This article titled “Facebook began as a geek’s hobby. Now it’s more popular than Google” was written by Jemima Kiss, for The Guardian on Tuesday 4th January 2011 07.00 UTC

Mark Zuckerberg faced a make-or-break year in 2010. From its first incarnation in 2004, Facebook had expanded effortlessly to a point where nearly half of the global online audience had visited the site but it was beginning to face a backlash from tech geeks, who accused founder Mark Zuckerberg of going too far in declaring the age of privacy over.

Flash forward to the start of 2011 and the outlook could hardly be more different. Bolstered by Facebook hitting the 500 million user milestone in July, a 0m (£290m) backing from Goldman Sachs and immortalised on film in Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network, Zuckerberg seems more confident, skilled and omnipotent than ever. And Facebook appears to achieved the ultimate coup: threatening to unseat the mighty Google as the superpower of the web.

There are some things money can’t buy and, for Google, they are market-leading social media propositions. Despite its position as a technology superpower and with an estimated bn in the bank, it has largely failed to deliver a convincing consumer proposition for social networking.

YouTube, which Google owns, has a vast network that reached 30 million monthly users in Britain alone last October, according to comScore, yet has little coherent, constructive community. Any enthusiasm for Google Buzz evaporated in a cloud of privacy controversy, while its Orkut site may be a Brazilian favourite but has failed to gain ground in Google’s home market.

Google is very far from anything like a crisis but it has been slowly undermined by Facebook’s audacious and rapid development, the realisation of Zuckerberg’s plan to reconfigure the web through social navigation and Facebook’s exploitation of its popularity to recruit some of Google’s hottest talent.

Google has never underestimated Facebook. In 2007 it attempted a major investment in Facebook but was beaten by Microsoft, which took a 1.6% stake for 0m. Facebook’s extraordinary, exponential growth – up to 633 million global users by October, according to comScore – is positioning it as the most powerful site on the web. Already secured as the busiest website in the world, Zuckerberg envisages a future where we will navigate the web through our social graph – our network of friends and contacts – with recommendations rather than searches determining what we buy, watch and discuss.

The statistics, as estimated by comScore, speak for themselves. By October 2010, Facebook had already become the UK’s largest display advertising publisher, showing 24.4bn ad impressions, or five times as many as Microsoft, to about 30 million web users. The number of advertisers tripled in a year. Revenues are estimated at bn for 2010, which would mean Facebook has raised revenues faster than Yahoo and almost as fast as Google.

Facebook also had the third highest number of video viewers, behind YouTube and just behind the BBC, with 9.4 million unique users. And 47% of the global online population visited the site in 2009. Facebook’s UK audience hit 31.6 million unique users for October.

“Facebook, along with Google, is now one of the titans of the internet universe,” said Simon Carmichael, of merchant banking firm Torch Partners. “Look at the audience it has and how they monetise that; advertisers are already very keen and they are creating a whole ecosystem around Facebook.”

Peter Thiel, an entrepreneur and hedge fund manager who was an early investor in Facebook, said in September that the company would not go public until 2012 at the earliest. Carmichael agrees. “Facebook doesn’t need to IPO to raise capital as its stock is already very widely spread, and there’s a very lively secondary market for Facebook stock in the US. But it would be good for the tech industry and an IPO at that level would make it easier for bn businesses to get out.”

Investors cannot get enough of Facebook on these secondary markets, which allow Facebook shareholders – though not current staff – to cash in on their stock. Trading has surged since November when Accel, one of Facebook’s largest investors, sold 15% of its stake for 7m, valuing the company at bn.

Under US law, firms with more than 500 different shareholders must go public but Facebook won an exemption in 2008 by stating that most shares were held by staff. Regulators are looking again at these markets because of the volume of trading. Facebook’s stock is by far the most popular and trades hands at rates valuing it at more than bn.

With investors convinced the Facebook phenomenon is only just beginning, how does the firm plan to grow? Zuckerberg has said that Facebook is “almost guaranteed” to reach the one billion user mark – and is attacking on every front.

The list of Facebook products introduced in the past 12 months testifies to Facebook’s ambitions to move beyond a simple network of social connections to become the default navigation tool for our online experience. From dominating photos and gaming, as well as expanding its email system, Facebook has now added features designed to add revenue potential to gaming and local commerce, including credits, deals, places, and a Q&A tool.

