Why Facebook needs to build a browser

Sometime in the next 12 months, Google Chrome will become the world's most popular browser, knocking Microsoft's Internet Explorer off the mountain it has ruled for more than a decade.

This fact should scare the pants off of Facebook.

In July 2008, IE controlled 68.5 percent of the market, according to Statcounter, while Chromewasn't even on the market. Now Microsoft's browser is down to 34.8 percent market share while Chrome controls 30.9 percent of total browser usage. Chrome has grown by a percentage point the last few months, while IE has dropped by around the same amount.

It's only a matter of time until Google dominates the browser market.

Now you may be asking yourselves: why should Facebook care about the fate of the browser market? Facebook's a social network, not a desktop software company -- why do the browser wars matter?

The answer lies in Google's ambitious plans for Google+, the company's "social spine." It's no secret that Facebook and Google are at war, and that Google would love to take the wind out of Facebook's sails. Nothing less than control of the Web (and billions in ad dollars) is at stake.

Google+ as a standalone product hasn't made a dent in Facebook's growth, though. Google+ may have 170+ million users, but Facebook is still on track for the IPO of the decade.

Facebook hires software engineers from India to fill US posts

Facebook, the world's largest social networking site, is doing something that no domestic or multinational company has done before - hire software engineers from India for positions based in the United States. 

Typically, global firms such as IBM and GE hire in India for positions here and send some of these recruits abroad for specific projects. However, Facebook's open invitation in a newspaper advertisement last week seeking applicants "to work in the US" is being regarded as a first. 

"It is unusual and I haven't seen anything like this," said Sharad Sharma, the chair of industry body Nasscom's software product forum. The advertisement in The Times of India pointed applicants to an online coding challenge for 86 open positions in software engineering in Chicago, Dublin ( Ireland), New York and Seattle. 

Those who solved the puzzles were promised a phone interview. The online test is being done in partnership with InterviewStreet, a startup founded by Vivek Ravhishankar, a graduate of the National Institute of Technology in Tiruchirapalli. Facebook is a client of InterviewStreet. 

Facebook declined to comment for this story. The California -based company has filed for an initial public offering which is expected to value it at around $100 billion. India, where it has some 46 million users, is one of its fastest-growing markets and an important source of talent. 

Facebook has a development centre in Hyderabad and last year it hired an NIT-Warangal graduate for its office in Palo Alto in a campus interview. Ajit Isaac, chief executive at Ikya Human Capital, a Bangalore-based HR solutions company, was of the view that Facebook might have conducted a survey to find out what kind of people work well at their company. 

"The desired results at their Hyderabad office might have made them to hire some talent for the US." Ganesh Shermon, country head for the human capital practice at the Indian arm of audit and advisory KPMG, described Facebook's move as an "interesting development" if the company is willing to get those hired from India a work permit. 

According to Prabhakaran Murugaiah, founder and CEO at Corp-Corp, a Virginia-based technology staffing company, companies hiring from India for jobs based in the US is rare, but this will probably increase because of talent shortage in the world's largest economy. "Unemployment in the technology space is only 3.7%, which is virtually zero talent available for the current skills in demand," he said. 

"The current wave and exponential growth in cloud, mobile, big data and IT security will create several thousands of jobs in next 6 to 18 months." IT services and business process outsourcing firms employ some 2.5 million people in India and are stepping up hiring in the US in the face of strong sentiment against offshoring of jobs. 

Facebook's hiring plan and its ability to get the India hires work permits will happen in the backdrop of complaints by domestic software firms about higher visa scrutiny.

Facebook's new tool to tell you your 'real friends'

Social networking giant Facebook has introduced a new tool to help users decide who their real friends are, and who is just an acquaintance.


The social networking site introduced "Close Friends" and "Acquaintances" lists last year.


Now, by monitoring users' online interaction, the site will automatically suggest a list of friends who have not been contacted in a while to be demoted to 'acquaintances,' The New York Daily News reports.


On hitting the 'add to acquaintances' button, you will still be Facebook "friends" with that person, and they will never find out that they've been downgraded.


