Atlantans really love Facebook

Atlanta is embracing Facebook faster than any other major metropolitan area, a new study shows.

The number of Facebook users in the Atlanta area rose 142 percent the last six months, from 535,000 to nearly 1.3 million, according to a digital marketing firm called iStrategyLabs.

Los Angeles (97 percent) and Houston (71 percent) saw the next highest increases.

Peter Corbett, a 2003 Emory grad who founded iStrategyLabs, said he has no solid theories to explain the Atlanta surge. He’s analyzed Facebook usage for two years using data Facebook publicly supplies to its advertisers.

A Facebook spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the last half of 2008, Facebook usage in the Atlanta area rose just 6.5 percent.

Overall, nearly 72 million Americans now use the social networking site, and Facebook’s demographics keep getting older.

People ages 35 to 54 comprise the biggest group, followed by those 25 to 34.

source: AJC.com

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Facebook Users Scoop Up Free Starbucks Ice Cream

To introduce consumers to its new ice cream, Starbucks and Unilever are offering free pints to Facebook users.

From July 6 to July 19, participants can visit Apps.facebook.com/starbucksicecream. At the top of every hour, they will have a chance to give a pint of Starbucks ice cream to a friend or family member.

Each hour, 800 pints will be given away, with a total of 280,000 for the duration of the promotion. While the promotion encourages participants to send the treat to friends, less generous users also have the option of simply sending the coupon to themselves.

Users who don’t jump on the opportunity fast enough have to check back later if the supply of 800 has already been given away

The promotion touts the four flavors of Starbucks ice cream, which debuted in the spring. Based on Starbucks beverages, the flavors are: Caramel Macciato (coffee and vanilla ice creams with swirls of caramel), Mocha Frappuccino (coffee and chocolate ice creams), Java Chip Frappuccino (chocolate ice cream with chunks of dark chocolate) and Coffee (coffee and espresso ice creams).

Unilever signed a licensing agreement with Starbucks in September 2008 for the exclusive manufacturing, marketing and distribution of Starbucks ice cream.

source: BrandWeek.com

Even if you don’t like coffee or ice cream you can send this to someone who does and they don’t even have to be a facebook user, the coupon is mailed directly to their home.

Report: VC infusion values Twitter at $250 million

TechCrunch is reporting Saturday night that Twitter may have signed a term sheet with one or more venture capital firms that would value the microblogging company at $250 million.

Although it did not provide specifics, the report cited “a source with knowledge of the deal.”

Last fall, Facebook was said to have made an offer to buy Twitter worth as much as $500 million.

“Rumor is Twitter hit up more than a few venture firms to pitch the $250 million valuation, and got more than one ‘no,'” TechCrunch wrote Saturday. “But someone’s bit, perhaps encouraged by Twitter’s breakneck growth and the interest from Facebook. That means Twitter gets a new cash injection and time to figure out its business model at an even more leisurely pace.”

That certainly would be a boon for Twitter, which until now has not shown signs of a viable business model. Though it is growing rapidly and has millions of users, no one knows how the company could support itself. Some have worried that while it is increasingly useful to the many people who rely on it, it might not be financially viable over time.

If the TechCrunch report is accurate, however, it would be a signal that Twitter has managed to show investors enough of a structure of a business model to loosen up the cash it needs to get over that hump. Given today’s general economic crisis, that would be a notable accomplishment.

source: cnet news

How Facebook nearly bought Twitter

When it comes to Social Networking sites, Facebook is the current undisputed king. When it comes to microblogging and ‘status update’, however, Twitter rules. Facebook knows this, which is why it offered US$500 million’s worth of stock to Twitter, three weeks ago, to buy it.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, Twitter rebuffed the offer. There were concerns that $500 million of Facebook stock wasn’t actually worth $500 million, as well as worries over how Facebook would integrate the service into the site.

Lastly, it seems that Twitter wants to have a go at seeing if it can make any actual revenue itself first, before letting someone else try. After all, despite having considerable outgoings in server, SMS and staff costs, Twitter doesn’t actually make any money at all. Yet.

Twitter is a great app… I already sync it with my Facebook status, and I’d love for more of my friends’ Facebook status updates to show up on my Twitter feed. For that reason, I have no real objection to Facebook owning it.

That said, there’s plenty of people I know who keep their Twitter and Facebook accounts very separate. I’m not sure they’d be too keen on the services merging. It’s likely that Twitter will eventually be bought by someone. Just not yet.

source: TechDigest

Microsoft search results land inside Facebook

It’s hardly unexpected, but Facebook has integrated Microsoft’s Live Search into its site.

As part of a deal announced in July, users can now search the Web using Microsoft’s search engine without leaving Facebook. Of course, as Mashable points out, there are lots of other ways to search the Internet without leaving Facebook [say, using the Google Toolbar].

Although it’s garden variety search today, there are some interesting possibilities–and also some nightmarish scenarios–one can imagine down the road, when one combines search with social networking.

The real question, for now, is how much of a boost Microsoft gets from being inside Facebook. It’s clearly a branding-and-awareness plum, but it’s not clear how much actual search traffic and revenue will be generated.

Also, since all the searches take place inside Facebook, it’s not even clear whether Microsoft will get a direct increase in search share numbers.

source: cnet news

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The Web’s hottest social networking sites

Facebook is the most popular of dozens of social networking sites. Here’s a gauge of buzzworthiness:

Facebook: Coasting. Topping 100 million active users and passing up MySpace this year, Facebook is clearly the current networking king. Its recent redesign has angered millions of users, but they keep logging on.

Twitter: Revving. Twitter capitalizes on the popular Facebook status updates by enticing their friends to send “tweets” about what they’re doing. Constantly. It’s the site, if you want to get that close to your friends, that induces your buddies to tell you whether they’re at the bar or in the bathroom.

MySpace: Slowing. Rupert Murdoch’s $580-million purchase is still popular, but thousands of pages have been inactive for months as users migrate to Facebook. It’s still the best social networking site to hear music and discover new bands, and celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson maintain active blogs.

Friendster: Stalling. The granddaddy of social networking sites [it launched in 2002], Friendster made basic connections but has been dominated in the last couple of years by MySpace and Facebook.

LinkedIn: Revving. The site where professionals go to find their colleagues, LinkedIn looks and feels more grown-up. But it’s more a place for updating your résumé and finding recruiters rather than for playing Sudoku with friends.

source: Detroit Free Press

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MySpace about to lose out to Facebook in U.S.?

The team at Pingdom, a firm that focuses primarily on uptime and performance, has posted a new blog entry estimating that Facebook will overtake MySpace as the top social network in the U.S. within a month or two. That’s largely because, according to the same numbers, Facebook has doubled in size in the past year.

Several months ago, traffic firm ComScore noted that Facebook–a year ago far smaller than the News Corp.-owned MySpace–was starting to pass its rival in worldwide traffic. But in the U.S., which still has the big ad dollars, MySpace remained bigger.

There’s something to note, though: Pingdom used Google Trends to make its assessment. Google Trends traffic data is one of only many sources of statistics out there, and it’s collected primarily from people who have installed the Google toolbar. Numbers from Compete.com, for example, show that MySpace is still ahead.

Even according to Pingdom’s numbers, MySpace doesn’t appear to be shrinking. The performance firm thinks that could be due to a number of factors: that MySpace is continuing to recruit new users to replace those who may have left for Facebook, that people are using both social networks, or that Facebook is recruiting members who haven’t been prior users of either site.

source: cnet News

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