Facebook is said to be filing their IPO as early as next week according to a new report. The social network has been gearing up for it’s inevitable IPO this year that is expected to raise up to $10 Billion and put a valuation of up to $100 Billion on the almost 8 year old service.

With how things have been going and with them nearing almost 1 Billion users, the time is right. Revenue is pouring in from their ad platform and hundreds of Millions of people are using the site on a daily basis. In fact, they were said to have generated over $4 Billion in revenue just last year.

Once they do go public, they’ll have to start disclosing that kind of information.

Via The Wall Street Journal:

“Facebook Inc. could file papers for an initial public offering as early as next week and is currently looking at a deal that would value the social network between $75 billion to $100 billion, said people familiar with the matter.”

“The Internet giant is close to picking Morgan Stanley as the lead underwriter for its IPO, these people said, giving the investment bank one of Wall Street’s most coveted assignments. It would mark a setback for rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc.”

With a lot of money invested into the social network, a lot of people are soon enough going to make a lot of money. Even the state of California is expected to rake in hundreds of Millions of dollars thanks to capital gains taxes. The time is right and 2012 is definitely the year for them to go public.

How often would you say you use Facebook on a daily basis?

Facebook Filing IPO As Early As Next Week is a post from: The Inquisitr

Twitter who has over 200 Million users, announced on their blog today that if required by law, they can censor tweets and even on a country-by-country basis. Being that the word censor is involved, this is sure to spark some controversy and debate amongst the Internet community.

With SOPA and PIPA still on many people’s minds, censorship is a touchy subject. People want and require a free Internet and that means freedom of speech is an obvious right. And with the recent protests, people have shown they will fight for that. With that said, users of the social network shouldn’t be too worried about the whole situation.

Via Twitter:

“As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content.”

“Until now, the only way we could take account of those countries’ limits was to remove content globally. Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it up in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why.”

Sounds scary at first, but Marketing Land goes on to explain more.

“So far, Twitter tells me that virtually all of the tweets it has had to pull have been due to complaints filed through the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  That will continue to be the case going forward, and any request made under US laws to remove content will continue to pull that content from Twitter worldwide. However, now if Twitter gets a request to remove content under the laws of another country, it can react to remove that content just for people in those particular countries.”

They’ve been pulling piracy or copyright related content for a while now. This announcement simply means that they may begin disclosing DMCA takedowns, similar to what Google does in search. This new process could also be to help protect the social network if they are to expand in other countries.

“What’s new is that eventually, Twitter may expand to having staff based in other countries. That makes the company more liable to legal actions in those countries, so it needs a way to comply with those legal demands. The new “Country Withheld Content” change gives it a framework to do so.”

How do you feel about Twitter censoring content that the law requires? Good or bad?

Twitter Can Censor Tweets If Required By Law, But Users Shouldn’t Be Too Worried is a post from: The Inquisitr

Google+, the fastest growing social network of all time, has announced that starting today, Worldwide, they’re open to teens. Previously, you had to be 18 or over to join the site, but that has changed.

Teens are a very big demographic and take up a good chunk of Internet use. For Google to deny them access means to leave out Millions and Millions of users who could potentially benefit from the social network and hopefully use it on a daily basis.

Being that the tech giant is very serious about privacy, they also have some safety features in place to help protect teens from, for example, posting not-so-good details publicly or if a stranger joins a hangout.

Via Bradley Horowitz, VP Product of Google+:

Sharing content
With Google+ you can share privately with your circles, or publicly with the world. Posting something for everyone to see is a big deal, however, so when teens try and share outside their circles, we encourage them to think before they post.

Receiving notifications
Google+ is a great place to connect with close friends, as well as discover others with common interests. We want to help people explore the community safely, however, so we give users control over who can contact them online. By default, only those in teens’ circles can say hello, and blocking someone is always just a click or two away.

Hanging out with friends
Google+ Hangouts bring people together using live multi-person video, and the results range from heartwarming to awe-inspiring. However, we recognize that connecting face-to-face is special and serious, so if a stranger outside a teen’s circles joins the hangout, we temporarily remove the young adult, and give them a chance to rejoin.

Do you think it’s a good idea to let teens use Google+? Why or why not?

Google+ Opens Up To Teens, Safety Features In Place is a post from: The Inquisitr

Twitter, the popular social network with over 200 Million users, acquired a spam and malware protection company. Anyone who uses the site is often familiar with accounts getting hacked and the sometimes abundant spam that gets targeted at you.

