AllThingsD » F8

Meet Billy, the Bison Mark Zuckerberg Shot and Hung On Sheryl Sandberg's Wall

Kara Swisher — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:00:13 +0000

Remember when Fortune magazine wrote in September that Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had reportedly bagged a bison as part of a “personal challenge” to eat only what he had killed?

Well, proof of that is hard to miss, now that the ginormous mounted head of said dead bison has been hung on the wall of a Facebook conference room used by the social networking site’s COO Sheryl Sandberg.

Zuckerberg placed it there recently as a prank, to surprise his top exec with the installation of the very hairy bison when she was away from Facebook’s Silicon Valley HQ.

And surprised she was when she got back and was faced with the creature, which pretty much takes up the whole room, as you can see above and below.

(And, let me just say on a personal level, like a digital version of the “Murder She Wrote” lady, solving the mystery of this geek-on-bison killing is a whole lot more satisfying than getting a pile of internal Yahoo memos.)

The bison has now been nicknamed Billy and also sports a Facebook-branded baseball cap and occasional hoodie — natch! (My suggestion if you want to use a dead beast metaphor most effectively here would be to clad it all in Google swag.)

While he never confirmed it, Zuckerberg had teased the crowd about the possibility of his hunting prowess at the f8 developers conference this fall in his keynote speech, displaying his Facebook page that had a picture of what he had tagged “Bison Burgers.”

In fact, it’s been quite a lot of bison for the famous entrepreneur since he felled the majestic beast. According to Wikipedia, bison usually weigh 700 to 2,200 pounds, but can be as much as 3,800 pounds. That’s a lot of burgers!

To get them, Zuckerberg learned the most humane approach and then shot the beast in California, after obtaining a hunting license and, presumably, a very big gun.

Clearly, he was serious when he told Fortune in May that “the only meat I’m eating is from animals I’ve killed myself.” Among the early victims, which grew in size, were a lobster, a chicken, a pig and a goat.

At this time, the Winklevii are still roaming the plains — and it would be illegal and just plain mean on Zuckerberg’s part to frag them any more than he already has.

So, he went for the bison, the next biggest beast in his cross-hairs.

Its head will be moved to Facebook’s new headquarters today along with the rest of the company, who will now work in spacious new digs.

Which, I am told, could easily fit a herd of elephants — but let’s not go there.

The Facebook Timeline You Forgot About Is Launching

Lauren Goode — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:38:21 +0000

Facebook announced on its blog this morning that it will be rolling out Timeline — a new view of Facebook profiles that is meant to “tell the story of your life” by featuring old photos as well as new — to all users worldwide. The Timeline feature was one in a series of product announcements the social networking site made at its f8 developers conference in September; until now, it had only started rolling out in New Zealand.

Hey Facebook, Where's That Timeline and Open Graph You Promised?

Liz Gannes — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:00:10 +0000

Two and a half months after Facebook promised that a huge revision of its self-expression and sharing tools were coming soon, users and developers are still waiting.

Way back in September, Facebook told the world it was launching two major changes to its service: A revision of user profiles, called Timeline, that would make them more substantive and beautiful records of people’s lives; and “Open Graph” tools for developers to automatically share activity by logged-in Facebook users to their Timelines and friends.

Facebook didn’t give a firm date for the new launches, though it indicated they would be ready soon. “We’re going to roll [Timeline] out widely over the next few weeks as we polish all the edges,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told developers and press attendees in his keynote at f8 on Sept. 22.

But we’re already in December, and those tools have yet to arrive. Why the delay?

“We wanted to let developers build on the platform and to give users more time to get used to the idea of change coming,” a Facebook spokeswoman told AllThingsD, noting that Facebook has been criticized in the past for rolling out products in a hurry. Would she offer a launch date, or even an estimate? Nope.

Developers told AllThingsD that they are eager and ready to launch their Open Graph tools, but that Facebook keeps pushing its dates back. In recent developer communications, Facebook’s promises to launch “before the end of the year” have segued to January, the developers said.

Developers also said they’re worried that Facebook has told them it will likely run a staged rollout, where all users might not receive access at the same time, and where users would have seven days to review their Timeline before publishing it.

Those various states of deployment could be a chafe for app makers to support simultaneously, and could potentially confuse users.

At f8 in September, Zuckerberg had promised that Facebook would soon be filled with a cornucopia of verbs — like “watch,” “listen,” “read,” “cook,” “run,” “throw sheep,” etc. — building on the more static “people,” “places,” “things” and other nouns the site had supported in the past.

He said users could look forward to automatically sharing and collecting records of their culinary and athletic adventures through social cooking and social running apps, for example. Facebook also named a list of developers who had already agreed to create Open Graph applications, including Blockbuster, Flipboard and Mashable.

But only a chosen few — including Spotify, Rdio, the Guardian, the Washington Post and Netflix (though the social version of Netflix is not available in the U.S. yet) — got to launch in September; to my knowledge, no other partners or any other developers have since been allowed to release their “frictionless sharing” apps to the masses.

Meanwhile, more than a million Facebook users are already trying Timeline through a preview version for developers.

Months later, it seems rather odd that some users have an entirely different Facebook aesthetic. Personally, as a user with many connections in the tech industry who have activated their Timelines, when I happen on an older-style profile, with no glossy cover photo, the layout feels dated.

Here are some of the reasons Facebook, developers and conspiracy theorists gave for the delays:

From the Facebook camp, we hear of efforts to rewrite Timeline to make it faster, to sync up mobile versions, and to fully ensure the product is ready. There’s also some chatter of internal conflict over the Timeline concept.
Based on my own observations, early response to beta versions of the new features has been mixed. The new real-time Ticker, built to show Open Graph activity and every other action taken on Facebook as a sidebar on the site’s main page, was initially unpopular with many users. Anecdotally, I’ve seen very few Timeline beta users scan in their baby photos to tell the backstory of their lives. And new automated sharing features — like Spotify and especially the social news reader apps — can be annoying.
There are also some external factors. A small company called Timelines, with trademarks on its brand, sued Facebook right after f8. A judge denied Timelines a temporary restraining order against Facebook, but said he would reconsider if Facebook opens Timeline to a larger audience. As of Oct. 8, 1.3 million people were using the Timeline beta, and tens of thousands were signing up per day, according to court documents. Also, Facebook recently agreed to settle with the FTC over privacy complaints. While the settlement specifically prohibits Facebook from retroactively changing any user privacy settings, it’s not as explicit about how Facebook must introduce privacy features for new products. Given that Facebook is likely to go public soon, people at the company are probably especially interested in surviving a major launch with as little privacy backlash as possible.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

Facebook's Overhaul Gives MOG a Rocket Ride

Peter Kafka — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:30:16 +0000

Hey, guess what happens when your Web service gets access to Facebook’s 800 million users?

Bingo! Your service gets a lot more users.

We’ve seen and heard this story several times since Facebook’s most recent redesign, launched in September, which autoshares what users are reading, watching and hearing.

