Tag Archives: Graph Search

Computers

Facebook affirms its privacy commitment with national campaign

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Facebook is teaming up with the nation’s attorneys general to launch a public awareness campaign aimed at keeping young people safer on the site.

The effort, which includes public service announcements and other informational resources, comes as the social network faces mounting pressure both to better educate teenagers on how to keep certain content private, and to stay relevant to them at the same time.

Facebook, which now boasts more than 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, “has hit mass market appeal, and that appeal means the young, hip crowd needs more of a reason to stay,” said Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst with the Altimeter Group.

Also, as the site continues to roll out more advanced features such as its new Graph Search social search tool, and more ways to share, it’s becoming harder and harder to figure out how to manage one’s privacy settings, Owyang said.

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From: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2034671/facebook-affirms-its-privacy-commitment-with-national-campaign.html#tk.rss_all

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Social Media and the SEC: A Love Story?

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By Caroline Bennett, The Motley Fool

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In the beginning, there was the Internet. Then, in a big bang of light, sound, and tweets, there was social media. Since then, companies haven’t known quite what to do with themselves.

There has always been some gray area as to what’s appropriate for a business‘ social-media presence, and what isn’t. Now the SEC is getting involved, and its latest decision doesn’t crack down nearly as hard as you might think. In fact, Netflix is already reaping major benefits from it, not to mention Facebook itself.

The latest ruling
In a statement released on April 2, the SEC said it was perfectly ethical for companies to take to social media for releasing “key information,” just so long as they abide by the SEC‘s Regulation Fair Disclosure.

To find out what constitutes key information, take a look at the company that sparked the action: Netflix. Last July, CEO Reed Hastings posted on Facebook that users were streaming more than 1 billion hours of video a month. Within one day, Netflix’s stock jumped from $70.45 to $81.72, which raised quite a few red flags about the post.

But now, as far as the SEC is concerned, this kind of self-promotion is A-OK among public companies, just so long as they clarify which social-media tool they plan to use. If a company says its news will be available on Facebook, for instance, and it pops up on Twitter or (suspend your disbelief for a moment) Pinterest, then there’s a problem.

Are Facebook and Netflix better off?
Facebook’s stock took a noticeable jump after the SEC announcement, rising 5% from $25.32 to $26.67. This reaction suggests that the market is celebrating the SEC‘s decision, and the good news couldn’t come soon enough for Facebook. Even after the success of Graph Search‘s unveiling, the company is still struggling to return to its IPO price, so any positive press must feel like a breath of fresh air for Facebook and its investors.

The news is also Netflix’s second SEC victory in a month. A few weeks ago, the company finally got the government‘s go-ahead to make its social-media service, Netflix Social, available to U.S. residents. So why hasn’t its stock reflected these victories accordingly?

For one thing, the SEC news coincided with whispers that investor Carl Icahn had sold 10% of his share in Netflix. Even though Icahn later denied the rumor, the damage was already done. That news, paired with the announcement that Time Warner had released its own online streaming service, was enough to sink Netflix’s stock by 4%.

But don’t cry for Netflix just yet. The company’s annual revenue has more than doubled since 2008, and while it possesses a market cap of $9.46 billion, it has just $400 million on the books in long-term debt and boasts $3.9 billion in assets. And that doesn’t include the revival of Arrested Development.

There’s always money in the social-media stand
By and large, the market has met the SEC‘s …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Microsoft Tries to Burn Down Facebook's Home

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By Evan Niu, CFA, The Motley Fool

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Investors were rejoicing yesterday over Facebook‘s new Home suite of apps and integrated features, sending shares up 3% after the announcement on the prospects of increased user engagement and eventually incremental ad revenue once ads are deployed.

Home integrates directly into select Google Android devices and will undermine some of the search giant’s own services, even if they’re still technically available. Even though Home will step on some of Big G’s toes, the search giant maintained niceties following the event, saying Home is another example of continued innovation on the Android platform.