They’ve managed to put a system in place over the years that helps crack down on that and accounts that just spam the daylights out of whoever, whenever, and they’ve done a pretty good job at it.

Now, with the help of a spam and malware protection service, the social network can further improve their efforts to crack down on these annoyances and provide a better experience for everyone.

Via Mashable:

“Gearing up for Twitter’s self-serve advertising launch — currently in beta stage with only a small selection of advertisers — the company announced its acquisition of spam and malware protection service Dasient on Monday.”

“Dasient will be integrated into Twitter’s “revenue engineering team because they have a deep understanding of advertising-platform security issues,” says Rachael Horwitz, a spokesperson for Twitter. The team will be very valuable as Twitter continues to expand its ad products.”

This is a smart move for the company as more advertisers equals more dollars. If too many have a bad experience with spam, normal, every day users as well, that negatively affects the service and could have them potentially go elsewhere.

“Protecting users from potential spam and malware attacks is important for the company’s image and reputation. Sites overrun with malware get blacklisted by search engines.”

Do you have a Twitter account?

Twitter Goes On The Defensive, Acquires Malware Protection Service is a post from: The Inquisitr

Google has released a new version of their sign up form which, while much more visually entertaining to look at, also looks to do away with anonymous accounts. The first two fields ask for your full name and gender, something that is required when signing up for their social network.

The company has had the same sign up page for a long time now so it’s good to see them roll out something new. One of the big focuses is getting more people to use Google Plus and being that they announced 90 Million users yesterday, they’re doing pretty good thus far.

When new users sign up for an account, they’ll get both a profile page as well as Gmail account, something that previously was just an email account. Again, to get people using the fast growing social network.

Via Wired:

“The revamped Google account creation page adds some additional fields to the sign up form, including name and gender which are both necessary for creating a Google+ account. There’s also a new agreement — turned on by default — granting Google permission to “use my account information to personalize +1s on content and ads on non-Google websites.”

It’s no surprise that the company makes money, the mass majority of it’s money actually, from advertising. Although some people might not like that new option, they always have the ability to uncheck it. Better to let users know and have them be aware, than to say nothing at all.

How many Google products would you say you use?

Google Launches New Sign Up Form, Better Optimized For Google Plus is a post from: The Inquisitr

Facebook, the social network with almost 1 Billion users, is expected to IPO in late May according to a new report and information from several anonymous sources. Their IPO has long been talked about, particularly considering it will be the largest in tech history and could propel the company to the $100 Billion valuation mark.

If that’s the case, Facebook will need to file it’s papers within the next month if they are to get everything reviewed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. They typically take three to four months to review.

Being that this is “expected” to happen in May, Kara Swisher of AllThingsD explains:

“The usual caveat on the late-May timing (even though I called 143 people on this one): This IPO planning could all change, in a New York minute, to another month.”

Even if it is to change, one thing is for certain however and that’s that Facebook will IPO this year. It’s time, the social network is ready, and investors are about to make a whole lot of money in the process.

“In any case, the Facebook IPO is expected to be one of the largest Web offerings ever — with some reports saying the company will be raising $10 billion on a $100 billion valuation.”

“That amount is presumably to match its huge consumer growth and revenue explosion. Users now number 800 million — a figure that is likely to hit one billion this year. And revenue, which was reportedly close to $4 billion in 2011, is expected to be higher by another third in 2012.”

Would you invest in Facebook? Why or why not?

Facebook Expected To IPO In May is a post from: The Inquisitr

The World’s largest country based on population at well over one Billion people, also has the largest amount of people who access the web. New data came out that showed in 2011, 513 Million people accessed the Internet in some form.

While the Internet isn’t anything new to most of us, there’s still people from other countries who have never experienced it or are fairly new to experiencing it. Keep in mind there’s still various parts of China that are underdeveloped and rural.

Via Los Angeles Times:

“The number of Web users in China soared past 500 million last year, a tech-industry group said Monday, capping a period of explosive growth that has elevated Chinese Internet companies and challenged social and political discourse in the communist-controlled state.”

“The government-run China Internet Network Information Center said Monday that the number of Web users in China grew 12% in December, to 513 million, compared with the same period in 2010.”

What’s interesting to note is that, despite the Internet being controlled in China thanks to the communist government, the number of users of social networks or micro-blogging platforms quadrupled in the past year. Of course, larger sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are blocked so there are other sites similar in nature that offer a workaround.