You will just see fewer of their posts in your feed, the report said. You can also keep acquaintances from getting all of your life updates in the future.


When you are sharing something new on Facebook, hit the button to the left of "Post" in the lower right-hand corner of the update box, it should say "Public" or "Friends," depending on your default settings, the choose "Friends except Acquaintances."


Though the acquaintance list feature has existed since last fall, Facebook has just started recommending "friends" you might not want to hear from for a while.


According to the report, to use this feature, one has to navigate to the "Friends" page, select the "Acquaintances" list, and then click on "See All Suggestions."

What You Need To Know About Facebook's New Privacy Policy

Perhaps the first thing you need to know is that after Friday, Facebook will no longer be calling it a privacy policy. The name is being changed to 'Data Use Policy.'

And most importantly, if you 'use or access' Facebook on or after Friday, you are agreeing to that name change, as well as all of the changes Facebook is making to its policy. We were given public comment from Sarah Downey of Abine, which she describes as 'an online privacy company in Boston that is concerned with anti-privacy behavior by Facebook and other companies.'

Her comments, which are being submitted to the FTC as part of the public-comment period that closes Friday, are a good breakdown of what the changes entail and a warning of why users may want to read the entire policy before agreeing to its terms.

'This Statement is take it or leave it: users agree to it simply by using Facebook. Most of them will never know when or if the Terms change, let alone what they mean.' - Sarah Downey of Abine

We've asked Facebook to respond to the entire text of her statement and will update when we hear back from the company.

Many of the changes are to keep in accordance with an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission. But from where Downey sits, 'the changes reflect the fact that Facebook is extending its data collecting tentacles in all directions: towards people who never even signed up for Facebook, activities that aren't clearly defined as sharing, and mediums that aren't clearly defined as advertising.

'There are also obvious imbalances of power throughout the Statement: for example, Facebook forces its app developers to adhere to privacy standards that Facebook itself doesn't do, like making it easy to delete your account,' she said. 'Furthermore, this Statement is take it or leave it: users agree to it simply by using Facebook. Most of them will never know when or if the Terms change, let alone what they mean.'

On a point-by-point basis, Downey raises the following red flags:

• Downey agrees with the name change, if only because it is more accurate of what the statement does: the statement is not about protecting the user's privacy, but instead about how Facebook uses their information and data. 'Facebook has always been after your data and you have very little privacy on the site,' she said. 'It's also telling: the way that Facebook and other companies use your data IS your privacy. They're one in the same.'


• A change in section 2.3 of the policy essentially allows your friends to give apps permission to access your personal information. 'Your friends' activities can implicate your personal information, which seems counter-intuitive,' Downey said. 'If I do not explicitly give an app permission to access my information, it should not have access to my information.'


• Overall, Downey said the policy makes it harder for companies like Abine, which develop apps to protect user privacy, to operate and offer service on Facebook.


• Facebook's ban on multiple accounts and using a pseudonym may violate First Amendment protections in the U.S. 'The courts have inferred a fundamental right to privacy from the Constitution, and anonymous speech is a recognized First Amendment right, online and offline,' she said. 'Facebook can try to undermine the Supreme Court all it wants, but it's not good policy and we should never accept it.'


• The new policy requires you to keep your profile and contact information up to date and acuarate. 'Um, like hell I will,' Downey said. 'Facebook's just going to sell it and share it with who knows how many hundreds of partners, affiliates, third parties, and advertisers, and I'll have no idea where it will end up.'


• Downey is concerned that language in certain sections of the policy has been changed from 'users' to 'users and non-users who interact with Facebook.' That could mean the policy can now extend to people who don't even have a Facebook account.

The new policy should not just concern Facebook users, Downey said. Third party developers should also be worried, as Facebook is now requiring comply with rules that the social network itself does not comply with.

Directives for app developers include:

• 'You will delete all data you receive from us concerning a user if the user asks you to do so, and will provide a mechanism for users to make such a request.'


• 'You will not sell user data.'


