook.

Recently, stories about Delicious began appearing that Yahoo is downsizing and looking to either shut down or get rid of Delicious. The news comes one day after Yahoo slashed 4 percent of its workforce or roughly 600 employees. If this happens, I know a lot of delicious users will be in panic mode. But last Friday, Delicious denied that it was shutting down and made a statement that instead it will shop for a home outside of Yahoo. After news spread that Delicious was likely to shut down, Yahoo says the service live on, after all.

The company emphatically says Delicious isn’t closing as what they have posted in their blog.

Is Delicious being shut down? And should I be worried about my data?

- No, we are not shutting down Delicious. While we have determined that there is not a strategic fit at Yahoo!, we believe there is a ideal home for Delicious outside of the company where it can be resourced to the level where it can be competitive.

What is Yahoo! going to do with Delicious?

-          We’re actively thinking about the future of Delicious and we believe there is a home outside the company that would make more sense for the service and our users. We’re in the process of exploring a variety of options and talking to companies right now. And we’ll share our plans with you as soon as we can.

Well, we will just wait and see what will happen next. What will 2011 bring? Stay tuned. We’re almost there.

Recently Facebook have been experiencing many complains about their privacy policy. This raises concern of several business entities about the security of facebook. Since the number of entrepreneurs have created online stores and support on the social media site designed for their consumers.

Facebook is now at its peak and this also means more development for privacy options, additional applications, quick consumer-concern response and additional staff. Many concerns have been raised against facebook—especially in the user privacy options.

Lately, the Business Herald columnist Deborah Hill Cone’s identity was stolen was dreaded on the complex procedure of closing down an account. This was not new to the social media network and for some celebrities which experienced an identity theft.

Another major problem facebook is confronted with, is the cyber bullying issue which is prevalent in many university belts worldwide. Recently, a delinquent student made a pseudo-profile of a 12 year classmate and posted pornographic pictures, sexual references and racial discrimination.

But despite security issues, an Australian Bank owned by New Zealand, ASB Bank established the first virtual branch on Facebook. Which critics consider as not very pleasing to the image of ASB—concerning a social network with security breach.

But to what extent should Facebook imposed user privacy options? Social media is a broad field and regulations should be appropriate and suitable for every different user or else these could harm the progress of the entity. Experts’ advised that Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg should initialize regional managers.

Perhaps the future of Facebook relies on the ability of its captains in sailing against the stormy ocean. The business world specifically the internet has a changing nature. The previous years, Myspace was the hottest social media network until Facebook grabbed the spot with its unique applications and social media trends.

The question is? Can Facebook cope with the user privacy demands of its consumers? Or will it be superseded by a more secure social media site.

Information Technology is one of the trended industries existed today, don’t you agree? Particular here in the Philippines, business process outsourcing contributes to increase the employment rate in our country. And undeniably speaking, call center agencies make employment possible to those who seek for jobs.

Do you know that despite the economic crisis the Philippines is facing now, call center industry is continuously increasing?

Since 2009, this business process outsourcing company is predicted to grow, according to the the general consensus among members of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines or CCAP, “the country’s official trade group for outsource and in-house contact centers”, a report posted in the net.

According to Jobstreet.com, “the last year’s CCAP Annual Call Center Conference and Expo 2009 was “he flagship event of the contact center industry, which attracts around 6,000 executives, managers, supervisors and agents of outsource and in-house contact centers.

“Now on its fifth run, the convention, exhibit and job fair features more panel discussions with CEOs, analysts, economists, support sectors and call center agents; 32 new conference topics on operations, HR, technology and career development; a new conference track for call center start-ups called Call Center 101 Plus; more booths at the expo with the latest products and services and a bigger job fair with more job openings.”

Business process outsourcing jobs like the call center agents and SEO man power are alike being an outsource company here in the Philippines. Basically, Call Center Agents interact with clients from overseas to provide costumer service and sales. They will either do this through the phone, through email, or through chat.

As a Call Center Agent, one must possess good written and verbal communication skills, and should be versatile to work on graveyard and shifting schedules. These qualities are not hard to find as long as the applicants are willing and enjoyable with such nature of work.