Oddly enough, another company wasn’t too impressed and is trying to downplay the significance of Home: Facebook search partner and investor Microsoft .

On Microsoft’s official blog, corporate communications exec Frank Shaw noted that Facebook’s announcement bore an uncanny resemblance to the software giant’s own Windows Phone pitch from 2011. Facebook positioned Home as a way to put people in front of apps, as opposed to the other way around. 

That’s an approach that Microsoft has been touting for years, since Windows Phone features a People Hub that is integrated directly with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Shaw takes the opportunity to knock Android, saying the platform is already “complicated enough” (emphasis his) and that it has “sadly” always lacked a “People First” approach.

In that sense, Shaw understands why Facebook wants to launch Home, but also suggests that users looking for a “people-centric” phone just opt for the “real thing” and pick up a Windows Phone.

The move is curious considering that Facebook is ultimately much closer with Microsoft than it is with Google. Bing powers the search bar located on Facebook’s site, and is also the driving force behind the social network’s new Graph Search function.

Microsoft was also an early investor in Facebook, buying in for $240 million as early as 2007. Microsoft did unload 6.6 million Class B shares during Facebook’s IPO last year, leaving it with 26.2 million shares and a 1.7% stake.

Why would Microsoft want to rain on its partner’s parade?

After the world’s most hyped IPO turned out to be a dunce, most investors probably don’t even want to think about shares of Facebook. But there are things every investor needs to know about this company. We’ve outlined them in our newest premium research report. There’s a lot more to Facebook than meets the eye, so read up on whether there is anything to “like” about it today, and we’ll tell you whether we think Facebook deserves a place in your portfolio. Access your report by clicking here.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

3 Ways Facebook Can Make Money With Mobile

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By Chris Neiger, The Motley Fool

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The tech world is shifting toward mobile more every day and companies like Facebook have adjusted strategies in attempt to monetize on the fast-moving trend. The social media dominator may have been slow to get started in mobile, but it’s doing these three things just right.

Users, glorious users
For mobile users, four out of every five minutes spent using mobile content is done through an app ­– luckily Facebook is No. 1 in app reach. Facebook’s app reached 76% of all smartphone and tablet users in the U.S., beating out Google‘s Search, Play, Maps, Gmail and YouTube. It’s the second most used app for iOS users, behind iTunes, and the fourth most used app on Android devices, according to a report by comScore.

Facebook sees about 680 million users each month from mobile, and that’s an irresistible number to advertisers. The mobile advertising spending hit $4 billion last year ­– this year it’s expected to reach $7 billion. With the massive amount of active mobile Facebook users, and their engagement with its app, Facebook has enormous advertising potential this year.

Gaming’s gone, but app installs are here
One of Facebook’s problems with its switch to mobile was having to leave behind the money it makes from games on its desktop version. Facebook can’t make money from games within its app, but it’s come up an alternative way use those old gaming relationships.

Facebook offers app installs for companies who want to sell games or other apps to Facebook users. Companies pay to display ads in Facebook’s mobile feed that link straight to an app for downloading. In Facebook’s earnings call at the end of January, the company’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, said one-fifth of the top iOS developers were testing out Facebook app installs. The app install ads use the same mountain of information that advertisers use to target users, and lets advertisers track clicks and installs of the advertised apps. Some have speculated that Facebook app installs could become a $500 million a year business for the company.

Engaging with brands
Not only does Facebook’s app have an enormous amount of users and massive potential for app install ads, but the company has another trend working in its favor — brand engagement. About 39% of smartphone users read posts from brands in their social media apps, and 47% do the same on tablets. To put those numbers in context, engaging with brands is the fourth most popular activity in social media apps. The graph below shows the distribution.
 

Source: comScore.

Brand and product engagement comes in fourth place behind reading a friend’s status, accessing a picture/video, and posting a status.

