Why is there nothing but Facebook IPO news today, you (Facebook haters) may be asking? Well, outside of the obvious – people are obsessed, this is a historic event, it’s the biggest tech IPO over, etc., etc. – there’s another reason why all the news outlets are publishing Facebook this and Facebook that today. It’s because everyone else is holding their news for a later date….the result of which has led to a historic event of my own: inbox zero.
So this is what it’s like not being a tech blogger?
OK, if I’m being honest, it’s like inbox two or three, since there are a few tech companies who are clueless enough to think I care about their minor enhancements today, of all days (Nuance, I’m looking at you. Nuance PDF Software update, really? Really?!) But for the most part, it’s been radio silence since sometime last night.
(Note that I’m not counting automated newsletters and notification emails – those never hit the inbox anyway.)
As someone who pretty much gets 50 emails every couple of hours, this is a marvel. I want to take a snapshot to remember this moment. It’s a beautiful thing. Inbox zero. Inbox zero, I tell you!
I expected a little more fanfare from Gmail. “Woohoo?” That’s it? Ah well.
Not only have PR people made the FB IPO a national holiday of sorts, other startup founders who email, text and Skype us are delaying their outreach efforts as well. There’s no “our app just rolled out version 2.0!” No “we got funded!” No “we added sharing features and user profiles!” No “we just hit a million users!” Nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada.
The handful of pitches which have come in today are Facebook-related, and didn’t come in via PR. PR is taking the day off!
PR folks, who often reach out trying to shimmy their way into the news cycle by tying their company to whatever news is happening that day, have actually given up today. That’s how big the Facebook IPO news: they gave up.
No, I’m not crying. I just have a little something in my eye.
~The Best Of TechCrunch’s Facebook IPO Coverage~
Video & Photos: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Rings In The NASDAQ Bell
No IPO Pop Here: Facebook Trades Slightly Higher At Around $40
Facebook’s Key Executives And Shareholders: What Is Everyone Worth?
Zuckerberg Receives Hoodie, Says “Our Mission Isn’t To Be A Public Company” In Pre-IPO Remarks
How Facebook Hacked The NASDAQ Button
Zynga Shares Go On Wild Ride During Facebook IPO — Big Fall, Then Recovery
Facebook Says Haters Gonna Hate, Likers Gonna Like
Another startup cashing in (figuratively speaking) on the FB IPO: StockTwits. Earlier this week, the social network for investors added Facebook to its StockTwits Social Heatmap, a feature on the site that provides a visualization of what the StockTwits some 200,000 investors and traders are talking about. Usually, the heatmap looks looks like a bunch of little squares – the bigger the square means more conversation.
But today, Facebook ($FB) is dominating, even pushing fan favorite $AAPL aside.
Over the past 72 hours, StockTwits executive editor Phil Pearlman has been watching the momentum on the heatmap building up, and says the community is “simply riveted” by the Facebook IPO. (As is everyone else, everywhere.)
“From a sentiment point of view, the heatmap is a reflection of the velocity of social interest. People are obsessed and discussing the IPO like mad,” says Pearlman.
“$FB discussion was already strong and has doubled over the past 24hrs. It is tapering a bit here and will likely go crazy again as the stock begins trading around 11, or at least that’s my best guess,” he adds.
Above is a shot of the heatmap from this morning.
As we go to post this, the FB square has shrunk down a bit, but it’s still early. Very soon, that chart might be nearly all gray.
Visualization junkies will have fun with something like this, given that the heatmap updates in real-time, reflecting the live discussions taking place on site. You can also break the chart down by past hour, last 6 hours and last 24 hours, if you’re curious. Also note that the algorithm looks at volume and influence of those discussing the stock, too.
You can join the Facebook stream here if you want to contribute (or just watch).
This is awesome. At 9:30 AM ET, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted what’s bound to be a historical status update to his Facebook Timeline. The post simply reads: “Mark Zuckerberg listed a company on NASDAQ. — with Chris Cox and 4 others.” You can read the whole story right here from the engineer who rigged up the auto-post: “How Facebook Hacked The NASDAQ Button”
Since the CEO was busy actually ringing the bell from Hacker Square at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Facebook figured it would post for him. The post went live just as Zuckerberg rang the NASDAQ Opening Bell. In the future, don’t be surprised when more physical objects get hooked into Facebook.
Social finance site TradingView, which launched in September of last year, is rolling out a new feature just in time for the Facebook IPO (c’mon, you knew there would have to be at least one story about “just in time for the Facebook IPO” today, right?). But anyway, this one seems relevant at least: TradingView is launching interactive real-time chatting on its site, which lets users talk about stocks in a slightly more private forum than Twitter.
The site, for those unfamiliar, was created by trading software company MultiCharts, a company that, as the name implies, is all about charts and graphs. TradingView, then, aims to make those stock charts more social. Users can create and share charts, follow charts, comment on them, post them to Twitter or embed them on websites.
The new real-time chat feature will be stock-specific, letting users view and join discussions related to the stock (cough FB cough) they’re interested in. When you scroll over a company on your watch list, you’ll see the live chat window for that symbol right next to the live stock chart.
If you want to try this feature out, be warned: you’ll be a beta tester. The feature is so new that it hasn’t even made its way to the production servers yet. Instead, you’ll need to log in to: staging.tradingview.com (don’t worry about that browser warning, it’s OK).
Then use the username “tradingview” and password “tview24″. Wonder if it will crash?
INTRO, the ambient location app whose claim-to-fame is how it’s angling to become the “LinkedIn” of the social/local people-stalking space, is now increasing its business-oriented focus. With the iOS app‘s most recent update, due to roll out any day (minute?) now, INTRO is adding features that will allow members of groups to connect with each other, even going so far as to shut off networking with people outside of their preferred groups.
The company, which was already focused on professional (not social) networking, is integrating Meetup, Eventbrite, and LinkedIn groups for improved matching in the new app, as well as support for private groups, like membership clubs and entrepreneur networks, for example.
Explains INTRO Labs founder Anthony Erwin, “some people - particularly the power players, maybe’s it’s a top VC in New York, for example – still potentially want to network, but don’t want everyone jumping at them,” he says. “When they add themselves to a private network [in INTRO], they can switch off all other types of people connected to them.” In other words, INTRO will now help the big-time players do the networking on their own terms. That’s not a bad idea, actually.
The interesting thing about the introduction of this private networking feature is how it’s being rolled out. Instead of putting the burden on the user to configure this stuff in the settings, INTRO works with the network in question to automatically add INTRO users to the networks they’re a member of. Although seemingly a simple idea, doing so involves matching the user’s name, LinkedIn profile, email and location to the network’s private membership roster. Once a match has been made, a new section appears in the user’s profile section showing the badges of the networks they belong to.
(Note: if you’re interested in having a network set up for your organization, Anthony says he’s taking requests via email here: ant@introlabs.net.)
Upon its initial launch, there are already 40 private networks available, mainly in New York and Londdon, which have the potential to reach to some 1.5 million members.
Also new with the app’s update is support for Twitter SSO, and, just in case the ambient location crown goes to another app (if such a crown ever exists), the company is working on an API, too. This could give INTRO more room to grow – for example, companies and organizations building their own apps for events or conferences could integrate ambient location features to connect attendees.
The update isn’t live in the App Store at the time of writing, but should be rolling out soon. In the meantime, you can grab the current version of INTRO here.
