Facebook does iPad app at last

Facebook does seem to have yielded to the pressure of not having an iPad app - never mind that the iPhone already has a Facebook app on the Apple App Store when it opened in July a few years ago. Winds of change are a-comin' as there are industry insiders who claim that Facebook is on its way to introduce a free iPad application which has been specially designed and optimized for the tablet.
In production for almost a year, and having gone through several design iterations, it should be in its final stages of testing now. Other than that, no further details were released, since the product plans are strictly confidential.

Those who have seen the application claim that it boasts a slick design which has been specially tailored for the iPad and its touchscreen interface. It seems that the Facebook Chat and Facebook Groups features will be overhauled as well, and you can even shoot and upload photos and videos using the iPad's built-in camera to boot.

Initial impressions have been nothing short of positive, so hopefully all this good vibes will be translated to a stunning app when it arrives.

Google+ Brings Embedded Posts to Publishers (Just Like Twitter and Facebook)

In an effort to expand the reach of its social network, Google on Monday announced that third-party publishers can now embed Google+ posts into their websites.

Simply put: A site like AllThingsD could grab a publicly-made Google+ status update and, with the addition of a snippet of code, display it in a story.

At this point among the major players in social, it's a table stakes move. Twitter has long had embeds available, pitching the feature heavily to news sites and consumer outlets. And now both Facebook - which has made strides to surface more public-facing activity as of late - and Instagram have done the same. Google+ is a natural addition.

It's certainly a sensible move for all three companies, each of which aims for broad consumer recognition and appeal. It's also a trojan horse for potential new user signups if readers click through to the original social site.

Still, part of me wonders if there's a "peak embed" point. That is to say, if users will grow confused at the multiple types of embedded posts, and thereby not be inspired to click through. Or perhaps the different types of embedded posts will run together, and no one network will stand out.

Embeds should be available to publishers beginning today, with instructions on how to make it work found here.

Zuckerberg to Meet With Top House Republicans on Immigration Reform

Mr. Zuckerberg is headed back to Washington.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to meet with four top House Republicans later this week, another in a string of moves into the political realm for the social giant.

The meeting, first reported by Politico, will include sitting Speaker of the House John Boehner, as well as other top Republican House leadership, with Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Whip Kevin McCarthy and Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

"Mark is coming to Washington to discuss issues important to the knowledge economy, including immigration reform," a Facebook spokesperson told AllThingsD.

Ostensibly that includes Zuckerberg's efforts with FWD.us, the political action group founded in conjunction with a host of tech executives that aims to upend U.S. immigration policy and potentially increase the number of foreign-born tech workers allowed entry into the United States.

The meeting is set to occur in Washington this Thursday.

Facebook Opens Registration For F8 Conference Featuring Oculus, WhatsApp, Instagram

More Tech IPOs: Criteo Files, and Rocket Fuel Is Ready to Start Trading Friday

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that video ad startup YuMe was trading below its $9 IPO price; YUME shares climbed back above $9 last week and closed today at $11.

Here's another tech company headed for the public markets: French advertising startup Criteo has filed its public IPO documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which means the company could be trading in less than a month.

Criteo's latest funding round, completed a year ago, valued the company at $800 million.

Like Twitter - and just about every other company that has gone public this year - Criteo filed its initial documents with the SEC in private earlier this year, using cover provided by the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act.

But, unlike Twitter, the timing of Criteo's filing isn't surprising at all, since the ad-tech world has been gabbing about it for months.

Criteo is a retargeting company, which means it helps e-commerce companies track prospects online and show them display ads. Last year, it made a profit of $1 million on sales of $354 million; in the first six months of this year, it lost $6.4 million on sales of $252.7 million.

More than half of Criteo's top-line dollars go back out the door via traffic-acquisition costs. It spent $205 million on TAC last year, and another $152 million in the first half of 2013.

Criteo, which is based in Paris, wants to list its American Depositary Shares on the Nasdaq under the "CRTO" ticker.

Criteo's filing follows disappointing public debuts for ad-tech startups this year. Marin Software and Tremor Media are trading below their IPO prices, and the general climate for ad-tech stocks has been lousy enough that Adap.TV chose to sell to AOL instead of following through on its IPO plans.

