:: LNR Journalism ::

Mark Zuckerberg no longer brushing off concern about Facebook's stock price

Wall Street Journal :: Mark Zuckerberg has long exhorted employees not to pay attention to the stock price, instead pushing them to focus on developing the social network. But in a companywide meeting earlier this month, he conceded that it may be "painful" to watch as investors continue to retreat from Facebook's stock, according to people familiar with the meeting.

A report by [exclusive subscriber content] Shayndi Raice, online.wsj.com

U.S. video viewing statistics: Facebook second largest video site in July

comScore :: Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in July with 157 million unique viewers, followed by Facebook.com with 53 million, Yahoo! Sites with 48.7 million, VEVO with 44.8 million and Microsoft Sites with 42.7 million.

A report by www.comscore.com

Who's responsible and for what? German officials want Facebook to pay fines for illegal parties

Interesting case. It is only one click to invite your friends or the whole world. Technically it should be trivial to implement more precautionary measures, e.g. more windows to actively confirm your decision, to avoid careless mistakes. Too late for the "organizer" in this case. The 20-year old guy will have to pay some 227,000 euro after over 1,500 people hit the “join” the party button. €227,000 can easily ruin someone.

What would you do?

RT :: German officials have lost their tolerance for massive benders coordinated via Facebook. Their solution: make the social network share the burden of six-figure fines that party organizers receive over costly police operations to clean up the mess.

A report by rt.com

HT: Tristan Bailey, via Jeff Jarvis, here:

Shoot the platform RT @tristanbailey: Shoot the messenger? Germany wants Facebook to pay fines for illegal parties bit.ly/MnZJ5r

— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) August 17, 2012

Evan Williams, Biz Stone reveal 'Medium' - Jalees Rehman: But do we need it?

CNN :: There's yet another way to post writing and photos and share them with other people online. Medium is a new blogging tool for people who feel constrained by Twitter and overwhelmed by Blogger or Tumblr. Its founders are Evan Williams and Biz Stone, who co-founded Twitter and Blogger, so they know about blogging, both long and short form.

A report by Heather Kelly, edition.cnn.com

Discussed here:

Fragments of Truth :: When we look at our Twitter feeds, Facebook updates or the millions of blog posts that are generated, it is difficult to claim that the quality of information being exchanged is improving. However, improving the quality of exchanged information seems to be a rather lofty goal and it is not clear that a new platform will necessarily achieve that. "Medium" will apparently rely on two key principles: Rating and Organizing.

[Jalees Rehman:] Do we need another information sharing platform?

An opinion piece by Jalees Rehman, fragments-of-truth.blogspot.de

Jalees Rehman on Twitter

Inside Facebook's push to woo big advertisers

Wall Street Journal :: After joining Facebook as FB -5.99% vice president of marketing last year, Carolyn Everson made it her mission to win over skeptical ad executives who complained that spending on the giant social network wasn't paying off.

A report by Shayndi Raice, online.wsj.com

Facebook, Twitter play key role in Syrian uprising: Also for infiltration

Reuters Twitter account was recently hacked and also "false reports about Syrian rebel losses" were posted. Thomson Reuters mentioned that they had no clue of who's behind the hacking. Does that kind of hacking have any impact at all? A doubt raised by Dan Murphy, Christian Science Monitor.

Times Of India :: The battle for Syria is raging on the ground but also on social media, where people on both sides of the conflict are hacking, posting and spamming in a frenzied propaganda war. The Twitter feeds of news organisations have been hacked by pro-regime elements, videos purporting to show atrocities in Syria are regularly posted to YouTube and pro- or anti-government messages often flood Facebook pages.

A report by mbx/al/bm, timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Facebook accused of deceiving developers over security

Facebook's new application platform has been live for quite sometime now and some app developers had to pay an awful lot of money to enter its verified apps scheme to be tested for "trustworthy user experiences," as Guardian reports in the article below.

Guardian :: Facebook has been accused (FTC PDF direct download link) of deceiving developers after it emerged that the social networking site did nothing to verify the security of applications it was paid tens of thousands of dollars to review, and which it assured users had been checked.

[Facebook Developers:] Our Application Verification Program gives you an opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to providing trustworthy user experiences in your applications. Users of Verified Apps can feel confident that these applications strive to be transparent about how they work and respect social expectations between friends.

A report by Josh Halliday, www.guardian.co.uk

'Search Plus Your World': Google no longer pushing Google+ results

Telegraph :: In an interview with the Telegraph Google’s search chief, Amit Singhal, has said the company has found a “better place” for Google+ results after criticism by Facebook and Twitter that it was unfairly promoting its own social network.

History of the discussion, and report by Emma Barnett, www.telegraph.co.uk

Since "better place" can be all or nothing, I turned to Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineLand.com, and asked him for his opinion.

@stkonrath i think below the knowledge graph box now

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 12, 2012

If you do not know what Google's Knowledge Graph is, here's a video explaining, how it works:

Get to know your 'readers': Facebook's 'seen by' feature for groups

TechCrunch :: In July, Facebook rolled out a new “seen by” feature for groups, which let people know who has seen a post or announcement in that group, and when. And, although Facebook didn’t make much of a song and dance about it at the time, it looks like it is actually offering this feature on photos, too.

A review by Ingrid Lunden, techcrunch.com

Gannett will buy BLiNQ Media for up to $92m

TechCrunch :: On the heels of Google buying Wildfire and Salesforce nabbing Buddy Media, we have heard from two very reliable sources, plus a third anonymous source, that Gannett Co., the media giant that owns USA Today and other properties, is buying BLiNQ Media. The price for the Facebook advertising software and service is up to $92 million over a period of three to four years, with a quarter of that amount, $23 million, coming up front.

A report by Ingrid Lunden | Josh Constine, techcrunch.com