Facebook has assembled a lab and team of experts tasked with connecting the social network's next five billion users to the website (and the rest internet).

The Connectivity Lab was revealed on Thursday: it employs "the same engineering talent behind Facebook's infrastructure team and the Open Compute Project," the company said, and also has new hires from UK high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) aircraft company Ascenta.

"Connecting the whole world will require inventing new technology," explained the social network's chief Mark Zuckerberg in a post. "That's what our Connectivity Lab focuses on, and there's a lot more exciting work to do here."

The Connectivity Lab plans to use solar-powered drones and satellites fitted with communications gear to relay internet access to areas of medium and low population density, along with new laser-based technologies to create a high-bandwidth transmission network.To achieve this, Facebook has also hired an undisclosed number of people from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA's Ames Research Center, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory.

One of the main areas of development for the technology is laser-based transmission technologies to help form connectivity links between Facebook's planned fleet of solar-powered drones flying at 20km above sea level.

"We're looking for some fantastic people in aerodynamics, physics, communications systems, to really help us solve this problem together," Yael Maguire, a member of the Connectivity Lab, explained in a video giving more info on the scheme.


Although Facebook pretty much makes all of its money from advertising and has a direct business incentive to bring more people online and into its billion-strong social network, Zuckerberg has repeatedly demonstrated an idealistic streak borne out of a conviction that the more connected people are with one another, the better life can be.

Facebook's older internet sibling, Google, has a similar view (and similar scheme via its Loon broadband balloons), and both companies have had to walk a tightrope between their left-leaning connect everyone! idealism on one side and the demands of the commercial market on the other.

Given the ambitious goals of Zuckerberg and his connectivity-boosting Internet.org charity and the far-reaching effects of a global connectivity system controlled by a private company, we can only hope he doesn't lose his balance.

The social networking company's $2 billion acquisition of Oculus VR, a maker of virtual reality goggles, took Wall Street and technology observers by surprise, not least because of the hefty price for a company with no real revenue and untested technology.

But Facebook's desire to bet on "the platforms of tomorrow," as Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg described the deal on Tuesday, also marks a broadening of ambition for a company that has until now focused mainly on bolstering its existing service or defending its turf from immediate threats.

It's a strategy more often associated with Facebook's arch-rival Google Inc, which has established a track record of making early bets on the next big thing. Google acquired the Android software that now powers three out of four smartphones in 2005 when PCs were dominant, and Google currently has projects under way involving self-driving cars and robots.

"It's really the first acquisition of theirs which is really thinking about the future, versus the next wave of products or defensive," venture capitalist Jeff Clavier said of Facebook's deal for Oculus.

"I don't know whether Oculus is as exciting as driverless cars or things like that in terms of impact. But at least it's a future technology that will definitively be mass market at some point," said Clavier, the founder and managing partner of Palo Alto-Calif-based SoftTech VC.

Investors seemed unsure about Zuckerberg's crystal ball. Shares of Facebook were down more than 6 percent at $60.70 in late trading on Wednesday.

The deal, which comes less than two months after Facebook announced plans to acquire Whatsapp for $19 billion in cash and stock, raised fears about the beginnings of an unchecked spending spree.

"I'd be surprised if a lot of people want to spend serious time with goggles that shut the world out entirely," said industry analyst Roger Kay, who wrote a post on the Forbes website on Wednesday that began "Okay, I'll come right out and say it: Mark Zuckerberg is nuts."

CRYSTAL BALL-GAZING

Detractors warn that Zuckerberg is spending shareholders' cash on a 2-year-old company that's first prototype was infamous for inducing motion sickness, though Oculus says it has largely ironed out the kinks. Though it has distributed some 75,000 development kits to interested developers, it has yet to ship an actual, consumer-ready product.

Facebook will spend $400 million in cash on the deal, with the rest in stock. With Facebook's stock up 25 % over the past six months, some said it was not surprising that the company was choosing to use its stock to place some bets on the future.

