Facebook to launch Verified Accounts for prominent public figures

Last year, Facebook launched the ‘Subscribe’ feature that allows users to subscribe to the public posts of celebrities, journalists and anyone they are interested in following, without adding them as a ‘Friend’. Apart from helping people connect with their fans, this feature is also helping scammers and spammers create fake profiles.

According to a recent report from TechCrunch, Facebook will start launching verified accounts for prominent public figures to verify their accounts, tomorrow.  The verified users will gain more prominent placement in Facebook’s “People to Subscribe To” suggestions.

Users cannot request verification, instead, Facebook will decide which accounts will be verified. Those asked to verify their profile, will need to submit an image of a government-issued photo ID, which is deleted after verification. They’ll also be given the option to enter an nickname that can be displayed next to their real name in parentheses or as a replacement.

However, unlike Twitter that displays badges on verified profiles, the approved accounts on Facebook won’t display a badge. So, the new feature won’t help users in identifying a fake profile from a genuine one.

Chinese search giant Baidu expands to Brazil

China’s biggest search engine Baidu Inc is expanding outside the country by setting up an office in Brazil. According to China Daily, the company is preparing to set up a branch in Sao Paulo.

“Baidu aims to compete with Google, with the new branch,” a manager in charge of Baidu’s business in the Latin American country stated.

“It will launch a Wikipedia-like product first, but it doesn’t have a timeline for its search service. The new branch will employ 20 people in the first six months and perhaps more eventually,” the manager added.

This is not the first time that Baidu’s is setting up a base in a foreign country. In 2007, the search engine entered the Japanese market. However, it remains a small player in Japanese search market, where Google has an overwhelming share.

Baidu’s market share in the fourth quarter was 78.3%, according to a data from Beijing-based research firm Analysys International, while Google’s market share was only 16.7%. Analysts expect Baidu’s earnings to increase 54% in 2012 and at an average of 48% annually for the next five years.

Cisco approaches EU court to challenge Microsoft-Skype deal

Networking company Cisco has reached the European court to challenge Microsoft’s $8.5 billion takeover of Skype. The merger which took place in October last year, according to Cisco, blocks its own video conferencing systems. The company claims that by integrating Skype exclusively with its Lync Enterprise Communications Platform, Microsoft could lock-in businesses who want to reach Skype’s 700 million account holders to a Microsoft-only platform.

Marthin De Beer, the head of Cisco’s video conferencing division, wrote in a blog post, “We respect the European Commission, and value Microsoft as a customer, supplier, partner, and competitor. Cisco does not oppose the merger, but believes the European Commission should have placed conditions that would ensure greater standards-based interoperability.”

“This appeal is about one thing only: securing standards-based interoperability in the video calling space. Our goal is to make video calling as easy and seamless as  email is today. Making a video-to-video call should be as easy as dialing a phone number. Today, however, you can’t make seamless video calls from one platform to another, much to the frustration of consumers and business users alike,” Marthin adds.

Microsoft is confident that EU will not change its mind over the Skype deal.

“The European Commission conducted a thorough investigation of the acquisition, in which Cisco actively participated, and approved the deal in a 36-page decision without any conditions. We’re confident the Commission’s decision will stand up on appeal,” the company said in a statement.

Twitter launches a self-service advertising platform for small businesses

Now small businesses can easily buy and place ads on Twitter. The micro-blogging site has launched a self-service advertising platform,  that will enable advertisers to easily manage their marketing campaigns and budgets.

The new service will be available only to advertisers who accept or use American Express cards, but will be rolled out to other cardholders in the coming months.

Like Google’s advertising platform, Twitter’s ad service will allow advertisers to specify how much they are willing to spend, pick the cities or regions where they want their ads to appear and write their own commercial messages, which will be limited to Twitter’s 140-character limit per tweet. Twitter will charge, only for ads that users respond to –by retweeting, following the company and  by clicking the tweet links.

For each of the first 10,000 qualified businesses in the U.S. that sign up at http://ads.twitter.com/amex, the American Express Co. will buy $100 in Twitter ads. The ads, called “promoted products,” will begin appearing within in users’ Twitter stream by late March.

“The response to the ads so far has been mostly positive. I have every expectation that we will be able to scale this very rapidly,” said Twitter CEO Dick Costolo Costolo.