Juniper’s principal analyst, Windsor Holden, says Facebook’s future domination depends on mobiles. “Mobile usage is far more engaging because it taps that dead time, like waiting for a train. Previously it was sitting on a desktop – a primary activity – but now it is like snacking.” He says augmented reality, where images and information services are overlaid on a phone’s camera, will explode in 2011. “The industry so far has catered for a niche community but there are 100m augmented reality-capable smartphones in use. That could be powerful for Facebook’s advertising as it’s a natural fit for advertisers.”

Facebook faces challenges in reaching one billion users, not least because Europe and North America will soon reach Facebook saturation, and markets such as China and Russia are dominated by domestic rivals. But the developing world is a huge opportunity for Facebook and one it has already begun to address by working with at least 50 local operators to offer Facebook Zero, a pared-down version of the site that users can access for free via mobiles.

Already the web’s biggest photo site, Facebook has disrupted sites such as Photobucket and Yahoo-owned Flickr. Facebook has provided a vast platform that allowed games studios Zynga and Playfish to flourish; Zynga’s revenues alone are estimated at 0m for 2010.

Television is lined up next; Facebook is an important app being built into many internet-connected TVs from Samsung’s Smart TV to Yahoo’s Connected TV that will allow users to Facebook message friends about the shows they are watching together, finally giving TV the potential for targeted advertising.

The volume of information generated by Facebook globally is daunting. In any 20 minutes, Facebook typically sees 1m shared links, 2.7m photos uploaded and 10.2m comments. Facebook also records 7.7m “likes” every 20 minutes, generated not just by users on facebook.com but on more than 2m other sites across the web that have embedded Facebook’s commenting tools.

More than 10,000 sites are adding Facebook’s tools each day, and about a third of users access the site this way at least once a month. Facebook hopes this strategy will make the site ubiquitous by allowing users to take their Facebook identity with them throughout the web.

Until Facebook goes public, its priorities will be growth in users and revenues, which means more of these aggressive plans to expand. Those plans have just been boosted by a fresh investment round. With momentum like that behind Zuckerberg’s plans to dominate the web, it might be easier to ask what isn’t a target for 2011?

“In the next five years almost every major product vertical [specialist industry] is going to get rethought to be social,” Zuckerberg said, revealing his vision to the Web 2.0 Summit in November. “You’re either going to have an incumbent turn their business around, or some creative entrepreneurs with great engineers who are rethinking the product from scratch. Get on the bus.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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This article titled “Amazon tops list of online consumer satisfaction” was written by Rebecca Smithers, Consumer affairs correspondent, for guardian.co.uk on Wednesday 22nd December 2010 06.00 UTC

Customers’ satisfaction with the standard of service offered by online retailers edged up only slightly last year, a survey reveals today, with retail giant Amazon retaining the top slot.

The findings show the largest retailers continue to attract the highest satisfaction ratings, and while the best continue to get better, the rest are slipping. Nearly two-thirds of the top 40 online retailers were found to be underperforming in comparison with their peers.

The research is published today by customer satisfaction measurement and management specialists ForeSee Results in its annual Christmas customer satisfaction index. December is traditionally the busiest time for online shopping, and it received a further boost this year due to the poor weather.

After a huge year-on-year increase in online customer satisfaction from 2008 to 2009 (from 67 to 71 on a 100-point scale), overall customer satisfaction has increased only slightly this year from 71 to 72.

In terms of the overall rankings, Amazon.com was measured for the first time this year as a separate site, scoring 84 on the scale and elbowing long-standing top UK performer Amazon.co.uk (which scored 83) into second place. Play.com came third, meaning three companies scored 80 or above compared to just one in last year’s index.

John Lewis increased by one point to 78, and Marks & Spencer entered the top five for the first time in the study’s four-year history with a five point year-on-year increase.

Only seven of the 40 websites saw scores decline, all of which did so by just one point except for Dell EMEA, which dropped three points to 68 – below the online retail aggregate of 72.

Larry Freed, chief executive officer at ForeSee Results, said: “These findings underscore how much retail companies’ site visitors can really differ. The larger retailers can and have dedicated resources to improving the online customer experience, even during a global recession, but they still need to keep it up, work hard and innovate to stay ahead.

“The good news for the smaller players is that customer experience is something tangible they can get their hands around with the proper attention and investment.”

Andrea O’Donnell, commercial director at John Lewis, said: “We know that customers appreciate being able to shop with John Lewis in a variety of ways. Traditionally this has been in shops, online and via our catalogues. Now our customers can also order online and pick up from a shop, order online in a shop and order on their mobiles. Our commitment to customer service is equally applicable to all these purchasing experiences and our strong sales attest to this.”

