Facebook shares drop below flotation price (shock horror)

 

Shares in Facebook have fallen in early trading on Wall Street to below the price at which they were floated.

Now I am not a stock market expert but I am good at maths.

So let’s look at the numbers.

1. Facebook has never made a profit.

End of calculation 0 profit = 0 worth.

Even if they made 1 billion dollar this year it would take 100 years to break even and at those odds anybody who brought shares will be dead and their children and even grand children.

Or a more amazing is that Greece will be making money before Facebook so I am going to start buying share in Greece, sorry getting caught up in my own hype.

If you brought share please look at what you did and think very carefully so far you have lost 12% it time to sell and break loose before it goes down further.

Now, on Friday, Facebook debuted on the Nasdaq stock exchange at $38 a share.

Today, despite the wider market being in a buoyant mood, Facebook slid 12% immediately at the opening bell. They are currently around the $33-34 range.

Analysts suggested the shares would have fallen on Friday, had it not been for underwriters stepping in to buy up stock.

The offer price valued the site at $104bn (£66bn).

"It's early days yet but it doesn't look good," said BBC business correspondent Mark Gregory in New York.

"There's talk that Facebook's advisers set the price too high. And there are doubts about whether the firm can produce the revenues and profits required to justify its enormous valuation," he said.

 

“Start Quote

For other technology firms hoping to follow Facebook on the road to IPO riches, any sign that the bubble may burst is deeply worrying”

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One US-based analyst told the BBC that Facebook's flotation price had been too high.

"The market is just not valuing what Facebook has to bring to the table," said Patrick Moorhead, analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

Facebook: Timeline compulsory for all users?

The ever-so-popular social-networking site Facebook has had a number of massive changes over the years. Its biggest change to-date, Timeline, will soon be rolling out to all users, forcing those who have been reluctant to make the change, encouraged to do so. Read on to learn more about the announcement.

Facebook announced the news on its own blog saying that “over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline.”

Facebook Timeline was introduced late last year. It’s a new style of layout chronicling your life and social events from the day you were born, should users wish to backdate that far back.

Users also get the chance to use a larger profile photo that Facebook says acts like a photo album cover. Photos and videos will also appear more prominently on profiles, highlighting social events.
Visually, Timeline is the most radical Facebook overhaul yet. For current users, Facebook Timeline will be rolling out in the next couple of weeks, so those yet to try it out have seven days to look at their current profile to decide what they want to share in the new Timeline, and what they wish to hide.

Facebook Timeline has also rolled out onto mobile devices including Apple iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Are you still using the old format? If so, drop us a comment and let us know your thoughts on making the move to Timeline.

Facebook lets you listen to music with your mates

Socialbots used by researchers to 'steal' Facebook data

 

Socialbots used by researchers to 'steal' Facebook data

Those with more Facebook friends were more likely to accept the fake friend

Researchers have demonstrated a new technique capable of stealing personal information from Facebook. Using 'socialbots', computer programs that mimic real Facebook profiles, the researchers were able to harvest vast quantities of personal data. Socialbots are increasingly being used by internet criminals and are being offered for sale on the internet for as little as $29 (£18).

Facebook said that the research was overstated and unethical.

A socialbot is a social networking adaptation of the wide-scale botnets used by criminals to send out spam. Making friends In a traditional botnet, a network of computers are infected by a virus to allow a hi-tech criminal to use them remotely. Often botnet controllers steal data from victims' PCs or use the machines to send out spam or carry out other attacks. What makes a socialbot different is that it is able to pass itself off as a real Facebook user. The software takes over control of a social networking profile and from there performs basic activities such as posting messages and sending requests.

The four researchers from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, created 102 socialbots for use in their experiment and one 'botmaster' - software that sent commands to the other bots. The researchers employed their socialbots over a period of eight weeks. In total the bots attempted to make friends with 8,570 Facebook users. 3,055 accepted the friendships.

The researchers found that the more friendships people had on Facebook, the more likely they were to accept the 'fake' friend. To prevent triggering Facebook's fraud detection software, the fake accounts only sent 25 requests per day. Phishing From the profiles of those they befriended and the extended networks of those friends, the researchers claimed to have 'stolen' 46,500 email addresses and 14,500 home addresses. 

In their paper, due to be presented at next month's Annual Computer Security Applications Conference in Florida, the researchers wrote: "As socialbots infiltrate a targeted online social network, they can further harvest private users' data such as email addresses, phone numbers, and other personal data that have monetary value."

"To an adversary, such data is valuable and can be used for online profiling and large-scale email spam and phishing campaigns."

Facebook said that the experiment was unrealistic because the IP addresses used came from a trusted university source, whereas the IP addresses used by real-life criminals would raise alarm bells. It also said that it had disabled more of the fake accounts than the researchers claimed. "We have numerous systems designed to detect fake accounts and prevent scraping of information. We are constantly updating these systems to improve their effectiveness and address new kinds of attacks," said a spokesperson.

