Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Far Side of the Moon Captured on Video for the First Time”

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• Far Side of the Moon Captured on Video for the First Time
• Facebook Contest Lets You Pick the NCAA’s March Madness Field
• Google: Microsoft Ad Campaign Is Full of Myths
• Glassdoor Can Mine Your Facebook Friends to Help You Land a Job [VIDEO]
• How to Make Your Company More Social
• Instagram Users Snap Spectacular Shots at Sailing’s Toughest Event [PICS]
• YouTube’s 20 Most-Shared Ads in January [VIDEOS]
• New Website Connects Language Newbies With Native Speakers
• Twitter Users Campaign for Britney Spears ‘Modern Family’ Cameo
• How to Prepare Your Social Game for Massive Growth
• Will the IPO Change Facebook Forever?
• Facebook IPO: Reactions from the Social Web (and Zuckerberg)
• Only About a Third of Tweets Are Worth Reading [STUDY]
• What Are the Presidential Candidates’ Stances on Important Tech Issues?
• Zuckerberg to Self: Stay Focused and Keep Shipping [PIC]
• How 9 Tech Giants Traded After Going Public [INFOGRAPHIC]
• Facebook: Competition An ‘Ongoing Threat’ But ‘We Compete Favorably’
• Mark Zuckerberg Spent $700,000 Flying on Private Planes Last Year
• Facebook IPO: The Illustrated View
• Facebook: Here Are the 35 Things That Could Kill Our Company
• Colbert’s Super PAC is Back, But Who’s the Biggest Donor?
• Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook’s Best-Paid Employee in 2011
• Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them
• 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook
• Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011
• Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono
• Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission
• Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO
• Election 2012: Voters Expect Candidates to Be on Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]
• Super Bowl Viewers Will Check Phones 10 Times During the Game [STUDY]

Far Side of the Moon Captured on Video for the First Time Posted: 02 Feb 2012 02:00 AM PST One of NASA’s twin GRAIL spacecrafts has captured a video of Moon’s far side for the first time. Earth’s tidal forces have slowed down Moon’s rotation so that it always presents one side to us. The other side, although receiving as much light as the front side, is called the far (or, more poetically, dark) side of the Moon, notably giving the name to one of Pink Floyd’s most successful albums. The far side of Earth’s only natural satellite has been photographed before (by Apollo 16, for example), but there has been no ground exploration there and no video was ever taken. The GRAIL (Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory) project consists of two identical spacecraft orbiting the moon – Ebb and Flow – each carrying a special camera called MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students.) Thousands of fourth to eighth graders to select areas on the lunar surface to be photographed by the MoonKAM, and the imagery will be sent back to them to study. “The quality of the video is excellent and should energize our MoonKAM students as they prepare to explore the moon,” said Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. In the 30-second video, you can see Moon’s heavily cratered, rough surface; notable sights include Moon’s north pole, the 560-mile-wide Mare Orientale impact basin and, near the bottom of the screen, the 93-mile-wide Drygalski crater. Image credit: NASA [via NASA] More About: dark side of the moon, moon, NASA, space For more Tech coverage: Follow Mashable Tech on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Tech channel Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Facebook Contest Lets You Pick the NCAA’s March Madness Field Posted: 01 Feb 2012 11:59 PM PST The NCAA’s popular March Madness basketball tournament is annually a cause of groans from know-it-all fans who think they they could have done a better job of picking its teams. But this year via Facebook, the NCAA is giving fans a chance to show that they could, indeed, make better selections. The NCAA’s Super 10 contest will select a committee of ten hardcore fans and social media enthusiasts to learn about the process and create their own field of 68 teams before the official committee releases its own picks. The winning entrants will be flown to Atlanta, given an in-depth primer on how teams are selected for the tournament and then turned loose to make their own picks. Fans enter by submitting a 30-second video pitch on why they should be selected to the March Madness Facebook page. NCAA representatives will then select contestants who exhibit the right combination of hoops knowledge and social media savvy. Then a Facebook fan vote will determine the final group of 10. Fans have until 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday to enter the contest. “Everyone thinks they know basketball and they think it’s so easy to choose the field, so we thought, ‘Why don’t we do a cross between dream-job and prove-what-you-know?” Ronnie Ramos, the NCAA’s managing director of digital communications told Mashable. Ramos said that the Super 10 is the NCAA’s first major Facebook contest, but that the “marriage of sports and social media is a really strong one because of all the fan excitement that surounds sports.” The fan committee’s picks will be posted to the NCAA’s March Madness Facebook page and the NCAA website an hour before the official field is announced. “It’s going to be fun to put a group of passional basketball fans together and see how their selections compare the official committee’s,” Ramos said. Will you enter this contest? Let us know in the comments. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, adamkaz. More About: Facebook, sports

Google: Microsoft Ad Campaign Is Full of Myths Posted: 01 Feb 2012 09:10 PM PST Google doesn’t want you to believe everything Microsoft is writing about its privacy policies — especially not in the ads for alternative Microsoft products set to appear in major newspapers. The search giant published a blog post written by policy manager Betsy Masiello, in hopes of sorting out the myths and facts behind its new privacy policy. Microsoft, among other sources, have been criticizing Google for its disloyalty to users, acting in favor of its own self-interest. Particularly, accusations have centered around the idea that Google sells users’ private information to advertisers. The post seeks to dispel seven “myths” about Google’s alleged privacy issues. While Masiello doesn’t outright say the post is a response to Microsoft, five of the seven myths are sourced to Wednesday morning’s Microsoft post. Here are the seven statements Google makes to respond to what’s been said on the web: Google does not, as Fairsearch wrote, sell user information. Advertisers buy ads that match keywords, based on anonymous data. Google’s privacy controls have not changed, as Microsoft wrote they had. Google’s privacy changes are meant to benefit users not advertisers, as Microsoft wrote. Google doesn’t read your email, as Microsoft wrote. Google’s apps are safe and government-certified, unlike what Microsoft wrote. Google’s privacy changes don’t jeopardize government information, as SafeGov.org wrote. Google disagrees with Microsoft‘s statement that Microsoft’s privacy policy is superior to Google’s. Are you satisfied with Google’s response or do you feel as if your private information is in jeopardy? Let us know in the comments. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, picmov More About: Google, microsoft, privacy

Glassdoor Can Mine Your Facebook Friends to Help You Land a Job [VIDEO] Posted: 01 Feb 2012 09:00 PM PST When you’re looking for a job, who are the first people you turn to? Glassdoor, the careers site that regularly serves up lists of odd interview questions, is betting that it’s the friends and family in your personal network rather than your professional network. That’s why it’s introducing a deep integration with Facebook, called Inside Connections. Now when you connect Glassdoor to Facebook and click on a company, you’ll be able to see which of your Facebook friends are connected to that company — either by being an employee or having worked there in the past. You’ll also see friends of friends who are connected, too. “Inside Connections is Glassdoor plus Facebook,” says company founder Tim Besse. “It’s about finding the ‘in’ you have at a company through the friends you already have on Facebook and combining it with all the information Glassdoor already has — all of our job listings, reviews, salaries and interview details.” Why connect with Facebook and not the possibly more obvious professional network of LinkedIn? Apart from the fact that Glassdoor competes with LinkedIn, Besse maintains that a person’s network of personal friends is actually where people turn when they’re looking for a job. He also says that Glassdoor’s customers tend to be younger, and many are more active on Facebook than LinkedIn. SEE ALSO: 8 Tips for Nailing Your Next Startup Job Interview “We’ve been taught to think that Facebook is just our personal or social lives and Linkedin is our professional lives, but the reality is that when you’re boots-on-the-street looking for a job, some of the very first people that you turn to are your closest friends. And what Glassdoor does is make it really easy to tap into these connections.” Besides offering up potential contacts at companies you’re targeting, Glassdoor’s Facebook integration further personalizes your experience with the site. The software taps into your Facebook history and network to present you with jobs and companies you actually may be interested in as you browse the site. What do you think of Glassdoor’s approach? Do you turn to your Facebook network for career help above connections on other networks? Or would you rather see integration with a professional network like LinkedIn? Have your say in the comments. More About: Facebook, glassdoor, linkedin

How to Make Your Company More Social Posted: 01 Feb 2012 08:45 PM PST Mae Karwowski runs social media strategy and oversees community management at Gilt City, a subsidiary of the Gilt Groupe. She also consults for several startups. Social networks are flooded with potential customers. Therefore, today’s companies need to foster a socially engaged culture within company walls. A business becomes more inherently social by going beyond the corporate Twitter account and Facebook Page. A social business engages the entire company, from CEO to executive assistant. Take advantage of the opportunity to foster your company’s internal community and teach valuable social media skills as the space rapidly grows and evolves. But how do you get everyone on board? 1. Give Interactive Tutorials It’s hard to get people to tweet consistently when they don’t understand what an @mention is. By hosting a few interactive Facebook and/or Twitter tutorials across the company, you can provide a valuable service to your coworkers, both in and out of the office. Have everyone bring laptops and phones to the session to keep it interactive. Try setting tasks at the beginning of the session, such as creating a special tutorial hashtag, and then ask everyone to tweet photos of the tutorial. 2. Focus on Fun Ways to Use Twitter Show your employees how to use a hashtag that they can relate to. For example, follow funny Twitter commentary while watching an episode of The Bachelor. Or show the foodies on your team curated lists of food truck Twitter accounts and how to see where they are parked. Provide examples that demonstrate how Twitter can organize information and news for just about any job or industry. Once they learn the basic tools and creative uses of social media, they will naturally see how they can gather more information applicable to their jobs as well. 3. Find Influencers Within the Company Chances are you already have several employees that love social media, whether they’re Pinterest fanatics or live tweet their entire weekends. Recognize these employees internally for their mastery of social media by highlighting their content. For example, the team member with the most active Instagram account could be in charge of documenting your company's product launch party. Once you start finding way to feature and utilize the social media prowess of employees, more of the team will chime in and participate. Encourage the team to @mention the corporate Twitter feed when they find pertinent industry news and content. This will generate more content and a larger social media presence for the company as a whole. It's important that your internal experts feel their social skills and expertise is appreciated by the company. These people will naturally start helping and encouraging other employees to do the same. 4. Launch a Fun Contest or Internal Campaign Once you've taught employees the basics and highlighted the company's influencers, it's time to get everyone involved in some straight-up fun. Try launching a contest: Record everyone's Klout score and see who can improve hers the most within a month. Or announce an Instagram photo contest, in which the office chooses the winning photographs, and frames the winning entries as office art. Or host a company room on turntable.fm and vote on the company's best DJ. That person could DJ the next office party. Be sure to follow up with incentives and recognition, crucial aspects of any competition. Social media allows for a great deal of creativity, so take full advantage and set the contest up as a fun outlet for the company. 5. Engage As you encourage your company to become more social media savvy, make sure to foster a sense of community. People want to learn information from social networks, but they also want to communicate with one another. Social media channels provide a way to do this outside the normal confines of cubicle culture, and can boost overall company moral by augmenting the experience of working together. Occasionally highlight team members’ tweets, Facebook posts and content from the corporate accounts (with content, make sure to get permission). If someone has an especially funny or relevant tweet, draw attention to it. This activity not only shows employees and onlookers that team members are valued, but also personalizes and gives your brand authenticity. Plus, company employees will be more excited to share and listen to the company within social media channels. 6. Get creative! The opportunities to infuse social behavior into your company only increase with engagement. You’ll be able to create more advanced tutorials, educate about emerging platforms, launch new initiatives that bring everyone closer together, and much more. Ask your employees what types of contests and initiatives they'd like to be a part of. Social media provides a company a way to have some fun at work, so make the most of it! Convincing newbies to jump headfirst into social media can seem challenging, but by demonstrating value and communicating enthusiasm, your company will take off into social media stardom. If you explain how to use a social media channel, show its potential, and reward creative participation, you are well on your way to creating a company with social values built into its foundation. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, pixdeluxe, Flickr, geckoam More About: Business, community, community management, contributor, features, Social Media For more Business coverage: Follow Mashable Business on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Business channel Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Instagram Users Snap Spectacular Shots at Sailing’s Toughest Event [PICS] Posted: 01 Feb 2012 08:32 PM PST 1. An AbuDhabi highway shot by Liam Goslett, a 19-year-old photographer from Toronto whose Tumblr blog is called Liam Saw This. Click here to view this gallery. Instagram and Tumblr photographers frequently turn everyday occurrences into beautiful digital images. So what would happen if you unleashed them upon one of the world’s most epic events — for example, the so-called “Everest of Sailing?” That’s exactly what the sportswear company Puma did last month when it transported 10 bloggers to Abu Dhabi to cover the Volvo Ocean Race for a week. The handpicked Tumblr and Instagram users took photos for their blogs of the local landscape, culture, race boats, sailors and events as they saw fit. And, not surprisingly, they got some pretty great shots (see slideshow above for examples). The 39,000-nautical-mile contest, formerly known as the Whitebread Round the World Race, is held once every three years and recognized as one of sailing’s most grueling events. Un-motored yachts circle the globe over a span of nine months. The boats left Alicante, Spain, in November and will reach Galway, Ireland, in July after stopovers on six continents along the way. Puma executives told Mashable that, rather than seek any specific coverage for their brand, the company was simply looking for credit as having recognized skilled photo-bloggers and brought them to the race. Puma sponsors one of the race’s six entrants and is listed as its official apparel supplier. Some saw the move as a reflection of the increasing recognition of bloggers as credible and influential public tastemakers. "Puma is kind of going out on a limb spending a nice amount of money and hoping to get something out of this, but the blogs aren't going anywhere," Sean Sullivan of Tumblr’s The Impossible Cool told Mashable before the trip. "They're only getting bigger and better, so the companies that recognize that are going to be the cool companies in the coming years." According to Remi Carlioz, Puma‘s head of digital marketing, the company did get a return on its investment. “We think it was a terrific success and a fantastic experience for us,” he said in an interview. “In all honesty, it makes us question some of the things we’ve been doing — for example, if you have one post that gets 40,000 reblogs, it makes us look at social media in a different way,” Carlioz said. “We don’t plan to replicate it exactly, but we will definitely do more like this in the future.” Scroll through the gallery above to see some of what the selected bloggers produced, and click here, here and here for some examples of cool cinemagraphs from the trip. Do you think Puma is cutting-edge or wasting marketing money with these types of campaigns? Let us know in the comments. Thumbnail image courtesy of James Nord More About: instagram, Marketing, tumblr For more Business coverage: Follow Mashable Business on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Business channel Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

YouTube’s 20 Most-Shared Ads in January [VIDEOS] Posted: 01 Feb 2012 08:19 PM PST From last year’s Super Bowl to the upcoming big game, here are the 20 most-shared ads from January, 2012. Advertisers are increasingly catering to the web before taking commercials to television. Teasers or previews to advertisements are becoming as common as movie trailers. Last year, Volkswagen showcased a teaser to its infamous Star Wars-themed Super Bowl ad. The car company has successfully followed the same strategy for this year’s big game, even tying in the same theme. Following suit, this year Honda also released a teaser for its homage to the 1986 classic, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — complete with Matthew Broderick himself. The nine-second clip was almost as successfully shared as the full-length video. Action-packed videos are also always well-shared, as shown by ads such as Ken Block’s Gymkhana Four for DC Shoes, the movie trailer for Nitro Circus and GoPro’s ad for its HD Hero2 camera. Lastly, there are a number of ads that tug at your heartstrings, as shown by Coca-Cola’s advice from a 100-year-old man, or the David Confield Melanoma Fund shows in its “Dear 16 Year-Old Me” video. Our friends at Viral Video compiled a list of the 20 most-shared YouTube ads for the month of January. Some followed over from 2011, while others are from as recent as last week. Are there any that surprise you? Let us know in the comments. 1. "The Bark Side" (Volkswagen) Shares: 637,493 After Volkwagen's Super Bowl ad went viral last year, the company is serving up another round of Star Wars-themed advertising. The collection of dogs barking to the movie's theme song is just the teaser (the full commercial was just recently released) but it still put Volkswagen back on top. Click here to view this gallery. More About: Advertising, features, Media, trending, viral videos

New Website Connects Language Newbies With Native Speakers Posted: 01 Feb 2012 08:05 PM PST The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: Verbling Quick Pitch: Verbling is a web-based platform where individuals can pair up with native speakers to practice speaking new languages on live video. Genius Idea: Verbling makes language learning easy by offering a free way to connect instantly with native speakers with timed prompts and conversation-starting topics. Verbling was launched in 2011 when co-founders Jacob Jolis and Mikael Bernstein met while attending Stanford University. The two dropped out of the prestigious school and teamed up with then-Google software engineer Fred Wulff to build the language-learning startup of their dreams. Verbling.com, a Y Combinator-backed startup, is a website that people can access globally to speak with native language speakers living in different countries. For now, only Spanish and English speakers can access video chat, but the founders hope to add Arabic, French, Chinese and German — among 10 languages in total — by the end of the year. The idea of Verbling is to solve one of the biggest problems for language learners — not being able to practice speaking with natives. People devote time and money to learning language basics, but slowly lose linguistic skills without practice. “It’s very difficult to find native speakers without going abroad,” said Bernstein who speaks English, Swedish, German and Russian. “With Verbling, you can do that instantaneously. You don’t have to schedule or waste any time trying to find someone.” Verbling is all about the trade. Convenient prompts with the in-browser video chats lets users know when to speak in one language and when to switch to another language. Each language is spoken for five minutes at a time, making sure both participants get the practice they are looking for. Participants are matched up automatically. The company currently doesn’t connect people based on age, gender or location, but may be willing to consider it in the future. The founders read emails and feedback from all users and will implement suggestions as the product continues to be developed. During the chat, there are buttons users can use to display conversation topics for beginners, intermediate learners and advanced speakers. Then you can “super-like,” “like,” or “dislike” the conversation when it ends. This will determine who you will be matched up with next time. Mutual good reviews will prompt users to be linked up for a second or third conversation. Users are automatically matched up with a native speaker. If you speak English and are looking to practice Spanish, you’ll be connected with someone from Spain or South America, says Bernstein. “It’s very exciting to talk to people from all around the world,” he said. “It’s a real cultural experience.” Verbling founders believe they have created a product that is better than other online language-practice programs such as Live Mocha — offering over 35 languages with 11 million members in 196 countries — or My Language Exchange — over 1 million members from over 133 countries, practicing 115 languages. SEE ALSO: 7 Language Translation iPhone Apps for the Digital Traveler“Verbling is instantaneous whereas other sites force you to search for people to talk to. Instead of wasting time searching for language partners in obscure forums and scheduling times,” Bernstein said. Bernstein recalls speaking with people in Egypt and Syria and chatting casually about the revolutions and protests happening across the world. He hopes to improve the linguistic skills of language learners in different countries, as well as enhance the human connection between people. Verbling is now a company consisting of the three founders and two employees. The company’s office are based in Palo Alto, Calif. The group has come a long way from working on the product from the apartment the creators shared not so long ago. The trio started Verbling with money they received from being a part of Y Combinator — a startup booster program that has boosted companies such as Dropbox, Reddit and Scribd onto a global stage. The startup also received seed funding from SV Angel, a venture capital firm, and investors. Verbling hopes to continue to increase user numbers over the next few months, but already see a huge response from current users. A neat phenomenon the founders have already noticed: Verbling has been recently assigned as homework by high schools and university language professors. Image Courtesy of Flickr, photosteve101 Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. More About: bizspark, Google, language learning, software, video chat, y combinator For more Business coverage: Follow Mashable Business on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Business channel Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Twitter Users Campaign for Britney Spears ‘Modern Family’ Cameo Posted: 01 Feb 2012 07:36 PM PST If we’ve learned anything from massive campaigning on the Internet recently, it’s that the Web has the power to get things done. The latest campaigning effort comes in support of Britney Spears, as many tweeted on Tuesday to let the pop superstar appear on popular TV show Modern Family. The hashtag #GetBritneyOnModernFamily started to trend worldwide on Twitter. The campaign started when Britney Spears — who has dabbled in acting over the years, from films such as Crossroads to the popular sitcom How I Met Your Mother — sent out a message on Twitter, saying “I know everybody is excited about the Super Bowl, but I personally can't wait to see the next episode of Modern Family! Funniest show on TV.” Modern Family actress Sofia Vergara retweeted her message. Spears’ manager Adam Leber asked fans on the site for their input on a possible Spears cameo: “BritneySpears on Modern Family? What do you guys think?" Twitter users jumped on the bandwagon, with many urging producers to get her on the show. “I bet if Britney was on Modern Family, she would give the show its highest ratings to date!” one tweet said. Spears — whose cameo appearances have given shows a huge jump in viewership — took a screen shot of the trending hash tag and posted it to Facebook. “You all are at it again — look what’s trending!” Spears said. Responding to fans on Twitter, she said: “Ahhhh I would love to be on it!” More About: britney spears, Facebook, Music, Twitter

How to Prepare Your Social Game for Massive Growth Posted: 01 Feb 2012 07:22 PM PST James Phillips is co-founder and senior vice president of products for Couchbase, a leading NoSQL database company. Online gaming has steadily grown over the past decade, now generating billions of dollars in annual revenue and representing one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy. In the last couple of years, social games have taken center stage, producing the vast majority of growth in the online gaming market. If you are planning to build and launch a social game, growth is what you should be concerned with and prepared for. In large part due to their tie to Facebook, these games can accelerate from zero to millions of users literally overnight — Zynga's CityVille game reached 100 million monthly active users within 40 days of its launch. Cost-effectively supporting that kind of growth, while sustaining a snappy and compelling gaming experience, presents an enormous challenge at every layer of the game's technology stack. On the flipside, many games tend to peak and then wane over time. As important as it is to be able to absorb new users during the growth phase of a game, it is equally important to be able to dial back resources (and therefore cost) as the game's popularity declines. Managing Social Game Data The database layer presents a particular challenge for these games, as traditional approaches to data management tend to fall short in these environments. This is a new and vibrant area of technology innovation. Three key attributes characterize the data layer of a social game that is prepared for success: Elasticity: Matching infrastructure costs to demand optimizes a game's profitability. The ability to easily dial up (and dial down) database resources is a critical part of that equation. One should be able to make these capacity changes to a live game so there is never a need to take a game offline, maintaining continuous revenue generation. Low latency: Interactive games must be responsive. Making a player wait for feedback leads to abandonment. If the experience is not quick and predictable, users leave … and take their entertainment budget with them. Database technologies must be able to consistently deliver sub-millisecond random reads and writes of data, across the entire scaling spectrum. Data format flexibility: The best social games adapt, delaying or preventing boredom and the resulting decline in active user count. The data tier must be flexible enough (even at very large scale, and without downtime) to support the changing data management requirements of a game in transition. These are hard problems to solve at social gaming scale. To meet these needs, a new class of database — the NoSQL database — has garnered a lot of attention in the last couple of years. New open source, NoSQL databases provide the kind of performance and flexibility required of a social game database. If you are preparing for social gaming success, they are worthy of consideration. Choosing the Right NoSQL Database Selecting the right NoSQL database can be difficult. It seems like a new NoSQL database project appears every week. Sorting through the options can be daunting. There are various classes of NoSQL database: key-value, document, graph, columnar. Each data model has pros and cons. Which is right for a social game? There is a lot of talk about "Big Data" in addition to NoSQL. Are these the same thing? Let's sort through these questions, in reverse order: Big Data vs. Big Audience There are two fundamental problems being addressed at the data layer today. Big Data. Data is being generated at an unprecedented rate. How can you efficiently analyze these extremely large datasets and identify patterns, trends and opportunities? This is the "Big Data" problem. Technologies like Hadoop, Map-Reduce and Cassandra are solutions built for analyzing very large datasets. They are generally batch-oriented and focused on analysis. Big Audience. Social games have user counts measured in the millions. Millions of users put tremendous pressure on a database — regardless of the size of the dataset. Even with only a few bytes per user (and thus a fairly small aggregate dataset size), keeping up with a non-stop stream of random reads and writes from a large number of concurrent users is incredibly hard. This is the Big Audience problem and what NoSQL databases are designed to address. Of course, if you have a Big Audience, you are probably going to generate Big Data. And most social games deploy both a transactional NoSQL database for real-time data serving to the application and a Big Data solution for data analysis. Classes of NoSQL Database The term "NoSQL" database is an unfortunate choice. More accurate would be "non-relational," transactional database. This is the consistent characteristic across these "NoSQL" databases (some of which, confusingly, do support at least a subset of SQL). So if these solutions are not relational, what are they? There are a number of data models: key-value, document, column-oriented and graph to name the most common. Each model has pros and cons making them more or less appropriate for a given application. Document-oriented databases power the majority of NoSQL deployments behind social games, largely due to their balance of four key criteria:   Performance. The document data model keeps related data in a single physical location in memory and on disk (a document). This allows consistently low-latency access to the data — reads and writes happen with very little delay. Database latency can result in perceived "lag" by the player of a game and avoiding it is a key success criterion. Dynamic elasticity. Because the document approach keeps records "in one place" (a single document in a contiguous physical location), it is much easier to move the data from one server to another while maintaining consistency — and without requiring any game downtime. Moving data between servers is required to add and remove cluster capacity to cost-effectively match the aggregate performance needs of the application to the performance capability of the database. Doing this at any time without stopping the revenue flow of the game can make a material difference in game profitability. Schema flexibility. While all NoSQL databases provide schema flexibility, key-value and document-oriented databases enjoy the most flexibility. Column-oriented databases still require maintenance to add new columns and to group them. A key-value or document-oriented database requires no database maintenance to change the database schema (to add and remove "fields" or data elements from a given record). Query flexibility. Balancing schema flexibility with query expressiveness (the ability to ask the database questions, for example, "return me a list of all the farms in which a player purchased a black sheep last month") is important. While a key-value database is completely flexible, allowing a user to put any desired value in the "value" part of the key-value pair, it doesn't provide the ability to ask questions. It only permits accessing the data record associated with a given key. I can ask for the farm data for user A, B and C to see if they have a black sheep, but I can't ask the database to do that work on my behalf. Document-databases provide the best balance of schema flexibility without giving up the ability to do sophisticated queries.   Which Option Is Right for Your Game? If you agree that a document-oriented approach is correct, then you've already substantially reduced the number of contenders. If you were previously considering Big Data and NoSQL as synonymous, you've further reduced the set. From there, you should consider the important attributes we previously identified: elasticity, concurrent random read latency and throughput, and data format flexibility. Additionally, one must consider the ease with which developers can build applications that interact with the database. Are there well-maintained and documented SDKs/client libraries? Is there a community of users to provide support and guidance? Is the technology being actively developed, enhanced and improved? Can you get commercial support if desired? If you are considering building a social game, you must consider the infrastructure requirements to support growth. Your choice of database technology is arguably the most important infrastructure component decision you will make. More About: contributor, Entertainment, features, Gaming, Tech, Web Development

Will the IPO Change Facebook Forever? Posted: 01 Feb 2012 07:12 PM PST Journalists can find some pretty weird things interesting, but I never thought a 207-page government-mandated document would keep me turning the pages. That changed Wednesday, with Facebook’s mammoth S-1 filing. It wasn’t so much an SEC prospectus as it was a peek into the personality of Mark Zuckerberg — and a field guide to the beast he’s responsible for. (The social network, that is, not the dog.) It was all there, Zuck’s soul laid bare: his fears of everything that could harm the company (who knew the SEC could act as a therapist?) as well as his dreams for how it could change the planet. “Facebook was not originally created to be a company,” the founder wrote. “It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.” To which I think we can safely reply: Mission accomplished. The scope of Facebook has long seemed breathtaking, but this document still made our jaws drop. There are, it said, 100 billion friendships on Facebook. In other words, the social network has fostered more than 14 connections for every man, woman and child on the planet. It’s the Money, Dummy But lest we forget, an S-1 is not a mission statement. It is a means to one end alone: making money. And the sweet smell of greenbacks could be detected on every page. Here is Zuckerberg, the soon-to-be $28 billion man, taking $700,000 worth of plane rides a year. There goes COO Sheryl Sandberg, who made more than $30 million in 2011. And everywhere are the names who are going to cash in, big time: Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Accel Partners, Sean Parker, Bono. Yes, these are richly-deserved rewards, more or less. The employees have worked very hard for them. The VCs took a risk. And the banks take their cut for sailing the IPO ship out of harbor; that’s how the system works. But the dollar-drenched pages serve as a timely reminder: Everything is going to be different when the company goes public later this year. From that point on, Facebook will have a solemn obligation to create more value for shareholders. No doubt the social mission will continue to be important. But as a public company, Facebook must try its damnedest to make money before all else. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong; I’m saying it’s the law. The Long-Term View What remains to be seen is how that focus will affect us Facebook users on a day-to-day basis. Probably not a lot, at first. But how about five or ten years down the line? I used to think Google had made the transition to public company unscathed. The DNA of “don’t be evil” ran deep in the organization. But the recent kerfuffle over Search Plus Your World — which seems a fairly naked bid to push Google+ results above more relevant ones — made me think twice. Google’s founders also wrote a lofty statement of their social mission prior to the IPO. Would Google be so maniacally focused on Google+, to the detriment of its search product, if it weren’t legally required to make more and more value for shareholders? Without a time machine that can transport us into an alternate universe where Google remained private, it’s impossible to say for sure. But my gut says it would not. The social media landscape is constantly remaking itself. That was another message the S-1 drilled home: competition, technology and infrastructure change all the time. Tiny but vital decisions must be made by Facebookers every day. And the ultimate arbiter of those decisions is about to change from “what makes sense for our social mission” to “what makes sense for our shareholders.” The Facebook faithful can only hope that those two goals remain entwined for many years to come. 1. Competitors "Users increasingly engage with competing products." Image courtesy of Flickr, Mukumbura Click here to view this gallery. Additional Facebook IPO Coverage Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook's Best-Paid Employee in 2011 More About: Facebook, facebook ipo, mark zuckerberg, Opinion, trending