“Micro-blogs were instrumental last year in exposing government mishandling of a deadly high-speed rail collision in the eastern city of Wenzhou, protests concerning a chemical plant in the northern city of Dalian and corruption in the southern village of Wukan.”

“Today we can say without hesitation that an independent and richly participatory civil society is emerging on China’s Internet,” wrote Hu Yong, a journalist and commentator in a recent article translated by the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong.”

Over Half A Billion People Access The Web In China is a post from: The Inquisitr

GetGlue, a popular start up that has an app available for Android and iOS, announced that they’ve successfully raised $12 Million in new funding which was led by RHO Ventures.

Previous investors such as Union Square Ventures, Time Warner Inc., and RRE Ventures participated again. What is GetGlue? Essentially, users can “check-in” and let people know they’re watching a TV show, movie, playing a game, listening to music, even what they’re reading or what they’re thinking about.

The company has done really well with crossing the 2 Million users mark and scoring 100 Million check-ins in 2011. In November of 2010, they raised $6 Million.

Via Reuters:

“GetGlue founder Alex Iskold said as many as 75 TV networks like Walt Disney Co’s ABC, News Corp’s Fox and Comcast Corp’s NBC use GetGlue’s marketing dashboard to reach fans of nearly 700 shows. The fans are rewarded with incentives like virtual stickers and actual gifts for checking in, while the networks hope to mine valuable user traffic data which goes beyond traditional viewership data.”

In regards to profitability, this is, again, a startup in it’s early phase. The company is at least 18 months from making a profit says the founder. Also, as far as what the $12 Million in new funding will pay for, Fast Company has the details:

“The new cash injection will help “the main goal of building up the product, and our user base,” and in 2012 GetGlue also plans to launch new innovations which includes targeting TV guides. Iskold said those have become “stale and impersonal, and we want to change this by introducing the next gen of the guide which is personal and smart and knows your habits and knows your tastes”–and ropes in social facets.”

GetGlue Raises $12 Million, The Foursquare Of Much More is a post from: The Inquisitr

A study by Forrester Research that consisted of about 100,000 people from Asia, North America, and Latin America, found that users in China and India are far more likely to create content via social media than consume it. Also, people in increasing markets also tend to be creators.

Social media takes the core philosophy of the Internet, information for anyone and everyone, and takes that to the next level. The findings of the study also found that people in the West consume more content. With platforms growing at an exponential rate, it’s quite easy to consume a considerable amount of content on any given day. Followings get bigger, friends lists get larger, and so on.

People in the West still create, just not to the extent of those in Asia according to the study.

“In the six years that Forrester has been collecting Social Technographics data, a lot has changed in the world of social media. Social networking has morphed into a global phenomenon. Today, 86% of online US adults and 79% of European online adults engage with social media. And consumers in emerging markets are also on social media — not just catching up. In fact, they lead the world in social media usage and engagement.”

The USA isn’t the leader in social media activity. Asia is an interesting market since there’s so many people and better technology coming to more and more people. Countries from the Asia region continue to adopt social media and use it in their daily lives and is not likely to slow down anytime soon.

Social Media Users In Asia Create More While The West Consumes More is a post from: The Inquisitr

Facebook on Sunday rolled out Facebook iPhone version 4.1, a new offering that brings with it access to the new Facebook Timeline profile feature.

First released for Android devices and web browsers on Thursday the new offering provides instant access to friends lists, subscribers and subscriptions. The program also makes it easier to upload, view and comment on photos right from the users smartphone.

Next on the timeline roadmap is an iPad offering which Facebook says is “coming soon.”

Using Timeline users can see all updates a person has added since they joined the site, while past events can also be created using the “Timeline” feature.

The update was an important feature for Apple as Android users now out number daily Facebook user access 58.3 million to 57.4 million.

Here’s an example of the Facebook Timeline feature as shown on my iPhone 4:

Facebook Timeline originally rolled out during a test phase in New Zealand but had been made available to developers for the last several months.

I personally have been playing with the Timeline feature for quite some time and while some areas appear to produce duplicate content on various parts of Facebook pages the overall feel of the Timeline with it’s ability to add past events, provide better picture output and create a more personalized header photograph (pictured above) have all been reasons I enjoy the new setup which is sure to improve as user feedback is provided to the social network.