As a percentage of Facebook's nearly $160 billion market value, the Oculus acquisition is not a "bet the company" deal, said Macquarie Research analyst Ben Schachter.

The most surprising thing about the Oculus acquisition was that the buyer was Facebook, and not a hardware company like Apple Inc, said Schachter.

"It's Facebook emphasizing a much broader ambition than people perhaps had realized," he said. Despite some of the market's skepticism, Schachter said he believed Oculus could be a good fit for Facebook's communications services.

"People always underestimate the value of these things when they show they are going to be the winning platform," said Joe Lonsdale, a founding partner of venture capital firm Formation 8, which invested in Oculus.

Until now, Facebook's biggest deals have focused on fortifying or defending its social networking service. Photo-sharing service Instagram and mobile messaging app WhatsApp both competed with key aspects of Facebook, threatening to siphon users away from Facebook's advertising-supported website.

It recently stepped up its investments in artificial intelligence. And Facebook was reported earlier this month to be looking at buying drone company Titan Aerospace for $60 million, as part of an effort to deliver online access to people in under-developed parts of the world.

Google meanwhile, has an entire "Google X" division focused on "moonshot" projects ranging from wearable computers to airborne wind turbines.

Working on far-reaching technology projects is a good way to motivate engineers and to retain employees, said SoftTech VC's Clavier.

And in the fast-moving technology industry, focusing only on today's business can be dangerous.

"As a Larry Page or a Mark Zuckerberg, you have to be paranoid and think about who and what is going to displace you and make you obsolete," Clavier said, referring to Google's chief executive officer.

"You have to build that next thing or you have to buy that next thing before it happens. Because by the time it happens, it's too late."

 Google is not unduly worried about Facebook's acquisition of Whatsapp as it does not compete with them in the small and medium business segment, a top company official said. Google's vice-president and global head of SMBs, Allan Thygesen said the search engine giant was working on innovating solutions in messaging, among others, to help the businesses effectively engage with customers.

"I think that WhatsApp is a terrific example of new messaging services. And they have done a fantastic job creating utility that was great for the businesses and consumers," he said. 

However, "in terms of acquiring new customers, it is not really as obvious how Whatsapp is useful. So, I am not worried about WhatsApp as a competitor to destabilising our presence or competitor for Adwords." 

Social media company Facebook agreed to buy WhatsApp, a mobile sharing platform provider, for $19 billion (nearly Rs 1.2 lakh crore) in cash and stock, earlier this month. 

Google's Thygesen, who was in Hyderabad on Wednesday, said the internet search giant is spending a lot of resources to bring about innovation in messaging, including Google Hangout where businesses could do video conferencing with multiple entities from their phone, desktop or laptop. 

"We are making it available to companies at low cost as a competitive solution," Thygesen said. Google India, which currently has a customer base of 3 lakh SMBs, is targeting at least half a million over the next year or so. 

Against 47 million SMBs in the country, the search engine giant sees the potential of getting online advertising from at least eight million. Only 7% of the Indian ad market is currently digital and the balance is distributed among print and electronic segments, against 30% online in developed economies such as the US and Britain. 
Google India head of SMBs, K Suryanarayana said the Indian e-tailing market is projected to touch $16 billion (Rs 99,000 crore) by 2017 from $2.5 billion (Rs 15,500 crore) now, signifying a sizeable opportunity for his company.

For the first time, Facebook is letting users of its online social network identify themselves as a gender other than male and female. The basic user profile for members in the United States now includes a customizable category among the gender types that users must select, the world’s No 1 Internet social network announced on Wednesday, the day the feature became available for US members using the site’s English-language version.

