Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Wants To Buy Facebook For $150 Billion

Just recently, King Abdullah arrived from a successful operation to Saudi Arabia much to the joy and relief of the nation.

First thing King Abdullah wants to do now is to buy out Facebook.

In a report by the Tehran Times, it has been suggested that King Abdullah is very upset with Mark Zuckerberg for allowing revolt Facebook pages in Egypt and Libya to be formed.

In a meeting with Saudi's King Abdullah in January 25, 2011, Mark Zuckerberg promised that it would never happen again. But King Abdullah isn't taking any chances and instead put an offer $150 billion for the Facebook company which is only worth about a billion.

Analysts believe that Mark Zuckerberg will not take the $150 billion Facebook offer and will wait for King Abdullah to up the offer to at least $500 billion.

If you were in Mark Zuckerberg's shoes, would you accept that $150 billion offer?

Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook Account Hacked

Still think that if you edited your privacy and security settings on Facebook that you'll be safe? Think again.

No other than Facebook's creator, Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook account was hacked.

TechCrunch.com was able to grab a screenshot of the hack which you can see below. The post which read

Let the hacking begin: If facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn’t Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way? Why not transform Facebook into a ‘social business’ the way Nobel Price winner Muhammad Yunus described it? http://bit.ly/fs6rT3 What do you think? #hackercup2011

already had 1800 likes and about 500 comments when the hack was discovered and taken down by Facebook.

The "Zuckerberg wants to shut down Facebook on March 15, 2011" Viral Hoax

I knew it was a hoax before I even re-posted it on TechEncounter hence the non-edited article and courtesy.

The purpose of why I re-posted the "Zuckerberg wants to shut down Facebook on March 15, 2011" viral hoax was to see how Facebook users would react to having their online social life go down the drain if Facebook would go offline.

In just a couple of minutes, reactions would start arriving. People started sharing the post and "worried" over the possibility of losing their online life on Facebook. Others had more common sense and did some research only to take a sigh of relief in knowing it was just a hoax. LOL!

With a membership of 600million, Zuckerberg aims to turn Facebook into the world's standardized communication and marketing platform, as universal and intuitive as the telephone but far more interactive, multidimensional and indispensable. And at a company estimated worth of over $50 billion and growing, who, in his right mind, would shut down such a booming business? On the other hand, $50 billion seems just quite right to retire...

What would you do if it was true that Zuckerberg did want to shut down Facebook on March 15,2011?

After Raking In Billions, Mark Zuckerberg Wants To Shut Down Facebook On March 15

[weeklyworldnews.com] PALO ALTO, CA –Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will be shut down in March. Managing the site has become too stressful.

“Facebook has gotten out of control,” said Zuckerberg in a press conference outside his Palo Alto office, “and the stress of managing this company has ruined my life. I need to put an end to all the madness.”

Zuckerberg went on to explain that starting March 15th, users will no longer be able to access their Facebook accounts.

“After March 15th the whole website shuts down,” said Avrat Humarthi, Vice President of Technical Affairs at Facebook. “So if you ever want to see your pictures again, I recommend you take them off the internet. You won’t be able to get them back once Facebook goes out of business.”

Zuckerberg said that the decision to shut down Facebook was difficult, but that he does not think people will be upset.

“I personally don’t think it’s a big deal,” he said in a private phone interview. “And to be honest, I think it’s for the better. Without Facebook, people will have to go outside and make real friends. That’s always a good thing.”

Some Facebook users were furious upon hearing the shocking news.

“What am I going to do without Facebook?” said Denise Bradshaw, a high school student from Indiana. “My life revolves around it. I’m on Facebook at least 10 hours a day. Now what am I going to do with all that free time?”

However, parents across the country have been experiencing a long anticipated sense of relief.

“I’m glad the Facebook nightmare is over,” said Jon Guttari, a single parent from Detroit. “Now my teenager’s face won’t be glued to a computer screen all day. Maybe I can even have a conversation with her.”

Those in the financial circuit are criticizing Zuckerberg for walking away from a multibillion dollar franchise. Facebook is currently ranked as one of the wealthiest businesses in the world, with economists estimating its value at around 7.9 billion.

But Zuckerberg remains unruffled by these accusations. He says he will stand by his decision to give Facebook the axe.

“I don’t care about the money,” said Zuckerberg. “I just want my old life back.”

The Facebook Corporation suggests that users remove all of their personal information from the website before March 15th. After that date, all photos, notes, links, and videos will be permanently erased.

How To Add Facebook LIKE, Twitter TWEET, and Multi-Share Button On Blogger (Blogspot)

All over the web, you will see blogs and websites have the Facebook Like and Twitter Tweet button. Why? Because social networks like Facebook and Twitter are great sites for advertising content and generating traffic for your blog and websites. It's easy to setup too.

Continue Reading “How To Add Facebook LIKE, Twitter TWEET, and Multi-Share Button On Blogger (Blogspot)”  »»

Change Your Facebook Profile Picture To A Cartoon...

