Mark of one man on public Facebook

 Since the moment he dropped out of Harvard University, Mark Zuckerberg has stayed remarkably focused on two things: Facebook, and being the boss of Facebook.

Early on he was convinced of the vast potential of the social network he built in his dorm room, say friends, investors and detractors. He pushed his team to be fast and take risks. He resisted efforts to change the way Facebook looked and worked, even if, in the beginning, it meant giving up revenue.

Most important, he arranged the ownership of Facebook so as to give himself extraordinary power to steer the company. By the time Facebook filed for a $US5 billion public offering Wednesday, Zuckerberg had managed to hold on to more than a quarter of the shares in the company, and his agreements with other investors enhanced his voting power to almost 60 per cent of total shares.

That's a greater measure of control than Bill Gates had at Microsoft when it went public in 1986 (49 per cent), and far greater than the co-founders of Google had in 2004 (16 per cent each). Typically, say Silicon Valley veterans, a first-time entrepreneur gets to the public market with a far smaller stake in his or her creation. Zuckerberg's arrangement leaves little room for investors to have much input on the company's direction.

Zuckerberg's success is an object lesson in what works in the crowded, competitive Silicon Valley: remain in charge, stave off potential predators and expand the company so quickly that no one can challenge the boss.

"He always knew before the rest of us what Facebook could be," said Paul Madera, managing director at Meritech Capital Partners, who invested in the company in 2005. "Mark's vision on the purity of the product really did benefit from his control and ownership. It wasn't subject to committee decisions. It was all Mark."

The power that Zuckerberg wields over the company has already drawn scrutiny. "You're willing to take someone's money but not willing to invite their participation," said Charles M. Elson, a professor of corporate governance at the University of Delaware. "It makes meaningless the notion of investor democracy."

Elsen added that Zuckerberg's arrangement is similar to moves by founders of other technology companies, including Google, to create special classes of stock that grant them extra voting power.

Facebook declined to make executives available for interviews before the offering.

The focus on staying in charge began early. Sean Parker, one of Zuckerberg's first and most important advisers, helped him with that. Parker had learnt a hard lesson himself about losing control: he was ousted by the backers of a company he founded, an online address book called Plaxo. Parker helped ensure that would never happen to Zuckerberg.

Court sets deadline for 21 websites to remove objectionable content

Facebook, Microsoft, YouTube, Google, among 21 others will have to strip their websites off any objectionable content, latest by February 6, 2012, according to a Delhi court's directive.

A Times of India report confirms now that 21 social networking sites, including the ones mentioned above have been "issued summons" by the court, on grounds of carrying objectionable content.

They have now been charged with section 292 (sale of obscene books etc), 293 (sale of obscene objects to young person etc) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

Acting on a private complaint, Metropolitan Magistrate, Sudesh Kumar has asked the Centre to file a report in the court, latest by January 13. Social networking sites in India have been going through a rough phase, after the government began showing dislike for the content portrayed.
Now, as per the court's directive, if these sites fail to clear derogatory content off their websites by February 6, 2012 they would be charged for contempt of court.


In its statement the court said, "It appears from a bare perusal of the documents that prima facie the accused in connivance with each other and other unknown persons are selling, publicly exhibiting and have put into circulation obscene, lascivious content which also appears to the prurient interests and tends to deprave and corrupt the persons who are likely to read, see or hear the same.

It is also evident that such contents are continuously openly and freely available to everyone who is using the said network irrespective of their age and even the persons under the age of 18 years have full and uncensored access to such obscene contents."

FIR against Facebook, user for anti-Gita comments

A social activist from Lucknow has lodged an FIR against social networking site Facebook and one of its users for allegedly posting comments and spreading hatred against Hindu's holy scripture Bhagavad Gita.

Nutan Thakur has filed an FIR against Jalandhar resident CI Chumbar and the networking site under section 153 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of communities and other grounds), 153 A (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 153 B (public nuisance), 290 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 504 (criminal intimidation) 506 and 66 A IT Act (using Information Technology for these purposes).

Confirming the news, Circle officer Alok Singh said, "The FIR has been registered at Gomti Nagar Police Station on a complaint lodged by Nutan Thakur under various sections of the IPC on Saturday."

In her FIR, Nutan alleged that the user calls himself the Editor-in-Chief of a Punjabi daily newspaper and he had asked people to burn the Bhagwad Gita on Facebook.

The journalist claimed the scripture made derogatory references to women, she said in the FIR.

In her complaint, Nutan alleged that the comments on Facebook were enough to provoke anger and trigger communal riots.

