“I’ve definitely been hard on digital advertising,” admitted David Karp. In a fireside chat at the TechCruch Disrupt in New York City on Monday, the founder and CEO of the micro-blogging site Tumblr lamented that “the state of digital advertising is uninspiring.” His solution? “Telling stories that resonate with people to create customers,” he said.
Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews. 
NEW YORK – Whether users are shopping, browsing, or talking about their interests online, the success of the social graph depends on how well companies can interpret the results and use them to predict behavior, said experts at the APPNATION NYC Mobile + TV 3.0 Summit in SoHo this afternoon.
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Facebook is Getting its Own App Store for All Devices, All Platforms, All Prices (VentureBeat)
Facebook is launching a new App Center, “a place to find social web, desktop, and mobile apps” — and not just Facebook apps. The App Center will bring Facebook’s 900 million users all the best in iOS apps, Android apps, web apps, mobile web apps and even desktops apps. Facebook Developer Blog Many developers have been successful with in-app purchases, but to support more types of apps on Facebook.com, we will give developers the option to offer paid apps. This is a simple-to-implement payment feature that lets people pay a flat fee to use an app on Facebook.com. CNET The challenge, for a platform like Facebook, is that it has to build a store on top of other existing stores. It is especially tricky to build on top of the Apple App store, which remains the only legitimate channel for users to get apps onto iOS devices. AllThingsD Ironically, on Wednesday, the company submitted another amendment to its S-1 filing to the SEC, further outlining its weaknesses in the mobile realm. The company’s daily active users has grown fast over the past year. But the corresponding number of ads delivered isn’t matching the pace of the daily-active-user growth. CNN Money Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg won’t be the only one collecting billions from Facebook’s initial public offering: Uncle Sam and the state of California are also poised to cash in big. Tax collectors will be taking a giant bite out of the paper millions that thousands of Facebook employees will soon gain. The average tax hit: $1.1 million per employee. Read more
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Government Advises Americans to Create ‘Social Media Wills’ (New York Daily News) If you haven’t thought about what will happen to your Facebook account when you die, the government suggests you get started. Creating a “social media will” is now one of the government’s official personal finance recommendations, listed on USA.gov along with advice on home ownership and money management. USA.gov Like with a traditional will, you’ll need to appoint someone you trust as an online executor. This person will be responsible for closing your email addresses, social media profiles, and blogs after you are deceased. The Atlantic Sounds good, but legally it’s tricky territory. As Naomi Cahn, a professor of law at George Washington University, explained, “Formal wills become public. So you need to be careful what you put in a will, because anyone in the world could have access to it.” Read more
In what could be a definitive case in the battle for copyright protection against photo-sharing sites, Perfect 10 has sued Tumblr for failing to remove unauthorized nude images from the blogging site. Paid Content had the details on how this lawsuit might succeed where others have failed, but does Tumblr make enough revenue to make the suit worthwhile?
On today’s Morning Media Menu (MP3 link), GalleyCat editor Jason Boog joined me for a look at Evernote’s $1 billion valuation and Tumblr’s decision to bite the bullet and start selling ads – at $25,000 apiece.
What’s the most annoying thing on the web? It might be spam, it might be pop-ups, and it might be mandatory registrations. To Wil Wheaton, who played the redheaded Doctor’s son in Star Trek: The Next Generation, it’s definitely the third one. The actor recently tried to ‘like’ a video on YouTube, and when the site tried to force him to sign up for Google+, he got angry and posted a rant on Tumblr.
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Source: Facebook’s IPO Show to Hit the Road May 7 (Reuters) The roadshow for Facebook’s initial public offering is scheduled to start on Monday, meaning the company’s shares should begin trading on May 18, a source familiar with the process said on Tuesday. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has mostly operated in the background during Facebook’s closely watched journey to public markets, will be involved in the roadshow, another source said. Mashable However, Zuckerberg will only be present for some of the roadshow, sources said. COO Sheryl Sandberg will handle the rest, along with CFO David Ebersman. San Francisco Chronicle Numerous details remain unknown, especially the range where the Menlo Park company expects to price its stock. MSN Money Some are beginning to question whether the social networking giant is worth the investment. Revenue growth is a major issue for investors, according to Boston University professor N. Venkat Venkatraman, chairman of the Information Systems Department of BU’s School of Management. “Other [investors] will focus on Facebook’s monetization machine and question if Facebook could create and maintain the growth in revenue and profits,” Venkatraman said in an email. Read more
Today Tumblr CEO David Karp bid farewell to his friend and mentor John Maloney, who is leaving Tumblr after serving as the company’s president since September 2008. In a blog post this morning, Karp described how he met the UrbanBaby founder in New York City and how he’s had an impact on Tumblr ever since.
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Apple Kills Chomp for Android (GigaOM)
Apple acquired app discovery service Chomp earlier this year, betting that it would help make app discovery easier and better on its iTunes App Store. The casualty of that acquisition is the Chomp for Android app which seems to have been discontinued. Ars Technica Chomp’s app allows users to search the App Store using a proprietary algorithm to figure out what apps actually do (instead of just using keywords or app names). The app also allows users to see which apps their Facebook or Twitter friends have reviewed, adding a social networking element to the service. MacRumors Apple reportedly paid about $50 million for Chomp, which also had a deal with Verizon to power its Android app search tools. That agreement will presumably be ending as Chomp completes its integration into Apple and focuses all of its attention on iOS. SlashGear Still, beyond the annoyance factor for Android users previously relying on Chomp to ferret out new software, the real interest should come when Apple better integrates the engine into its own store. According to sources speaking when the deal was first revealed, Apple intends to use the technology to dramatically improve the discoverability of new and interesting apps in its increasingly crowded store. Read more
