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Rumors of HTC One 2/HTC M8

February 20, 2025 Tech News
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As of now, the HTC One has been on the market for around a year (released on 19 February 2025). As HTC’s flagship smartphone, the One is regarded to be one of the best looking smartphone designs out there.

With 2014 moving on, we are expecting a batch of flagship devices to be unveiled in the next launch season. Actually, much attention of HTC fans has already darted to HTC One’s successor. Rumors are circulating all over about what to expect from the next HTC handset. According to the latest news, the much-anticipated successor to the HTC One(also known as HTC M8, HTC One 2, HTC One+, HTC Two, and HTC One 2014, etc) will be unveiled at the 25 March event. Actually, on Sunday Feb 15th, 2014, the HTC’s formal has sent out an invitation to Trusted Reviews, with the invite attachment entitled “Portrait M8 Invite” - the phone’s formal codename. What’s interesting is that, the invitation confirmed the subject of the HTC One 2 launch inadvertently.

Besides the release date, a lot of rumors have pointed to the specifications that the HTC M8 may bring with. Honestly, the design of the HTC One is lauded by lots of fans. To most admiring fans’ delight, the HTC M8 is rumored to pack a similar aluminum casing to its predecessors HTC One’s design, which’s almost enough to rival the iPhone 5 and made the Galaxy S4 look like a plastic toy.

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The software wise, the earlier info leaked by @evleaks indicated that, the M8 may boat a 5-inch full-HD display, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 processor coupled with 2GB of RAM, and Android 4.4 KitKat most likely with a new HTC Sense 6.0 custom user interface on top. If the rumored-spec is true, we are afraid that the screen may be the first stumbling block when it comes to beating the smartphone competition - leaked benchmark results suggest the Samsung Galaxy S5 will have a 2,560×1,440 resolution screen. Besides, according to the AnTuTu, the HTC One 2 would include a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera and 4-megapixel rear camera (reportedly designed to improve focus times and light metering). As is reported that, the rear-camera isn’t for 3D photos, however, it will make the HTC One 2 as the first cell phone to use dual-camera technology to improve focus and overall image quality. What’s more interest, there’s a good chance that the HTC One 2 would feature a fingerprint sensor as the HTC One Max which is currently one of the only Android handsets with biometric security.

As to the price, we can get an HTC One at the price of around ￡500 SIM-free or on a monthly contract of ￡40. However, the price declines quickly, we can get a contract HTC One for under ￡30 or a pay-as-you-go model for ￡350. Therefore, most of HTC fans expect that the 2 would follow the similar pattern, starting at the top end of smartphone prices and sticking there until a worthy competitor arrives. Nevertheless, all of what mentioned above are speculative, we’ll have to wait till the device comes out finally.

Google Nexus 5 Review

January 16, 2025 Tech News
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Even after Nexus 4 has made a global hit, Google continues making something – something bigger. Finally, the latest member of Nexus family – the Nexus 5 is here! Needless to say, the brand new model surpasses its predecessor Nexus 4 in every way. In general, the Nexus 5 is a fast and gorgeous device which is well stocked with many great features, which include but not limited to sleek and solid build, LTE for multiple carriers, long-life battery, etc. Literally, it shows the true power of Google and the Android operating system.

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A Detailed Look at Google Nexus 5

1. Design

Honestly, the Nexus 5 is not a bold device. What does that mean? Well, taking a quick look at its design, we will find that it is not eye-catching at all. Some people even described it as “dull”. The truth is the design of the Nexus 5 is not breathtakingly amazing, however, it is not a bit dull. That said, “Tidy and clean” might be much suitable for describing it. Featuring the straighter edges and sharper curves, the Nexus 5 looks more stately and austere than the Nexus 4. As to the size, the Nexus 5 is of 5.43 inches tall, 2.72 inches wide and 0.34 inches deep, making it comfortable, sturdy and dense in the hand.