Those who select that option can select up to 10 gender identifications, including “transgender,” “intersex” and “fluid.” The company said it worked with a leading group of gay and transgender advocacy organizations to come up with the selection of identity options. In all, the website is offering about 50 different terms people can use to identify their gender as well as three preferred pronoun choices: him, her or them
Until now, Facebook’s 1.23 billion members could only select male or female for their genders, which Facebook requires users to state in their profiles. Users of rival Google Inc’s Google+ social network already had an “other” option for gender.
Facebook said users also can control the audience who can view a custom choice, noting the challenges that some people may face in publicly sharing their gender identity. Users can also choose the personal pronoun to which they are referred publicly. A message on Facebook might now invite a user’s friend to write a birthday message on “their” wall, instead of “his” or “her” wall.
“We want you to feel comfortable being your true, authentic self,” Facebook said.

With inputs from Reuters

This week, to celebrate turning 10, Facebook rolled out a sentimental campaign that automatically created videos for each user, based on photos and posts from the account, called Look back. My Facebook feed has been full of these videos all week.

The only problem with Look Back is that the photos aren't always that flattering or representative of what some users feel best represents their personal Facebook experience. Or, you know, maybe an ex or three are shown in the video.

When it first launched, Facebook didn't allow users to edit the videos, but as of today that's no longer the case.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET)

To edit your Look Back video, visit Facebook.com/lookback. This is the same link you visited to view your video. In the top-right you'll now find an Edit button. Clicking on it launches the editor, allowing you to pick the required number of photos for each of the four different categories.

Editing is a bit tricky, as you'll need to remove a photo before you can add a different one to the video. Make sure to go through and remove the photos you'd rather forget about before adding your favorite moments.

As a part of its tenth anniversary celebrations, Facebook launched a look back movie for all its users. It was touching the first few times people shared their videos and their post was flooded with coments like 'aaaawwww'. In no time, personalised individual videos by users were flooding the Facebook timeline and it got more and more annoying after that. Here's a spoof of the Facebook movie showing how the video should really be:

There is an old saying in Hindi the English translation of which is that one should avoid being in front of your boss and behind the horse as you might get kicked in both the situations.

A study draws the same conclusion about the boss but in a different way which says that majority, a whopping 81 percent, believe that they would rather not have their boss in their friend’s list on Facebook.
Women are more hesitant to befriend their boss than men, according to the study appeared in ’Huffington Post’. The study was done by poll site SodaHead and feedback site YouTell. These sites surveyed 722 people.
The reason to avoid the boss on the Facebook is that most people don’t want their private information which can cause embarrassment to them to be revealed.
But when it comes to befriending co-workers, another study says that 55 per cent have not problem, but 45 per cent replied in negative. Most people don’t want their professional and private life to be mixed.
There have been instances in the past when people were sacked because of offensive posts or comments. According to a British newspaper the Guardian, 13 employees were sacked by Virgin over chav’ remarks on Facebook.
So, think twice to upload your photos showing you in holiday mood when you are actually on leave.

From: CNN          Published On: March 26, 2013, 23:49 GMT Facebook announced on Monday it is rolling out a new feature so users can reply directly to comments left on their page. Finally. Followings months of testing, the social network aims to make navigating through conversation threads easier with the new Replies feature. This means that, instead of having to leave a response to a friend's comment way after new ones have been added, you will be able to address each individual comment.  Responses will be posted under the original comment too. The site is also prioritizing comments based on engagement — the most active and popular ones will surface to the top of your posts. This will be especially helpful for pages with thousands of followers. "You and your readers will have the ability to reply directly to comments left on your Page content and start conversation threads, which will make it easier for you to interact directly with individual readers and keep relevant conversations connected," said Vadim Lavrusik, Facebook's journalism program manager, in an official blog post. "Also, the most active and engaging conversations among your readers will be surfaced at the top of your posts ensuring that people who visit your Page will see the best conversations." For now, threaded replies only apply to Facebook pages, not profiles. Users will be able to opt into the Replies through the Page admin panel. Facebook will be bringing the feature to all pages with more than 10,000 followers by July 10, 2013, but pages can turn the option off along the way. "At launch, this feature will only be available on desktop and we plan to make it available in the Graph API and mobile in the future," Lavrusik added.