Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

Sean Parker Is Married! Facebook Billionaire Weds Alexandra Lenas

Sunday, June 2nd, 2013

Sean Parker is a married man! The Napster founder and Facebook billionaire, 33, wed singer-songwriter Alexandra Lenas on Saturday, June 1, a rep confirms to Us Weekly.

The ceremony took place in Big Sur, Calif. at the Ventana Inn. According to the rep, the couple celebrated with 300 family members and friends “in a romantic, magical setting.”

A source tells Us that money was certainly not an object at the nuptials, where Parker even hired Ngila Dickson, the designer from The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, to style their guests and the groom’s wardrobe. The couple’s 6-month-old daughter, Winter Victoria, and the flower girls were also dressed by Dickson. 

PHOTOS: TV wedding dresses

“He is having costumes made for each guest, spending millions of dollars,” a source revealed to Us of the ceremony.

Parker confirmed in a tweet on April 1 that they were indeed costuming guests, but denied that it was a “theme” wedding.

“Academy award winning costume designer Ngila Dickson is creating gorgeous, inspiring, and unique designs that are both modern and whimsical,” he wrote. “Sorry to disappoint, but the wardrobe we’re giving wedding guests is essentially modern … There will be nothing medieval about it.”

PHOTOS: Stars’ stunning wedding gowns

According to the Associated Press, Parker had the venue decked out their special day, “building the equivalent of a movie set for the wedding.”

At the wedding, a rep tells Us that guests were treated to music performances by The Good, The Bad & The Ginger and Loreena McKennitt. 

The couple got engaged in Feb. 2011.

Parker, worth an estimated $ 2 billion, was portrayed in the 2008 movie The Social Network by Justin Timberlake. He founded Napster in 1999 when he just was just 19 years old. In 2004, he became the first president of Facebook before stepping down in 2005.

PHOTOS: Meet my on-screen twin

He’s since been involved with the Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, and is currently a backer for the music-streaming service Spotify.

Us Magazine Latest News

Facebook on Yahoo offers New Possibilities

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

Sydney, Australia (PRWEB) April 21, 2013

Yahoo is going through an overhaul and will now have new social media features and Think Big Online believes it will benefit the end user. There will now be newsfeed features for Yahoo. Companies will be able to use these new social media features to market products. The changes have not been implemented yet, but we should see them sometime in 2013. It will be interesting to see how these changes affect Yahoo.

CEO Marissa Mayer of Yahoo posted on Wednesday that in the future users will be able to log into Yahoo using their Facebook IDS. They will be able to share videos and articles with friends and family. Yahoo has many visitors, but the numbers have gone down over the past few years. The new Yahoo features will likely provide more sources for advertising.

In the next few days, these change will be made and there will also be a new mobile application. These changes follow ones that were made to Yahoo Mail which came out in December.

At this point, it cannot determine how much of an affect this relationship will have for Yahoo. However, it may be able to open up new revenue streams if the number of Yahoo viewers increases. These changes could propel Yahoo upward when it comes to viewers and clicks. If these changes can increase the amount of people using Yahoo, then increased revenue will follow.

It will be interesting to see how the integration of Yahoo with Facebook can be used to improve social media marketing. Companies can now use this relationship to market brands and services, which may benefit Yahoo in the end. Users will see how data is shared between Facebook and Yahoo and the advantages it offers to companies marketing their brands.

About Think Big Online

Think Big Online is a Digital Marketing Agency founded by Samuel Junghenn. Junghenn can work with your company to take advantage of Yahoo’s integration with Facebook to market your brand.


Arts & Entertainment: Web sites / Internet

Patton Oswalt Writes About Boston Marathon Bombings in Inspirational Facebook Message

Tuesday, April 16th, 2013

Well said, Patton Oswalt. The 44-year-old comedian and actor wrote a inspiring message on his Facebook page Monday, April 15 following the tragic bombings during the Boston Marathon that went viral. 