Facebook is constantly tweaking how companies can advertise through its app and with its recent updates to the News Feed and Graph Search, investors can expect that Facebook will continues to make updates and changes with advertisers in mind.

Slow going, but in the right direction
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Facebook Can Afford to Redecorate

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By Rick Aristotle, Munarriz, The Motley Fool

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Facebook is changing again.

The social networking giant is hosting a media event tomorrow at its headquarters. There isn’t any need to guess what this will be about. The invitation clearly explains that tech journalists are being invited to “come see a new look for News Feed” at Facebook.

Facebook is never shy about mixing things up. There’s an outcry from users when things change. They adapt. Facebook winds up making more money and attracting more net new users, validating the tweaks.

Rinse. Repeat.

However, Facebook doesn’t peel back the curtain for media types unless it’s significant. Graph Search and Facebook Gifts are some of the more recent event-backed initiatives.

Some are speculating that this will be a more photo-centric facelift, and that makes sense given the popularity of Flipboard and Facebook’s acquisition last year of Instagram. However, investors will want to know how Facebook plans to monetize the new initiatives.

Facebook’s been pretty good about milking more money off of its free site with more than a billion active users. Revenue climbed 40% in its latest quarter, even though monthly active users have only grown by 25% over the past year.

Facebook doesn’t need to take chances, but it can afford to do exactly that. Where will people go? Google is pushing Google Plus as a Facebook alternative, but it has yet to sway most Facebook users. LinkedIn just celebrated passing the 200 million member milestone, but that only means that the career-oriented social networking site has just a fifth as many users as Facebook.

There may very well come a time when Facebook does go too far, with Google and LinkedIn there to make the most of the opportunity. However, the likely news tomorrow will be modest changes that will enhance both user experience and the monetization potential of the newsfeed.

Facebook has come too far to get too greedy.

Due diligence makes a friend request
After the world’s most hyped IPO turned out to be a dunce, most investors probably don’t even want to think about shares of Facebook. But there are things every investor needs to know about this company. We’ve outlined them in our newest premium research report. There’s a lot more to Facebook than meets the eye, so read up on whether there is anything to “like” about it today, and we’ll tell you whether we think Facebook deserves a place in your portfolio. Access your report by clicking here.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; FoolAnalyticsData.push({ …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Is Facebook Graph Search a Dud?

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By Steve Heller, The Motley Fool

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In this video, Motley Fool contributor Steve Heller goes through the basics of Facbook Graph Search and what that means for investors. In particular, he resists calling Graph Search a Yelp killer because it’s lacking some crucial ingredients.

After the world’s most hyped IPO turned out to be a dunce, most investors probably don’t even want to think about shares of Facebook. But there are things every investor needs to know about this company. We’ve outlined them in our newest premium research report. There’s a lot more to Facebook than meets the eye, so read up on whether there is anything to “like” about it today, and we’ll tell you whether we think Facebook deserves a place in your portfolio. Access your report by clicking here.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; FoolAnalyticsData.push({ eventType: “TickerReportPitch”, contentByline: “Steve Heller“, contentId: “cms.21091”, contentTickers: “NASDAQ:FB, NYSE:YELP”, contentTitle: “Is Facebook Graph Search a Dud?”, hasVideo: “True”, pitchId: “16”, pitchTickers: “NASDAQ:FB”, pitchTitle: “FB Ticker Report” …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Computers

Five ways to job hunt using Facebook

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Would you use Facebook to job hunt? According to the 2012 Social Job Seeker Survey by recruiting and job site Jobvite, Facebook is emerging as a leading social network for job hunting.

But job seekers aren’t the only ones turning to social media, recruiters are, too. According to the survey, 86 percent of recruiters say they seek out potential candidates’ social media profiles.

It’s no wonder: Facebook’s new Graph Search, which it announced in January and is gradually rolling out to all users, makes it easier for recruiters to find talent. A quick search of “People interested in Java who live in San Francisco” returns more than 1,000 results.

