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Android users, rejoice! Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg will now be forced to feel your pain.The Android app for Facebook could be charitably described as less functional than the iPhone app. We're sure there are good reasons for this, the greatest of which is likely market share. With iOS-running phones composing more than half of all smartphones, according to recent research, it's in Facebook's best interest to focus on this segment first.Still, for the ever-growing number of Android device users who also would like a little Facebook mobile action, the pared-down feature set of Facebook for Android makes us feel neglected -- the redheaded stepchildren of Facebook mobile users. But now that "Zuck" is one of us, all that's about to change... right?Historically, Facebook has made fairly few gestures toward the Android platform. It launched its official Android app last fall and rolled out an SDK for Android devs just a couple months ago.But Facebook's iPhone work, which began with an official app launch in the summer of 2008, has been nothing short of fantastic. iPhone users can chat, watch videos and more all from within the app. Recent patents suggest even deeper app/hardware integration. And the app keeps up with Apple's iOS updates, too.For reference, we polled Twitter users on what they specifically would change or what they currently dislike about Facebook's Android app.The app's notification system was by far the most-cited annoyance. Another common complaint was the app's redirects to Facebook's mobile touch site rather than having more in-app functionality. Users are having a hard time clicking and launching the links posted by their friends, let alone sharing links and items. One user said he'd like to have an easier way to view Pages, and several noted the lack of Facebook Chat features, which the iPhone app does have. Also, a few folks complained that the app is slow and prone to frequent crashes.As a personal aside, and with my heartfelt apologies to the developer team working on Facebook's mobile offerings, I have never found that the usefulness of the Facebook for Android app outweighed the frustration of trying to use it, and I've lately avoided using the app altogether.So, returning to our original question: Will Mark Zuckerberg like the taste of his own dogfood? And if he doesn't, will Android app users see fast-tracked changes and upgrades to the Facebook for Android application?That's really not a question we can answer, unfortunately. While we'd love to optimistically assume that Zuckerberg will find the current version of Facebook for Android as tedious and troublesome as some of its users clearly do, we can't assume that he'll demand immediate fixes and all Facebook's other development will be sidetracked accordingly. But we are certain that Zuckerberg will continue to do what's best for Facebook as a business, something he's excelled at consistently.We've reached out to Facebook for comment, but in the event that our questions aren't answered, we'll still be keeping an eye out for any releases to this particular application.And hey, Mark, welcome to "the dark side," and enjoy your new phone!

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Ivy Bean, who was widely considered to be the oldest Twitter user, died in her care home in a small town in England at the age of 104.The news was published on Bean's Twitter account, @IvyBean104, which regularly informed followers about Bean's deteriorating condition over the last couple of days."Ivy passed away peacefully at 12.08 this morning... Im sorry it took me so long to tell you but it was a very difficult thing to do," the tweets said.Bean was a popular Twitter user with more than 56,000 followers at the time of her death, as well as a fairly active one, with more than 1,000 tweets. As one might expect, Bean was also an avid FacebookFacebook user; she joined at the age of 102.Mrs. Bean's example showed that social media truly knows no boundaries, and that tools such as TwitterTwitter and Facebook are open to everyone who wants to participate. We'll miss you, Ivy.

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Ask.com is taking a new direction and attempting to refocus their search strategy around a more social experience, including an improved question-and-answer offering.The beta version of Ask.com comes with a new interface and is designed to provide a more semantic search experience. It includes a Q&A product that pulls from 500 million indexed questions and answers and queries appropriate Ask.com users for their answers. It will be released to users on an invite-only basis beginning today.As opposed to the traditional engine, Ask.com has always been centered around serving up relevant answers in the form of links to queries in the form of questions. The new version of the site is meant to deliver real answers, as opposed to just links, and introduce a community element to deliver human answers to subjective and complex questions.The beta offering is a product of four new features: a completely overhauled look with a focus on highlighting trending questions from the community, semantic search with answers displayed on the page, a large Q&A database and a user community element that targets members for answering questions based on their areas of expertise. The latter somewhat mirrors Aardvark's formula for finding answers to user questions, and is initiated when users click the "Ask the Community" button on the right-hand side of the results page.Ask.com currently only accounts for 2% of the search market in the United States, which equates to 184,518,000 total searches for June 2010, according to Nielsen data. As such, the new direction to socialize and transform the search experience is one that makes sense for the company, but something that seems a bit tardy in terms of the question-and-answer online revolution already underway.In 2010, we've seen the traditional Q&A site model flipped on its head with the success of AardvarkAardvark, now owned by Google, the buzz around Quora and the anonymous approach of user-to-user Q&A that Formspring provides. Even Facebook is participating in the Q&A trend with a feature that's already in testing.Ask.com is confident in their altered approach, though. "The evolution of our search technology, the rapid growth of the social Web and the shift in consumer search behavior are propelling Ask to the forefront of what we believe will be a multi-billion dollar Q&A category," says President Scott Garell.[img credit: laurakgibbs]

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A website called WikiLeaks just published secret documents related to the United States' war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The documents detail deals, armed conflicts, strategies, politics, intelligence operations and some casualties from 2004 and 2010, painting the most complete publicly available picture of the Afghan War yet.The event is in some ways comparable to the leak of the Pentagon Papers, a set of documents that provided a behind-the-scenes look at the American war in Vietnam. Those papers reached the public in 1971. At more than to 90,000 reports, WikiLeaks' Afghan War Diary is even more substantial. By some measures it is the biggest intelligence leak to date.WikiLeaks founder Julian Assage told the UK newspaper The Guardian that the size of the leak is only one dimension of its significance:

This situation is different in that it's not just more material and being pushed to a bigger audience and much sooner ... but rather that people can give back. So people around the world who are reading this are able to comment on it and put it in context and understand the full situation. That is not something that has previously occurred. And that is something that can only be brought about as a result of the InternetInternet.