PHOTOS: Stars from Boston

“I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, ‘Well, I’ve had it with humanity.’ But I was wrong,” Patton wrote. “I don’t know what’s going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.”

“But here’s what I DO know,” he continued. “If it’s one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out.”

VIDEO: Celebrity bible study

And the Virginia-born actor went on to remind people of all the good in world.

“The vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak,” the Young Adult star wrote. “This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We’d have eaten ourselves alive long ago.”

PHOTOS: Celeb heroes

Oswalt concluded, “So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, ‘The good outnumber you, and we always will.’”

The bombings on Monday killed three and injured more than 170 people. Oswalt’s message has been shared on Facebook over 200,000 times.

Us Magazine Latest News

Tiger Woods Explains Why He and Lindsey Vonn Debuted Relationship Via Facebook, Photo Shoot

Thursday, March 21st, 2013

Well played, Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn! During a press conference on Wednesday, March 20 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando, Fla., Woods explained why he and the Olympic skier decided to issue public statements — plus a lovey-dovey professional photo shoot — Monday announcing they are dating.

“We’re very happy where we’re at,” Woods, 37, explained of his relationship with Vonn, 28. But the two athletes, who have romantically linked since November, also wanted to put an end to speculation and “limit” the attention their rumored romance received, he explained.

PHOTOS: Tiger and his kids

By releasing a series of portrait couple photos, Woods explained, “We basically devalued the first [paparazzi] photos.”

“We felt like it was the best thing to do,” the golf pro said. “We’re very happy about it.”

PHOTOS: Tiger and Elin — the way they were

To confirm they are an item, both Woods and Vonn posted statements and pictures on their Facebook pages on Monday. “I guess it wasn’t a well-kept secret but yes, I am dating Tiger Woods,” Vonn wrote. “Our relationship evolved from a friendship into something more over these past few months and it has made me very happy.”

Woods also wrote, “Lindsey and I have been friends for some time, but over the last few months we have become very close and are now dating. We thank you for your support and for respecting our privacy.”

PHOTOS: Tiger’s sex scandal revisited

Vonn quietly ended her marriage to fellow skier Thomas Vonn in November 2011 after four years, while Woods’ marriage to Elin Nordegren ended in 2010 after his public cheating scandal.

A source told Us that Woods, who is father to kids Sam, 5, and Charlie, 4, had a heart-to-heart with Vonn when they started dating. “He confessed everything in his past to her and stuff — they’re really into each other,” the source explained.

Us Magazine Latest News

Lady Gaga Responds to Sharon Osbourne’s Facebook Message: “As a Youth Activist I’m Compelled to be Involved”

Sunday, January 13th, 2013

Mother Monster has spoken. In the most recent chapter of the ongoing feud between Lady Gaga and Kelly Osbourne, the “Born This Way” singer took to her Facebook Saturday, Jan. 12, to swiftly defend her statements. 

“The ‘real world’ can be cruel, why not try to change it into a better place?” Gaga wrote, in reference to Sharon Osbourne‘s Facebook post Thursday. “I am an activist. Nobody takes adolescents seriously, I do. My letter to Kelly Osbourne was open, because her statements on cyber-bullying were public & as a youth activist I’m compelled to be involved.”

PHOTOS: Kelly Osbourne’s hair evolution

On Jan. 10, Sharon took Gaga to task in a scathing note on her Facebook page, telling the singer to stop being self-righteous while engaging in hypocritical bullying behavior herself.

“You say [Kelly's] work on E! with the Fashion Police is ‘rooted in criticism, judgment, and rating people’s beauty against one another.’ Welcome to the real world,” the 60-year-old talk show host said. “Example, when I saw you wear a dress made out of raw meat, I was sickened.”

PHOTOS: Amazing star slimdowns

“When I see you wearing fur, and using it as a fashion statement, the fact that defenseless animals have been killed so you can get your picture in the press is abhorrent to me,” she continued. “Shouldn’t you be teaching your ‘little monster’ fans to respect animals and life?”