2. Display

displayAs its name makes obvious, the Nexus 5 is topped by a 5-inch display. The 4.95-inch True HD+ IPS panel provides stunning resolution of 080 x 1920 pixels of 445ppi density (surpass that of the iPhone 5S by 119 ppi). Naturally, this newest device is perfectly good for image viewing, video watching and gaming. Truly, this fresh device provides users the stunning 1080p display with excellent viewing angles. When playing 3D games on this IPS panel, the quality is incredibly gorgeous. Plus, even in full whack, the IPS panel is very bright as well with the only fly in the ointment of using up lots of battery juice.

3. Android 4.4 KitKat

When asked what is the big deal of the Nexus 5, we can never miss the “Android – version 4.4 KitKat”. Roughly, the overall appearance of Android 4.4 is decent. It is worth mentioning that, this is the first pure Google device running the Android 4.4 OS. Although the Nexus 5 uses Google’s own execs and engineers, the changes made on KitKat are very familiar with that of the Android. That said, if you are an Android user, you will feel right at home with the Android 4.4 KitKat. Though not long on flashy new features, KitKat brings an ever deeper integration with Google’s expanding array of services and a promise to end the age-old scourge of Android fragmentation. Besides, the Android 4.4 KitKat includes Hangouts in lieu of a standard SMS messaging app, forcing SMS support into the Google ecosystem.

Android 4.4 KitKat

4. Camera

Thanks to the Android 4.4.2 update, significant improvements were made to the performance of the Nexus 5’s camera. The newest device comes with an 8-megapixel camera with HDR+, and LTE support which features optical image stabilization (OIS), therefore, the image quality is absolutely decent. When comes to video capture, we have already got some mobile phones capable of capturing 4K videos, while unfortunately, the Nexus 5 is stuck with more conventional 1080p. However, it too uses the optical image stabilization that had such a positive effect on low-light performance.

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Final Words on Google Nexus 5

Google Nexus 5 is an impressive device shipped with strong performance and high-end features like Android 4.4.1 KitKat. Priced at around £299, it is a true value for money Android device.

2013 Social Networking Sites Survey in the U.S.

January 2, 2025 Tech News
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Social Networking Sites are playing a dominant role in our daily lives. Up till now, we get a long list of hundreds of SNS with the notable ones such as Face book, Twitter, Tumbler, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+, Reddit, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, Live Journal, etc.

Starting from August 7 to September 16, 2013, Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project conducted a survey on social networking usage in the U.S. The survey was based on the data from telephone interviews among a sample of 1,801 adults, age 18 and older. Without any surprise, Facebook remains the dominant social networking platform in the number of users, although some other SNS such as Pinterest and Instagram are making huge progress. There were some key findings on the survey, for example, a striking number (42%) of online adults in the U.S. are starting to use other platforms; the number of Instagram users is more or less the same as that of Facebook users on a daily basis.

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Compared with last year, around 71% of online adults are using Facebook, a slight increase from the 67% of online adults who used Facebook as of late 2012. In the meanwhile, other sites have also made great progress. LinkedIn usage went from 20 percent to 22 percent; Pinterest has attracted 21% of users, 6% increase than that of last year, while Twitter has got the same great achievement with 4% increase in the number of users. As the study implies, all of those platforms have developed their own unique demographic user profiles. For example, a majority of Twitter and Instagram users are younger adults, urban dwellers, and non-whites. LinkedIn particularly appeals college graduates and internet users in higher income households. Pinterest is loved by most female users (the number of female users is nearly four times that that of male users).

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As to the usage of the five specific sites (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn), the survey revealed that, about 36% of online adults use a single social networking site while 42% use two or more of the SNS at the same time. Besides, 84% of people replied that Facebook was the major and only platform that they were using frequently. In the meanwhile, 8% of people were using LinkedIn, 4% for Pinterest and 2% each for Instagram or Twitter.

