Proud Geek

If you’ve been a Facebook member long enough (or if you’re popular enough), chances are you’ve already gotten a request to approve a “Secret Crush” from a friend.

In a word: DON’T!

(Well, I know “DON’T” is actually two words. Just listen, ok?)

When you approve this request, you’re then asked to download and install an application onto your computer. This application actually installs an adware program, potentially causing numerous pop-up ads to appear on your screen. In addition, this program could expose your computer to other scams and malware programs.

So, if you’re a Facebook friend of mine, don’t send me a “secret crush.” Tell me directly via Facebook email. Better yet, send me a Facebook video email. But remember, I’ve got a boyfriend who I’m in love with and who I’ll celebrate my 11-year anniversary later this month. So, stay away.

Thanks, MarketWatch.

At around 3:30am this morning, I got two emails from Facebook asking me to confirm the registration of one of my email addresses which I rarely use. The two emails were identical (probably the result of multiple attempts), and says (with certain information omitted):

Hey [name - similar to mine but with the last several letters missing],

You recently registered for Facebook using this email address. To complete your registration, follow the link below:

[Link deleted]

(If clicking on the link doesn’t work, try copying and pasting it into your browser.)

If you did not register for Facebook, please disregard this message.
Check out http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=49 if you have any questions.

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

But the thing is … I never tried to register that email address with Facebook. Obviously someone else tried to use my email address to add an account to Facebook. Thank goodness Facebook sends an email to that email address requiring the new member to confirm the registration via a link or else the new account will be deleted. Otherwise, I would have been the victim of fraud (or perhaps the victim of an honest mistake?).

Be careful when you get emails like this. And read them carefully — and don’t just blindly click on a link without understanding what may happen. If I had clicked on the link above (which I deleted), I would have allowed someone else to create an account using my email address.

In fact, there’s something you can do now to prevent others from trying to register with Facebook using your less-used email addresses. In Facebook, click on the “Edit Profile” link, then click on the “Contact” tab. You’ll see a list of your current email addresses registered with Facebook, with a link to “Add / Remove Emails.” Go ahead and add all of your email addresses, and check your inboxes for these email addresses to confirm the registration. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to adjust your privacy settings so that only your friends, or no one, can see these addresses.

A little-heralded feature of Facebook is the ability to send / receive video emails and wall posts. Very, very easy to create a video email inside Facebook and send it to your friends (or enemies), and watch their video responses as well. And these video emails show up as a thread in each email exchange — making it easy to scroll down a series of video emails or even play several at the same time. You can record video up to an unbelievable FIFTEEN minutes — that’s an eternity!

It goes without saying that you’ll have to have a webcam hooked up already to your computer or laptop.

To send a video email, just follow these steps (and don’t forget to click on “Send”!):

• Within Facebook, click on “Inbox” and then “Compose Message” (or, if already viewing a message, just scroll down to the “Reply” box)
• Click on “Record Video” just below the message / reply box.

• If prompted, give permission for the website to turn on your webcam.
• A “Record video” box will appear. When you’re ready to be recorded, click on the red circle.
• Record your video message! When done, click on the blue square.
• You now have a choice of previewing your video, cancelling, or attaching your video. If you’re satisfied, click on “Attach”
• Now, this is the step many people may overlook! You’re brought back to the message compose window. You’ll have the option of typing something or not, and then CLICK ON “SEND” to send the video email.

• The video email will then be sent! If enough video emails are sent and received to/from the same recipient, then they will be threaded — a very nice feature.

Doing this for wall posts or Fun Wall posts is very similar — just click on “Record Video”, attach it, and then post / send it.

When viewing videos, all you need to do is to click on the blue arrow on the video window, and it will play right there. If you hover your mouse over the playing video, you’ll see buttons to pause it, a bar where you can drag the video timing back or forth, and volume controls.

Have fun! Have lots of fun! Just don’t record anything you don’t want the public and your mom to know (or even see) … !!

As if Facebook isn’t already addictive enough!

A while ago, I talked about a way for you to video-chat via your (and your friend’s) Facebook profile via TokBox. And this Friday, a new (but beta) Facebook app allowing people to IM each other will be released. It’ll be called FriendVox, and you’ll be able to have IM conversations with your friends via your Facebook profile. This will apparently be totally separate from the usual popular AIM, Yahoo, Gtalk, and other IM networks.

What? You still want to be able to do IM conversations using AIM, Yahoo, Gtalk, etc? There is a way.

If you’ve been with me from the beginning, you might remember one of my earliest blog posts lauding Meebo as THE way to tie together all of your various IM accounts. If you’ve got two different AIM accounts, one Yahoo account, two Gtalk accounts, and one ICM account, why, you only need just one Meebo userID and then add all these different accounts to it. You can then log into all of these accounts at the same time, or only some, or even just one of them. And Meebo is used via the Internet only — no separate program need to be downloaded!

What’s even better: your friends can now IM your Meebo account at any time via your Facebook profile — and if you’re not logged in, they can leave a message.

How? Add the Meebo application to your Facebook profile, and follow the slightly complex instructions. Once you’re done, any of your friends (or even anybody in your network, if you so set it) will be able to send you an IM from your Facebook profile. If you’re logged into Meebo, you’ll get their IM message immediately.

But true, this doesn’t seem work from profile to profile. It only works from profile to your Meebo page. I wonder if FriendVox, the new IM application coming out in beta form this Friday, will alert you of new IM messages from profile to profile if you’re logged in to Facebook and viewing your profile. I wonder how that will work …

Stay tuned! And thanks, Download Squad, for the news about FriendVox.