Tag: Mark Zuckerberg

net neutrality
Tech Thirsty Special 

Internet.org Is Now FreeBasics But Why?

Posted By: Satarupa Bhattacharya 0 Comment , , , ,

net neutralityFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now considering a change in name for the controversial internet.org platform. Now being called Free Basics, it is meant to provide web access to more people by offering it free of cost. Free Basics will also allow these new users to enjoy complimentary services from around 250 partners.

Supported by leading mobile phone manufacturing companies like Nokia and Samsung, this free internet service from Facebook aims to connect around 4.4 billion people who are yet to be introduced to the online world.


Who will benefit? 

Eventually, Free Basics aims to connect areas that don’t have internet connectivity. This will be done using drones and laser technology. But currently, the platform aims to bring low network areas such as 2G networks under the Free Basics bandwagon. 

People living in India and other developing nations are going to benefit from the service. Surveys indicate that people living in remote areas will receive better guidance for pregnancy care, parenting, education and even farming using free internet services. 

Read more about the debate: The Net Neutrality Debate: Larger Than You Thought

What is the catch?

The concept of Free Basics is in direct contrast with the concept of net neutrality that smaller players and the advocates of internet are against. Subscribing to Free Basics implies only players who pay the provider will be accessible to users.

Ever since the internet has penetrated Indian households, it has given opportunity to entrepreneurs to expand and innovate. When they will have to start paying to be seen and heard on the internet, the market will only be available for the giants in every vertical.

For the end user, this means they will not have access to the new players. They would have restricted access to news, information and e-commerce.

 

When the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi met Mark Zuckerberg, this issue has been brought to light once again. … Read the rest

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Facebook Inc To Tie Up With Moat For New 100 Percent In
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Facebook Records 1 Billion Users Glued To It On Thursday; Plans To Develop Video Copying Protection On Cards Too

Posted By: Satarupa Bhattacharya 0 Comment ,

Facebook has set a record on Thursday with one billion people using the network within one day’s span. This is a high for the social network and its co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg posted that it is an important milestone. The easier way to state this will be to simply say that one out of seven people around the world used Facebook on Thursday.

The Facebook Success Figures

Zuckerberg’s vision to bring together the entire world via this social network is slowly Facebook Records 1 Billion Users Glued To It On Thursdayachieving fulfilment and he has gone on record saying that these figures are way more essential than the financials or numbers Facebook weighs on a daily basis. According to Facebook’s earnings update revealed in July, the number of active users hiked up to 13 per cent on a monthly basis from the 1.49 billion figure last year, in addition, the total number of active users on the mobile platform currently touched the 1.31 billion mark.

Read More:  Millenium Touch To Super Mario At Facebook Hackathon

What’s New With FB?

With so many laurels, Facebook is also engaged in developing an all new technology that will allow video makers to protect their work from being copied sans permission on the network.

The official line here goes like this– “We want creators to get credit for the videos that they own…To address this, we have been exploring ways to enhance our rights management tools to better empower creators to control how their videos are shared on Facebook.”

 … Read the rest

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Some worthy words of advice from Mark Zuckerberg to Apple!
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Some Worthy Words Of Advice From Mark Zuckerberg To Apple!

Posted By: Ninad 0 Comment , ,

Mark Zuckerberg seems to have entered into a war of words with Apple and its CEO Tim Cook. This happened after Cook criticized advertisement-supported businesses such as Google and Facebook for ignoring the needs of customers. He pointed that for Facebook and Google, the customers were merely products.

Some worthy words of advice from Mark Zuckerberg to Apple!
Wikipedia Commons

The business models of Apple and Facebook are quite contrast and this could be one of the reasons that top level executives of both these companies have decided to rough it out publicly now. While the business of Facebook hovers around collecting personal information of users and selling it to advertisers, so that they can generate business, Apple sells hardware products and uses little personal data.

Cook has been using this point to his advantage and has been making public appeasement on the topic. He says that users should be going for Apple products if they do not want their personal information to be sold online.

However, the point raised by Tim Cook holds little relevance in the current scenario as Facebook despite selling personal information of users has over 1.3 billion users. Similar goes for Google as the search engine commands a user base of 1 billion despite similar issues.

Mark Zuckerberg raised these facts in support of their services being popular in comparison to Apple and it seems quite sensible to the users, as of now.

 

 … Read the rest

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internet drones
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Facebook To Use Drones To Beam Internet From The Sky: Mark Zuckerberg

Posted By: Nishtha Shukla Anand 0 Comment , , ,

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on his way to achieving the motive of connecting people worldwide using the world wide web, even for those who live in remote areas. Even then, it is said that internet is not available till date in numerous places. For this sake, he has declared a solution to the problem. He has now announced that Facebook is working with Internet.org to conduct experiments with drones that would make it possible to beam internet towards a particular area from the sky. Facebook as well as Internet.org have now been working in many ways to connect the entire world with internet and they are working extremely hard on it.

