Would you pay $10,000 for pizza and a bride?
I don't know what's stranger, Pizza Hut's Valentine's Day marketing gimmick or one of our editors finding it on Facebook. BetaNews FileForum managing editor Eddie Elmore consistently drops interesting links into group chat. The link to the Pizza Hut promo churned up so much discussion among the staff, I had to post.
If you're willing to pay Pizza Hut $10,000 and another 10 bucks for a Dinner Box, the restauranteur will help you propose marriage. Besides the food, you get a ruby ring, limo service, flowers (hey, it's Valentine's Day), photographer, videographer and your own fireworks show. My question: What if he or she says no. You want to be damn sure of the answer beforehand.
Hangout at the Google+ developer page
Well, it took long enough. Google waited until passing 100 million G+ users before opening a platform developer page. What? You think only Facebook has a social network platform agenda? Google has ambitions, too.
Perhaps the big thing will be the weekly Hangouts, where Google+ developers can get the lowdown. It's nothing on the scale of Microsoft's Channel 9 (Say didn't Vic Gundotra have a hand in both Nine and G+?). Channel 9 is more about broadcasting developer information, while Hangouts are live and more interactive.
We need new privacy policies for a new world
In a major update to its privacy policy and the addition of "Search Plus Your World", Google has managed to attain the consensus from the tech-enthused world that it is way beyond the innocent baby days of "don’t be evil". Matt Honan of Gizmodo signalled the privacy shift as the end of Google’s "don’t be evil" promise, which the company built its business on, and Sarah Lacy of Pando Daily shared similar sentiments, though hers was related to the Search Plus Your World outcry.
In a nutshell, one of the biggest sore points that people are having with Google’s new privacy policy is the fact that it permits the search giant to utilize your basic profile information and extend it across your identities when using your other Google services. These changes aren't so much evil, but adaptation to our merging online and offline identities.
Will you pay for Facebook?
Are you ready to pay for Facebook? You just may. Analyst Foad Fadaghi of Telsyte, an Australian technology research firm, tells news.com.au that premium accounts are an option to increase revenues.
As I argued on Wednesday, Facebook now must answer to shareholders. Being a public company is a completely different world from life as a private company. Fadaghi also expects Facebook to make advertising more invasive, as investors demand better performance. Ain't that grand?
Android's People app is no Windows Phone People Hub
Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, takes a slightly different approach to social content organization and management, and includes a couple of new APIs to let application developers surface social network data.
If you've got ICS running on your phone already, you have probably already noticed the "People" application, Android's revamped contacts system that unifies different social networks and methods of communication under a single profile, allowing information to be more centrally located on a user's phone and shared out when needed.
How fast has Facebook grown?
That's a question many people will ask today following Facebook's IPO filing. In March 2007, less than a year after opening to the public, the social network had 30 million users. The number is more than 800 million today. But neither number truly reveals Facebook's global impact.
Last summer, Pew Internet found that 92 percent of social network users are on Facebook -- just 17 percent on Twitter. Today, comScore released data on Facebook penetration across the globe, as measured as percentage of total Internet audience.
Facebook's IPO is light on guarantees, heavy on risk
So Facebook is set to go public today. It's the most anticipated initial public offering since Google in 2004, and may net the Menlo Park, Calif. social network between $5 billion and $10 billion, according to estimates. That said, I am still lost as to how Facebook's going to be able to wow Wall Street from quarter to quarter, and we all know that's what investors (and the tech press) are looking for.
The IPO will cause pandemonium on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, as investors attempt to cash in on one of the most successful Web companies in history. This type of market hysteria is prone to pitfalls: fellow social networking site LinkedIn saw its shares skyrocket to nearly $95 in the first day of trading from an IPO of $45, but it has since given back about half of those gains.
Google+ tops 100 million users
That will be the number by end of today, according to FamilyLink founder and unofficial Google+ statistician Paul Allen. The number has grown from 90 million since Google CEO Larry Page's official statement just two weeks ago.
Allen's announcement comes as rival Facebook announces its public offering, and quite possibly the largest one ever. Not since Netscape's IPO at the dawn of the World Wide Web era has a tech company generated so much interest going public. But Facebook has a new rival that's growing fast and leveraging hard existing Google assets. By year's end, Google+ could have half as many users as Facebook does today.
