Since the beginning, Facebook has always had a desire for “real connections”, encouraging users to create a profile using their real name, and connect with people they already know.

The introduction of Facebook Pages in November 2007 added a whole new level to this “real connections” model and has become a great way for businesses, bands and celebrities to connect and interact with their fans. Unfortunately, it has also become a cesspool for spam, ridiculous Pages and unrelated advertising.

A quick skim through the biggest Facebook Pages shows a high number of generic Pages (such as “Pizza”, “The Beach” and “Massages”). A lot of these Pages – while against Facebook’s Terms of Use – are harmless, but there are also many that have been using (and abusing) their large fan bases to advertise tenuously related websites or products.

In May it was reported the creator of the “Kisses” Page auctioned off and sold the Page (and it’s one million+ fans) for an undisclosed sum. The winning bidder, OraBrush, has now turned it into an advertisement for stopping bad breath, the emphasis on kissing now just a memory.

Two weeks later, Facebook decided to tackle these generic Pages head-on by taking away their ability to update their statuses. Whilst it was great to see Facebook finally take some action, it was too little too late, and they’ve failed to follow through since with unscrupulous Page owners still breaking the Terms of Use.

The minor offenders simply encourage their fans to join their other Facebook Pages, but the worse offenders have completely changed their Pages from everything to do with the original topic, with only the name remaining.

We don’t expect Facebook to police every page created, but some of these Pages have fan bases in the millions. Facebook needs to spend some time cleaning out these Pages that are now exploiting the fan bases they’ve built up with unrelated advertising.

To be clear, the purpose of Pages is for advertisers to connect with Facebook users, but these Pages build up fan bases under misleading pretenses of “fun” topics before converting their content and spamming their users.

Although just a small sample of the problem, these Pages have over 3.3 millions fans between them.

Besides their flagrant abuse of the service and disregard for Facebook’s Terms of Use, it’s surprising that these Pages are still around for another reason: by allowing these Pages to operate, Facebook is taking money away from its own advertising sales. Why pay Facebook for ads, when you can create a generic Page like “cuddles” or “sleeping” that’s viral enough to advertise itself?

In our next article we will be explaining how we at FBHive think Facebook could drastically (and easily) overhaul the system for all, but while you wait, tell us: what you think Facebook should do with Pages like those above, and what could be done to improve the system for the future?

1) Sync Facebook Events with your calendar program

Every event page features an export link. It’s an easy way to quickly add Facebook events to your favorite scheduling program, such as Google Calendar, Apple iCal or Microsoft Outlook.

However, it’s a bit of a pain to have to continually do this for every event. Fortunately, Facebook provides an iCalendar URL for all your upcoming events that updates automatically.

Simply click the “Export Events” link on the top of the Events page, and copy the URL that follows into your favourite iCalendar supporting program.

2) View who joined Facebook because of you

It’s not only possible to view whom you’ve sent Facebook invitations to, but also who joined because of you. So if you invited your friends Steve Jones and Isaac Dabah, simply head on over to the Invite History page of Facebook.

It seems after all the warnings from Facebook that once you choose a username for your profile you’re stuck with it forever, Facebook have now quietly added the ability for you to change it.

To celebrate the cinema release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince today, Facebook Gifts have released three free gifts:

Memory Vial, Cauldron and Potions Book

To send these free gifts, go to:Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Since our last post on the upcoming Facebook for iPhone 3.0, the sole developer of the app, Joe Hewitt (pictured right), has been working hard and tweeting regularly regarding the app’s current and future status.

Those who own an iPhone 3GS will be pleased to learn that Joe has now decided that since it was so easy to code, video uploading will be available in version 3.0, with an upload progress bar included. However, at this stage it will not be possible to watch Facebook videos on any iPhone as they are encoded with a bitrate that is too high for the iPhone OS to play.

Full support for Notes will now be included, which means you will be able to write, edit, save and delete notes and drafts.

In response to a question about opening external links within the Facebook app, Joe has revealed that the new version will include a built-in browser, which will (presumably) present a more streamlined experience that doesn’t require app-switching to Safari to display web content.