Two months ago, we put WikiLeaks first in a list of innovative websites that could reshape the news. The site accepts submissions of confidential political or corporate documents, reviews them to make sure they're accurate, then publishes them on the web for anyone to see. WikiLeaks has previously leaked e-mails from Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin and a video of U.S. soldiers killing civilians.Assage was careful to point out that the Afghan War Diary is comprised of old reports, not future military plans, so its usefulness to NATO's enemies in the battlefield should be limited. The people able to make the most informed decisions about whether or not the release of information can endanger American interests or lives are those working inside the Pentagon, but those are the very people WikiLeaks is trying to keep accountable. The controversy of values is clear.WikiLeaks is able to solicit submissions from all over the world while avoiding jurisdiction by operating in several countries at once — or none at all, depending on your interpretation of the situation. This wasn't possible before the web. Now it is, and the implications for society are significant.

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How the Leak Happened

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The Afghan War Diary was simultaneously given to reporters from The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel several weeks in advance so those reporters could study the documents and provide context with their public release. It was also given to those three publications so that no one national government could censor it.WikiLeaks removed data that could implicate its sources, but the U.S. military already has an alleged WikiLeaks source in custody: 22-year old intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, who The Guardian says is suspected as the source of the video that depicted U.S. soldiers killing civilians. So far we've seen no evidence for or against any connection between the Afghan War Diary and Manning.Politico reports that The White House released a critical statement in response to the leak, saying the U.S. "strongly condemns" the disclosure. The statement criticized WikiLeaks for not approaching the White House for comment or verification, and claimed that the bleak logs record events that took place before the Obama administration's change in strategy.

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What the Leak Includes

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The three publications given early access to the reports have made a few similar observations about what they say. Foremost is the general narrative that the situation in Afghanistan is bleaker than any of the governments involved would have you believe, particularly when it comes to collaboration between the United States and Pakistan.Several reports either directly or indirectly implicate the ISI, a Pakistani intelligence agency, in aiding Taliban fighters. There are some suggestions in the reports that current or former members of the ISI have actually met with Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders to collaboratively organize attacks on American troops.However, the New York Times notes that some of the reports on that subject come from Afghanistan intelligence, which has a negative relationship with Pakistan and a potential interest in damaging its reputation. Other reports detail NATO-ordered civilian killings, specifics as to why NATO progress has been slow at best, and other bleak pictures of the activities in the war.Apart from the WikiLeaks website, you can find report specifics in an interactive map The Guardian produced to highlight 300 critical reports found in the leak.Image courtesy of iStockphotoiStockphoto, rubenhi

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An independent documentary film called Ready, Set, Bag! has made innovative use of social media to promote itself in the challenging local theater market, and its strategy culminates with a Groupon that could change the way small films are distributed. It's hard for independent filmmakers to find distribution for their films beyond the InternetInternet, but Executive Producer Oren Jacob (also CTO at Pixar) and Directors Alex D. da Silva and Justine Jacob have changed the game through their use of social media, web video and social good.NewTeeVee reports that the filmmakers have contacted individual theaters asking to be shown while offering an extra suggestion: $1 of each ticket sold will go to food banks near the theater to help feed the community. So far, 100% of the theaters that have agreed to carry the film have agreed to that plan. The team also used TwitterTwitter to promote the movie, tweeting replies to users who mentioned it to ask where they lived, then calling those fans' local theaters personally to pitch the film.Charity and marketing are also combined in the film's online video campaign. The team uses a Blip.tv channel to host the trailer or other videos, and all the ad revenues from the BlipBLIP.tv content goes to support the charity Feeding America.

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The Groupon Effect

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We're most impressed by the possibilities inherent in the Groupon strategy, though. The first Groupon for Ready, Set, Bag! went live in Seattle today, offering locals the opportunity to mass-purchase tickets to see the film at local theaters. It lets the filmmakers do something that would have been impossible in another era: guarantee theaters a minimum level of attendance and box office success.We can see this as a viable strategy for future independent films with a few extra tweaks. For example, you could make a deal with a local theater that if the film doesn't meet the minimum number of Groupon sales, it simply won't run, alleviating any concerns the theater might have about risk as compared to running a film that might be a safer bet otherwise.It's also beneficial because the filmmakers don't have to pay for the local exposure that they get through the Groupon. To instill good will, they're building the $1 food bank donation into each ticket sold through Groupon, and sending each buyer a complimentary cotton grocery bag.

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Ready, Set, Bag!

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Ready, Set, Bag! is a slice of Americana, tracking contestants in a national grocery bagging competition, celebrating the American working class and inspiring conversation about grocery stores — a regular part of most of our lives that doesn't get discussed a whole lot. Here's the trailer from the aforementioned Blip.tv channel.

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