• 'We can require you to delete user data if you use it in a way that we determine is inconsistent with users' expectations.'


• 'You will make it easy for users to remove or disconnect from your application.'

'Kind of like how Facebook makes it nearly impossible to delete your account, making you weigh deactivation versus deletion, wade through dozens of pages and links, and wait 2 weeks,' Downey said. 'Yeah, right.'

Job seekers getting asked for Facebook passwords

SEATTLE:In their efforts to vet job applicants, some companies and government agencies are going beyond merely glancing at a person's social networking profiles and instead are asking to log in as the user to have a look around. 

"It's akin to requiring someone's house keys,'' said Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor who calls it "an egregious privacy violation.'' 

Questions have been raised about the legality of the practice, which is the focus of proposed legislation in Illinois and Maryland that would forbid public agencies from asking for access to social networks. 
Since the rise of social networking, it has become common for managers to review publicly available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other sites to learn more about job candidates. But many users, especially on Facebook, have their profiles set to private, making them available only to selected people or certain networks. 
Companies that don't ask for passwords have taken other steps _ such as asking applicants to friend human resource managers or to log in to a company computer during an interview. Once employed, some workers have been required to sign non-disparagement agreements that ban them from talking negatively about an employer on social media. 
When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he was astonished when the interviewer asked for his Facebook username and password. 
Basset, a New York City statistician, refused and withdrew his application, saying he didn't want to work for a company that would seek such personal information. 
But as the job market steadily improves, other job candidates cannot afford to say no. 
Asking for a candidate's password is more prevalent among public agencies, especially those seeking to fill law enforcement positions such as police officers. 
Back in 2010, Robert Collins was returning to his job as a security guard at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services after taking a leave following his mother's death. During a reinstatement interview, he was asked for his login and password, purportedly so the agency could check for any gang affiliations. He was stunned by the request but complied. 


"I needed my job to feed my family. I had to,'' he recalled, 

After the American Civil Liberties Union complained about the practice, the agency amended its policy, asking instead for job applicants to log in during interviews. 

"To me, that's still invasive. I can appreciate the desire to learn more about the applicant, but it's still a violation of people's personal privacy,'' said Collins, whose case inspired Maryland's legislation. 

Since 2006, the McLean County sheriff's office has been one of several Illinois sheriff's departments that ask applicants to sign into social media sites to be screened.

1 in 5 bosses reject candidates after seeing their Facebook profiles

Jobseekers are being warned to be far more vigilant over what they reveal on social networking sites, as it could cost them their career. 

A fifth of IT executives admitted they have rejected applicants because of what they have posted on social media. 

The worrying news was revealed in the 2012 annual technology market survey conducted by Eurocom Worldwide, the Global PR Network, in association with UK PR agency partner, Six Degrees. 

The annual study has previously found that almost 40 per cent of respondents' companies look at potential employees' profiles on social media sites - but this is the first clear evidence that candidates are being rejected because of them. 

"The 21st-century human is learning that every action leaves an indelible digital trail," the Daily Mail quoted Mads Christensen, Network Director at Eurocom Worldwide, as saying. 

"In the years ahead, many of us will be challenged by what we are making public in various social forums today. 

"The fact that one in five applicants disqualify themselves from an interview because of content in the social media sphere is a warning to job seekers and a true indicator of the digital reality we now live in," Christensen said. 

The survey also revealed that while nearly half of technology executives say that their firms will increase their expenditure on social media in the next 12 months, only 23 per cent say they can accurately measure the impact of the investment. 

It said that 74 per cent of respondents consider online PR to be important for their company's search engine optimisation, with 37 per cent saying it is very important. 

The Eurocom Worldwide technology confidence survey was conducted online by member agencies of Eurocom Worldwide during January and February 2012. 

A total of 318 companies replied, with approximately 80 per cent from European countries and 11 per cent from the Americas. 

The report also found that most popular social media platforms used by technology companies were LinkedIn (74 per cent), Twitter (67 per cent), Facebook (64 per cent) and YouTube (56 per cent).

