Facebook on Tuesday raised its IPO (Initial Public Offering) price target range to between ($34 to $38) per share from the previous prices ($28 to $35) as a result of strong demands, according to a new filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

The new price range pushes the social networking company's valuation to between $93 billion and $104 billion. Facebook will offer a total of 388 million shares. Facebook IPO will start on May,18th and its shares will be listed on the NASDAQ exchange under the "FB" ticker symbol.

 

 

Facebook Officially announced "App Center", their very own version of an App store that will house all the applications and games that you currently enjoy on Facebook. Apart from giving you one stop shop for all your apps, App Center will now also allow paid apps and games, something that was missing from Facebook so far.

The App Center will be available from the web, as well as the iOS and Android version of the Facebook mobile app. The App Center will start rolling out to users in a few weeks but developers can sign up right now if they want their apps on the App Center.

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Google+ SMS service was available for US and INdia Only, but Now its available for 41 new Countries. Instead of posting messages on Google+ using the website or their dedicated app, you can post using an SMS from your smartphone.

 

Here is the list of countries where the service is now functional:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Benin, Cambodia, Cameroon, Congo (DRC), Cote D'Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia.

Facebook has Officially launched "Messanger for Windows" the first official Facebook Messenger client for Desktops PCs, Not just for chatting but also for Messaging, Sending files and see Notifications without a need of any browser.

In fact, after the client leaked back in December, Zuck and Co. unceremoniously dumped the executable on the web, opened up the help page and did so without any info about the App back then.

Now the program is getting a proper launch, complete with a landing page and a press release. There is not much here to shock or surprise Messenger for Windows allows you to chat with your Facebook friends in a simple tabbed interface, check your news feed and delivers notifications to your desktop.

 

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Massenger for Windows [Download]

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Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg has let slip that his company plans to buy popular photo-sharing app Instagram. Facebook will pick up the social app, which got its own long-awaited Android version, for a cool $1 billion in cash and shares. Zuck confirmed the news on his personal blog, adding that the deal will not affect Instagram integration with competing social networks:

"We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook."

 

 

 

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom confirmed via his site is blog that the service, "is not going away," adding, "The Instagram app will still be the same one you know and love." Check out some PR on the subject after the break.

 

 

 

Facebook to Acquire Instagram

MENLO PARK, CALIF.-April 9, 2012-Facebook announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire Instagram, a fun, popular photo-sharing app for mobile devices.

The total consideration for San Francisco-based Instagram is approximately $1 billion in a combination of cash and shares of Facebook. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close later this quarter.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, posted about the transaction on his Timeline:

I'm excited to share the news that we've agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook.

For years, we've focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we'll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.

We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram's strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.

That's why we're committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.

We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.

These and many other features are important parts of the Instagram experience and we understand that. We will try to learn from Instagram's experience to build similar features into our other products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook's strong engineering team and infrastructure.

This is an important milestone for Facebook because it's the first time we've ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.

We're looking forward to working with the Instagram team and to all of the great new experiences we're going to be able to build together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google+ keep getting popular artists and public figures on Google+ Hang-out as a strategy to promote Google+, For the FIRST Time in Middle East, Google+ will Host the Arab Largest Pop Star (Amr Diab) in Live Backstage Online Event.

Only Nine luck fans will be able to participate in the Google+ Hangout with Amr Diab during a live online event. You can sign-up to be one of lucky Nine fans Here, Also note that you must have a Google+ account and following Amr Diab or added him to your circles to be able to participate. Good luck!

After Timeline for Personal Profile pages. Today, Facebook launched the Timeline for Brand pages preview, Where Admins can preview their pages with the new timeline style that will be published globally in 30,March to all facebook pages. If you are a page Admin check your head to your page and you will see a notification like the one Below. You can preview your page timeline or publish it.

The cover photo opportunity, which we have now all seen on Facebook personal profiles, is a beautiful billboard. You can now use it o your Brand page at 852 pixels wide by 315 pixels high, this real estate can be used to convey a lot of information about a business. And because Facebook makes it easy to change your cover photo, having a cover photo strategy might mean creating multiple versions of your cover photo and changing it regularly.

Our Questions is ?

• Will fan pages still have the option to set a default landing page?

• Will fan pages still have the ability to add custom tabs?

• How will the new design affect social e-commerce, contests, and opt in offers?

Amid all the IPO hysteria that has recently surrounded Facebook, the social network also made news by announcing it plans to introduce mobile advertising for users who connect to the site through a smartphone app. In just its first year, where the ads will only be active in six countries, that initiative could bring in more than a billion more dollars to the soon-to-be public company bottom line.

Specifically, moblie research group MobileSquared predicts that within the first 12 months after Facebook mobile ads go live, there will be a $1.2 billion revenue stream that did not exist before. That may sound impressive, but when you factor in the number of users who are active in the mobile Facebook world, that is only around $6.50 per user per year.

Facebook is rolling out a new system to verify user accounts that will allow some users to use nicknames. Since Facebook at its core is looking for your personal information, it has always wanted you to use your real name unless you are a big star such as Lady Gaga. Facebook is positioning this account verification as a way to ensure that people do not subscribe to an imposter who might be trying to impersonate someone on Facebook.

By verifying an account, the users will get more prominent placement in the Facebook "People to Subscribe to" suggestions. Techcrunch reports that starting today people with many subscribers will start being notified of the option to verify their account by uploading their government supplied ID. The person real name, if they go by a pseudonym, will still be listed on the about page. Apparently, each verified account will be processed manualy.

As we announced before Rovio popular game Angry Birds launched on the Valentine's day, Angry Birds Facebook version of the game is much more sophisticated and feature-rich than its Google+ cousin, which was launched back in the summer of last year. Angry Birds on Facebook runs on Adobe Flash 11 and supports 3D graphics, which put your computer through its paces rendering the cool lighting, smoke and explosion effects the game boasts.

Rovio have thrown a new feature in their Angry Birds Facebook port called "Power-up". It is a cheating and there are four of them you can use: Sling Scope, King Sling, Super Seeds and Birdquake.