A Facebook application, "Where I've Been," reportedly sells to TripAdvisor, a division of online travel agency Expedia, for $3 million. This proves the strength of Facebook's so-called "platform" as a vehicle for flipping cheap, trivial ideas to gullible big companies, something everyone in the Valley has been longing for. Update: TripAdvisor is denying some or all of the report, dashing everyone's dreams of Facebook-app millions. [Inside Facebook]
Long-suffering Facebook spokesprofile Brandee Barker, besieged by a string of PR disasters, has hired some much-needed professional help. Personnel from OutCast Communications, the PR firm that helped launch Salesforce.com, are now listed as "officers" of Facebook's official group for journalists. [Facebook]
Founders never share power willingly, gracefully, or for very long. That's a lesson that Facebook's Owen Van Natta should have learned at the knee of Jeff Bezos, when Van Natta was an executive at Amazon.com. Instead, though, he's been schooled in it by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who just demoted Van Natta from COO to chief revenue officer and VP of operations, Kara Swisher reports on AllThingsD. Zuckerberg's former No. 2, once trusted to attend the Sun Valley media-mogul conference in his stead, now shares key duties with a host of other executives. Here's a rundown on Van Natta's new rivals.
If anything kills Facebook for good, it will be the parents. It was bad enough when moms started joining Facebook to spy on their kids. Now, ABC's "Good Morning America" reports in this clip, today's generation of ever-hovering "helicopter" parents is using the social network to check out their kids' prospective roommates.
When I compared the inadvertent release of Facebook's source code to a tabloid publishing nudie shots of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, CNBC host Melissa Francis said she had no idea what I was talking about. Heck, I had no idea what I was talking about. I think the point was that the episode was embarrassing but mostly meaningless. Sort of like this clip!
What do you do if you are the granddaddy of social networks, having been around for more than a decade, but you aren't getting any bounce from the social-network buzz? Shoot for the moon, of course! Classmates.com, acquired by discount Internet service provider United Online for $100 million in 2004, is being spun off in hopes of raising $125 million in an IPO. With the Valley in thrall to social networks, the IPO market heating up, and Facebook's mythical valuation going ever higher, it's the perfect time for United Online to capitalize on the purchase. But what goes up can also go down. Here's how the IPO play could backfire.
A security research firm found that 4 out of 10 Facebook users readily accepted a made-up account's invitation to be friends, sharing personal information like dates of birth and phone numbers. The other 60 percent, according to promiscuous Facebook user Robert Scoble's way of thinking, are incredibly rude "faceslammers." [News.com]
FROM THE DESK OF MEGAN MCCARTHY — This weekend, the New York Times ran an article on how entrepreneurs really need to get their paperwork in order before hiring staff, using the Facebook-ConnectU lawsuit as an example. One person's oral contract is another person's "dorm room chit-chat," as the judge in the case put it, and what have you. Or something along those lines. Whatever. I couldn't really pay attention to the text. Did you see that picture? That was a bold move, Mr. Anonymous Times Photo Editor, illustrating the article with a gratuitous full-on crotch shot of one Mr. Tyler Winklevoss. One that I'd like to applaud, if I could stop staring at that image. Goodness.
You'd think Mark Zuckerberg would be thrilled to make the cover of Newsweek. But secretly, we bet, the CEO and founder of Facebook is fuming. Why? Because the venerable weekly made a newbie mistake on the cover, one that Facebookers find grating. The cover invites readers to "add" Mark as a friend. Yes, the site does have an "Add Friend" dialog, so it's technically correct — but insiders hate the "add" usage, since it's easily confused with MySpace's lingo. Mark's own sister, Randi Jayne, chewed me out a couple weeks ago for that very mistake. And anyone who's used the site — clearly, not Newsweek's editors — knows that the proper terminology is to "request" or "confirm" someone as a friend. The basic gaffe tells us that the rest of the story — a predictable rehash by writer Steven Levy, assisted by eight (eight!) colleagues — can mostly be dismissed with the "Ignore" button. A few interesting status updates, after the jump:
Facebook has suffered another software bug this weekend — one that displays the site's source code on users' screens. How ironic: Instead of violating its users' privacy, as it did last time when a bug let people see other users' personal data, Facebook has now violated its own. The Facebook Secrets blog has posted the code for the curious, as have others. Facebook lawyers have already started sending cease-and-desist letters asking that the code be taken down, and spokesperson Brandee Barker has requested that people not post it. Which raises the question: What's in the code that Facebook doesn't want you to see?
Let's say you're a recent college grad, looking to join one of Silicon Valley's most buzzed-about companies. Facebook, with its drumbeat of hints pointing to an IPO, seems like a potentially profitable choice. And, since they offer a $600 stipend if you live within a mile of the office, you decide to live in Palo Alto, even though you might prefer San Francisco. Think there's nothing going on in Palo Alto? Wrong. Even if you burn the midnight oil, there are spots to refuel — or wind down. Here's your guide to the nightlife offerings within stumbling distance of Facebook HQ.
Dare Obasanjo's Facebook newsfeed is being overrun by the promiscuous spokesblogger, Robert Scoble, Facebook friend to all. Despite having many active friends on the social network, roughly half of the Microsoft program manager's Facebook feed is all Scoble, all the time. And Dare is powerless to stop it. Despite specifying he should receive less updates about Scoble, Facebook keeps feeding Obasanjo more Scoble "news."
It's no surprise that we leave digital fingerprints everywhere. Social networks are just part of the problem. Every time we submit information electronically, whether it's a Social Security number, address, or medical history, we're opening ourselves to identity theft. Computer scientist Latanya Sweeney, a privacy specialist, says that today's developers simply have no interest in using technologies that would protect personal information. To solve this pending crisis — just wait until Spock gets out of beta! — engineers need to be trained to "design and build technologies in the right kind of way from the beginning." Here's why that's never going to happen.
Is Facebook the new Google? In one respect, yes. Just like the ever-expanding search engine, Facebook is gobbling up prime Silicon Valley real estate, setting its sites on downtown Palo Alto's office space. In addition to their main offices at 156 University Avenue and 164 Hamilton Ave, they recently opened up a third office across the street at 151 University, and will expand into another building on Hamilton sometime this fall. Add to that its $600-a-month subsidy to employees who live within a mile of the office, and the company's affecting rents, too. With 300 employees, and more being hired, Facebook's expansion is no surprise. But most tech hacks, writing from the comfort of their San Francisco desks, have only noted the company's cultural impact. If you're a Peninsula dweller, it's hard to notice the physical — and economic — impact. Here's what the influx of fresh-faced Facebookers means to you.
Pete Curley is a hardcore Facebook user. Which is a curious admission, since he's also the product manager of Plaxo Pulse, the spammy contact-management website's attempt to reinvent itself as yet another social network. Curley's claim: He needs both Facebook and Pulse, since his Facebook profile is too tawdry to reveal in public:
First came Facebook's marketplace feature, a challenger to Craigslist's for-sale listings. Now the social network is taking on filthy-rich Craig Newmark in another key attractor: the couch-surfing market. Travel search-engine SideStep has signed up on Mark Zuckerberg's team by building a Facebook app, CouchSwap, to target the broke college-student traveler. You can search for a couch by location or send out special requests — a much more efficient way to go about locating crash space than trawling Craigslist listings. And after a successful crash, users can rate their stay. If you want to participate, though, you'll have to be willing to share your living room, too — a requirement Craigslist doesn't impose. The dark horse in this race: The established CouchSurfing.com community. (Photo by Erik Abderhalden)
