How to ensure Facebook posts you want to see aren't hidden

Your News Feed may appear full, but there's a good chance you're not seeing everything that the brands and businesses you've "liked" are posting.

A change to EdgeRank, Facebook's algorithm that determines what posts are seen by whom, is sparking controversy among Page administrators and Facebook users.

Some experts suggest that the changes were made to improve users' experience by ensuring businesses and brands post more interesting, engaging content. Others say Facebook wants businesses and brands to dish out money for advertising to reach more of its audience.

Whether for improved user experience or profit, one thing is clear: Page managers report a drastic decline in user engagement and activity on their page within the last month, which means you aren't seeing the content they post.

The good news: There is a quick fix to remedy this, but it's not available to all users yet. In addition, Facebook confirmed this week that it's rolling out a feature that will notify you when a friend, business or brand posts something you might be interested in.

"We are currently rolling out the ability for people to receive notifications from specific pages, friends or public figures that they are connected to," Facebook says. "This feature will help people to keep up with the people and things that they care most about."

Here's what you need to know about both.

Are you seeing all Facebook posts?

To ensure you receive all updates from a business or brand you have liked, visit its Facebook page. Hover over the "Liked" button below the page's cover photo, and a list of options will appear.

The top option is "Get Notifications." By opting in, you'll receive an alert in your Notifications center whenever that page posts something new. You'll also see the alert in the bottom-left of Facebook, if you're currently logged in.

Click the second option, "Show in News Feed," to make sure all the page's posts appear in your news feed.

Source: techhive.com

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AMD to sell ARM-based server chips in 2014

Advanced Micro Devices has announced it will sell ARM-based server processors in 2014, ending its exclusive commitment to the x86 architecture and adding a new dimension to its decades-old battle with Intel.

AMD will license a 64-bit processor design from ARM and combine it with the Freedom Fabric interconnect technology it acquired when it bought SeaMicro earlier this year, AMD said Monday.

The result will be a new line of system-on-chip Opteron processors that AMD said will be ideal for the type of massive, web-scale workloads running in giant data centers like those operated by Facebook and Amazon.

AMD Rory Read announces his company’s
ARM move Monday.

AMD CEO Rory Read called the announcement a “seminal moment” and compared it to AMD’s introduction of the first 64-bit x86 processors in 2003. AMD beat Intel to the punch with that move, and it hopes to gain a similar advantage by embracing ARM.

It’s not clear yet if ARM-based CPUs will be successful in servers, but one industry analyst said the move by AMD will help. “I really think this raises ARM’s server credibility, and the credibility of microservers as a segment,” said Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights and Strategy.

Server chips based on the x86 architecture will continue to be the mainstay of AMD’s server business, Read said, but he thinks the ARM-based chips will open up new markets for the company. And while AMD is focused initially on servers, he didn’t rule out the possibility that it will eventually make ARM processors for client devices such as tablets as well.

AMD hopes to sell the new server chips to vendors such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard, and will also sell them in its own servers under the SeaMicro brand. Today those systems are based on x86 processors.

AMD was joined at the event by representatives from Red Hat, Dell, Facebook and (by video) Amazon, a sign of the interest ARM-based server chips are generating.

The timing of Monday’s announcement was a bit awkward, since ARM has yet to unveil the 64-bit processor design that AMD plans to license. It’s likely to be a design code-named Atlas that ARM is expected to unveil at its TechCon conference Tuesday, though neither company would confirm that Monday.

The timing was also bad because hurricane Sandy prevented ARM CEO Warren East from flying in from the UK in time to attend the event. He appeared in a video that was hastily shot in the back of a taxi at Heathrow airport, endorsing the partnership with AMD.

ARM-based servers make sense for the new computing requirements created by services such as social networks and online gaming, said Lisa Su, an AMD senior vice president and general manager. Those workloads need a processor that can efficiently handle very large volumes of small transactions.

“The data center is being inundated with massive amounts of data and there has to be a way to do it more efficiently in a smaller space with a lower cost point,” she said.

ARM architectures are considered more energy-efficient for some workloads because they were originally designed for mobile phones and consume less power. That has attracted several vendors to the space, including Calxeda, Applied Micro and Marvell, all of whom are developing ARM-based chips for servers.

