By John Rossi :: 7:53 AM
Earlier this week, Facebook announced that it will be improving the methodology behind the site’s search functions, a move that will help users more easily locate the results they are looking for.
According to a developer’s post on a Facebook wall, “we’re improving Search on Facebook to make it even easier for you to find what you’re looking for. Similar types of your search results will now be listed in their respective sections, organizing the Pages, Groups, and people you care the most about.”
.
By Gilbert Falso :: 8:40 PM
Effective tonight, Facebook has made two relationship status indicators available to to the LGBT community in the United States.
Facebook users who are U.S. residents will now be able to select a relationship status of “In a domestic partnership†or “In a civil union,†along with the standard selections of Facebook relationship options, such as “Single,” “In a relationship,” “Engaged,” “Married,” “It’s complicated,” “In an open relationship,” “Widowed,” ‘Divorced” and “Separated.”
Although only available to those in the U.S., the new options will be opened to residents in other countries shortly. However, in countries where same-sex marriages are already allowed by law, these options will most likely not appear.
Facebook is responding to increasing pressure from the LGBT community to add these status indicators, a company representative said in published reports, “This has been a highly requested feature from users. We want to provide options for people to genuinely and authentically reflect their relationships.”
The dropdown in the Facebook Profile management screen now shows the following choices below:
By John Rossi :: 8:38 AM
Klout, a service that ranks Twitter and Facebook users, has forecasted winners of the Grammy Awards based on performers’ social media influence.
A Klout score measures online influence, ranging from 1 to 100, with high scores representing a wide, strong range of influence and engagement with their followers who react to messages.
For example, child pop-star Justin Bieber is the most influential artist online, with a top score of 100. Lady Gaga ranks at 90, and Britney Spears intentionally increased her score from 64 to 87, according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal about the ranking services.
Spears had reportedly followed the advice of Klout’s CEOÂ to tweet frequently and send out tweets personally (rather than sent from her staff) and to post updates to both Twitter and Facebook.
Lady Gaga is forecast to win Album of the Year for The Fame Monster, with her score of 90 and Justin Bieber will win Best New Artist, according to Klout. The Record of the Year award will go to Eminem for “Love the Way You Lie” with his score of 80.
The Best Female Pop Vocal Performance is expected to go to Lady Gaga as well, and the runner-up is Katy Perry with a score of 89.82.
Grammy winners are determined by votes from members of the Recording Academy, and not fans, so Klout’s method of prediction may not be entirely accurate.
By Gilbert Falso :: 9:32 PM
Hoping to leverage investor interest about social networking companies like Facebook and Twitter, JPMorgan Chase is planning to begin a new fund to invest in an variety of Internet and new media companies.
The proposed fund, which will be administered by JPMorgan’s asset-management group , is looking to raise between $500 million and $750 million from investors to put into privately held technology businesses like Twitter and Groupon.
Several social-media companies, including LinkedIn and Pandora, have already filed paperwork to go public. Those filings presage even more anticipated stock sales by Groupon and Facebook.
Interest in these types of companies has been running high recently. Groupon raised $950 million in financing from several investment firms, after having turned down a $6 billion takeover offer by Google.
Ttrading in existing shares of these companies on private markets has been frenzied over the past several months, with Facebook valued at $53 billion on the secondary market SharesPost.
JPMorgan plans to buy and sell shares in these companies on behalf of their clients, and will not directly invest the firm’s own money.
Having a base of ready investors could give JPMorgan’s investment bank a competitive edge in gaining business from the young technology firms. Analysts have long seen retail customers as a more stable source of capital, compared to money that moves in and out of stocks owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
By Gilbert Falso :: 8:16 AM
There’s an interesting article in Friday’s Investor’s Business Daily that discusses the challenges that Facebook and LinkedIn will face in building out their advertising businesses.
Pete Barlas makes the case that each network is somewhat limited in the types of advertising dollars it can bring in, due to its user base. Bringing in ad revenue will be crucial for both networks over the next 12 to 18 months as they look to complete initial public offerings.
[Read the full article here: Is Facebook Limited In Ad Growth?]