"Through the Facebook comments, the person has been asking the people to burn the holiest scripture of Hindus in public across nation. The comments have come at the backdrop of the protest following the proposed ban of Gita in Russia. The holy book facing the ban in Russia has already become a sensitive issue and such comments would just trigger more anger," Nutan said.

She said that the Facebook user has not only criticized the holy book but has also openly used obscene words and language for Lord Krishna and Lord Bramha. She claimed the words and abuses were of such nature that they are wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot.

"Through abusive language, the person has been denting the image of the Hindu Gods. More so, the networking site also turned a blind eye and did not initiate any kind of action. The Facebook is equally responsible in the crime by encouraging such acts by not taking any action against the people involved in such mischieves," Nutan said.

Nutan recalled that her husband Amitabh Thakur had lodged the FIR against Facebook and others at Gomti Nagar police station for allegedly portraying Gandhi in a wrong manner through an online group 'I hate Gandhi'.

Facebook for Android gets new Timeline feature

This week, Facebook started rolling out a new feature for profiles on its website. It’s called Timeline, and it presents your Facebook activity over time in a new way.

The feature is now available for all Facebook users, just visit Facebook's Introducing Timeline page to find out more, but Facebook is already deploying it among its mobile apps. Well, not all its mobile apps. Specifically, right now, Timeline is only available on Facebook for Android.

As Fierce Mobile Content reports, the mobile Timeline view starts with a “cover photo” that you choose, and then moves down the page in reverse-chronological order, showing photos and status updates you’ve posted ranging from the newest to the oldest. Facebook explains it a little better on its blog:

As you scroll down, you'll see your posts, photos and life events as they happened, back to the day you were born. Photo albums and other posts are horizontally swipeable, so you can quickly view multiple photos or posts inline without leaving timeline. You can also swipe through the views at the top of your timeline to navigate to your map, photos, subscribers and more.

The Timeline update to Facebook also affects other parts of the interface for viewing Facebook in general. Photos uploaded and shared with friends are larger, for example, and you can see maps showing different social interactions thanks to the Facebook Places location-based features.

Right now, interestingly, Timeline is only available to Android mobile users and on the mobile web, not on Apple’s iOS platform’s version of Facebook. That’s a reversal of history for Facebook, as it usually rolls out new features on its iPhone and iPad apps first. It’s not clear what the delay is for Apple users, but for the time being, you can only enjoy the new features at Facebook.com or on an Android device.

A Nielsen survey on smartphone users from earlier this week confirmed that among everyone with a smartphone who uses apps regularly, Facebook is the most popular. Nielsen says about 80 percent of Android users who have used any app in the last 30 days have accessed Facebook in that time – and with 800 million users worldwide, that make sense.

It’s not clear if this might signal a change in how Facebook treats its mobile apps, given that while iOS is extremely popular, Android is still more so. But at least for the time being, it means cool new features that might make you happy you opted for Android over Apple. Given how many people are Android users and how many use Facebook, it’s likely at least a few will appreciate it.

Facebook CEO: We made mistakes

Facebook will be required to get user consent for certain changes to privacy settings as part of a settlement of federal charges that it deceived consumers and forced them to share more personal information than they intended.

The settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission will also subject the company, which is reported to preparing a $10 billion initial public offering, to 20 years of independent audits.

"I'm the first to admit that we've made a bunch of mistakes," co-founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a lengthy post on the company's official blog Tuesday.

He said a few "high-profile" mistakes, such as changes to the service's privacy policy two years ago, "have often overshadowed much of the good work we've done."

To ensure that Facebook did a better job, Zuckerberg said the company had created two new corporate privacy officer positions to oversee Facebook products and policy.

In its complaint, the FTC said that Facebook had repeatedly violated laws against deceptive and unfair practices. For example, it said Facebook promised users that it would not share personal information with advertisers, but it did.

Also, the company had failed to warn users that it was changing its website in December 2009 so that certain information that users had designated as private, such as their "Friends List," would be made public, the FTC said.

Chris Conley, policy attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California said the settlement "makes it clear that companies can't simply change the rules without asking users' permission."

But he said that to keep pace with new technology, there was a need for new laws and tools.

"We shouldn't have to struggle with complicated and constantly shifting privacy settings just to keep control of our own personal information," Conley said.

Facebook, which has more than 800 million users, has often been criticized for its privacy practices since its founding in a Harvard dorm room in 2004.

Earlier this year, the company came under fire for practices related to its use of facial recognition technology to automatically identify people appearing in the photos that are shared on the service.

Ability to innovate

On a conference call with reporters Tuesday, FTC officials said the settlement did not expressly cover the use of facial recognition technology.

They noted, however, that it was broadly crafted so that it would prevent Facebook from deceiving consumers going forward.

If Facebook is found to have violated any of the provisions of the settlement, the company is subject to fines of $16,000 per day for each violation, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said.

"Nothing in this order will restrict Facebook's ability to innovate," said Leibowitz. But, he added, "Facebook's innovation does not have to come at the expense of consumer privacy."

Under the settlement, which must be approved by an FTC administrative law judge, Facebook is barred from being deceptive about how it uses personal information, and is required to get permission before changing the visibility of the personal information users have posted.

The settlement follows a similar agreement in March between the FTC and Google Inc over the Web search leader's rollout of its own social network called Buzz.

In 2010, the FTC settled charges with Twitter, after the agency alleged that the social networking service had failed to safeguard users' personal information.

Ray Valdes, an analyst at industry research firm Gartner, said he did not think the timing of the settlement was directly related to Facebook's IPO plans.

"I don't think it's directly tied to the IPO. The IPO is still off in the distance," he said, but added: "There's some connection. I'd make more of a direct link if this was happening in January."

Facebook security breach raises concerns

A widespread spam attack on Facebook has caused violent and pornographic images to be posted on some users’ profile pages, representing one of the worst security breaches in the young Web site’s history and raising concerns about its vulnerability to hackers.

The company, which acknowledged the problem Monday, said it was working to shut down the accounts responsible for the attack.

The disturbing pictures surfaced as the company tries to quell concerns about user safety and privacy. Facebook is reportedly near a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over complaints about the way it stores and shares user data. Experts said that while this latest attack didn’t appear to compromise users’ data, it was a serious security breach.

“Protecting the people who use Facebook from spam and malicious content is a top priority for us, and we are always working to improve our systems to isolate and remove material that violates our terms,” Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in a statement. “Our efforts have drastically limited the damage caused by this attack, and we are now in the process of investigating to identify those responsible.”

According to Facebook, users were somehow tricked into copying and pasting malicious code into their browser bars. Hackers then gained access to their profiles and could post whatever they wished, and any of the user’s Facebook friends could see the images.

Chester Wisniewski, a security researcher at Sophos, said similar schemes in the past have lured users in with promises of free or discounted products.

It was unclear Tuesday who was responsible. Groups of hackers have threatened to put out a virus to “take down Facebook” over their concerns with the way it handles user privacy.

Daimon Geopfert, a security expert for RSM McGladrey, said that this was one of the largest Facebook attacks he has seen. The scale and speed were “unprecedented,” he said.

Experts said it was easy to imagine another attack on the Facebook platform that would be more troubling: sending false messages to family and friends to lure them to malicious sites, where they might be tricked into revealing private information. They warned that hackers could use the template of this attack to launch copycat efforts.

The presence of the photos upset many Facebook users, who took to Twitter to say they were weighing whether to deactivate their accounts.

Part of Facebook’s success has stemmed from its ability to get developers to create games and other applications that work seamlessly on the site’s platform. But giving such leeway to outside programmers means the site is also vulnerable to hackers, Wisniewski said.

Facebook could be doing more to stop these kinds of attacks, he said, such as checking the credentials of programmers who register with the site and giving users the option to double-check any actions before they take effect. The company has made an effort to make things seamless, he said, but convenience often comes at the expense of security.

“The technical pieces of this aren’t going to matter,” Geopfert said. “The idea that it happened and that the platform is more risky than you thought is damaging.”

Washington Post Co. chairman and chief executive Donald E. Graham is a member of the Facebook board of directors.

Facebook, Google back new web tracking privacy standard

Popular websites such as Facebook and Google will now give their users more control over how they are tracked online under a draft developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

W3C, headed by inventor of the web Sir Tim Berners-Lee, published technical proposals to enable websites to respond to forthcoming privacy regulations in the US.

The proposals, designed to give users more control over what advertisers and marketing firms know about them, has been backed by Facebook and Google, as well as browser makers Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla.

US regulators and civil liberties groups have also collaborated on the new standards, The Telegraph reports.

The stronger privacy protections are expected to challenge the online advertising and marketing industries, who depend on tracking data to measure the success of their campaigns.

"Advertisers, even if they don't show targeted ads, it's important for them to know how many people viewed and clicked, what your conversion rate is. Currently, many mechanisms used for these statistics are not so privacy-friendly," said Dr Matthias Schunter of IBM Research, who co-chaired the W3C Tracking Protection, Information Week reports.