AMD hopes to distinguish itself with two SeaMicro technologies — a custom chip that integrates many components from a traditional server board onto one chip, allowing for dense server designs; and its Freedom Fabric, which can connect thousands of servers in a cluster with low latency and at relatively low cost.

“The fabric technology is the secret sauce; this is what will make AMD’s server solution different from other vendors,” Su said.

Intel has said it won’t make ARM-based processors, in part because it doesn’t want to pay ARM a royalty on each chip. But it has been working hard to reduce the power consumption of its own server chips and said it is confident of its technology roadmap.

The company is due to release a low-power server chip in the second half of the year code-named Centerton, and will follow that up next year with a part dubbed Avoton.

“We have what is required by customers — low powered CPUs, support for key server features, and software compatibility to allow use of current workloads and not force any migration,” Intel spokesman Radek Walczyk said via email.

That still doesn’t give it an equivalent to AMD’s Freedom Fabric, however.

“Think of the chip as half the battle,” said Moorhead, the industry analyst. “The part of the battle [Intel] hasn’t discussed yet is the fabric that makes hundreds or thousands of these parts talk to each other. That’s the magic that guys like Calxeda and AMD are bringing to the table.”

Source: pcworld.com

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Online tools to use to track Hurricane Sandy's power

Hurricane Sandy is proving to be a storm not to be trifled with. If you need to stay abreast of the latest developments, there are plenty of useful resources you can find online.

Whether you're within Sandy's wide path or miles away, here are some tips to use if you can get online, and sometimes even if you can't, to stay informed.

Live audio and video

An image from The Weather Channel's live
broadcast Monday morning.

If you subscribe or even just have satellite radio hardware, satellite radio provider Sirius XM has replaced its preview channels with live audio of The Weather Channel’s coverage of Sandy.

You can find this on channel 1 on XM radios, and channel 184 on Sirius. As this channel is available whether you’re subscribed or not, any XM or Sirius radio can listen in, even if your subscription isn't active.

The Weather Channel is streaming live video of its on-air broadcast for the duration of the storm. The video stream is compatible with mobile devices including iOS and Android. This could be useful for folks who have already lost power, but still get connectivity bars on their phones.

Various local television outlets are simulcasting their coverage online: Philadelphia’s ABC affiliate WPVI offers live video, and NBC affiliate WCAU is doing the same. In New York, expected to be one of the hardest hit areas by Sandy’s storm surge, ABC affiliate WABC also is broadcasting live online.

Storm danger

The information upticks are in response to the power of Hurricane Sandy, the so-called megastorm that is more than 900 miles wide. Sandy's path will take it across some of the most populous areas of the country and put more than 50 million people at risk.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg urges residents to evacuate low-lying areas of the five boroughs, the Weather Channel reports the hurricane was still intensifying as of early Monday morning, and the storm is even impacting the Great Lakes to the west including the Chicago area.

Tech companies including Facebook and Google postponed product events scheduled for New York City. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon all say they have emergency measures in place to keep their networks running and restore service as soon as possible during any outages.

On the Web

Anyone looking for raw hurricane data can turn to the National Hurricane Centerfor information. Links to current information on Sandy appear right on the front page, including current intensity, forecast tracks, and radar and satellite data. The Weather Underground features some key storm data as well.

Google's Crisis Map displaying Hurricane Sandy
data on Monday morning

Beyond its live online broadcast, The Weather Channel has loads of coverage worth reading, including a Top 5 things you need to know post and a breakdown of expected impacts on major cities on the East Coast.

The site's front page also includes current Hurricane Sandy data such as the storm's category rating, location, direction, wind speeds, and pressure.

The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times dropped their pay walls for the duration of Hurricane Sandy so you can views their coverage. Other New York newspaper sites worth checking out online include the New York Post and theNew York Daily News.

Google activated its crisis map Web application for Sandy, which overlays forecast information and radar data over information such as weather observations, and locations of storm shelters. If Google's Web app includes too much data to take in all at once, you can turn different layers of data on and off on the right-hand side of the page.