Facebook baits Twitter, Flipboard with Interest lists

Facebook has announced a new Interest lists feature, which allows users to collate their favourite people and subjects and turn the news feed into a 'personalised newspaper.'

The Interest lists functionality, which will roll out to users in the next couple of weeks, seems to take inspiration from Twitter lists and socially-themed magazines like the Flipboard app for iOS.

'Interests' are user-generated lists which bring together, for example, news from the Facebook Pages of every Premier League team or every tech news site into collective feeds.

Whenever those are lists are updated, the stories or posts will appear also in your main news feed, making it easier for you to catch-up on the news that matters to you.

People like you

"Interests feature public figures and Pages related to a particular topic, and are put together by people like you.

"The top stories from each interest appear in your news feed so you can scan interesting headlines or click through to read more posts," says Facebook software engineer Eric Faller.

When Facebook users subscribe to Interest Lists, that subject will appear on the left hand side of the page, beneath the Friends Lists functionality.

While you can already subscribe to lists created by fellow Facebookers, for a true personalised experience, it's probably best that you get in there and create your own.

5 Reasons Why Your Facebook Store Might Be Struggling

Beware, the sky is falling! Or at least that’s what we’re hearing from some experts on F-commerce following announcements from a few big-name retailers in recent weeks that they are shuttering their stores on Facebook.

Going as far as to suggest that the “F” in “F-commerce” now stands for “failure,” these critics are boldly asserting that F-commerce’s days are numbered and that the entire concept is destined to soon be but a footnote in the pages of tech history.

Frankly, such claims are more than a little mind-boggling. Whenever a new medium like F-commerce emerges, companies are naturally uncertain on how to approach it and it always takes some time before strong and effective strategies emerge. Think back to when the Internet first caught on – it was uncharted territory for everyone, but now, just about every business has in-house employees that handle things like online reputation, SEO, SEM and more.

You’ll forgive the rest of us if we don’t necessarily agree that the end is nigh simply because a handful of companies (out of literally thousands that are actively engaged in F-commerce) are going in another direction. We work with hundreds of merchants on F-commerce and Facebook marketing every month and rest assured, many of them are finding success in the practice. So, no, F-commerce is not on its deathbed. Far from it, actually.

With that being said, however, the recent changes in strategy by some of the bigger names in retail do present an opportunity to re-examine what works and what doesn’t in F-commerce.

If you’re a retailer who isn’t getting what you hoped for out of F-commerce thus far and you’re wondering why, perhaps the following list holds the answer.

1. Your Social Media Director/Manager is a 20 year old college intern who only comes to work two or three days each week.

The Lesson: Effective F-commerce requires time and an attention to detail. It is certainly not a part-time venture, so if you hand over the responsibility to someone who isn’t consistently on top of things, you can’t possibly expect solid results in return.

Hiring someone exclusively to handle F-commerce isn’t necessarily a requirement but finding a way to make sure that your social media ducks are in a row every single day absolutely is a must. Spread those responsibilities around so everyone on your team gets to add their input and please, by all means, avoid letting an intern carry the load!

2. When the F-commerce craze started, you spent upwards of $50k on a so called feature-rich social commerce platform to make a big splash rather than shop around to find something more cost-effective that actually fits your particular needs.

The Lesson: In other words, you overpaid. Look, F-commerce is not ‘one size fits all’ and what works for a big-name electronics retailer may not work for a niche merchant selling customized jewelry. Of course, if you’ve paid four or five figures to have your Facebook presence built, any disappointment in the results is going to seem that much worse because of the cost affiliated with it.

There are lots of social commerce providers out there that won’t charge you an arm and a leg for a good, solid platform. If you still can, it might be a good idea to explore those options.

3. The last time you posted something, ANYTHING, on your Facebook fan page it was still 2011.

The Lesson: It’s early March, your most recent Wall post referenced something about holiday shopping and you’re wondering why no one is paying any attention to you? Attention spans are short on Facebook and the one thing above all else that determines F-commerce success is engagement. If you’re not regularly posting content, even if it isn’t material that is necessarily tied to your company or products, users are going to forget about you. It’s as simple as that.