If you’re looking for a new job or want to expand your professional network, Facebook is a promising place to start. Here’s a look at five Facebook applications that tap into your social network to find you new career opportunities.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Computers

Get ready for Facebook Graph Search

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Facebook has a new tool that lets you search for people based on their Facebook activity. It’s called Graph Search, and it’s gradually becoming available to every Facebook user on the planet. Once you have access—there’s a waiting list—you’ll be able to use it to find information such as restaurants your friends have liked, old photos containing specific family members, and alumni from your alma mater who live near your next vacation spot.

It promises to be a powerful tool for analyzing the personal data many people publish on Facebook—and that means you need to know how it works and how to prevent it from accessing data you’d prefer to keep private.

Review your Facebook privacy settings

The Graph Search tool is a work in progress and the service isn’t available to all Facebook users yet, but it still represents a good opportunity to revisit your Facebook privacy settings. To get there, log in to Facebook, click the blue cog icon in the top-right corner, and select Privacy Settings. From here, you can monitor who can see your Facebook updates and retroactively set limits on your past posts—a handy trick for quickly locking down your Facebook page.

You should also browse through your Activity Log to get an idea of how much Facebook records (hint: pretty much everything you do) and who has access to that data. I was surprised to discover that Facebook has been logging my search queries for months, making it easy for anyone to see whose profiles I look at (rather than clicking and sorting through my friends list for someone, I often just type a name into the search field and go from there).

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Computers

Prepare your small business for Facebook's Graph Search

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Facebook is changing. Again.

Last year, the social media powerhouse rolled out Timeline, a feature that set off a stream of concerns about privacy as it became easier than ever for visitors to scroll through years of Facebook posts. For businesses, though, Facebook Graph Search is likely to bring consumers. Rather than having to wait for a customer to recommend your company, you may find that searches are naturally leading new customers directly to your Facebook Page.

Without Graph Search, searching for a type of business is a largely faceless experience.

What is Graph Search?

Before we can dive into what Facebook Graph Search can do for your small business, it’s important first to understand what it is. While other social media sites encourage users to connect with other users, Facebook has been a closed site. Finding others who share your interests has been impossible, with Facebook’s search limited to people, places, and things. Type the word “restaurant” into the search box, and you’ll receive a list of pages on the site related to restaurants.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Yelp Faces Less Enthusiasm on Its Model and Growth

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By 24/7 Wall St.

Laptop tablet and smartphone

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Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) may be petering out, or so it looks like after its earnings report. The news is ahead of the Graph Search that is coming from Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) and that may only compound some of the fears ahead. We like the idea of the company, but there needs to be more for investors by our read.

After taking a look at the earnings report, there just does not really seem to be that much meat for the lions (or bulls) to chase. Its $0.08 loss per share was far narrower than the $0.56 loss a year earlier, and it looks even better at -$0.06 per share after excluding one-time items. Revenue grew handily by about 65% to $41.2 million. Yelp’s EBITDA came to $1.8 million in the quarter.

Yelp’s local sales were up 87% to $33.9 million, and other revenues were up almost 30% to $2.2 million. Where sales were flat was in the brand revenues at about $5 million.

Yelp is now serving about 20 countries and its mobile apps services are expanding. The issue is that its sales and marketing efforts drove costs up at almost 60% growth on that effort, while development costs nearly doubled and administrative costs were up almost 50%. Yelp’s year-end cash balance was about $95 million.

What is of concern to us is that investors endorsed Yelp in the social media IPO waves, but its valuation remains high. At $1.34 billion in market cap, we wonder why Wall St. or Main Street have allowed a company that is losing money to remain so high.