Facebook IPO: Reactions from the Social Web (and Zuckerberg) Posted: 01 Feb 2012 06:44 PM PST Mark Zuckerberg Click here to view this gallery. It shouldn’t be hard to guess what the largest discussion in the social space was Wednesday — the Facebook IPO. While Facebook certainly wasn’t the first social network to hit the Internet, it’s the largest one to date. Along with its hefty user base came a huge reaction — not just on Facebook but across the web. While Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg posted a picture of his desk with the memo, “Stay Focused & Keep Shipping,” others were a bit more excitable. Dave Morin, Path founder and a former Facebook employee, applauded Zuckerberg’s long-term vision throughout Facebook’s growth. Others, such as Google+ users Jonathan Franklin and Robbie Good questioned the company’s valuation, noting they don’t view a social network as a solid long-term investment. Needless to say, the social web saw its fare share of humorous reactions as well. We pieced together some of the social web’s reactions to Facebook’s IPO news. Which discussions did you notice in the social space Wednesday? Let us know in the comments. Additional Facebook IPO Coverage Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook's Best-Paid Employee in 2011 Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, skegbydave More About: Facebook, facebook ipo, trending

Only About a Third of Tweets Are Worth Reading [STUDY] Posted: 01 Feb 2012 06:28 PM PST Do you ever wonder how people react when they see your Twitter updates? Odds are, most would fall under the category of “meh,” according to a new study. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon, MIT and Georgia Tech joined forces to get a sense of how most tweets go over. They created a website called Who Gives a Tweet? that was sort of like a Hot or Not for tweets: Users were promised feedback on their tweets if they agreed to anonymously rate tweets for people they already follow. Over 19 days in December and January, 1,443 visitors to the site rated 43,738 tweets from 2,014 accounts. The verdict? Respondents liked 36% of the tweets, disliked 25% and ranked their reaction to the remaining 39% as neutral. “A well-received tweet is not all that common,” Michael Bernstein, a doctoral student at MIT who worked on the project, wrote in a blog post. “A significant amount of content is considered not worth reading, for a variety of reasons.” Tweets that were part of a semi-private conversation were among the most reviled. Also unpopular: Tweets relating to a mood (“So tired today”) or activity (“Just ate a sandwich.”) On the other hand, sharing information, asking questions of followers and self-promotion, like linking to a story you just wrote (if you’re a journalist) were more likable. The study’s authors offered a few suggestions for producing better tweets: 1. Don't Tweet Old Links. Nobody cares about old news. Twitter is best for sharing breaking news. Image courtesy of iStock, mgkaya Click here to view this gallery. Don’t tweet old links. Add an opinion or fact to an ongoing story. Keep it short. Don’t go crazy with the Twitter syntax; limit use of hashtags and @mentions, etc. Don’t tweet about the sandwich you just ate. “Reviewers reserved a special hatred for Foursquare location check-ins,” the blog post notes. Provide context. Tweets that are too short also annoy users. Don’t whine. Tease content. If you want people to click through, don’t give away the whole story in your tweet. If you’re a public figure, provide insights, don’t gossip or provide mundane details of your life. What do you think? Are there tweets that get under your skin as well? What tips would you offer. Let us know in the comments. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, SimmiSimons More About: etiquette, Twitter For more Social Media coverage: Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Social Media channel Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

What Are the Presidential Candidates’ Stances on Important Tech Issues? Posted: 01 Feb 2012 06:07 PM PST The 2012 race for the White House is well underway. During the numerous debates, campaign speeches and addresses, the five remaining presidential candidates have been outspoken about their stances on unemployment, education and foreign policy. But there’s one area they haven’t been very vocal on: technology. Just where do these presidential hopefuls stand on issues like the Internet, high-speed connectivity and digital innovation? We did a little digging to find out. Barack Obama President Obama revolutionized the role that technology plays in campaigning during his 2008 bid for the presidency. His team at the White House continues to find innovative new ways to use tech to connect the president with Americans, like this week’s Google+ hangout. But does such a technologically-savvy president have a policy agenda to match? Last month, the Obama administration came down against SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) and its sister bill in the Senate, PIPA (PROTECT IP Act). During a Google+ hangout Monday evening, Obama said that America needs to protect the “fundamental integrity of the Internet as an open and transparent system.” In 2010, Obama created the Internet Policy Task Force inside the Commerce Department, tasked with reviewing matters of “privacy policies, copyright, (the) global free flow of information, cybersecurity, and innovation in the Internet economy.” Obama has made increased cybersecurity a priority. “(A) cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation" said the president in May 2009. “America’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity." In September of last year, Obama signed the America Invents Act, which the administration claims “helps companies and inventors avoid costly delays and unnecessary litigation — letting them focus instead on innovation and job creation.” On digital infrastructure, Obama issued a National Wireless Initiative in February of last year to bring high-speed wireless access to 98% of Americans within five years. The plan calls for a near doubling of available wireless spectrum for mobile devices and a one-time $5 billion investment in wireless 4G infrastructure for rural areas. The Obama administration has also attempted to create a more “open and accountable” government on the web. Data.gov allows simple public access to government data, while the White House’s We The People petition platform has generated some substantial responses (Although not all responses have met the satisfaction of users). And on Space? Obama has said he’s a strong advocate of space travel, but he has laid out less-than-urgent deadlines for NASA accomplishments: a visit to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars sometime in the 2030s. Mitt Romney Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign has clearly studied the technology-in-campaigns playbook of Obama’s ’08 team while updating it and adding some moves of their own. But what’s the former Massachusetts Governor’s stance on the tech issues of today? Romney called a “very broad law” like SOPA “a mistake” during a CNN Republican debate held before the South Carolina Primary. “The law as written is far too intrusive, far too expansive, far too threatening to freedom of speech and movement of information across the Internet,” said Romney. “The law as written is far too intrusive, far too expansive, far too threatening to freedom of speech and movement of information across the Internet,” said Romney. “It would have a potentially depressing impact on one of the fastest-growing industries in America, which is the Internet and all those industries connected to it. At the same time, we care very deeply about intellectual content that’s going across the Internet. And if we can find a way to very narrowly, through our current laws, go after those people who are pirating, particularly those from offshore, we’ll do that. But a very broad law — I think that’s a mistake.” A 2007 book authored by Lisa Ray Turner and Kimberly Field wrote that Romney has previously called for increased investment in technology and tech education. And on the matter of attracting foreigners to start small business ventures in the U.S. (including tech startups), Romney said in a 2007 interview that he “like(s) the idea of the best and brightest in the world coming here. I'd rather have them come here permanently rather than come and go, but I believe our visa program is designed to help us solve gaps in our employment pool.” Romney’s space plans aim higher than Obama’s, but they orbit a bit closer to Earth than those of Gingrich. During a CNN debate before this week’s Florida primary, Romney said he’d like to focus investments “here,” meaning Earth. But also said he believes “in a very vibrant and strong space program,” and made a bid for increased commercialization of space travel and exploration. Mitt’s message struck a chord with some well-known figures in space travel. Gene Cernan (the last man to walk on the moon) and Bob Crippen (the first Space Shuttle pilot) are among the signatories of an open letter supporting Mitt’s space stance and his bid for the presidency. “Restoring the U.S. space program to greatness will require the leadership, management skill, and commitment to American exceptionalism possessed by only one candidate in this race: Mitt Romney,” reads the letter. “We support Mitt’s candidacy and believe that his approach to space policy will produce results instead of empty promises.” Newt Gingrich Newt Gingrich’s recently announced plan to build a colony on the Moon by “the end of (his) second term,” (a statement ambitious on two fronts) has become the subject of much discussion (and some ridicule). Gingrich evoked John F. Kennedy and the Apollo Project when defending his plan during a pre-Florida debate: “Look at what John F. Kennedy said in 1961: ‘We will go to the moon in this decade,’” said Gingrich. “No American had orbited the Earth. The technology didn’t exist. And a generation of young people went into science and engineering, and they were tremendously excited. And they had a future.” “Look at what John F. Kennedy said in 1961: ‘We will go to the moon in this decade,’” said Gingrich. “No American had orbited the Earth. The technology didn’t exist. And a generation of young people went into science and engineering, and they were tremendously excited. And they had a future. The program I envision would probably end up being 90% private sector, but it would be based on a desire to get NASA out of the business of trying to run rockets, and to create a system where it’s easy for private sector people to be engaged. I want to see us move from one launch occasionally to 6 or 7 launches a day because so many private enterprises walk up and say, we’re prepared to go do it.” But, like Romney, Newt believes America should give more incentives to the private sector of space travel, including “prizes” as incentives. Newt’s space race aside, where’s his heart on other tech issues? Gingrich, like the other candidates, came down against SOPA. “If a company finds that it has genuinely been infringed upon it has the right to sue,” said Newt during a recent debate, “but the idea that we’re going to preemptively have the government start censoring the Internet on behalf of giant corporations’ economic interests strikes me as exactly the wrong thing to do.” In a 2003 book, Newt advocated increased math and science education and increased funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF). Cybersecurity is also on Newt’s radar, and he said during a recent CNN Foreign Policy debate that he’s worried that it’s “something that we do not talk enough about.” Ron Paul The Texas Republican Representative has a strong, focused online following. But does that mean he’s pro-tech? Overall, Paul opposes attempts by the Federal government to exercise more control over the Internet, and he’s particularly concerned with Internet privacy. The federal government has no right tracking who uses the Internet and why they are doing so,” said Paul in a 2008 interview. As a Libertarian and vocal proponent of freedom of speech, opposition to SOPA and PIPA were natural for Paul. Paul was the first of the presidential hopefuls to acknowledge and take a stance on SOPA. “They want to take over the Internet,” said Paul in reference to the legislation. Paul has argued in favor of free-market, non-government solutions to providing high-speed Internet access to more Americans. “I believe that this can be best accomplished through deregulation and allowing the free market to work, said Paul. “Federal grants and subsidies will only elevate certain providers while holding back others.” Paul is against network neutrality. In 2006, Rep. Ron Paul voted against an amendment to the Communications, Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act which would have included network neutrality in the bill. Network neutrality is the idea that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should treat all Internet users (and traffic) as equal. Proponents of the idea argue that it’s how the Internet has always worked, while detractors argue that government regulation of the Internet would drive up costs. Paul feels that increased regulations (like enforced net neutrality) on ISPs would decrease competition and consumer choice. “The best way to address the concerns of proponents of Net neutrality is to remove government-imposed barriers to entry into the Internet provider market,” said Paul in 2008. And what of Paul’s plans for outer space? He voted in favor of a bill that promoted the commercialization of space travel and exploration, while he has also warned of the danger of militarizing space. Rick Santorum Like the rest of the candidates, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum came out in opposition to SOPA. However, he was the least repulsed by the legislation’s goals: “The Internet is not a free zone where anybody can do anything they want to do,” said Santorum during a Republican debate before the South Carolina primary. “I’m for freedom but I’m not for people abusing the law, and that’s what’s happening right now.” In 1996, Santorum voted in the affirmative on deregulation of the telecommunications industry. Finally, Rick Santorum lambasted Gingrich’s space plans, stressing instead the need to address economic problems in the U.S. “The idea that anybody's going out and talking about brand new, very expensive schemes to spend more money at a time when we do not have our fiscal house in order in my opinion is playing crass politics and not being realistic with the people of this country as to the nature and gravity of the problem," said Santorum. To Boldly Go…To The White House Perhaps as a result of SOPA and PIPA, the tech community is becoming more engaged with the world of politics. As technology becomes more and more a part of everyday life for Americans, the candidates can be expected to address tech issues more frequently as Election Day looms nearer. Keep following Mashable for the latest on any tech policy-related announcements made by the presidential contenders. Which candidate do you think is the most “tech-friendly?” Let us know in the comments below. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sjlocke; Flickr, Matt Ortega, World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, Gage Skidmore More About: 2012 presidential campaign, features, Politics, technology

