While I Was Out ...
Well, I’m back. Careful readers would have noticed that my column disappeared from these pages back in October. My absence wasn’t due to a severe case of laziness. Rather, I’ve been raising a baby boy who arrived in my life on Sept. 28. As you can understand I was a little distracted by diapers and burping to write a column.
But I’m back and I figured I’d take this first column as an opportunity to review the news highlights in the tech sector that occurred while I was gone.
A big change no one seemed to notice. It’s become routine now. Facebook rolls out a change to its social networking site and all its devotees curse the update while still checking the site obsessively. It would have been reasonable to expect the same reaction for what was billed as Facebook’s biggest update yet: the Facebook Timeline. But oddly, the change has made very few waves.
Since December, Facebook began rolling out the new timeline for U.S. users. Those who have adopted the new feature have a spruced-up profile page that acts, as the name implies, like a timeline for the user’s life.
Overall, the new timeline isn’t really that dramatic a change. The coolest thing is that you can now post a large, panoramic photo at the top of your page. If you’re really into virtual scrapbooking you could go through and post major life events like when you were born, when you had your first kiss and when you got married, but I don’t know many people like that.
It’s been over a month since the timeline was launched and I’ve heard very little buzz and practically no complaints. I guess the things that really get Facebook users riled up are privacy concerns, not new bells and whistles.
Lesson learned? If Facebook has changed and no one is there to see it, it doesn’t make a sound.
Steve Jobs’ death. One of the biggest stories of 2011 was undoubtedly the death of Apple’s innovative leader, Steve Jobs. His passing marked the end of an era for Apple, which has ridden a tide of successes, including the iPhone and iPad. I don’t need to rehash this story for too long since you had to live under a rock in order to avoid the media blitz that followed his death. What will be interesting is whether Apple can continue to dominate the market as it has over the last decade without Jobs at the helm.
Lesson learned? Even the greatest among us are vulnerable.
Big tech IPOs. Despite an overall tepid economy, tech companies reentered the IPO market in 2011. Two of the biggest happened during the last three months of 2011, when I was on hiatus. The first was Groupon, the online deal-a-day website company that became a media darling. Its shares hit the market Nov. 4 and the company raised $700 million, making it the second largest IPO of an Internet company since Google in 2004. But its share price has hovered around $20, its initial price, making it a mild disappointment.
The second big IPO came when Zynga, the online gaming company, issued shares Dec. 16. Its price went from $10 down to $9.50 on the first day of trading. It’s now at $8.45 a share. Definitely not what the company’s founders had in mind.
Lesson learned? The hot thing isn’t always a sure thing — especially in this economy.
Google + and Twitter launch brand pages. Not to be outdone by Facebook, both Google + and Twitter launched brand pages for businesses toward the end of 2011. The Twitter brand pages — available initially to a select number of companies — allow businesses to customize their Twitter pages. For example, American Express, which was part of the initial launch, has a Twitter page with a larger logo and a promoted tweet that, at the time I’m writing this, features a YouTube video.
Google + announced the launch of its brand pages in November. The pages for business look pretty similar to Facebook pages, maybe with a little less functionality.
Lesson learned? There’s no hiding from commerce on the Internet.
So those are the top stories as I see them. Think I missed anything? Let me know by sending me an email. My contact information is below.
Got news for the Digital Diva? Email Christina Davis at cdavis@wbjournal.com.
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