What is the next Facebook (or is there one)?

Facebook is trying to be the "network provided".

When the company Hooded resistant CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced a new feature called Timeline in September, Facebook announced that he would be the site - or social network or application or whatever - to catalog life from birth to death. The site even created a place for users to upload their photos of baby to signify the beginning of their lives on Facebook.

This, of course, has happened before in the history of the Internet. There was a time when technology experts thought MySpace, Friendster and AltaVista would be around (and relevant) forever, too. But what is strange bold Facebook from birth until death claim is that, for many people, it seemed so strange.Maybe Facebook can last forever. Perhaps, after 901 million users, is really something different.

As Facebook becomes public, the crowd is not a question you should ask Wall Street is: Is there anything ever replace Facebook? And if so, what could be the plan? If not, you could even compete with Facebook right now?Some writers, including Alexis Madrigal in the Atlantic,
have argued that it is time for the post to facebook emerging. Many people seem to agree with that. A recent survey by the Associated Press and CNBC found half of Americans think that Facebook is a "fad", according to technology blog Time.They are all good wishes, though. Chances are that we are reaching a time when applications and micro-social networks-Facebook does not dislodge, but at least compete with him in some ways - or even increase their capabilities. The rudimentary photo sharing application Instagram did. So did Glancee, a "social discovery" mobile application. But obviously, Facebook bought both.CNNMoney: 7 startups should buy FacebookHere is a list of 9 sites and applications that somewhat-sorta-maybe they could challenge the dominance of Facebook. Or at least offer a partial alternative. Become a look and do not hesitate to fight us on the list for comments. (Note: The number of users vary by location and application, is somewhat apples to oranges).Highlight (users not published): This "social discovery" application was the buzz in the South by Southwest Interactive this year, a conference in Austin, Texas, that makes or breaks many high-tech start-ups. In essence, the application aims to give people real time information about the people around him. "San Francisco is a city of 800,000 foreigners," said the prominent founder Paul Davison time. "You sit on the bus next to each other. We stop in a line next to each other. You and meetings where the bars are. You walk to the other street. And you do not know anything about anyone you see. "Highlights offers users a" sixth sense "of what these people around you like and dislike, and if possible to be friends.Path (3 million users) Founded by former Facebook Dave Morin, Way has a few things in your favor that Facebook does not: It is mobile in the first place, which is important in a world where people tend to network on their phones more than ever on their desktops, and that is intimate. Friend caps Route users shows 50 people, ensuring that you're actually communicating your true self with people who really know in real life. "Path is really focused on close friends and family, and the development of deeper and more intimate relations between the 50 closest people in your life," Morin said on CNN last year. A redesign of application Way won a new wave of support from the public begins at the start-l'adopció technology, but a lousy statement in February, during which it was revealed that the list of users stored route phone contact, may have eroded the confidence of some people. Morin apologized for the error data, saying it was accidental and had been amended.Pinterest (11.5 million active users a month online via Facebook, according to AppData) A recent report from marketing firm Experian said Pinterest "the best social media implementation from Facebook and YouTube. " The site allows users to "fix" the photos of your favorite Internet findings to staff tables, which can be shared with friends or keep private. Pinterest actually launched in March 2010 without much notice from the creators of the taste of high technology in Silicon Valley. It grew in popularity in late 2011 and early this year, according to Experian's report is the third most visited social networking site in the United States, excluding the use of mobile. The site is especially popular among people who are designing and the art of mind, or are trying to plan events or decorate a new home. Also: President Obama uses it. But there have been questions lately about whether the site's popularity is declining.Viddy (36 million active users a month connected to Facebook, according to AppData) Posted by Paris Hilton as "like Instagram, but the video is all," Viddy allows users to record and upload 15 second clips video, and then with the stylized retro-hipster-looking filters. Viddy is not the first to test the short video-app. An application calls of 12 seconds was a pioneer in this space a few years back, and then quenched. However, the launch looks set to capitalize on the success of Instagram as an application that anyone can take pictures of interesting and fun to watch. Maybe Viddy can do the same for short video messages.Tumblr (56 million blogs) is a Tumblr blog network a social network, but is an increasingly popular platform for creative types to share stories and videos about their lives. Founder David Karp describes it thus: "Tumblr is the best place on earth for some of the most creative people in the world, so we are trying to build basically the best tools for self-expression."Google + (90 million accounts) In terms of format, the social network Google is more like Facebook. But not so successful. The network, launched last summer and immediately seen as a newcomer to tracking Facebook is the target of the ongoing jokes in the world of technology. Want to put a picture in which no one sees it? Submit to Google +. The funny thing is that the network still has some steam and relevance long after that that I thought I would hate to die. In part this is due to the large hand control Google has on internet searches. Because articles are published on Google and give them a degree of priority (there is a big fight about how much) through another type of content, some people use Google and just because their digital lives are for public search.Twitter (140 million active users) I mean, you know what Twitter is by now, right? Six years have passed. The micro-blogging site has become more of a news service that a social network these days, though still used as a chat program for a public company a lot of people. As Rebecca Rosen says the Atlantic, there are websites (and a lot of applications of the tablet) to treat aggregates and links shared via Twitter screen. It is "Twitter without Twitter feed," as she says, and it may well be the future of this network, which was a pioneer in real-time communication online.LinkedIn (161 million accounts) LinkedIn generally missed in the debate on the online "social networking" sites. Especially because it's fun to socialize when you're wearing a tie and pushing your resume in the face of all you know. However, the site 10 years of age (that is two years older than Facebook) has proved to be the primary destination for a special type of network - and business-type. And there are some signals that are loose. The cleverly designed iPad and iPhone applications LinkedIn receives rave reviews from the series of high technology. And, as an anecdote, which most people seem to be writing about his personal life in a network that was designed primarily for professional connections.Bono edition: airtime (0 users) An application without users? Why is the list? Remember that guy who played Justin Timberlake "The Social Network?" The name of this type is Sean Parker and he is the long awaited release of this application on 5 June. The creator of Napster is considered a leading Silicon Valley makers of taste - or at least one of the richest. It is therefore possible that this video could increase social start to the point that casts doubt on Facebook, which is a Parker also invested in. Who knows? But it is worth seeing.