Additionally, Facebook also has got the highest level of engagement with 63% users visit the site on a daily basic. As Pew told us, “with 40 percent logging on multiple times a day”, apparently, the user number of both Instagram and Twitter was much smaller, however, they have got a relatively higher frequently visiting rate. You see, around 57% of Instagram users visit the site at least once a day (with 35% doing so multiple times per day), and 46% of Twitter users are daily visitors (with 29% visiting multiple times per day). All that said, many people couldn’t help but ask “is Facebook starting to give way to those sites like Instagram and Twitter?”. There was even a small-scale media frenzy about Facebook was “dead and buried”. However, Pew didn’t specifically address the question. Come what may, Facebook stills remains the most popular social networking service among U.S, entrenching in the mainstream American life, which is something that none of its competitors can match.

An Overview of Sony PlayStation 4

November 19, 2024 Tech News
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Every day, we welcome the new smart phones, digital cameras, tablets and even laptops, so do the new game consoles. Right on November 15 this year, Sony’s PlayStation brand has entered the “next generation” with the newly-released multitalented, speedy PlayStation 4, naturally, the video game world has been significantly different than the it used to be: HD is now standard, online multiplayer an expectation and multitasking a given.

Without any doubt, the PS4 is remarkably better-looking than the PlayStation 3 — or the Xbox One, or the Xbox 360. The most obvious feature is how small it is—more than 2 inches tall, 12 inches deep and 10 inches wide, making the PS 4 super slim and much smaller than any version of its processor PlayStation3 that ever made. Besides, it’s around 5 pounds lighter than the first-gen PS3 and 1.5 pounds heavier than the final PS3. Have to say that, the newest model really upholds Sony’s reputation for snazzy hardware design.

A console, of course, has to do more than just how it looks. It’s really what’s on the inside that counts. There’s no denying that, what’s inside the PS 4 box is surprisingly impressive. A speedy customized processor with eight AMD Jaguar CPU cores and a next-gen Radeon GPU are equipped in the PS 4. Some great features which bring many benefits to the users have already empowered to the PS4, for example, the option for voice-chat regardless of what game they’re playing. Besides, Sony has also improved the responsiveness of the new DualShock controller, making it more smooth and convenient for the game play. Embracing the same traditional PlayStation button layout as its predecessors, there are several new features and important tweaks added on the one of the PlayStation 4. The mold of the controller however, sees the biggest and most long overdue change, dropping the old school DualShock design from 1997 (when it was first introduced on the original PlayStation in Japan) and embracing anergonomic, more rounded design with better grips. It’s light weight, smooth and slick.

On the other hand, Players are allowed to send the audio through the controller’s headphone jack, which should be a good option for late-night gamers who don’t want to wake the rest of the household. The fact is that, the newest PlayStation 4 has got less entertainment options than Microsoft’s Xbox One which would be released on Nov. 22. Whereas, Sony’s game console including the PS 4 does support apps for video services such as Netflix and Hulu Plus. It also has an Internet browser, which is good for light Web surfing but definitely won’t become your primary way of looking things up online. Stunningly, the PS4 is able to record the last 15 minutes of game play at the maximum 720p at all times, users are allowed to trim the recorded video down into short clips or upload the whole video to Facebook for sharing.

Nokia Lumia 2520: Nokia’s First Windows Tablet

October 29, 2024 Tech News
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In this insanely developed digital world, nothing can be kept as a secret for long. About a year ago, Nokia was reported to work on a BIG project—its first Windows 8.1 RT tablet. And now, the secret project was unveiled, which was refined as the Lumia 2520 and supposed to launch before the end of the year for $499. It is well noted that, this newest model Lumia 2520 is the Finnish smartphone-maker’s take on a Lumia-style tablet.

The Nokia Lumia 2520 looks like a bigger version of a Lumia Windows Phone with an incredibly large 10.1-inch display screen but it just feels extremely solid. Available in four colors: red, white, cyan, and black, it looks pretty in any one of them. Compared with the Surface 2, it feels more compact, thinner, and lighter, however, holding it one hand isn’t the most pleasant experience around when compared to the likes of the Sony Xperia Tablet Z. The 1920 x 1080 display is surely one of the more stunning features of Nokia 2520- great viewing angles, impressive brightness and accurate color reproduction, all of which show that Nokia has really aimed high with the display on its first tablet. However, Nokia’s selling point on this new device, is its five percent reflectance — in English, this means the 2520 should be clearly visible both indoors and out thanks to its ClearBlack Display filter, which promises to cut down on glare when users are outside. This is undoubtedly exciting news for most people, allowing them to check e-mails, take photos, reading E-books or watching a video even in sunlight.

