The main problem with the trademarks is the fact that if they do go through, several companies would have to change their URLs to a suitable alternative or risk legal proceedings towards getting fined for unauthorized use of the company trademarks. A great deal of opposition is already being met by several groups, even one of the claimants to the creation of Facebook, Aaron Greenspan, who has a service that uses the prefix “face” in the domain. The process will prove to be difficult for Facebook to get the trademark but it may so happen that both of the words will one day be trademarked by one company or another.

I understand that Facebook wants to create a trademark in the name “Facebook” but trying to do that by using “Face” and “Book” as two different words in which they want to trademark is just silly. There are so many companies that are using the name Face and Book in their company names or in their products. Apple’s FaceTime comes to mind.

Trademarking their name is something that Facebook should try to do, but the thought of them trademarking the word face and book is ridiculous. The prior use of the words online should set a precedent and the trademark office should see right through this attempt.
If Facebook was the first company ever to use those two terms in a URL then I can see them having prior use, but I am sure there are such great websites as face.com and book.com and any other combination of the two.

It will be interesting to see what happens with this, I have seen the patent and trademark offices do some pretty silly things in the past that don’t make much sense to most people in the public, hopefully they make the right choice for this Facebook request.

The latest version of the Facebook app for Android phones now supports events, complete with the capability to RSVP. You can also respond to friend requests right from the app’s main page, making it quick and easy to confirm a new friend on the go. The new app also includes native support for H.264 video playback, making it even easier to watch any videos your friends may have posted. There’s even a new photo and video reel at the bottom of the main page of the app, which makes it even easier to see what videos your friends have been posting.

One of the most exciting new features in this version of the Facebook app is the addition of a notifications drawer. Just slide the drawer up, and all of the notifications you’d see on the regular Facebook webpage will be right there in front of you. Everything from new comments on your wall posts, to new messages from your friends will be listed right in the drawer for you. This is a feature that Android fans have been clamoring for, and the new Facebook app delivers.

The latest version of the Facebook app doesn’t include everything. Facebook chat, and contact groups still aren’t supported, but all in all, this update packs in a lot of great new features Facebook fans have been waiting for. If you haven’t installed the Facebook app to your Android phone yet, you can find it in the app marketplace. If you already have the app installed, you should be getting a notification about the update very soon, if you haven’t already. Alternately, open the App Market, click the menu button, and click “downloads”. You’ll see a list of all of the items you’ve downloaded to your phone, and the Facebook app will appear at the top of that list with the word “update” next to it. Once you apply the update, you’ll be able to take advantage of all of these great new Facebook app features.

The development last year of the Outlook Social Connector plug-in gave users the ability to sync social networking feeds to Outlook contacts. The LinkedIn integration worked well but the new plug-in will be a huge step up, bringing Windows Live Messenger, as well as Facebook, to your Outlook inbox.

Don’t have the latest version of Outlook on your system? Don’t worry, Microsoft is also expected to release the new plug-in for Outlook 2003 and 2007.

What can you expect from the Outlook Facebook integration? Well, when you’re reading an email, not only will it capture the Facebook profile photo to allow you to see the person behind the name, you will also see uploaded photos, wall posts, status updates and other actions. Knowing when one of your clients’ has had an important milestone in their life, marriage, new child, or even just going on a vacation could give you the advantage over your competitors.

With the combination of social networking plug-ins such as LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook and Windows Live Messenger, you will be able to gain detailed knowledge of your contacts and clients interests and activities.

Updates in real-time are also to be a feature with the additional release today of an inclusion to the Social Connector plug-in. Any Facebook status updates from your contacts will also be sent to your inbox, removing the need for you to manually to refresh within Outlook.

The plug-in is expected to have its limitations however, with the exception of receiving friend requests, Outlook will only be able to grab information from Facebook. It is not expected that you will be able to update your status or ‘like’ posts through Outlook at this stage.

It is a ‘given’ these days that social network data is of growing importance to the business community, knowledge of what your clients and competitors are doing can give you the edge you need to succeed, although privacy will always remain a big issue.

The Outlook Facebook integration will only post feeds from email accounts linked to Facebook. The user will get the choice on what email accounts to link and if your Facebook account isn’t linked to your business email the data feed will not be posted.

For more information on the new plug-in Microsoft has released a short video – Facebook and Windows Live for Outlook Social Connector