As the 2010 World Cup kicks off in South Africa on Friday, football fans will be able to connect to and share the experience no matter where they are in the world. Whether commenting live while watching matches or playing virtual games among their friends, you can be part of the action through Facebook and our partners. Here are some of the ways:

Show your passion on the Goal! Leaderboard. Get in the competitive spirit and join more than 2.5 million Facebook users who have liked and supported their favorite teams.



Watch the matches live, over the internet, with your friends. Many official broadcast partners are enabling you to share status updates and comments with your friends while you watch the events live by using Facebook's Live Stream social plugin. Partners, by country, include:

• France: TF1
• Germany: ARD
• Mexico: Televisa
• Poland: TVP
• Portugal: RTP
• Spain: Cuatro, Telecinco
• U.K.: ITV
• U.S.: Univision, ESPN

Get closer to the action by connecting with hundreds of authentic news, sports and entertainment voices on Facebook, including media outlets such as The New York Times from the U.S., Bild.de in Germany and the CBC in Canada, as well as opening ceremony performers K'naan and Shakira. You can also connect with players past and present, from Pele and Landon Donovan to Philipp Lahm, Lukas Podolski and Cristiano Ronaldo. Like their Pages on Facebook to get updates from them and share your thoughts.

"Like", "Share" and "Recommend" your favorite stories to your friends through Facebook-enabled websites that are covering the World Cup, such as L'Equipe in France, Veja and Yahoo in Brazil, and RTVE and RNE in Spain.

Support the World Cup charity – 1GOAL. 1GOAL's mission is simple, important and clear: education for all. From 1GOAL's Facebook Page, you can sign up for the campaign and stay updated on its efforts.

Build your own dream team with EA SPORTS FIFA Superstars. Sign the world's best football players to your club in this game on Facebook. Challenge your friends. Train and customize your formation to work your way to the to top.

Over the next few weeks, we will be working directly with many of the partners above to get your thoughts and feedback on the tournament, the players and the passion surrounding the 2010 World Cup.

With so much of the action ready to be shared, liked, commented upon and amplified billions and billions of times over, this will be the first World Cup truly experienced and celebrated through the eyes of friends. So, clear your schedule. The beautiful game is about to begin.

Go world.


Christian, Facebook's head of international business development, is looking forward to watching El Tri win the opening game of the 2010 World Cup.

Around the world, countries hold holidays to honor the men and women who defend them. Today is one such holiday in the U.S., Memorial Day, so we're profiling service members and their families as part of our "Your Stories" series on different ways people use Facebook. Submit your story to us and we'll consider featuring it in future posts.

Active Duty

The walls of 21-year-old Charles Pergament's room are lined corner to corner with photographs of family and friends. This is no college dorm, though; it's Charles' living quarters in Al-Basrah, Iraq, where he is stationed as a transportation movement specialist with the 840th Transportation Battalion. The photos are among the dozens he receives from his wife, Kristin, who prints them out from friends' Facebook profiles and includes them in care packages to Charles.

Charles and Kristin were married on Dec. 28, 2009, but didn't have much time to enjoy wedded bliss. Only a few weeks later, his unit was deployed to Iraq to assist with the draw-down operation. To bridge the gap formed by thousands of miles, the young couple keeps in touch through Facebook Chat and Inbox messages. Kristin says she misses her husband every day, but "our communication has made this deployment a little easier."

In addition to connecting with his wife, family and friends, Charles also has found Facebook to be helpful while he's overseas.

"A team of mine got separated on a base in Iraq," wrote Charles in an email. "I went to a (military-operated) cafe, hopped on Facebook, and saw (that) my squad leader was online. I messaged him our location, and within 10 minutes we were regrouped."

A Gold Star Wife

While many military families use Facebook to communicate with their loved ones abroad, others turn to it as a source of support after the loss of a soldier. Katie Hubbard, the 26-year old widow to Command Sgt. Maj. James W. Hubbard Jr., has benefited greatly from the comfort she has received from Facebook friends since her husband's death.