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Facebook IPO could value it among top compa

When Facebook makes its long-expected debut as a public company this spring, the social-networking company will likely vault into the ranks of the largest public companies in the world, alongside McDonald's, Amazon.com and Bank of America.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Facebook is preparing to file initial paperwork for an offering that could raise as much as $10 billion and value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion. The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission could come as early as Wednesday, with an initial public offering of stock in three or four months.

The targeted amount would slot it among the world's 25 largest IPOs, although as recently as November 2010, General Motors raised $15.8 billion when it shed majority control by the U.S. government.

The IPOs of 14 companies would rank higher than Facebook's, according to investment adviserRenaissance Capital. Among them were Visa Inc.'s $17.9 billion IPO in March 2008, the largest for a U.S. company, and world-topper Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., which raised $19.3 billion in July 2010, not including extra shares issued to meet demand.

Facebook spokesman Larry Wu said the company will not comment on IPO-related speculation. The Journal had cited unnamed people familiar with the matter.

The Journal also said that Facebook was close to picking Morgan Stanley as the lead underwriter, which would be a setback for rival Goldman Sachs. Both declined comment to The Associated Press.

The buzz surrounding an outsized haul for Facebook's founders, employees and early investors remains a hopeful sign for capital markets following a deep recession. At the reported price, Facebook's IPO would be the biggest for a U.S. Internet company ever — topping the debut of one of its main rivals, Google Inc.

"We are expecting 2012 to be a year of recovery for the IPO market led by the Facebook IPO," said Kathy Smith, Renaissance Capital's principal.

The event will follow a string of tepid debuts by technology startups including social game maker Zynga and discount advertiser Groupon. The stocks of both companies are just pennies above their offering prices in December and November respectively. Zynga's stock fell 5 percent below the IPO price on its first day of trading.

Facebook's will be the most anticipated tech IPO since Google went public in August 2004. Not including shares sold by early investors, the Internet search giant raised $1.2 billion and grabbed a market value of $23 billion, the biggest so far for a U.S. Internet company. The IPO raised $1.9 billion, including shares sold by early investors and extra stock issued to meet the heavy demand. It's not known whether Facebook's $10 billion target includes shares owned by early investors.