Google+ names policy goes just far enough
There are lots of places where you can be anonymous online. Google+ isn't one of them. Late today, Google announced a revision to the G+ names policy that doesn't change this, but it does allow people to use nicknames and established pseudonyms. If anonymity is your thing, go somewhere else. I don't want you on Google+. You can bully pulpit somewhere else. As for those folks whose lives might be at risk for using real names, please be safe someplace else -- Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, Tumblr or WordPress, for example. Those services have proven they can protect your identity.
But, of course, the griping will continue from the Internet rabble determined to hide their identities everywhere. They want more from Google than just nicknames. What are you afraid of? I use my real name everywhere, as I have always done. I see that as being in the very spirit of the open -- and transparent -- Internet. Be who you are, not someone else. And if that comment --- or other online interaction -- requires you to hide your identity, shut the frak up. Vent somewhere else. For everyone else, and this includes people who have built up alternative identities, Google+ welcomes you.
Koobface hackers are easily found on Facebook, elsewhere
The attackers behind the Koobface worm are not doing much to cover their tracks, say security researchers with Facebook and several security firms. Hackers are living a comfortable life in St. Petersburg, Russia, and have been posting freely to social networking sites such as Facebook and Foursquare.
Facebook and law enforcement have reportedly known their identities for several years. At least one of the members of the gang has repeatedly broadcast the location of the group's offices via Foursquare, including pictures of members at work -- presumably spreading Koobface around the world.
Murdoch on MySpace: 'We screwed up in every way possible'
While his wife's Twitter account was fake, News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch's is indeed real -- and on Thursday evening his followers got some real talk on his feelings over the failures of MySpace. When the company bought MySpace for around $580 million in 2005, it was thought to be the gateway to expanding Murdoch's empire to the web. Remember at the time, MySpace was the leading social network and Facebook wasn't open to the public.
That was not to be. Almost immediately following the transaction, criticism began to build. Then upstart Facebook began to catch fire, eventually matching MySpace's traffic three years after the merger.
Privacy group demands FTC investigate Google search changes
The chorus of opposition to Google's recent search changes grows louder, with Electronic Privacy Information Center urging the Federal Trade Commission to launch an investigation into whether or not Google is violating users' privacy with the new feature.
Google settled with the FTC in March over its failed Buzz service, submitting to privacy audits for a period of 20 years as a result. EPIC is specifically concerned with personal data, photos, posts, and contact details being included in search results.
Google's new personalized search raises antitrust concerns
Google is diving deeper into personalized search results, debuting a feature called "Google Plus Your World". But the debut of the service, which pulls results from your own content plus social circles from Google-owned services may catch the ire of regulators.
The company is fighting off calls on Capitol Hill over antitrust claims, and in September found itself testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights. Senators wanted to gauge the power the Mountain View, Calif. company has over the search industry, and favoring Google's own service is sure to raise questions.
Android users love Facebook, Google+ not so much
This week, Nielsen listed the most popular Android apps by age group -- 18-24; 25-34; 35-44. Well, well, talk about age discrimination. Perhaps people 45 or older are considered to be iPhone users? For shame! The data is interesting not for what is there but what's not. Facebook tops all three age groups, when looking at actual apps. Android Market ranks higher. Google+ -- and Twitter, for the matter -- is nowhere in sight.
For all the buzz about Google+, and I am a big fan, it's not among the top-15 apps for each age group. That's no small thing. Mobile phones are by and far the most personal devices everyone uses. They're where people connect to other people and things that are important to them. Facebook clearly matters, Google+ and Twitter do not -- as measured by most-popular apps. I suppose some people could use browsers to access the services, but why would they?
Twitter releases TweeDeck 1.0 -- get it now!
Twitter has released the first stable release of TweetDeck 1.0, its recently acquired, multi-columned Twitter client. TweetDeck 1.0, which runs on both Mac and Windows, is the first release to be written in native code as opposed to as an Adobe AIR application.
The release has proved controversial -- many users feel let down by the loss of a number of features that were present in earlier, beta releases of the software. Users must also register separately with TweetDeck before being able to use the new app -- in previous releases, registration was optional.
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