What do you think of Facebook Timeline for iPhone and Android based devices? Have you taken to the new web browser version of Timeline with enthusiasm or dread?

Facebook Timeline Gets iPhone Treatment, Promises iPad Version “Soon” is a post from: The Inquisitr

Facebook may not yet be a publicly traded company but that hasn’t stopped the company from amassing an impressive amount of money.

A source close to the company’s finances told Gawker on Thursday taht Facebook is currently sitting on nearly $1 billion in profits which year with a total cash-in-hand equivalent of $3.5 billion as of September 2011.

While that number is far less than the likes of Apple and Google it’s comparable to other big companies including 3M, Yahoo and eBay.

What might be more impressive is Facebook’s ever increasing profiles which have doubled since 2010 and quadrupled since 2009.

While the company’s cash reserves are impressive Business Insider’s Nicholas Carlson reveals that the company’s $2.5 billion in revenues through the first three quarters of 2011 is falling short of industry expectations.

“Facebook was supposed to generate about $4 billion in revenue this year and make $2 billion in EBIDTA,” Carlson writes. “Through three quarters, Facebook’s revenues – according to this source – only came in at $2.5 billion.”

Then again Facebook revenue numbers are not revealed to the public since they are not required to do so as a privately held company.

It may have seemed obvious  that Facebook’s massive userbase would be generating massive profits however other social networking websites have proven that the simple formula of users equal profits doesn’t necessarily exist, despite hundreds of millions of users Myspace was never able to generate the massive cash flow it needed to expand and compete against Facebook.

Do you think Facebook is worth the type of massive revenue they are generating as a privately held company?

Facebook Has Tons Of Cash On Hand As Yearly Profits Soar is a post from: The Inquisitr

Bain Capital was an earlier investor in social business network LinkedIn and now the private equity firm is preparing to sell off their 3.7 million shares, an amount equal to $275 million at today’s stock price.

That investment is equal to approximately 4.3% of LinkedIn’s outstanding stock. Bain began investing in LinkedIn during a 2008 funding round that brought the company $53 million.

Bain Capital isn’t the only investor pulling the plug in LinkedIN, three other investors have also announced plans to pull out including German software giant SAP, LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue and LinkedIn head of international business Arvind Rajan who will sell a combined total of 2.5 million shares, equal to $225 million.

The move to sell stock comes after the company’s 180 day “lock-up” which ends on November 20. LinkedIn launched their IPO on May 19.

While 6.2 million shares will be sold the social network will also place 1.3 million new shares on the market, shares valued at a combined total of $100 million. LinkedIn will use the money they raise to help develop new products, sell services and acquire new company’s for technology advancement purposes.

The 6.2 million shares being offered are all “Class B” shares which offer 10 votes per share compared to Class A stock which offers 1 vote per share, however once resold the stock will be reclassified as “Class A.”

The sell off comes at a time when LinkedIn shares have more than doubled in value since their initial offering despite only a small increase in company profits in 2010.

Do you think LinkedIn is still a good investment?

LinkedIn Investor Selling Off $275 Million Early Investment, Others Following Suit is a post from: The Inquisitr

It never, ever, fails.

It happened with television, it happened with video games, and now it’s social networks.

Yes, says a survey from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (pdf), using social network sites makes teenagers more likely to use age-restricted and illegal drugs.

In the preamble to the results the authors write that on any typical day 70 percent of 12-to-17-year olds spend anywhere from a minute or three to hours on social networking sites whereas 30 percent don’t. It is those 70 percent that parents need to be really concerned about because these sites put the children at an increased risk of smoking, drinking, and drug use.

WTF?!? (right now that sound you are hearing is me banging my head against my desk).

The really scary part about this is that the people behind this study are down right serious, this isn’t any April Fool’s joke.

Please tell me if you can see any of the logic behind crap like this stuff that is right from their report:

Compared to teens who in a typical day do not spend any time on a social networking site, those
who do are:

• Five times likelier to use tobacco (10 percent vs. two percent).
• Three times likelier to use alcohol (26 percent vs. nine percent).
• Twice as likely to use marijuana (13 percent vs. seven percent).

No wonder–with what’s on Facebook and other social networking sites for teens to see:

• Half of the teens who spend any time on social networking sites in a typical day have seen pictures of kids drunk, passed out, or using drugs on these sites.
• Even 14 percent of those teens who spend no time on social networking sites in a typical day have seen pictures of kids drunk, passed out, or using drugs on these sites.

