The Facebook Blog

Last year we really messed up—turns out 'first annual' is terrible grammar. The rest of our inaugural Men's College Basketball Tournament feature was pretty cool though, and I'm proud to announce it's back and better than ever.

Here are some highlights for this year that I'm particularly excited about:

1. We'll be giving out lots of cool prizes as the tournament progresses. For starters, first place overall will receive a prize valued at $25,000. ... There are many other prizes along the way - check out the details here.


Constantly updating content from the good folks at the Associated Press and STATS LLC. This means there'll be articles, live game stats, and photos, all on Facebook.


News Feed stories! Make sure to post on your friend's bracket when his or her championship team takes a dive in round 1. Trust me, News Feed makes smack talk that much more fun.


Facebook mobile integration. Live updates via SMS (text messages for you lay folks) about the teams and games you care about.


You can invite your friends who aren't on Facebook to participate really easily. (They'll have to register to join the pools and enter a bracket, but really, who _isn't_ on Facebook these days?)


Statistically speaking, I'll probably score more than 15% of the possible points this year.

I've been a Facebook user for some time now – I was one of the lucky few Harvard students counted amongst its very first users. That said, even though I've used Facebook for years, I still obsess over every single word that I put in my profile. (Right now I'm in a bit of a minimalist phase – it's like every word counts triple. I got an ulcer last time I changed my favorite quote.)

I've been moonlighting on a pet project that I hope will inspire my friends to scour my profile with the same passion I put into creating it. Or at least it will... make them laugh as they wonder, "Who is this clown who listed 'Living in the future' as one of his activities?" I also think everyone could use something fun right now, so I took the time to finish this, and we're releasing it now for you to enjoy.

The Facebook Friend Game.

The game is very simple – a trivia question, five friends to choose from, one correct answer, and the clock is ticking. As always, this maps to your privacy settings, and since only your friends are involved, the actual content is protected by your Limited Profile privacy settings. If you uncheck 'Personal Info,' the friends on your Limited Profile list will never see you in the game.

For now, there is no running score. My hope is the game will serve as the basis for more meaningful social interactions. Sooner or later, you'll learn something interesting about a friend, or end up getting a trivia question about an inside joke or shared experience. When that happens, there's no reason not to drop the game and go interact with your friends.

Suggestions are always welcome – send them here.


Bob Trahan created the Friend Game and is a ninja master