A search done on Google comes up with a number of sites that claim to give out tricks and tips on how to ‘hack’ somebody’s account. However, on closer inspection it has been found that there are almost no proper hacks available for hacking the Facebook profiles. Though this does not mean that the process has not been tried. Earlier, entering of a particular URL with the right codes would take you to the required persons profile. However, as soon as the trick was out in the open, Facebook developed a cure. This has been going on for quite some time now. FaceBook is known to advert any kind of hack into its system within a fortnight of the hack coming into notice.

FaceBook suggests the only trick to view somebody’s privately secured profile is by becoming their friends. Not only the profiles, but the very famous and widely played games on FaceBook such as the Zynga Farmville and the Zynga Texas Hold’em Poker also cannot be hacked into easily. The only trick is to play according to the rules, however bending some of the rules (which is completely legal) is possible. Full points for the FaceBook developers.

I didn’t want to leave you empty handed so here are some tips and tricks for using Facebook.
Let’s say you have somebody who is not your friend yet on Facebook or you have a friend request. Usually you’ll have a 100 by 100 pixel image of them and it may be hard to tell who it is.

Add a Friend on Facebook
This is what you can do to see a larger image:
1. “Right click” on the small picture and choose “Properties“.

2. Copy the location. You should have something like this :

http://profile.ak.facebook.com/v228/1164/37/s1486050667_6368.jpg

3. Paste this link in your browser and change the “s” to a “n” and press enter. The new link should be:

http://profile.ak.facebook.com/v228/1164/37/n1486050667_6368.jpg

And it also should be large enough for you to see who it is. (Double the size)

A few days ago, we reported that Facebook turned down an investment term sheet that placed their value at $8 billion. But it was apparently the board seat the investors wanted and not the valuation that was the hold up. Now that valuation number has jumped to $10 billion thanks to an offer from some new investors, sources tell The Wall Street Journal. Specifically, Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian tech investment company wants to invest $200 million in the social network, according to the report. That would place its preferred stock value at $10 billion. The company would also buy between $100 million and $150 million in common stock at a $6.5 billion valuation. It’s not clear if Facebook has responded in any way. Also not clear is if DST would want a board seat with the investment. But one could imagine that would be a sticking point once again. Though perhaps Facebook will like the $10 billion number — which is closer to the $15 billion valuation it got from Microsoft’s investment in 2007. If Facebook were to accept these terms, and give away a board seat, at least we know what one is worth: About $2 billion. – From TechCrunch

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hopes to eventually take his company public but said it won’t be for a few years, and stressed that the world’s largest online social network is in no immediate need of capital. The 25-year-old co-founder of Facebook said he is always open to partnerships and investments, but stressed that Facebook can achieve its business goals with its current financial base — despite numerous media reports that it has had talks on a new round of funding with various investors. – From Reuters

Third parties will eventually make money from social-networking sites, but Facebook and its rivals will be left out unless they start charging the online equivalent of rent, says media analyst Lauren Rich Fine. “There’s a real danger that application developers who use the Facebook platform will become quite profitable while the host corporation will not,” she writes in a new report by ContentNext Media, a unit of Guardian News & Media Group that also publishes paidContent.org and mocoNews. “Advertising on social nets will never be commensurate with the amount of time people spend on them. And Facebook has made several failed attempts at innovative marketing efforts that members loudly rejected.” – from WSJ

Abbas Hodroj says he has the right to express his opinions on Facebook. So when the 25-year-old student from Portland, Ore. heard that the social networking site was under pressure to ban Holocaust denial groups, he decided to join one.

Now, he’s one of 39 Facebook users listed as members of the group “Holocaust: A Series of Lies,” a community for those who, like Hodroj, do not believe that the genocide of about 6 million Jews during World War II ever took place.

“I’ve read many articles and different sources that say that did not happen. These historians, they go back in history and document World War II and said it didn’t happen,” said Hodroj, who was born in Beirut, Lebanon and has lived in the U.S. for 10 years. “The people that they said they survived were in hiding. …They could be all fabricating [it].” – from ABCNews

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, a Jewish former Harvard University student. “We abhor Nazi ideals and find Holocaust denial repulsive and ignorant,” a spokesman said over the weekend. “Just being offensive or objectionable doesn’t get it taken off Facebook. However, we believe people have a right to discuss these ideas, and we want Facebook to be a place where ideas, even controversial ideas, can be discussed.” – from Haaretz

The Holocaust Denial movement is nothing more than a pretext to allow the preaching of hatred against Jews and to recruit other like minded individuals to do the same. Allowing these groups to flourish on Facebook under the guise of “open discussion” does nothing more than help spread their message of hate. Is this the kind of open discussion that Facebook wants to encourage? Is this really where you want to draw your line? – from Brian Cuban

This isn’t a slippery slope, Facebook. It’s evil. Pure evil. Don’t plant a flag on the wrong side of the line. Stand firm against racial and religious hatred, even if you don’t have to. You’ll look back in fifty years and be proud that you did. Because no matter what your terms of service say, this isn’t porn. It’s the Holocaust. And it happened. – from Techcrunch

- from THR

Facebook plans to announce at a developer event Monday that it will open up user-contributed information to third-party developers, according to a report Sunday in The Wall Street Journal. Facebook plans to announce at a developer event Monday that it will open up user-contributed information to third-party developers, according to a report Sunday in The Wall Street Journal. – From CNET

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom officially launched his bid to become the next California governor today, marketing himself as a much-needed change to the Sacramento status quo. “We’ve gotten things done in San Francisco by putting politics aside and focusing on finding solutions to tough problems,” the 41-year-old said in a statement announcing his candidacy. “State government is failing because the politicians in Sacramento spend all their time fighting each other instead of fighting for Californians. We can’t keep returning to the same old tired solutions and expect a different result.” – from USAtoday

Everybody’s playing the “what’s Facebook’s valuation?” game again, in light of persistent reports that the social network is in need of more cash to fuel its rapid and expensive global expansion. The rumors aren’t too surprising. Given the economic recession and tough advertising climate, the numbers getting talked about are some of the lowest we’ve seen recently. Currently circulating: that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rejected a fresh round of funding that would’ve valued the company at $4 billion, and that one potential investor submitted a term sheet for a valuation in the neighborhood of $2 billion. What we’ve heard: that Facebook stock trades privately between a $2 and $3 billion valuation. That’s consistent with the numbers that everybody else is tossing around. And we’ve known for a while that at the time that the ConnectU vs. Facebook legal spat was settled, Facebook valued itself around $3.7 billion. – From CNET

Penny Ireland’s family is so scattered around the world that Facebook, the popular social networking site, has become the family’s No. 1 way to communicate. “We call it our living room,” the 56-year-old mother said by phone from her home in Houston, Texas. “Everybody can tell what everybody else is doing.” “Everybody” includes Ireland’s five kids and her 83-year-old mother, who has a Facebook profile she accesses daily, Ireland said. While online social networks like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are known hang-outs for younger adults and teenagers, older generations in recent months have been taking to the medium at a faster rate than any other age group, according to industry reports. – From CNN