PHOTOS: Famous celebrity feuds

This most recent verbal tussle first reignited earlier this week, when Gaga posted an open letter to Kelly, 28, on her website regarding comments the Fashion Police cohost had made in a magazine interview, calling Gaga’s fans “the worst” when it came to cyber-bullying.

Kelly detailed death threats and other verbal assaults that she often received from Gaga’s “little monsters.”

“They’ve said I should kill myself, that they hope I get raped,” she told UK’s Fabulous magazine. “I mean, it’s crazy but I’ve had this all my life and I just try and ignore it.”

Gaga responded with a lengthy letter, urging Kelly to consider using her celebrity to help further a “kinder and braver world,” rather than a negative one.

PHOTOS: Stars who love their bodies

“It used to make me truly sad when I would hear people talk about your weight when you were younger, as I was bullied too,” Gaga wrote. “To see you blossoming into a beautiful slender woman who makes fun of others for a living is astounding. Why not help others?”

Us Magazine Latest News

Facebook Testing Customer Service Chat For Small Businesses

Saturday, December 22nd, 2012

(PRWEB) December 22, 2012

According to an AllFacebook report Facebook has been quietly testing a chat option for Page Administrators to connect with the Facebook Customer Service team to get answers on different advertising questions. Samuel Junghenn founder of Web Marketing Agency Think Big Online says this is a positive move forward for Facebook.

“One of the big problems small business owners had in the early days with Google Adwords was getting in touch with someone who knew and understood the platform. Facebook really is showing that it cares about it’s advertisers by taking this next step and opening up a direct line of communication,” said Mr Junghenn.

Recently Facebook has introduced a number of new advertising initiatives and it could be confusing as a business owner trying to understand each initiative and how to use it effectively.

Facebook’s test of using a salesforce driven chat service with their advertising customers to enhance the advertiser experience is one giant leap forward in making the platform more viable for small businesses.

“One of the biggest complaints I hear from business owners is how it’s difficult to keep up with the changes and work out what’s working for them. This integrated customer service chat option should really help quell that issue,” said Mr Junghenn


Arts & Entertainment: Web sites / Internet

Google, Facebook And The Next Billion Users

Sunday, November 11th, 2012
phones custom 92a8088693005f69949f2b76d758272ba157f4ce s6 c10 Google, Facebook And The Next Billion Users

Men look at mobile phones at the Adjame market in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The market for mobile telephones in developing countries has grown quickly, and now Facebook and Google are trying to get users to use the Internet on their devices.

Issouf Sanogo /AFP/Getty Images i

Men look at mobile phones at the Adjame market in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The market for mobile telephones in developing countries has grown quickly, and now Facebook and Google are trying to get users to use the Internet on their devices.

Issouf Sanogo /AFP/Getty Images

The chances are slim that a person living in poverty in a developing nation has access to the Internet on a computer. It’s expensive and, in some places, there’s a lack of infrastructure to support it.

The chances are better, though, that that person owns a cellphone. It’s probably not an iPhone or an Android, and he or she probably hasn’t purchased a data plan for it, but it has the ability to access the Internet.

Google believes that this category of cellphone user is the future of its expansion.

On Thursday, Google, alongside the local mobile carrier Globe Telecom, announced a new service in the Philippines called Free Zone, Reuters reports. It allows basic mobile users to access Google products including search, email and Google Plus.

The free service is intended to eventually entice users to shell out for more advanced phones and, presumably, more expensive data plans. If the service is successful, it will expand into other countries.

“It’s aimed at the next billion users of the Internet, many of whom will be in emerging markets and encounter the Internet first on a mobile phone, without ever owning a PC,” AbdelKarim Mardini, product manager for Google, told Reuters.

Google is not the only tech company seeking to tap into emerging markets this way.

As Quartz’s Christopher Mims reports, Facebook has long considered mobile on non-smartphones in the developing world key to the company’s continued expansion.

To that end, Facebook has created two ways for non-smartphone users to experience the social-networking service.

