Over the next few days, Facebook could file an IPO. Raising as much as $10 billion at a valuation anywhere between $75 billion to $100 billion, it stands to be "one of the biggest-ever U.S. public debuts." What does this mean for investors of the social media mammoth? It means they will make disgusting amounts of money. Lots of it. More than you could possibly imagine. Citing anonymous sources, the Wall Street Journal reports:
Facebook IPO Could Come Next Week; Investors To See Ridiculous Windfall
Mission Rape Suspect's Facebook Posts
Uptown Almanac brings to light several Facebook posts penned by alleged Mission rape suspect, Fred Dozier, 32. The most chilling part about Dozier's Facebook posts aren't his "Crime City" requests or his "2 thumbs up" for superb parenting, It's how seemingly normal they all are. (Typos notwitstanding.) For example:
Facebook Has New Vanity Street Name: 1 Hacker Way
In Silicon Valley, vanity street names by tech mammoths are as common as racial disparity, wasteland boredom, and Chevys. Apple has 1 Infinite Loop, Genentech has 1 DNA Way, and Sun Microsystem used to call 1 Network Drive its home. Now Facebook, that social media platform where friends try to tell you how to vote and think, is getting a head-scratching new address. It came up with Hacker Way, Menlo Park, 94025, reports to TechCrunch.
Jonathan Nolan Is Awesomely Paranoid About Facebook
Jonathan Nolan, who wrote the short story "Memento Mori" (which later his brother, Christopher, turned into Memento) and helped pen The Prestige and The Dark Knight, has created some of the greatest cinematic works over the last few years using paranoia as a key theme. It should come as no surprise, then, that the envy-inducing writer has some major concerns with social media and Facebook -- brilliantly paranoid concerns, we might add.
Google Plus Slowly Takes Off
Tired of blocking followers who post relentless political campaign-related gibberish or blatant Gilt-esque advertising? We don't know about you, but we sure are. (Side note: if you're a campaign director who's hired a "social media consultant" [ick] to advise you that spamming your followers with aimless updates about your candidate is a good thing -- which counterproductively results in you and your updates getting blocked -- you should, one, fire that scam artist on the payroll and, two, stop it this very second.) Which is why (at least for now) Google Plus is a radical shot of fresh air. Like a VIP club or comfy booth inside the noisy, arena-like nightclub that is Facebook, the best part of Google+ is for sharing and discussing with a close circle of friends.
Facebook Video Chat Feature Unveiled
Powered by Skype, Facebook announced a new video chat feature today. Which will be of interest to those of you who chat on Facebook, or to those of you who don't already use GMail's nifty video chat feature. So, what is it exactly? TechCrunch explains: "It’s a feature that’s been rumored for quite a while, and it’s one that Facebook is putting a lot of weight behind. Now, whenever you browse to a friend’s profile, you’ll see a new button nestled between the ‘Message’ and ‘Poke’ buttons that says ‘Call’. Click that, the other user will see a popup asking if they want to accept a call, and you’ll be immediately connected (you’ll need to install a small plugin the first time you use the service)."
Gavin Newsom Makes an Important Twitter Announcement
Gavin Newsom, an authority when it comes to social media and politics, made an important announcement via that most concise social medium this morning. And the news may come as a surprise:
Gavin Newsom Banging Out a Book on Social Media in Politics
Word is out that Lieutenant Governor, former Mayor and adept twitter abbreviator Gavin Newsom just signed a deal with Penguin Books to pen a book about "the intersection of social media and government." Naturally, Gavin broke the news on his twitter account:
Yelp Warns Users of 'Hipster' Establishments
The indetitagible Allan Hough at Mission Mission brings us news that Yelp now offers a 'hipster' (e.g., people who call themselves 'nerds') denotation in the ambience field. As the image here shows, Gracias Madre in the Mission, it seems, is teeming with scenesters. Delightful!
Twitter Now Serves Over 1 Billion Per Week
Five years after founder Jack Dorsey unleashed the first tweet ever - "inviting coworkers," is all it said - Twitter now racks up an estimated 1 billion updates a week. "Five years after its inception, Twitter is now serving up an average of 140 million tweets per day, up from 50 million per day at this time last year," reports Tech Chronicles. "And that adds up to nearly 1 billion tweets each week."
Adios, MySpace?
Myspace, if you remember, once stood as the social media platform for GIFs, autostart, sparkly animation, bands, and misunderstood types with eyeliner. Now, according to Valleywag, it's halfway in the grave. Just two months after their "my_____" relaunch, the company plans to lay off half of its staff. Not a good sign. Meanwhile, Facebook is worth an envious $50 billion. [Gawker]
Follow SFist Team On Twitter
While many of you know about SFist's action-packed Twitter feed, some of you, sadly, do not know about your favorite SFist team player's personal 140-characters-or-less musings. Horrors! Allow us to us fix that slight at once:
New S.F.-Based Social Network Boasts 50-Friend Maximum
Path, a new "personal" network being touted as somewhat of an anti-social network, launched today. The San Francisco-based start-up limits your friend list to fifty people, enabling users to more freely share their photos and stories, since only their family and closest friends will have access to their profiles.
'Like,' Follow SFist, Won't You?
Have you heard of this newfangled Facebook thingamajig the kids talk about these days? Sticky privacy issues notwithstanding, it's pretty neat-o. And that Twitter? That sure is fun. Have you also heard that SFist is on Facebook and Twitter? True. They're easy ways to keep up on our stories. If the mood should strike, check us out on Facebook and Twitter.
Ban Social Networking for Sex Offenders, Says Kamala Harris
"The carrot is don't get on these sites, and the stick is we will prosecute you," says San Francisco DA Kamala Harris -- who is also running for state attorney general -- who sponsored a bill to get sexual predators off your favorite social media sites (e.g., Facebook and MySpace). See, last month, Assemblywoman Norma Torres (D-Panoma) introduced the bill last month, "which would make it a crime for Californian's 63,000 registered sex offenders to use any social networking site," reported SF Chron. New York passed a similar law, which resulted in 3,500 sex offenders booted from the web, making it that more difficult for them to contact underage ilk. On the lighter side child rape, SF Weekly wonders what else we could strip away from convicted Chester Molesters. Let's just hope they don't take away our right to see which one of our crazy neighbors has a shady past.
Google Buzz Takes Aim at Facebook, Twitter
Today, Google unveiled some sort of Facebook-ish addition to your Gmail called 'Buzz.' According to the LA Times, it "incorporates social media tools such as photo and video sharing and status updates in Gmail." So, if you're not yet sated with Facebook and Twitter, add Buzz to your OL life. Oh, and here's a video explaining it all. In related news, whatever happened with Google Wave? [via Valleywag]