If you want to really appreciate Sandy’s mammoth size, head over to NASA’sEarth Observatory page. Scroll down and you’ll find links to about a dozen high-resolution images of Sandy; more hurricane images may be added over the coming days.

Apps

If you want to get an Android or iOS smartphone or tablet app for dedicated Sandy information there are numerous options, but your best bets are probably apps from the Weather Channel (Android, iOS), the Weather Underground (Android, iOS), FEMA—the Federal Emergency management Agency—(Android, iOS), and Hurricane by the American Red Cross (Android, iOS).

The Red Cross
hurricane app

Don't forget that many smartphones and MP3 players come equipped with an FM radio receiver, which could come in handy for getting vital reports, especially immediately after the storm passes. If you haven't done so yet, test your device's FM radio app to see if it's working properly.

Most FM radio apps require headphones to act as an antenna, so make sure you keep a pair in your pocket after you've tested that the app works.

Social media proves its worth

The Weather Channel has a dedicated hurricane twitter feed, @twc_hurricane, that includes news and tweets from users in the storm's path such as this Instagram shot from Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Reuters news wire, @reuters, has a lot of Sandy-themed information, and The Weather Channel's Stephanie Abrams, @StephanieAbrams, publishs key storm data.

The Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) on Twitter

For tips and shelter information, you should also bookmark accounts such as @fema from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross, @RedCross. New Yorkers should also keep tabs on@311NYC, the city's Twitter equivalent of the 311 government services phone number.

Finally, if you want raw citizen journalism check out the #sandy hashtag, as well as local hashtags like #nyc, #philly, or any other city in the storm's path.

Facebook, Google+, and Instagram

Facebook's Global Disaster Relief page is a good resource for Hurricane Sandy information, as is the Government on Facebook page. Google+ users can bookmark the Hurricane Sandy 2012 stream (warning, this stream is moving fast) for tips and information being posted from across the search giant's social network.

On Instagram's mobile apps, you can also use the #sandy hashtag to find photos of the storm. You cannot search Instagram directly from the web, but services such as Statigram allow you to search through the thousands of pictures that have been posted to the photo-sharing service.

For more go-to tech tips in disaster situations check out:

• How to protect yourself, your tech, and your data when a hurricane blows into town
• Hurricane Sandy tips: how to keep cellphones powered up

Have suggestions or favorite apps and sites to keep up to date on Sandy? Please share them with everyone in the comments.

Source: techhive.com

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Microsoft's Windows 8 event webcast: What we need to see and hear

If you're looking for a way to describe Windows 8 to your less tech-literate friends and family, you might direct them to Microsoft's website Thursday morning, 11:15 am Eastern time. The company will be webcasting the first hour of a nearly day-long event celebrating—and hopefully explaining—its new operating system and Surface RT tablet.

Members of the press received invites to the event in early October. Bearing little more than an embedded image, the message read, "You're invited to celebrate Windows 8, including a Microsoft Surface reception."

Hmmm. Nothing about the invite suggests a real news-gathering opportunity. Nothing suggests a grand product unveiling a la what we've come to expect from an Apple or Google shindig. And let's not forget that Windows 8 has been public since the middle of August as a "release to manufacturing" build, and various members of the technology press (myself included) spent a day at Microsoft's corporate headquarters last week, learning more than we could possibly absorb about the new Surface RT tablet.

So what can Microsoft possibly show us Thursday morning that we don't already know? I will argue with almost metaphysical certainty that you won't see Mr. Ballmer pull a rabbit out of his hat in the form of new, yet-to-be-announced, Microsoft-branded hardware.

Certainly, that kind of dramatic reveal would be welcome, if only to reward so many people who are making travel arrangements and juggling their schedules to attend an event that has all the trappings of a pure PR blitz. (Note: I won't be attending, but another PCWorld editor will.)

Surface RT: Mighty pretty,
but not completely simple to use.

And a grand product unveiling would serve Microsoft well in its efforts to become just as publicly dramatic and showy as Apple, which has perfected the highly choreographed, "we've got a secret to tell" product announcement format. But Thursday morning is not the time to confuse the public with yet a third Microsoft product that defies easy explanation to mainstream consumers.

Windows 8 is not a simple, turnkey operating system that a typical, non-nerd computer user can start using with complete authority without any training. Surface RT is not a computer—err, tablet... no make that computer!—that perfectly explains itself the very first time you start using it. So Microsoft needs to use its Thursday morning shindig to get the world up to speed on its existing products. To successfully complete this mission, it will need to touch the following bases.

Show us the difference between Windows 8 and Windows RT

Windows 8 is the new operating system that will run on desktop PCs, Ultrabooks, hybrids, all-in-ones and almost all tablets—basically any hardware stuffed with x86 silicon. Windows RT is the system that runs on low-cost, ARM processor-based tablets, of which only a small handful have been announced.

I don't expect that RT devices will sell very well, but because Surface RT is loaded with Windows RT, and because Surface RT is currently the subject of a massive marketing blitz, Thursday's webcast-viewing public needs a clear explanation of what Windows RT can and cannot do.

For example, Windows RT can't run traditional Windows apps, like Photoshop and PC games. And Windows RT won't necessarily run all "modern" Windows 8 apps sold in the Windows Store. And machines running Windows RT will contain a weird, empty ghost world called the "desktop" that will seem to be there for a reason, but is actually just there because removing it, or hiding it, or covering it in pretty decorations, was apparently too much trouble.

This is the desktop in Surface RT. Looks familiar, but don't get too comfy.

Windows RT: It needs some words of explanation—and even support. Yes, Microsoft should go all in and tell us why Windows RT is better than Windows 8!

Show us some gestures

Windows 8 and Windows RT are packed with marvelous, powerful, almost addictive touch gestures. All these actions make the operating systems a joy to use—and I don't even like the word joy; it's not a word I use casually. But the new gestures are not intuitive, and I have yet to test a new Windows device (including Surface RT) that includes a full primer on how to navigate this exciting new operating system with taps and finger swipes.

So make a stir about system navigation, Microsoft. Don't make the mistake of thinking a certain degree of freshman orientation isn't necessary—because evidence suggests otherwise. The world is very familiar with typical Windows desktop behaviors, but Windows 8 touch behaviors flip everything upside down.

In other words: Let's see a video with fewer people dancing, and more people tapping, squeezing and swiping. If Microsoft doesn't quickly get people up to speed on how the new Windows touch actions work, it will have a much greater headache than simply worrying about its lack of traction in the mobile hardware space.

Show us some apps

I write this less than 48 hours away from the official launch of Windows 8, yet Microsoft's Windows Store, the only location to parse and purchase the new Windows 8 apps, has that desolate, picked-over vibe of a Halloween party supply store on November 1. There's not much on store shelves, and what is available is all sort of jenky.

As I write this, there are no official apps for Facebook, CNN, YouTube or IMDB. There's no official Twitter app, and the third-party Twitter clients the Store does include are crap. There are no apps for Hulu, Dropbox or ESPN. And there are no big-name, high-profile gaming apps, save Cut the Rope.

The apps situation looks dire, but when I discuss the Thursday Windows 8 event with my high-tech media cohorts, we all agree that Microsoft will probably use the opportunity to unveil key additions to the Windows Store. The conventional wisdom is that many high-profile apps are being saved for launch day, and that Microsoft will borrow a page from Apple's playbook, and wheel out key app developers for an on-stage dog and pony show.

Plus, the company needs something new and special and fancy and shiny to show at Thursday's event. Some big-name software partnership announcements would be helpful in delivering just that kind of sizzle.

Source: pcworld.com

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Facebook grows revenue more than 30 percent in Q3, but also posts loss

The company took a number of steps to improve its mobile products during the quarter

 Facebook, under pressure to cheer up its disappointed investors, posted revenue growth of more than 30 percent on Tuesday, beating Wall Street expectations, but it also recorded a loss.

Facebook's revenue for the third quarter, ended Sept. 30, rose 32 percent to US$1.26 billion, compared with $954 million in the third quarter last year, and exceeded the $1.23 billion that financial analysts had expected, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

Its net loss was $59 million, or $0.02 per share, compared to net income of $227 million, or $0.10 per share, reported last year.

On a pro forma basis, excluding items such as stock-based compensation, Facebook reported earnings of $0.12 per share, beating expectations by a penny.

Investors welcomed the news, sending Facebook's stock higher in the after-hours markets. Its shares on the Nasdaq were trading at $21.95 at the time of this report, up 12.6 percent from the close of regular trading, according to Capital IQ.

That's only slightly more than half the value of its shares when Facebook held its public offering in May. The poor performance has been blamed on concerns that Facebook can't generate as much advertising revenue from mobile users.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg tried to quell those concerns Tuesday. During a conference call to discuss the results, he expressed his conviction that mobile devices represent a big opportunity for Facebook to expand its user engagement and ad revenue.

"Our opportunity on mobile is the most misunderstood aspect of Facebook today," he said.

Users who access Facebook from smartphones and other mobile devices are more engaged than those who access the service from PCs, he said. Mobile users are more likely to access Facebook on any given day than PC users, he said.

Critics have said Facebook needs to provide a better mobile experience for users and advertisers, and Zuckerberg admitted in September that Facebook's mobile strategy focused too much on HTML5 instead of on building native applications.

On Tuesday, he acknowledged that improvements in the mobile products were needed. "Over the past year, a lot of people gave us feedback that our mobile apps were too slow," he said.

The company took several steps to improve its mobile experience during the quarter, including revamping its iOS application and releasing new development tools for iOS and Android. It also closed its acquisition of the popular mobile photo-sharing app Instagram.

An upgrade to the Android application is in the works. Plus, the stand-alone Facebook Messenger mobile application, which lets users communicate both with Facebook and non-Facebook contacts through site notifications and regular text messages, also was upgraded for iOS and Android.

uckerberg said he thinks the company will eventually generate more revenue from mobile than desktop usage, in particular because mobile ads are integrated more "organically" into the Facebook experience.

Development groups at the company have been put in charge of building revenue-generating elements for their products, which is already yielding good results, according to Zuckerberg.

Monthly active users were 1.01 billion as of Sept. 30, up 26 percent year over year, while daily active users were 584 million on average in September, up 28 percent. Mobile active users were 604 million as of Sept. 30, up 61 percent.

Facebook also made an e-commerce move during the quarter with the launch of its Gifts service, which encourages people to buy presents for friends.

It also launched several new ad products, and generated 14 percent of its ad revenue from mobile.

Zuckerberg reiterated the company's commitment to its application platform, and said Facebook wants to be the platform of choice for all third-party developers who want to add a social networking component to their applications and sites.

Regarding games, Zuckerberg said that while revenue from embattled gaming developer Zynga dropped 20 percent during the quarter, payments revenue from other game developers grew collectively by 40 percent.

Ad sales during the quarter accounted for 86 percent of revenue, while payments and other fees made up the rest.

Costs and expenses shot up 64 percent to $885 million, though excluding stock-based compensation and related payroll tax expenses, costs and expenses were up 57 percent, to $737 million.

Source: computerworld.com

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Popular Android apps leak personal data, study finds

Popular Android apps from the Google Play store are vulnerable to theft of personal details, including emails and bank account logins, according to a new study. As many as 185 million users who downloaded vulnerable applications could be tricked into revealing their personal data, the research indicates.

Researchers at the University of Leibniz and University of Marburg, Germany, tested the top 13,500 popular apps in the Google Play store and identified 41 apps that are prone to SSL certificates attacks. They used a fake Wi-Fi Hotspot and a special attack tool that could spy on the data passing between a smartphone and the website the app is linked to.

In their tests, the researchers were able to capture login credentials for email services, social media sites, online bank accounts, and even corporate networks. They were also able to trick or disable security software on Android and inject malicious code to make apps carry specific commands.

The research paper says: “We have captured credentials for American Express, Diners Club, Paypal, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live ID, Box, WordPress, IBM Sametime, remote servers, bank accounts, and email accounts. We have successfully manipulated virus signatures downloaded via the automatic update functionality of an anti-virus app to neutralize the protection or even to remove arbitrary apps, including the anti-virus program itself.”