No one exactly knows where it started, but cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, the Flintstones, Thundercats, and even Anime like Naruto, Voltes V, and Gokou have started to flood Facebook.

Google was also flooded with cartoon-related searches like "cartoons from the 90's, "80's cartoons," care bear pictures, "1970s cartoons, "hong kong phooey," or "old cartoon characters" as Facebook users from all ages walked down memory lane.

Continue Reading “Change Your Facebook Profile Picture To A Cartoon...”  »»

Reason Why Facebook Was Blocked In Saudi Arabia

In May of 2010, the Communications and Informations Technology Commission (CITC) of Saudi Arabia blocked a controversial Facebook page that attacked the Kingdom's religion. It seems to be happening again, and, in a much larger scale.

Today, Facebook users were surprised to find out they could not access their accounts and instead were greeted with the ugly green screen saying the site could not be accessed. The reasons behind this could be as the same above, a Facebook fan/community page attacking Saudi Arabia's main religion and, upon closer inspection of the Facebook block URL, indicates pornography as also a reason for the ban.

While bloggers and netizens provided work-arounds to access Facebook 'partial' blockage, the
possibility remains that Facebook as a whole could be banned permanently in Saudi Arabia which has been the clamor of it's religious leaders claiming the site has been a cause of division among its members. Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam and religious leaders have a powerful influence over policy making and social norms.

An official with Saudi Arabia's communications authority, speaking on  condition of anonymity, said that CITC blocked Facebook because Facebook's content had "crossed a line" with the kingdom's conservative morals, but that the Facebook blocking the site was a temporary measure.

On the other hand, Facebook has been a way of communication for expatriates in Saudi Arabia, bringing people and the world closer--at least virtually--to the desert kindom of Saudi Arabia.

Banning or blocking Facebook is a choice the Saudi government can make, but will it really make a difference considering Facebook is NOT the whole Internet?

How about you, dear Reader, should there really be a Facebook ban or blockage in Saudi Arabia?

Facebook Blocked In Saudi Arabia For Pornography?

Update: Everything's back to normal. Probably a technical glitch with the state firewall.

Weird stuff is going on with Saudi Arabia's state firewall as it 'seems' to be blocking the popular social media site Facebook.

Once you log off Facebook and login again, you get the ugly green block page saying that the page is unavailable.

The block address indicates pornography as reason for the blockage but does the Saudi Arabia state firewall really have to block all accounts?

http://84.235.120.56/blocked.html?basictype=block&epochseconds=1289646819&requestedurl=http://www.facebook.com/home.php%3F&categorylist=149&categorydescriptionlist=Pornography

How to access Facebook in spite of.

A Working Workaround: So far, the main URL, http://facebook.com/ is still working and the block page only appears after logging on.

The trick is to add additional characters to the main URL. For example: http://facebook.com/#!/ or if you personalized (http://facebook.com/TechEncounter.Net) your facebook user account then that will work too.

I hope this gets fixed soon. I'm not a facebook addict, but I do keep in touch with a lot of people through facebook. Help reinstate facebook in Saudi Arabia by clicking HERE.

[Source: facebookol]

Call and Message Your Facebook Friends With The New Skype 5.0

If you head on over to the Skype website right now, they have just released Skype 5.0. What's so special about this release you ask? The long awaited group video feature is now possible with Skype 5.0.

It's on beta right now, which means they still have something to improve on (possibly the lag from all the simultaneous streams ala Yahoo Messenger) but what's stopping you from joining in on the fun right?!

Skype 5.0 has also integreted with Facebook in this release so you can

• check your Facebook News Feeds and Updates all within Skype 5.0
• post status updates - optionally as you like or synced with your Skype mood message
• comment and Like your friends’ updates and wall posts
• SMS/call Facebook friends on their mobile phones and landlines (Phonebook Integration)
• make free Skype-to-Skype calls if your Facebook friend is also a Skype contact

Another new feature introduced in Skype 5.0 is the reconnect feature. What this does is that it automatically recovers calls that are dropped or disconnected.

You can also check out the details of the Skype-Facebook connection in a previous article HERE.

Oh and uhmmm.... Skype 5.0 is available for Windows users only. What can MAC users say about this?



[Skype]

Facebook To Partner And Integrate With Skype

AllThingsDigital has learned of a team-up between two of the biggest sources of free online communication.

Facebook is going to intergrate with the new version of Skype allowing its users to easily logon into Skype using Facebook Connect. The Facebook-Skype partnership will also allow users to text message, voice and video chat with their Facebook friends all from within Skype.

Continue Reading “Facebook To Partner And Integrate With Skype”  »»

Facebook Dislike Button--I Like It!

It's not an official Facebook Dislike button, It ISN'T the Facebook Dislike button scam either. But it is legit and I Like it (see what I did there? ^^,)

For now the Facebook Dislike button works only on Firefox as an add-on. As you would expect, the the Firefox Facebook Dislike button add-on adds a Dislike option alongside the Like button.

Continue Reading “Facebook Dislike Button--I Like It!”  »»

Facebook Page For Safety's Sake

Facebook has launched a "Safety Page" devoted to staying safe on the Internet.

According to Joe Sullivan, Facebook's "Safety Page" highlight news and initiatives focused on ways people can keep data secure at the world's leading online social-networking community.

The new page was intended to augment a virtual Safety Center that Facebook introduced in April and was based on a "security page" that boasted more than 2.2 million "fans" as of Monday.

The launch of the Safety Page came in the wake of demands by privacy activists that Facebook give users of the booming social network more control over the use of their personal data.

The Facebook page on safety can be found at http://www.facebook.com/fbsafety.

How To Add The Facebook Comments Box Social Plug-in On Blogger

Despite current privacy concerns over Facebook, Google announced that Facebook is the most popular website nowadays with 570 billion page views and more than 2 percent of the world's population as its members.

Continue Reading “How To Add The Facebook Comments Box Social Plug-in On Blogger”  »»

Disney's Most Shocking Hidden Message SCAM

People love scandals. This was proven by the "Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton Sex Scandal" virus scam on Facebook a few months back. A similar scam is back on Facebook with "Disney's Most Shocking Hidden Message" as its catchphrase.

The scam requires you to do three things (no, not two) on Facebook. First, you have to become a fan of the "Disney's Most Shocking Hidden Message" or "97% of people have never seen Disney’s Most Shocking Hidden Message" group and a couple more of the name variations. After "becoming a Fan," you are then required to SPAM it to your friends to also see this "hidden message."

Looking up Yahoo Answers, users who were lured to this scam reported that the series of steps required to reveal Disney’s most shocking hidden message report that the endgame of the exercise is to navigate you to virus-laden survey sites. A virus expert at Sophos confirms the malware link and urges Facebook users to avoid the fan page like the clap.

You have been warned.

How To Add Facebook "Like" Button To Your Blogger Template

In a bid to socialize the web, Facebook has launched a set of social plug-ins of which the Facebook "Like" Button has been the most popular so far. Here's how to add it to your Blogger [Blogspot] Template:

The Facebook "Like" button code:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'><br /> <iframe allowTransparency='true' expr:src='"http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=" + data:post.url + "&layout=standard&show_faces=false&width=100&action=like&font=arial&colorscheme=light"' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' style='border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:40px;'/><br /> </b:if></iframe>

Log into your blogger account, then go to Layout > Edit Html.
Check the "Expand Widget Templates" box.
And find the next Code
<div class='post-header-line-1'/></div>
And after it, paste your button code

What, If you didn’t find the code above in your template, The try to find the following,
<data:post.body/>
And paste the button code Before it.
Save Template.

Stolen Facebook ID's For Sale

As a followup to my previous post, this is what happens when a hacker has access to Facebook accounts. They make a profit out of them... and people are buying them up.

Researchers at VeriSign's iDefense group recently spotted Kirllos selling Facebook user names and passwords in an underground hacker forum, but what really caught their attention was the volume of credentials he had for sale: 1.5 million accounts.
IDefense doesn't know if Kirllos' accounts are legitimate, and Facebook didn't respond to messages Thursday seeking comment. If they are legitimate, he has the account information of about one in every 300 Facebook users. His asking price varies from US$25 to $45 per 1,000 accounts, depending on the number of contacts each user has.
To date, Kirllos seems to have sold close to 700,000 accounts, according to VeriSign Director of Cyber Intelligence Rick Howard.

How To Remove Facebook Applications

Facebook has about 400 million users, which is why it has become such lucrative business for 3rd-party apps such as farmville. But, do you know that every time, you click "ALLOW" on any application, you are exposing yourself to hackers. Every time you allow an application for your account, you also allow them to access your public and most private information. For example, farmville has about 81 million users. farmville would have access to all your information, these would be a goldmine for hackers. Facebook may have the tightest security to protect your information, but do the application manufacturers have that same security? Will they be able to protect you in case of an attack? In fact, Facebook can't even trace what information the applications are accessing. The risk in your private information being exposed has never been greater.

How to remove Facebook Applications:

After signing into Facebook, do the following:

   1. Click on "Account" at the top-right of the screen.
   2. Click "Application Settings"
   3. Change the "Show" drop-down box to "Authorized." This will show all the applications you've ever given permission to.
   4. In the resulting list, click the "X" button on the far right next to each app you want to remove to delete it.
   5. On the pop-up box that appears, click "Remove" then click "Okay" on the next box confirming the app was deleted.

Repeat this process to remove all the apps you no longer use on a regular basis.

This will not eliminate the risks entirely, but it's at least a first step in reducing it. As long as you have a Facebook account, your data won't be private. If you really want privacy, maybe it's about time to hit the "Account Delete" button. ^^, It's under "Account Settings."

28 Time-Saving Tricks for Google, Facebook, and More

Even if you're on Google, Facebook, and YouTube every day, you might not be tapping those sites' full potential. Read on to speed up your Internet abilities, unlock new features, and find a new favorite tip or two. Click on the link for 28 Time-Saving Tricks for Google, Facebook, and More from PCWorld.