Facebook Fun

Just in case you've been living in a cave for the past couple of weeks, the big story that everyone is talking about is Microsoft's recent investment into hot social networking start-up, Facebook. First and foremost this has many implications to both Microsoft and Facebook. Microsoft is in essence mortgaging its future placing a big bet on the fact that FB is going to be the next big thing. Facebook, on the other hand, is hoping that Microsoft can show them the ropes on how to become a successful media company (if you think FB is anything but a media company, you're sorely mistaken).

What was interesting over the last couple of weeks is the fact that there were several players who were all trying to buy Microsoft's piece of the pie. Google was perhaps the biggest and most relevant among them and surprisingly lost. Why they lost has yet to unfold. Although in the end it may be pretty smart of FB to have said no to Google, Google sure would have had a lot more to offer them as far as experience and online advertising brainshare.

What's certain now is the gloves are off between the two companies. Today, Google announced that they have established a partnership with several companies to set-up a social networking platform that will be common across the board. While this probably won't make FB co-founder Mark Zuckerberg forget that he's a new billionaire (on paper), it will surely make things more interesting in the weeks and months to come.

Rambling Reading

- The Sox made it into their second World Series in 3 years yesterday by defeating the Cleveland Indians.

- Don't mess with Bill Maher - he'll kick you out, dammit!

- Apple knows how to sell more than a few iPods and computers.

- Good luck getting World Series tickets.

...And We're Back!

After a longer than anticipated hiatus, we'll be blogging on a more regular basis again (though the exact timeframe is TBD). In any case, it's been a great 6+ months off. Looking forward to bringing you even more fun from around the Web.