Zacks has a different read, yet their end result is partly an echo of what we are observing. It has a Hold rating and said:

We believe that mobile presents a significant monetization opportunity for Yelp and the partnerships with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) will boost top-line growth from this segment over the long term. However, increasing investments and competition from Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) are expected to drag profitability in the near term. As Yelp continues to explore and expand into new markets, sales & marketing expenditure is expected to increase significantly, thereby hurting margins going forward.

We would also note that Cantor Fitzgerald maintained its Buy rating and raised its price target to $27 from $24, and J.P. Morgan was positive as well.

We have strived to show both sides of the coin here. The market-voting coin is tails, as the stock is down 5% at $21.25, against a 52-week range of $14.10 to $31.96. Others are still favorable, while we wonder how great the prospects are. Our caution is hinged around our desire to see real earnings rather than just expanding its footprint with the hope that booming profits follow.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Earnings, Internet, Technology, Technology Companies Tagged: FB, Yelp

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Why Facebook's Graph Search Really Does Matter: Big Data + NLP

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By Greg Satell, Contributor Ever since Facebook unveiled its Graph Search last month, pundits have opined that it’s everything from a “killer app” that will crush companies ranging from Google to Yelp to a powerful new ad targeting technology to nothing more than a glorified extension of the “like.”  In reality, it is none of these things.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

Did Facebook Buy Instagram Mainly So It Can Finally Run Ads With Big Pictures And Video?

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By Robert Hof, Contributor Advertising took center stage during Facebook’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, and for good reason: It’s what investors are most interested in hearing about, even more than cool new features like Graph Search. Even CEO Mark Zuckerberg joined in, at one point noting that while the social network will continue to develop new user-oriented features to ensure its long-term appeal, for now “our work on ads will have by far the biggest impact on our business.”
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

Graph Search and Online Recruiting: How Facebook is Transforming an Industry

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By J.J. Colao, Forbes Staff This is a guest post by Stephane Le Viet, CEO of Work4 Labs, a company that uses Facebook for online recruiting. In just a few years we’ve seen a tremendous change in the recruiting industry’s sentiment towards Facebook. All of the concerns about the feasibility of recruiting on the site—grumbles about privacy, spam, a lack of profile data and tools—have been dismissed. It’s clear that times have changed when Zuckerberg himself stands onstage during the release of Graph Search and announces that “recruiting” is “one of his favorite queries.”
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Computers

Hands on with Swipp: Compare global opinions in real time

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The latest contender in social networking emerged from stealth mode this week, offering yet another forum to share and compare opinions in a social stream of your acquaintances and the web at large.

Hush-hush development of the Swipp Social Intelligence Network has been going on for two years, but its appearance this week may have been hastened by Facebook’s announcement of Graph Search, which like Swipp gathers and shares information about people, places, and things.

swipp

Swipp offers a graphical representation of its participants’ opinions about a variety of topics, such as a movie or a restaurant, a city or a celebrity. Your rating on a 10-point scale (+5 to -5) contributes to a graphical map of those opinions, which can also be sorted by gender, location and other factors.

Using Swipp requires a Facebook account, although Swipp’s developers are quick to point out the differences between Facebook and Swipp. They say that Swipp gives its users greater control over their own content. Downloading and reusing material, for example, will be easier than Facebook, they say. Swipp’s API will be more open, too.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

News, Politics, Government

Facebook – The Latest To Target Mobile Carrier Voice Revenue

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By Christopher Versace, Contributor Investors were wildly excited ahead of Facebook’s (FB) January 15 announcement, which despite wide spread speculation over a number possibilities — a smart phone, video service and even a dating service of sorts — turned our to be for Graph Search. While many were arguably underwhelmed with the announcement, I still think that long-term it’s in the cards for Facebook to launch its own full blown search engine. After all, the promo for the event did read “come and see what we’re building” not what’s we’ve just built. For now the billion plus users will have to be content using Graph Search. That’s good for Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) as well as those other search engine companies – IAC/Interactive (IACI) and AOL (AOL).
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest