Facebook beginning to test new version of Timeline?

Back in September, Facebook unveiled a profile redesign dubbed "Timeline" for the social network's users. Timeline takes a user's profile page and places all of the information into a timeline view. The design, after numerous delays, has been rolling out to the 900+ million Facebook users over the past several months. Some users haven't even enabled Timeline on their account yet, electing to remain on the old profile page design. Timeline has been met with a significant amount of criticism from Facebook users as well.

This doesn't seem to be stopping the team at Facebook headquarters, however. According to a report from TPM, the social network has already begun beta testing a new version of Timeline with some users. The slightly redesigned Timeline view focuses on compressing the header of the page by simplifying the tabs. In addition, the user’s name, home location, occupation, education, and other information has been moved on top of the "cover photo" on the page. Since the text is white, many are wondering how Timeline will handle lighter color cover photos.

It's unclear how far along Facebook is with testing the redesigned Timeline, and whether the design will ever see the light of day.

Current Facebook Timeline View

Updated Facebook Timeline View

Hacker group ‘Anonymous’ releases 1.7 GB of information from United States Bureau of Justice

Hacker group Anonymous announced yesterday that it has released about 1.7 GB of information taken from the United States Bureau of Justice. Information stolen includes internal emails and database information, and the BJS took down their website to address the security issue.

We do not stand for any government or parties, we stand for freedom of people, freedom of speech and freedom of information.

We are releasing data to spread information, to allow the people to be heard and to know the corruption in their government. We are releasing it to end the corruption that exists, and truly make those who are being oppressed free.

The price we pay very often is our own freedom. The price governments pay is the exposure of their corruption and the truth being revealed, for the truth will set us free in the end.

Google unveils interactive Doodle for Robert Moog’s birthday

Google will be celebrating the 78th birthday of Robert Moog tomorrow, May 23, 2012, with a (pretty amazing) interactive Doodle on its homepage. Moog, who is best known for inventing the Moog synthesizer, has been named the "pioneer of electronic music" with his invention.

To celebrate the occasion, Google has created an interactive Moog synthesizer on its homepage where users can turn switches on and off, play sounds, and record their creations. The Doodle is currently live on the Google Australia homepage, and will be launching in the U.S. tomorrow.

Google Chrome surpasses Internet Explorer as world’s most popular web browser

According to new data released by StatCounter this morning, Google Chrome has surpassed Internet Explorer as the world's most popular web browser (in terms of usage), a spot Microsoft's browser has held every week of the year since 1998. IE has been on a steady decline over the past several years, with web browsers such as Chrome and Firefox taking up market share left behind.

According to the data, Chrome now holds a 32.76% market share worldwide, while Internet Explorer controls 31.94%. In a distant third is Mozilla Firefox at 25.47%.

YouTube celebrates its 7th birthday

Today, May 21, 2012, is the seventh birthday of the Internet's most popular video uploading website, YouTube. Seven years ago on this date, YouTube opened its doors to the public. Following a significant amount of popularity from users, YouTube was sold to Google and has been under Google control since.

YouTube announced as part of a birthday blog post today that over 72 hours of video is collectively uploaded to the website every minute.

Facebook stock drops 11% during second day of trading

This past Friday, Facebook officially became a publicly traded company under the NASDAQ with the ticker "FB." The company managed to raise a $104 billion valuation and have an initial share price of $38. Facebook's first day on the stock market ended with the stock up $0.23 to $38.23 overall.

Today, the second day of trading for Facebook stock, didn't go as well for the world's largest social network. At the closing bell, Facebook's stock was down 10.99% or $4.20 for a final price of $33.90. At one point in the day, the share price was even lower, nearly dipping into the $32 range.

Yahoo announces plans to sell half of its stake in Alibaba

Yahoo today announced that it will be selling half of its stake in Chinese Internet company Alibaba back to the company. Representing about 20% of Alibaba's stock, Yahoo will receive $7.1 billion in total, with a minimum of $6.3 billion in the form of cash. In addition, the two companies have reached licensing agreements. Yahoo has agreed to let Alibaba run its Yahoo! China division for at least the next four years at a sum of $550 million.

First, at the time of an initial public offering (IPO) of Alibaba in the future, Alibaba will be required either to repurchase one-quarter of Yahoo!'s current stake at the IPO price or allow Yahoo! to sell those shares in the IPO. Second, following such an IPO, Yahoo! has registration rights and rights to marketing support from Alibaba to enable Yahoo! to dispose of its remaining shares, at times of Yahoo!'s choosing following a customary lock-up period.

Microsoft publicly launches So.cl social network

Earlier this evening, Microsoft publicly launched its "research" social network dubbed "So.cl." Interested users are able to sign up using a Windows Live ID or a Facebook account. Microsoft launched So.cl as an experimental social network with students at the University of Washington, Syracuse University, and New York University. It is geared towards students and allows users to follow people, subscribe to groups, watch videos, and post messages.

