Some differences between different data sources appear in our latest effort to triangulate Facebook’s traffic. The company had a pretty strong February around the world, according to data from our Inside Facebook Gold report, gaining 23.8 million new users to total 641.1 million monthly actives. The United States led, adding 3.3 million to reach 152.2 million MAU. But it followed a flat January in the US.

Third-party measurement services have numbers that don’t exactly match up to these or each other, though. Here’s a closer look.

Compete

According to Compete, Facebook actually lost around 6.5 million in the US to end at 127.5 million unique US visitors in January. MySpace continued its long decline, with 43.6 million monthly uniques. Twitter grew more than it has in many months, adding 1.5 million new people to reach nearly 28 million.

ComScore

ComScore, which reports both US and worldwide numbers, and also has the February data out for the former, shows something similar. Facebook lost 800,000 US users in January, then another 2.4 million in February to end 150.7 million unique visitors. MySpace also continued to drop hard, and Twitter gained in January but fell back in February.

Worldwide, however, comScore gained 27.9 million users in January to end at 675.4 million uniques. Twitter also boomed up to 113.2 million and MySpace fell.

Google Ad Planner

Worldwide, Facebook fell back from 600 million to 590 monthly uniques in January, although the daily unique visitor count that Google tracks via cookies continues to show gains, now past 300 million. Facebook says that around half its users come back every day.

Quantcast

Directionally, Quantcast’s data looks unlike Compete’s and comScore’s — Facebook slowly grew to 137 million, a roughly 3 million gain in January. MySpace continued down and to the right, Twitter oddly has more than double what all other services show with 88.2 million in the US.

Conclusion

Each company has a different methodology; we get our data from Facebook’s ad tool, which can sometimes be delayed or buggy. So in trying to judge the general trend, worldwide Facebook growth appears to have been strong in January, while the situation in the US is less clear. December also showed mixed results for the company. We’ll see what February and March show about the trends.

Several profile banner applications, in addition to video apps, a few photo apps, games and others composed our list of top 20 emerging Facebook apps this week. The list of top 20 emerging apps was compiled based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook and covers apps that grew the most in the past week, ending at between 100,000 and 1 million monthly active users.

Top Gainers This Week

	Name	MAU	Gain	Gain,%
1.	Profile Top Banner	978,575	+818,420	+511%
2.	My Friend Map	721,528	+467,200	+184%
3.	Galaxy Online II – Most Competitive Strategy Game	507,001	+422,648	+501%
4.	英雄遠征-開心農場	645,592	+362,035	+128%
5.	การวิเคราะห์สมอง	321,405	+321,226	+179,456%
6.	Photo Sticker	884,826	+293,574	+50%
7.	無限德州撲克	758,071	+270,805	+56%
8.	Pirates Saga	574,035	+242,211	+73%
9.	flipboard	699,904	+227,930	+48%
10.	VidyoTV Video	295,045	+219,784	+292%
11.	Likelicious	995,267	+212,844	+27%
12.	Super Billares	667,707	+206,415	+45%
13.	Spot The Difference	472,176	+194,212	+70%
14.	Famous Status Update	249,021	+190,915	+329%
15.	Честита Баба Марта!	359,260	+187,256	+109%
16.	Kameralı SOHBET	722,731	+166,422	+30%
17.	Profile Customizer	677,172	+152,880	+29%
18.	Komik Videolar	637,872	+147,328	+30%
19.	Poker Texas Boyaa	694,630	+137,414	+25%
20.	Facebook by Snaptu	281,844	+134,671	+92%

Profile Top Banner was the top app on our list this week with 818,400 MAU; the app, like a handful of others that have been appearing on our top app lists creates a photo album of matching photos to decorate a user’s profile. A similar app, Profile Customizer, was on the list this week with 677,200 MAU.