According to Information Week, the new standards would be enforced via self-regulatory industry bodies from mid-2012.

Top Websites That Changed Our Lives

With the development of technology, internet was accessible to worldwide users and many websites emerged in for various purposes. Today technology plays a vital role and is a part and parcel of everyone's life who indulges themselves in its creation of enormous websites.

There are millions of websites that are used by people, but only few are familiar in the minds of commoners which have made a large impact through their new features when compared to others.


Here are few websites that changed everyday life of people.

Google-Google is the website that is present over many years on the screen by allowing users to search for information, watch videos, blogging and other services efficiently provided by it. So, when it comes to Internet the first word that strikes our mind is Google. It has such a huge impact on every Internet user.Google has invaded virtually every aspect of the Internet. Most people use at least one Google product or service on a regular basis personally. Whether it's Google maps, Blogger blog, a Picasa photo album, a Google search, or even a YouTube video.

Facebook-Facebook is a social network; which has revolutionized the way of interaction with one another. People use Facebook to talk online, build networks. They are using it to follow and interact with their favorite personalities also. People use it to keep in touch with business contacts, friends, family. Facebook has made social networking mainstream worldwide.Attracting more than 500 million users, ranging from all age groups includes celebrities, and even political world leaders. It also offers additional feature in addition to blogs, members can express themselves by designing their profile page to reflect their personality. The most popular extra features include music and video sections. 

YouTube-There weren't many options if one wanted to watch a video online. Hardly videos were found. After the arrival of YouTube, it is successfully running by solving all problems when it came to entertainment on the Internet. One can watch videos and can also listen to music and even blog through videos. The website allows watching things ever thought of.Web users now had a centralized place to watch video online. And because of YouTube's pioneering effort, online video is now enjoyed by millions every day.

Wikipedia-Earlier most online encyclopedias were sorely lacking in information, Wikipedia changed all that by not only allowing to view the content for free, but also by allowing individual users to review and update content, making it more complete and accurate overall.Wikipedia also brought user generated content to the mainstream online, making both much more viable and valuable. In Wikipedia one can literally find anything and everything. The website appeals to Internet users from all over the world, offering information in various languages.The website became a free e-encyclopedia that has grown and will probably continue as long as the Internet is available. It is also a most visited website for information's. 

eBay-eBay is well known for its ability for users to sell various items. eBay is one of the very few websites that offers live real time auctions for products. With online shopping and a few simple clicks from your finger tip the shopping is done. eBay allows users from all over the world to buy items.The website allows one to get items that are not available in the market. eBay has made it easy to find some of the most popular items that are not sold in stores anymore. It is the website that gives consumer satisfaction by providing every information about a product that saves customers who are in a confused state of mind.

India, the Fastest Growing Nation on Facebook

Facebook is undoubtedly the reigning king in the space of social networking in the world over. Users now spend more time on Facebook than any other website and the numbers are staggering. Americans spent alone spend 53 billion minutes on Facebook in a month, now the question that pops up in the mind is which is the fastest growing nation on facebook. Well you will be happy to witness the fact that India is the fastest growing nation on facebook, reveals a study conducted by Online Marketing Trends.


Let's get a sneak peek into the nations who are on a raising spree in terms of growth of users on facebook is concerned.

1. India-India had 17,288,060 users in the beginning of the year 2011, now by the month June 2011, India stands at 28,581,200 users which meant that that it witnessed a staggering growth of 11, 292,140 (65.32 percent). With an online penetration of 36.39 percent the figure is justified.
2. Indonesia-At the initial time of the year 2011 Indonesia stood firm with 32,126,780 users and then it went to become 38,518,380 users by the month of June. It reco
rded a growth of 19.89 percent i.e. 6,391,600. Indonesia has an online penetration of 129.53 percent.
3. Philippines-Philippines had 19,227,060 users in the beginning of the year 2011, now by the month June 2011, India stands at 25,018,080 users which meant that th
ere is a growth of 5,791,020 (30.12 percent).
4. Thailand-In the beginning of the year 2011 Thailand registered 6,732,780 users, this went on to increase to 10,361,120 in the month of June. It recorded a growth of
3,628,340.

5. Japan-Japan recorded 1,816,300 users in the beginning of the year and it went up by 1, 896,600 and the number of users stood at 3,712, 900.

