Its proposed acquisition of Twitter now little more than an unrequited Superpoke, Facebook is tweaking its own service to mimic the microblogging outfit. The social network on Wednesday unveiled a new homepage that, in a nod to Twitter’s real-time message broadcasting system, now features “Streams”–Facebook’s “News Feed” revamped to update in real-time.
The Oscars this year will remain decidedly low tech: There won’t be any live online streams where you can watch the 81st Academy Awards. But the real party goes on around the Oscars, anyway, in Web site predictors, mobile apps and other interactive technology.
Here’s a list of all that and more, as the Oscars kick off now.
Looks like Microsoft’s $240 million equity stake in Facebook hasn’t exactly retained its value. When it was announced in October of 2007, the 1.6 percent stake valued the social network at $35.90 per share, or a stupefying $15 billion. But in a court hearing this past June, Facebook appraised itself at $8.88 per share. It’s new self-proclaimed market value: $3.7 billion.
The inane dispute over the provenance of Facebook apparently ended in a multimillion dollar resolution. Facebook has reportedly paid the founders of ConnectU $65 million to settle a lawsuit that accused founder Mark Zuckerberg of lifting the social network’s source code and business plan when he worked for it as a programmer.
What spreads faster than economic gloom and doom, and is more infectious than professional anxiety? That phenomenon known as “25 Things.” Just in time for Facebook’s fifth birthday, the record-breaking waste of time may have reached critical mass this week. Elsewhere this week…
Well this casts MySpace’s user-engagement metrics in a whole new light…
The social network today said it has identified and ousted 90,000 sex offenders–40,000 more than it reported last year when it was subpoenaed by the Connecticut Attorney General’s office as part of an effort to protect minors on social-networking sites.
Rumor has it there are big games going on this weekend–at least one of which involves football players. The rest involve the usual players, though they might appear in different positions–and on different teams–from week to week. These games, most likely, will continue through Monday and beyond. Scores will be kept on an ongoing basis.
The week just passed melded Inauguration week and the first week of earnings reports into one giant package filled with exuberance and resignation. Conventional wisdom says to start with the bad news and end with the good news, but that’s not how it went down: It started high with the momentum and promise of change embodied by Barack Obama’s inauguration as the 44th President of the United States and ended low with some heavy hitters feeling the pain of the downturn.
An appreciative Phil Schiller welcomes the crowd and thanks everyone for showing up. He says it’s an incredibly exciting time for Apple, and offers a quick overview of Apple’s new retail stores. Says Schiller: This year’s Macworld will be all about the Mac. I’ve got three new things to tell you about. Subject No. 1 is iPhoto.
Facebook’s Terms of Service and Code of Conduct state explicitly that “photos and videos containing nudity…are not allowed.” So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the social network removes images that violate those terms, even if they happen to feature a mother breastfeeding her child.
Facebook’s virtual gift market may turn out to be the best holiday shopping option for employees hoping to cash out some of their shares. On Thursday, the company postponed a program that would have allowed employees to sell up to 20 percent of their vested shares.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
Includes “Pigs in a Polka,” “Rabbit of Seville” and, of course, “What’s Opera, Doc?”
Take the famous ballads and duets of West Side Story, insert a dozen mentions of famous social media sites like twitter and facebook, and this is what you get.
An iPod mini rebuilt with a wooden case
Star Wars meets Magnum, P.I.
Music videos recreated with new lyrics based on what’s actually happening in them. Daydream Believer and Total Eclipse of the Heart are particularly good.
In response to numerous e-mails, I have no idea what planet the giant alien creature is from. Judging from its enormous gills, I’d have to guess it’s from a watery planet. Reminder: please let me know if you plan to be in the office on Memorial Day so I can request HVAC for your floor.
For those of you who mock the wolf shirt beware. There is an old Navajo story about a young man who made fun of another man for wearing a wolf trio shirt. Legend has it that in his sleep, the wolves on the other man’s shirt came to life and tore his body to shreds. They never found any part of that man’s body. The Wolf is something to be respected and feared, not treated like a novelty.
Hands down the most inexplicably bizarre game for Wii I’ve ever seen
Yo mama is so attractive she could be on the cover of Prevention.
The inspiration for this project was to determine who could generate the worst flatulence measurable in a personally unbiased manner.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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