How Facebook Has Changed Since Going Public 1 Year Ago

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"Facebook was not originally created to be a company," CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in his SEC Registration letter a little more than three months before Facebook went public on May 18, 2012. "It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected." In the year since the Facebook IPO, some things haven't changed: Zuckerberg still sports his trademark hoodies, employees still rate their company and their founder highly, and Facebook still talks about its grand mission to make the world more open and connected. But the era of Facebook operating or being perceived as anything other than a corporation seems more distant with each passing day Read more... More about Mark Zuckerberg , Facebook Ipo , Business , and Facebook Read more »

Controversial Video Campaign Sparks Conversation and Other Top Comments

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There are two sides to every story, even a viral video. In the top comments above, we've highlighted our readers' reactions to the contentious campaign against Abercrombie and Fitch . After the company's CEO Mike Jeffries publicly stated that he "doesn't want larger people shopping in his store," Greg Karber created a video in which he gives the company's branded clothing to homeless people for free. Karber's intention was to publicly condemn Jeffries' statement, but some of our commenters had an adverse reaction to the video. We've highlighted the debate in the gallery above. Which side of the controversy do you agree with? Let us know in the comments section below Read more... More about Viral Video , Social Media , Top Comments , and Conversations Read more »

Indiana Jones’ Final Test for the Holy Grail

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In the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , the title hero sets out to find the Holy Grail with only a diary and a map without any labels — and he has to find the grail before anyone else does. SEE ALSO: More Comics on Mashable In this comic, Josh Mecouch of Formal Sweatpants shows us that there was an even more difficult final task than the one we saw in the film — and it's one that we non-adventurers often fail. Comic illustration by Josh Mecouch, Formal Sweatpants . Published with permission; all rights reserved. Read more... More about Comic , Comics , Film , Humor , and Watercooler Read more »

How Hike, India’s Fast Growing Mobile Messaging App, Is Banking On SMS & Local Diversity To Beat The Big Boys

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It’s still practically a newborn but Indian mobile messaging app Hike is already channelling almost a billion messages a month between its five million registered users. Those numbers sound insignificant when you stack them up against the big beasts of the messaging space – WhatsApp claims 200 million+ monthly active users , and some 600 billion in and outbound messages – but Hike’s growth is  impressive when you consider it’s only just over four months old. WhatsApp, of course, has been around for almost four years. Mobile messaging is hot property right now, with tech giants like Facebook  and most recently Google  bent on owning the messaging space. The reason for all this interest in cross-platform chit-chat is that mobile messaging looks poised to steal social networking’s crown jewels: aka the cool factor, and thus the user engagement (Hike incorporates social status updates and emoji-based moods into its messaging app, to hang on the social chain). But the idea that there can be one ultimate mobile messaging winner — or one player as dominant as Facebook in the full-fat social networking space — seems unlikely. And that’s what Hike is banking on to disrupt WhatsApp and keep Facebook Messenger and its ilk from crashing its just-getting-started party. There’s no doubt that local market realities intercede much more on mobile than on the traditional social networking playground of the desktop, especially in emerging markets where device, network and carrier variations influence how people communicate based on how they can afford to communicate. Read more »

Grubless? Online Takeout Giants GrubHub And Seamless In Talks To Merge

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Today, thanks to the maturation of the web, digital tech, and smartphones now in seemingly every pocket, startups are finding it easier than ever before to build scalable solutions to finally address the many inefficiencies in our food manufacturing, production and distribution systems. As interest in food tech balloons, one area in particular appears to already be at the tipping point: Online and mobile food delivery. Over the last few days, we’ve hearing about a merger between two of the largest companies in the space. Rumor has it that “arch rivals”  GrubHub and Seamless  are in talks which could see them join forces as part of a merger. While our sources tell us that the talks are serious, the terms of the merger are not yet clear and, of course, any potential deal could fall through. Furthermore, it’s not yet clear what kind of synergies would take place, how management of the new entity would be structured or even what the new business will be called. The two companies would not confirm on the record on any of the above. Read more »