Facebook pictures can reveal your secrets - advanced hacking technique

If you are an active Facebook user and if you have the habit of uploading all your photos, then beware as you will be terrified to know that behind your photos, there might be hidden kilobytes of data which are totally invisible, a list of all your passwords and even your credit card number. With the most advanced hacking techniques today, it is completely possible!! Stegobot", a proof-of-concept botnet, is designed by researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology in New Delhi, India. It attaches to Facebook profiles, and more certainly, steals users' confidential information, such as online banking and email passwords, through their Facebook pictures.

Stegobot is developed by the researchers with an intention to show how easy it is for a hacker to use Facebook photos to surreptitiously spread large-scale online attacks.
New Scientist explained that Stegobot uses the technique of stenography to hide the data in picture files without changing the picture's appearance.

It is possible if Stegobot got its hands on it that the 720x720 pixel image could be sheltering 50 kilobytes of data - plenty of space to hide and "transmit any passwords or credit card numbers that Stegobot might find on your hard drive," New Scientist wrote. After the botnet hides your personal information in a photo and a friend views your Facebook page, their computer automatically becomes infected. They do not even have to click on the corrupted photo for Stegobot to work. The masses of stolen data makes their way back to the botnet operator from there, who can extract the payload from each picture and can use it in whatever devious manner he wishes. But what brings a relief is that Stegobot only exists in a lab, for now.

Facebook music service 'Vibes' in the pipeline?

By analysing Facebook programming code, a software developer and researcher has found evidence of an unannounced music service called 'Vibes'.

Jeff Rose wrote on his blog that after the launch of Facebook Video Chat, he examined the code that the new feature requires to work. He found that it made reference to features called 'Peep' for video calling itself and also to 'Vibes'.

"I searched around to see what this is all about, and it seems that this is an unannounced feature that has yet to be released," the Telegraph quoted Rose as saying.

"The vibes app connects with a music download dialog in the page though, so I'm guessing that with this release we are seeing the seeds for Facebook's upcoming music offering," added Rose.

As Facebook Video Chat is not called 'Peep', it seems likely that any new music service could have a public name other than 'Vibes'.

Facebook, Skype, and Microsoft's savvy investment

Just after Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer announced plans in May to buy Skype, he and Skype Chief Executive Officer Tony Bates had one more order of business.

"The day we announced, we definitely came to see Mark," Bates said, talking of Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, at a press conference today announcing Facebook's plans to bake Skype's video conferencing technology into its social network. "It was for both of us, Steve and I, the most important strategic relationship."

As Google grows ever more powerful in techdom, and Microsoft's influence slips, the Redmond software giant is building closer and closer ties to Facebook. The Facebook-Skype deal today is more evidence that Microsoft and Facebook are in lockstep as they fight their mutual foe, Google. And it comes even while Microsoft awaits regulatory approval to conclude its Skype acquisition.

"We have a really good relationship with Microsoft, where we work with them on a lot of different stuff," Zuckerberg said at the press conference announcing the new video-conferencing feature. That stuff includes advertising, where Microsoft provides all the search advertising to Facebook. It used to provide display advertising, too, but Facebook took over that task last year.

Microsoft has been criticized for its many missteps on the Internet, ranging from leisurely upgrades of Internet Explorer to being slow to understand the importance of search. But its relationship with Facebook is something Ballmer & Co. got right. Microsoft cemented its bond with Facebook in 2007, when it bought a 1.6 percent stake in the company for $240 million. Today, if reported valuations of Facebook are to be believed--online privately held stock marketplace SharesPost currently has an implied value for the company at $82.4 billion--that 1.6 percent is worth $1.3 billion.

But the Microsoft-Facebook relationship isn't really about savvy investment, of course. It's about fighting off Google. Microsoft's Facebook deals, and you can include the new video chat feature from Skype, are all aimed squarely at the search king. And just as the Web search giant has changed the market dynamics to undermine Microsoft's power--helping establish the Web, not the PC desktop, as the heart of computing--so too is Facebook challenging Google. Its service, with 750 million users worldwide, is becoming something of an alternative Internet, a place where computer users spend huge chunks of time and never touch a Google service.

In May, Microsoft began including recommendations from Facebook friends into its Bing search engine, elevating results that receive a "like" from someone in the searcher's network. That way, when people search for a coffee shop in Los Angeles, for example, a java stop that won Facebook praise from their friends will rate higher in their search results, as long as they are logged in, than other nearby locations.

The Microsoft-Facebook deals are creating services that Google has yet to match. Google has tried to add social networking to search, creating its +1 button to shower favor on a news article, a company, or even a search result. But its network isn't the equal of Facebook. So clicking the +1 button doesn't have the same impact as clicking a Facebook "like."