The next big IPO : Twitter

Twitter well-placed to exploit the future

The news of the initial public offering of Twitter Inc. is unsurprisingly doing well on the micro-blogger's platform. It is the most hotly anticipated IPO since that of its predecessor as the hot social networking platform, Facebook, in May 2012. As it stands, the announcement appears to be a clever trial balloon. It enables the pioneering micro-blogging company to test the waters for valuations, without any obligation to actually undertake an IPO in a given timeframe. What Twitter did was to use the "jumpstart our business startups" or JOBS option to file an S-1 declaration to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The S-1 merely signifies an intention to make an IPO sometime. The financials declared may be kept confidential until 21 days before the first IPO road show. In fact, Twitter was under no obligation to even declare it had filed an S-1. All that's known for sure is that Goldman Sachs is the lead underwriter, and that annual revenues are under $1 billion, since that is the cut-off for S-1 eligibility. Market estimates are that revenues are about $500-600 million. Previous venture capital offerings suggest Twitter is valued at around $11-14 billion; but it reportedly refused a 100 per cent buyout offer for $14 billion earlier this year. Silicon Valley believes that Twitter's revenues more than doubled in the last year and revenues could treble again by 2015. Its CEO, Dick Costolo, claims that Twitter makes more from mobile micro-applications, than from web advertising. This is interesting since mobile is the growth platform of the future, and Twitter appears well-placed to exploit it.

Comparisons with Facebook are inevitable. Twitter has just 200 million accounts compared to Facebook's billion-plus. And Facebook's market value at $110 billion is also many multiples more than that of Twitter. However, Twitter users match Facebook users in terms of sheer volume. People tend to tweet far more often than they update Facebook. The social media search engine, Topsy, has indexed over 425 billion tweets since 2010. The service has evolved from the simple text messages it offered when launched back in 2007. Twitter delivers multimedia content, embedded links and micro-applications. It is the latter that are reportedly generating the major mobile revenue. The platform-agnostic nature of 140-character tweets is of major importance. It means Twitter is similar in looks and functionality on mobile and the big screen, and no more difficult to use than a short messaging service or SMS. Facebook, in contrast, has struggled to generate revenues on mobile, where it offers an attenuated experience compared to the big screen. As more people go mobile, it is difficult not to imagine that the future belongs to Twitter.

The immediacy of Twitter contact and the ability to reach total strangers are revolutionary. The hashtag (#) delineating content has proved so popular that other social media companies are trying to emulate it. Twitter also triggered new paradigms in terms of political, bureaucratic and corporate brand-building and feedback since it removed the layers insulating billionaire CEOs, political leaders and bureaucrats from the common man. It has also forced media to accelerate the delivery of breaking news. Everything from the raid that killed Osama bin Laden to the Boston bombings to Tahrir Square, sundry natural disasters and communal riots hits Twitter within minutes. Adoption is growing - fastest, it appears, in the 55-64 age group - the age-cohort with the most money. Monetising any web-based service has always been a headache. Twitter seems to have put together a working business model with its combination of advertising, direct marketing reach and its micro-applications. The IPO strategy, timing, pricing and structuring will presumably depend on the feedback it gets from the S-1 announcement. Well-handled, the IPO could be more successful than Facebook's, which has so far, struggled to justify its IPO valuations.

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A Security Expert Says Get A 2nd Offline Computer!

Published on 10 Aug 2013 | Most home computers have malware or spyware in them.

Twitter users stage protest in the UK

Published on 4 Aug 2013 : Users of the Social Networking site, Twitter, are staging their own protest in the UK against the online menace of trolling, when abusive and threatening messages are sent to other users. The call to boycott the social networking site for 24 hours follows a series of death threats and abusive messages sent to prominent women on Twitter. Twitter has apologised and attempted to tackle the problem by updating its rules and complaints proceedure, but the attacks have continued.

In the Conservative but permissive society - Cameron: 'One Click' Protection Against Porn

Internet Porn: David Cameron Plans Crackdown

Wanna try this, u may luv it? Meet Gmail's New Inbox

Published on 29 May 2013 : New customizable tabs put you back in control so that you can see what's new at a glance and decide which emails you want to read and when.

http://www.gmail.com/inbox

Copper wired internet connections of 1GB/s on the horizon

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is currently developing a new norm enabling 1GB/s internet connectivity through copper telephone wires over distances of up to 250m. 

Dubbed G.fast, the technology would bring fiber-optic level performance to pre-existing network infrastructures, reducing upgrade costs. The norm could go into effect as early as 2014.