Report: Yahoo Board to Meet Sunday to Mull $1.1 Billion Tumblr Purchase

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Yahoo looks to be very seriously eyeing a Tumblr acquisition, according to a report from AllThingsD The tech blog is reporting that the Yahoo board plans to meet Sunday to mull a $1.1 billion all-cash bid for Tumblr ATD cautions that the deal could fall apart, but was on track as of Friday evening. If the board votes in favor of the deal, it could be announced Monday, a day in which Yahoo has already scheduled a major press conference . Reps from Yahoo and Tumblr could not be reached for comment on the report. The report goes on to say that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been intensely interested in Tumblr for the past six weeks and feels that the microblogging platform's young-skewing audience and mobile savvy are just what Yahoo needs to reinvent itself. Sources tell ATD that Tumblr CEO would continue to operate it as an autonomous, separate entity. Karp would be locked into a four-year deal that would reward him based on the business's performance Read more »

Google Glass Stole the Show at Google I/O 2013

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Google made a lot of announcements in its marathon keynote to kick off Google I/O on Wednesday, but its most buzzed-about product was almost a no-show at the event Google Glass barely got a mention, even though this is the first I/O where the tiny wearable computer is actually in developers' hands. The glaring omission didn't stop Glass from stealing the show for the rest of the conference, though. Day 2 of I/O was packed with sessions on Glass, including one where official Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr apps made their debut . The sessions themselves garnered the kind of lineups usually reserved Lady Gaga tickets. Many developers were walking around wearing Glass, but it was the looks of jealousy from the Glass-less that underscored just how much interest there is in Google's head-mounted gadget. Read more... Read more »

MetroPCS Abandons FCC Net Neutrality Suit

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MetroPCS dropped its lawsuit challenging the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules Friday, leaving Verizon the FCC's sole legal opponent in the case. T-Mobile purchased MetroPCS last month; T-Mobile is not involved with the net neutrality lawsuit. The FCC's rules bar landline-based broadband providers from discriminating between different kinds of Internet traffic. For example: If you're a Time Warner Cable subscriber, TWC can't slow your connection speeds if you're trying to access a website run by NBC Universal, now owned by TWC rival Comcast. Net Neutrality has been one of the most controversial legacies left by outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Supporters of the policy argue it's pro-consumer and pro-competition, while detractors say it's undue government interference with the Internet. Read more.. Read more »

Instabeat Is Google Glass and Nike FuelBand for Swimmers

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Wearable gizmos are the next frontier in the world of technology. And fitness trackers like Fitbit or Nike+ FuelBand already give runners a great way to track their workouts. But what about swimmers? Until now, they've been left out of the gadget tracker fad. But Instabeat, a wearable accessory for swimmer's goggles, might change that. Think of a mix between Google Glass and a Nike+ FuelBand and you get Instabeat Instabeat is a device that attaches directly to a swimmer's goggles and displays, in real time, his or her heart rate, calories, laps and flip turns. Instabeat is adjustable to any pair of goggles and after the swim can be connected via USB to a computer to display the swimmer's results and track them on a dashboard Read more... More about Fitness , Wearable Tech , Tech , Gadgets , and Health Fitness Read more »

Google Play In-App Purchase Revenue Growth Jumps 7X In One Year, Subscription Revenue Growing 2X Each Quarter

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Google held a session today at I/O 2013 about how to make money on Android, and in the initial few minutes it shared some updated stats around Google Play revenues and how those are progressing. Not surprisingly, the big growth is coming with in-app purchases, though Google’s recently launched subscription model is also making headway. Google said that its in-app revenues through Play are up 700 percent since the same time last year, which is reflected in the top apps as listed by highest grossing titles in the Play rankings. Subscriptions, which just launched around 12 months ago, is also making headway, doubling inbound revenue each quarter according to Google. Some apps which use subscription as their exclusive revenue model are now cracking the top grossing list, like Pandora. The momentum is still clearly behind in-app purchase, and as a result Google suggested that there’s good reason to consider that as a revenue model when building apps Read more »