Facebook to Start Charging for Messages

Facebook is making yet another change to its site, this time with regards to message sending. This move will allow you to send messages to people outside of your network and not be listed as spam while letting Facebook monetize a portion of its services.

 
Most of your messages go to your inbox, but a few end up in the "Other" folder and are often not even opened or noticed. These are the messages that Facebook has decided are less important because they are from someone not in your network. They could be spam and are determined by Facebook’s algorithms.

Paying to Avoid the Other Box

If you want to avoid being dumped into the "Other" folder, you can pay $1 and your message will end up in the recipient’s inbox. This will be helpful it you want to make contact with someone you know who is not in your network or to make contact with someone about a job.

The charge will cut down on spam since those people send out mass messages and will not want to pay for each one. It will help to ensure that if you are sending an important message that it gets read.

To start with,
the new feature will only be available to certain people in the US. Companies will not have access to this feature at this point and the paid emails will be limited to just one a week at the start.

New Filters for Inbox

Facebook is also trying out some new features for your inbox. With Basic Filtering, you will get all messages from your friends and from people in your extended network. You will also have the option of Strict Filtering that will be mostly messages from your friends.

Facebook will also allow you to get messages from the Messenger for Android app.

The new pay for messages feature will be tried out for a few months, but if it is popular it may become permanent for all users.

[Image via aitnews]

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911 Text Messages Coming

Around 50% of emergency 911 calls are made from cell phones, but call centers do not have the capability to receive text messages as part of the service they provide. The Federal Communications Commission is hoping to change that in the near future. The FCC is trying to create plans for a system that can accept any types of calls, whether they are sent as text messages, photos, or videos. They also are attempting to make it easier to pinpoint a location, which is more difficult with mobile phones than landlines.

　

Early adopters – The City of Allentown Police Department implemented their ‘Anonymous Tip Texting’ initiative in April 2012. Emergency texts seem to be the next step for Police in this direction.

It is being hailed as Next Generation 911. The FCC is going to be working with local and state agencies as well as the federal government for the adoption of the plan. One issue that they will face is funding. Many agencies cannot afford new technology and often face cutbacks in their budget.

The FCC is promoting the benefits. Not only could the dispatchers get more calls from people who need help, they could have access to live information to make response time quicker and more effective.

For instance, dispatchers would have access to road conditions and traffic to determine the best route and allow emergency vehicles to get to the scene several minutes sooner than otherwise. They would know the hospitals’ capacity to take multiple victims, and they could see footage of an accident scene for car crashes or other accidents to determine where the victims should be transported.

　

Photos could be sent to dispatchers before medics arrive on the scene to make early assessments and save time. All of these improvements could mean more lives would be saved.

With the issue of locating people on cell phones and funding for the new service, it may take some time for every 911 center to have the additional technology, but they are headed in the right direction. Wireless carriers will implement texting by 2014.

[Images via allentownpa & boston]

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