The Nokia 2520 is said to be the only RT tablet with LTE (so far). It adapts an Snapdragon 800 processor with a 8974 chipset for LTE. The reason why used RT was that, according to Nokia, it provides a better battery life, quickly wakes the device up from sleep, helps to keep the tablet thinner, since an x86 processor needed to run Windows 8.1 is thicker than an ARM processor. It is well mentioning that, the 2520 comes with the full suite of Microsoft Office for free, besides, there are some preinstalled Microsoft apps including Mail, Xbox Music, and SkyDrive, etc. Of course, Nokia also added its own apps which include Nokia Camera combining Smart Cam and Pro Cam and a video-editing app called Video Director, which allows users to edit individual clips and stitch them together into a longer video. Title screens, sound effects, music, and various design elements are available for customizations freely. Last but not least, the Nokia 2520 has an 8,000mAh battery, which Nokia says will last for 10 hours with normal use.

Facebook acquiring for the Mobile Technologies

August 15, 2024 Tech News
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Facebook is well-known to thousands of millions of people all over the world. As a popular free social networking website, users are allowed to create profiles, upload photos, various videos, so that they can keep in good touch with friends, family and colleagues. So far, it is globally available in 37 different languages.

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But Facebook is never satisfied with what it has achieved. Over a billion registered users across the world are using Facebook every month; still, Facebook is always adhering to its mission of looking for the workable ways to help connect the rest of the world. On August 12, 2013, Facebook announced that it has agreed to acquire the Mobile Technologies and purchased a speech recognition and machine translation start-up—precisely the Pittsburgh-based developer behind the app Jibbigo, aiming at connecting its users across the language barriers. According to an insider who said that the translation tool was able to translate Facebook’s News Feed posts as well as offer voice search in multiple languages. As we know that, Jibbigo was launched in 2009 as the world’s first speech-to-speech translator. It can be run on a mobile phone, on the internet or even off-line. Users are allowed to key in the text or make the voice recording in one of the 25 languages; afterwards, Jibbigo will translate the data file immediately on screen or read aloud to the users. Currently, Jibbigo is available on both the iOS and Android operating systems. It is said that Facebook would continue to offer support to this app, while on the other hand, some members of Mobile Technologies team will be shifted to Facebook in the near future.

“I’m excited to announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Mobile Technologies, a company with an amazing team that’s behind some of the world’s leading speech recognition and machine translation technology.”, Facebook’s Tom Stocky said. As far as we are concerned, voice technology is becoming more and more important; many people prefer to use it to navigate their mobile phones. It is considered as a revolutionary technology, helping us to evolve the current products to catch up with the evolution. As one of the member of Jibbigo team said, “Facebook, with its mission to make the world more open and connected, provides the perfect platform to apply our technology at a truly global scale.”

As the old saying goes, “People fear what they don’t understand.” Facebook will probably go a lot further and do big things, turning science fiction into a reality with the support of Mobile Technologies.

PC Industry Looks Gloomy While Tablets Like Sunshine

July 30, 2024 Tech News
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PC or personal computer is still expecting a good consumer market while however, the industry around it doesn’t seem to be optimistic. Looking back to couples of years ago, mainframe was rumored to come to a dead end, but still survived in this furious market. It is true that popular mobile devices such as Apple iPhone, Samsung Galaxy will impact the PC sales. Although the mobile device can never satisfy many people especially the spreadsheet masters and film editors as PC does, many technical officials firmly believe that PCs’ relevance will decrease gradually.