Google introduces improved Google+ integration into Gmail

Today, Google unveiled further integration of Google+ into its email service Gmail. The first improvement coming deals with search in Gmail: searching for a person's name will now display any emails you've sent to them, their profile pictures, and the ability to start a conversation with them. In addition, Google is rolling out improved Circles integration, allowing users to see profile pictures and detailed search information when clicking on the pictures of their Google+ friends.

Circles are also now supported in search and filters. Find messages from a specific circle by typing circle:[circle name] in the search box. You can also find mail from any of your circled contacts by searching with has:circle. You can refine your search even further with other criteria and create filters based on circles. This means you can now view all the unread emails from your ‘Friends’ circle or automatically star every message that comes from your ‘VIP’ circle.

Facebook hit with $15 billion privacy lawsuit on IPO day

Today, Facebook officially became a publicly traded company when it launched under the ticker "FB" on the NASDAQ. Also today, Facebook was hit with a class action lawsuit that claims it continues to track users' web browsing activity even after they logout of the social network. The lawsuit, which was filed in San Jose, California, is seeking nearly $15 billion in damages from Facebook.

The full press release follows:

Stewarts Law acts for facebook users who have filed a Consolidated Digital Privacy Class Action

18 May 2012 (San Jose, Calif.)

Facebook users today filed an amended consolidated class action complaint in federal court in San Jose, California in the case In re: Facebook Internet Tracking Litigation, No. 5:12-md-02314-EJD. The class action asserts federal statutory and California State causes of action related to the revelation in September 2011 that Facebook was improperly tracking the internet use of its members even after they logged out of their accounts. The action consolidates 21 related cases filed in more than a dozen states in 2011 and early 2012.

The plaintiffs assert claims under the federal Wiretap Act, which provides statutory damages per user of US$100 per day per violation, up to a maximum per user of US$10,000. Even if Facebook’s alleged actions constitute a single violation of the Wiretap Act per class member, that implies more than US$15 billion in damages across the class. The complaint also asserts claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Stored Communications Act, various California Statutes and California common law.

The class action is being led by court-appointed co-lead counsel Stewarts Law US LLP and Bartimus, Frickleton, Robertson & Gorny, P.C. David Straite, Partner at Stewarts Law, stated: “This is not just a damages action, but a groundbreaking digital privacy rights case that could have wide and significant legal and business implications.” In addition to co-lead counsel, the court has appointed a Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee which includes Keefe Bartels in New Jersey; Mandell, Schwartz & Boisclair in Rhode Island; Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow & McElroy in New Jersey; Bergmanis Law Firm in Missouri; Burns, Cunningham & Mackey in Alabama; and Murphy, Falcon & Murphy in Baltimore. The court has also appointed a committee of former State Attorneys General to advise the class, including former Mississippi AG Mike Moore, former Arizona AG Grant Woods, former Hawaii AG Margery Bronster, and former Louisiana AG Richard Ieyoub.

Facebook’s first day on the stock market wasn’t amazing

Today, Facebook officially launched its initial public offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ under the ticker "FB." The company's stock began trading at $38 after a nearly 30 minute delay from when it was initially scheduled to begin trading. The delay was reportedly due to heavy load on NASDAQ's network in preparation for the launch.

After its first day of trading, Facebook's stock ended the day at $38.23, up $0.23 from the original stock price. The number is down from the high for the day, which was about $42. While the end result wasn't as high as most investors and analysts believed it would be, the IPO still put Facebook at a $104 billion valuation.

Facebook announces IPO share price of $38

Today, Facebook announced that the share price of its initial public offering that will be launching on the NASDAQ tomorrow morning will be $38. As a result, the company will be placed at a $104 billion valuation and will raise around $16 billion, both of these numbers are significantly higher than expected. Facebook will be offering a total of 421,233,615 shares of common stock. This IPO will be the largest in technology history.

The full press release follows:

Facebook Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering

MENLO PARK, Calif., May 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 421,233,615 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $38 per share. The shares are expected to begin trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on May 18, 2012, under the symbol “FB.” Facebook is offering 180,000,000 shares of Class A common stock and selling stockholders are offering 241,233,615 shares of Class A common stock. Closing of the offering is expected to occur on May 22, 2012, subject to customary closing conditions.

In addition, Facebook and the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 63,185,042 additional shares of Class A common stock to cover over-allotments, if any.

Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Goldman, Sachs & Co., BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Allen & Company LLC, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities are serving as book runners for the offering. RBC Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities are serving as active co-managers.

The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the prospectus related to the offering may be obtained from: Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, New York 10014, Attention: Prospectus Department (Tel: +1 866 718 1649; e-mail: prospectus(at)morganstanley.com); J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, (Tel: +1 866 803 9204); or Goldman, Sachs & Co., 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, Attention: Prospectus Department (Tel: +1 866 471 2526, e-mail: prospectus-ny(at)ny.email.gs.com).