But now the conventional wisdom is that investors are once again willing to look at companies that combine technology and advertising, at least in some cases - see Facebook's triumphant return.

We should get a better sense of investors' appetite for ad tech at the end of this week, when Rocket Fuel, which helps advertisers buy "programmatic" inventory, is supposed to go public. People familiar with the company's plans said it expects to price its shares on Thursday, and head to the Nasdaq Friday morning.

(Image courtesy of Shutterstock/Everett Collection)

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that video ad startup YuMe was trading below its $9 IPO price; YUME shares climbed back above $9 last week and closed today at $11.

How to Launch a New Photo App: Wait for iOS 7 Launch, Try to Get Featured. Then Hope.

Another new photo-sharing app? In 2013? Really?

Yup, really. But say this for the team behind Memoir, which is launching today: While sharing photos is a component of what their app does, it's not solely a photo-sharing app. It's more of a photo-storage and filing service, with ambitions to move someday beyond photos into other personal data.

Which is good, because it sure seems like the photo-sharing app space is full up, though people are still trying to prove otherwise.

Memoir was co-founded by Lee Hoffman and Angela Kim, and is a pivot out of Veri, a TechStars education startup they launched in 2011. They raised $1.2 million for that project from backers including BetaWorks and SV Angel, and used much of that to move into Memoir; they're also finishing a new funding round.

You can get a sense of what they're trying to do with Memoir in the video below, but if you want a very short sentence, it would be: TimeHop mashed up with Photo Stream.

More sentences: Memoir checks the metadata for pictures you have on your phone, plus those you upload to Facebook and other services (if you let it), and organizes them by date and location; it will also try to figure out who you were with when you took the photo. Then it stores all the images on its servers, and lets you access them whenever you want; it assumes your photos are private, and will only share them with friends if you ask.

The service is free now, and the company hopes to introduce a freemium model that will give you access to goodies like higher-resolution images, etc. One day, Hoffman and Kim can see Memoir storing and filing things that aren't photos.

For now, they're just hoping to pick up some momentum from today's Apple's iOS 7 launch.

They've held the launch of their app until this afternoon, with Apple's encouragement, in the hope that they get featured in Apple's App Store. There's no guarantee that they'll get that attention, and even if they do, a feature slot at the App Store is no guarantee of success.

But it sure would be nice to show up today, when lots of you are going to be spending lots of time there.

Introducing Memoir from Memoir on Vimeo.

Sherpa Ventures Starts $150M Fundraising With $15M Infusion From TPG

Sherpa Ventures - a new early-stage venture firm recently founded by well-known Silicon Valley investor and entrepreneur Shervin Pishevar, formerly of Menlo Ventures, and former Goldman Sachs tech banker Scott Stanford - has started off its efforts to raise $150 million for its initial fund with a $15 million commitment from private equity giant TPG Capital, according to sources close to the situation.

The pair declined to comment on the new funding anchor for Sherpa, which has apparently already made more than two dozen investments in startups since its creation earlier this year. They include BackOps, a cloud-based company that offers back-office services like accounting, human resources and financial reporting; and Munchery, a gourmet-meal delivery service.

Along with Sherpa, Pishevar and Stanford also are working on a second part of their new business, called Sherpa Foundry, a business aimed at helping major strategic corporations gain a digital edge with their existing assets.

Interestingly, TPG recently made a big investment in Uber, the red-hot travel-logistics company. Pishevar has been a close adviser to co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick.

As I noted in a February post about their new endeavors, the pair's efforts will certainly be interesting to watch:

Indeed more than many in the tech scene, the incessantly networking Pishevar is perhaps well suited to such an ambitious effort like Sherpa. He's has worked closely with a lot of Web 2.0 s hottest startups, such as Uber, Fab and Warby Parker, while also leading Menlo's investment in Tumblr.

An active angel investor, he has also started a number of companies, such as the Social Gaming Network, which was merged with MindJolt.