As Hector Ruiz, the former chief executive of Advanced Micro Devices said that “In my humble opinion, the PC as we have known it is in a continuous decline and being relegated to a utility device for businesses,” A report showed clearly that the global PC shipments had fallen about 11 percent in the second quarter of this year, which’s considered to be the worst downturn ever since PCs launching to the market. Thus, the PC industry seems to be surrounded by the intangible air of sadness. Intel and Microsoft, the two giants also received disappointing financial results. It’s a pity that the Windows—an overhaul of Microsoft’s software failed to make a comeback but to make the situation even worse.

As for another giant Dell, it couldn’t escape the disaster either. After the big slump, Dell Corp. decided to take the company private. Michael S. Dell, the founder claimed that the computer would be shifted into a corporate software services provider. Be it true or not, we will have to wait till August.

Interestingly , the sales of PCs remains steady but the business of tablets is on the upraising since more and more people tend to purchase iPad, Kindle Fires and other tablets. According a research firm, there will be over 200 million shipments of Tablets this year, which excels that of the notebooks (the largest category of PCs) for the first time. As Steven P. Jobs, the Apple chief executive predicted many years ago that, PCs were like trucks which play an important role in people’s life while the Tablets were something like the cars, naturally, the number of trucks would never make a patch against that of cars.

The IDC research firm estimated that 53% of the computer shipments were targeting at the consumer marker while the other 47% were for commercial market. This proves what Dr. Huttenlocher was correct: “There is way more consumers than producers, period, even in a world with lots of user-generated content”.

Microsoft and Intel—the most competitive brands in the PC industry, have adapted a very straightforward way to tackle the great loss of the business- redefine the PC to make it more tablet like. True! The Windows 8 shows Microsoft’s strategic fully; it is featured with a touch-screen, but it can be operated by a mouse on the Windows desktop interface as well.

The Launch of iPad Mini 2 Would be delayed Because of the Shortage of Retina Display

July 25, 2024 Tech News
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Back to about three months, the rumors excited lots of Apple fans and caused a lot of buzz, claiming that Apple iPad Mini 2 would be available by the end of April, 2013. The most long-awaited point is that iPad Mini 2 would come with a 7.9-inch high-resolution Retina display screen as well as the high efficiency A6X processor. Then, a month later, another piece of news reported that there would be two versions of iPad Mini 2: one with the Retina display screen while the other one hasn’t. As to the prices and other details such as the features of the rumored two versions, there’s not any information provided.

However, as the saying goes “Good times do not last long.” On July 13th, 2013, it was reported that the launch of Apple iPad Mini 2 would probably be put off to the first quarter of 2014. The reason for the delay is due to the shortage of the great Retina Display panels. Actually, back in June this year, the analysts of NPD DisplaySearch predicted that a much thinner iPad Mini without Retina Display would be repleased by the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant this year. Moreover, the updated version of iPad Mini 2 with the Retina Display would be available in the early of 2014. “Apple is expected to refresh its iPad mini in the second half of the year. The new iPad mini will continue to use a 7.9-inch display with a 1024×768 resolution, but it will use the iOS 7 operating system and an A6 processor, in a slimmer design than the current generation,” Richard Shim of DisplaySearch blogged. “Another iPad mini is also planned for production but not until early 2014. That device is expected to feature a QXGA (2048×1536) resolution display and the iOS 7 operating system.”

Furthermore, according to the Taiwanese publication called DigiTimes, the fifth-generation iPad(most likely to be called iPad 5) would be released by Apple Inc. in September this year, “Apple is still thinking about whether to feature iPad Mini 2 with the Retina Display Screen or not.”, said DigiTimes.

If what DigiTimes proved to be correct, the iPad Mini 2 with HD Retina Display Screen would be adapted the same double-resolution approach as the current Apple devices, say iPhone and the full-size iPad. “That would mean the iPad mini’s 7.9-inch display would need to pack in the same 3.1 million pixels into a panel nearly two inches smaller in diameter.”, said Apple Inside

Microsoft to Launch Windows 8.1 in August, 2013

July 15, 2024 Tech News
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At the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) held on Monday this week, Tami Reller, corporate vice president and chief marketing officer for Windows announced that the RTM (release to manufacturing) version of Windows 8.1 would be handed over to Microsoft partner OEM by the end of August.