James was an active military serviceman from October 1972 to September 1980, then he joined the Army Reserves. After a deployment for Operation Iraqi Freedom, James returned home in 2005, when he met Katie. The pair were married in February 2007, before James was briefly deployed again to Kosovo. Soon after returning stateside, he was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia that apparently stemmed from uranium exposure during his tour of duty in Iraq. Sadly, despite immediate treatment, James passed away on May 21, 2009.

Among the friends Katie connects with on Facebook are fellow Gold Star Wives, the widows of deceased military members. Though she has never met many of the women face-to-face, their shared grief builds a trusting and understanding community. Katie cites one friend in particular, Glenda, as an inspirational figure. Though widowed long ago when her husband died in the Vietnam War, Glenda has helped Katie find support.

"I've learned a lot from our conversations," says Katie, "and even though we were widowed almost 41 years apart and in different circumstances, the grief is so similar."

Katie and Glenda plan to meet for the first time this weekend, when they will commemorate Memorial Day with a visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Band of Brothers

Luis Rodriguez is immensely proud of his older brother, Shak Wak. A highly decorated first sergeant, Shak has seen 18 years of near constant combat, first with the U.S. Marines and now with the U.S. Army. He is, as Luis wrote, "a soldier's soldier." Shak is currently on his fifth tour of duty in Iraq, but unlike previous deployments, this is the first he has undertaken with an important tool: a Facebook account.

Luis convinced his brother to sign up on Facebook so they could communicate more easily while he is overseas. Now, they share pictures and videos of family events to keep Shak in touch with home.

Shak is careful to follow the military's security rules, known as OPSEC guidelines, so he doesn't share many details, but Luis says the little updates mean the world to him and his family. Luis particularly loves getting real-time information from his brother on Facebook Chat.

"In that instant, I know he is OK, back at the (base) and probably getting some rest and some food," Luis said.

Luis, a writer, fondly remembers crafting a poem dedicated to Shak, then posting it as a note on Facebook and tagging his brother.

"Within hours, he had read and responded to it," Luis recalled. "Knowing that I can reach out and speak to him like that is priceless."


Sara, an intern on the communications team, is so grateful to all the men and women serving her country.

Today marked the third anniversary of the Facebook Platform but the day has been overshadowed by an ongoing privacy fiasco which has forced the company to redesign their privacy settings. While analysis of the privacy situation varies from person to person, it’s easy to forget the impact that the Facebook Platform has had in the past year as the company grew from 225 million to almost 500 million users.

FarmVille

If there was one word that could sum up the past year on the Facebook Platform, it would have to be “FarmVille”. The application launched just under 1 year ago and has spawned an entire ecosystem of companies trying to duplicate Zynga’s business model. In just 12 months we have watched Facebook turn into the largest gaming platform around, making it the talk of every single industry conference.

While games have been around on the platform for years, FarmVille reached levels never imagined. At it’s peak, FarmVille reached 83,755,953 monthly active users. That was on March 11th, around the time that the Platform took a (hopefully temporary) turn for the worse.

Facebook Clamps Down On Virality

Following the increased volume in spam from applications and one developer after the other exploiting viral loops on the Platform, Facebook decided to create a massive overhaul, which included a redesign of the homepage. In late October, rumors surfaced that Facebook was preparing to shut off all viral aspects of the Platform in order to clamp down on spam, among other things.

Within days the rumors were confirmed and Facebook hosted an event for top developers in Palo Alto to announce the impending changes. During that event the company announced a Platform roadmap which highlighted the changes that were coming to the Platform. Developers looked on as they learned about the death of multiple app-to-user communication channels.

It was pretty obvious that applications would be negatively affected, but how dramatic the impact would be was not yet known. Six months later it was pretty clear what was happening as Facebook turned off the viral spicket by killing notifications on March 1st. The results were felt immediately by developers.

While some developers have proclaimed their ability to still go viral (there is still a feed which provides plenty of growth opportunities), gaming the system has become significantly more challenging. Today, FarmVille’s MAU (monthly active users) is down nearly 10 percent from its peak and its DAU (daily active users) is down more than 25 percent from its peak. In fact, the application hit a new low today of approximately 20.4 million users, off more than 35 percent from its peak at the end of March.