And Stanford is equally well known in Silicon Valley, having shepherded a wide variety of high-profile deals for the banking giant, while heading its global Internet investment banking business from San Francisco as a managing director. He's been at Goldman for a dozen years and has been involved in investments in Facebook, Zappos and LinkedIn. Before banking, he worked at pioneering search company, LookSmart.

Facebook Starts Auto-Enhancing Photos Because Algorithms Are Better At Filters Than You

As Q2 Earnings Approaches, the Street Stays Bullish on Facebook's Mobile Prospects

Facebook's S-1 filing in early 2012 came with a rude awakening we're all quite familiar with by now: The world is going mobile, and Facebook's ad business needed to adapt fast in order to keep up with it.

Now, as Facebook prepares to report its second-quarter earnings this afternoon, something has shifted: Wall Street is actually optimistic about Facebook's mobile monetization prospects.

The Street's consensus calls for earnings per share of 14 cents on revenue of $1.62 billion, an estimate up from the EPS of 12 cents on revenue of $1.18 billion reported during Q2 of last year.

"While quarterly results at FB will likely remain volatile, we remain bullish on the direction and growth trajectory of the company," Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia wrote in a research note this week.

The biggest boon for some? The trending surge in Facebook's mobile revenue figures seen in recent quarters.

Mobile revenue accounted for nearly 30 percent of Facebook's ad business in the first quarter of this year, which was already a jump up from 23 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. That's expected by some analysts to grow, albeit slightly, to a daily run rate of nearly $5 million on mobile ads alone.

Facebook has made it clear that at least one of its more recent ad products - mobile app installation ads - has been quite successful in driving growth, and J.P. Morgan's Doug Anmuth expects that to continue.

"We remain bullish as we believe ad dollars are increasingly shifting to online, mobile, and social and we expect Facebook to capture a growing portion of ad budgets going forward," Anmuth wrote in a research note.

The big unknowns are the usuals that we'll be looking for. Will the company break out any metrics beyond its usual stats on daily and monthly active users? That may be something to watch for, given Facebook's increasing competition for mindshare from other mobile-based sites like Snapchat, WhatsApp and International competitors like Line and KakaoTalk.

Perhaps Facebook will detail some engagement-based stats that could rebut the chatter that the social giant is losing its cool with younger audiences.

Another wild card: The oft-speculated eventual appearance of auto-play video ads in the News Feed. Bhatia and Anmuth both expect the ads to debut in the latter half of the year, a potential multibillion-dollar revenue-driving opportunity for the company. "We see online video advertising as a key incremental growth driver for FB in 2014," Bhatia wrote.

And lastly, the payments question still remains. Driven largely by social games on the platform, Facebook's payments business has changed much over the past two years, again a result of the sweeping shift to mobile. Zynga, which once reigned supreme as Facebook's largest gaming partner, has taken a drastic hit as users have moved away from playing games on the desktop to more casual gaming on the phone and tablet.

As a result, Facebook's payments revenue cut has flattened. The past year has seen Facebook try to distance itself from being too connected to Zynga, giving way to the rise of other smaller, more mobile-focused gaming outfits like King and, to a lesser extent, Wooga.

Analysts expect flat sequential revenue in the payments business, though a slight uptick in year-over-year growth.

I'll be covering the print as it hits the wire at 1 pm PT, with a liveblog of the earnings call from my colleague Peter Kafka to follow.

Facebook dials in Skype video calling

Social Network goes VoIPy

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced the arrival of video chat, powered by Skype, into the social network.

Speaking via a stream that was broadcast on the Facebook Live channel, Zuckerberg's announcement was actually later than Facebook and Skype publishing the details on their respective blogs, such is Zuck's tendency to waffle on about graphs, trends and the like (he loves a good graph that boy).

Video calling will be available from within Facebook on your browser and Skype claims that it represents its "first big step on the Web".

The Skype video calling is embedded right into Facebook's UI and is an optimised version of the popular VoIP software.

There's no need to have Skype installed on your PC - simply sign into your Facebook chat and select call to video conference with your contacts straight away. It will need to download and install a plug-in first, but this is automatic and simple. You can even leave video messages if your pals aren't around to answer if you're calling them from within Skype (which already has Facebook chat integration).