Don’t wait for your next big sale or promotion to put something up on Facebook. Scour the web for thought-provoking content such as jokes, riddles, trivia questions, funny videos and pictures and encourage your fans to chime in those posts. Chances are, they will enjoy the ‘fun’ content now and as a result, will be likely paying more attention when you do roll out something bigger.

4. Your Facebook fans are wondering, “Where’s the love?”

The Lesson: If there’s one hard truth that we’ve learned in the past few years with regards to F-commerce, it’s that Facebook users overwhelmingly tend to Like brands for one reason only: they want to get something out of it. The problem is, very few retailers are obliging them in that regard.

F-commerce is a two-way street and users have already satisfied their end of the bargain by liking you in the first place. Now it’s your turn to provide something that is exclusive to your Facebook fans. Maybe it’s a deal like free shipping. Maybe it’s a promo code. Maybe it’s a discount on larger orders or a ‘Buy One Get One Free’ offering. But give them something! Again, with shortened attention spans you’re going to need every tool at your disposal to keep people around. Giving them an incentive or reward for their loyalty is one of the best ways you can do that.

5. There’s no ‘social’ in your social media strategy

The Lesson: This encompasses some of the things we’ve covered already, but overall, it’s amazing just how unsocial some brands are when it comes to social media. Far too often we see retailers building a Facebook store and then just expecting new sales and customers to appear out of thin air simply because they’ve now got a social media-based storefront. It doesn’t work that way!

Remember engagement? Remember the idea of a two-way street? Remember incentives and rewards? All of these things are important components of successful social media strategies. Simply posting products on Facebook is never going to be enough. Make a connection with your fans and followers whenever possible because that is the very essence of what social media is about in the first place.

Critics will continue to say that F-commerce’s day has come and gone, but don’t believe it for a second. Facebook’s huge global user base and the potential that it holds for brands is more than enough to ensure F-commerce’s viability well into the future. Your own F-commerce success, however, is wholly dependent on keeping these suggestions in mind as you move forward and try to separate yourself from the pack.

Stop Accepting Facebook Friend Requests

What happens when we don't accept friend requests? Facebook brings them back in yet another attempt to "help" us get to know other people who may be in our network.

When Facebook first entered college campuses in 2004, we friended people we knew. It became a game, a way to waste time between classes and something to do when we should have been working on papers. There was no need for us to try and figure out who our mutual friends were because we saw them in real life on a daily basis. They sat next to us in classrooms, at lunch; we saw them at parties, we ate brunch together on the weekend. Things were simple.

As Facebook grew and changed, the uses for a profile changed, too. Facebook decided to step in and lend a hand, identifying people who had high numbers of mutual friends, and suggesting that we connect or reconnect. For the egotistically inclined, this simple trick worked. And before long, we didn't even know what we're using Facebook for.

Not long ago, Facebook published a study on weak ties and connecting. It reiterated a 1973 study on weak ties, which discovered that more job opportunities and interesting news and information come to us through weak ties than through people in our direct social circles. But then there's the weirdness factor - people, some of whom we have not seen in years, commenting on a Facebook wall.Memories surface.

Still, some of the weak ties are worth keeping around. People reconnect suddenly and spontaneously. But why does Facebook have topush the connection? Because the more connections we make, the more data Facebook has about us and our (online) social lives. And the easier it is to target advertising to us. In the era of Timeline life streaming, users are encouraged to share almost every minute detail of their lives. We must think carefully about the audience and the intent before we post content to Facebook.

Why Are You Using Facebook?

Are you using Facebook to stay in touch with family and friends? Are you who you say you are on Facebook? Does your Facebook personality reflect the real you? Or do you gaze into a virtual mirror that you might accidentally shoot down? Are you an artist who uses Facebook to talk about art and ideas?

To the user: Figure out what you're using Facebook for. Accept friend requests if they are relevant to your online community. Delete people who you can't stop stalking, and do nothing about the ones who you care about but with whom the connection may not be as strong.