My Friend Map shows you the geographic location of all your Facebook friends, asks you to invite friends and posts the map to your stream; the app grew by 467,200 MAU. การวิเคราะห์สมอง is a Thai quiz app that says it analyzes your friends’ brains; it (the quiz app, not your friends’ brains) grew by 321,200 MAU and posts photos in an album to a users’ stream, tagging their friends in the process. Another app that uses photos, Photo Sticker, grew by 293,600 MAU and publishes decorated photos in an album to a users’ stream. Spot The Difference, which grew by 472,200 MAU, also incorporates photos, but asks the user to locate five differences between a nearly matching set of photos.

There were three video-related apps on the list.  Kameralı SOHBET grew by 166,400 MAU; it’s a video chat application. Komik Videolar is a Turkish video sharing app that saw 147,300 MAU. VidyoTV Video grew by 219,800; it’s a Turkish video app allowing users to Like and share them to the stream.

Flipboard, an iPad app for reading news and social media updates in a magazine layout; the app saw 227,900 MAU this week. Likelicious is an app that allows users to create phrases and Like them or Like other phrases to share to the stream; the app grew by 212,800 MAU this week. Famous Status Update grew by 190,900 and finds your most popular recent status update for you and automatically generates a news feed story. Finally, Facebook by Snaptu grew by 134,700; the company provides mobile Facebook apps.

Admins of claimed Places pages can as of today see a Daily Places Activity section when viewing Insights. This section includes the number of times users have checked in to their Place or claimed a Deal they’re offering when viewing Insights. The data will help admins deduce foot traffic trends and help them refine their Deals for better performance.

Facebook launched its location service Places in August and its check-in rewards system Deals in November, but admins haven’t had access to detailed performance of these features until now. Insights has gotten several updates as of late, with Facebook announcing Insights for Websites yesterday, allowing admins of Websites and social plugins such as the Like button and the Comments Box to see performance data on how Facebook is influencing traffic.

When admins of Places visit Insights, they now have the option to view Daily Places Activity. Facebook has only been collecting Insights data on check-ins and claimed Deals since March 8th, so admins won’t see any historical data.

Admins could compare the data to their estimates of total foot traffic to their location to determine on which days users are most likely to post about their visit or redeem a reward. They could also watch to see how news feed posts drive check-ins, or how different reward values impact Deal claim frequency.

Despite the inherent power of Deals, which both inspires primary foot traffic and leads to exposure of a local business to a visitors network, adoption of the location rewards service still seems to be low. The new Daily Places Activity could help them prove the worth of the program, leading more businesses to incentivize check-ins.

The shortest month of the year was nonetheless a strong growth month for Facebook, with gains in many of its mature key markets. The United States, Canada, the UK, and a number of other country markets across the European region all added users at a robust rate of growth in February, with additional gains affecting South Korea and Japan, two of Facebook’s target markets for 2011.

The full breakdown, including details on Facebook’s emerging role in the Middle East and East Asia, is available in this month’s edition of Inside Facebook Gold.

Inside Facebook Gold is Inside Network’s business intelligence service that supplies monthly data on Facebook’s growth outlook through a comprehensive data feed service and expert analysis.

The March 2011 edition of Inside Facebook Gold includes:

• Global Data Feed Service, a comprehensive data CSV supplying vital stats on Facebook’s audience size, demographic distribution, advertising business, and global language distribution.
• Facebook Monthly Growth Report, an analytical review of audience change by country markets, and demographic and linguistic groups, with focused reporting on the company’s growing international platform ecosystem.
• Facebook Global Monitor, 100 pages of leaderboards and charts covering audience change in 160 Facebook country markets.
• DealWatch, a summary and analysis of all the funding and acquisition events, major hires, and partnerships that have taken place in the Facebook business ecosystem, and in social games and payments.

Inside Facebook Gold is a data and intelligence service designed for analysts seeking to understand and maximize opportunities in the Facebook ecosystem, and presents data on key indicators ranging from the site’s traffic growth to its advertising business and its robust applications platform.

Download the March 2011 intelligence suite at Inside Facebook Gold.

Facebook has added new functionality to its report buttons that let users notify Facebook of abusive, spammy or objectionable content. The report flow now includes options to message the perpetrator to ask them to stop, and message friends to ask for advice.