Zuckerberg to Self: Stay Focused and Keep Shipping [PIC] Posted: 01 Feb 2012 05:51 PM PST Have you been wondering what’s going through 27-year-old billionaire Mark Zuckerberg‘s head as the company he started in his Harvard dorm room eight years ago files for IPO? You don’t have to wonder — Zuckerberg just shared a picture of his desk at Facebook HQ on his Timeline with a simple message: “Stay Focused & Keep Shipping.” It’s pretty clear what the message means: Zuckerberg is reminding himself to think about his product — the social network that unites more than 800 million people across the world — rather than today’s news from Wall Street, which could make him one of the richest men on the planet. It’s not surprising that this is what’s going through Zuck’s brain. The Facebook CEO has always valued creating a quality product over his personal cash. He’s known for his low-maintenance lifestyle, despite spending $700,000 on private jet travel in 2011. From this picture, we can observe a great deal about the Facebook leader: He drinks yellow Gatorade, works on a MacBook Air and eats take out from Styrofoam boxes. Do you agree with our assessment of Zuckerberg’s Facebook post? What do you think is going on in his head? Let us know in the comments. Additional Facebook IPO Coverage Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook's Best-Paid Employee in 2011 More About: Facebook, faceboook ipo, mark zuckerberg

How 9 Tech Giants Traded After Going Public [INFOGRAPHIC] Posted: 01 Feb 2012 05:19 PM PST Now that Facebook has filed paperwork for its Initial Public Offering, the world will be watching the company’s value. Assuming the SEC approves the filing, stocks will likely begin trading in May. The social network will be offering $5 billion in stock, and some estimates of market value place the company at a whopping $100 billion. Given the hubbub (or the hullabaloo, if you really want to get technical), we thought it might be wise to look back at the history of tech companies that have gone public. The IPO is all very well, but how valuable did they remain once the stocks start flying? SEE ALSO: 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook The results, as our friends at Statista have compiled below, are mixed. In the first 15 days of trading, some stock values shot up like a rocket (Yahoo), while others enjoyed a steady value before tanking (Groupon). Other 15-day rides, like eBay’s, were a bit rockier. The charts below show value as an index of 100, not in dollar amounts, so we can compare the paths of companies that went public years or decades apart. We’ve also included a handy graphic that shows what $100 of stock at the time of the offering would be worth today, had you held onto it. Do you think Facebook’s valuation will see a rocky road, a steady plateau, or a steep climb once it hits the market? Give us your prediction in the comments. Infographics courtesy of Statista.com. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sitox More About: Business, features, infographics, IPOs, stock, Tech For more Business coverage: Follow Mashable Business on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Business channel Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Facebook: Competition An ‘Ongoing Threat’ But ‘We Compete Favorably’ Posted: 01 Feb 2012 05:07 PM PST Clear as day, Facebook acknowledges its competition in the social media marketplace in the SEC filing document released Wednesday. Despite Google+, Orkut, Mixi, Twitter and the bevy of competing social sites, Facebook say its future looks bright. In the “competition” section of the SEC filing — about a page long in the 207-page document — Facebook breaks down the areas in which it competes: Users and Engagement. We compete to attract, engage, and retain users. Because our products for users are free of charge, we compete based on the utility, ease of use, performance, and quality of our products. Advertising. We compete to attract and retain advertisers. We distinguish our products by providing reach, relevance, social context, and engagement to amplify the effectiveness of advertisers' messages. Platform. We compete to attract and retain developers to build compelling apps and websites that integrate with Facebook. We compete in this area primarily based on the value of the tools and APIs we provide to developers to enable them to access our large global base of engaged users and their connections and to drive traffic to their apps and websites. Talent. We compete to attract and retain highly talented individuals, especially software engineers, designers, and product managers. Competition for employee talent is particularly intense in the San Francisco Bay Area, where we are headquartered. We compete for these potential employees by providing a work environment that fosters and rewards creativity and innovation and by providing compensation packages that we believe will enable us to attract and retain key employees. The section ends with Facebook asserting, “While our industry is evolving rapidly and is becoming increasingly competitive, we believe that we compete favorably on the factors described above.” Additional Facebook IPO Coverage Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook's Best-Paid Employee in 2011 More About: competitors, Facebook, ipo, mixi, S1, social networks, Twitter

Mark Zuckerberg Spent $700,000 Flying on Private Planes Last Year Posted: 01 Feb 2012 04:33 PM PST Ah, to live the luxurious life. Facebook announced on Wednesday via its filing for an initial public offering (IPO) how the company fared in 2011, and not surprisingly, its employees racked up (and spent) big money last year. The Facebook IPO provided details about the base salary of the team, including founder Mark Zuckerberg pulling in a salary of $483,333, plus a $220,500 bonus and "other compensation" worth $783,529. The filing noted that he spent nearly $700,000 for costs related to private plane use “chartered in connection with his comprehensive security program and on which family and friends flew during 2011.” That includes passenger fees, fuel, crew and catering costs. Another $90,850 of that amount was for "costs related to estate and financial planning." Executives were under fire several years ago amid the bank bailout crisis for spending top dollar on chartering private planes. But some high-paid executives — including Steve Jobs — still made some room for traveling in luxury. In fact, flying private was one of the few luxuries the Apple founder afforded himself. SEE ALSO: Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono But Zuckerberg wasn’t the highest paid Facebook employee during 2011. In fact, COO Sheryl Sandberg — who earned a base salary of $300,000 — raked in $30.87 million last year. However, if Facebook manages to raise this capital, it will be on a shortlist of the biggest tech IPOs of all time, and Zuckerberg's net worth will skyrocket since he owns 28.4% of the company. In fact, Zuckerberg's salary will fall to $1 annually starting Jan. 1, 2013. Facebook — which earned $1 billion on sales of $3.7 billion in 2011 — now has 845 million active users on the site, up from the estimated 800 million using the site back in September. The company also noted that 250 million photos are uploaded daily and 2.7 billion likes and comments are made each day. Overall, there are a whopping 100 billion friendships on the site. The full S-1 filing is available here. Thumbnail courtesy of wwwes. Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook's Best-Paid Employee in 2011 BONUS: Facebook’s Road to IPO 1. The Economy of Qatar The country of Qatar's GDP adds up to about $98 billion. Image courtesy of Flickr, thinkingjosh Click here to view this gallery. More About: Facebook, facebook ipo, trending