For the time being, the ITU has announced that it will begin the examination and approval process for G.fast in early 2014. 

In theory, the new norm would provide a connection speed of 1GB/s over a distance of up to 250m through existing copper telephone wire networks.Customers would be able to install the upgrade to this norm on their own, without the need for exterior technical assistance. For internet service providers, this would also mean a quicker rollout.

If approved, G.fast will give access to ultra high-speed internet connectivity and its numerous applications: HD video streaming, large file transfers over the cloud, and high-def voice and video communication.

According to the ITU, several leading operators, integrated circuit manufacturers and systems providers are collaborating on the development of the G.fast norm. 

source -Relaxnews

Mozilla, Google Bring WebRTC Interoperability To Firefox And Chrome

By Zach Walton

WebRTC is the future of Web communication if the W3C has anything to say about it. It's an HTML5 technology that turns your browser into a video/audio communication tool. The only problem standing in its way was that it would only work if both users were on the same browser, but the folks at Mozilla and Google have found a way around it. 

Google and Mozilla jointly announced the RTCPeerConnection today that brings interoperability to WebRTC clients on both Firefox and Chrome. This will allow users of either browser to engage in video/audio chats by just using the power of the Web instead of relying on third-party plugins. 

RTCPeerConnection is currently available on the Chrome 25 beta and the latest build of Firefox Nightly. Once you download one of those, set the media.peerconnection.enabled to true in about:config and you'll be set. 

For the developers out there, Mozilla has a lengthy tutorial on how to bring RTCPeerConnection to your apps at its blog post. Check it out to get all the details.

source : web pro news

Bangladeshi Hackers Attacked Malaysian Website

KUALA LUMPUR- Several websites with the ‘.com.my’ and ‘.MY’ domains experienced technical issues when it was hacked this morning  by a group known as TiGER-M@TE.

Several major websites that were affected include Google, Dell, Microsoft, MSN Malaysia, Bing, and Kaspersky.

The frontpage of the website was changed with the following text, “Hello Malaysia, you think you are more advanced than us? Respect our workers, we will respect you! Running it since 2007.”

Last month, at least 41 government agencies’ website faced technical difficulties after it was hacked by an international group of hackes known as ‘Anonymous.’

In May, PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail’s blog was allegedly hacked to give an impression that a ‘sex video’ purportedly involving her daughter, Nurul Izzah Anwar, was genuine.

In March, Google experienced a technical glitch after a search for “Sabah” showed a result in which the state was described as “illegitimate”. The incident happened during the Malaysia-Filipino standoff over Sabah’s sovereignty.

Meanwhile Google denied its website was hacked. - MD | source

Meet Gmail's New Inbox

Published on May 29, 2013 : New customizable tabs put you back in control so that you can see what's new at a glance and decide which emails you want to read and when.

Yahoo acquire Tumblr!

I’m delighted to announce that we’ve reached an agreement to acquire Tumblr! 

We promise not to screw it up.  Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going.  We will operate Tumblr independently.  David Karp will remain CEO.  The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve.  Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster.

Tumblr has built an amazing place to follow the world’s creators. From art to architecture, fashion to food, Tumblr hosts 105 million different blogs.  With more than 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 signups every day, Tumblr is one of thefastest-growing media networks in the world.  Tumblr sees 900 posts per second (!) and 24 billion minutes spent onsite each month.  On mobile, more than half of Tumblr’s users are using the mobile app, and those users do an average of 7 sessions per day.  Tumblr’s tremendous popularity and engagement among creators, curators and audiences of all ages brings a significant new community of users to the Yahoo! network.  The combination of Tumblr+Yahoo! could grow Yahoo!’s audience by 50% to more than a billion monthly visitors, and could grow traffic by approximately 20%.

In terms of working together, Tumblr can deploy Yahoo!’s personalization technology and search infrastructure to help its users discover creators, bloggers, and content they’ll love.  In turn, Tumblr brings 50 billion blog posts (and 75 million more arriving each day) to Yahoo!’s media network and search experiences.  The two companies will also work together to create advertising opportunities that are seamless and enhance user experience.

As I’ve said before, companies are all about people.  Getting to know the Tumblr team has been really amazing.  I’ve long held the view that in all things art and design, you can feel the spirit and demeanor of those who create them.  That’s why it was no surprise to me that David Karp is one of the nicest, most empathetic people I’ve ever met.  He’s also one of the most perceptive, capable entrepreneurs I’ve worked with.  His respect for Tumblr’s community of creators is awesome, and I’m absolutely delighted to have him and his entire team join Yahoo!.   

Both Tumblr and Yahoo! share a vision to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas by focusing on users, design — and building experiences that delight and inspire the world every day.

— Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!

Gmail: 9 years and counting

Posted by Zohair Hyder, Software Engineer

Twitter sued for $50m after refusing to reveal anti-Semitic tweeter identities.

The Union of Jewish French Students (UEJF) has sued Twitter and is pursuing further court action after the social networking site declined to expose names of anti-Semitic tweet authors, despite a French court ruling commanding their identification.

The case began in October 2012, when #UnBonJuif (a good Jew) and # UnJuifMort (a dead Jew) became popular tags for posts on Twitter. Over 350,000 tweets were posted.

In January, the French Court decision decreed that Twitter was bound to hand over the names of the authors of the tweets. The UEJF demanded that it release the names so that police action could be taken against the authors for ‘hate speech’.

Twitter ignored the ruling, saying it was “currently reviewing the court’s decision” at the time of issue. It was given 15 days to either give up the names, or file an appeal. The ruling was exactly two months ago on Sunday.

It was said that Twitter would have to pay 1,000 euro (approximately US$1300) a day until it gave up the names. Given the time elapsed, it has left itself open to fines of around 44,000 euro (just over $57,000).

Action on this decision was still pending when UEJF filed the new $50 million lawsuit with a Paris correctional tribunal earlier this week. The lawsuit claims damages because of Twitter’s refusal to provide names.

North Korea - South & US responsible for Cyber attack?

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea on Friday blamed South Korea and the United States for cyberattacks that temporarily shut down websites this week at a time of elevated tensions over the North's nuclear ambitions. Experts, however, indicated it could take months to determine what happened and one analyst suggested hackers in China were a more likely culprit.

Internet access in Pyongyang was intermittent on Wednesday and Thursday, and Loxley Pacific Co., the broadband Internet provider for North Korea, said it was investigating an online attack that took down Pyongyang servers. A spokesman for the Bangkok-based company said Friday that it was not clear where the attack originated.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency blamed the shutdown on the United States and South Korea, accusing the allies of expanding an aggressive stance against Pyongyang into cyberspace with "intensive and persistent virus attacks."

South Korea denied the allegation and the U.S. military declined to comment.

Read more:  >>

Google now redirects Picasa Web Albums to Google+ Photos.

Google is once again trying hard to convince users of Picasa Web Albums to jump over to Google+ Photos.

The URL http://picasaweb.google.com no longer brings you to Picasa Web Albums but instead redirects you to Google+ Photos. As described by the Google Operating System Blog, which is unaffiliated with Google, you have to enter the URL https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/myphotos?noredirect=1 to sneak back into Picasa Web Albums.

You only need to enter that URL once, though. After you use it the first time, Google sets a cookie that turns off the redirection. So you can then go back to using http://picasaweb.google.com to access your Picasa photo album page.

Google has been touting Google+ as the "new home" for your photo albums. The search giant has already replaced Picasa Web with Google+ Photos in the navigation bar and has been redirecting individual photo albums to the Google+ interface, according to the Google Operating System Blog.

MORE HERE >>

YouTube Studios Aim To Increase Viewership

Published on 11 Mar 2013 : YouTube no longer shows mostly home videos of cute babies and pets. Recently, it opened high tech production studios in London, New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo. The aim is to improve the quality of what's on YouTube at a time when the Internet is becoming the main source of entertainment for the younger generation in many parts of the world.

4G technoloy & smart glasses:

FRANCE 24 Tech 24 - Mar 9, 2013 : Digital technology is now at the centre of many important world events, impacting everything from politics to economics to culture.

Half of Parents Join Facebook to Creep on Their Kids.

Elisha Hartwig

Are you friends with your parents on Facebook? You might be surprised to find out that one in two parents join Facebook just to keep tabs on their kids. In our increasingly digital world, it is difficult for parents to monitor their children's activities — so perusing social media is an obvious solution. 

To give you more heebie-jeebies, 43% of parents check out their kid's profile daily — with special interest given to status updates and photos you are tagged in. So you might want to think twice before you tag yourself at that frat party doing a perfect keg-stand. 

This data is courtesy of Education Database Online, a resource designed to help current and prospective students learn about the many educational opportunities and higher degree programs available within the United States.

 

more here >>