“OEM needs enough time to do the preparation, making sure that various devices to be launched in the holiday season will have this Windows 8.1,” said Tami Reller, “that’s why we make it in August.”

Actually, the RTM version of Windows 8.1 was unveiled at the Annual Build Conference of Microsoft which’s held in San Francisco from June 26 to Jun 28. Provided that the Windows 8.1 would be released in its final form in August, the time is pressing with no more than nine weeks before releasing it to manufacturing.

However, this could be no more than speculation. The truth is that ever since February, there has been all sorts of hearsay about Windows “Blue”（the name Windows 8.1 used to be called）. Now, it seems that Microsoft had devoted quite a long time on this job. After the RTM version of Windows 8 was launched for two months, the final form was officially released to the manufacturers, which means it has been over a year for the testing of this operating system—with really slow pace.

Obviously, the updating speed from Windows 7 to Windows 8 was much faster than that of Windows 8 to Windows 8.1. Nevertheless, Windows 8.1 will be an important milestone, as Ballmer said that “Windows 8 was nothing short of the most remarkable replatforming from Windows.” It is believed that a number of enterprises are willing to test out the functionality of this updated version.

Besides, at the Worldwide Partner Conference, Reller also had the job of convincing partners that Windows 8 was a hit by demonstrating the sales records of Windows 8. So far, about 100 million Windows 8 licenses have been sold out, more than 20 million “enterprise evaluations” downloaded by enterprises and over 100,000 Windows 8 apps have been released on the Windows Store, Reller said. ”Now is the time for enterprise to consider Windows 8 with Windows 8.1,” she continued, “It is only 273 days away until the end of Windows XP support, she said, adding some urgency to the transition. Besides, Reller also introduced several new projects designed to attract more customers. The one called TouchWins is specially developed to provide incentives to consumers as well as convincing the manufacturers and distributors to install Windows 8 on the touch screen-enabled PCs.

Facebook Graph Search Will Be Public Soon

July 8, 2024 Tech News
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To all users’ delight, Facebook Company told ABC News that “several hundreds of millions of people” will get access to Graph Search this week, after six months of users testing. Yes, it’s true! Facebook will roll out the feature in the United States and to those who use the American English version of the site, according to the latest news.

Actually, Facebook has announced Graph Search’s beta version like six months ago, pretty much in January this year. Quite different from the ordinary Web search, like searching via Google which offers users links with similar answers related to the questions they raised, this Graph Search is specially designed to give users an answer directly after a precise query, but not to provide links instead. With this searching tool, people can access to the information more plainly, they can conduct the simple search like “My friends’ photos” or the advanced one “My friends’ photos taken in 2010” and so on. “Finding people, finding activities, finding recommendations is part of what makes Facebook useful,” said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at R.W. Baird & Company. It is said that Graph Search, News Feed and Timeline will become the three pillar businesses of Facebook. “Graph Search is a surprise which allows users to do more than you could expect,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “it is not only an exchanging platform for friends, but also a tool to dig out something fresh, hence, the meaning of Facebook’s core mission has been deepened.”

Since Facebook is preparing to gain profit by selling the demand-fulfillment advertisements, Graph Search is considered to be a powerful tool to motivate the promotion. However, Facebook Company decided to adapt a conservative practice to monetization. Currently, Graph Search’s available on Web sites only. As some professionals said: “Facebook is striving to better deal with the flood of data which’s generated from more than 1 billion users (including those who haven’t signed up before) pumping into the social networking sites. Graph Search would help open a brand new searching era provided that Facebook allows user to filter all information much easier.”

In spite of how impressive Facebook’s technical achievement is, there are still a number of users being worried about the privacy issue since more data would be accessible easily. Concerning this complication, Facebook Company claimed that only information which’s posted by the users under the privacy settings would be shown to the searchers.

Anyway, there would be a win -win situation with the availability of Graph Search. For Facebook’s users, it is a powerful searching tool, helping them to get desired information and communicating with others easily. For the company, it brings myriad benefits for the business since more and more companies would prefer to invest on advertising via this creative tool.