I’m starting to believe SocialCam is just a glorified phishing app infecting Facebook. The popular video-sharing app better close its privacy loopholes before people get turned off and never use it again… So, why you should turn it off »

When you click on any SocialCam link on Facebook and accept their app, every Socialcam video you watch from then on is shared to your Facebook friends automatically. […] The content can be questionable, the titles of the videos are often very salacious, and embarrassment can ensue with the images it posts on your timeline, all without any notice to you and your account.

The Facebook Offering

While it may not be quite as compelling as The Liz Lemon Hair Timeline, there’s certainly something engaging about this Facebook IPO Infographic. Namely, it that it shows Facebook surpassing Google in terms of value and likely being valued around $135 billion by the end of day on Friday. If that number doesn’t blow your mind you aren’t thinking about it hard enough.

Exactly. Another fact that can blow-your-mind: As the trading began, two of the top three search terms on Google Trends were “Facebook stock” and “Facebook IPO.”

Further reading: The Internet at the Dawn of Facebook

theatlantic:

The Internet at the Dawn of Facebook

Facebook launched in 2004. Today, it has more users than the entire Internet had in 2004.

Before Facebook roamed the web, the digital world was dominated by big, bulky websites that assumed they’d stay big and bulky: Microsoft and its Hotmail, Time Warner and its AOL, Ask and its Jeeves. It’s striking how much the Internet has changed since Facebook sprinted onto the scene — and more striking still how Mark Zuckerberg’s production changed the course of that scene.

Back in 2004, 

• the web had some 50 million sites. (Today, it has more than 600 million.) 
• the most popular brand on the World Wide Web was Microsoft’s MSN.
• Google was the fifth most popular brand on the World Wide Web, ranking below Yahoo and AOL.
• people still talked about the “World Wide Web.”
•  ”blog” — defined as “a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks” — was chosen as Merriam-Webster’s word of the year.

Read more. [Image: Thefacebook, lol]

thenextweb:

Since Tumblr integrated with Open Graph last month, its referral traffic from Facebook has grown by more than 2.5x, according to Jeff Sherlock of Facebook’s Developer Blog. (via Since Tumblr integrated with Open Graph last month, traffic from Facebook is up 2.5x - The Next Web)

infoneer-pulse:

However, Facebook also clarifies that “if you’ve removed an application and want them to delete the information you’ve already shared with them, you should contact the application and ask them to delete it.” This implies that, even if you change Facebook’s privacy settings since beginning to use a third-party service, or no longer user the service at all, the service may keep your data on hand unless directly asked to delete it. That is, Facebook won’t be your middle man in data cleanup; however, Facebook does note in the policy that apps are contractually obligated to delete data if asked.

» via ars technica

futuristgerd:

(via Facebook now ‘critical’ to online news traffic, says Pew study)

(via courtenaybird)

“Picture of a screen displaying logos of Facebook taken in Buenos Aires on May 10, 2012. Social-networking giant Facebook will go public on the NASDAQ May 18 with its initial public offering, trading under the symbol FB, in an effort to raise $10.6 billion.” via daylife.com

shortformblog:

Mind you, this an industry that had to be saved from itself through a massive infusion of cash from the federal government (ie., you and me, the people who pay taxes). And what was the lesson learned from the brush with disaster? You tell me. JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, the face of oblivious Wall Street wealth, received $23 million in total compensation last year, about the same as the year before, according to Bloomberg. (Yes, I know JP Morgan repaid its $25 billion in taxpayer money.)

So you’ll have to pardon me if I get a few chuckles out of the irreverence of a young entrepreneur who, far as I know, hasn’t been subsidized by taxpayers and hasn’t risked taking the global economy off a cliff.

Mark Zuckerberg should wear a hoodie to every single business meeting for the rest of his life. Just to annoy Wall Street.

Exactly. That’s what I want to say here!

pleatedjeans:

via

Though “Facebook has raked in billions and will make a splash when its stock hits the open market next week,” still folks on Wall Street are concerned about Mark Zuckerberg’s iconic hoodie. While odd analysts like Michael Pachter, an analyst for Wedbush Securities, thinks that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg might be a better product manager or designer than CEO, fellow bloggers suggests: “If hoodies mean billions of dollars, keep wearing them.”

(Source: CNN)

“The Maturation of the Billionaire Boy-Man” by New York Magazine

Whenever I meet an entrepreneur that tells me about their side projects, I cringe.  Experimentation is good, but hedging is a flawed startup strategy.  If you want to go into the markets and hedge as an investment strategy, that is perfectly sensible.  The juggling act of managing two or more products at the same time however is a recipe for disaster.

Product hedging never works.  Great products are evolved and molded by people that are passionate and wholly invested in a singular idea.  On the other hand, the product of hedged bets looks like Frankenstein.  This is the provenance of big companies and corporate decision making which is all about compromises.  That is why great innovation rarely comes from big companies.

You either believe in what you are doing or you do not.  Instead of spreading your bets, double down on your thing and make is succeed come hell or high water.  Leave the hedging to mega-corporations and money managers.

(via marksbirch)

thenextweb:

The deal was placed by Tasmanian eco-resort Huon Bush Retreats, offering 50 vouchers as part of its Facebook Offer. It allowed customers to book a room a a rate of $99 per night for three nights, resonating with many Australians as they not only redeemed the voucher, they also shared it with their Facebook friends — reaching over 3 million users in total. Initially, only users that had ‘Liked’ the company’s Facebook Page were able to redeem the Offer, but the social network is automatically primed to share the redemption of such a deal (but also by users who stumble upon it and opt to share it on their News Feed), explaining how it was able to expand to such a wide audience. Facebook’s lack of press around the Offers service appears to have been its downfall, not only for the social network but business owners too — one small Northern Irish hotel recently saw one of its offers claimed over 28,000 times in 24 hours. (via Facebook Offers Sends 3m Users to Deal for 50 Vouchers)

thenextweb:

Brazil has overtaken India as the second biggest country on Facebook, SocialBakers reports. According to the social media analytics firm, the country now has over 46m Facebook users, a 22% increase over the last three months: (via Brazil Now the Second Biggest Country on Facebook)