And the best news is that video calling from Skype and Facebook is available now from www.facebook.com/videocalling.

As well as the video calling addition, Facebook has also added group chat and a new layout so the friends you chat with the most often are more prominent.

With Google+ offering group video chatting with Hangouts and mobile group chatting with Huddle - Facebook's announcement may have come a week too late....but it'll still be useful nevertheless; after all Google has a long way to go before it matches Facebook's 750 million users.

Browser extension brings Facebook stream to Google+

So many social networks...such little time

Developer Crossrider has released a tool that allows you to integrate your Facebook stream into the Google+ dashboard.

Whilst not quite being perfect Facebook/Google harmony, it is as close as you can currently get to unifying your split social networks under one roof. Now all we need is Twitter added into the mix and things will really get exciting.

The Google+Facebook Chrome extension was created in a day using the Crossrider developer framework. It is a clever JavaScript framework for creating quick cross browser extensions. For those who fancy giving it a go themselves and possibly integrating Twitter into Google+, read here.

Expect having to grant the application full access to your Facebook account to deliver updates, not the most secure of options admittedly, but is necessary if you want to use it. The need to constantly notify your friends, fans and public of your thoughts and feelings can now be done twofold, both on Facebook and Google+, all from one browser.

For those struggling to remove themselves from a deep Facebook addiction in order to start a new one with Google+, it looks like the chrome extension is the best option. The day will come however, when a choice between the two needs to be made. Judging by the speed that Google+ has been adopted, that day might come sooner rather than later.

Article: RSS via Pocket-lint

Former Twitter, Facebook Product Pro Josh Elman Becomes Partner at Greylock

Venture capital firm Greylock Partners announced on Wednesday that Josh Elman, a Silicon Valley veteran of mainstream consumer tech companies, has been promoted to become the firm's newest partner.

Elman joined Greylock as a principal almost two years ago, after his time at Twitter as a product manager, where he lead the growth team for the microblogging service.

Before that, he was a product manager working on Facebook Platform, leading the launch of Facebook Connect, the product used on many, many websites today (including this one). And before that, he spent time in product management positions at both Zazzle and LinkedIn.

"I believe in investing in stuff that I know," Elman said in an interview. "That means I'll likely be looking at consumer tech, with a focus on looking for companies that find the best ways to connect people with one another."

He has worked with local social network Nextdoor, for example, on growth, product and strategy decisions.

"I think the fact that we're still so early in the days of mobile - with the rise of smartphones and tablets - we're just at the beginning of how we do that connecting," Elman said.

Elman will be based in Greylock's Menlo Park, Calif., office.

Facebook Beats as Mobile Revenue Jumps to 41 Percent of Ads Business

Facebook's numbers are in, and they look good across the board - especially in mobile.

The social giant posted its second-quarter earnings on Wednesday afternoon, reporting earnings per share of 13 cents on revenue of $1.81 billion. That beats analysts' expectations of an EPS of 14 cents on revenue of $1.62 billion.

But the biggest point of interest here is in the breakdown of Facebook's revenue numbers. Mobile revenue, the most closely watched part of Facebook's business, accounts for 41 percent of Facebook's total revenue. That's a leap from accounting for nearly 30 percent just last quarter.

"One of the things this quarter says to us is that News Feed ads work," Facebook CFO David Ebersman told AllThingsD in an interview. "They're really creating compelling returns for our advertisers."

Facebook has faced intense criticism from investors over the past year and a half, as Wall Street voiced concerns that the company couldn't adeptly handle the massive shift from desktop to mobile use. Most of Facebook's advertising products were optimized for desktop users for as long as the company has been around, and only over the past year has it tried to shift toward a "mobile first" environment.

The company, however, has made some inroads with new mobile advertising products - in particular with its mobile app installation ads aimed at application developers.

"They're growing very rapidly," Ebersman said of the ad product. "And we're enthusiastic because the app ecosystem is such a fast-growing and dynamic area - developers need effective ways to help people discover what they have built."