Also read: Facebook Steals Mark Zuckerberg’s Sister’s Privacy

The team comprises leading experts in the field of aerospace and communications. The Ames Research Center and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab are also part of their innovative experimentation. Internet.org launched last year and their main motive is to bring down the internet cost around the world by connecting to the web and utilizing web services. They are now working with various telecom operators throughout the world for the sake of reducing the cost of the internet connectivity. This team has been successfully working on exploring of the latest techniques to beam internet from the sky.… Read the rest

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why would facebook buy whatsapp
Company Corner 

It Could Be A Case of Big Fish Eating The Small One: Why Would Facebook Buy Whatsapp?

Posted By: Nishtha Shukla Anand 0 Comment , ,

Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook has announced its plans to buy fast-growing messaging service Whatsapp in a $19 billion deal in cash and stock. This is an unprecedented purchase as the deal one can consider closest to this was done by Microsoft when they bought Skype at a price of $8.5. Incidentally, Facebook also took over Instagram at only $1 billion last year, while Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten bought Viber at a modest $ 900 million.

So, why would Facebook buy Whatsapp, and at this price?

Industry insiders and M&A experts say that Facebook acquisition of Whatsapp–even Instagram–suggests their inability to develop such good apps. This deal is more than the amount Facebook raised in its own IPO and has left investors worrisome.

Many recent news reports and jokes floating in cyberspace suggest that Facebook was turning into a network for the ageing. Its population of active teenage users was fast depleting. With the acquisition of Whatsapp, they are likely to get the attention of their young users as well.

Whatsapp is clearly leading many other messaging apps such as Line in Japan and WeChat. It has acquired a massive market in America, Asia and Europe.

Zuckerberg has also released an interesting statement to explain why Facebook would buy Whatsapp. WhatsApp will complement our existing chat and messaging services to provide new tools for our community. Facebook already has its own messaging app but it’s not widely used.

Also read this: Twitter’s Vine Vs Facebook’s Instagram: The Rivals Take The Brawl To Another Level

 … Read the rest

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Tech Thirsty Special Top News 

Not Just A HTC One And Samsung Galaxy S4 Thing Anymore, Facebook Lord Is Coming With Stunner Of A Phone

Posted By: Aiswarya Gopan 0 Comment , , , , ,

It’s been a while since we heard about how Facebook was busy working on bringing out a whole smartphone of its own. Given how most of the activity on this popular social network comes via mobile devices, it’s not surprising that Mark Zuckerberg’s creation has decided to take the plunge into the technology space directly.

But in a world where Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android mobile OS’s reign supreme and a bunch of others like BlackBerry and Windows Phone fight hard to occupy a distant third place, do we really need yet another smartphone that stands out so much? And as addicted as we are to Facebook, do we really need a completely dedicated Facebook smartphone? Or is an Android or iOS Facebook app more than adequate?

Facebook is trying to expand beyond being just a social network that keeps you connected with your friends. With its active push for social media in the business space, it even lets you keep connected with your favorite brands and businesses. And now with the newly introduced Graph Search, looks like Mark Zuckerberg wants everyone to depend entirely on Facebook for all their online needs.

HTC is supposedly building the first Facebook phone, but we wonder if it can hold up against stiff competition from high-end phones like the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 or even upcoming smartphones like the Apple iPhone 6. After all, unless there’s something absolutely terrific about the phone beyond just Facebook, why would tech enthusiasts shun the likes of the iPhones and Galaxy S4 to switch to it?

The phone is expected to be based on Android, but will primarily focus on the messaging and camera apps, so it could be stripped down version of the world’s most popular smartphone OS. Also, Facebook is expected to offer apps through the Amazon Store instead of letting users download apps through Google Play. This considerably reduces the variety of apps users can access through the Facebook phone.

Now, it’s still too early to comment on the tech specs comparison of the Facebook phone against the hotter phones in the market like the HTC One or the Samsung Galaxy S4. And of course, there’s no word on the pricing either. But even if the Facebook phone’s as competent and also ends up being cheaper than the current range of flagship smartphones on offer, will these incentives be enough to lead us away from Apple and Android?

Of course, only time will tell if Zuckerberg’s strategy will succeed. But even if it does succeed momentarily, what will happen when users experience Facebook fatigue – something that’s already been happening to quite a high percentage of users who have spent enough time on the social network. And how will this affect our privacy, given that this has been one of the biggest bones of contention with Facebook to begin with?… Read the rest

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facebook paper app release date
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Go Zuckerberg Go! Facebook Amps Up Its Energy With A Pulled Together And Polished News Feed

Posted By: Chetan Agnihotri 0 Comment , ,

Like we said before, March 7th was the date when Facebook got a major makeover, and from the first look, we’re quite impressed! A redesigned NewsFeed that focuses more on the images and gives more power to the users for customization should not just keep the users happy, but could also spell good news for the advertisers.

Mark Zuckerberg wanted Facebook’s NewsFeed to offer a better story design, more choices and consistent experience on mobile devices as well as PC browsers, and looks like this will get him there. In Zuckerberg’s words, Facebook’s trying to give its users “the best personalized newspaper” possible, which is “intricate, rich and engaging”.