The researchers did not name the vulnerable apps, but they did say that the Facebook app for Android is not prone to the attacks they tested, and it displays meaningful warning messages when a possible attack is taking place. However, they did note that many apps can display abstract warnings during an SSL attack, which could leave users confused. (See also Which Android security tools are worth your time?).

A follow-up survey of 745 people considered whether people are aware when they're browsing over unsecured connections from their phones, leaving them prone to attacks. The results from the non-IT experts showed that almost half thought they were using a secure connection when they were actually not, while 35 percent of IT-educated users also mistook unsecure connections for safe ones.

Source: techhive.com

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Facebook reflects swings in presidential campaigns

Romney picks up post-debate followers; Obama continues debate on Facebook

Social networking has become critical to the 2012 presidential campaign and one analyst said Facebook is accurately predicting swings in the election polls.

While Republican candidate Mitt Romney has gained strength and Facebook followers since the Oct. 3 presidential debate, President Barack Obama also remains strong and continues to grow his social base, according to Ian Lurie, CEO of Portent Inc., an Internet marketing and online tracking company.

"Social media is making a big, big difference in how we connect with these candidates," Lurie said, "What's going on in social media really reflects what's going on in the election as a whole.... Of all the different social networks,Facebook is telling us the most about how the candidates are doing."

Facebook has its pulse on the election more than other social networks, such as Google+ and Twitter, because of its huge user base. The company has more than 1 billion active monthly users around the world. There are 168 million Facebook users in the U.S., and 154 million of them are of voting age.

Both campaigns are putting a lot of money and muscle into using Facebook, in particular, to reach potential voters, get their messages across and motivate people to cast ballots on Nov. 6.

This is more true this year than ever before, according to Lurie.

In 2008, the Obama campaign did a better job using social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, than the John McCain campaign did, Lurie noted. While a recent Google survey showed that a majority of people think the Obama campaign is savvier about using social media, Lurie said the Republicans have come on strong in this campaign.

"Social networking is a thousand times stronger this year because both campaigns are so involved," he added. "It really is orders of magnitude."

According to Lurie, the debate between Obama and Romney drew many new followers to Romney's Facebook page. Before the debate, Romney generally saw a 1% daily growth rate in terms of new Facebook followers. In the days right after the debate, the rate of growth increased to 1.5% per day.

"It doesn't sound like much, but it's a pretty big jump when you have 8 or 9 million followers," said Lurie. As of last Friday, Romney's Facebook page had about 9.1 million followers.

That increase in Facebook fans seems to follow along with recent polls that showed Romney coming from slightly behind to moving slightly ahead of Obama after the first presidential debate.

However, according to movement on Facebook, Obama is still strongly in the race.

Lurie said Obama has nearly 31 million followers on Facebook. "The Obama campaign has been something of a juggernaut," he said. "They have as many followers on Facebook as there are people in Texas."

What was generally seen as a lackluster performance by Obama during the debate didn't hurt his Facebook numbers.

Lurie noted that the Obama campaign also caught a jump in Facebook followers but, unlike his opponent, who saw an immediate increase, the president's came later. Two days after the debate, Obama's daily growth rate on Facebook went from 0.05% to 0.18%.

While Obama may not have scored a lot of points during the debate, his campaign came out strong on social networking sites immediately afterward and in the ensuing days, posting information about Romney's statements during the debate, specifically focusing on Medicare, women's health issues and education.

"What they did on Facebook kept the debate going," said Lurie. "The amount of shares and likes on those posts was very, very high. His shares per person went up by 40% or 50% compared to the day of or the day before the debate."

There was a fluctuation in numbers last week, as well.

Lurie noted that Obama's Facebook page showed "explosive growth" between Monday and Thursday of last week, adding 1.2 million new followers. Romney, meanwhile, had a slowdown in his growth rate since last Tuesday, has slipping from 1.5% to 1.2%, according to Lurie.

As of late Friday, Lurie did not have any numbers on how Thursday night's debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryanaffected Facebook growth in shares and likes for either campaign.

How accurate can Facebook be in tracking the pulse of the election when the average age for Facebook users is 22?

According to Lurie, there's a large enough cross section of voters on Facebook -- people of various ages from numerous geographical locations -- to make it an accurate tracker.