Facebook cares about its users, only so much as they will help the company stay afloat. The rest is up to you.

Facebook Brand Pages for Timeline Coming Soon

Facebook will soon bring Timeline to brand pages. Currently Timeline is only available for Facebook user profiles. It transforms the Facebook experience from a fly-by bulletin board and events site to a scrapbook-esque, lifestreaming version of a social networked reality both past and present.

At f8 last September, Facebook's VP-Global Marketing Solutions David Fischer said that brand pages would be 'consistent' with the Timeline look-and-feel, but would not be exactly the same as profiles.

Brand pages will initially be available in beta to a 'handful of partners,' according to AdAge. They will roll out to marketers in stages.

Facebook social apps like Pinterest are on the rise, already making money off of affiliate links to certain brands' websites. It only makes sense that more brands will create their own customized social apps for Facebook users. Open graph apps utilize data for ad targeting, which is integral to Facebook's ad strategy moving forward.

On February 29, Facebook will host fMC, its first-ever event specifically for marketers - and Timeline brand pages will no doubt be a part of it.

We reached out to Facebook regarding Timeline brand pages, and will update this story when we hear back.

Facebook can terminate CEO Mark Zuckerberg services 'at will'

Facebook can terminate services of its chief Mark Zuckerberg at any time for any reason, or even without a reason, but the social networking giant's founder and CEO also enjoys similar exit rights.

As per Facebook's employment agreement with Zuckerberg, his tenure at the social networking giant would be on an "at will" basis, meaning his job can be terminated "at any time for any reason or no reason", either by him or by the company.

The company has disclosed Zuckerberg's employment agreement, revised late last month, as part of an amended registration document for its upcoming IPO (Initial Public Offer) filed with the US market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The global leader in social networking space is planning for a $ five billion dollar IPO, which could push Zuckerberg and a few others into the league of billionaires, based on the valuation of their shareholding in the company.

While the job duties, title, compensation and benefits, as well as the company's personnel policies and procedures, might change from time to time, the 'at will' nature of Zuckerberg's employment can be changed only after a written agreement approved by the Facebook board.

The employment agreement of Facebook's Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg also has an 'at-will' clause.

Sandberg's agreement also provides for reimbursement of her business expenses by Facebook, although that of Zuckerberg has no such clause.

One of the clauses also bars Zuckerberg from creating a rival to Facebook.

As per the agreement, Zuckerberg cannot "assist any person or entity in competing with the company, in preparing to compete with the company or in hiring any employees or consultants of the company."

Similar clauses apply to Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) David Ebersman and Vice President (Engineering) Mike Schroepfer, for the period these people are rendering their services to Facebook.

The agreements are silent on whether these people, including Zuckerberg, can help create a rival to Facebook after leaving the company.

The company said that Zuckerberg, as President and CEO, would get $ 500,000 of base salary and up to 45 per cent of this amount as bonus every year.

Sandberg and Ebersman would get an annual base salary of $ 300,000 each, while the same for Schroepfer would be $ 275,000. All the three executives would be entitled for a bonus payment of up to 45 per cent of their base earnings.

The collective base salary and bonus of the four executives stand at $ 1.99 million (about Rs 10 crore).

Mark Zuckerberg cannot build 'another' Facebook

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, along with his three top leutinants, will get about $2 million in just salaries and bonuses, but cannot work on creating a rival to the social networking giant. 

This has been disclosed in Facebook's amended registration document for its upcoming IPO, filed with the US market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last night. 

As per Zuckerberg's employment agreement with Facebook, his job can be terminated "at any time for any reason or no reason", either by him or by the company. 

Besides, the company's employment agreement does not allow Zuckerberg to "assist any person or entity in competing with the Company, in preparing to compete with the Company or in hiring any employees or consultants of the Company." 

Similar clauses apply to Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) David Ebersman and Vice President (Engineering) Mike Schroepfer, for the period these people are rendering their services to Facebook. 

The agreements are silent on whether these people, including Zuckerberg, can help create a rival of Facebook after leaving the company. 