Facebook IPO: The Illustrated View Posted: 01 Feb 2012 04:19 PM PST Top Facebook Stats Facebook kicks off its IPO document with key stats, touting its astonishing number of active users, billions of comments and friendships and millions of photos uploaded. Click here to view this gallery. As soon as Facebook filed the papers for its initial public offering with the Securities Exchange Commission, thousands of people began pouring over the publicly posted documents, bringing the SEC’s website to its knees. The several-hundred-page document is bound to be some heavy reading, but Facebook spiced it up with screenshots and diagrams to explain its business mission and how it plans to raise $5 billion for this IPO. Most of the graphics were informative, and explained how Facebook has made its money. Not only do the images tell about the finances, but Facebook also uses them to illustrate how it caters to and values its users. It mentions features that are already familiar to active Facebook users, and then even has a nice thank-you image to the 845 million people who made the IPO possible. Additional Facebook IPO Coverage Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook's Best-Paid Employee in 2011 More About: Facebook, facebook ipo, mark zuckerberg

Facebook: Here Are the 35 Things That Could Kill Our Company Posted: 01 Feb 2012 03:52 PM PST Here’s one of the more painful parts of taking a company public: You have to make an honest assessment, in front of the whole world, of all the things that could kill your business. Facebook is no exception. In its SEC filing, as required by law, the company outlined a whopping 35 “risk factors” that could “materially and adversely affect” Facebook. It’s a comprehensive list of every threat the social network currently faces. Some are head-slappingly obvious (they could lose users and advertisers), while others are more revealing (Facebook isn’t making any money from its mobile platform — so what if that grows and web users shrink?) That may seem like a lot, but not in comparison to recent tech IPOs. LinkedIn listed 42 risk factors in its filing, Zynga offered 44, and Groupon had 55. Does that make Facebook a better bet for investors? You be the judge. What follows is a summary, in plain (or at least plainer) English, of the things Facebook says could kill it. In other words, here is every single little worry that keeps Mark Zuckerberg up at night. We’ve bolded the ones that sound particularly troubling to us. 1. We could simply lose users, or fail to add new ones. 2. We could lose advertisers — and new technology may let users block ads. 3. Facebook’s mobile platform doesn’t show ads — so the more that grows, the worse for us. 4. The platform for Facebook apps might not be successful. 5. The competition from Google, Microsoft and Twitter could heat up — not to mention other social networks around the world. 6. More governments could restrict access to Facebook. 7. Users could turn their noses up at new products. 8. The Facebook culture is all about rapid innovation and getting users engaged — and that could come at the cost of profits. 9. Unspecified future events could tarnish our brand. 10. Bugs might give people access to users’ information that they’re not supposed to see. 11. The media could turn on us. 12. Our quarterly financial results could be difficult to predict. 13. Zynga accounts for 12% of our revenue. If we part ways, that could seriously hurt us. 14. Our revenue grew by 88% last year — and that’s simply not sustainable. Growth is bound to decline. 15. The U.S. laws and regulations we’re governed by could change or be reinterpreted. 16. If our patents and copyrights aren’t granted — or aren’t effective — it could seriously hurt us. 17. We have some patent lawsuits on our hands that could end badly. 18. We’re also involved in class-action lawsuits, and we could lose them too. 19. Mark Zuckerberg has a massive amount of shares, which concentrates power in the hands of one man. 20. There’s a complicated tax liability connected to a particular kind of stock unit we gave out — one that will be taxed at 45%. 21. If we need more rounds of investment, the terms might not be reasonable. 22. Costs might grow faster than revenue. 23. A lot of our servers are handled by third parties, and they might be disrupted. 24. We’ve started building a lot of our own data centers to handle traffic, and we’ve got limited experience doing this kind of thing. 25. Our software is incredibly complex and may have a lot of bugs. 26. We can’t say for sure that we’ll handle our growth effectively — we have more than 3,000 employees now, and that could spin out of control. 27. If we lose our leaders, like Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg, that would really harm us. 28. People might sue us over all sorts of stuff posted on Facebook — intellectual property, copyright, defamation, and so on. 29. Viruses, hacking, phishing and malware. Oh my. 30. Payment systems in Facebook apps could mean new government regulations. 31. We’re continually expanding abroad, and we may not understand all the risks in new countries. 32. We’re planning to acquire lots of other companies, which could disrupt everything at Facebook. 33. We might default on our leases or our debt. 34. Our tax liabilities, in general, are bigger than we thought. 35. U.S. tax code reform, if it happens, might hit us where it hurts. 1. Competitors "Users increasingly engage with competing products." Image courtesy of Flickr, Mukumbura Click here to view this gallery. Additional Facebook IPO Coverage Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook's Best-Paid Employee in 2011 More About: Facebook, facebook ipo, mark zuckerberg, SEC, trending

Colbert’s Super PAC is Back, But Who’s the Biggest Donor? Posted: 01 Feb 2012 03:25 PM PST One video game developer is hungry to see a “Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow” as soon as possible. Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC (Political Action Committee), “American’s for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow” has raised more than $1 million since its creation in June, 2011. A vast majority of that amount came in small donations — less than $200 — but one donation stood out from the rest. Alex Rigopulos, co-founder and CEO of Harmonix Music Systems, the game studio behind the Rock Band and Dance Central series, donated more than $9,500 to Colbert’s PAC. Harmonix confirmed Rigopulos’ donation with Joystiq but declined to comment. The donation was initially disclosed last week in the Super PAC’s report to the FCC. Super Pacs are required to provide information about contributors who donate more than $200. Colbert set up his Super PAC, an organization that can raise unlimited sums of money but cannot deal directly with the political parties or candidates they support, as a gonzo satire of how politicians use (and potentially abuse) the financial institutions. Turns out that parody turned into a bit of a goldmine with the Super PAC running several commercials (some for Rick “Parry,” one against the NBA’s lockout) and even supporting Colbert’s potential run for the South Carolina primary. Colbert recently wrested power of his Super PAC back from John Stewart, who managed the Super PAC when Colbert was exploring a South Carolina run. While $1 million may not seem like much money compared to the war chests amassed by the current GOP candidates (cough, Mitt Romney), it’s impressive to think that much was raised without any clear purpose — say, an election — and in just eight months. Will Colbert’s Super PAC keep receiving money — large and small — as the Republican race heats up, or is it just a flash in the pan? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Image courtesy of Flickr, MHimmelrich More About: 2012 eelctions, elections, humor, mashable video, Social Media

Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook’s Best-Paid Employee in 2011 Posted: 01 Feb 2012 03:00 PM PST Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, got paid $30.87 million last year, making her the most highly compensated employee at the company in 2011. That disclosure, including in Facebook’s S-1 filing with the SEC on Wednesday, further outlines that Sandberg got $295,833 in salary plus a bonus of $85,133 and stock awards worth $30,491,613. That trumps the $1.49 million that CEO Mark Zuckerberg received. Zuckerberg’s compensation included a salary of $483,333 plus a $220,500 bonus and “other compensation” worth $783,529. The bulk of that figure was related to “personal use of aircraft chartered in connection with his comprehensive security program for his family and friends. Another $90,850 of that amount was for “costs related to estate and financial planning.” David Ebersman, the company’s CFO, meanwhile, received $18.68 million last year, which includes a $295,833 salary, a bonus of $86,133 and $18.3 million in stock awards. Rounding out the list are Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering, who got $24.7 million in total and Theodore Ullyot, vp, general counsel and secretary, who received $7 million. Though those employees were the highest-compensated in 2011, none of them stand to gain nearly as much in Facebook’s IPO as Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg, whose net worth in 2011 was estimated at $17.5 billion last year, claims 56.9% voting power in Facebook and owns more than 1 billion shares in the company. The next on the list of top shareholders among company executive officers and directors is James Breyer, a venture capitalist, who owns 201 million shares and has 11.4% voting rights in the company. Peter Thiel, another VC, has 44 million shares, which translates to 2.5% voting rights. Sandberg, meanwhile, has 1.9 million shares. Among outside investors, Goldman Sachs holds 65.9 million shares while Dustin Moskovitz, a co-founder, holds 133.8 million shares. The pricing for the stock has not been set at this time. Mark Zuckerberg Shares: 533,801,850 Percent: 28.4 Image courtesy of Crunchies2009; Flickr. Click here to view this gallery. Additional Facebook IPO Coverage Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook's Best-Paid Employee in 2011 Image courtesy of Flickr, World Economic Forum More About: Facebook, facebook ipo, goldman sachs, mark zuckerberg, Sheryl Sanberg, Top Stories, trending

Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them Posted: 01 Feb 2012 02:55 PM PST Lots of interesting numbers emerged from Facebook’s IPO filing Wednesday — including that one client, game-maker Zynga, accounts for a full 12% of the company’s revenue. Facebook generated $3.71 billion in sales last year; some $445 million of that came from its partnership with Zynga. Facebook made $1.97 billion in 2010. Zynga, which went public just three months ago, is the developer behind wildly popular online and mobile games including FarmVille and Words With Friends. The company hosts many of its games on Facebook, through which it sells virtual goods using Facebook’s payment system. Facebook takes a 30% cut on each transaction, and also generates revenue from money Zynga spends on Facebook advertising. The gaming company’s dependence on Facebook as a source of revenue has long been seen as a source of risk for Zynga investors. But the news that Zynga makes up a significant chunk of Facebook’s revenue should bolster investors confidence somewhat as Facebook, it turns out, is also dependent on Zynga. SEE ALSO: 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook Indeed, Facebook’s S-1 filing notes that “We currently generate significant revenue as a result of our relationship with Zynga, and, if we are unable to successfully maintain this relationship, our financial results could be harmed.” The filing points out that Zynga generates “a significant number of pages on which we display ads from other advertisers” and that if Zynga were to launch games on or migrate to competing platforms the company’s financials results could be adversely affected. The filing cites one industry study — we believe it’s this one — that claims that the sale of virtual goods is expected to to generate $15 billion in 2014, up from $7 billion in 2010. Additional Facebook IPO Coverage Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook's Best-Paid Employee in 2011 More About: Facebook, facebook ipo, Zynga For more Business coverage: Follow Mashable Business on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Business channel Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook Posted: 01 Feb 2012 02:44 PM PST Facebook filed for initial public offering today, and simultaneously announced that it is planning to raise $5 billion, a more conservative number than initially estimated. According market analyst estimates, however, Facebook’s total value has reached a staggering $100 billion. That means if Facebook were to go on sale tomorrow (unlikely), the asking price would probably be somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 billion. When we heard that number, our imaginations started to wander. What else in the world is worth that many billions of dollars? Well, we found 10 things Facebook could technically afford, were it to sell at that price. Think Facebook is in the market for naval submarines or all the coffee in the world? SEE ALSO: Apple Is Worth More than All the Tea in China; What Else Does It Beat? Can you think of anything else Facebook is worth more than? Can you even wrap your head around this kind of money? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 1. The Economy of Qatar The country of Qatar's GDP adds up to about $98 billion. Image courtesy of Flickr, thinkingjosh Click here to view this gallery. More About: Facebook, facebook ipo, features, ipo, Top Stories

Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011 Posted: 01 Feb 2012 02:30 PM PST Facebook filed for its IPO today, and it revealed a great deal about how it makes money. It’s not too surprising that Facebook said it generates “a substantial majority of our revenue from advertising,” though it also revealed just how much it makes via its partnership with Zynga. Revenue from Zynga games contribute 12% of Facebook’s bottom line. Facebook said it made $3.71 billion last year, so almost $500 million of that came from Zynga, which includes both users buying virtual goods and services within the games via Facebook Payments as well as “direct advertising” that Zynga bought. Facebook also pointed out that Zynga’s worth even more to Facebook than the numbers say, since the users playing games mean more pages get served to those users, and in turn more ads. In the filing, Facebook pointed out the risk involved in having such an interdependent relationship with Zynga. “If the use of Zynga games on our Platform declines, if Zynga launches games on or migrates games to competing platforms, or if we fail to maintain good relations with Zynga, we may lose Zynga as a significant Platform developer and our financial results may be adversely affected,” the document says. SEE ALSO: Zynga Unveils Massive Bingo for Facebook Broadly, Facebook divides its revenue into two buckets: Money made from advertising Payments and other fees That second bucket includes the buying of virtual goods and services with Facebook Payments as well revenue from “business development transactions” and mobile providers. Although Facebook doesn’t block out those things separately, it says fees from Facebook Payments are by far the largest thing in the second bucket and that the other fees are “immaterial.” Both revenue streams have been increasing over the past few years (advertising revenue went from $764 million in 2009 to $3.154 billion in 2011). However, cash coming in from payments jumped up massively recently, from $106 million in 2010 to $557 million in 2011. Facebook says the spike was because it forced all app partners to use Facebook Payments for transactions in July of last year. “Facebook Payments… began generating significant revenue in the fourth quarter of 2010,” the document says. “Facebook Payments became mandatory for all game developers accepting payments on the Facebook Platform with limited exceptions on July 1, 2011. Accordingly, comparisons of payments and other fees revenue to periods before that date may not be meaningful.” SEE ALSO: The History of Advertising on Facebook [INFOGRAPHIC] On the advertising side, the IPO filing has some interesting revelations. If you ever wondered if an advertiser can reach the entirety of Facebook’s audience, the answer is it can. Apparently Paramount did so with its advertising purchase to promote Transformers: Dark of the Moon last summer. Facebook said the studio was able to reach 65 million users in a single day. In addition, the company revealed some details on how advertisers can leverage Facebook’s platform beyond just display ads. For example, if you check in on Facebook at your local Starbucks, Starbucks can pay Facebook to increase the prominence of that check-in within your friends’ news feeds. Facebook also confirmed that “sponsored stories,” or Facebook stories created by an advertiser, have begun appearing in the site’s news feed as of January 2012. They were previously limited to the right-hand side of the page. Like the network itself, Facebook’s revenue is also going international. U.S.-based companies contributed to 62% of the company’s bottom line in 2010, but that figure shrunk to 56% in 2011. Facebook says it’s because the number of international users is growing faster, and due to Facebook opening more sales offices and payment methods abroad. Additional Facebook IPO Coverage Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook's Best-Paid Employee in 2011 2004: First Offers Turned Down Facebook launches with humble beginnings that most people have seen dramatized in The Social Network by now. It was a small social site backed by only a little money, and limited just to the undergrads at Harvard. Right out of the gate, Facebook turned down offers from an unknown investor and Friendster, each offering $10 million. This was, of course, when the company was still called TheFacebook. Image courtesy of Flickr. Click here to view this gallery. More About: Facebook, facebook ipo, Top Stories, trending, Zynga

Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono Posted: 01 Feb 2012 02:27 PM PST Facebook Wednesday filed for an initial public offering (IPO), seeking to raise $5 billion. But the company also revealed some big numbers via the SEC filing, from how many active users are on the site to how much the executives are getting paid. Facebook — which earned $1 billion on sales of $3.7 billion in 2011 — now has 845 million active users on the site, up from the estimated 800 million using the site back in September. The company also noted that 250 million photos are uploaded daily and 2.7 billion likes and comments are made each day. Overall, there are a whopping 100 billion friendships on the site. Facebook didn’t include how many shares it plans to sell or the price, but that information will be added before it goes live in May. The Facebook IPO also provided details about the base salary of the team, including founder Mark Zuckerberg pulling in $500,000 annually. Other top earners include COO Sheryl Sanberg ($300,000) and CFO David Ebersman ($300,000). Of course, these executives are earning a lot more than just their base salary. Sandberg got paid $30.87 million last year, making her the most highly compensated employee at the company in 2011. She earned more than Zuckerberg ($1.49 million). However, since he owns 28.4% of Facebook, he is worth significantly more. Zuckerberg’s salary will fall to $1 annually, starting Jan. 1, 2013. However, if Facebook manages to raise this capital, it will be on a shortlist of biggest tech IPOs of all time, and Zuckerberg’s net worth will skyrocket. Investment bank Morgan Stanley will act as lead underwriter, with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and others to take secondary positions. Shares are expected to hit the market in May. The full S-1 filing is available here. Are you surprised by the $5 billion filing? Do you think this is a good move for Facebook? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Additional Facebook IPO Coverage Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011 Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission 2004: First Offers Turned Down Facebook launches with humble beginnings that most people have seen dramatized in The Social Network by now. It was a small social site backed by only a little money, and limited just to the undergrads at Harvard. Right out of the gate, Facebook turned down offers from an unknown investor and Friendster, each offering $10 million. This was, of course, when the company was still called TheFacebook. Image courtesy of Flickr. Click here to view this gallery. More About: Facebook, facebook ipo, mark zuckerberg

Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission Posted: 01 Feb 2012 02:21 PM PST The world got a peek into Facebook‘s inner workings on Thursday when the Securities and Exchange Commission published the company’s preliminary prospectus for a long-awaited initial public offering (IPO). It also got a glimpse of how Mark Zuckerberg views the company. In a letter to potential shareholders within the document, Zuckerberg wrote that Facebook “was built to accomplish a social mission” and said the company was inspired by technologies such as the printing press and television, which “make the world more open and connected.” He also stressed that “we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.” Of course, this makes Facebook sound like it’s set out to deliver presents and free education to underprivileged children. Obviously, the goodwill note the letter strikes isn’t the whole picture — Facebook brought in $1 billion in profits last year. But it’s interesting to see how Zuckerberg, and what was likely a team of public relations professionals, define the company’s mission. You can read the full text of Zuckerberg’s letter below: Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected. We think it's important that everyone who invests in Facebook understands what this mission means to us, how we make decisions and why we do the things we do. I will try to outline our approach in this letter. At Facebook, we're inspired by technologies that have revolutionized how people spread and consume information. We often talk about inventions like the printing press and the television — by simply making communication more efficient, they led to a complete transformation of many important parts of society. They gave more people a voice. They encouraged progress. They changed the way society was organized. They brought us closer together. Today, our society has reached another tipping point. We live at a moment when the majority of people in the world have access to the internet or mobile phones — the raw tools necessary to start sharing what they're thinking, feeling and doing with whomever they want. Facebook aspires to build the services that give people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries. There is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future. The scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented, and we believe this is the most important problem we can focus on. We hope to strengthen how people relate to each other. Even if our mission sounds big, it starts small — with the relationship between two people. Personal relationships are the fundamental unit of our society. Relationships are how we discover new ideas, understand our world and ultimately derive long-term happiness. At Facebook, we build tools to help people connect with the people they want and share what they want, and by doing this we are extending people's capacity to build and maintain relationships. People sharing more — even if just with their close friends or families — creates a more open culture and leads to a better understanding of the lives and perspectives of others. We believe that this creates a greater number of stronger relationships between people, and that it helps people get exposed to a greater number of diverse perspectives. By helping people form these connections, we hope to rewire the way people spread and consume information. We think the world's information infrastructure should resemble the social graph — a network built from the bottom up or peer-to-peer, rather than the monolithic, top-down structure that has existed to date. We also believe that giving people control over what they share is a fundamental principle of this rewiring. We have already helped more than 800 million people map out more than 100 billion connections so far, and our goal is to help this rewiring accelerate. We hope to improve how people connect to businesses and the economy. We think a more open and connected world will help create a stronger economy with more authentic businesses that build better products and services. As people share more, they have access to more opinions from the people they trust about the products and services they use. This makes it easier to discover the best products and improve the quality and efficiency of their lives. One result of making it easier to find better products is that businesses will be rewarded for building better products — ones that are personalized and designed around people. We have found that products that are "social by design" tend to be more engaging than their traditional counterparts, and we look forward to seeing more of the world's products move in this direction. Our developer platform has already enabled hundreds of thousands of businesses to build higher-quality and more social products. We have seen disruptive new approaches in industries like games, music and news, and we expect to see similar disruption in more industries by new approaches that are social by design. In addition to building better products, a more open world will also encourage businesses to engage with their customers directly and authentically. More than four million businesses have Pages on Facebook that they use to have a dialogue with their customers. We expect this trend to grow as well. We hope to change how people relate to their governments and social institutions. We believe building tools to help people share can bring a more honest and transparent dialogue around government that could lead to more direct empowerment of people, more accountability for officials and better solutions to some of the biggest problems of our time. By giving people the power to share, we are starting to see people make their voices heard on a different scale from what has historically been possible. These voices will increase in number and volume. They cannot be ignored. Over time, we expect governments will become more responsive to issues and concerns raised directly by all their people rather than through intermediaries controlled by a select few. Through this process, we believe that leaders will emerge across all countries who are pro-internet and fight for the rights of their people, including the right to share what they want and the right to access all information that people want to share with them. Finally, as more of the economy moves towards higher-quality products that are personalized, we also expect to see the emergence of new services that are social by design to address the large worldwide problems we face in job creation, education and health care. We look forward to doing what we can to help this progress. Our Mission and Our Business As I said above, Facebook was not originally founded to be a company. We've always cared primarily about our social mission, the services we're building and the people who use them. This is a different approach for a public company to take, so I want to explain why I think it works. I started off by writing the first version of Facebook myself because it was something I wanted to exist. Since then, most of the ideas and code that have gone into Facebook have come from the great people we've attracted to our team. Most great people care primarily about building and being a part of great things, but they also want to make money. Through the process of building a team — and also building a developer community, advertising market and investor base — I've developed a deep appreciation for how building a strong company with a strong economic engine and strong growth can be the best way to align many people to solve important problems. Simply put: we don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services. And we think this is a good way to build something. These days I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits. By focusing on our mission and building great services, we believe we will create the most value for our shareholders and partners over the long term — and this in turn will enable us to keep attracting the best people and building more great services. We don't wake up in the morning with the primary goal of making money, but we understand that the best way to achieve our mission is to build a strong and valuable company. This is how we think about our IPO as well. We're going public for our employees and our investors. We made a commitment to them when we gave them equity that we'd work hard to make it worth a lot and make it liquid, and this IPO is fulfilling our commitment. As we become a public company, we're making a similar commitment to our new investors and we will work just as hard to fulfill it. The Hacker Way As part of building a strong company, we work hard at making Facebook the best place for great people to have a big impact on the world and learn from other great people. We have cultivated a unique culture and management approach that we call the Hacker Way. The word "hacker" has an unfairly negative connotation from being portrayed in the media as people who break into computers. In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done. Like most things, it can be used for good or bad, but the vast majority of hackers I've met tend to be idealistic people who want to have a positive impact on the world. The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it's impossible or are content with the status quo. Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once. To support this, we have built a testing framework that at any given time can try out thousands of versions of Facebook. We have the words "Done is better than perfect" painted on our walls to remind ourselves to always keep shipping. Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works. There's a hacker mantra that you'll hear a lot around Facebook offices: "Code wins arguments." Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers believe that the best idea and implementation should always win — not the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people. To encourage this approach, every few months we have a hackathon, where everyone builds prototypes for new ideas they have. At the end, the whole team gets together and looks at everything that has been built. Many of our most successful products came out of hackathons, including Timeline, chat, video, our mobile development framework and some of our most important infrastructure like the HipHop compiler. To make sure all our engineers share this approach, we require all new engineers — even managers whose primary job will not be to write code — to go through a program called Bootcamp where they learn our codebase, our tools and our approach. There are a lot of folks in the industry who manage engineers and don't want to code themselves, but the type of hands-on people we're looking for are willing and able to go through Bootcamp. The examples above all relate to engineering, but we have distilled these principles into five core values for how we run Facebook: Focus on Impact If we want to have the biggest impact, the best way to do this is to make sure we always focus on solving the most important problems. It sounds simple, but we think most companies do this poorly and waste a lot of time. We expect everyone at Facebook to be good at finding the biggest problems to work on. Move Fast Moving fast enables us to build more things and learn faster. However, as most companies grow, they slow down too much because they're more afraid of making mistakes than they are of losing opportunities by moving too slowly. We have a saying: "Move fast and break things." The idea is that if you never break anything, you're probably not moving fast enough. Be Bold Building great things means taking risks. This can be scary and prevents most companies from doing the bold things they should. However, in a world that's changing so quickly, you're guaranteed to fail if you don't take any risks. We have another saying: "The riskiest thing is to take no risks." We encourage everyone to make bold decisions, even if that means being wrong some of the time. Be Open We believe that a more open world is a better world because people with more information can make better decisions and have a greater impact. That goes for running our company as well. We work hard to make sure everyone at Facebook has access to as much information as possible about every part of the company so they can make the best decisions and have the greatest impact. Build Social Value Once again, Facebook exists to make the world more open and connected, and not just to build a company. We expect everyone at Facebook to focus every day on how to build real value for the world in everything they do. Thanks for taking the time to read this letter. We believe that we have an opportunity to have an important impact on the world and build a lasting company in the process. I look forward to building something great together. Additional Facebook IPO Coverage Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011 Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono More About: Facebook, facebook ipo, mark zuckerberg

Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO Posted: 01 Feb 2012 01:49 PM PST Facebook just filed the preliminary prospectus for its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO). As rumored, the company is seeking to raise $5 billion. If Facebook manages to raise this capital, it will be on a shortlist of biggest tech IPOs of all time. Investment bank Morgan Stanley will act as lead underwriter, with Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan and others to take secondary positions. Shares are expected to hit the market in May. For longtime followers of the social network, this is an exciting time and a culmination of the site’s eight-year rise from Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room to world domination. Additional Facebook IPO Coverage Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook's Best-Paid Employee in 2011 The full S-1 filing is available here. Facebook S 1 2004: First Offers Turned Down Facebook launches with humble beginnings that most people have seen dramatized in The Social Network by now. It was a small social site backed by only a little money, and limited just to the undergrads at Harvard. Right out of the gate, Facebook turned down offers from an unknown investor and Friendster, each offering $10 million. This was, of course, when the company was still called TheFacebook. Image courtesy of Flickr. Click here to view this gallery. Thumbnail image courtesy of Katrina.Tuliao and Crunchies2009 via Flickr More About: Facebook, facebook ipo, Top Stories, trending

Election 2012: Voters Expect Candidates to Be on Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC] Posted: 01 Feb 2012 01:42 PM PST About 82% of all adults will receive most of their election news online. The ways U.S. voters are using social media have changed drastically since 2008. Here are some other social media trends driving this year’s election. Presidential parties and the media are focusing on what’s being said about the election online, because of the wealth of information voters disclose about themselves and about candidates. Voters have been disclosing their party affiliations, listing the issues they care about and liking presidential candidates they support since 2008. Now in 2012, more candidates are picking up on the trends and joining the conversation; 62% of Americans expect candidates to have a social media presence. Newt Gingrich leads the Republican presidential candidates on Twitter with more than 1.4 million followers (although how many of those are real is still an open question). Mitt Romney has nearly 308,000; Ron Paul has 221,400 followers and Rick Santorum closes out with 102,000. President Obama, meanwhile, has collected more than 12 million followers. In short, there is more sharing of election-related content on Facebook and Twitter than ever before. SEE ALSO: Twitter CEO: 2012 Will Be the Twitter Election See the infographic below, created by MDG Advertising, for more ways people are learning and sharing political news. Tell us in the comments what you think about the growing reach of social media in politics. Do these trends reflect your social media use during the presidential election year? Image courtesy of Flickr, Geoff Livingston More About: 2012 presidential campaign, Facebook, infographic, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube

Super Bowl Viewers Will Check Phones 10 Times During the Game [STUDY] Posted: 01 Feb 2012 01:27 PM PST Nearly half of Super Bowl XLVI viewers will check their mobile device as many as 10 times during the game, and almost a third of viewers under age 45 will watch the game “with device in hand.” More than 80% of viewers say they’ll use their mobile device during the game at least as much as they did during last year’s Super Bowl. That’s all according to a recent survey by research firm Harris Interactive. The study was commissioned by the mobile marketing company Velti, and shows that fans are increasingly reaching beyond just their in-person friends and the game broadcast itself for Super Bowl updates and interaction. The survey also reinforces the potential that mobile brings for innovative advertisers — and the possible drawbacks of shelling out $3.5 million for a 30-second commercial break slot. Just 13% of poll respondents who plan to use their mobile device said they will do so during actual game action. That means they’ll likely be pecking away for stats, Facebook, or Twitter updates during the valuable commercial broadcast time. Velti executive Krishna Subramanian said that the study results are indicative of a changing paradigm for advertisers. "Viewers are sitting in front of the television with a mobile device in their hand and they'll likely check that 'second' screen often,” Subramanian said in a press release. “There's no going back now from the fact that the Super Bowl is truly a two-screen experience. Mobile is the second screen that completes the full circle of user engagement – turning advertising into content." Woman are apparently much more interested than men in the always-hyped Super Bowl halftime show. They are half as likely — 13% compared to 26% — to check out their smartphones and tablets during the break. Mobile users between the ages of 18 and 34 will be especially wedded to their devices during the game. Fans who said they plan to look at least once predicted an average of 19 device-checks over the course of the Super Bowl broadcast. The survey was conducted in late January among more than 1,400 American adults who own mobile devices and plan to watch Super Bowl XLVI. Will you watch with your mobile device by your side? Do you think broadcast ads still have value? Let us know in the comments. Infographic of Velti. More About: Advertising, Mobile, Super Bowl, Super Bowl XLVI For more Mobile coverage: Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Mobile channel Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

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