"The fastest growing audience on Facebook is 45-plus," he added. "I know who's on there, and I see a lot of activity from people in their 60s, 70s and 80s. They're sharing and forwarding things. They're participating. There's no question."

Source : computerworld.com/

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Facebook ignites Bubble 2.0 chatter

Can the next hottest dotcoms live up to Wall Street's expectations?
Remember Webvan? The online grocer, whose initial public offering in March 2000 was among the most hotly anticipated during the dot-com boom, is now viewed as one of the greatest disasters of the era.

Fast forward 11 years and the feeding frenzy around Facebook and its exponentially expanding valuations are conjuring fears of a Bubble 2.0.

Goldman Sachs bankers have offered their private wealth clients less than a week to decide whether they want to hand over US$2 million apiece for a sliver of the Web darling du jour: Facebook at a $50 billion valuation.
For one Goldman client, who was expecting a 100-page financial document on Facebook to be hand-delivered on Thursday, hours before the deadline to invest in the company -- the whole thing "felt a bit like 1999."

Thanks to Goldman Sachs' latest cash infusion of about US$450 million with a commitment to raise another US$1.5 billion, Facebook has become the lightning rod for debate over whether these new Internet hotshots possess the profit-generating muscles to justify Wall Street's unforgiving expectations.

Twitter and Groupon, an online coupons site considered by some as the fastest growing company in Web history, are also mulling plans for IPOs well ahead of Facebook's potential offering at the end of 2012, investment bankers have told Reuters.

LinkedIn is wasting no time. The social network for professionals, with 85 million members, has hired bankers to go public this year.

For Facebook, which generated about US$2 billion in revenue in 2010, according to media reports, the US$50 billion valuation means investors have awarded it a multiple of 25 times sales, compared with a nine-times multiple for Google, and Amazon.com's 2.5-times multiple.

Facebook generates US$4 per user, compared with Google's US$24 per user and Yahoo's US$8 per user, according to a recent report by JPMorgan.

All that makes Facebook look expensive in the eyes of investors who measure businesses using traditional financial yardsticks, said Ken Sawyer, the managing director of venture capital firm Saints Capital, which owns shares of Facebook.

Investors will need to look past existing financial returns to focus on the company's business-transforming potential.

"It depends on your view of the world," said Sawyer. "If you believe that the ability to leverage this social network fabric will change the way companies acquire customers, then the valuation looks cheap."

Just as Google's search advertisements revolutionised the way businesses reach customers, Facebook's audience of a half-a-billion members has allowed companies like social gaming service Zynga and online dating service Zoosk to sign-up tens of millions of customers of their own in record time, Sawyer said.

As Facebook devises more ways to make money from that capability, such as by taking a cut of transactions made by other companies on its platform, the opportunity could be substantial, he said.



GLOBAL PHENOMENON

Facebook, born as a Harvard dorm-room project to help students to stay connected, has evolved into a global phenomenon, whose users include nearly as many people over 45 years of age as it does people under 24 years old.

In 2010, Facebook displaced Google as the most visited website in the United States, and nearly one out of every four graphical display ads viewed in the United States in the third quarter was on Facebook's website, according to analytics firm comScore.

Other young social networking businesses are experiencing similar growth.

Twitter, the microblogging service that has become an indispensable tool for celebrities and politicians to connect with fans, now counts more than 175 million users and fetched a US$3.7 billion valuation in a recent round of venture capital funding.

Online coupon service Groupon recently announced plans to raise up to US$950 million, implying a valuation that one research firm estimated could be as high US$7.8 billion.

Premium valuations for top-tier players like Facebook and Groupon are usually worth it, wrote Google "developer advocate" Don Dodge in a widely read blog post on Tuesday. The potential for a bubble comes when investors bid up prices for third-tier companies, whose business prospects aren't as solid, he wrote.

Unlike in the late 1990s, shares of today's Web sensations are privately held and not available to the general public. But a growing secondary market has developed in which investors meeting certain criteria, such as minimum net worth, can buy and sell shares.

Goldman Sachs plans to raise up to US$1.5 billion to invest in Facebook through a special purpose investment vehicle marketed to its private wealth management customers.