Facebook's reported valuation of $75 billion to $100 billion compares with about $100 billion for McDonald's Corp., $90 billion for Citigroup Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. and $75 billion for Bank of America Corp. It would exceed the market cap of $55 billion for Hewlett-Packard Co., one of the world's largest technology companies by revenue.

Both Facebook and Google earn most of their money from advertising and are now competing to gain as much information as possible about their users to help advertisers target niche audiences.

According to eMarketer, Facebook is expected to grow its share of the U.S. display ad market to about 20 percent this year from 16 percent in 2011, above second-ranked Yahoo expected share of about 13 percent. For overall online ad revenue, Facebook is seen grabbing just 8 percent of the market this year, compared with 45 percent for Google.

EMarketer estimates that Facebook's ad revenue will grow 52 percent to $5.78 billion this year and will reach $7 billion in 2013.

Despite presumably topping Google's public launch, Facebook spent more time growing behind the veil of private ownership than its rival.

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his college roommates in 2004 and is debuting on stock markets in its eighth year. Google's IPO came six years after being founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. When Google turned eight in August 2006, its market cap was roughly $116 billion. Today, the company is worth nearly $190 billion down from a peak of about $235 billion in November 2007.

Investors may be asked to bet heavily on the belief that Facebook will continue to revolutionize the way people communicate around the globe. Even with Facebook's heady growth rate, Google had ad revenue last year of more than five times what Facebook is expected to get in 2013. Yet it is Google that is mimicking Facebook in building a rival social network called Plus.

"There's the general feeling that Facebook might be the future of the way the Internet works," said eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson.

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Web Tom Hanks' series to stream on Yahoo

Ting long guest Tom Hanks' Web series comes to Yahoo.

"Electric City," an animated futuristic series Hanks has been developing for many years, will premiere on Yahoo this spring. The series contains 20 elements, each three or four minutes in length.

 Yahoo, along with Hanks and manufacturing partners Play Tone and Reliance Entertainment is planning to formally announce plans for a series Tuesday at an international consumer electronics Show in Las Vegas.


"Electric City" will be distributed online and through a table with the usual interaction and social media connections, but also some new features. Not least, it will be available in several languages​​, including Spanish and French. Along with producing, Hanks will voice a character.

 For Hanks, from the "Electric City" caps actor's efforts to find the right avenue for the project. He first tried to do a series with puppets. He announced earlier it would be released in early 2011.

The series is set in a seemingly peaceful city located in the post apocalyptic world. Many themes that are socially conscious material relevant to today, including energy.

"It was always intended us to have this project live and breathe online, and we thought Yahoo would be a perfect world," said Gary Goetzman, co-founder of the company's production of Play Tone, Hanks.

For Yahoo, "Electric City" is first written into the original programming. Yahoo has been beefing up the online videos with reality series and wrap up the news shows, many of which rank among the most viewed series online.

 "Electric City" is likely to presage further written assignments for Yahoo.

"There are a number of other opportunities we are looking at, and I think we're particularly going to build this type of application event tent-pole," says McPherson. "I would expect that you'll see us doing more of it."

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Tracking Facebook is under scrutiny

In recent weeks, Facebook has been a dispute with the Federal Trade Commission about the site of the social environment violates users' privacy by disclosing too much of their personal information.

Facebook officials now admit that the social media giant was able to create a working log of web pages that each of its 800 million or so members visited during the previous 90 days. Facebook also keeps close track of where millions of people who are not members of social networks are going to the Internet, visiting web pages,To do this, the company relies on technology like tracking cookies on the controversial system used by Google, Adobe, Microsoft, Yahoo and others in the industry of online advertising, said Arturo Bejar, technical director of Facebook.
Facebook effort to track the browsing habits of visitors to your web site made the company a player in the "Do Not Track" debate, which focuses on whether consumers should be able to prevent websites from tracking consumers' online activity.
For business on the Internet and social media sites, such information may be particularly valuable in helping them to tailor online advertising to specific users. But privacy advocates worry about how more information can be used, and whether it could be sold to third parties.

If privacy advocates get their way, consumers may soon have the right to suspend or restrict technology companies and advertising networks to track them wherever they go online. But the online advertising industry has dug its heels in, trying to keep the current system of self-regulation.


