A Silicon Valley fairy tale: Facebook, Twitter and the Instagram IPO

Instagram founder Kevin Systrom photographed at Ocean Beach in San Francisco.

The sale of Instagram to Facebook for a cool billion dollars last spring was the ultimate Silicon Valley fairy tale: 18 months from launch to offer. But for co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom it was more of a roller-coaster ride, writes Kara Swisher in Vanity Fair. Read more

Meet the brains behind Facebook platform

Facebook's data infrastructure team includes Avery Ching, Ravi Murthy, Jay Parikh, Sameet Agarwai, Santosh Janardhan, Josh Metzler, Subbu Submaranian. Image: Wired

Facebook is faced with a uniquely difficult task - how to serve a personalized homepage to one billion different people, juggling one billion different sets of messages, photos, videos and many other data feeds - and this requires a great deal of tech talent, reports Wired. Read more

Facebook unveils new search feature

Facebook yesterday introduced an enhanced search tool dubbed Graph Search.

Facebook launches iPhone photo app

Facebook today unveiled a photo app for iPhones. The new Facebook Camera app was reviewed on CNET TV and CNN. Read more

Palestine's exiles find family bonds thru Facebook

In this April 11 photo, Palestinian Ali Khatib, left, pours coffee in his home in the village of Shaab in northern Israel. (AP photo/Ben Hubbard)

Social media have produced a boon in communications between Palestinians in Israel and the Arab world, once connected only through rare letters carried by intermediaries or the International Red Cross, reports Ben Hubbard of the Associated Press. Read more

Angry Birds adds Facebook, blog embed feature

Angry Birds today added a Share & Play feature which allows the popular game to be embedded on a Facebook timeline, blog or website.

Facebook for Business woos small merchants

Facebook has introduced a new online guide showing small businesses how to effectively use the resources available on the social network. The Facebook for Business Web page encourages merchants to "grow your business with Facebook's powerful marketing tools."

Facebook launches free mobile phone app

Facebook today introduced the "Facebook for Every Phone" app that will allow many mobile phone users to access the social network for free.

The app is available on more than 2,500 phones. Facebook is enticing users by paying for unlimited data for the first 90 days. The app can be downloaded from a mobile browser by visiting http://m.facebook.com or http://d.facebook.com/install.

Warner Bros. to offer movies on Facebook

Warner Bros. will begin testing a program to sell or rent movies on Facebook. Starting tomorrow, Facebook users will be able to rent "The Dark Knight" through the movie's official fan page on the social networking site.

iPhone 5, iPad 2 to focus on social networking apps

Social networking is apparently Apple's new motif. The company has filed six social networking patents  in the past year. The development of social networking apps are a key part of plans  for the next generation iPhone 5 and iPad 2.

Facebook worth $60 billion on secondary market

The latest auction of private shares of Facebook values the social networking company near $60 billion, according to SharesPost. San Francsico-based SharesPost and its New York rival SecondMarket operate a secondary market for hot private companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Zynga. Facebook's secondary market value has soared 20 percent in the last couple weeks.

Related articles

• Facebook, Groupon lead 54% rise in value of private companies (Bloomberg)
• Facebook Shares Get Chopped Up Into Derivatives as Value Soars (Businessweek.com)

Mark Zuckerberg speaks at Web 2.0 Summit

Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco to talk about the latest developments at Facebook.

Facebook unveils messaging program

Facebook introduced a new messaging system today that may compete with email service offered by Google and others.

Related article

• Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg: "This Is Not an Email Killer" (NYTimes.com)
• (video) A more detailed look into Facebooks new messaging service (WSJ.com)

Google Gmail creator leaves Facebook for top Silicon Valley startup incubator

Paul Buchheit

Paul Buchheit, the creator of Google's Gmail, has left Facebook to join  Y Combinator, Silicon Valley's top startup incubator. On his last day at Facebook, Buchheit talked about working at the popular social network, his time at Google and his interest in working with startups in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. Read more

Related articles

• Gmail Creator Paul Buchheit Leaves Facebook for Y Combinator (nytimes.com)

Next media titans: Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon

Woman reads iPad on bus

Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon are becoming more than just dominant technology companies. They are well on their way to becoming the news, entertainment and communications networks of the 21st century, reports Wired. Read more

Congress alarmed about Facebook privacy

The House Bipartisan Privacy Caucus recently sent Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg a letter expressing concern about growing reports of privacy breaches and the leaking of Facebook user IDs.

"Given the number of current users, the rate at which that number grows worldwide, and the age range of Facebook users, combined with the amount and the nature of information these users place in Facebook's trust, this series of breaches of consumer privacy is a cause for concern," wrote the committee co-chairmen, Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass) and Joe Barton (R-Texas).

CLICK GRAPHIC TO ENLARGE

It's rare a coincidence when you see web ads for products that match your interests. The Wall Street Journal's Christina Tsuei explains how advertisers use cookies to track your online habits:

Related articles

• Congress Raises Concerns About Facebook (online.wsj.com)

Working with Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg's Most Valuable Friend

Sheryl Sandburg 

Sheryl Sandburg is credited with helping to guide the growth of Facebook - and her boss, reports the NYTimes.com  Read more

Alvarez Says Skype-Facebook Accord Would Be 'Brilliant': Video

Vanessa Alvarez, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan, talks about the prospects for a possible accord between Facebook and Skype. Watch video

Facebook movie strikes a chord with Silicon Valley tech crowd

As they watched the Redwood City screening of "The Social Network," the movie about the founding of Facebook, unfold across the screen, they saw a big slice of their own world here in Silicon Valley unfold along with it, reports Patrick May in the San Jose Mercury News. Read more