Sarah Hughes, head of online and digital at HMV said: “As a specialist entertainment retailer, the way we present the products we stock to our customers in store has always been one of the qualities we pride ourselves on. So it’s really encouraging to learn that our online shoppers at hmv.com are finding the same engaging experience.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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The NY Times caught up with Socialist financier George Soros to ask him about the potential GOP takeover of Congress.

“I made an exception getting involved in 2004,” Mr. Soros, 80, said in a brief interview Friday at a forum sponsored by the Bretton Woods Committee, which promotes understanding of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

“And since I didn’t succeed in 2004, I remained engaged in 2006 and 2008. But I’m basically not a party man. I’d just been forced into that situation by what I considered the excesses of the Bush administration.”

Soros is instead directing money towards groups involved with health care reform and global warming, rather than electoral politics. He told The Times he’s concerned about the coming Republican storm, but there’s not much he can really do about it.

“…I don’t believe in standing in the way of an avalanche.”

Why do I not feel comforted by that?

The NRSC is changing its tune today after a fiery declaration last night that they wouldn’t spend a dime on Christine O’Donnell. Sen. John Cornyn said this morning that the NRSC will absolutely back O’Donnell and even sent her a check for $42,000 — the maximum allowed.

This doesn’t surprise me a bit. Had they really refused to fund O’Donnell it would have been the end of the NRSC as we know it. That said, O’Donnell could win without one dime from the NRSC. The Tea Party along with Palin and DeMint can raise all the doe she’ll need to pull off a victory.

I believe the money issue will take care of itself. What O’Donnell needs to do is focus on the issues.

Click here to donate to Christine O’Donnell!

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the U.S. government has decided to buy stakes in nine of the nation’s largest banks.

The U.S. government is expected to take stakes in nine of the nation’s top financial institutions as part of a new plan to restore confidence to the battered U.S. banking system, a far-reaching effort that puts the government’s guarantee behind the basic plumbing of financial markets.

This move comes on the heels of the British government’s decision to buy stakes in their countries largest banks.

TMZ is reporting that rapper Lil’ Wayne was overcome with greed last night and refused to play a concert that was for a good cause.

The concert was being promoted as a “Stop the Violence” event, inspired because of eight gang-related murders in the small community of Wilmington, NC. Lil’ Wayne was the draw, with ministers and local celebrities taking the stage to speak out against violence.

They were expecting a crowd of around 3,000 people who had paid $40 for floor seats and $30 for balcony, but only about 1,000 kids showed up.

As a result of the low turnout, Lil’ Wayne, who had been paid a part of his fee up front, wasn’t able to collect the rest of his fee. The rapper then sat backstage for around three hours waiting for a crowd to arrive.

When the crowd didn’t grow, about 80 sheriffs and officers in attendance offered to raise the money themselves to get Wayne to perform! The extra dough couldn’t be raised until Monday, which wasn’t good enough for the rapper, who left without appearing.

Normally, I wouldn’t blame anyone for making sure their money situation is correct. In this case he was only owed around $2,000 or so, and the concert was for a good cause.

Lil’ Wayne is a multi-millionaire who wouldn’t even perform a few songs at a “Stop The Violence” concert, because he was owed a couple of thousand dollars.

Even worse, Mitchell Entertainment Group — who fought to make the concert happen and to have Lil’ Wayne appear, now has to deal with refunding tens of thousands of dollars to irate concert goers.

Thanks to Lil’ Wayne that event was more likely to start the violence than stop it.

-Chris Jones

The Atlanta Falcons are entitled to recover nearly $20 million in bonus money paid to disgraced quarterback Michael Vick, an arbitrator ruled Tuesday. The players’ union vowed to appeal.

Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of computer and printer maker Hewlett- Packard Co., has signed on as a contributor with Fox News’ soon-to- launch business news channel, the media company announced Tuesday.

Fiorina had a reputation as one of corporate America’s most divisive figures during nearly six years at Palo Alto-based HP. Her role at the new channel is not clear, but the new business channel is expected to officially launch next week.

“We are proud to have her join FBN as a contributor,” Kevin Magee, Fox News’ executive vice president, said in a statement. “Carly Fiorina is one of the foremost business leaders of our time.”

HP severed its ties with Fiorina in February 2005 amid complaints that her hard fought acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. by HP wasn’t proving beneficial to the company.

Her firing netted Fiorina a severance package of more than $21 million and helped fuel the publication last year of her best-selling memoir, “Tough Choices.”

Fox News, an arm of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. media conglomerate, is looking to shake up the business news industry with the Fox Business Channel, slated to launch Oct. 15 in about 34 million homes as a competitor to CNBC, which is owned by General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal unit.