Yesterday we wrote about the huge Facebook Places backlash that’s spreading on Facebook through false status updates. However the information doesn’t appear to be slowing down. In fact, it appears to be spreading at an even greater pace as friends warn each other falsely that “ANYONE can find out WHERE you are when you are logged in”. Simply put, Facebook Places does not function like this.



While Facebook Places is a product that enables you to share your location with your friends, it’s only if you choose to do so. While in theory it may be interesting to watch where your friends are in real-time on a map, it would also be pretty creepy. That’s exactly why the false information spreading through Facebook status updates is so popular. If you want to do your friends a favor, share this article with them and also share with them this post which includes a video of how Facebook Places actually works.

Want to purchase gift cards to use on your favorite Facebook games? Soon enough you’ll be able to do just that at Target based on a new report from Reuters. According to the report, “Facebook Credits will be available in Target stores beginning September 5 in increments of $15, $25 and $50.” This is part of the company’s continued push to expand their Credits platform, a service which has become increasingly integrated with the largest applications on Facebook.



Over the past couple months Facebook has been ramping up Credits promotions through partnerships with a number of companies. Most recently, Rixty launched a promotion with Coinstar to let Facebook users receive bonus Facebook Credits at Coinstar machines. Facebook also recently launched a credits promotion with MOL which helped the company gain distribution of Credits in 7-Elevens and cybercafes throughout Asia.

All of this adds up to a massive marketing push by Facebook to gain Credits distribution to as many people as possible. The easier it is for users to purchase Credits, the more likely that they’ll spend them within games and other applications.

The State Capital of Georgia is the ninth largest city in the country. Atlanta is a top business city, and it has one of the busiest airports in the world. The city is home to many Fortune 500 companies, extremely talented musicians, excellent educational opportunities, tough sports teams, and a rich history. The sites and sounds of the city are something to witness, and we have researched the continually growing city’s Facebook users to find some interesting little-known tidbits. Check out the findings below.

Population

There are about 3,480,480 Facebook users in the Atlanta area. 43% of those users are male. An estimated 22% of Atlanta Facebook users are in their ’30s.

Sports

Hometown baseball team the Atlanta Braves have over 87,000 fans in the area. As the race for first place continues in the NL East, second place team the Philadelphia Phillies have a surprising 7,000  fans in town. Who are you rooting for to take the NL East division this year?

On the football field, the Atlanta Falcons have about 33,160 fans from the area. Here’s to hoping for a big year from Quarterback Matt Ryan.

Education

Georgia Tech has about 69,000 grads total on Facebook, and about 38% of those who earned their degree from the school are still in the Atlanta area. Fun fact of the day, Jimmy Carter was a Georgia Tech graduate. Over 57,000 people on Facebook claimed to have earned degrees from Georgia State. I hear those Panthers are playing in a new division on the football field this year.

Emory University has about 15,220 graduates still residing in the Atlanta area.  University of West Georgia has over 21,000 grads in the area.

Music

Popular musician Usher relocated to Georgia in hopes of success, and the entertainer has over 35,000 fellow fans on Facebook singing his songs in the area. Ludacris has about 18,000 fans in Atlanta where he attended high school and college and still resides today.

Hometown rock band The Black Crowes have over 2,900 fans in the Atlanta area. Soul singer Otis Redding left his hometown that is about an hour outside of Atlanta to sit on the dock of the bay. Otis Redding has about 2,600 fans around Atlanta.

Work

Atlanta is home to many large corporate headquarters. Just to give a few examples, it is interesting to note the large amount of Atlantans employed by Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines.  About 2,620 Facebook users in the Atlanta area are employed by Coca-Cola. Delta Airlines employees over 5,000 locals on the site.

Sites and Food

Over 12,100 fans enjoy visiting Stone Mountain and all of its awesome scenery. Zoo Atlanta has about 17,900 eying up those adorable Pandas.

On the food front, Mary Mac’s delicious southern cuisine has over 1,000 fans looking to fill their bellies. Between the two Vortex Bar & Grill locations, there are over 6,000 hometown fans enjoying those delicious foods and brews. The Varsity and its five locations throughout the area have over 58,000 fans on their Facebook page. That Chili Cheese Dog sounds pretty good right now.

Conclusion

Atlanta is a massive city that is continuing to grow. The city, and those who live around it, have a passion for their hometown’s great sites, great eats, great companies, and everything in between. Atlantans proudly display their favorite hometown pride in their Facebook profiles.

Playfish/EA Sports has been working quietly on bringing the highly acclaimed Madden franchise to Facebook. Entitled "Madden NFL Superstars", the game allows players to create their ultimate fantasy squad by collecting or trading NFL players and competing in matchups against their Facebook friends.

Facebook made a change to the way that it counts active users for applications starting last Friday. Now, likes and comments on stream content published by the app are no longer counted. The results of the change are already very visible for many apps on AppData, but Facebook says the calculations are still in progress, so the numbers for all apps may not yet be updated.

This change affects all apps, Facebook says, but active user counts for mobile apps will be most significantly affected, because many of them generate user content that gets a lot of likes and comments. This explains some of the wild swings we’ve seen in the active user counts lately for Facebook’s own mobile apps as well, like Facebook for iPhone.

Conceptually, we think this change to the way Facebook calculates active users for applications makes a lot of sense. People who like or comment on stream content published by an app shouldn’t be counted as active users like canvas page viewers are.