In addition to in-cash salary and bonus, the pay package of the top four Facebook executives includes millions of dollars in form of stock options, performance pay and other payments. 

Besides, the value of shares owned by Zuckerberg and many others at the company could also make them billionaires after the listing of Facebook, which is currently in the process of its USD five billion IPO (Initial Public Offer). 

The company said that Zuckerberg, as President and CEO, would get USD 500,000 of base salary and up to 45 per cent of this amount as bonus every year. While the basic wage would be paid in two equal payments a month, he can "over-achieve" the bonus target pursuant to the company's bonus plan. 

Sandberg and Ebersman would get an annual base salary of USD 300,000 each, while the same for Schroepfer would be USD 275,000. All the three executives would be entitled for a bonus payment of up to 45 per cent of their base earnings. 

The collective base salary and bonus of the four executives stand at USD 1.99 million (about Rs 10 crore). 

In addition to generally common no-conflict obligations, Zuckerberg cannot bring with him to Facebook, or disclose to any person associated with the company, any confidential or proprietary information belonging to any former employer or any other third party. 

Noting that his job at Facebook was not any specific period time, the agreement says that the employment would be on an "at will" basis, meaning that either Zuckerberg or Facebook can terminate the employment at any time for any reason or no reason. 

While the job duties, title, compensation and benefits, as well as the company's personnel policies and procedures, might change from time to time, the 'at will' nature of Zuckerberg's employment can be changed only after a written agreement approved by the Facebook board. 

The employment agreement of Sheryl Sandberg also carries an 'at-will' clause.
Read more...

Zuckerberg's 'Hacker Way' helped Facebook to prosper

Facebook's billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls himself a hacker. For most people, that word means something malicious, shady criminals who listen in on private voicemails, or anonymous villains who cripple websites and break into email accounts. 

For Facebook, though, hacker means something different. It's an ideal that permeates the company's culture. It explains the push to try new ideas (even if they fail), and to promote new products quickly (even if they're imperfect). The hacker approach has made Facebook one of the world's most valuable Internet companies. 

Hackers ``believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete,'' Zuckerberg explains. ``They just have to go fix it, often in the face of people who say it's impossible or are content with the status quo.'' 

Zuckerberg penned those words in a 479-word essay called ``The Hacker Way'', which he included in the document the company filed with government regulators about its plans for an initial public offering. The company is seeking $5 billion from investors in a deal that could value Facebook at as much as $100 billion. 

The 27-year-old, who has a $28.4 billion stake in the stock deal, uses the H-word 12 times in the essay; ``shareholder'' appears just once. Should Zuckerberg have left those references out of his IPO manifesto, knowing full-well it could scare off potential investors? He could easily have described Facebook as ``nimble'' or ``agile'' instead. 

``Symbolically, it doesn't bode well to Facebook and to potential investors,'' says Robert D'Ovidio, an associate professor of criminal justice at Drexel University in Philadelphia who studies computer crime. ``I think it shows maybe an immaturity on his part. He should definitely know better.'' 

By using the word, Zuckerberg is also trying to reclaim it. To him, Steve Jobs and the founders of many of the world's biggest technology companies were hackers. 

``The word `hacker' has an unfairly negative connotation from being portrayed in the media as people who break into computers,'' Zuckerberg writes. ``In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done.'' 

To be fair, the meaning has become complicated. Bad hackers destroy things with evil intentions. They break into the voicemails of crime victims and celebrities in search of a hot news story. They breach security systems to steal credit card data. Just this week, members of the loose-knit group Anonymous hacked into law enforcement websites around the world and gained access to information about government informants and other sensitive information. 

Good hackers break things, too, sometimes. But they do it in the name of innovation. They call themselves ``white hat'' hackers to counter the criminal ``black hats.'' Often, they're hired to expose security vulnerabilities at big corporations. 

Kevin Mitnick, who was convicted and sent to prison in the 1990s for computer hacking, now works as a security consultant. It's the flip side of his past life, when he spent years stealing secrets from some of the world's largest corporations.