Facebook users have been facing issues with status updates, logging in or other functions lately. Recently, Facebook started allowing users to login to the site with their usernames and then the interface got plagued. As reported by CNET, Facebook confirmed that the site is suffering from certain issues as reported by several users. Facebook claims to have 300 million registered users worldwide.

Last month, Facebook also got into the swarm of DDoS attack on Twitter and its service got disrupted. Slew of new improvements have been added in Facebook like tagging friends and login using usernames.

In the statement to CNET News, Facebook stated, “Some users are experiencing errors across a number of site features. This includes content occasionally disappearing, difficulty logging in or viewing profiles, and error messages when posting content. We are working to resolve these issues as soon as possible.”

So, it’s apparent the new features might have created some issues at the Facebook’s end. If you have noticed any weird issue with Facebook lately, leave us a comment. By issues, we mean issues other than those related to tagging friends, status update and username login.

Washington: Facebook announced on Tuesday it was earning more money than it was spending and had signed up its 300 millionth member.
Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the fast-growing social network had become “cash flow positive” last quarter, meaning that it is now earning enough to cover operating costs.
“Earlier this year, we said we expected to be cash flow positive sometime in 2010, and I’m pleased to share that we achieved this milestone last quarter,” Zuckerberg said in a blog post.
“This is important to us because it sets Facebook up to be a strong independent service for the long term.”
Facebook’s announcement is significant in that the Palo Alto, California, company, unlike other Web giants such as Amazon, eBay, Google and Yahoo!, had yet to prove how it would translate traffic growth into cash.
Zuckerberg, who created Facebook with two Harvard University roommates five years ago, did not provide any financial details but the company is believed to pull in hundreds of millions of dollars a year from advertising.
The chief executive also announced that “as of today, Facebook now serves 300 million people across the world.”
Facebook signed up its 200 millionth user in April.
US software giant Microsoft bought a 1.6% stake in Facebook in 2007 for 240 million dollars, valuing the social network on paper at 15 billion dollars.
A Russian Internet company invested $200 million in a nearly 2% stake in Facebook in May in a deal that valued the social networking giant at $10 billion.

Can’t get enough of the tagging friends feature in photos, videos and notes on Facebook? Soon you’ll be able to tag your friends in status updates and other posts from the Publisher as well.

Tagging is a feature on Facebook that allows members to mark people they’re connected with for reference.

How to Tag ‘em

With a Twitter swing in this feature again — to tag a friend in a message you’re posting, just include the “@” symbol before the name of your friend. As you type the name of what you would like to reference, a drop-down menu will appear that allows you to choose from your list of friends and other connections, including groups, events, applications and Pages.

According to the Facebook blog, soon users will be able to tag friends from applications as well. The “@” symbol will not be displayed in the published status update or post after you’ve added your tags.

And yes, your friend will be notified whenever you tag them in status updates and other posts from the Publisher – so you can have more conversation starters online. As always, your tagged friends will have the option to remove tags of themselves from your posts.

Facebook will roll out this feature in the coming weeks so don’t start refreshing your browser yet!

Yahoo has added slew of new features and updates to its three core offerings – Mail, Search and Messenger. Yahoo Mail, one of the top leading email services, gets more social features as one of the key milestone in Yahoo Open Strategy. Along with that, Yahoo Messenger 10 will also bring social tinge like showing status updates, photo sharing, video calls and other notifications.
Yahoo Mail gets the long deserved attachment limit raise to 25MB from 10MB per mail. New Application box combines Calendar, Notepad, and several other third party apps for streamlined single window Inbox. The Application box will contain third party apps like Picnik, ZumoDrive or PayPal along with several others coming in future.

Yahoo Mail’s integration with popular social networks will be a boon to community website lovers. Users will be able to get updates from their contacts on various social networks and interact directly from Yahoo Mail window. Photo sharing would now be fun as users will be able to select several photos and share all of them at same time.

Yahoo has also redesigned its Mail’s mobile version (m.yahoo.com) which can perform important functions including attachment downloads. This mobile version will now have read-write access to phone’s folders. Also, Mail Contacts now will automatically get updated as the contact changes the name.