Users now get larger images displayed on their NewsFeeds, in addition to larger maps, news articles, app information, etc. Users can also choose to sort their feeds in a chronological order or be more selective in getting updates about the different kinds of music their friends are listening to, events taking place, etc. Depending on the user’s preferences, Facebook will also display the most relevant trending articles on the feed as well.

There’s many new feeds as well, including All Friends – which will show you everything shared by your friends, Photos – an exclusive feed just for photos from your friends and pages you like, Music – a feed about the music you like, Following – latest updates from pages you like and people you follow.

The new look is cleaner and a more modern interface, inspired by mobile device interfaces and combining them into the web experience. Facebook has already started rolling out the NewsFeed to small number of users starting from today, and over the next few weeks, it will also be available on mobile devices. With such a big change, the company is taking things slow and careful.… Read the rest

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Company Corner Top News 

Facebook’s Getting A Brand New Newsfeed On March 7th – Be Prepared To Get Bowled

Posted By: Aiswarya Gopan 0 Comment , ,

It’s been a while since Facebook revamped its look. While we’re not expecting a drastic change like last year’s Timeline update, there definitely is a new look coming for the Newsfeed section of the popular social network. So, how different would it look when you login to Facebook a few days from now?

New design for the mobile app’s newsfeed: Things are going to get a lot more colorful on Facebook’s mobile app. The plain blue and white background could give way to a newsfeed with multiple sections that would highlight important updates for you. We could get separate sections for news and photo updates and newer gestures for navigation too.

Video advertisements: Ads have been the main source of revenue for Facebook, and it’s only going to get more prominent in the future. Zuckerberg’s creation will soon begin featuring video ads on users’ newsfeeds, starting from April. They won’t be more than 15 seconds long, but sure will pull in a lot of big bucks for the company.

Better Timeline: No, don’t scream in frustration just yet. You won’t have to figure it out all over again, just about when you’ve got the hang of the Timeline format. The new update will make photos more visible and noticeable.

 … Read the rest

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The Real Deal With Facebook Graph Search: Would Zuckerberg Send Google Search On A Long Vacation?

Posted By: Ava 0 Comment , , , , , ,

Finally, the much rumored and much awaited answer from Mark Zuckerberg to Google’s search is here. Facebook is calling it the graph search, and if you’re still confused about what the big deal is, read on to know more about how the graph search will affect your life. But the real question that’s on everybody’s mind is if it will change the way we look up stuff on the internet? Will it cause us to reduce our dependence on Google, the search engine giant?

One of the key differences between the good old Google search and this new Facebook graph search is the concept of looking for links versus looking for information that is liked by people in our networks. Yes, it does mean that search is going social, but in a bigger way than Bing and even Google has managed to take it. Google did try this with the +1’s from its own social network, Google+, but Facebook depends solely on the Likes while rating its results.

Another aspect that is unique to the Facebook graph search is the idea of multidimensional search. While looking up information on restaurants in a particular area through Google will give you just the specific answer, trying out this query on Facebook’s graph search could give you information about restaurants in that particular area that are recommended by your friends based on their experiences. See what we mean when we say search has gone social in a big way?

Now whether Facebook’s graph search will succeed over Google solely depends on what we search over the internet for on a regular basis. How important is your friends’ opinion on, say, hard facts and history? But when it comes to finding a good doctor or a good restaurant, we don’t mind the social aspect that Facebook’s graph search brings in.

We don’t know just yet how effective Facebook’s search would be as a replacement to Google search, but if you want to look up your activity on Facebook, we’d say it would work just fine. But for anything bigger, we doubt if it’s time to bid farewell to Google just yet.

 … Read the rest

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Facebook Graph Search Mark Zuckerberg
Company Corner Top News 

Facebook Vs Google: Graph Search Feature Puts Two Biggies In Tug Of War

Posted By: Nishtha Shukla Anand 0 Comment ,

Facebook Graph Search Mark ZuckerbergFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has released a Graph Search feature on his social networking site on Tuesday for users and stakeholders alike. This development is a leap for Facebook as it tries to give something that would add to its breath of offerings. Facebook Graph Search will offer more engagement to users and seek them to spend more time on it. This development has put Facebook in competition with the search giant Google.

With this new search you will be able to look for people, interests, photos and places. As part of Facebook, the search will be aligned to your network and surroundings, making it more relevant. With this feature, users will be able to look through restaurants suggested by friends or places people around them have travelled to. You will also be able to scroll through pictures from different timelines.

However, this is not an all-purpose search and therefore, how much will it be take us away from Googling is a lame thought at this moment. While users might stay longer on Facebook with this feature, it is unlikely to impact Google searches.

With 1 billion registered users, this move should do well for the dreary Facebook stock that is currently rallying below the IPO price of $38. Whether this move challenges Google or not, it will only improve search ability for users.… Read the rest

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