The social safety features should help reduce abuse on Facebook, especially that in the form of unwanted or defamatory photo tags that users don’t have the option to pre-approve or prevent. They will also reduce the number of reports that actually reach Facebook, since informing it of abuse is an unchecked option by default, and the flow highlights friend-to-friend resolution instead.

Report buttons on photos a user is tagged in and posts on their wall have already been updated with the social safety feature, and Facebook plans to roll out the additional options to report buttons on profiles, Groups, Pages, and Events soon. All of these changes impact the flow once users have already clicked “Report” , but don’t make the small or hidden links to the option any more easy to find on the site.

Facebook has recently made several moves in an effort to stem abuse and educate users about how to maintain their safety while using the site. Facebook prevents users who send unwanted friend requests from sending future requests, its new Comments Box social plugin integrates abuse reports into commenter credibility scores, and it worked with Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to remove anti-gay comments. It also created an official Facebook Safety Page, a Safety Help Center, a child-safety advisory board, and a Security Quiz to educate users.

However, many of these efforts focus on how users can protect themselves from strangers. The new social safety features address abuse from a users friends — a term that has become more loosely defined in recent years, and can encompass co-workers, friends of family, and people users play social games with. Younger users sometimes encounter bullying from classmates, while older users may be attacked by ex-lovers and their jealous new significant others.

Users can prevent certain friends from writing on their wall through their privacy settings, but the only way to prevent an abusive friend from tagging them in photos is to unfriend or block them. Users can detag photos but not forcibly remove them from Facebook, so the new option to message authors with a request to remove the content can help resolve issues surrounding unwanted tags.

Now when users go to report a post on their wall or a photo they’re tagged in, they’ll see “I don’t like this post/photo” and “This post/photo is harassing or bullying me” options. The “I don’t like this” option reveals the new option to send the content’s author a message asking them to remove it or not post similar content, along with traditional block and unfriend options. Facebook pre-populates the message, but users can edit it and add their own context.

The “harassing or bullying me” option reveals a note telling users to inform local authorities if they feel they’re in danger, a new option to “Get help from a trusted friend” and the standard option to block the bully. The “Get Help” option forwards a friend the photo along with the pre-populated but editable message “Hi, this person is bothering me online and I’m not sure how to respond. Can you please help?”

Notice that the “Report to Facebook” box is unchecked by default, meaning users are left to resolve issues on their own unless they explicitly request to notify Facebook. While the new features do empower users, the flow also helps Facebook keep support costs down by making sure that a submitted report is one of the less likely outcomes when users click the “Report” links on wall posts and photos.

Facebook posted a number of engineering positions on its Careers Page and on LinkedIn this week. Of particular interest was a Partner Engineer of Mobile in Singapore and a Manager of National Sales position in Austin, Texas. Plus, a whole new category, Technical Operations, was added to the Software Engineering section.

Posts added this week on Facebook’s Careers Page:

• Product Manager, Site Integrity & Tools
• Pan-Euro Communications Manager
• Onboarding Programs Manager
• Recruiting Coordinator – Contract (Dublin)
• Recruiting Manager-Engineering
• Data Center Technician (Data Erad & Logistics CA)
• Strategist, Market Solutions – Technology (Palo Alto)
• Manager, Corporate Development
• Account Manager (Amsterdam)
• Account Executive (Milan)
• Manager, National Sales (Austin)
• Software Engineering:
• Capacity Planning Engineer
• Data Engineer
• R&D Software Engineer
• System Software Engineer
• Web Developer (Internal Tools)

Jobs posted by Facebook on LinkedIn:

• Associate, Ad Operations (New York)
• Manager, Corporate Development
• Recruiting Manager – Engineering
• Partner Engineer – Mobile (Singapore)
• Manager, Vendor Management and Procurement
• Software Engineer, Products
• Network Engineer

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

Facebook appears to have filled  some interesting positions, based on what jobs were removed from its Careers Page this week and what people designated new positions with the company on LinkedIn.

The Global Credits Marketing Manager position is no longer listed, neither are the Product and Advertising Counsel, Partner Manager of API Programs,  EMEA Communications Manager or Journalist Program Manager jobs. See the rest of the list for a more detailed look at Facebook’s hiring this week.

New hires per LinkedIn and Other Sources:

• Ron Goforth – Account Manager, formerly an Outside Sales Representative at Stage 3 Motorsports.
• PJ MacGregor – Global Customer Marketing, previously a Senior Vice President and Creative Director at Leo Burnett.
• David Doty - now a Global Service Desk Manager and used to work as a Corporate Service Desk Operations Manager at LTX-Credence.
• Siddharth Manuja – Analyst-Online Sales Operations, previously a Management Trainee at HCL Technologies.
• Kenneth Kirchhoff – Analyst, previously a FACT Contract Coordinator at Damco.
• Rachel Liftman – Recruiting Coordinator, previously an Organizational Development Assistant at Hadassah.
• Kristin Debaisieux – Advertising Operations and formerly Scandinavian Country Manager at Skyscanner.
• Vijaye Raji – Software Engineer.
• John Zahnen – Senior Service Delivery Manager, previously Senior Service Delivery Manager at Milestone Technologies.
• Neil Blakey-Milner – Application Operations Engineer, formerly Lead Architect at Yola.com.

Recent departures, per LinkedIn:

• Irene Poltronieri – formerly an Analyst, User Operations.
• Ivan Heneghan - used to be an Account Manager.
• Brian Walsh – former Director of Operations.

Prior listings now removed from the Facebook Careers Page:

• Global Credits Marketing Manager
• Product Manager #1011003
• Product and Advertising Counsel
• Administrative Assistant, HR and International Staffing (New York)
• Web Developer (Internal Tools)
• Data Engineer
• EMEA Communications Manager
• Journalist Program Manager
• HR Co-ordinator – Contract (Dublin)
• Capacity Planning Engineer
• Mechanical Engineer (HVAC)
• Business Operations Associate, Marketing Analytics
• Partner Manager, API Programs
• Manager, Online Sales Account Management
• Research Scientist 1102002
• System Software Engineer
• Manager, Online Sales Account Management
• Manager, Inside Sales (Austin)

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

ReverbNation, one of the earliest developers of Facebook apps for musicians, has released an upgrade to its popular My Band app, renaming it Band Profile. Users of the free app will now be able to completely customize the look and feel of it; and can require users to Like, Share, or provide their email address to gain access to certain pieces of content.

The updates make ReverbNation the most customizable free apps for musicians to promote themselves on Facebook. It now offering some functionality, albeit in a rougher form, that recent sensation BandPage by RootMusic requires users to pay $2 a month for.

Band Profile, formerly My Band, has been growing relatively steadily since its launch in late 2008, tripling its daily active user count since last year and breaking onto a top 20 fastest growing apps list at the end of January 2011. However, Band Profile has encountered serious competition in the last six months, with BandPage rocketing past it to now have 931,295 DAU compared to its Band Profile’s 310,967, according to AppData, our data service tracking application traffic and growth.

Meanwhile, some of Facebook’s most popular musicians including Lady Gaga and Linkin Park have begun signing on with smaller boutique firm DamnTheRadio, which was recently acquired by FanBridge. ReverbNation saw it clearly had to change to stay competitive, and this new set of updates succeeds in placing it back in the top tier of solutions for Facebook musicians.

Most noticeably, bands are no longer stuck with the drab blue and gray color scheme of My Band, which faded into the Facebook canvas and made it difficult to create a strong branding impression. Band Profile allows admins to select themes and specific color values to change the appearance of their app’s background. The color value interface is less intuitive than the color slider available through the $2 a month BandPage Plus, but is free for all Band Profile users.

Another significant addition is the ability to require users to Like, Share, or submit an email address to gain access to songs or music videos. This is an effective way for bands to drive Likes, gain viral distribution, and collect contact info.

Shares to the wall and news feed have an improved feel. A functional version of the Band Profile appears in-line within the shared story, allowing a user’s friends to play songs, watch videos, view tour dates, photos and the bands bio, join the mailing list, or re-share the app to more friends.

Songs are hosted on ReverbNations servers, and can be sold or offered for free unlimited download through Band Profile. RootMusic handles music downloading through SoundCloud, which requires users to pay for a premium account if they want to allow more than 100 downloads of any song.

Since ReverbNation makes its money not from its app, but by selling additional off-Facebook services including email marketing and music distribution to online stores, it can offer the rich functionality of Band Profile without charging musicians. This loss leader strategy could help it regain market share from BandPage and attract new users from the long-tail of musicians looking to promote themselves on Facebook for free.

This week, Facebook is completing two major migrations that impact Page admins and could break apps if developers haven’t prepared. Starting March 11th, Page admins will no longer be able to install new FMBL apps and developers will no longer be able to create them. Instead, they are to develop and install iframe apps.

Also, starting March 12th, all applications must use POST for Canvas to encrypt User IDs to protect the privacy of users. Today Facebook outlined a clever plan where the migration will go live gradually so unprepared apps will only break for a few minutes a day at first.

Facebook has made repeated announcements of these changes, displayed them on the Developer Roadmap. and offered documentation and testing options in an effort to minimize breakage and not surprise any admins or developers.

FBML Deprecation

Announced in August, Friday’s shift to from FBML to iframe apps was planned to let Page admins offer richer functionality without forcing users to leave their Page. Admins have been able to install iframe apps since February 10th, but won’t be able to install anything else starting Friday.

To change their apps from FBML to iframe, developers can go into the Page Tab settings of the Developer app and modify the Page Tab Type.

The change will allow the same applications to be run on their own or as Page tab apps. Facebook says it will also allow developers to program all Facebook apps in the “same simple, standards-based web programming model (HTML, JavaScript, and CSS).” Engineers won’t have to learn any Facebook-specific language to create Page tab apps.

However, FBML was more accessible to novice programmers in some ways, since it used uniform code snippets. Therefore, it will now take more traditional coding experience to create Page tab apps.

For those without that experience, Wildfire Interactive and some independent developers have released apps that make it easy to create an iframe welcome tab for Pages, while Involver and Buddy Media have provided some analysis of the new capabilities and policies of iframe Page tabs.

POST for Canvas Deadline

On November 23rd, Facebook released a solution to the problem of third-parties gaining access to User IDs when they are passed in an HTTP Referrer Header. This issue led to a lot of negative press about Facebook’s privacy and security, even though the User ID only provides publicly available information.

The solution, called POST for Canvas, has been available for testing since November 23rd, left beta and became the default for new applications on December 10th, and becomes mandatory on March 12th.

At 12pm PST that day, Facebook will turn the migration on for five minutes before turning it off. Apps that haven’t prepared for the migration will break, but then come back to life, sending a hard reminder to developers to adopt Post for Canvas. Each subsequent day the migration will go live for increasing amounts of time until it in effect around the clock.

To test the migration before the 12th, developers can go to the Advanced tab of the Developer app, and enable POST for Canvas under Migrations.

The Inside Network Job Board is dedicated to providing you with the best job opportunities in the Facebook Platform and social gaming ecosystem.

Here are this week’s highlights from the Inside Network Job Board, including positions at Digital Chocolate, Arkadium, Diversion Inc, EverTold, Funcom, NaturalMotion, and Jagex Games Studios.

• VP Product Management (San Mateo, CA)
  
• Lead Game Designer (San Mateo, CA)
  

• VP of Game Design (New York, NY)
  

• Flash Game Artist (Hollywood, CA)

• Lead Engineer (San Francisco, CA)
  

• Vector Artist – Facebook Game (Oslo, Norway)
  

• Designer – Social Games (Oxford or London, UK)
  

• Head of Studio / Vice President of Product (Cambridge, UK)
  
• Head of Acquisition Marketing (Cambridge, UK)

Listings on the Inside Network Job Board are distributed to readers of Inside Facebook and Inside Social Games through regular posts and widgets on the sites. Your open positions are being seen by the leading developers, product managers, marketers, designers, and executives in the Facebook Platform and social gaming industry today.