Founded in 2007, Twitter has more than 100 million active users and a valuation topping $8 billion. But, the company  like others in the social media space, is not aiming for the IPO yet.

“I don’t look at what other companies are doing. We don’t think in terms of building this company for a particular IPO date. We are trying to build this company for the long term,” Costolo added.

Last year, Twitter generated ad revenue of about $140 million, according to the research firm eMarketer Inc. This year, it is expected to sell $260 million in advertising, boosted by the new self-service platform.

Baidu to monetize its mobile search traffic and social media platforms

Chinese search giant Baidu is planning to monetize its mobile search traffic and social media platforms this year in an effort to boost its growth in the Internet and mobile space.

At present, mobile services make up only a small percentage of Baidu’s total revenue. By stepping up its efforts to generate revenue from mobile services, the search company plans to tap into China‘s lucrative mobile Internet market. Other than mobile, Baidu is also pursuing a strategy to monetize its social media platforms.

“We do think mobile will become a very important channel to distribute our products and that has increasingly become true over the past quarter. And we think during the coming year, mobile will represent an ever larger percentage of our total traffic. In the past, we have not spent any resources in monetizing the mobile traffic. But starting from this year, we will do something to figure out how to better serve our customers on our mobile platform,” said. Robin Li, chief executive of Baidu, as reported by the Reuters.

Baidu has a dominant position in China’s Internet search market , where search giant Google has been unable to operate due to censorship laws. Baidu’s market share in the fourth quarter was 78.3%, according to a data from Beijing-based research firm Analysys International. Analysts expect Baidu’s earnings to increase by 54% in 2012.

Apart from boosting its mobile and social media service, Baidu is also expanding its international business. After setting up an office in Japan in 2007, the search engine has opened a new branch in Brazil.

U.S. Department of Transportation to restrict Social Media usage while driving

Taking into account the dangers of social networking while driving; the U.S. Transportation Department has asked automakers to disable devices that allow drivers to access social networks such as Facebook and Twitter while driving.

In the non-binding voluntary guidelines issued today, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called for disabling manual texting, Internet browsing, 10-digit phone dialing and the ability to enter addresses into a built-in navigation system for drivers, unless the car is in park. The guidelines bring attention to distracted driving caused by use of mobile phones and other electronic devices behind the wheels.

“Distracted driving is unsafe, irresponsible and can have devastating consequences. Every single time a driver takes his or her focus off the road, the driver puts his or her life and the lives of others at risk,” LaHood stated.

The DOT is not trying to ban the usage of social networking sites, while driving, just trying to reduce the use.

“We recognize that vehicle manufacturers want to build vehicles that include the tools and conveniences expected by today’s drivers,” said David Strickland, administrator of the department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In December, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board called mobile-phone use in cars a public-health epidemic on the scale of smoking or drunk driving.

“It’s recommended that all U.S. states ban phone use by drivers, even with handsfree devices. The safety board can’t make or enforce rules,” said  spokeswoman Kelly Nantel. The board plans a meeting on distracted driving in March.

Zynga to launch a new platform to promote other game developers

To reduce its reliance on Facebook and diversify its revenue streams, Zyngais planning to launch a new publishing platform to promote games created by other developers.

According to the Bloomberg reports, the platform will be unveiled in March, and would allow other game developers to advertise their wares in Zynga games and on a separate Web portal. Zynga will keep a portion of the sales generated from these games, said people familiar with the matter.

The company has not officially announced the new service, though.

Shares of Zynga fell 18 percent on Wednesday, after the company reported in the earnings report that its user growth has slowed in the final three months of 2011. Zynga also added that it had lost $435 million, or $1.22 per share, in the fourth quarter on $311 million in revenue.

At present, Facebook accounts for more than 90 percent of Zynga sales. By selling services to other developers, the company can reduce its reliance on Facebook. Promoting apps made by other developers is also going to be less risky and would require less resources than Zynga’s main business of developing games.

During an event at the company’s San Francisco headquarters in October, Zynga also debuted Z cloud, its private cloud infrastructure.

“Z cloud is aimed at building a direct relationship with consumers whether they are on the Web or mobile,” CEO Mark Pincus said.