Yahoo Messenger 10 beta has new HD video calling support and new Y! Updates window that’ll remind you of Facebook. Users will get status updates from their contacts on Yahoo Buzz, Flickr, Twitter and other series. Yahoo Insider now can be localized with pin code to obtain local information. Messages from Yahoo Messengers contacts can be received for different IM apps on iPhone. Basically, because the Yahoo 360 service that was rolled out to compete with MySpace and Facebook didn’t work, Yahoo is lifting interface and adding more features to its Mail and Messenger services.

Yahoo Search will offer a new search results page that connects users directly to web content and new results filtering options. Also, Search Assist, Yahoo’s real-time query suggestion engine, has been added to Yahoo universal header’s search box for search suggestions. Users can also organize, save and share their search results with Search Pad. Check out images of the latest updates here.

Even after the deal with Microsoft, Yahoo Search continues to differentiate itself from Bing. “We are Yahoo and that will continue…We collaborate on the back-end but we are competitors on the front-end”, clarified Prabhakar Raghavan, senior vice-president of Yahoo, at a press event held at company’s headquarters.

Yahoo has sent out a clear word regarding its Search – We’re still in competition!

Microsoft will be soon rolling out an update to integrate online social networks with its Xbox LIVE services. When Microsoft updated Xbox 360 Dashboard earlier this month, the support for social networks was still due. Now, a Microsoft executive told Joystiq that Facebook and Twitter on Xbox LIVE would be free for Gold members and Silver members will get it with a free trial period. No specific details on what would be included in the trial were clarified.
Xbox LIVE users will get to use Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and Zune Video services this fall as stated at the bottom of the Xbox LIVE update. Microsoft is expected to roll out the social network services integration at the launch of Zune HD on Sept. 15.

Twitter and Facebook services are free for all but Microsoft will surely please Xbox LIVE Gold members with free usage because of the subscriptions. Adding a social feature for gamers might help Microsoft to have just a little advantage over interface offered by other gaming consoles. So far, there isn’t an official word on whether the service would eventually be made available for all Xbox LIVE users – for free or at charge. We’ve got to wait for Zune HD launch.

Facebook, the world’s most popular social networking site, has announced a set of changes to its existing privacy terms. This was done in order to comply with Canadian Privacy Laws. However, once applied, the changes will be applicable to Facebook users all over the globe.
The changes were announced in a press release issued by Facebook. The new updates to the policy are not active with immediate effect and it might take 12 months before we actually see all of them to be implemented. Facebook, it seems, is still busy with making the website compliant with the new set of policies.

One of the major updates to the privacy policy is that third party applications on Facebook will now be required to let users know what information it would be accessing from their profiles. If any of these applications need access to your friends’ account, it would have to let the other person know as well. Apart from this, Facebook will also clearly demarcate the difference between deactivating an account and deleting it. In case of deactivation, user data is “saved” for possible future reactivation. Facebook will also need to clarify what it intends to do with accounts of deceased users.

Facebook had recently updated its privacy policy in the midst of big hue and cry. It then reverted to its earlier policy and things were moving smoothly until now. Last time it did this, founder Mark Zuckerberg had posted an entry on the Facebook blog explaining that the changes in the Terms of Use of the website were just to make them politically correct, albeit in a language which was misconstrued by the common people. It remains to be seen how these fresh changes are received by existing Facebook users.

Yahoo has quietly announced Yahoo Meme microblogging service in English after its soft launch in Spanish and Portuguese. Similar to few microblogging services like Tumblr, Twitter, Pownce and others, Meme is currently in an invite-only mode. Once the account is created after receiving invitation, users get a blank blog for micro-sharing text, images, music, videos or mash up of all these things.

Registration is simple and gives a Meme URL based on Username like http://meme.yahoo.com/Username. That s just like Twitter and Facebook offers Username URLs.

Meme s setting panel has minimal options like Meme title, 100 character Description, avatar/photo and notifications. Along with that, Meme also offers page layout customization with Themes. On the Meme page, users can post text, photos, videos and all together for sharing with other users. Just like Twitter and Tumblr users do, Meme users can search for other users using the Find option on the top of the page and Follow them to receive their Meme updates.

Meme users can have threaded conversations in the Comment option under every meme post. Also, users can repost the Memes of other users just like Tumblr offers Reblog . At this stage, the Meme service looks very basic and lacks bunch of other features that other competing services into micro-sharing offer. Just like Twitter Trends, Meme has a Popular option that shows Memes posted by users recently.

Below are few screenshots of Yahoo! Meme service from Paul Papadimitriou that gives a sneak preview of the Meme interface.