As far as overall user growth, Facebook is still increasing in both new users and engagement. Facebook's daily active users increased to 699 million, a jump of 27 percent year over year. And monthly active users swelled to 1.15 billion, a 21 percent increase year on year.

But again, the biggest number of note here is the mobile MAU number. Monthly active users on mobile jumped to 819 million, an increase of 51 percent year over year. Talk about a shift from desktop to mobile.

"We've made good progress growing our community, deepening engagement and delivering strong financial results, especially on mobile," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a canned statement. "The work we've done to make mobile the best Facebook experience is showing good results and provides us with a solid foundation for the future."

Facebook's stock is up nearly 20 percent in after hours trading, hovering around $31 per share.

Tune in to my colleague Peter Kafka's live coverage of the earnings call here.

Bee Cave Games Raises $1.3 Million Round of Seed Funding

Bee Cave Games, the developer of the social casino game Blackjack Casino, has closed a $1.3 million seed round of funding led by Matrix Partners. The round is aimed at helping the company grow and continue to support its existing game, which is available on Facebook. Last month, Zynga co-founder Eric Schiermeyer became a board advisor and investor in Bee Cave.

Facebook Says It Has Figured Out Mobile. Wall Street Says It Believes Facebook.

You can't say Wall Street has agreed to forgive and forget its past issues with Facebook. But it's getting closer: After a very strong Q2 earnings report, investors pushed shares up 17 percent in aftermarket trading.

Facebook is now trading at about $31 a share, nearly as high as it has been all year. That still doesn't bring it back to the $38 price from its 2012 IPO, but it's definitely progress.

Big picture: Facebook seems to have answered, at least for now, questions about its ability to handle the shift to mobile: Its users are headed there, and it is showing them ads there, and both usage and ad dollars are up.

Facebook also took pains to explain that it is still totally cool with the kids. Which sounds a bit strained when they say it, but until people can show statistics proving otherwise, investors may cut them some slack.

And Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg also made a point of mentioning all the usage Facebook sees during prime time TV viewing hours. Translation: Hey Twitter - we can pitch social TV to advertisers, too.

Earlier:
It's more fun to come on an earnings call when Wall Street is psyched about your numbers, right?

At least that's the theory. Let's see how Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg do following a strong quarter, which has investors bidding up their stock more than 14 percent in after-hours trading.

Let's listen in. Actually, I'll listen: You guys watch me type a liveblog.

5:04 pm: Greetings. Listening to Mark Zuckerberg, reading with enthusiasm.

Points out that results today come from big investments a few years ago. Promises patience for more long-term payouts.

Did you know there are 5 billion people who aren't on Facebook? Facebook is coming for you, people who are very likely not reading this liveblog!

Facebook advertising isn't just making money for Facebook, it is somehow improving the world's overall economy.

Ratio of daily active users to monthly active users is increasing - that is, as more people come on to Facebook, more people spend more time on Facebook.

By the way, don't believe those "Facebook engagement decreasing" reports: Market share steady or increasing.

Now, about those teenagers you keep hearing about: They're still totally using Facebook! Here Zuck uses a phrase that I don't feel totally comfortable retyping. So.

Instagram: Still totally growing!

Instagram video growing fast. Facebook Graph Search and Facebook Home, not so much, but that's totally cool, says Zuck. Think long-term!

5:10 pm: Zuck still pumped, and now he's talking about ads, which is not a thing he would have been pumped to talk about a few years ago. Maybe even one year ago.

Shoutouts to all the Facebookers! "You're all helping to connect the world and push it forward."

5:11 pm: Now, Sheryl Sandberg, who is less forcefully excited. But reciting impressive numbers regardless.

Also talking up app ads, local ads.

And hey, don't look now but FB is up 20 percent since this afternoon's numbers.

Now taking time to talk up all the TV-watching, and TV-talking, that happens on Facebook. In other words: In case you didn't catch this earlier, Twitter, we are totally coming after the social TV business you've been building. Heads up!

(Apologies, missed a couple minutes here while multitasking.)

5:17 pm: And now CFO David Ebersman.

Usage numbers are great. 699 million average daily users in June. Total time spent: 20 billion minutes each day.

(More apologies. Was busy asking Facebook beat reporter Mike Isaac why he was Tweeting about the call while I covered the live blog for him.)

(Bunch of statistics you do not want to read about in a liveblog. If you are looking for that stuff, by the way, it's all over here.)

We're still going to pour a lot of money into capex, Ebersman says. So get used to it. (Google had to explain this to investors for a while, too.)

News Feed ads will be main ad growth engine for rest of the year. But note that they started up a year ago, which means Q3 and Q4 comps will be a little tougher. Okay, analysts? (Guide that number down a bit!)

Also, expenses are going to grow at a faster clip then revenue this year. (Got that, analysts?)

5:25 pm: And now, ladies and gents, here's Q&A, with Mike Isaac!

3:25 pm: Mike Isaac here, taking over for Peter on the questions from analysts.

3:26 pm: A question from Doug Anmuth on ads.

Basically, is your big ad growth a lot more ads in the feed, or better ad products?

3:26 pm: Sandberg: Both! All!

Also, we've got a big increase in demand from marketers.

3:27 pm: Mobile app install ads question - Sandberg says they're small but growing.

"It's basically an entirely new market ... we're growing quickly and helping to grow the market."

I asked about mobile app install ads, too, in a chat with Ebersman earlier. They're sorta mum on its success specifically, but I hear that developers like them.

3:28 pm: Oh, if you've noticed, my time stamp is wonky. That's because I'm sitting in an airport in Aspen, Colorado, liveblogging from the terminal as my flight has been delayed. Ho hum.

3:29 pm: A question on monetizing Instagram! Please tell us you have something in mind for that pretty photo-sharing app.

3:29 pm: Zuckerberg on Instagram: Non-answer.

Yes, we want to build a business. "Probably through advertising." But right now they're focused on just letting the thing grow like crazy.

True. It's up above 130 MAUs. Pretty crazy.

3:30 pm: Sandberg on growth in ad spend: Yes! Soon!

"I'm a believer that over time, this is where people are spending their time, and any marketer who wants to reach people is going to spend here."

Fingers crossed, Sheryl.

3:31 pm: Growth is still strong across regions outside of the U.S., Sandberg said.

Particular focus on Asia, seeing increasing adoption in APAC and the rest of the world.

3:33 pm: Sandberg says Facebook exchange is actually a small part of the company's business. They're expanding their on-the-ground sales force, too.

3:34 pm: Ebersman chimes in on how much the company is spending.

No end in sight to the amount Facebook is spending to invest in the business.

But he cites being "disciplined" and "focused" in their spending.

In other words, it's not all kegs and sushi bars for the campus. Lots of smart spending, he says.

3:36 pm: Sandberg: Facebook loves brands. Brands love Facebook.

The end.

3:37 pm: More TV talk in this call. Quite a direct shot over the bow at Twitter, the social company that has long promoted its "second-screen-ness" and complementary nature to television.

3:38 pm: Ebersman again on spending: Hardware costs probably going to go down, but product development is a variable.

5:39 pm: Hello again! It's Peter Kafka! I'm very excited!

Some talk about lumps and inflections re: mobile.

There was "more feed eligible demand" this quarter, says Ebersman. Yet, price didn't drop as they sold more ads.

5:43 pm: New question: Five percent of News Feed is now ads. Is that the "right" number and how does that vary across geography? Also a multipart question I didn't get.

Ebersman: Re: Five percent, it was 0 percent a year ago. We're happy with it. Varies by geography, and also by person (which maybe explains why I don't see that many ads in my feed compared to some complainers).

5:45 pm: Q: When are you going to get around to rolling out video ads? Also, what's going on in Europe?

Sandberg: We totally have video ads - you can embed a video in your post. "We're exploring how we can expand that" but if you think I'm going to talk about a product we haven't announced, then I would like to sell you a premium Bebo membership.

5:46 pm: Q: Hey Mark, how do you get partners to participate more actively in your platform? (And not worry you'll dump them in a year?)

Zuckerberg: We've been charging developers for distribution, and they like it. That's a shift.

5:48 pm: Big picture question for Zuck. How has life/perspective changed since you wrote founder's letter in your S-1 (14 months ago?)

Zuck: We hit the 1 billion people mark, which used to be a rallying cry. Now we have bigger ambitions. But now, meh. "The real goal is to connect everyone in the world, and map out everything there is." But! We weren't happy with mobile 18 months ago, so we had to do a lot of work on it. Coming into 2013, we started to see that we were in better shape.

So: Sort of a big picture answer. But maybe not really?

3:50 pm: Isaac here again!

Sorry about the timestamp.

3:50 pm: I swear we aren't time traveling.

3:50 pm: Question: Really guys, what ad units made you guys kill this quarter so hard?

3:51 pm: Sandberg: Direct response marketers are big contributors to growth. E-commerce doubled! They use all sorts of our ad products.

Lots of growth in mobile app install ads. Small market, but we offer a product that no one else has.

Yep, that ad unit is shining.

3:53 pm: Again, a question on growth.

Really, how?

3:54 pm: Direct response marketers are bumping up their ad budgets because they're getting good returns, Sandberg says.

Okay then.

3:55 pm: Ooh! A sort of sideways question on hiring and perhaps a way to talk about the ZuckerPAC, Fwd.us.

3:55 pm: Mark takes the hiring question.

Hiring great people is hard. But "our country doesn't produce the volume of engineeers that our companies want to hire." So basically that's why he's doing this Fwd thing.

3:56 pm: Sandberg highlights General Electric's Instagram campaigns.

They aren't paid ads, but rather fancy photos of GE-related products and such.

In other words, brands are willing to experiment.

3:57 pm: A custom audiences question - Sandberg said they've doubled the number of marketers using that particular product over the period of two quarters. Lots of big brands doing it.

3:58 pm: Sandberg plays up "PMDs" - or third-party ad sellers - and wants brands to buy through multiple sales channels.

3:59 pm: Last question is a softball. Why do consumers like your stuff?

3:59 pm: Zuckerberg says Instagram is easy, everyone loves photos and capturing moments.

4:00 pm: His comments on Facebook "Home" are interesting.

Look at it over the long term. Sort of like a seed that Facebook is planting.

"Expect these to become market-leading products."

4:00 pm: Just look at how naturally they fit into the flow of peoples' daily lives to get an idea of how long it will take to get popular, Zuckerberg says.

4:01 pm: And we're done!

Kafka and Isaac - out.

VIDEO: Google+ Don’t fight it

It will get you in the end

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC_M6PzXS9g

The Google+ revolution is inevitable. Don't try and fight it.

That's the message from the chaps at Epipheo Studios, the self-described "Crack Commando A-Team of the marketing world" who have come up with this (cheekily Google-styled) video about the new social network.

It weighs up the pros and cons of both Facebook and Google+ before the Social Media Guru prophesies a future dominated by the Big G's platform.

"You don't need to choose Google+," he says. "Sooner or later, you're going to end up using it."

And you know what, it's hard to argue with him.

Google+ or Facebook? What do you think

Facebook Tweaks News Feed Algorithm to Show More Relevant Ads

Facebook on Friday announced a slight change to its News Feed algorithm that aims to give greater weight to user feedback on undesirable ads. From now on, Facebook will try to show more relevant advertisements to users inside the News Feed, which may mean fewer ads delivered. Facebook's goal for marketers, the company said, is to deliver the right ads to the people who want to see them the most, even if it means fewer ads delivered overall.

U.S. Opposes Tech Companies' Requests to Disclose Surveillance

The U.S. Department of Justice is formally opposing requests by technology companies to disclose more information about the frequency with which they are contacted by the U.S. government to give up user data under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Responding to petitions from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn, the government shut them down, as expected, because it said disclosures would pose a risk to national security. It's unclear when a ruling will come in the secret court inside the Justice Department headquarters where the case is being held.

"Such information would be invaluable to our adversaries, who could thereby derive a clear picture of where the Government's surveillance efforts are directed and how its surveillance activities change over time," the brief said. "If our adversaries know which platforms the Government does not surveil, they can communicate over those platforms when, for example, planning a terrorist attack or the theft of state secrets."

Google said in a statement today, "We're disappointed that the Department of Justice opposed our petition for greater transparency around FISA requests for user information. We also believe more openness in the process is necessary since no one can fully see what the government has presented to the court."

And Microsoft: "We will continue to press for additional transparency, which is critical to understanding the facts and having an informed debate about the right balance between personal privacy and national security."

Yahoo's response: ""We are disappointed with the Justice Department's decision to bar us and other Internet companies from publicly disclosing the specific number of user data requests that we receive from the U.S. Government under national security statutes. Yahoo and many other technology firms have made the commitment to share the number and type of government requests we receive for our users' data through regular reports. The U.S. Government's decision to block our ability to share with our users more granular information related to national security requests ultimately breeds mistrust and suspicion-both of the United States and of companies that must comply with government legal directives. As we've said before, the United States should lead the world when it comes to transparency, accountability, and respect of civil liberties and human rights. We urge the U.S. Government to reconsider this decision and grant our petition for greater transparency around national security requests for user data."

And LinkedIn weighed in: "LinkedIn deeply respects and supports the U.S. government's strong interest in, and its obligation to protect, national security. However, we believe this interest must be weighed against transparency and accountability. We firmly believe that what we are seeking - the disclosure of the number of U.S. national security-related requests that we receive - is consistent with national security interests, the law and our commitment to transparency."

In its brief, the government rejected the companies' arguments about First Amendment rights and said that public debate around surveillance was a justification for more transparency.

It said: "Contrary to the companies' argument that they have a First Amendment right to disclose this sensitive national security information, it is well-settled that prohibitions on the disclosure of classified information, such as the ones contained in this Court's orders, satisfy the First Amendment. The Government has a compelling interest in protecting such national security information from disclosure, and the prohibitions on disclosure are narrowly tailored to protect that interest."

And, regarding all the public outcry since the Edward Snowden disclosures about widespread data collection: "Although the Government has attempted to release as much information as possible about the intelligence collection activities overseen by this court, the public debate about surveillance does not give the companies the First Amendment right to disclose information that the Government has determined must remain classified."

Oh, and for good measure, the Justice Department also said that decisions about declaratory relief were out of the jurisdiction of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, where the dispute is being held.

Here's the brief:

Motion Declaratory Judgement 131002

Facebook Trading at Highest Price Since Week of IPO

On an average day, over the past year, shares of Facebook have hovered in the low-to-mid 20s, at least 10 points beneath the company's debut price of $38 per share in May of last year.

But Thursday was not an average day.

Following the news of a massive earnings beat on Wednesday afternoon, shares of Facebook are trading at their highest levels since IPO, at nearly $34 per share about an hour before the market closes. That's a single-day gain of nearly 30 percent.

Probably worth noting, too, that Facebook's trading volume is at a high, with more than 300 million shares exchanging hands before market close. That's a volume number that's second only to the company's IPO date, where more than half a billion shares moved through the market.

What drove the massive gains? Facebook finally showed a drastic shift from desktop to mobile monetization in its earnings numbers, as mobile ad revenue now accounts for 41 percent of Facebook's overall ads business.

Mobile first? Perhaps not quite yet, but soon enough.

Facebook Security Gets a Boost on Mobiles

The Facebook Safety Team has just announced that Facebook is adding new security features to the Facebook apps, and Facebook for mobile sites.

Facebook's social reporting is now available from mobile devices, so you can act quicker on content that is associated to you. For example, you can ask Facebook to take action if you don't like a Facebook photo of you that was uploaded by a third party. This functionality is now accessible via m.facebook.com.

Secondly, Facebook now lets users reset their passwords from mobile devices. Again, this can make a difference if your account has been hacked and you need to lock it down quickly. As usual, a recovery password will be sent to the email address that you have on file. There are other means of verifying your identity, we assume by adding questions like financial services do.

How much do you care about Facebook security? Is a potential breach high on your list of worries?