Such trading in companies that are not required to provide investors with the same kind of detailed financial reports and updates as public companies is raising alarms.

"It feels a little irrationally exuberant with some of these transactions, some of these values, particularly given the level of disclosure," said Robert Ackerman, the founder of early-stage venture capital firm Allegis Capital.

"Maybe with Facebook that's well placed," he said, "but what about all the other companies that are going to ride on Facebook's coat-tails."

The laws of gravity are also different in the private markets in which the new generation of Web superstars trade.

Because there's no way to short shares of private companies, the shares are subject to upward pressure but not downward pressure, noted BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis.

"There's no counterbalance," he said.

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Facebook's leaked financials show possible $1B profit in '11

Goldman Sachs' not-so-secretive document spills beans on site.
Facebook reportedly generated $1.2 billion in revenue in the first nine months of 2010, according to a document being distributed by Goldman Sachs.

What are reportedly Facebook's financials began leaking out Friday thanks to a not-very-secretive 101-page document that Goldman Sachs is sending out to potential Facebook investors, according to Reuters. Goldman Sachs, which earlier this week invested $450 million in Facebook and valued the social networking company at $50 billion, is providing its wealthiest customers with the most detailed information about Facebook's financials to hit the street yet.Citing an unnamed source who received the document, Reuters is reporting that Facebook earned $355 million in net income in the first nine months of 2010. It also noted that the financial statements being handed out have not been audited and do not specify how Facebook is pulling in its revenue.

Businessweek is reporting that if Facebook can maintain its growth and margins, the company could realistically pull in $1 billion in profit in 2011.
Facebook declined to comment for this story.

"We're finally seeing some numbers on Facebook's revenue and profitability and the news is mostly good," said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. "The company has solid revenues north of a billion and profit margins of anywhere from 25% to 35%. These are great numbers, but not necessarily high enough to support a $50 billion valuation."

To financially get where Goldman Sachs thinks Facebook can go, the company won't be able to just stay the course.

"The only way Facebook at $50 billion looks like a good investment is if you believe that the company is going to continue to grow revenue and profits at a huge clip well into the future," added Olds.

News of Facebook's financials surfaced just one day after reports hit that the social networking company is on the cusp of gaining 500 shareholders, an invisible line enforced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that will force Facebook to disclose its financials even though it's not a publicly traded company.

Discussion of the site's finances was widespread this week, even turning up in a segment on The Daily Show, where host Jon Stewart lampooned Facebook's desire to keep its information secret.
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and co-founder of Facebook, is preparing to launch an initial public offering in 2012. That echoes statements made last September by Facebook board member, venture capitalist and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel that Facebook was eyeing an IPO in late 2012.

News about Facebook's IPO prospects follow widespread speculation in recent days that another social networking company, LinkedIn, is working on an IPO of its own and could beat social networking heavyweights like Facebook and Twitter to the IPO gate.

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Fear not, Facebook isn't shutting down

Social network moves quickly to quash rumors Zuckerberg is set to call it quits.
No need to worry that Facebook will shut down on March 15, as reported by the supermarket tabloid Weekly World News.

Facebook quickly dispelled rampant online rumors that the site will be shut down for good on March 15. The rumors spread after Weekly World News, best known for stories about UFOs, aliens and the like, published a story over the weekend saying that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced he was shuttering the company because it had become too stressful for him.

Facebook's quick reply: "We didn't get the memo about shutting down, so we'll keep working away like always. We aren't going anywhere; we're just getting started."

"It's hard to believe that anyone would take this seriously," said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. "But Weekly World News readers probably have bigger things on their minds, like their story about aliens attacking Earth in 2011 or the story about developing the skills to be invisible and levitate."

The rumors come just a week after Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies invested $500 million in the company, which gives Facebook a valuation of $50 billion. Shortly thereafter, leaked financial documents shows that Facebook generated a profit of $355 million on $1.2 billion in revenue during the first nine months of 2010.

The financials began leaking out last Friday thanks to a not-very-secretive 101-page document that Goldman Sachs sent to potential Facebook investors. Citing an unnamed source who had reportedly received the document, Businessweek reported that Facebook is on a path to generate $1 billion in profit this year.

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