People are still getting used to the idea of services like Airbnb, which connect guests who wish to stay in new places with hosts who have accommodations to share. But as a peer-to-peer marketplace for people’s homes, Airbnb’s success still relies on ensuring that its users trust one another. Today, it took another step toward that goal, with the introduction of Verified Identification, which will connect users’ online and offline identities.

Airbnb has undertaken a number of initiatives over the past few years to build its users’ trust and ensure their safety. The marketplace has a ratings system which is designed to allow both guests and hosts to provide feedback on their stay. It also allows them to act as references for one another, especially helpful for first-time users. And Airbnb has implemented a $1 million guarantee for hosts, as well as a secure payment structure and 24/7 customer service.

The company is now seeking to take all that a step further, with a new feature that will link users’ online identities to their real offline identities. Previously, users could authenticate with the system by connecting their Facebook or LinkedIn identity with their Airbnb accounts. But the new Verified Identity system will tie a user’s account to his or her offline identity.

To do so, users simply go to www.airbnb.com/verify and login. The system will prompt users then to verify their offline identity in one of two ways: either by scanning a photo ID or passport with their webcam or mobile phone, or by answering the same sort of historical information you’d be prompted with when doing a credit check. For the system to work, both the online and offline accounts need to match.

The Verified Identity feature will first launch in the U.S., and users here can begin to opt-in and verify themselves today. Hosts will also be able to require users to be verified before they book a room. But if hosts set that requirement, they themselves also must go through the new verification system. That’s one way Airbnb is trying to drive adoption.

Another way that Airbnb will get people to sign up is by requiring that 25 percent of all users will need to get verified before they’re able to book a reservation. That 25 percent will be chosen randomly, and once a user is verified, he or she will never have to go through the process again.

In the short term, requiring a percentage of users to verify their offline identity will add a small bit of friction to the booking process, and could result in users dropping off before completing a booking. If a user is asked to verify his or her account, either because a host has required it or they’re part of the lucky 25 percent, then they’ll have 12 hours to do so without losing the reservation.

It’s important to note that, at least for now, that 25 percent is only required for U.S. users. Airbnb has said in the past that about 75 percent of all bookings have some international component — that is, either the place being booked is outside the U.S. or the guest is not a U.S. resident. Over time, Airbnb plans to increase the percentage of bookings which will require a identity verification. And it also plans to make it required outside the U.S. at some point.

Airbnb believes that the Verified Identity system will not only help provide more trust between guests and hosts, but that it can also help build more community. “The more info you can provide to each other, the better the Airnb experience,” Airbnb communications manager Jakob Kerr told me. “Someday we might get to point where you’re not staying with a stranger.”

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Twitter has done a great job at keeping the whole “blue badge” verification process a mystery. If curiosity eats away at you like it does me, you’re in luck. A new video from comedians Hari and Ashok Kondabolu, featuring Anil Dash who has around 500k followers, shows the magical transformation from start to finish.

First off, it’s important to know that you can’t ask to be verified. Twitter only offers this blessing upon those with enough followers and popularity to deserve it. However, the company promises that follower count has no bearing.

We don’t accept verification requests from the general public, but we encourage you to continue using Twitter in a meaningful way, and you may be verified in the future. Please note that follower count is not a factor in determining whether an account meets our criteria for verification.

If you have been chosen, the Twitter account @verified will hit you up to let you know you’ve been selected, and tell you that you’re only “three steps away” from having that bright blue badge pinned to your account.

But Twitter’s process for verifying its users has absolutely nothing to do with verifying identity, so don’t worry about whipping out a drivers’ license or anything. Instead, Twitter uses a painfully easy multiple-choice quiz to test your badge-worthiness. It asks questions like, “Which tweet is more likely to double your followers?”

It then gives the option of a live-tweet about the Oscars, complete with hashtag, or option B, “I watched the #Oscars last night.” Anyone with enough followers to be verified knows that Twitter is about real-time communication. All three questions are of the same stock and breed, all stupidly simple.

Chances are, Twitter probably does go through some sort of analysis of your Twitter feed and other things to verify that @LadyGaGa and @finkd and @aplusk are legit. But this quiz is pretty silly, considering that all it verifies is that people with a lot of followers are good at Twitter. Which, of course, seems obvious.

We’ve reached out to Twitter to see if they can possibly shed a little more light on this. We’ll update if we hear anything.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Well here’s a Twitter bug that is kind of alarming. Apparently, for some verified accounts, avatars were swapped out with other random users’.

Currently, the profile settings are disabled for all users, so you’re stuck with what you have now. Can you imagine trying to tweet and seeing some random Joe in your place? Yeah, weird.

Here’s what the company had to say on the matter a few hours ago:

We're investigating an issue with background images and profile photos on @verified accounts. We'll get this resolved ASAP.

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It’s no secret that both Foursquare and Gowalla are expanding their location-based social networks past the check-in, developing other incentives for consumers to use the services. Gowalla, in particular, has focused on adding innovative features to its platform to make the social network more interactive, through photos and comments. Most recently, the startup added local highlights, which allows users to essentially tap into their social graph to not only see what’s popular in a particular location, but also provide contextual information around what are the best sights, places, restaurants and activities in a particular locale. Today, Gowalla is adding a few more features for businesses that help the network move beyond the check-in, including City Pages, Verified Businesses and Venues; and the Stamp Calendar.