Despite the challenges, Zynga has entered into a 5 year partnership with Facebook, the terms of which were never announced.

Controversy Surrounds The Platform

In addition to the emotional roller coaster that developers have sustained over the past 12 months, there has also been plenty of lucrative arbitrage opportunities which were eventually exposed as manipulative of users and frequently misleading. We first highlighted the situation days after the Facebook Platform’s second anniversary.

In short order, Facebook banned two ad networks from the Facebook Platform. That wasn’t the end of the controversy however. Facebook was eventually forced to modify their advertising terms and provide additional clarity as third-party ad networks pushed the limits of ads including the embedding of user data within advertisements.

Developers, ad networks, and Facebook continued a game of ping pong for at least four months until Techcrunch finally jumped in the ring, launching what is now known as the “ScamVille” controversy. In a matter of weeks, the entire Facebook ad industry was transformed and most aggressive offers, which made many developers and ad networks very wealthy, were purged from applications.

A Crossroad For The Facebook Platform

On the third anniversary of the Facebook Platform, developers and Facebook are at a crossroads. In addition to cutting down on viral channels, and stepping up its policies against misleading advertisements, Facebook has been increasingly pushing their new Credits system as an integral part of games and other applications on the Facebook Platform. In turn, a new business model has emerged, something we highlighted at the end of March.

As the company attempts to silence the privacy backlash, celebrations of the Platform’s three year anniversary will take place in privacy this time around. The Platform has now grown up and Mark Zuckerberg is attempting to steer an increasingly large (yet relatively agile) ship toward what many employees and investors hope is the promised land.

While the company has come a long way in just three years, more challenging business hurdles lie ahead. For developers, determining whether or not to build on the Facebook Platform has become increasingly complex. With a push toward the new Graph API, and the death of most app-to-user communication channels, many developers have decided to sit on the sideline through what many developers hope is a calm before the next surge.

Over the next year we’ll have the opportunity to watch how the dynamic between Facebook, developers, users, and advertisers unfolds. While the past year has been a bumpy one, hanging on to the rocket that is Facebook has no doubt proven to be an exciting ride!

Respected British football manager Bill Shankly once famously said, "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death...it is much, much more important than that." While growing up in Taiwan during my childhood, I learned firsthand what Shankly meant.

Football, also known as soccer in some countries, is not exactly a national sport in Taiwan. Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time the national team even came close to qualifying for the World Cup. But when the tournament came around, everything—and I mean everything—stopped. The World Cup was the one event that brought everyone—my family, friends, country and the world—together. For a few moments at least, the world seemed smaller and more connected.

In a few short weeks, people from all 32 competing countries and the rest of world will come together for the 2010 World Cup unfolding in South Africa, both on the field and through Facebook. To make it easier for you to be part of the action with your friends and the world, we're launching Facebook's Goal! Leaderboard today on the Sports on Facebook Page.

We chose one of our preferred developers, Involver, to build this application, and they've created an engaging, globally accessible application that is designed to ignite and stoke global football passions in preparation for the June 11 kick off. It is available initially in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese.



This leaderboard complements the hundreds of authentic team, player, brand and media voices that are sharing World Cup dreams and drama on millions of people's Facebook home pages. People's football passion will be shared, liked, commented upon and amplified billions and billions of times over. In fact, one could say that the 2010 World Cup tournament marks the first time in history that the event will be truly experienced and celebrated through the eyes of friends.

Through the Goal! Leaderboard, fans all over the world can:

• Like their favorite teams


• Publish a News Feed story broadcasting their support


• Recommend their team to their friends


• Invite their friends who aren't on Facebook to support their team

To help you and your friends get in the competitive spirit, Facebook will be tracking and ranking teams based on a "Passion Index"—a measure of a team's total number of "Likes" divided by the internet population of the country it represents.

The leaderboard will be available via the Goal! tab on the Sports on Facebook Page. Connect with your favorite team, show your support and share your passion with your friends. And while you're at it, help us bring your friends and the whole world together.


