What was hot on the web this week? Get up to speed on the latest trends, news and services with some of our favorite new stories.
Facebook Readies IPO Filing For Next Week
Rumor has it Facebook could be filing for an initial public offering as early as Wednesday. It’s currently looking at a deal that would value the social network between $75 billion and $100 billion.
A $10 billion Facebook offering would rank fourth among U.S. companies, behind Visa, Inc., General Motors Co. and AT&T Wireless. At a $100 billion valuation, Facebook would be worth about the same as McDonald’s Corp. and nearly half of Google Inc.
Read more here.
Google Streamlines, Revamps Privacy Policy
Google’s updated privacy policy, taking effect March 1, will merge user data collected across multiple services—its latest push to learn as much as possible about the people who use its products.
If you’re logged in, Google will treat you as one user across all services. For example, data from your Gmail behavior will be integrated with your Google Maps behavior, and so on.
Google hopes these changes will create “a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.”
Read more here.
Twitter To Censor Tweets in Individual Countries
Twitter announced additional flexibility with its technology that will allow the removal of tweets in specific countries where free speech isn’t granted on all topics.
Before, when Twitter removed a tweet for censorship reasons, it disappeared worldwide. Now, when a tweet contains content illegal in one country, it will be removed only from there, but still seen elsewhere.
Similar to when Google removes certain search results, Twitter will post a notice when specific tweets are removed for censorship.
Read more here.
Ready Or Not, Here Comes Facebook Timeline
Facebook’s biggest overhaul since the Wall, the Facebook Timeline, will soon be mandatory for all users. Timeline will roll out over the next few weeks, and once it does, users will have only seven days to preview and hide anything they don’t want others to see.
Timeline makes it easier for you to travel back through your Facebook posts—posts that normally disappeared off your wall and into oblivion.
Additionally, Facebook launched a new tool called Activity Log, which users can use to review all posts and activity from today back to when they first started using Facebook.
Read more here.
