Editor’s Note: Related tickers: Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Facebook Unveils Hashtags for Real-Time Public Conversations (WSJ)
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) -1.09% announced that it is rolling out hashtags on its social network, in an effort to play a greater role in real-time public conversations dominated by rival Twitter Inc. Beginning Wednesday, the company said that words in posts that are marked by “#” will be grouped together. Users can track conversations by searching for these hashtags, or clicking on a hashtag in a post. That action will pull up a list of posts the include the hashtag, with most relevant posts first, such as those by your friends, followed by most recent, publicly-available posts. “To date, there has not been a simple way to see the larger view of what’s happening or what people are talking about,” said Greg Lindley, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s product manager for hashtags, in a blog post. “Hashtags are just the first step to help people more easily discover what others are saying about a specific topic and participate in public conversations.”
Case Backs Clothing Startup That Sells Through Facebook (Bloomberg)
Revolution LLC, run by America Online Inc. co-founder Steve Case, is investing in an e-commerce kids’ clothing startup that does the majority of its sales through Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Lolly Wolly Doodle Inc., based in Lexington, North Carolina, generates 60 percent of revenue through the world’s largest social network — a method that allows personal interaction with buyers, who order products through postings and messages. Revolution’s investment is the majority of a $20 million funding round that includes existing holders Firstmark Capital and High Line Venture Partners. The financing will help Lolly Wolly Doodle hire 100 people in the next few years, taking its total number of workers to about 200, according to a statement today by the clothing company and Revolution.
Facebook, Google head north for greener data centers (TwinCities)
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) are pushing to go green by going to the Arctic to tap the environmental benefits of setting up shop in that part of the world. This week, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) turned on its first data center outside the U.S., on the edge of the Arctic Circle, saying it might be the most environmentally friendly site of its kind. The social network said its data center in Lulea, Sweden, serves live user traffic from around the world. The announcement follows recent news that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has agreed to buy the entire output from a soon-to-be-built wind farm in Sweden for 10 years to power its data center in Finland.
Google, Facebook Seek to Disclose Security Request Data (Bloomberg)
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and other companies are asking the U.S. government for more leeway in disclosing information about national-security data requests, seeking to reassure customers that authorities don’t have unfettered access to users’ personal details. David Drummond, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s chief legal officer, sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller, according to a blog post yesterday. The letter asked for permission to report aggregate numbers of national-security requests.
Facebook’s Zuckerberg Defends Derided IPO by Touting Mobile (BusinessWeek)
A year after Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s bungled public market debut, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is still facing the wrath of ordinary investors holding stakes now worth a fraction of what they paid. At the company’s first shareholder meeting since an initial public offering in May 2012, one man who identified himself as Daniel summed up the frustration of many, saying of the IPO: “I think it’s been a disaster.” Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), operator of the world’s most popular social network, has lost 37 percent since the IPO as investors questioned the company’s ability to boost mobile-advertising revenue.
