INSIDE FACEBOOK — Like players in many other industries, insurance companies have begun experimenting with how to use Facebook to reach more users and customers. The trend is to try to connect people around real-life topics -- not sales pitches. Searching for insurance agents on Facebook reveals that many of these companies have launched marketing campaigns on the site. Overall, State Farm appears to be the most ambitious, and successful...

INSIDE FACEBOOK — WildTangent is continuing its foray into Facebook and social gaming, now providing brand-advertising offers on developer Playdom’s Facebook app, Tiki Farm. The tropical island farming game is beginning to feature brands that sponsor particular existing virtual goods in the game. Instead of a user paying for the good, they watch a video or somehow engage with an ad to get it. The first available is an orange tree, sponsored by Herbal Essence. Although WildTangent has been offering a variety of sponsored advertising services for casual games, massively multiplayer online games, and other web-based games, it began focusing on tighter integration of virtual goods recently with the launch of BrandBoost...

INSIDE FACEBOOK — In the frozen void of space, a now derelict mining vessel has had a communications failure. Unfortunately, for engineer Isaac Clarke, the USG Ishimura isn’t quite so derelict after all, as its inhabitants are now the skittering, the lumbering, and the grotesque horrors that hail from the deepest corners of the galaxy. This, of course, is the basic premise behind the sci-fi, survival horror game, Dead Space from Electronic Arts’ studio, Visceral Games. As a popular title among the horror genre, the folks over at Visceral are looking to make the next one even better, as they work to spark up some buzz for their next deep space adventure...

INSIDE FACEBOOK —­ Women make up the majority of Facebook users and their presence on the social network has not gone unnoticed by department stores, who have set up shop on Facebook (literally, in some cases) in an effort to foment a relationship with their customers as fans. We recently reported that women in the U.S. constituted over 56% of the overall Facebook population, part of a longtime trend, especially women between 26 and 44 who are more likely to have disposable income to spend and are likely to spend it on themselves...

INSIDE FACEBOOK — Large populations and growing internet connectivity are pushing Asia’s Pacific Rim countries to the forefront on Facebook. Our latest stats, for the month of February, show Indonesia and the Philippines picking up a combined three million users, more than the combined growth of the entire mainland...