Not only does call centers innovate the kind of employment we have as of today, but they really help the Filipinos to have a standard job. No wonder people are so into call centers nowadays. They know they can have a better job in this kind of industry. As a result? This kind of industry increases in rate, regardless of the present case of our economy.

The employment rate is stumbling 6.9 % under while the job market gets too edgy with its growing competitiveness. Passing resumes and waiting for the company’s call often bugs applicants clinging to the employers promise.

Why not check your Facebook account or Tweet that you are “desperately looking for some work to stimulate your senses?” Instead of wasting too much effort getting rejected with traditional means of application, try out social media sites; and if your lucky and hardworking enough, you could be the next —Feross Aboukhadijeh.

He’s simply the 19-year-old Stanford Junior who received a job offer—using a 140 character-limit—from Chad Hurley, Youtube’s co-founder. Isn’t that amazing enough? Social media today also serves as the job haven for internet savvy citizens.

In fact, there are written ways of job search using social media networks. First off is:

• Linked In – this social media site are filled with professionals and company owners—which can be considered essential for searching top candidates. It’s free but most people fail to complete their profile on this site. A searcher can improve his network by importing contacts from his gmail or may randomly search people based on interest.

• Twitter – Gaining as many as followers can help market one’s self. You may search for a particular company, follow, and communicate with them to know more about their company. The same as linked in, one should have a complete profile just like a resume—so companies can have something to look into.

• Facebook – The same as the social media sites above. A searcher can increase network by adding friends—and post notes to appear in others page. A note would be much preferable than a status update; notes appear longer.

However, facebook and other social media sites could induce informality according to Lonnie Dunlap, director of career services at Northwestern University. These sites could not compensate a hard copy resume and an application letter. They also suggest that social media jobs success may depend on the position wanted by the company.

Ten years ago, I remember my classmate in high school went outside the school on lunch break. She said she’s going to open her Friendster account and upload her friend’s photos. My eyebrows raised high about what Friendster was all about, until I realized that I did the exact same trend she was after a few months.

I know this inclination is not surprising to you, especially if you are a Filipino. The Philippines had greatly embraced Friendster so great that even the most opened social media site in Internet cafes was Friendster. I remember how addictive students in all levels had become during Freindster’s era.

But now, Social Media has changed its phase when the “great” Facebook took place. Have you ever wondered how the Philippines switched from Friendster to Facebook? What could be the reasons?

Thomas Cramption wrote an article on the same issue,and there are some factors that Facebook has now that Friendster didn’t have before.

Quality, not Quantity
During Friendster’s reign, the users’ name was to get as many friends as possible. In fact, some of us even have more than one Friendster account, just to let the world know that we are so hooked with this social media site.

In Facebook, however, we are so careful with adding friends. We treasure each contact and even make sure that the person who adds us as a friend have a common friend in our list. To wrap up, Friendster is more on quantity as of Facebook on quality.

Tagging
I know you have done this so yourself, because you re-post your pictures and photos in your own account from someone else’s album during Friendster times. But now, since tagging is applied now to Facebook, you can already have a copy of the selected pictures that you want.

Status Update History
Based on experience, I never get to be so expressive in posting my status in Facebook in any Social media site. Shoutouts on Friendster is one unrecommended way to update your status because once you erase it, it’s gone forever.

Unlike Facebook wherein you are allowed to constantly update your status and keeps track of the previous status updates. That’s fun, is it not?

Live Chat
Facebook makes you chat with your online friends. That is one feature users love to commune with. Sadly, Friendster has none.

Sharing of videos, links, and images
This feature is so easy to execute in Facebook. Your shared videos, pictures, and links will be seen by your friends which they can easily respond since they can comment to it. Reaction and interaction is flooding in Facebook, wherein Friendster failed to do the same.

So it is not surprising that most people are switching to Facebook already. Have you still seen someone actively opened his or her Friendster account?

When was the last time you opened you Friendster account and updated it?

Sept 21, 2010—“the world throws up their arms into the sky”, unity, peace and harmony for a day; 24 hours of pure silence and ceasefire.

To make such day written on history, several organizations, foundations and active citizens organized their respective goal for World Day of Peace 2010. And to realize their aspirations for that day, many of them conquered the social media domain to deliver, invite and gather all savvy citizens all over the world.

Peace One Day—the leading team of peace aspirants convey their invitation to rest of the population of—“total surrender to peace’’—“uniting for one purpose”— and virally tapping one member to another Facebook user with their goals for 09/21/2010.

Peace One day first existed in 1999 bring forth by Jeremy Gilley aiming to put into realization—one day of peace, unity, and multicultural cooperation—of which the world will come to know. On 2001, Jeremy and his team’s effort were rewarded when the member states of the United Nations adopted the first day of total ceasefire on September 21.

The non-profit organization organized its fan page gathering up to 42,987 (as of 09/17/2010) committed supporters and concerned citizens. Their main social media network—Facebook—exhibits different comments from Facebook users usually putting into detail the activities they will work on World Peace Day.

Their Facebook site features the activities the organization to-be-realized plans and events composed of:

• A Peace Day Concert, Le Zenith, Paris
• “ A Day After Peace” Film Showing
• Worldwide PUMA Football Competitions including 192 member states of the United Nations.

Their Facebook page also links the organization’s multi-lingual websites and video documentaries in connection with the world celebration. They also have a Twitter page where supporters can make commitments on the World Day of Peace 2010.

Social media have indefinitely conquered all ages –don’t be surprised when your grandmother has been very inclined with the usage of Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and other social networking sites.

Individuals in the mid-50’s which are social media users have increased its numbers over the years. Facebook alone has catered to ages ranging from 60-74; mostly with the purpose of communicating to some relatives and colleagues.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, social media users aging from 50 have grown dramatically by 88 percent all over the years while users aging 65 has doubled their numbers.

Overall, 26 percent of the internet users from 50 to 54 have been using Facebook and other social media networks. Researchers found that most of them go into social networking sites get in touch with their former workmates as they find potential jobs or getting ready for retirement and others for research and age related health issues.

They also concluded that people of all ages get inclined to the usage of social media because it bridges the gap among different age brackets. Video connection, uploaded photos and daily updates connect every family and friends regardless of the distance. Younger generations utilize the social media air with professional networking, continuing education and activism.

Data shows that 92 % of individuals from 50 to 64 and 89 % of individuals aging from 65 above uses e-mail on a regular basis. While baby boomers and elder Americans read their news online. And gradual increase on the individuals over 50 which are inclined on using Twitter.

The study also supposed that more Y generation social media network users will grow monstrously in the upcoming years despite the fact that teenagers invented Facebook and 20+ adults have been its pioneer. And the possibility of taking over youth is just as big as the possibility of catching colds.

August 23, 2010 –when catastrophe hit the highways of Quirino Grandstand in the city of Manila, Philippines; an event that broke the Chinese families heart into pieces.

Hopeful and adventurous faces of Chinese nationals have been smothered with shadows of anxiety and grief as they take their last trip –for 8 unlucky travelers –fortunate for some who made it through the valley of death.

Two days had passed after the bloody hostage taking yet comments from Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks were just spicing up casting blame and condemnation from different sides; Chinese and Filipinos.

Facebook page of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III shows different emotions of lost, grief, anger and pain; profanity and hatred occupied mostly of the comment bars. Furious users blew out their disgrace on the president and his Law and Enforcement units; labeling them as despicable, unworthy and lacks proper training.

While angry Chinese citizens on Facebook expressed their hatred by organizing Facebook Fan pages condemning the President. However, few have shown understanding of the bitter event and chose to comment guaranteeing words of mutual relationship between Chinese and Filipino people.

On Twitter, action movie superstar –Jackie Chan reach out a friendly hand on the Filipino community. The action star had just arrived from South Korea when confronted with the sad event. The movie star tweeted this on his official Twitter account:

“I remember the day before in Korea we talked about how people should love each other. We already have so many natural disasters..typhoon, tsunami, everything. Humans should be united and not kill or hate each other”

Despite the ill-fated event his people experienced, Jackie never showed any grudge on the Filipinos; he even offered friendship in a gentle manner.

Overall, the social media served as the last outlet for confused, angry and concerned citizens for self expression and information as the current issue lags out of the online reality and leave scars in the real society.