Compared to teens who have not seen such pictures, teens who have seen pictures of kids drunk, passed out, or using drugs on Facebook or other social networking sites are:

• Three times likelier to use alcohol.
• Four times likelier to use marijuana.
• More than twice as likely to think they’ll try drugs in the future.
• Four times likelier to be able to get marijuana, almost three times likelier to be able to get controlled prescription drugs without a prescription and more than twice as likely to be able to get alcohol in a day or less.
• Much likelier to have friends and classmates who use illegal drugs and abuse controlled prescription drugs.

Especially troubling–and alarming–are that almost half of the teens who have seen pictures of kids drunk, passed out, or using drugs on Facebook and other social networking sites first saw such pictures when they were 13 years of age or younger; more than 90 percent first saw such pictures when they were 15 or younger. These facts alone should strike Facebook fear into the hearts of parents of young children.

Talk about Dr. Phil material.

I’m sorry but anyone with half a brain should be able to see this for the garbage that it is; but I feel sorry for the kids who’s parents will see this as some headline on a website or in the mainstream press and get all up in arms and start spouting the typical “but think of the kids” as they mass mail their Congress person to do something. We all know what happens then – more mass stupidity.

via Geek are Sexy

A moronic survey says social networks will cause teens to do drugs is a post from: The Inquisitr

Making random things social- like vending machines and grocery shopping- is a marketing trend that is likely to plague us for some time.

Of course, with more than one in three people hitting up the money-printing machine that is Facebook before they brush their teeth each day, a measure of it is to be expected. Sometimes, it makes some sense even if it is of little value and use. Then there are times like this where it’s difficult to even see how it would work and you kind of just think it would have been easier for Toyota to slap a “Like” button decal on the side of a Matrix and call it the 2012 Status Update.

Toyota’s not the first automaker to encourage this sort of bizarre interaction between drivers and their vehicles- we just posted last week about Ford introducing apps to monitor your health. I am not a luddite by any means- indeed, many have accused me of over-reliance on technology- but can someone explain to me how this would even work? How can your car “tweet” you if you’re low on gas? Does that mean all your friends find out you’re irresponsible and forgot to get your oil changed at 3,000 miles?

Toyota described the new Toyota Friend service in a press release, but there’s scant information on how the information- private or public by user choice- is disseminated to drivers:

Toyota Friend will be a private social network that connects Toyota customers with their cars, their dealership, and with Toyota. Toyota Friend will provide a variety of product and service information as well as essential maintenance tips, creating a rich car ownership experience. For example, if an EV or PHV is running low on battery power, Toyota Friend would notify the driver to re-charge in the form of a “tweet”-like alert. In addition, while Toyota Friend will be a private social network, customers can choose to extend their communication to family, friends, and others through public social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. The service will also be accessible through smart phones, tablet PCs, and other advanced mobile devices.

So… It’s like an app? Or it emails you? Or it texts you? Other services integrate with smartphones and tablets, but what makes the Toyota Friend network more social? Do you think this would influence a vehicle purchasing decision for you? Or does it sound a bit like Christine?

Toyota to add entirely nonsensical social networking capabilities to cars in 2012 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Not to be outdone by the Egyptian couple that named their baby “Facebook,” an Israeli couple have bestowed the name “Like” in honor of the ubiquitous social network upon their newborn baby girl.

Little baby Like joins siblings Pie and Dvash (which means “honey” in Hebrew), and the family discussed their inspiration for naming the child in an Israeli newspaper:

Like’s parents, Lior and Vardit Adler, gave their daugther the unique name because “Facebook had become the icon of today’s generation,” according to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.

“If once people gave biblical names and that was the icon, then today this is one of the most famous icons in the world,” Lior Adler told Haaretz.

The parents say Like’s moniker has raised a few eyebrows, but that they feel the name is worthwhile:

“They simply didn’t believe it,” Lior Adler told the newspaper. “I believe there will be people who will lift a eyebrow … but it is my girl and that’s what’s fun about it.”

If only there were some sort of application wherein we could click a mouse to express approval for this story without comment.

Couple names baby “Like” in honor of Facebook is a post from: The Inquisitr

The idea of your unpaid student loan debts or late car payments being publicized on your Facebook wall is probably pretty unpleasant sounding.

