Why The New Facebook Ticker Is Actually Pretty Cool
A lot of people have been complaining about new changes to Facebook. Facebook made changes to the way you receive updates about the latest Facebook activities of your friends. One of the biggest changes is the introduction of the Facebook Ticker featured on the right side of your profile page. The ticker allows you to instantly see what your friends do on Facebook. Facebook sees the new feature as a way to keep you on the site longer by keeping you informed faster about what you friends are doing. However, some users see it as a way to influence more people to stalk people on Facebook.
Whether the news is negative or positive, all of the talk recently about having a ticker on a website is interesting because other websites have already been using the ticker for quite some time. If you look at how existing tickers have been implemented on websites such as Foursquare and Askalo, you may conclude that a ticker on Facebook is actually pretty cool.
The Foursquare Ticker
Foursquare is a location-based social network where users can socially check-in to any place they visit and earn points and badges for discovering new things. The Foursquare Ticker on the homepage is different the Facebook Ticker because it is the center of attention on the page. The Foursquare ticker immediately updates itself with the most recent activity of Foursquare users, including their check-ins, badges earned, and tips shared. The Foursquare Ticker has been a major part of this web application since it was first launched in 2009, and what does Foursquare have to show for it? 10 million users, that's what.
Askalo is a question and answer web community where everyone can ask their own questions and share their own tips about any local topic. The Askalo Ticker can be found on the main page for every country and city for which Askalo has an online Q&A platform. The Askalo Ticker immediately updates visitors to the site with the latest questions, answers, earned awards, and registered users. The Askalo Ticker seeks to provide a sense of community to users by immediately updating them on the latest activity from other users. The Askalo web application has only been live on the Internet for one year, and the Askalo Ticker is already showing activity in 40 countries.
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