January data released on compete.com now shows that the social networking site Facebook had a whopping 134 unique visitors in January.  Fb seems to be galloping ahead, collecting not just eyeballs but also engaging its visitors in a way that Google and Yahoo can’t. The January figures show that in that month, 11.6% of all time spent online was spent on Fb ( Yahoo had 4.25 % and Google 4.1%)

So if Facebook is advancing ahead, the geeks at Google aren’t sitting back and checking email–they are, as one journalist pointed out, advancing their tanks across Facebook’s lawns.  Last week saw the disastrous but interesting roll-out of Google buzz that taps into existing Gmail contacts to create a social networking system of its own, then Google bought up Aardvark-another site that lets users “tap the knowledge of people in your network.”

But whether Google manages to trounce Facebook is anyone’s guess. Already, The Times points out FB has 400 million active users (that is up from 200 last summer-Observer.com) who share five billion pieces of content a week and upload more than three billion photos each month. On an average, the report says, people spend more than 55 minutes a day on Facebook – and that is an advertising goldmine. As we also spend more time on our iPhone, iPads and the like- money is quite literally where the mobile is and there are millions others who use their mobile to access Facebook than get on Google.

So what is the future for the two big giants? We don’t know yet. But we’ll keep an eye out-between our Googling and updating status on Facebook.

You might also be interested in:
Twitter Goes To The Dogs, Literally
Facebook Is Taking Over The World
Why You Should Google Yourself

Italian writer, blogger and photographer Vincenzo Cosenza has for the second time put together a visualization that shows the most popular social networks around the world on a map, based on the most recent traffic data (December 2009) as measured by Alexa & Google Trends for Websites.

Businessweek writes:

The first one, which Businessweek  featured in June 2009, already painted a picture of Facebook taking over the world from the West, but the second one shows its relentless colonization even more clearly.

Facebook, with over 350 million users, is the undisputed leader of social networking in the English speaking parts of the world, and has been making strides in Latin-America, Europe and Africa as well.

Based on Alexa data only, Facebook has even taken over Orkut in India, historically a high-flyer in those parts. Google’s social network remains the most trafficked in Brazil, however.

Facebook clone Vkontakte.ru has been able to resist and stop Facebook from becoming the leader in Russia. It’s worth noting that Vkontakte is largely owned by Digital Sky Technologies, which also owns a significant stake in Facebook, so you can see how they could potentially melt together in the future.

See the interactive map here. It looks like something out of the movie “Outbreak”

Slate's list of 50 companies that use Facebook well includes Apple, Louis Vuitton, and Gatorade

We all use Facebook well. We did put up pictures of the dumb pie we baked, or the loser concert we attended … not to mention cutesy pictures of us at various parties to prove our popularity. We update our statuses religiously, add friends, spy on people’s babies and smirk at dormant walls.

Of course, we are all aces at maximizing Facebook’s potential to kill time. But what about companies? Large one, small ones, ones that barely have any money or employees – How are they using God’s gift to nosey parkers a.k.a FB?

Slate’s Big Money compiled Big Money Facebook 50, a ranking of all the companies making the best use of Facebook.

Winners on the list include

Taco Bell – Yum Brands’ (YUM) fast food chain Taco Bell is responsive to fan comments and generates strong positive feedback when it posts promotions. (Big Money)

Gatorade: PepsiCo.’s (PEP) Gatorade set up an app that encouraged users to vote for their favorite moment from Michael Jordan’s career. More than 8,000 votes were cast on the sports drink’s page.

Apple Students: Apple (AAPL) started “Apple Students” as a sponsored group when the Facebook community was almost exclusively college kids. Even though Facebook has since grown, the electronics retailer’s page is a good place to deliver targeted messages to this audience.

Check out the whole list here.

Big Money points out that most of the companies that made the list are very large, very well known firms.  It also notes, that ExxonMobil seems to have no official presence on Facebook (GASP!) and Bank of America has little more than 600 fans (C’mon fellas, lets some ‘em banks a ‘lil more lovin! After all they have our MONEY!).

The piece says Facebook pages are also a great way for the  company to announce giveaways, communicate promotions to fans across the world and serve as a forum to creatively generate ideas to support the product in question (eg.Design ideas from fans for a car manufacturer)

You can read the rest of Slate Big Money’s Facebook 50 here.

A reporter talks on her cell phone outside the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower on November 27, 2008, hours after the terrorists struck. By Arko Datta/Reuters/Landov.

November 26th would mark the one year anniversary of the carnage in Mumbai, when armed gunmen from Pakistan rampaged through the city by the sea indiscriminately shooting innocent people and taking two five-star hotels hostage.

There was so much that was gruesome about that attack. The sheer brazenness, for one. The fact that someone could just hop off  a boat and start shooting into the crowds.

Then, there was the media coverage – with the Western outlets focusing on the attack as targeting Americans and Britishers and the Indian media falling all over each other, trying to outscoop each other; revealing sensitive information and hampering rescue efforts as they dragged on over 60 hours.

In the end, 117 people were killed in the attacks. Died before their time, because some doped-up, impoverished extremist from a remote valley believed that this would, in some way, be tantamount to achieving whatever it is that he set out to accomplish.

PBS is due to broadcast Secrets of the dead: Mumbai Massacre – a documentary based on the testimonies of those who survived the attacks. It is due to air November 25th.  Check your local listings.  If you don’t live in the United States, you can always catch the documentary a day after its broadcast on the PBS website.

“This film offers an unprecedented, inside view into the attacks,” says Jared Lipworth, executive producer of Secrets of the Dead. “It not only reveals how the victims and terrorists acted during the massacre, it highlights how consumer technologies and social media gave the victims a chance to survive, while also putting them directly into the line-of-fire of the terrorists who were hunting them down.”

The film, made by Australian Elizabeth Pitt, is heart wrenching.

Watching it made me relive the anger and horror I experienced as I watched hour after hour of the non-stop TV coverage of the attacks. I remember being glued to the TV set, ranting on Facebook, G-chatting with friends back home, and checking Twitter for updates. It’s also amazing to note technology’s role in this attacks. From the Perpetrator’s side – there was the use of cell phones, satellite phones, GPS systems and on the Victim’s side – it was text messages from cell phones, blackberries, and I-phones. Nowhere before, have the predators and prey been so wired. It’s chilling to think of how information was used as a weapon and as a means of escape in this incident.

I am not sure what lessons India learned after this attack. But a hat tip to the crazy chaotic nation for not going to war with Pakistan, despite its security being blatantly breached by its rogue neighbor.

For more, read Marie Brenner’s “Anatomy of a Siege” in Vanity Fair (a piece that focussed only on the Taj and its survivors, prompting  author Mira Kamdar to quip “It’s almost as if Ratan Tata commisioned this piece.)

The New Oxford American Dictionary has a quaint tradition of naming its “Word of the Year”  and 2009’s dubious winner is “Unfriend” – as in “unfriend” someone from Facebook.

Common Uses: “Oh I used to date that frog-face, but now we are broken up. Let me “unfriend him/her/it”

Waitaminit..isn’t that word “de-friend?” Or is just me?

Apparently, facebookers unfriend random people that they have “friended” in order to offload some of the dubious sorts they put on their friend list.

I think “friended” in itself should have also made the final list of contenders, which included “sexting,”  the sending of dirty text messages, “intexticated” – being distracted as you text and drive and ugh! The worst word of them all “funemployed!”

If “Unfriend” wasn’t annoying enough, “funemployed” drives me batty! It’s a cloying, cutesy way of saying you’re having fun whilst (yes, whilst! eat it.) being unemployed.

Who are these people deciding the word of the year anyways?! And why must it be a new word? It should be the word (s)  that people use the most – like “recession,” “depression,” “shoot myself” or “wait-I -have-a-college-degree- but -am underqualified-to-box-shoes?”

Ugh – I need to “unfriend” the New Oxford American Dictionary for being so uncool.

Google yourself regularly to map and tweak your online image

When my best friend was visiting, I got her a t-shirt that read “Sometimes when I am alone, I google myself.” In the early days of the search engine, that seemed like a really funny joke.

But these days, googling yourself  is not a mere vanity, it’s almost essential, especially if you’re looking for a job.

Most employers will agree that once the stork delivers your resume into their hands, the first thing they do is check your online presence. So, Bam! Google!

And if the only thing that pops up in their search are racy pictures from your Spring break or incriminating, nasty posts about your co-workers, then that could potentially be a red light for your employers.

So, here is a list of Top Online Turnoffs I came across in Richmond magazine.

Profanity: If you wouldn’t say it in front of your grandmother or on national television, don’t post it online. It may actually end up in front of your grandmother or on national television, or — just as bad ­­— a recruiter.

Inconsistency: When you put online resumes and bios on LinkedIn, Facebook or your blog, make sure they match what you have in print. If you tweak anything, tweak it consistently.

All Play and No Work: Fool around all you want on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. But be sure to mix in some online business — join some industry organizations, actively participate and tweet positive things about your work.

The magazine says it doesn’t help to be totally paranoid and log off Facebook forever. In fact, some recruiters get dissapointed when they look for you online and can’t find your Facebook page. “

“Recruiters want to see pictures of you interacting with others,” says one recruiter in the piece, “they want to see that you are a team player.”

So get going, Google yourself and mend that online image.