Includes internet tracking technology, technology companies and advertising networks use over ten years to help advertisers over relevant ads to each viewer. So far, Facebook, which makes most of its revenue from advertising, was ambiguous in his public statements about the extent to which it collects data tracking.
It argues that it does not belong in the same camp as Google, Microsoft and other major players in the industry of online classifieds. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made it a point to interviewer Charlie Rose on national television last week.
In the past few weeks, Zuckerberg and Facebook and other officials tried to allocate as Facebook and others use the tracking data. Facebook uses such information only to improve safety and as a "Like" button, and the like Facebook plug-ins to perform, Bejart told USA TODAY. Plug-ubiquitous web applications that allow you to connect to the service Facebook from millions of third-party Web pages.
Facebook representative Andrew Noyes said the company "has no plans to change the way we use these data." He also said that the company's intentions, "in sharp contrast to many advertising networks and data brokers who knowingly and in many cases secretly track people to create profiles of their behavior, to sell that content to the highest bidder, or to use this content targeted advertising . "

conflicting pressures    
Instead, to appease his critics, Facebook, public explanation of how it tracks and how it uses the tracking data has caused a flurry of questions from technologists, privacy advocates, regulators and lawmakers around the world.
"Facebook may be tracking users without the knowledge or permission, which may be unfair or deceptive business practices," said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., co-authored with Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, a bill aimed at limiting the online tracking of children.
The company "should be covered by strong guarantees of privacy," says Mark. "The massive treasure the personal information that is stored on its Facebook users can have a significant impact on them - now and in the future."
After Zuckerberg appeared on the Charlie Rose TV show last week, Mark and Barton sent a letter to the 27-year-old general manager asked him to explain why Facebook recently filed a U.S. patent for technology that includes a method to correlate the tracking data from the ads. They gave Zuckerberg December 1 deadline for a response.
"We have patented a lot of things, and future products should not be inferred from our patent application," Facebook representative Barry Schnitt corporate says.
He has to prove its global financial backers that he is worthy of hundreds of millions of dollars they poured into the company's financial and technical analysts say. Those investors include Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Russia investment company Digital Sky Technologies, Hong Kong financier Sir Ka-Shing Lee and venture capitalist Peter Thiel, Andreas.
The success of the company's initial public stock offering is expected next year, hinges, in particular the ability of Facebook, to go beyond bread and butter of text ads that appear in the pages of members of the house and become a key player in the graphical display ads and corporate brand marketing campaigns said Rebecca Lieb, advertising media analyst group Altimeter.
To meet the growing expectations, Facebook has increased its annual income, currently estimated at approximately $ 4 billion, on double-digit percentage points in the coming years, Gluck says. The company strives to keep their options open, to do so. In this case it bumping into pressure from critics who worry that leaving the online privacy standards entirely in the hands of corporations may not be a bad idea.


Facebook is a storehouse of data


Facebook for the first time revealed details about how it compiles its data tracking treasure in a series of telephone and email interviews with USA TODAY Bejart, Noyes, and Schnitt, as well as technical manager Gregg Stefancik and corporate spokesperson Jaime Schopflin. That's what they revealed:
-Company compiles tracking data in different ways for members who have signed in and use their accounts for members who are logged-off and for non-members. Tracking process begins when you initially visit facebook.com page. If you want to subscribe to the new account, Facebook inserts of two different types of tracking cookies in your browser "cookies" and "browser cookies". If you do not want to become a member, and move on, you only get a browser cookie.
From now on, every time you visit the third-party Web page that Facebook Like button or other Facebook plug-in, plug-in works in conjunction with cookies to notify Facebook of the date, time, and the web address of the web page you clicked on. The unique characteristics of your computer and browser, such as your IP-address, screen resolution, operating system and browser versions are also recorded.
If you are logged on to Facebook your account and surf the web, your session cookie holds this posting. Extra session cookie records your name, email address, friends and all the data associated with your profile on Facebook. If you are logged-off, or if you are not a member, browser cookies conducts registration, it is further reports of a unique identifier for alphanumeric, but not personal information.
Bejart acknowledged that Facebook can find out where specific members go on the web, when they came out of the system by comparing the unique characteristics of computer and browser are registered as a session cookie and browser cookies.
Bejar also acknowledged that "technical similarity" in a cookie based tracking technology used by Facebook and the wider online industry advertising. "But we do not like advertising network, all of our leadership in the data, how we use it, and we were all out," said Bejart. "We have a very clear and transparent approach to how to do advertising that I am very proud."
Nevertheless, Facebook, social descriptions of its tracking system did not satisfy some critics - particularly the European governing confidentiality. Ilse Aigner, Germany's Minister for Consumer Protection, last month banned the Facebook plug-ins from government websites and advised private companies to do the same.
And Thilo Weichert, data protection commissioner in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, expressed concern about how the technology Facebook, can potentially be used to create extensive profiles of individual Internet users.
"Anyone who visits or uses the Facebook plug-in must be expected that he or she will be followed by a period of two years", Weichert said in a statement. "Such profiling violates German and European data protection law."
Adding fuel to these issues, Arnold Roosendaal, doctoral student at the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands, and Nick Cubrilovic, an independent Australian researcher, separately documented, as a web page containing the Facebook plug-in by tracking more extensive than Facebook publicly confessed.
Noyes said Germany did not understand how tracking technology of the company. And he accuses the "software bugs" to track indiscriminate found Roosendaal and Cubrilovic.
Nevertheless, the researcher says Roosendaal Facebook, tracking cookies retain the ability to track well, are not members and registered with the members, so. "They faced the same problem now several times and each time they call it a mistake. It really is not conducive to winning the trust."
Some corporate executives have become concerned about cyber security to get track data is transferred as a button, you can use this intelligence to steal intellectual property. They asked the firewall vendor Palo Alto Networks to identify and block traffic from Facebook tracking cookies, allowing its employees to continue to use other services Facebook.
"The idea is that Facebook has a rich personal information that Google does not have," says Nir Beetle, founder and CTO of Palo Alto Networks. "The combination of that personal information from Web browsing patterns can be a revelation."

The basic rules are needed


Companies implement data tracking in the new business model "does not necessarily evaluate the long-term effects and the collective," says Craig Spiezle, executive director of the nonprofit Internet Alliance Trust.
Last week, the consumer reporter Ric Romero station KABC in Los Angeles showed how the insurance companies to monitor Facebook and Twitter, looking for reasons raise premiums and deny claims. Earlier, ABC News reporter Lyneka Little reported on how employers use Facebook information as part of the recruitment process.
Meanwhile, researchers at AT & T Labs and Worcester Polytechnic Institute as recorded tracking data from the internet search and browsing can be linked to personal information that Internet users reveal sites for shopping, travel, health or work. Personal information disclosure in social networks, as well as preference data collected from new applications for smartphones and tablet PCs are now being tossed into the mix, too.
Privacy advocates fear that in the near future, corporations, government agencies and political parties may take in tracking data from aggregators.
"Tracking data can be used to determine your political bent, religion, sexual preference, health, or what you are looking for a new job," said Peter Eckersley, director of technology projects Electronic Frontier Foundation,. "There are all kinds of ways to form wrong judgments about people."
So far, it does not appear that this kind of correlation data is being done, at least on a large scale. But in the absence of basic rules, technologists, regulators and privacy advocates fear that the companies involved in data collection tracking systems may be tempted to make money in.
Says Michael Fertik, founder and CEO of Reputation.com: "We can only assume that the advertising company with a rich treasure of data will be selling more and more of that data."

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Battery fixing the new iPhone, Apple devices

Apple-has released a software update to fix the problem, which is shortening the battery on some iPhones, iPads and iPods.
Apple-has said that a small number of customers have reported lower - than - expected battery on devices running IOS 5 operating system company. This is the software that has the iPhone 4S and was available as a free update of some of the old equipment - both iPads, iPhone 3GS and 4 and the two newest models of iPod Touch.

Apple on Thursday released version 5.0.1 to fix the errors it found the program. Users can receive updates by connecting iTunes.

Other changes include better voice recognition on the Australian use of dictation.
Some users who have upgraded the software, said that they still have issues with battery life. Apple on Friday announced the resumption of the many problems, "We are continuing our investigation into the few remaining issues."

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