Elon Musk, David Sacks ditch Zuckerberg’s Fwd.us
Mark Zuckerberg’s immigration reform group Fwd.us is losing two big players this week: Elon Musk and David Sacks. A bad sign for the Valley’s latest political group? Read more »
See the Instagram photos you’re tagged in with new “Photos of You” feature
Want to see the photos you’ve been tagged in on Instagram? The company plans to announce a “Photos of You” feature on Thursday that will let you do just that. Read more »
GigaOM Reads: A look back at the week in tech
Missed the week in tech? Here is our rewind and quick take on the most important stories and some great links for your weekend reading. From Google Fiber to Tumblr to FWD.us, we got it all ready for you. Read more »
Why I have issues with Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us
Mark Zuckerberg has launched a new political group, FWD.us and has been joined by Silicon Valley luminaries. They want reform in immigration but their focus on technology and innovation centric changes doesn’t take into account the harsh reality of post industrial society & its invisible victims. Read more »
One year in, it’s almost like Facebook never bought Instagram. When will that change?
If you take a look at your Instagram feed today, would you be able to tell that everyone’s favorite mobile photo-sharing app is owned by Facebook? Maybe not. But over the course of the next year, we might see that changing. Read more »
It’s no Facebook Phone: Home looks nice but could have limited impact
After years of speculation about a “Facebook Phone,” Facebook finally rolled out its version of the deeply-integrated Facebook mobile experience. But aside from a slightly nicer messaging and greater ad opportunities for the company, it wasn’t terribly exciting for users. Read more »
Why Facebook Home bothers me: It destroys any notion of privacy
photo: Om Malik
Facebook’s history as a repeat offender on privacy, and playing loose and easy with our data means that need to be even more vigilant about privacy issues, thanks to this Home app/faux-OS. Read more »
GigaOM Reads: A look back at the week in tech
First the New York Times rankles Facebook and then they release a new feed redesign; technology is making people richer, though not as many billionaires; Time runs out for Time Inc.; some VCs have problems & Spotify has more new competition; and a few stories we recommend. Read more »
My impressions of Facebook’s news feed redesign & what it means
photo: Dangerous Minds
Facebook recently announced a redesign of its newsfeed – one that it plans to roll out to its billion customers. I got a chance to take the new newsfeed for a spin. Here is my take on the changes and their business implications. Read more »
Facebook gets simpler with bet that we just want the news that fits
photo: Eliza Kern
Facebook took a step back on Thursday in unveiling the updated News Feed, focusing on the simpler design the company has historically championed and trying to surface more interesting content through changes to the feed. Read more »
Facebook’s new News Feed concentrates on photos and spotlights content
photo: Facebook
Facebook’s new redesign wasn’t exactly an overhaul, but focuses on some of things people most enjoy sharing on the service: photos and content. Read more »
Live blog: Facebook’s News Feed redesign event
photo: Zef Nikolla
Starting at 10am PT, we’ll be live-blogging Facebook’s News Feed announcement from Menlo Park. Stay tuned for updates on how Facebook has rethought one of its most important features. Read more »
Facebook may charge users to remove ads, patent application reveals
photo: GigaOM
Facebook may offer users to get rid of ads, highlight custom messages or even select the friends displayed on their personal profile in exchange for a monthly payment, a newly-surfaced patent application suggests. Read more »
The Hacker Way runs both directions: Facebook suffers from a malware attack
photo: Facebook / Matt Harnack
A malicious hacker group infiltrated the confines of Facebook’s corporate network last month, the company revealed on Friday. Facebook said that the threat was contained and there is no evidence of any user data being compromised. Read more »
Milestones: Facebook is a mobile company now. Are you?
If there was any question about the direction of Facebook going forward, Wednesday’s Q4 earnings put that to rest — Facebook is trying to be a mobile company, and making good gains so far in getting there. Read more »
A really tiny explanation of how Facebook’s Graph Search works
Facebook’s Lars Rasmussen and Tom Stocky gave us a brief glimpse into how the new Graph Search works, but kept the lid on details as to how much computing the new search will require. From the looks of it, this is a big infrastructure challenge. Read more »
Revealed: the finalists for the 2012 Crunchies
photo: courtesy of TechCrunch
Five finalists have been chosen in 20 different categories for the 2012 Crunchies awards, and we’re proud to release the worthy nominees today. Voting for the winners starts today, and the winners will be announced January 31st. Read more »
Brightcove CEO slams Facebook, wants end to “wars” over platforms
The fragmentation of the mobile environment into proprietary development platforms threatens the overall app economy by straining the labor market, says Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire. He argues Facebook’s move away from HTML5 is driven by self-interest. Read more »
Hey Mark Cuban: Of course Facebook is charging you — what did you expect?
photo: Flickr user Balakov
Some prominent users of Facebook such as billionaire sports-team owner Mark Cuban are complaining that the social network wants to charge them to reach their users with marketing messages — but shouldn’t it be fairly obvious that this was part of Facebook’s plan all along? Read more »
If Facebook isn’t thinking about buying Tumblr, it should be
Any web service that is growing as quickly as Tumblr is should be of interest to Facebook — but especially one that focuses on creating and sharing viral social content, and one that is appealing to growing numbers of young users. Read more »
Tech startups need/don’t need MBAs? Discuss …
photo: Barb Darrow
Is an advanced business degree from Harvard or MIT or Stanford something that tech startups really, really want? It didn’t seem so at last weekend’s Harvard Business School Cyberposium. Where do you sit in the on-again debate between the builders and the bean counters? Read more »
How can Europe find its own vision of the future?