In 2010, Facebook launched Facebook Zero, a text-only version of its service. Users in 45 countries with “mid-range feature phones” can click on links, send messages and update their statuses.

The features of the app are basic, but enough to prompt the kind of wildfire success that fuller versions of Facebook had in the United States. In Africa, the number of people on Facebook jumped 114 percent in 18 months.

And in 2011, Facebook and Snaptu announced a new app called Facebook for Every Phone. It was built for more than 2,500 different types of mobile devices, constituting around 80 percent of the devices sold worldwide. It had 30 million users at acquisition.

Still, there’s room for both Facebook and Google to grow in these markets.

Mashable’s Alex Fitzpatrick reports that approximately three-quarters of the world’s population have access to a mobile phone, and that the majority of those subscriptions are in developing countries.

But owning a mobile device does not yet automatically equate to having Internet access. For example, according to The Economist, only 81 million Indians, or 7 percent of the population, use the Internet, while 507 million own mobile phones.

Narrowing that gap is the task for Internet-based companies in the 21st century.

World

Google, Facebook And The Next Billion Users

Saturday, November 10th, 2012
phones custom 92a8088693005f69949f2b76d758272ba157f4ce s6 c10 Google, Facebook And The Next Billion Users

Men look at mobile phones at the Adjame market in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The market for mobile telephones in developing countries has grown quickly, and now Facebook and Google are trying to get users to use the Internet on their devices.

Issouf Sanogo /AFP/Getty Images i

Men look at mobile phones at the Adjame market in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The market for mobile telephones in developing countries has grown quickly, and now Facebook and Google are trying to get users to use the Internet on their devices.

Issouf Sanogo /AFP/Getty Images

The chances are slim that a person living in poverty in a developing nation has access to the Internet on a computer. It’s expensive and, in some places, there’s a lack of infrastructure to support it.

The chances are better, though, that that person owns a cellphone. It’s probably not an iPhone or an Android, and he or she probably hasn’t purchased a data plan for it, but it has the ability to access the Internet.

Google believes that this category of cellphone user is the future of its expansion.

On Thursday, Google, alongside the local mobile carrier Globe Telecom, announced a new service in the Philippines called Free Zone, Reuters reports. It allows basic mobile users to access Google products including search, email and Google Plus.

The free service is intended to eventually entice users to shell out for more advanced phones and, presumably, more expensive data plans. If the service is successful, it will expand into other countries.

“It’s aimed at the next billion users of the Internet, many of whom will be in emerging markets and encounter the Internet first on a mobile phone, without ever owning a PC,” AbdelKarim Mardini, product manager for Google, told Reuters.

Google is not the only tech company seeking to tap into emerging markets this way.

As Quartz’s Christopher Mims reports, Facebook has long considered mobile on non-smartphones in the developing world key to the company’s continued expansion.

To that end, Facebook has created two ways for non-smartphone users to experience the social-networking service.

In 2010, Facebook launched Facebook Zero, a text-only version of its service. Users in 45 countries with “mid-range feature phones” can click on links, send messages and update their statuses.

The features of the app are basic, but enough to prompt the kind of wildfire success that fuller versions of Facebook had in the United States. In Africa, the number of people on Facebook jumped 114 percent in 18 months.

And in 2011, Facebook and Snaptu announced a new app called Facebook for Every Phone. It was built for more than 2,500 different types of mobile devices, constituting around 80 percent of the devices sold worldwide. It had 30 million users at acquisition.

Still, there’s room for both Facebook and Google to grow in these markets.

Mashable’s Alex Fitzpatrick reports that approximately three-quarters of the world’s population have access to a mobile phone, and that the majority of those subscriptions are in developing countries.

But owning a mobile device does not yet automatically equate to having Internet access. For example, according to The Economist, only 81 million Indians, or 7 percent of the population, use the Internet, while 507 million own mobile phones.

Narrowing that gap is the task for Internet-based companies in the 21st century.

Technology