A registration statement related to these securities has been filed with, and declared effective by, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

Facebook adds 84 million more shares to IPO

According to a report from The Associated Press, Facebook has announced yet another update to its initial public offering that is expected to be launched this Friday, May 18. This time, Facebook revealed that it has added an extra 84 million shares into its stock pool, all of which will be coming from early investors and internal people from the company.

Facebook plans to offer each share at somewhere between $34-$38, possibly raising a much-higher-than-expected $16 billion.

Google introduces “Knowledge Graph”

Today, Google introduced a new feature to its search engine that is dubbed "Knowledge Graph." The technology takes user input as a whole, rather than separate words and strings like it has been in the past. Knowledge Graph will allow users to narrow their search results down to exactly what they're looking for, get a summary of information on the right-hand side of the page, and pick out small details related to search queries.

The Knowledge Graph enables you to search for things, people or places that Google knows about—landmarks, celebrities, cities, sports teams, buildings, geographical features, movies, celestial objects, works of art and more—and instantly get information that’s relevant to your query. This is a critical first step towards building the next generation of search, which taps into the collective intelligence of the web and understands the world a bit more like people do.

Google has already begun rolling out Knowledge Graph to users, and it will soon be available on mobile devices as well.

New Google Chrome Stable release adds tab syncing across devices

Today, Google released the first Stable version of Chrome 19 to the public, adding tab syncing across multiple devices when users are signed into Chrome with a Gmail account. When a user is signed in, all their open tabs appear under a new menu on the "New Tab" page in Chrome called "Other Devices."

The Stable version update will be rolled out to existing Chrome users over the coming days.

Facebook acquires photo sharing app Lightbox

Popular Android photo sharing service Lightbox announced today that it has been acquired by Facebook. The company's team of seven (7) will be joining Facebook, while the service itself will be functioning until June 15. Users have until that date to download their photos from Lightbox. The Android app has already been removed from Google Play, and new user sign ups aren't being accepted at this point.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed to the public.

Facebook increases photo sizes on mobile devices

Facebook announced today that it has begun rolling out an update to its mobile interface on iOS, Android, and m.facebook.com that increases the size of pictures by three times (3x).

Starting today, we’re rolling out an improved design for posts in news feed on your mobile phone. Now photos are up to 3x larger, and all posts will fill your mobile screen from edge to edge. The new design will be available on iOS, Android and m.facebook.com. Check out some before/after screenshots below.

Report: Google developing Chrome Web Browser for iOS

According to a report from Business Insider (based on a research note from Macquarie analyst Ben Schacter), Google is currently developing a Chrome Web Browser app for use on iOS devices. In fact, the app may already be submitted to Apple for review and could debut in the App Store as soon as the end of this quarter. No specific details about the app were given, however.

While third-party web browsers already exist on the App Store (an example include Opera), a majority of iOS users still use Safari because of the amount of system-level integration the app brings.

Facebook readjusts IPO with $34-$38 share pricing; confirms delay in Instagram acquisition

Earlier today, the SEC released Facebook's seventh (7) amendment to its initial public offering filing. In the new filing, Facebook readjusted the projected share price from the previous $28-$35 to $34-$38, bringing the company's valuation well above the prior projected value of $100 billion. In addition, Facebook has upped the amount of shares it will be trading to 337 million.

In addition, Facebook has confirmed previous rumors that its $1 billion acquisition of Instagram has been delayed. The social network was planning to complete the deal sometime in the second quarter of this year, but the new documents point to the deal closing sometime in 2012.

Facebook's stock will appear on the NASDAQ under the ticker "FB." The company's IPO is expected to launch this Friday, May 18, 2012.

Scott Thompson steps down as CEO of Yahoo amidst resume controversy

Yahoo has just announced that it will be naming Ross Levinsohn as interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company following word earlier this morning that Scott Thompson had stepped down from the position. Thompson was accused earlier this month of lying on his resume when he was hired as Yahoo CEO in January of this year. In addition, Yahoo has named Fred Amoroso as Chairman of the Board of Directors, replacing Roy Bostock.

As a part of the settlement agreement, Third Point, which owns an aggregate of 70,545,400 shares, or 5.8% of Yahoo! common stock, has agreed to withdraw its previous Board nominations for consideration at the annual meeting and vote its shares in support of Yahoo!'s nominees. Yahoo!'s slate of director nominees for election or re-election at the 2012 annual meeting of stockholders will now include Fred Amoroso, John Hayes, Peter Liguori, Thomas McInerney, Maynard Webb, Sue James, David Kenny, Brad Smith, Daniel S. Loeb, Harry J. Wilson and Michael J. Wolf.

As interim CEO, Mr. Levinsohn will manage the Company's day-to-day operations with assistance from Yahoo!'s existing senior leadership team.