You can’t beat Silicon Valley by trying to be Silicon Valley — so why does Europe spend so much time trying? If the continent’s entrepreneurs want to become true leaders, they need to shake off the past and stop playing a game that’s stacked against them. Read more »
Amplification & the changing role of media
photo: Shutterstock / Aaron Amat
As more sources of news start to go direct by posting their thoughts to their blogs, Twitter and Facebook pages, a journalist’s role becomes more about deciding what to amplify and what to ignore. Read more »
The real power of Facebook lies in controlling connected identity
Today, there is a lot of talk about Facebook signing up a billion users – a staggeringly large number. However, the real value of Facebook comes from how it allows us to use our Facebook identity to sign-up for apps, e-commerce website and even gadgets. Read more »
Ancestry.com to acquire 1000memories to expand photo digitizing
photo: courtesy Shoebox
1000memories, the YCombinator-launched photo company, will be acquired by Ancestry.com, the two companies will announce Wednesday. The startup will allow Ancestry.com members to digitize old family photos and upload them to family trees or ancestor profiles, complimenting the family history website. Read more »
Future of mobile: 5 takeaways from Mobilize 2012
With the future of mobile quickly evolving, what do you need to know now? After a long cross-country flight home, I had plenty of time to digest the key data nuggets from our GigaOm Mobilize 2012 event held last week. Here are five worth sharing. Read more »
Why Facebook is taking the long view on HTML5 mobile development
Mark Zuckeberg declared Tuesday that Facebook’s biggest mistake was focusing too intensively on HTML5 over native apps, but developers said Thursday that the technology isn’t even close to being over at the company, and allows them to scale and reach an increasingly large user base. Read more »
Watch out, Google — Facebook’s social search is coming
photo: Flickr user Abysim
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the social network is already handling a billion search queries per day, and that it is interested in launching a social search engine powered by the activity of its users — something that could turn out to be Google’s worst nightmare. Read more »
Zuckerberg’s first post-Facebook IPO chat by the numbers
We know all about the numbers that had Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the hot seat Tuesday, but how are some of Facebook’s key products and users doing in the post-IPO era? Here are a few key stats. Read more »
Post IPO, Facebook’s Zuckerberg talks mobile, stock, and morale
photo: Jason McELweenie/Flickr
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance Tuesday at Techcrunch Disrupt was hotly anticipated. What did he have to say? Facebook’s stock plunge is “disappointing” and it bet too much too fast on HTML5, but is still positioned to make “big bets.” Read more »
Meet the man who wants to satirize Silicon Valley
British arch-satirist Armando Iannucci – best known for his documentary-style dissections of the political classes — is getting ready to take on his next project: a black comedy based on Silicon Valley’s worst moments of excess. Fish, meet barrel. Read more »
Facebook tumbles below $20 as insiders induce stock swoon
photo: Zef Nikolla
Insiders can now sell Facebook stock and the reaction so far hasn’t been pretty. Here’s a quick look at what the financial press is saying. Read more »
Facebook adds Sheryl Sandberg to board of directors
Facebook announced Monday that it will add Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg to the company’s Board of Directors, emphasizing Sandberg’s integral role in the newly-public company’s rising success. Read more »
Facebook CTO Bret Taylor to leave, will start a new company
Facebook chief technology officer Bret Taylor is going to leave the company later this year, he announced via his Facebook Timeline today. He is leaving Facebook to start a new company, he said on his timeline. Read more »
Pinterest rival Fancy gets liked by Mark Zuckerberg
Fancy, the social discovery and commerce site, just picked up a big name user: Mark Zuckerberg. The move is interesting because Fancy competes with hot social start-up Pinterest and has figured out a way to make money through social discovery. Read more »
Is Yandex behind Facebook’s rumored Face.com deal?
A flurry of reports suggest Facebook is interested in buying Israeli image recognition startup Face.com. But reports from Moscow suggest the rumor mill could be turning because Russian search engine Yandex wants to sell its stake in the firm to Mark Zuckerberg. Read more »
Crowdfunding via customers is the new startup capital
photo: Corbis / Guy Ferrandis / Tristar Pictures
But hidden in the headlines about the JOBS Act is the creation of an entirely new class of capital that could be far more valuable to startups: customer capital. Instead of raising capital from VCs, entrepreneurs can reach out to customers directly. Read more »
Facebook’s foreign foes: five countries to conquer for new growth
photo: Jason McELweenie/Flickr
After growth slowed just in time for its IPO, Facebook must look overseas for a jump-start. Here are the only five remaining countries where Zuckerberg is not top dog – and the rivals that stand in his way. Read more at paidContent »
What you need to know about that $15 billion Facebook privacy case
photo: Lightspring
Lawyers tried to ruin Mark Zuckerberg’s big day with a sprawling lawsuit that portrays the Facebook founder as a rogue hacker, and accuses the company of tracking users on their computers and iPhones. We have a plain english Q&A. Read more »
Facebook IPO: Our coverage so far
By now you might have heard of this little thing called Facebook’s IPO. Check out links to our coverage so far. Read more »