"We use credible research as part of that process. We have serious concerns about the methodology of the research by the University of British Colombia and we will be putting these concerns to them.  "In addition, as always, we encourage people to only connect with people they actually know and report any suspicious behaviour they observe on the site."

Ethical?

The researchers estimated that a real-life malicious attack could have a success rate of 80%. "Online social network's security defences, such as the Facebook Immune System, are not effective enough in detecting or stopping a large-scale infiltration as it occurs," they concluded. "We believe that large-scale infiltration in online social networks is only one of many future cyber threats, and defending against such threats is the first step towards maintaining a safer social web for millions of active web users."

Consultant from security firm Sophos Graham Cluley said the research was "interesting" "Clearly there's a lesson for Facebook users to learn there about the need to carefully vet who you allow to become your Facebook friend, and what information you choose to share online," he said in his blog.

But he questioned how ethical such research was. "Facebook's security team is unlikely to look kindly on people who conduct experiments such as that done by the university researchers, and users are reminded that under Facebook's terms of service you are not allowed to create fake profiles, should use your real name, and should only collect information from other users with their consent," he said.

Source BBC.

Facebook Grocery Shopping

What makes AaramShop particularly interesting, in fact, is its Facebook application, which lets consumers shop through its service on Facebook as well.

Now in beta, AaramShop offers neighborhood retailers a free online storefront on its multivendor site. Consumers use the service by shopping online for groceries and then selecting the participating retailer they prefer in their area; currently, New Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida are the three areas covered by the service. Shopping can be done on the AaramShop site directly or through its Facebook application. Either way, once the consumer’s shopping is complete, the order is instantly transmitted to the selected retailer, who is responsible for making prompt delivery. Consumers only pay the retailer once delivery is made. Using AaramShop is free for both consumers and retailers.

Five reasons Google+ is better than Facebook

Ever since MySpace enjoyed an incredible amount of popularity, we’ve seen new social networking sites pop up every year or two. Facebook appears to have changed the game, however, sticking around for years and continuing to grow in users. In a bid to get in on the action, search giant Google has launched its own site – Google+, read on to find out what it does better than Facebook.

Facebook has proved unusual among social networking sites, attracting kids, teenagers, adults and even businesses, and continuing to hold their attentions. Unlike its rivals, it also appears that Facebook is here to stay. With that in mind, is there enough space in the market for yet another social networking site?

Google appears to think so, which is why we now have Google+. Joining means you’ll have to go through the whole rigmarole again – tracking down friends and acquaintances, setting up a profile and getting to grips with the new site, but it does have some features that Facebook can’t offer.

Circles One of the features we like the most about Google+ is Circles, which lets you split your contacts into different categories. It means you can add people from work, people you used to go to school with, and all your current friends or family, and keep them all separate from each other. That means there’s no more worrying about having to accept requests from your boss, and then trying to hide drunken photographs or status updates.

Sparks Sparks is similar in concept to Facebook’s ‘Like’ function, with the intention to strike up conversation between users. It lets you find subjects you’re interested in, and helps to bring you closer to other people. It also brings personal advertising with it, with adverts targetted directly at individual users.

Hangouts Hangouts offers one of Google+’s best features, letting users chat to each other via video messaging. With the ability to conduct video conferencing between more than two users, it’s similar in concept to Skype, but without having to pay a subscription. As such, it could be perfect for businesses and staying in touch with colleagues.

Huddle Huddle is an instant messaging client for Google+, offering a similar mobile product to RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger. You’ll be able to chat on your Android handset wherever you go, without having to wait for minutes for text messages to come back to you.

Android We already love the Facebook integration available for Android but Google+ has one big advantage over its rival. The fact that Google is also the company behind Android means that it can build even better integration into its smartphones, also tying in all your features from your Gmail account, contacts and calender.

Facebook adds Skype video chat feature

Facebook has announced a partnership with Skype to add video chat to the social networking site.

facebook and skype

The move is likely to be seen as a shot across the bow of Google, which recently launched a Facebook rival, Google+, also featuring video calling.

This is not the first time Facebook and Skype have teamed up - they already share some instant messaging tools.

Skype is in the process of being bought by Microsoft, which is a major shareholder in Facebook.

The new video-call service was launched by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who also revealed that the site now had more than 750 million users.  However, he said that the total number of active users was no longer a useful measure of the site's success. Instead, the amount of sharing - of photographs, videos and web links - was a better indication of how people engaged with the site, explained Mr Zuckerberg.
One to one    At launch, Facebook's video chat service will only be able to connect two users face-to-face, whereas Google's system allows group video calls, known as Hangouts.