Facebook Buys Out Oculus for 2 Billion

Facebook has announced it is buying the virtual reality gaming company Oculus VR for $2 billion. Oculus makes the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset that's received a lot of attention from video game developers. It has yet to be released, but Facebook says Oculus has received more than 75,000 orders for development kits for the headset. The deal includes $400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of the Facebook stock. There’s also an extra $300 million in the event that the company succeeds in achieving selected goals.

Fresh off Facebook’s $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is demonstrating to the universe that he isn't afraid to use his company’s skyrocketing share price to get an advantage in Silicon Valley. “This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.” Zuckerberg stated on his Facebook page. 

Although Oculus products haven't taken off in the mainstream market yet, the second Oculus Rift development kit is available to pre-order for $350. It is unclear exactly how Zuckerberg views virtual reality fitting in with social networking, or if perhaps gaming is even his most important concentration with this particular purchase.

See Zuckerberg's Facebook Update

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Study Shows People Update Facebook During Sex

Apparently multi-tasking during sex these days includes posting status updates on Facebook. First of all -Ew to the person on the other end.. But it's true according to the results of a new survey by global condom producer Durex, lovers are checking or updating Facebook while engaging in sexual activity. The Durex analysis polled 2,000 British residents in order to figure out whether modern technology has had an adverse effect on our sex lives. The study claims about 30 % of respondents revealed that their companions were distracted by their mobile phones at the time of sex. Around 60 % indicated they commit more time playing with technology in bed rather than they do focusing on their partners. The report was published in The Daily Dot. Over five percent of them confessed using Facebook while having sexual relations with their partner. The study, on the other hand, did not really go to the length to figure out why is this happening.

Words in Social Media That Could Get You FLAGGED by Authorities

You might want to think again before using #snow #pork or #exercise as a hashtag on twitter or in any of your social media status updates. The Daily Mail just posted a story releasing a whole bunch of trigger words which they are claiming you should not use if you don't Homeland Security spying on you. The website claims the Department of Homeland Security has been obligated to release a bunch of keywords and phrases it uses to examine social network websites as well as online media for signs of terrorist or other  threats against the U.S.The list of words and phrases involves some rather obvious picks including 'jihad', 'attack', 'shootout' and 'car bomb' along with numerous relatively harmless words like 'ice', 'pork', 'team' and 'cloud'. Distributed under a freedom of information inquiry, the information brings public awareness to how exactly the government researchers are mandated to patrol the online world in search of domestic or external threats. The words are also in the department's 2011 'Analyst's Desktop Binder' used by professionals at their National Operations Center which instructs workers to identify 'media reports that reveal adversely on DHS in addition to response activities'. Department chiefs were required to release the information following a House hearing over information obtained via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit which unveiled precisely how analysts monitor social signals and media companies for comments that 'reflect adversely' on the government. Although they insisted the practice was not aimed at policing the web for disparaging information relating to the government and signals of general dissent, but to provide consideration of any possible threats. 

So in other words, if you complained on social media about all the snow this past winter, you might be under suspicion. Happy Spring everybody! 

Click HERE to view the List of "no no's"

Zuckerberg Calls Obama Over NSA - Posts on Facebook Status

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg updated his Facebook Status yesterday, saying he called out and phoned President Obama to express his frustration over the potential damage the government is creating for our future:

Zuckerberg wrote:

"As the world becomes more complex and governments everywhere struggle, trust in the internet is more important today than ever.

The internet is our shared space. It helps us connect. It spreads opportunity. It enables us to learn. It gives us a voice. It makes us stronger and safer together.

To keep the internet strong, we need to keep it secure. That's why at Facebook we spend a lot of our energy making our services and the whole internet safer and more secure. We encrypt communications, we use secure protocols for traffic, we encourage people to use multiple factors for authentication and we go out of our way to help fix issues we find in other people's services.

The internet works because most people and companies do the same. We work together to create this secure environment and make our shared space even better for the world.

This is why I've been so confused and frustrated by the repeated reports of the behavior of the US government. When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we're protecting you against criminals, not our own government.

The US government should be the champion for the internet, not a threat. They need to be much more transparent about what they're doing, or otherwise people will believe the worst.

I've called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future. Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform.

So it's up to us -- all of us -- to build the internet we want. Together, we can build a space that is greater and a more important part of the world than anything we have today, but is also safe and secure. I'm committed to seeing this happen, and you can count on Facebook to do our part."

Clearly, Zuckerberg is frustrated with spying and hacking programs and I'm curious to see how the White House handles and responds to this situation. It would be beneficial if Zuckerberg generated a call to action for folks to communicate with their senators as well as representatives on this matter?  2 million phone calls or emails over a couple of days might get their attention. 

You Can Now Use Getty Images on Twitter, Tumblr & Blogs

Getty Images is making 35 million images available for public use on social media sites like Twitter, Tumblr and non-commercial blog sites. The image agency has always charged a fee for the rights to use a Getty Photo. The decision came last week after the stock photo agency noticed its images were increasingly appearing on social media and blogs by people that hadn't paid for the photo rights. In fact, many of their photographs could easily be pulled up by search engine image searches and even on news media websites.
 The available images will be free and legal for non-commercial use and the website now offers an embedding code (similar to youtube) for the use of their images. The eligible images also come with buttons for Tumblr and Twitter, where a link to the image can be shared.

Twitter Website Down Tuesday Afternoon

Twitter went down for what appears to be maintenance issues on Tuesday afternoon. Tweeps are in a frenzy today because it appears that many people are having trouble accessing Twitter. When I went to page myself this is the message that is claiming the popular social network is down for maintenance.

Why I Prefer Facebook Over Twitter

There has been a lot of news buzz lately about Twitter and how Facebook is on its way out and what not. I don't think so. I'm not exactly sure where all this is all coming from. I tweet. It's fun. I mainly use it for marketing purposes. I own a company and my tweets are representing my brand. It's very important to utilize twitter for business purposes. I admit, twitter can be very entertaining at times. Other times, I sign onto Twitter, read some of the ridiculous trending hashtags and wonder what the hell is wrong with the world. I like to follow the trends and I enjoy reading tweets about tv shows and other fun topics. I also like to see what's trending because again, I feel it's important for business. On a personal level though.. I'm not so sure. While I won't argue that twitter can be a great source for discovering news, often before many other mediums, I don't need to look on my dashboard and see things like  #savebieber #swagyolobitches #LiesToldByFemales #ragemyfaceoff. Yeah, all these things might be trending at the same time as a some serious news story and it all just seems a little weird.

Social networks are for socializing but the truth is, a lot of my friends are not even on Twitter. My friends that are on twitter, don't even usually find my tweets unless they happen to be on the same time as me. It works pretty much the same when it comes to me finding their tweets. The feed can get extremely cluttered by spam and all kinds of things I have no interest in. I don't have this problem on facebook. If I post something important on Facebook, most of my close friends are going to see it and respond to it. But on Twitter, I will get maybe one interaction or response for every 10 tweets. That to me seems like a whole bunch of people tweeting and not many people listening. There are also other features on facebook like photo albums, tagging photos, etc. You can tag someone in a twitter post, but not on a twitter photo...but in order for other people to notice your photo, you would have to tag them as well. This makes my efforts seem like they are not really worth my effort on a personal level. As I mentioned, I think it's important for business branding, but other than that, I don't think I would be tweeting very much.

How Long Can Facebook Go On?

How long can Facebook go on? Everyone keeps saying that it's on it's way out but I don't see it slowing down. In fact, I still see new friends showing up every now and then. I've also noticed that some of my friends will kind of disappear but the reappear out of nowhere. Reports say that teens don't think Facebook is cool anymore because parents and grandparents are on it. Since when do we put all our investments in what teens say? They aren't even old enough to drink. I don't think Facebook is going anywhere. The stock has doubled even after taking a big dip with the IPO went public. Twitter shares were doing well too but have taken a dip in recent weeks. Social media and smartphones have become so consuming that they've taken over our lives. I'm not against it. I think these are extremely powerful marketing tools. I think Facebook will be around for a long time. I don't see it becoming an empty abandoned carnival like Myspace.