We could get off easy this week and hit the beach or something on this sunny May day. Because it seems all people are talking about online this week is the long-awaited Facebook IPO. The several billion dollar social network is expected to be worth more than $100 billion.
Boy wonder CEO Mark Zuckerberg was on Wall Street to ring NASDAQ’s opening bell, and post a status update while he was at it (epic!).
In the lead up to this morning’s excitement, there were no less than 17 billion online stories, editorials, blog posts, tweets and pings about Facebook. (We may be underestimating that number). These included speculations on whether Facebook as a cool new toy under the Christmas tree may have “jumped the shark”, co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s “defriending” the United States in the lead up to becoming a billionaire and an interactive quiz that lets you know exactly how much you’re worth to Facebook. Our worth? A paltry $47, or about a share and a quarter of the world’s biggest social network.
In other online chatter:
- There are other social networks, in case you’ve forgotten. Remember Twitter? Here’s some tips on how not be annoying with your 140-character allotment.
- Ever since Mitt Romney’s political policies were likened to an Etch-a-Sketch, have you been jonesing for that old school toy? No need to troll the aisles of Toys R Us or place bids on eBay. Now you can turn your iPad into one!
- Speaking of Mitt, the Gregory Brothers give him a musical video mashup about liking lakes and music.
- And speaking of music, the real kind, we also lost disco legend Donna Summer to cancer this week. She was 63. Love to love you, babe.
Kathy Drasky regularly writes about online culture. Her marketing and communications work with the ANZA Technology Network, Advance Global Australians and with various Australians and Australian enterprises has led to at least a dozen trips Down Under.
An accomplished digital photographer, her photos have appeared in 7×7 Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle and Google Schmap.
