Afternoon all,

Your w/e papers will either be filled with stories of “proof of internet bubble” or “internet ride is over” as it’s FB IPO day today. We will have a FB focus at the bottom but in the meantime let’s shine a light on the other social spaces out there.

Twitter celebrated its year in the UK with some new stats: 140m global users 10m UK active users 1bn tweets every 3 days 1 in 6 users exclusively mobile 80% of UK users are mobile (not exclusive) - global leader 40% of users never tweet - consumption platform

One of those 10m is Liverpool’s striker Luis Suarez who in an attempt to open himself up to his fans with a Twitter interview got a bit more than he bargained for – some brilliant tweets and a real warning to how a “good” but ill thought out social idea can backfire

Google Knowledge graph: A big shake up in the US version of the site on Wednesday. Google launched the Knowledge Graph, their next big step towards the Semantic web – understanding what you are searching for without you having to be literal about it. Better connecting the relationship between words, context and things. Build into that the years of data Google has about follow up searches people make, where they click etc, so Charles Dickens as an example is more likely to be a search about his books rather than anything else so they give you that info straight up and other likely searches built into your results. This explains it

One of the speakers uses the term “from an information engine to a knowledge engine”, it pulls heavily from places like Wikipedia and starts to answer in a more Wolfram Alpha way rather than the traditional search list way. For me though it pushes Google closer to being a destination engine where you spend more time rather than just a search and then you leave engine. Very exciting and could create a whole new time suck for searching. Also noteworthy is the reduced Ad real-estate on the page.

For our very own search expert Kevin Ting’s views check out

G+ and brands: As Google announces it has over 190m Google+ users and that 64 of the top 100 valued brands (Interbrand) have created a Google+ page Simply Measured have released some interesting topline stats about how brands are interacting with it:

Such as 22% of them have amassed more than 100,000 subscribers in their circles or that the top 5 categories are Auto / Electronics / Luxury / Internet Services and Beverages. Wednesday is the best day to post and photos get the most interaction.

For the full list and more ripper graphs click here

Ever wondered what happens when you send an email?: Google have put together a fun interactive site that takes you through the process as well as really highlighting the green and social good they do at the same time - here

Is connected TV about to become mainstream: About 6 weeks ago IKEA announced the Uppleva – their all in one TV and storage solution.

For those that just want simple technology it will be preloaded with internet apps such YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, an open internet browser (most likely Opera) and apparently some casual games such as everyone’s favourite Angry Birds. The reason to care is that this has caught the imagination of the completely tech uninterested, a case in point being my 72 year old neighbour who still uses a Nokia 3310.

[Here for video of the Uppleva] (not my neighbour, that’s on the paid email) - (http://bit.ly/UpplevaIntro)

And keeping with the IKEA vibe they have been quite active on Pinterest of late

bonus nugget - who have just been valued at $1.5bn:

Now for the FB focus:

There is still time to cast your vote on what you think the end of day price will be when the US markets close – opening price will be $38 with a $100bn valuation (currently the belief is it will be on the bigger side with 37.5% each on $46-$55 and +$55 which would value it at well over $100bn)

BBC2 Money Program FB show: If you missed it when it aired on Monday night then you can catch it here. It is on the whole quite interesting and I was surprised at much Zuckerberg time they got. They also focus on the mobile issue – see below

Mobile becoming business critical for ebay and still FB issues: The biggest challenge FB is having around its IPO and future returns are to do with the potential of mobile. They readily admit they haven’t cracked it. Stats have been coming out during the week that the average desktop user sees 7-11 ads per session where as the mobile visitor (of which almost 50% of the user base are) tend to see less than 4. This is a huge focus for them moving forward and one I am pretty confident they will nail.

In the meantime, it is interesting to see other web giants who have got it and continue to plough straight in, for example eBay. Here is a short video introducing their new fashion offering it is great to see how they have totally redesigned the experience for the phone. It is worth noting eBay are on target to handle about $8bn of business via mobile devices, building on the $5bn it did in 2011 and $2bn from 2010 proving that a commitment to the channel can reap huge rewards.

A load of FB UK stats from Hitwise to pepper into your w/e chat:
1. > 1.3 billion visits to FB a month in UK (2nd only to Google) accounting for 14% of all page views. Getting 40m unique visits p/day
2. We spend 500M hours a month on FB, averaging 22mins a session.
3. It is the most popular social network in the UK, accounting for 50% of all visits to social networks. Twice the size of YouTube and 17 times bigger than Twitter in terms of visits from UK Internet users.
4. Facebook is the most searched for website in UK. The term ‘facebook’ is the most popular search term typed into all search engines including Google, Yahoo! and Bing and three of the top 10 most popular search terms online are Facebook related (‘facebook’, ‘facebook login’ and ‘fb’).
5. 1 Facebook fan = 20 additional visits to your website over the course of a year. Using the top 100 retail websites as a sample group, Hitwise data shows that for each additional fan acquired on a branded Facebook page companies can expect to see 20 extra visits coming to their main website over a 12 month period.
6. 25% of all visits leaving Facebook go straight to an Entertainment site, showing the close affinity between Facebook and people’s interest in movies, TV, music and games.
7. Manchester is the new Facebook capital of the UK with Internet users from Manchester 9% more likely than the average person to visit Facebook in a given month.

And finally... If you are going to rob an internet café, make sure you log out of your FB account before you leave

Have a great w/e.

Oli.

Afternoon all,

Before we begin, hold your hats it’s Britain’s Got Talent final this w/e. To be honest I haven’t watched any of it, but I will be tomorrow as during the show Samsung will be doing a live Zeebox competition to give away 10 of their shiny new wifi cameras with winners announced before the end of the show. So look out for the Sponsored BGT page, the synchronised Zeetags that will magically appear as the tv ad shows, tweet about it using #WinDuringBGT and generally get involved.

This is just the first bit of Zeebox wonderment that Samsung will be rolling out over the next few weeks and we have got some very cool things lined up and will be letting you know nearer the time.

Now for the main bit...

Next week is FB IPO week, with Friday the 18th being the day it floats and people will be able to buy shares.

For most of us though we won’t be able to afford to get involved but you can still have fun and plenty of bookies will be taking bets on what final price at first day will be. For the less risk averse you can still get involved in our own little poll

And if you hadn’t already guessed today we are all about building on the FB fever that is going to set in next week, so I bring you the FB edition...

FB continues spending in the mobile space – 3rd buy in a month or so: Glancee is the latest mobile offering to join the FB family. It hove in to the public consciousness back at SXSW in March, (we had it on our top services to watch out of SXSW – phew!) when together with Highlight it allowed people make connections with like minded folk in the immediate vicinity using such things as your friends and posts on FB and Twitter. As a differentiator, Foursquare is about places and Gancee is about the people in those places.

Why have they bought it? As well as wanting the skilled people it also wanted the location engine that they have developed. It should also bypass a big problem that FB Checkin had which was that people weren’t checking in – this will no doubt allow you to automatically check in (keep an eye on your security settings if you don’t like the sound of that). As well of course of building the recommendation of others back into FB.

Like that – clothes hanger: Judging by how this took off on Twitter last w/e I am guessing many have seen it already, but just in case you haven’t here is a clothes store in Brazil using live FB likes built in to the clothes hanger to show what the most popular garments are.

Finally an end to the “but it’s big in Brazil” answer for social network Orkut: In January of this year Facebook finally won its battle to become the #1 social network in Brazil. For years Google’s Orkut inexplicably ruled the roost where it went gangbusters back in 2008 Google even took the decision to move the Orkut team out to Brazil where the majority of its users were based. More recently, late 2011, almost 70% of the 66m users were in Brazil.

FB App Center: Unless you have a mega hit that grows organically getting your app or game promoted on FB can be quite tricky. Well fear no more for FB have announced the imminent launch of the App Center. Unlike the Apple App Store and GooglePlay, FB’s App Center will not be a traditional a storefront for apps. Instead, visitors will have the chance to browse and learn about the apps in the App Center before being sent to Apple's App Store or Google Play to download the apps.

Get you cheque book ready you will be able to buy FB shares next week: As such here is the video that is part of their investor roadshow. It really is worthwhile putting 30 mins aside to watch this and hear about FB from FB and how they are changing the world. Pretty compelling and really makes you understand the scale and impact of it beyond just the big numbers - (it being from an IPO doc there are a few disclaimers you need to go through, but is quick and worth it).

In the Advertising and Finance blocks you really pick up on the crucial importance of mobile and a fairly honest realisation as to how early on in the journey they really are.

Who is the real Zuckerburg?: What is there to know outside of the Social Network film about Zuckerburg? Quite a lot it would seem. A great piece from the New York magazine that paints a pretty comprehensive picture of the “boy billionaire” and how the company grew to what it is today- http://bit.ly/MeetZuck

And finally... If you really want some bed time reading this is a lengthy but compelling breakdown of the battle to become the bank leading the IPO

Have a great w/e.

Oli.