The Face Behind Facebook

Tells 60 Minutes "Beacon" Needs Work, 2008 IPO Highly Unlikely

(CBS)  Li says Facebook is a threat to Google because it could become the first site people go to, to search. Say you want information about a family vacation in Maui. Li says when you check Google, you could get long list of sites. When we tried, it was almost 200,000 hits long. "Versus I can go on Facebook. I can go and ask my friends, and people will write back to me, 'Oh, I've done things, and this is what I recommend. And knowing you and your kids, they would really like doing this.' So, the next time I do something very specific like that, chances are I’ll probably go to Facebook," she explains.

Which is why Yahoo! offered to buy Facebook in 2006 for $1 billion in cash. Zuckerberg declined. But then in 2007 Microsoft swooped in and bought 1.6 percent of the company for $240 million.

That meant that Bill Gates valued Facebook at $15 billion, roughly the same as Ford or CBS. Some analysts say that's wildly unrealistic, since Facebook has yet to figure out how to make money off its huge audience.

Asked if it's true that Facebook doesn't make that much money, Zuckerberg tells Stahl, "I think that's a pretty relative thing. But I mean as a private company, we just have the advantage of not necessarily having to report to the outside world all of our financials."

He may duck the question, but there's no getting around the fact that Facebook needs to find a way to generate revenue, and so Zuckerberg is experimenting with ads, trying to cash-in on his users' own recommendations.

Say you write on Facebook that you like a certain movie - that's turned into an ad. Or maybe you like a scarf from Bloomingdale's.

"So this isn't an ad that's going to go to a lot of people. Basically it- when you put that information in our profile that you bought a scarf and that you like that scarf, that’s something that your friends might find interesting, right? So what we’d do is we might show that information to your friends a little bit more proactively as an ad. Right…so," Zuckerberg explains.

"But with me in the ad?" Stahl asks.

"Yeah, but that would basically be the ad," Zuckerberg says.

"Okay. But it’s almost like an endorsement. Like Michael Jordan for Nike. I become the spokesman for that ad," Stahl remarks.

"Well, that's what you're doing when you're putting that information in your profile," Zuckerberg argues.

The real trouble started when Facebook began using a tracking program called "Beacon" that monitors what you buy on over 40 Web sites, and automatically reports it to your friends, without explicit permission.

"People signed up for Facebook thinking that it was a way to just stay in touch with their friends. And now some of them feel that there’s some snooping going on," Stahl says. "Is there any concern you're turning Facebook into something much more commercial?"

"I actually think that this makes it less commercial. I mean, what would you rather see? A banner ad from Bloomingdale’s or that one of your friends bought a scarf?" Zuckerberg asks.

But when a Facebook user bought his wife a diamond ring online, the surprise was ruined because Beacon notified all his friends and his wife about it, on Facebook. With stories like that, criticism of Beacon began to build, but Zuckerberg dug in his heels, until he had a full blown PR disaster on his hands, including petitions and bloggers writing the company’s obituaries.

"I guess this shows how difficult it is for a company like yours to make money through advertising and protect people's real privacy and their sense of privacy," Stahl says.

"It might take some work for us to get this exactly right," Zuckerberg says. "This is something we think is going to be a really good thing."

Not a real answer to the privacy question, more like the canned response of a typical business executive.

"I mean there have to be ads either way because we have to make money," Zuckerberg says. "I mean, we have 400 employees and you know, I mean, we have to support all that and make a profit."

[toolmangler-2009]

Posted by abstractist at 09:25 PM : Jan 14, 2008

Posted by abstractist at 08:06 PM : Jan 14, 2008





13 pages of Spam, I don''t care if Stahl was mispoken, you are a Jerk. and more than likely a kid

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.

[abstractist-2009]

Lesley Stahl Made a common Ivy League Mistake.

I see that someone already posted about this, but to go into further detail about the word alumnus, or alum

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university

2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate

Hey how about that INMATE!!.

Leslie most likely has her Masters in Communication, and here is this Harvard Dropout, worth 100 times her total wealth, and she is trying to correct him, and she was wrong to begin with.

Another Harvard Drop out who is an Alum is Billy, BAD BREATH, Gates, you may have heard of him (Microsoft?)

My wife told me I was wrong till I showed her in the dictionary, then she informed me that the professors at UCONN told her that only College Grads were considered ALUMs, guess no one showed them a dictionary.

Lets fact check before we insult young impressionable 23 year old BILLIONAIRES.