Gowalla will now include City Pages for more than 30 metro areas worldwide. For a given metropolis, Gowalla will combine all of the most popular happenings, places, and activities in a single page, courtesy of the network’s Highlights feature. City Pages will also include a map of local activity that shows where the most check-ins are taking place and includes the best spots that are highlighted by other users. Since Highlights launched, more than 10,000 Passport Holders have added 30,000 Highlights worldwide. So for example, the Austin city page will list the top food destinations, the best live music, the most popular places (according to check-ins) and more categories of destinations.

The second feature rollout allows businesses and venues to verify and claim their locations on Gowalla, add contact information, location details and more. Verified locations can also customize the messages that appear when people visit their location with Gowalla. Eventually, businesses will be able to add deals and other contextual information to their verified page.

Lastly, any verified business or venue in New York, San Francisco or Austin can now purchase custom Passport Stamps that users can earn for check-ins, that will also include a featured listing on Gowalla, similar to an advertisement. Featured listings will include a prominent placement on Verified Business Pages and within the Gowalla mobile applications on iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

Gowalla has included this feature for some time, but has been implementing this on a case-by-case basis. Now these custom badges are part of a self-serve platform. While these custom badges previously sold for a few thousand dollars a piece for businesses, Gowalla is will begin charging verified businesses $5 per day for custom badges (the price will go up by $5 as a business publishes more unique badges within a month, says founder and CEO Josh Williams). Eventually this feature will be rolled out to other cities. Via a “Stamp Calendar,” businesses can reserve certain times for their custom badges to be promoted.

It’s clear that with City Pages and Business Listings, Gowalla is turning its platform into more of an information destination for locales, as opposed to simply a check-in focused social network. As Williams tells me, “Check-ins are one form of looking at the location but we are exploring ways to move beyond the check-in.” He says that in the near future, Gowalla’s mobile clients will be updated with “significant” new features.

But business listings and badges could also represent another move by the network beyond just check-ins: revenue. The self-serve platform that allows businesses to identify their page could be complimented by coupons, deals, and even advertising. And the customized badges could also bring in a steady revenue once Gowalla ramps up the feature across the country.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Facebook Page tab applications marketplace Appbistro today launched its Verified Developer Program, a distinction it awards to developers offering high quality, reliable apps and strong customer support.

Chosen developer will gain the advantage of having their apps display Appbistro’s Verified Developer badge and appear at the top of search results and app category indexes on the Appbistro marketplace.

The program acts as a third-party version of Facebook’s Preferred Developer Consultant Program, except that it is specifically for Page tab app developers and Appbistro earns a 30% affiliate fee on the sale of any app in its marketplace, verified or otherwise.

Currently upon submission to Appbistro, Page tab apps are given a one to five-star rating based on virality, content management, administrative experience, user experience, and scalability. The Verified Developer distinction is awarded independently of this rating, and developers wishing to gain the award can contact Rhett Stonelake, Appbistro’s Head of Marketing. The launch partners, who will be the first to display the Verified Developer award, are Facebook e-commerce and storefront provider Payvment, job posting tab maker Work For Us, and welcome tab builder Pagemodo. They were chosen for having valuable apps, good customer support, and a high monthly active user count.

Stonelake says developers new to the Appbistro marketplace will undergo a 30 to 40 day trial period to vet their long term customer support before possibly being admitted to the program.

When a developer is admitted, all of their apps will receive the distinction and the associated advantages. A blurb about the developer is also added to their app profiles. There is no specific cap on how many developers can be admitted, and developers will be warned if the quality or support of their apps drops such that they are in danger of being expelled.

Appbistro says they’re aiming to solve the Page tab app discoverability problem. Since some apps with high utility don’t have inherent virality, it can be hard for admins to find them, especially since Facebook removed links to the Application Directory. The Verified Developer Program does not discriminate based on size, making it accessible to small companies or even app hobbyists as long as they meet the requirements. While the launch of the program may also be designed to bring press and traffic to AppBistro, it does provide a distribution channel for any Page tab app developer which is committed to quality.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Admit it, 99% of your Twitter searches are for vanity purposes. You do it, I do it, we all do it. And such a search revealed a potentially very useful and powerful new feature today. Twitter is now injecting name results into searches on twitter.com when you do a regular search for a name.

To be clear, Twitter has had a name search option for some time, but this is the first time they’ve put it front and center in the main tweet stream when you do a search. As you can see, name results now appear just above regular realtime tweet results for name searches. These names are displayed horizontally rather than vertically (as regular tweets are).

This feature adds another user discovery layer to Twitter. And this is potentially the biggest one yet. For example, when I search for “LeBron James” now I can see his actual account on top of the results and follow it with one click (thanks to the hovercard). That’s very powerful.

Twitter recently updated its docs to reflex this new people discovery feature. A year ago, they tweaked their title tags to help with user discovery for SEO.

The feature also uncovers a number of false or fake accounts — so verified accounts are likely to be more important than ever. Twitter smartly added the little blue checkbox next to name in these results to show the verified one (and presumably puts those ones first).

Expect celebrities on Twitter to get a lot more followers with with new feature.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch