• social networks

    Why Facebook wants to spam your News Feed

    Social networks have a lifecycle: They start with a small core of early adopters, swell as mainstream users get pulled in by their friends, and then see growth taper off as people get turned off by spam. That's why Friendster is forgotten and why MySpace is looking increasingly stagnant. The price for reaching an audience advertisers care about seems to be a site users can't stand. Facebook, however, isn't following the fashionable trend. More »

    Feature

    9:00 AM on Mon Dec 1 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    15,504 views, 16 comments

    Most discussed Migrant Blogger: Wow, this is, like, a real article. more »

  • jackpot

    Is the great Facebook stock sale over?

    Through the golden heart of every world-changing startup pulses an avaricious get-rich-quick scheme. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the billionaire-boy cofounders of Google, established this doing-well-by-doing-good myth. But Mark Zuckerberg hasn't been able to make the same magic happen for his employees. In his efforts to make good by them, he may end up quashing a nascent market in Facebook shares. More »

    1:40 PM on Fri Nov 21 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    8,926 views, 11 comments

    Most discussed growhappy: Facebook should be in the business of licensing their social network code to people and businesses who want to make more »

  • facebook

    Mark Zuckerberg wants to know how you feel

    Why have social networks blossomed in as antisocial an environment as Silicon Valley? Because they allow computers to become a crutch for a task most engineers find imposing: dealing with other human beings. Turning relationships into a social graph that can be fed into a database and ruled by algorithms is a genius move for tech's clumsy savants. Alex French, a writer for GQ, interviewing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for a profile, wonders if his cold stare and cagey responses are an incredibly calculating attempt to intimidate, or merely a sign that he's awkward. Either way, Zuckerberg shows a disdain for displays of emotion. Asked if he celebrated Microsoft's $240 million investment in Facebook, Zuckerberg seems puzzled by the question's premise. And yet emotion is at the core of Zuckerberg's plan for world domination. More »

    1:00 PM on Tue Nov 18 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    7,470 views, 35 comments

    Most discussed its_a_feature: That's a truly awesome picture of the Zuck -- in a "40-year old virgin" sort of way. more »

  • mark zuckerberg

    Why Facebook is still hiring

    The revolving door at Facebook has been swinging less of late. Two top designers, Katie Geminder and Eston Bond, left in August and September. But the economic crisis seems to have scared the rest of the social network's staff into their seats, wondering when the ax will fall. There have been no layoffs, but we keep hearing tips from inside there's a hiring freeze on. In fact, there's not: Facebook's unofficial second-in-command, COO Sheryl Sandberg, asked CEO Mark Zuckerberg to institute a freeze, and got turned down cold. More »

    10:40 AM on Fri Nov 14 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    5,053 views, 25 comments

    Most discussed babyjesus: All the while, it is spending heavily on servers; Facebook's pages, which must chart a user's social connections to determine more »

  • commenter of the day

    marcsiry

    Since Facebook doesn't quite know how to make money, our commenter of the day, marcsiry, has a better business model: More »

    4:40 PM on Tue Nov 11 2008
    By Alaska Miller
    1,056 views, 1 comment

  • politics

    Washington could call for Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg

    Facebook's COO is mounting yet another PR offensive. But not on behalf of her current employer, though it could use some good press. No, Sheryl Sandberg is defending former boss Larry Summers against charges of sexism. Summers, who was Treasury Secretary under Clinton, is being talked up for the same role in Barack Obama's Cabinet. A controversial speech Summers gave as president of Harvard University — speculating that innate differences might have to do with women's lack of progress in math and science — could ruin his chances. Hence Sandberg's timely defense. More »

    1:40 PM on Fri Nov 7 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    1,743 views, 7 comments

    Most discussed well-seasoned: I wonder if you would speculate about someone with young kids's ability to move to Washington if that someone were more »

  • Zuckerberg's Second Law

    Oversharing doubles every year, says Facebook CEO

    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has learned to make safer prognostications. At this year's Web 2.0 Summit, he observed that the amount of information people share on Facebook seems to double every year — a claim he might be able to back up with data from his social network. Zuckerberg's Second Law will surely go over better than his first — the assertion, made as he launched new Facebook ad formats, that "once every hundred years, media changes." Zuck, how about this law? Once a year, a CEO has to come up with something impressive to say at conferences. (Photo by Brian Solis/Bub.blicio.us)

    1:00 PM on Fri Nov 7 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    616 views, 4 comments

    Latest by Shadowlayer: That means in 2009 we're going to see stuff like "Judy just got her period", "Timmy got a STD from more »

  • caption contest

    Adidas: Run from your investors

    On stage at the Web 2.0 Summit conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sported sneakers instead of his once-trademark Adidas slides. Come to think of it, when's the last time anyone spotted him wearing mandals? It's just another sign that Facebook isn't the same company it was a year ago. Got a better caption? Leave it in the comments. The best one will become the post's new headline. Yesterday's winner: m0nty.au, for "Help me, Anderson Cooper, you're our only hope!" (Photo by Brian Solis/Bub.blicio.us)

    4:00 PM on Thu Nov 6 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    1,023 views, 10 comments

    Most discussed m0nkeybutter: Toilet toe-tapping, How I really got my $15 Billion Valuation. more »

  • politics

    Valley homophobes still drafting Yes on Prop 8 response ad

    BoomTown reporter Kara Swisher rappelled from a skylight at Jerry Yang's secret hideout to score this draft copy of an ad, in which a bunch of tech bigwigs come out in favor of gay marriage — or at least in opposition to Proposition 8, a California state ballot initiative which would ban it. No Valley company in its right mind would be seen opposing gay marriage, so why bother? More »

    11:40 AM on Thu Oct 30 2008
    By Paul Boutin
    1,941 views, 13 comments

    Most discussed Apel Mjausson: Implying that people are homophobic based on a draft of an ad is skating on very thin ice. There are more »

  • domain names

    Facebook.co.uk offline -- but check out who owns it

    Another embarrassing outage for Facebook: The homepage for Facebook.co.uk is displaying a set of directories, as if the server had been wiped clean. Before you blame Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg for this one, check out the domain-name registration. Facebook.co.uk is registered to one Cameron Winklevoss; last year, it displayed a placeholder homepage. So who's Cameron Winklevoss, and what makes this deception so intriguing? More »

    10:40 AM on Thu Oct 30 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    3,034 views, 4 comments

    Most discussed davidu: You are looking at the Google cache for: [facebookuk.co.uk] Not for: [facebook.co.uk] more »