Alex Wu, who runs the Sports on Facebook Page, is excited about experiencing the World Cup live in South Africa with one of his best friends—his little sister.

Today is Mother's Day in the U.S. and dozens of countries around the world, and to honor it we're profiling three stories submitted to us for our "Your Stories" series about how mothers and children are building family bonds through Facebook. If you have a story you'd like to share with us, please submit it here.

Mom's Yiddish Word of the Day

Robbin Anderson is proud to say she has a very close relationship with her mother, Marcie. The two talk nearly every day, and live just close enough (near Hicksville, NY) that they can pop in on one another easily. However, recently, the mother-daughter pair have found a way to use Facebook to strengthen not only their family ties, but also their cultural ones.

"Growing up I would hear [my mother] use Yiddish words, but I never paid much attention to what they meant," explained Robbin.

One night, when Robbin's husband asked Marcie a question, Marcie responded in Yiddish. Suddenly, Robbin realized how little she actually knew of the language.

"I started asking what some of those Yiddish words from my childhood meant," Robbin said.

From this simple question her mother began a Facebook tradition—a "Yiddish Word of the Day." Every day, Marcie posts a new word as her status update. From there, Robbin can guess what it means, or provoke conversation on the topic.

Of the words shared so far, Robbin has one favorite: "bashert." It relates to destiny, signaling that something was, or was not, meant to be.

To Robbin's delight, friends also join her in guessing the words from time to time. More often than not, it remains a personal experience between her and her mother.

"For some crazy reason this new tradition of ours brings me comfort," said Robbin. "It's the first thing I check when I turn the computer on in the morning."

Birth Mother Locates Daughter

On Dec. 31, 2009, Janet Mackenzie-Cohen received a large envelope from the government of Ontario, Canada. The package contained court records, hospital papers and a crucial piece of information—her daughter's name, Karyn. Janet had been looking for Karyn for decades, nearly since the day Janet had given her daughter up for adoption in 1965.

Though Janet finally had her daughter's adopted name, she had no clue as to her whereabouts or how to contact her. "I didn't know where to start," Janet said. "My first thought was not to frighten her." Eventually, a friend suggested she try Facebook.

Janet created an account, and within a matter of minutes discovered Karyn. More than anything, Janet recalls the overwhelming feeling of relief that accompanied her discovery.

When Karyn was born, she was dangerously small—a mere 3 pounds, 14 ounces. Janet was told the child would likely not survive, and if she did, it would only be with serious difficulty. However, when Janet discovered her daughter on Facebook, she found her to be a happy, healthy mother of her own.

After sending Karyn a message, the two became Facebook friends and now talk regularly through Facebook Chat. Content for now with their level of communication, they have plans to reunite in 2011.

"I knew that I would never go to my grave without making superhuman efforts to find my baby, but in 1965, who would dream that Facebook would make it so easy?" Janet said. "I am totally grateful."

Staying Close a Thousand Miles Away

Valerie Collins of Indiana was determined not to let distance keep her apart from her 88-year-old mother, Alice, who lives in Arizona. In October, the mother-daughter duo turned to Facebook to stay in touch.

When Alice recently suffered a broken foot, Valerie used Facebook to check in on her mother, remind her of upcoming doctors appointments and discuss the results of her lab tests. She also was able to connect with Alice's neighbors in Arizona, important contacts in case an emergency should ever arise. "It's a comfort knowing someone is nearby," Valerie said.

Of course, Valerie also uses Facebook to connect her mother with two very important family members—Valerie's two sons. Due to the long distance separating them, Alice does not get to see her grandchildren in person very often. Now through photos and videos, she has the opportunity to watch them grow.

"Facebook is giving us an opportunity to share across thousands of miles," explained Valerie.

Valerie also keeps the boys updated on their grandmother's activities, and the kids recently got a kick out of Alice's profile picture (shown to the right).

Valerie even posted a video of her son's entry at a music competition, and marveled that "Alice was able to see the video just minutes after the show!"


Sara is an intern on Facebook's communications team.