So services that are hooked into Facebook’s new “ticker” are seeing an influx of traffic — the same way you’d get traffic if you put up lots and lots of signs on a highway used by a half billion people per day.

Still, it continues to bear repeating, and it turns out that music subscription service MOG wants to share.

Here’s the growth for monthly active users plugged into MOG via Facebook, plotted by Inside Network’s AppData Facebook tracking service. The Facebook redesign kicked in just about a month ago, and sure enough, so did MOG’s traffic. It’s now at 160,000 monthly users, up 4x:

So that’s good, right? “This is the best distribution platform we’ve ever had,” says MOG CEO David Hyman.

He projects that if these growth rates continue, his service will have racked up 2.1 million monthly users by the end of the year. For context, Spotify, Facebook’s first among equals when it comes to music service partners, is on an even faster tear, with much bigger numbers. It already has 7.1 million monthly active users via Facebook, up from 1.1 million pre-Facebook redesign.

This is precisely what MOG was hoping would happen when it overhauled itself to offer free music to new users without requiring a credit card or any other commitment. (Competitor Rdio made a similar move, as did Spotify).

What we don’t know is how many of them will stick around. It’s entirely possible that MOG’s graph could trend down again, like it did in mid-October.

And what we really don’t know is how many of these new prospects will eventually start paying a monthly fee for access to features like mobile music. All of that free music costs MOG and its peers quite a bit, and they need to convert a minority of their users to make the model work.

There’s also a flip side to the redesign story, where some big Web sites/services that had counted on Facebook for traffic saw it drop dramatically after the overhaul. This week I chatted with a publisher who saw Facebook referrals drop by more than a third after the redesign, due to changes in the way the service surfaces shared stories from users’ friends.

That drop is similar to the effect some publishers noted after Google’s “Panda” overhaul. But the publisher I talked to this week says their sites at least were able to claw back much of that referral traffic by manually tweaking their sharing mechanisms.

Washington Post Chairman -- and Facebook Director -- Don Graham Talks About Social Reader (Video)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:01:27 +0000

Last week at Facebook’s f8 developers confab, I ran right into my old boss, Washington Post Chairman Don Graham.

While I could go on about what a privilege it was to spend my formative journalism years at the legendary newspaper and how critical its steadfast owners were to exemplifying all that is quality about the media, all Don wanted to talk about was now and the future.

And that would be how to make sure his media company was going to successfully make the transition to social. Thus, he was at f8 not only because he is a longtime board member of Facebook, but because he was eagerly showing off the Washington Post’s nifty new app for the social networking giant called Social Reader.

With the motto, “News. Better With Friends,” it’s an elegantly done version of what other publishers are trying, allowing users to instantly share the stories they have read with friends and also seeing what those friends are reading.

Here’s Don talking about Social Reader and showing it off on his Apple iPad, as well as some choice words about the future of news in general.

Listen, because he’d know:

[ See post to watch video ]

Facebook's Mobile Story Is Apparently a Story for Another Day

Ina Fried — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:00:06 +0000

Facebook had plenty to say last Thursday about its plans to further take over the Web.

But those looking for answers on how that might translate into mobile success came away from the f8 developer conference knowing little more than they did before the event.

It’s not the first time.

In fact, it seems to have become a regular habit: Facebook again talked about a world of mobile device, yet introduced products that were far more focused on the Web.

Mobile wasn’t completely absent on Thursday. The company outlined a strategy for allowing apps — including mobile apps — to automatically send data to Facebook’s activity feed. Facebook also talked about its ability to use one’s social connections to suggest apps that one’s friends are using.

The company also stressed that most of what it was showing, such as the Timeline, will be available on mobile devices. One thing it didn’t show was a long-anticipated iPad app, but perhaps that will come at the Oct. 4 Apple event.

Or not.

So, just what is Facebook up to on the mobile side?

The company has made a few moves, although they seem to be either looking to the past or looking toward a day that is not yet here. On the one hand, Facebook has acquired Snaptu, which does apps for feature phones.

Much of the company’s other public work on mobile has centered around HTML5, a promising Web standard that could serve as a platform for apps down the road, but still has enough compatibility issues and technical limitations to make native app development preferable for most mobile programmers.

That’s not to say that Facebook doesn’t get it.

The company has talked about building a mobile platform for some time and clearly has aspirations in that area, having staffed up significantly as well as shifting existing resources from desktop toward mobile.

One of the challenges is that, short of doing its own phone and/or operating system, Facebook finds itself somewhat beholden to Google and Apple when it comes to doing transactions on the iPhone or Android.

Apple, in particular, takes a dim view of those that want to control the payments side of things without giving Apple a 30 percent cut.

Officially, Facebook says what it has been saying for a while. It does want to be a platform on mobile, but plans to work within the existing ecosystem, as opposed to building its own phone or operating system.

While Google said the same thing for a long time and then introduced Android and Chrome OS, Facebook’s mobile aspirations seem continue to ride in the back seat of the drive to take over the Web.

Zuckerberg's Law (Comic)

Nitrozac and Snaggy — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:13:29 +0000

Facebook Answers Some Questions About Its New Social Order

Ina Fried — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 19:27:17 +0000

After outlining a host of changes coming to the world’s largest social network, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and some of his top lieutenants are due to take questions from the media any minute now.

AllThingsD will have live coverage here.

12:30 pm: Okay. Q & A kicking off.

First question is on whether Open Graph will eventually allow other types of devices to connect, such as perhaps cars.

Bret Taylor: That’s certainly our vision. Today, a Web browser is required.

12:32 pm: Question Two: Did you need to re-architect Facebook for Timeline, to access and store older information?

For Timeline we did build a new backend to store and query, says engineering head Mike Schroepfer.

12:34 pm: No Zuck at the Q and A yet, by the way.

Some questions about the Graph Rank, about how it will work and how Facebook will keep people from gaming the system.

Taylor: As a user of an app, all this is based on the explicit signals you’ve given.

12:37 pm: Have you guys spoken to Apple?

Today’s launch was just with a few launch partners, Taylor said.

“It’s obviously our ambition to have every app be socialized, so long term, hopefully [re: Apple],” Taylor said.

12:39 pm: So in advance of the inevitable criticisms over change and privacy, what’s your take?

Chris Cox: Facebook is going slowly, publishing a lot of material on what it is doing. “It’s not like people are going to log in one day and everything has changed on their profile,” Cox said.

Taylor adds that the company has worked with a number of privacy advocates on the changes. In particular, there are new dialog boxes that not only tell what an app will post, but also show the kind of information an app will post to their timeline.

You can also limit how many people an app shares information with. For example, when you agree to let the IHeartRadio app broadcast every song you listen to, you can limit it to your three friends that won’t judge you for playing Wilson Phillips.

12:43 pm: What do you think of the comparison to Facebook’s ill-fated Beacon from a few years ago, which didn’t roll out so well, and what about people who don’t opt-in?

Eventually we will have to move people over, Cox acknowledges. As for the comparison to Beacon, Cox refers to the clear presentation of whatever an app wants to share.

“We’ve learned a lot since 2007,” Cox said.

Schroepfer adds that you have to explicitly install one of these new Timeline-compatible apps.

12:45 pm: Zuck has arrived.

12:46 pm: News nugget: Facebook now has 800 million users.

I asked a question about the app discovery experience that Facebook is building. So is it an app store or just part of the general profile/timeline experience?

“We’re not really planning an app store,” Taylor said. “The main way people find apps on Facebook is through their friends.”

That doesn’t preclude us from doing something like an app directory eventually, he said.

12:50 pm: So, if I have logged into sharing my music, is there a way to prevent sharing that Brittany Spears song? (Someone else asked that. My bad music is MUCH more embarassing.)

Zuckerberg: You can always change afterwards. Some apps will also allow you to have more granular control over what you share from within the app.

12:51 pm: Can you create a timeline for a public celebrity page or for a brand?

The first version is just for individuals, Zuckerberg said, adding that the team was working on this for about a year.

12:52 pm: Zuckerberg was asked if these features appeal more to younger people.

We definitely find the different age groups do stuff differently. “I think the Timeline piece is going to be really universal,” Zuckerberg said.

12:54 pm: Zuckerberg asked whether people overreact about changes and privacy.

“The recent updates we did with news feed and ticker, we’ve actually been testing that publicly for a couple of months,” Zuckerberg said. As for apps, Zuckerberg notes that things only change when a user actively chooses to install one.

As for Timeline, he noted that the company is starting by rolling out to a small number of people and will likely make changes along the way.

“We’re definitely going to get a lot of feedback for that,” he said. “I think we do listen. Also, the world is moving quickly and we want to be innovative.

Zuckerberg wraps up the Q and A.

“This is the biggest update we’ve done in a long time.”

Get Ready, Facebook Apps Will Ask for Your Permission Only Once

Tricia Duryee — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:15:38 +0000

Facebook is redesigning the way users interact with applications, which no doubt will raise concerns from those seeking privacy and prefer approving permissions one at a time.

At Facebook’s developer conference today in San Francisco, CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled what he is calling “real-time serendipity.”

The announcement will change the way that all users interact with applications, and what information will automatically appear in the new ticker feed that scrolls quickly down the right-hand side of the page.

Yesterday, Liz Gannes explained what Facebook’s new features mean and how they will promote a lot more sharing without clogging everyone’s main news feed.

Well, this is how over-sharing will begin to work.

Before today, applications commonly would request permission to publish a story to your feed one at a time. For example, “Zack just found a mushroom in Super Mario Brothers!”

The audience applauded the action since oftentimes these permissions can be slow and annoying, but without them, it will no doubt disturb people seeking privacy.

Now users will be asked to give permission up front when they start using an application, so all these little alerts will show up automatically. This is being called “frictionless” sharing.

Now when you listen to a song, it will appear in your feed that you have started using Spotify, or are playing a game.

CTO Bret Taylor explains, “Adding an app to your timeline is like wiring a real-time connection between your app and Facebook… There is no step two.”

Zuckerberg says this is the best way to discover new music.

Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek made an appearance on stage to applaud the actions, saying it will lead to more music discovery and ultimately more music sold.

This announcement is tied to Facebook’s announcement that it is now adding verbs to your feed, other than “like,” such as “read,” “hike,” and “want.”

So, on the “read” front, Zuckerberg announced relationships with Yahoo news, the Washington Post and The Daily, where users will be able to click on an item in the stream and read it within Facebook. “This has the potential to rethink the way we read news, but also the way the whole news industry works,” Zuckerberg said.

The open graph will also change the way games are played. “Social games are killing it,” he said. “They’ve been the most succesful apps on Facebook.”

So, from the activity feed on the right of the screen, you’ll be able to see that your friend just played a word in a game of Zynga’s Words with Friends. From the feed, you can click on the alert to open the game board and see the game play.

Facebook is working with a ton of game companies to enable the games for the open graph, including EA, lolapps, Wooga, Digital Chocolate, and Zynga.

Facebook clearly worked with developers in advance to create examples of using the open graph, but Taylor said other developers should be able to update their current applications in one afternoon.

Still don’t get it? Here’s a video:

What Facebook Has Announced So Far: The Timeline -- And Verbs

Ina Fried — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:38:16 +0000

Kicking off its f8 developer conference on Thursday, Facebook unveiled a series of changes to users’ main profile pages with a new view, dubbed “The Timeline.” In addition, Facebook will now let people do actions beyond just “liking” something. Users, as expected, will be able to show they have read a particular book or seen a particular movie.

Wearing jeans and a gray T-shirt, CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off the new view, which allows users to go back in time and see the most important moments of their life, as well as apps and other things that are important to a person.

“It’s how you can tell the whole story of your life in a single page,” Zuckerberg said, showing his Timeline, which included a baby photo and a photo of him as a young kid wearing a pink tie and suspenders.

The Timeline view can also be seen with just photos or even on a map. Apps can plug specifically into the timeline. In many ways, the timeline hearkens back to the early days of Facebook when most apps added boxes with interesting features to a user’s profile page.

Among the sample apps that Zuckerberg showed were ones that let users add meals they have cooked or runs they have taken.

The new feature also allows a user to do more customization, starting with a giant “cover photo” similar to About.me, plus the ability to highlight major events that users want featured on their timeline.

“You have complete control over your timeline,” Zuckerberg said, noting that users can choose both what appears on their timeline as well as who can see it, such as everyone, or just friends.

Zuckerberg’s keynote is just getting started. Click here for AllThingsD’s live blog.

Facebook's f8 2011: This Is Your Life

Liz Gannes — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:02:39 +0000

Team AllThingsD is on site for Facebook’s f8 developer conference, at the normally dumpy San Francisco Design Concourse which is today decked out with snazzy doodads like live-updating displays and RFID-activated Facebook photo tagging booths. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is about to take the stage to pitch his company’s latest efforts to socialize the Web, which will include partnerships with a bunch of sites to automatically share everything users read, watch and listen to that should result in a massive jump in sharing. Here’s our live account:

10:10 am: After all that hurry to get in here, the announcer lady says we have five more minutes to wait. Some last-minute backstage coding going on?

10:16 am: Andy Samberg!

Welcome to f8, says Samberg, in Zuckerberg character per his SNL skit.

Let’s start with some key issues: The first is the importance of authentic identity. “I am Mark Zuckerberg.”

Crowd = loving it

He has a growth chart out, says Facebook has so many users it stopped counting.

Samberg on the growth of Facebook sharing. Says people share everything on Facebook except when they “take a crazy big #2.” Nope, “that’s for Twitter.”

He’s actually really on point, talking about the new section of Facebook called “I’m Not Really Friends With These People.”

Real Zuckerberg now here, says “Andy, what the hell are you doing?” Awkward banter, awkward banter.

Tortured joke about Samberg failing to follow Zuckerberg’s directions via earpiece, but Zuck says Facebook would say this is an example of “user error.” Which is a pretty good punchline.

10:24 am: OK, keynote starts for reals.

“What I’m going to show you today are two things we’ve been working on for a while.”

Just last week, pretty cool milestone, says Zuckerberg: in a single day, half a billion people used Facebook.

“The next era of social networking is going to be defined by the apps and the depth of engagement now that everyone has their networks in place.”

10:26 am: First topic: the profile.

“People feel an intense ownership over their profile … It’s a really personal product.”

Zuck: Original Facebook profile didn’t have groups, events, or a wall. But people felt safe on the Internet expressing their real self.

If the first five minutes is about starting the conversation, the next 15 is about all the things you’ve shared and done recently. “But the problem is, we’re more than what we did recently.” You could go down to the bottom of the wall and press more to see a few weeks more of content, but who wants to do that?

“Millions of people have spent years curating their lives but today there’s no way to share it. We think that’s a real problem.”

“Now is the heart of the Facebook experience, completely rethought from the ground up. We’re calling it ‘Timeline.’ Timeline is the story of your life: all your stories, all your apps, and a new way to express who you are.”

New profile looks completely different. Uh-oh, cue user backlash!

Zuckerberg scrolls through his life on Facebook, back to being born in 1984. Then he shows the mobile interface, which is significant, since Facebook often neglects mobile when things launch.

Timeline shows a fuller view of the present and a summary view of the past, says Zuckerberg. It looks like a sort of tiled scrapbook, with big photos.

“This is exactly how you want to browse through time,” says Zuckerberg with his characteristic understatedness.

There’s also an interface for adding major life events, like getting a pet.

10:36 am: There’s also a map view: see everywhere you’ve been on a world map view, using a slider to filter by year.

“Since timeline helps you summarize things, no activity is too big or too little to share.”

10:39 am: Another feature is a summary of everything you’ve done with a single app, called “Reports.”

Zuckeberg is using fake apps called “Social Cooking” and “Social Running” to demo this stuff. I wonder why he didn’t just highlight a few partners.

“Timeline is a completely new aesthetic for Facebook,” Zuckerberg continues. First you have a big cover photo, different from a profile picture. In his case, it’s a picture of his dog.

“You have complete control over everything in your timeline,” Zuckerberg says, showing how users can emphasize or hide items, and change privacy settings.

Scrolling through some sample timelines: “You just get this nice visceral feel for who this person is.”

10:46 am: End scene. Applause for Timeline.

A demo video shows the whole life of a guy named Andy Sparks. I wonder if he’s real!

For more on Timeline, check out this story we just posted.

10:48 am: Part two: “Facebook’s vision is to make the world more open and connected. … We often talk about this map as a graph of connections … Last year we introduced the concept of the open graph … This year we’re taking the next step. We’re going to make it so you can connect to anything you want, in any way you want.”

“Now, you don’t have to like a book, you can just read a book. Which is probably good, because you’ve probably read 10 times as many books as you’ve liked.”

“We’re helping define a brand-new language for how people connect.” What he means: first, Facebook got people to give their names, then it added nouns of things they did, now it’s adding verbs of what they do.

But people don’t like to annoy their friends by sharing everything they do, so the Ticker takes care of lightweight sharing, Zuckerberg said.

“Before today, there was really no socially acceptable way to express lightweight activity. And now there is. And we think it’s going to make it possible to share an order of magnitude more things and activities.”

More understatement: “We think this is going to make it possible to build a completely new class of apps that wasn’t possible before.”

After communication and games, Facebook now wants to support media and lifestyle apps.

This new platform doesn’t require prompts to share with friends, like those totally over-used by social gaming apps. Zuckerberg says he’s happy about this too.

Now, when you log into an app, you can say whether or not you want its activity to be added to your timeline. So the app won’t prompt you every time you do something.

This will enable “real-time serendipity,” Zuckerberg says, because you’ll see what your friends are doing live.

You can see that a friend is listening to a song in your Ticker, and then can click to listen yourself, and then your friends will see them in their Tickers.

11:00 am: Also: you can see patterns develop over time. So on a friend’s Timeline, you can click to see all their music listening history — their top artist, song, album, etc. “By looking at patterns in your friends’ activity you can discover some really neat new things.”

Zuckerberg is demoing song sharing. I can’t tell whether music clicked on through a friend’s status or chat is played through an outside app or within the page. Will follow up on this later.

11:05 am: Now Daniel Ek from Spotify gets on stage.

“We used to go to our friends’ houses to browse their record collections,” says Ek — Zuckerberg snickers — “but we haven’t been able to do this online.”

Spotify users who connect to Facebook listen to more music and a wider variety of music, and are more than twice as likely to pay for it, says Ek.

Now, video: Zuckerberg showing Netflix and Hulu on Facebook — the Netflix player pops up directly on the page when he clicks on status about a friend having watched it.

Now for Wall Street’s current favorite CEO: Reed Hastings!

Hastings says he hadn’t gotten around to watching “Breaking Bad” despite everyone telling him it was great. But when he saw his friend was watching it in his ticker yesterday, he actually did it. Social “trumped the algorithm,” Hastings says.

Hastings says he was initially suspicious of bringing viewing within Facebook, but Zuckerberg convinced him that it could drive huge growth. But Netflix on Facebook will only be available in 44 of 45 of the countries Netflix serves, until the U.S. Congress changes a privacy law, which it may be doing soon.

Time for a partner chart! My partner in crime, Ina, will insert this here in a sec.

Next, news: Yahoo News is redesigning to emphasize stories read by your Facebook friends.

Zuckerberg shows examples on the Washington Post and The Daily. For The Daily, users can click on an item in the stream and read it within Facebook, it looks like. This will help people find breaking news, Zuckerberg says.

And Zuckerberg finally gets around to talking about games, the first big platform success.

Similarly, when you click on a game in the Ticker because your friend is playing it, you can join the game overlaid right on the same screen.

Next, lifestyle apps: Nike+ and Foodspotting are examples.

Zuckerberg shows stats reports for these apps too, and says he’s looking forward to his first annual eating report.

Time for another demo video set to high-energy music! Which is way too loud.

Tagline is “Your apps. Now with friends.”

11:25 am: CTO Bret Taylor comes out to tell app developers what to expect.

Timelines will be “sparse” at the start, he says.

So he’ll want to fill it up with various aspects of his life, like his recipes, his runs, his Kenny G playlists and his programming projects.

“Open graph really is the biggest opportunity for new classes of apps on Facebook since we launched the platform,” Taylor says rather precisely.

Taylor: “Adding an app to your timeline is like wiring a real-time connection between your app and Facebook.”

“There is no step two.”

Taylor is pitching a lack of permissions as a positive — which I’m sure privacy advocates will just love — because it makes apps “frictionless.”

Meanwhile, check out Tricia Duryee’s analysis piece on the impact of Facebook’s new app rules, which allow users to be asked only once if they want to share all future activity.

Taylor says apps should choose their social actions and make their timeline items beautiful.

Facebook has designed “Graph Rank” to figure out what people want to see. Takes into account times of day and different types of relationships with people. “Just because my mom wants to see the movies I’m watching on Netflix doesn’t mean she wants to see my GitHub check-ins,” says Taylor.

App developers will be able to use “Graph Rank” to optimize themselves, Taylor says.

11:40 am: Next on stage: Chris Cox, VP of Product Management

Meet Nick Felton, says Cox. He got “acqhired” by Facebook earlier this year, and is the guy who makes famous yearly information visualizations about his life.

(We’re not actually meeting Felton, we’re just talking about his ideas.) “Infographics have become part and parcel of the way we express news in modern times,” Cox says.

We humans love the concept of “the year in review,” Cox says.

Here’s a profile of Daytum, Felton’s company, that my colleague Drake Martinet wrote before Facebook bought it.

Another acquisition: Sam Lessin. On his first day on the job, says Cox, Lessin called the Facebook profile the biggest lost opportunity in the history of human history.

Cox says his whole life is on Facebook too — he dropped out of school, moved, launched products, got engaged, got married, got a dog.

(In the AllThingsD peanut gallery, we think that f8 in a few years will be all about sharing stuff about your kids, when Cox and Zuck and the rest start having them.)

Cox: “Timeline really is a blank canvas, it’s big enough for anyone’s story. We have no idea what’s going to happen next. It’s yours to fill out.”

11:54 am: Zuckerberg back on stage to sum up.

“So when is all this gonna launch?”

Timeline beta starts now, he says. Developers can start today and others can sign up to be part of the rollout over the next few weeks.

Music, movies, TV and news apps are launching now, but most apps will come later, after people start using timeline.

Zuckerberg closes by paying tribute to Intel and Moore’s Law, saying it’s important to understand your impact on the world. “We exist at the intersection of technology and social issues, and we spend a lot of time thinking about both.”

It’s an honor to be on this journey with you guys, says Zuckerberg, channeling his inner commencement speaker.

And that’s it! Team ATD is off to go see if Andy Samberg’s still here. I mean … go to the press conference.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

Big Media Hands Over Its Locks and Keys to Facebook

Peter Kafka — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:33:37 +0000

Facebook’s overhaul we’re about to see is meant, in part, to bring the media world even further into the social network’s play space.

But one of the most important elements of today’s news will take place outside of Facebook’s walls. A crucial part of the new strategy involves letting people sign up for someone else’s site, or service, with a single click, using their Facebook ID.

In other words, lots of big players are going to start sharing their locks and keys with Facebook.

The trade-off is straightforward: You give up (some) control of your own territory, with all the attendant risks that come with that, and in return you get a lot more people showing up at your door.

The media companies that are working with Facebook today are familiar with this dynamic — it’s quite similar to the one they face when they work with Apple and its App Store.

And my guess is they’re now more willing to engage so deeply with Facebook precisely because they’re already deep with Apple. This helps them gain a bit of leverage back.

Hollywood, for instance, doesn’t want Tim Cook to control digital access to their stuff in the way that Steve Jobs locked in the music industry. So it’s likely to let Facebook become an authentication system for various locker/cloud strategies the studios roll out, most notably their Ultraviolet program coming out this year. The cable industry has talked about the same thing.

I don’t think you’re going to see this kind of really deep integration announced today, though. Instead, you’ll see the groundwork for it.

Warner Bros’ Flixster, for instance, will be a launch partner, and that service’s new features allow users to share their collections of movies they watched and would like to watch with their friends. And once you’re signed up for that, it’s easy to imagine registering collections of movies that you actually own with Flixster, too. And once you’ve done that, you could access them from a locker/cloud service, all using your Facebook ID and password.

That’s a (potentially) very big deal. Keep your eyes open.

[Image via Shutterstock/Péter Gudella]

Facebook's Big F8 Plans Get Dialed Back, Just a Bit

Peter Kafka — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 18:15:40 +0000

Facebook’s soon-to-be-announced overhaul is designed to help people find and consume more media. But the social network’s original plan, which was to have its users consume that media without leaving the site, has changed.

Facebook had planned on letting users engage with services like music subscription services and video sites without having them leave the social network, via what sources have alternately described as a “bridge” or a “tray” or a “remote control.”

But those plans have been scrapped in recent weeks, according to multiple sources familiar with the launch plans. New plan: When a user clicks on an update telling them that, say, their friend is listening to a song on Spotify, Facebook will open up a Spotify page and give the user the ability to sign on via a single click, using their Facebook identity. But they’ll have to use Spotify’s player to play, pause and manipulate the service in any way.

“We were bummed when they killed it,” says one F8 launch partner. “We thought it was cool.”

The people I’ve talked to offer different opinions about the reasoning behind the change of plans. Some think that Facebook wasn’t comfortable with the technology it would use to run the remote control, while others think that rights issues, particularly with regard to music services, have held it up. Others say Facebook has merely delayed the function while it “bucket tests” the user interface.

Facebook PR reps declined to comment.

Discarding or delaying the remote control option makes the experience a bit less seamless for Facebook and its partners, but I’m not sure that users will notice or care. When it comes to music services in particular, lots of people are used to the idea of setting up a player, then multitasking and surfing on other windows anyway.

And the notion that Facebook will tell its 750 million users what their friends are consuming, then make it very easy for them to follow suit, is tremendously attractive to Facebook’s partners, who are expecting to see a huge influx of new users.

One partner described it has another attempt by Facebook to revive its old “Beacon” project, without the advertising/privacy issues that foiled its first effort in 2007. “It’s going to be incredibly viral,” says an executive at a partner site. “We can’t wait.”

"Read. Watch. Listen.": Facebook's Official Motto for f8

Liz Gannes — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 22:05:22 +0000

Facebook will unveil its next massive initiative to socialize the Web at its f8 developer conference on Thursday. A key focus of this year’s annual event has been well reported: Content.

And that’s the way the social networking giant will play it at the confab, using the basic phrasing, “Read. Watch. Listen.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s f8 keynote will include a huge package of wide-ranging news, video and music partnerships, and a structure for sharing content activity inside and outside of Facebook, sources said.

Many parts of these products have been leaked or anticipated, but Facebook is grouping them together as a larger push.

“This is really about extending its sharing tools and influence by a factor of 10,” said one person briefed on the plans. “Facebook has talked about socializing the Internet, but this is actually the biggest step to doing it.”

Sources said “Read” partners include big online publishers such as Yahoo, while “Watch” will be a range of Web video sites and “Listen” will be music services.

While Facebook has used its Facebook Connect to do that in part, the biggest success story of the massive platform, which launched at the first f8 in 2007, has been social gaming — and mostly, it’s been Zynga. Facebook has for some time been trying to extend and improve on that model for other businesses, and its “Read. Watch. Listen.” initiative is its most concerted effort yet.

Many of the implicit and explicit content sharing tools at f8 will have a precedent in those Facebook has built for gaming, according to sources familiar with Facebook’s plans. For instance, look for a live-updating sidebar of friends’ content consumption activity, just as the site offers for games, and separate from the news feed wall.

Facebook also hopes to give a broader context to the bits and pieces of information shared by its users by aggregating them, sources said.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

[Image courtesy of Flickr.]

Facebook Prepares to Integrate Music

Ethan Smith and Shayndi Raice — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:43:01 +0000

Facebook Inc. is preparing changes designed to make the site a hub for listening to music, watching movies and playing videogames, according to people familiar with the matter, in much the same way people already use the social network to share personal media like photos and videos.

Facebook has told media executives in recent days that it will begin letting online music services such as Spotify AB and Rdio Inc. publish user activity on Facebook pages, much like actions such as adding friends or “liking” websites.

If finalized, the changes could be announced at Facebook’s f8 developer conference in late September, said a person familiar with the matter.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Facebook Finally Schedules 2011 Developer Conference

Liz Gannes — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:06:10 +0000

Facebook’s irregularly scheduled annual developers’ conference, f8, will be on Sept. 22 this year in San Francisco. The company had delayed setting a date for the event until its products were approaching readiness, which took longer than expected, representatives had said. One of the focuses of f8 this year should be Facebook as a mobile platform.

Facebook on "Lockdown" for Upcoming Launches, but f8 Unlikely to Happen for a While

Liz Gannes — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:53:15 +0000

F8, Facebook’s mostly annual developer conference and the place where it makes its largest product announcements, still hasn’t been scheduled for 2011. We do know the social networking company has big projects up its sleeve, including a mobile platform push.

During his recent video-calling announcement, CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared that Facebook “launching season” is under way. And last week the company went into “lockdown” mode, a self-imposed period of intensive product development, sources said.

A Facebook spokesman did not reply to a query about an ongoing “lockdown,” but he did confirm that there’s still no date for f8 2011. One f8 launch partner said it’s been told the conference is now likely to be held in late September.

At least one Facebook engineer is openly discussing the rationale for this summer’s lockdown — “the point of Lockdown is to refocus our efforts on shipping products,” he said — on Quora, where there’s a mix of uninformed and informed people discussing the new lockdown being motivated by Google+.

Last year, Facebook’s “lockdown” mode was mounted as a 60-day effort in late summer and early fall to push new products out after it became clear that Google would be launching a major social initiative, at that time known as “Google Me.”

The 2010 lockdown — signified by a neon sign on Zuckerberg’s conference room (see what it looks like here), and accompanied by free meals for staffers on weekends — led to releases such as Facebook Places and Facebook Groups.

This summer, of course, Facebook has renewed and even more concrete motivation from the launch and early success of Google+.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

Exclusive: Brandee "No Comment" Barker Finally Comments–Longtime PR Honcho Is Leaving Facebook

Kara Swisher — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:35:47 +0000

BoomTown usually does not get all weepy over the departure of public relations folks at Internet companies, in that cynical I’ve-seen-’em-come-and-I’ve-seen-’em-go kind of way.

But the leaving of Brandee Barker (pictured here) from Facebook most certainly elicited a small single tear of sadness this morning, when she called into All Things Digital Global HQ to say she would no longer be tossing me her patented–and very endearing–hand-in-the-face “no comment” for the powerful social networking site.

After four long and tumultuous years, she leaves the company on Dec. 10.

(In a changing-of-the-guard theme, Barker follows longtime advertising sales exec Mike Murphy, who also recently resigned, out the door.)

In a statement, Facebook said:

“We can confirm Brandee is leaving Facebook to start a communications consulting business focused on early stage tech companies. We are grateful for her dedication and the company has benefited greatly from her contributions. We suspect Brandee’s future clients will also value her talents and experience and we wish her much success with her new venture.”

Indeed, although the geeks always get the credit, Facebook owes an awful lot to Barker, for helping its products and services stand out in a sea of competitors.

For certain, it was not as influential as it is today when Barker got there as its head of PR, just as the start-up was beginning to make itself known.

There were only seven million Facebook members when Barker joined, compared to 500 million today.

Still, the veteran communications exec was quickly aware of its power when 750,000 of those members protested against Facebook’s introduction of the initially controversial news feed.

“I had no idea when I took the job that it would be like that,” said Barker, who was employee No. 120 at Facebook, in an Interview with me this morning.

In fact, it has been like that ever since then, as she has navigated a series of triumphs and just as many mishaps for the company as it grew and grew.

One of her favorite moments, she told me, was the introduction of the Facebook platform at its inaugural F8 developers event several years ago.

“Mark [Zuckerberg] had a real vision and the craziness that followed it was an incredible experience,” said Barker, who was the one largely responsible for introducing the decidedly quirky co-founder and CEO of Facebook to the world.

For the most part, Barker shepherded him well, even as the fire hose of attention increased in media, consumer and regulatory pressure over issues ranging from the controversial founding of Facebook–Barker has a masters from Harvard University in Winklevii crisis management–to privacy snafus and more.

A lot of her ministrations were funny, though, as she remembered: “Another great moment was when I insisted Mark take a suitcase instead of a backpack to his first Davos in 2007, so I went out and bought him one.”

And let us not even get into the flip-flop controversies or when I snarkily called Zuckerberg “toddler CEO” to Lesley Stahl on “60 Minutes.”

Barker handled it all with grace and humor.

But as Facebook has grown to more than 1,500 employees and its business has boomed, Barker–who recently returned to the company after having a baby–decided that bigger was not better, at least for her.

“I had a pretty deep evaluation when I was away from the company that what I am good at and what I like is working with early-stage companies and their teams,” said Barker, who will start a communications consultancy. “At this point in my career, that’s what I want to do.”

Barker noted, in fact, that there were a lot of companies started by former early Facebook employees like her that might become clients, although she declined to be more specific.

In the end, another “no comment” for me from Barker!

I don’t mind, because here is my comment, on the record and for attribution: It’s a sad day for Facebook, and I’ll miss Brandee Barker very much.

Speaking of no comment, here is Barker in one of my favorite no comments, from behind a plant at a 2008 Silicon Valley luncheon for the German DLD conference:

[ See post to watch video ]

Is the Facebook "Like" Button Like a Twitter RT? Loic Le Meur Talks About the Impact of the Giant Moves on Start-Ups

Kara Swisher — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:12:31 +0000

Here’s an interesting interview BoomTown did last week with Seesmic Founder and CEO Loic Le Meur, whose status update client software is one of the more popular ones, at the Facebook f8 developers conference last week.

In it, he talked about the various new features of Facebook that make it “very, very close to Twitter.” Such as the new “Like” button being like a retweet on Twitter.

(Actually, the French-born Le Meur calls the microblogging service “Tweeee-ter.”)

In any case, he made some interesting points, especially since Seesmic–among others–was caught up in the controversies around the entry of Twitter into businesses so far pioneered by innovative third-party satellites of Twitter.

Still, Le Meur sought to downplay the conflict–even after Twitter bought the competing Tweetie desktop client–with a blogpost titled: “F*CK you naysayers. Twitter did NOT f*ck us and just rocks.”

Alrighty then!

And while it is true that Seesmic is more than just a Twitter client–with Facebook, LinkedIn and more in its dashboard for the desktop and mobile devices–Le Meur has to hope that competition between the microblogging service and the social networking giant is a good thing for smaller start-ups in their ecosystem, such as Seesmic.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Inside Ford's App-Happy Fiesta–But No Manilow (and BoomTown is a Fanilow)!

Kara Swisher — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:51:41 +0000

Last week, outside the Facebook f8 developers conference, BoomTown checked out the new 2011 Fiesta model, which will be the first vehicle in which smartphone apps can be voice-controlled via its in-car synching software.

While getting a test, I interviewed the Ford dude–Julius Marchwiki–who has been in all the YouTube videos of late touting its digital prowess.

Ford has been trying to fast-forward its automobiles in the digital space to try to differentiate itself from other car makers, using SYNC AppLink, as well as other innovative Web-friendly features.

In December, Ford (F) said it would make the next generation of its SYNC-enabled vehicles into Wi-Fi hotspots, allowing drivers and passengers to connect to the Internet everywhere much more seamlessly in a moving car.

Presumably, the ultimate in mobile.

One speed bump: SYNC AppLink will work only with Google (GOOG) Android and Research in Motion (RIMM) BlackBerry devices for now, although Ford promises an Apple (AAPL) iPhone solution soon.

Pandora Internet radio, online talk radio aggregator Stitcher and mobile Twitter client OpenBeak are the first SYNC-enabled mobile applications.

Here’s my interview with Marchwiki, as well as Scott Monty, Ford’s social media guru:

[ See post to watch video ]

Facebook Scribe David Kirkpatrick Talks about Zuckerberg's World (Which We All Just Live in)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:34:55 +0000

While at the press conference at Facebook’s f8 developers confab last week, BoomTown checked in with David Kirkpatrick, author of the soon-to-be-released book, “The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World.”

Pretty good timing for the former Fortune magazine writer, since the social networking site seems to be barreling through on its goal of being at the center of the digital universe, now reaching 500 million users worldwide with a $25 billion private-market valuation.

An IPO is expected sooner rather than later, although the innovative company seems more intent on colonizing the Web with “Like” buttons and its insidious Facebook Connect.

As Kirkpatrick wrote on the book’s Facebook fan page after the conference last week:

“Yesterday’s f8 represents a sea change for Facebook because for the first time the world finally sees its true ambition–to become the world’s Internet identity infrastructure. The implications are manifold, as I explain in my book.”

Well, as an aged member of the tech media who has seen true ambitions come and seen them go, often very quickly–Netscape Communications, AOL (AOL), Yahoo (YHOO)–I will reserve judgment on digital world domination for five years hence.

Nonetheless, it looks like “The Facebook Effect” will be well worth reading, given Kirkpatrick had cooperation from its execs, including CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg.

And I know how much the was-that-a-question tech wunderkind of Silicon Valley likes to answer queries, so kudos to Kirkpatrick for getting him to sing. Also, expect a lot of big players in the Web drama from Yahoo to Google (GOOG) to Microsoft (MSFT) to Twitter and more.

Here’s the video of my interview with Kirkpatrick about the book, which comes out in June (I did forget to ask him why Tintin’s silhouette posed for the cover):

[ See post to watch video ]

Welcome to the Hotel California: Here's What's Really Happening in the Foursquare Pig Pile

Kara Swisher — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:37:37 +0000

No, Facebook is not in serious talks to buy Foursquare. Yet.

No, Microsoft is not poised to snap up the social location start-up, beyond a cursory should-we-look query to itself. Yet.

No, there is no longer a crazy bidding war going on among major venture players in Silicon Valley, all waiting with bated breath for Foursquare founder and CEO Dennis Crowley to make a decision about which of them he will deign to take a big pile of money from.

In fact, Andreessen Horowitz partner Ben Horowitz was entirely correct when he told BoomTown in an interview earlier this week that his firm was dropping out of the race to fund the company:

“This is playing out too much in public and clearly someone has an interesting agenda here, so this is not something we want to participate in.”

Interesting indeed, although cloddish is probably a better word for what the simple process of deciding on funding versus selling has turned into.

New York-based Foursquare, which hit one million users yesterday and is unprofitable, lets its users “check in” from a variety of locations.

It’s an innovative and entertaining concept and a lot of fun, unless you are among those trying to do a deal with Foursquare.

From VCs to Facebook to Yahoo (YHOO)–the only serious bid to acquire Foursquare so far–sources close to every single player mentioned in the hubbub around the start-up expressed stupefaction about the confusion Crowley’s endless Hamlet act has resulted in.

And, in no small measure, annoyance too.

“It’s hard to make rivals all agree on one thing,” said one person close to the situation. “But this just became a pig pile.”

Indeed, that was the impetus for Horowitz speaking on the record about the experience of dealing with Foursquare, a move that was unprecedented.

“If the process was changed, we still like the company,” said Horowitz. “But since it has been long and undefined, it is prone to manipulation.”

While some have suggested that this was just sour grapes on the part of Andreessen Horowitz because Foursquare decided to pass on a lower funding offer it made, others involved–including rival VCs–applauded the move.

“Foursquare is being just as vague and unclear to us, which I think means they don’t know what they want,” said one VC, who has been considering funding it. “No one minds losing out to someone else, as much as feeling like you’re being played.”

The game got another boost today by rumors that Facebook is intently interested in buying Foursquare and delayed its announcement of location features at its f8 conference Wednesday because the social networking site did not want to scotch the impending deal.

Actually, no.

What is true is that Crowley has been to visit Facebook execs, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and there were only cursory discussions about a range of possible ways to work together, including a plan to federate third-party location services at the social networking giant.

Also, why not meet?

“It’s was a free look,” said one person with knowledge of the chitchat, the kind that happen all the time between Facebook and companies. “You always say yes when people want to talk, because you can learn a lot.”

As to a purchase: Unlikely at the price of $100 million-plus that Yahoo offered, if ever.

“Yahoo needs a solution in the mobile location and local space, because they have nothing,” said another source of the build-or-buy decision. “Facebook has all the tools it needs, as well as 500 million users used to updating their statuses, so what Foursquare is doing is not hard to replicate.”

As for Microsoft (MSFT), sources said, it, as well as companies like Nokia (NOK), simply have had their interest piqued by all the noise surrounding Foursquare.

That is also typical around hot start-ups, and perhaps more so with Microsoft, since it recently signed a deal with Foursquare to integrate its customer data with the Bing search service’s map apps.

So what’s left? Well, Silicon Valley VCs, of course, who are always interested in a deal.

Despite negligible revenue, Foursquare raised $1.35 million last August, valuing it at $6 million.

Foursquare’s current VCs include O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and Union Square Ventures, as well as a spate of well-known angel investors.

New VC valuations have hovered from $50 million to $80 million.

But both Accel Partners and Redpoint Ventures, sources said, do not have active talks going on with Foursquare.

One wild card: Free-spending Russian moneybags Digital Sky Technologies, which has already sunk copious funds into Facebook and games powerhouse Zynga.

For certain, after Andreessen Horowitz pulled out, the last one standing seems to be Gideon Yu of Khosla Ventures.

And while the eager firm has made an offer, sources said, it has yet to hear back from Foursquare, which is taking its sweet time mulling things over, which can’t make Yu happy either.

In other words, mangling the old Eagles song, “Hotel California”: You can check in any time you like, but you can never leave.

So while Crowley searches for the most lucrative exit, let’s enjoy the Eagles classic in this video:

EAGLES – HOTEL CALIFORNIA
Uploaded by hushhush112. – Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

A "Mean" Video: BoomTown Annoys a Cavalcade of Facebook Execs at f8!

Kara Swisher — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:15:38 +0000

Here is a video BoomTown did yesterday at Facebook’s bustling f8 developers conference in San Francisco.

At a press conference at the Silicon Valley social networking event, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg–trying mightily not to answer a question I proffered about the competitive landscape–said I wrote “mean” posts.

Oh, Mark, man up or get a big dose of a sense of humor from your delightful sister, Randi.

In any case, I hope Zuckerberg enjoys these interviews about the innovations and partnerships announced yesterday that I did with many of his minions, including:

Biz dev guy and guerrilla hugger Bubba Murarka, latest Google (GOOG) refugee David Fischer, PR honcho Brandee Barker, deal dude Vaughan Smith, moneybags investor Jim Breyer of Accel Partners, engineering head Mike Schroepfer and product guru Chris Cox, on whom I might have developed a man crush for his good humor while I poked at him.

Which is not mean at all!

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Liveblogging Facebook's F8: Behind the 8-Ball on a Stairway to Heaven!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:10:48 +0000

So, BoomTown was at the Design Center Concourse in San Francisco today for Facebook’s f8 developers conference.

There is a giant logo of an 8-Ball looming over it all, which suggested a questioning mood.

Not at all!

Lots of stuff was announced, including ventures with partners like Microsoft (MSFT). That particular one is called Docs.com, an in-the-cloud effort to smack Google (GOOG).

The staff of the social networking giant showed up in overwhelming force here, stuffing the press into the giant hall’s front rows as if we were prisoners on a United Airlines (UAUA) flight.

Free us, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg!

But, wait! At events like this past, Zuckerberg’s awkward speaking style–a younger version of Microsoft’s Bill Gates–has been painful, so this was clearly an elaborate plot by COO Sheryl Sandberg to torture the media.

Well played, Sheryl (and PR mastermind Elliot Schrage)!

While we waited and were being pummeled with loud hip music like Al-Qaeda detainees at Guantanamo Bay, I might add that it was impressive to see all the folks here–mostly dudes–paying homage to the massive growth of Facebook.

Here we go:

10:07 am PT: Zuckerberg–dressed in jeans and a hoodie and sneakers–ambled onto the stage quite casually without a lot of fuss.

BoomTown was expecting some fanfare–perhaps a brass band.

Like the geek he is at heart, Zuckerberg launched into the details right away, after a cursory nod to his company’s huge surge in size and influence.

He began talking about “social plug-in” offerings, namely a “Like” button that lets you share content from many Web sites without a lot of friction.

It is essentially Facebook’s clever plot to take over the entire Web and its conversation. I am extremely wary.

Let’s all try to remember: Facebook is Google is Facebook is Google. And so on until they both control our every breathing moment on this planet.

Like a nerd version of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

But, admittedly, it was cool and innovative.

10:25 am: Zuckerberg brought out Bret Taylor, the guy from FriendFeed, which was bought by Facebook last August for $50 million.

It seems worth the dough, since Taylor is a natural presenter with the easy charm that all Zuckerberg’s money will never be able to buy.

He ran through the stuff–social plug-ins, recommendation boxes and a toolbar.

Taylor called Zuckerberg “Zuck” several times. He’s friends with Zuck!

He also is channeling Zuck with the idea that Facebook should be at the center of all things. Either a black hole or a benevolent god, depending on your point of view.

Soon, he moved onto the “Open Graph Protocol,” which he called a “valuable real-time connection” between Facebook and Web sites.

“My identity is not just defined by things on Facebook, but on things all over the Web,” added Taylor.

Things the evil geniuses of Facebook will control!

10:40 am: Taylor moved on to search, always an issue on Facebook, which still feels like it is a giant library with all the books strewn on the floor.

Yet another smack at Google! And Twitter.

He also announced that Facebook is adopting that OAuth open-source standard for authentication.

More divide and conquer.

10:45 am: Zuckerberg returned to intro Docs.com with Microsoft.

Zuckerberg then closed rather awkwardly, although somewhat endearingly, saying okay-that’s-it-you-can-go-now quite abruptly.

Realizing the oddness of the moment, he pulled it back to relate an anecdote about his girlfriend, who is studying to be a doctor.

Although Zuckerberg did not quite land it, it was all about feelings and memories.

“The essence of this is that we have a lot of early memories that, man, the world can be a lot better and we can make it that way,” said Zuckerberg.

Then he made an inexplicable reference to being in heaven and how everything is exactly how we want it there.

Let’s build it, said Zuckerberg, a very mortal–but now a very, very powerful–digital god.

Next up: Press conference with Zuck and more info about his stairway to heaven!

Until Facebook gets us there, though, here’s a video of the Led Zeppelin classic, “Stairway to Heaven,” which always reminds me of slow-dancing in a school gym and forever makes me just a little bit sad for, as Zuckerberg said, feelings and memories long gone by.

Not that Facebook or any Silicon Valley Web company is ever going to be able to retrieve even a scrap of them for real, no matter how many billions of social plug-ins and Like buttons they toss all over the Web.

Still:

Pre-Gaming Facebook F8

John Paczkowski — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:45:30 +0000

According to popular legend, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg once kept two versions of his business card in his wallet–one with the title CEO, the other with “I’M CEO…BITCH.” Seems that before Facebook became the de facto platform of the attention economy, it was a platform for the attention-starved.

Well, there will be no shortage of attention for the social networking phenom today as it kicks off its third f8 developer conference in San Francisco. As in years past, Zuckerberg’s keynote address will include an update on Facebook’s present and future and a slate of noteworthy announcements. Among those expected: A “presence bar,” a toolbar that permits members to use their Facebook identities to log into third- party Web sites that agree to use it.

Also likely on tap: A universal “like” button. Along with the company’s already ubiquitous “share” button, it will allow members to draw more of the Web into Facebook’s so-called “social graph.” Stumble across a page you enjoy, click one of those buttons, and that page will be added to your Facebook stream and the social networking site’s search results.

Finally, Zuckerberg may announce a geolocation feature that associates user actions with the locations where they occur. Similar to Foursquare’s location-based social networking service, this feature will enable Facebook members to note their location while writing their status updates. If it takes off, it will give Facebook a nice little foothold in the local advertising market.

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