Last week Friday Facebook quietly implemented certain changes to the way information is displayed on users’ homepages in an attempt to make it easier to find information.

By using a special algorithm the new Facebook homepage displays more relevant posts.  The more likes, comments or interactions a post has within your network, the more likely it is to appear in your Newsfeed.  This means that posts receiving the most attention within your network will be displayed in the Newsfeed of your network and will engage more users in the conversation.  Peter Deng, a Facebook product manager said “If the content has comments or ‘likes’ by 10 of your mutual friends, it’s something that is important to you.”

Certain old features that have been brought back on request of users include notifications for when friends are tagged in photos, when friends become fans of pages or join groups and when they add a friend.  “Nothing is going away,” Deng said, “we are just moving things around.”

Facebook have removed the Highlights tab on the right hand side and created separate tabs for the Newsfeed and real-time events in a Live Feed.  Next to the Live Feed is a counter keeping track of the number of unread posts in your Live Feed.  The space freed up by the removal of the Highlights tab will be used to display events like birthdays more prominently.

There has been some negative feedback, but I suppose you can’t please everyone.  Over half a million people have joined the group ‘Change Facebook Back To Normal.’  What do you think of the changes?

Nokia, the world’s largest cellphone manufacturer, filed a claim with the Delaware Federal District Court against Apple alleging the company has infringed ten patents owned by Nokia.  The patents relate to crucial processes in the running of a smart phone like wireless data applications, speech coding, security and encryption.

In a press release Nokia stated it has invested over £40-billion in research and development over the last 20 years and claims Apple has infringed its intellectual property rights since the launch of the iPhone’s in 2007.

According to Ikkia Rahnasto, the Vice President of Legal and Intellectual Property at Nokia “the basic principle in the mobile industry is that those companies who contribute in technology development to establish standards create intellectual property, which others then need to compensate for.”  Nokia stated it has entered into license agreement with 40 other mobile phone manufactures regarding these patents.

The litigation can continue for years, but if Nokia wins its case Apple will have to pay Nokia a percentage every time an iPhone is sold.  Even though Nokia is still the market leader it has lost market share since iPhone entered the market.  Could this be an attempt by Nokia to kill its smaller yet highly successful competitor?

Google, who hardly ever advertises, launched its ‘Gone Google’ advertising campaign in August across six countries. The campaign utilises billboards (specifically on major US high ways) that show different messages about Google Apps on a daily basis for a month.

“It is the first and very highly visible integrated ad campaign that we have run,” says Dave Armstrong, the Head of Marketing for Google Enterprise for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The target of the advertising campaign is - you’ve guessed it - Microsoft Office. Kicking up the rivalry a gear, Google is creating awareness through this campaign of the number of companies that are using Google Apps on a daily basis.

Google promises no more ‘mailbox is full’ error messages or the constant need to back up data, if you switch to Google Apps your day-to-day business activities will be simplified by shared documents, calendars and email.

Google Apps comprises Google Mail, Google Maps, Google Docs and Google Earth and in an attempt to create a viral effect for the campaign Google urged current apps users to tweet their ‘Gone Google’ story with the #gonegoogle hash tag. Judging by the number of #gonegoogle tweets it seems as if there are thousands of loyal Google Apps users out there. Google also created a GoogleAtWork Twitter account as well as a website specifically for this campaign.

According to Google about 3 000 organisations are signing up on a daily basis to try out Google Apps. In June Google reported 1.75 million Google Apps business users and with the latest stats revealing that the number has grown to 2 million – it seems as if the campaign has worked!