With high unemployment and a record wealth divide right now in the US, it also is likely many people reading this post can relate to having a bit of difficulty paying the bills. A landmark new ruling in Florida may help ensure that if you owe money on some accounts, at least you won’t wake up to an embarrassing announcement about it on a social media profile.

Melanie Beacham, a Florida resident, sued collections agency MarkOne after an illness caused her to fall behind on her bills. Instead of working out a payment plan, agents from the company called Beacham over twenty times in a day and even found her on Facebook, contacting her family and friends to inform them of the woman’s past due bills.

Beacham won in court, and after the ruling, her lawyer Billy Howard commented on how harmful such actions are to individuals who are under financial pressure:

“This is a new age of harassment,” Howard said. “A couple of key strokes you can use one of the oldest debt collectors’ tricks there is … that is, to contact family members and friends. Most harassment is one-on-one, but when you bring in family members and friends that’s when you really turn up the psychological pressure on people.”

In March, Beacham filed a separate harassment suit against MarkOne for their collections practices.

[Orlando Sentinel via Consumerist]

Debt collectors can’t harass you through Facebook, court rules is a post from: The Inquisitr

Social media movements are again being discussed as possible pivotal evidence in a high-profile murder case, this time with a defense lawyer claiming Twitter updates prove his client’s self-defense claim.

18-year-old Shanterrica Madden stands accused of the murder of her 21-year-old college roommate, Tina Stewart. Madden’s lawyer Joe Brandon, Jr., believes that social media activity detailing the ongoing conflict will prove that it’s “undisputed” that the victim “started the fight and it’s just an unfortunate series of events that follows.” Said Brandon:

“It’s one of the first times as a defense lawyer that I have seen it come into play,” said attorney Joe Brandon. “I’m keen on it. This supports fully our defense of self-defense. It’s critical.”

Benjamin Holden is the director of the Reynolds National Center for Courts and Media as well as a professor of media law at the University of Nevada, Reno. Holden said the introduction of social media evidence is a massive complication as courts work to catch up to technology:

“It’s extremely complicating. It broadens the arena of evidentiary opportunity, evidentiary pieces, to an almost limitless scope… The legal team with the best geek squad wins — that may be the future of litigation.”

While a fortuitous status update or location-aware app could certainly work in an individual’s favor, evidence gleaned from sites like Facebook is not always useful in building a defense. Local District Attorney General Kim Helper admitted the prosecution often “scours” social networking sites to gather evidence against a defendant:

“Definitely in terms of evidentiary issues, we’re seeing a lot of it, and a lot of it is beneficial to the state,” Helper said. “I tell juveniles all the time, ‘If you don’t want someone to read it, don’t put it out there.’ The same thing goes across the board whether you’re a prosecutor, juror, witness, defendant.”

The issue does indeed span all aspects of a court’s reach. The integrity of a jury or juror has been called into question on more than one occasion, and the New York State Bar even published an opinion last year on the ethics of gathering evidence via social media. (It was basically decided that entirely public evidence should be admissible, but “friending” an individual to gain access to their semi-private information should not.) A New York teen was saved from jail when a status update proved his innocence. (The status? “Where’s my pancakes?”) Matrimonial lawyers have even gone so far as to call Facebook and its ilk an “evidentiary goldmine” in gathering evidence for divorce cases, and it has been claimed more than once that 20% of divorces now mention Facebook in filings.

The lasting implications for this are fascinating and scary- kind of like watching a big, real-life episode of Law and Order SVU. It could be the wind up that innocence is more often proven early rather than later in a case, with services like Foursquare providing alibis, or it could be that the future is an Orwellian nightmare in which not one iota of your life is private if you happen to rely on digital means of communication. Do you think the introduction of social media evidence stands to do more harm or good to the criminal justice system from an individual’s standpoint?

[Image]

Is evidence gathered from social media the “future of litigation?” is a post from: The Inquisitr

It seems your Facebook profile represents an idealized version of you to you, one that has the effect of boosting self-esteem when you review it.

A recent study at Cornell University divided 63 students into three groups. All participants were placed in front of a computer- a third in front of their Facebook profiles but no other information, a third in front of a mirror, and a third sitting at a switched off unit. Of the three groups, those who viewed their Facebook profiles for the three minutes of the study measured highest on a self-esteem questionnaire administered immediately following the experiment, while the two other groups showed no increase in self-esteem levels.

The Facebooking third showed an even higher increase in self-esteem when they spent the time editing their profiles. Researchers aren’t sure exactly why the results favored self-Facebooking, but one of them had this to say:

“Unlike a mirror, which reminds us of who we really are and may have a negative effect on self-esteem if that image does match with our ideal, Facebook can show a positive version of ourselves,” said Jeffrey Hancock, associate professor of communication at Cornell University, in a press release. “We’re not saying that it’s a deceptive version of self, but it’s a positive one.”

Further studies in the same vein are planned to examine the findings.

[Image]

Your Facebook profile boosts self-esteem, study says is a post from: The Inquisitr

Marketing firms are expected to spend $3.08 billion for online social media ads in the United States in 2011 an amount equal to 11% of the overall online market ad space according to a recent study by eMarketer.

If you consider that during 2010 the overall ad spend for social media was $1.99 billion in the United States that would be a 55% increase for social media spending.

Internationally social media spending is expected to increase by 71.6% to $5.97 billion. At those numbers worldwide social media spending will increase by 8.7%.

As would be expected, Facebook will take the largest chunk of that spending, with sales expected to reach $4 billion on the social network in 2011 of which $2.19 billion will come from U.S. advertisers.

If you take Facebook’s ad revenue of $1.86 billion in 2010 into consideration that’s an increase of more than 50%

If Facebook continues their massive growth, they could see an even larger increase through 2011, which could in turn help them capitalize on more of the expected money already being spent or possibly open up the market to even larger numbers.

Social Networks Capturing More Of the Ad Market In 2011 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Back in September 2010 Apple announced to the world that it had launched its own social network called Ping and for the most part the world yawned and went about its business ignoring for the most part Apple’s attempt to socialize your music on iTunes.

Even though they signed up over a million users within the first 48 hours the most you have seen if you ever drop back there is the tumbleweeds blowing through. This has led many a tech pundit to proclaim that Ping is dead and that Apple, like Google, doesn’t understand social media or social networks.

Let me just state unequivocally that they are wrong; but with a slight caveat.

What Apple doesn’t get is the goodie-two-shoes everything-is-free type of social media and social networks as we see with Facebook or Twitter. Apple is not a company that is concerned with anything that is free. They are a company that is in the business of making money and if you think for a moment that they aren’t capable of figuring out how to create a social network that will make them money, and lots of it, then you need to give your head a shake.

Apple hasn’t given up on building a social network and the announcement today that they are patenting a social network for retail stores proves this.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week published a new patent application entitled “Social Networking in Shopping Environments.” Discovered by AppleInsider, the proposed invention describes using a portable electronic device, like an iPhone, to allow customers to network with one another while shopping.

In a store, a kiosk would allow customers to access a product list and information on their phone. That product and the details about it could then be shared through Apple’s social networking tool.

via AppleInsider

What people, or rather myopic tech pundits, tend to forget is that Apple doesn’t give two shits about you, me or any other tech oriented user; we’re just a bonus, a way to get free press. What Apple does understand though is the average consumer and they have gotten very rich off of them.

The iPod, iPhone, and the iPad have shown this over and over again. Sure those things are the play toys for geek minded people but that isn’t Apple’s primary market. It is going after the people who don’t know, don’t want to know, and don’t care about technology. These are the people who walk in and buy a product like the iPad because not only is it cool but it is drop dead simple to use.

These are the people who couldn’t care less about rooting a device, let alone caring about what it means. This is the consumer that couldn’t careless about whether something has DRM on it or not. It is the consumer who would rather spend a buck on a song or five bucks for a movie rather than learning about torrents and the such.

They are also the segment of consumer that spend more money in brick and mortar stores than online, or in conjunction to online shopping.

Apple has a very good understanding of this type of consumer, after all they have been selling to them for years, and this is the segment that if Apple can find a way to connect in a social network of their choosing and under their rules … well Apple comes out a winner.

They would be a winner because as much as our tech pundits would like us to believe that the whole world is shopping online the reality is that it still only a small portion of our spending dollars. So for Apple, with their retail knowledge, it might be nice to plan for future online spending explosion but that isn’t where the majority of money is right now.

This means that if they can crack open a social network based around our brick and mortar real world spending – a segment that absolutely no-one else is even looking at, then they can disrupt the marketplace yet again.

And if there is one thing we know about Apple it is that they can most definitely disrupt the market.

When Apple figures out social networking, and they will, they’ll make a killing is a post from: The Inquisitr