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Facebook, the world's biggest social-networking site,has raised $16bn for itselfin a highly anticipated stock market debut.

The social networking site floated 421 million shares of common stock at $38 inFriday's initial public offering (IPO), valuing the company at $104bn and makingit thethird-biggest public offering in US history.

Just after the offering, which was delayed by a half-houruntil 11:30am EDT, the stock jumped to $42.05 in the opening trades. But the company's new stock closed barely higher than its opening price at $38.15.

"The negativity in the market overall has put a damper on the IPO," said Darren Hayes, a Pace University professor.

"It's not uncommon in an IPO to see a big rise and then for the price to come back down, but I'm a bit surprised after all the hype."

More than 500 million sharesexchanged hands, setting a US record for volume on the same day of an IPO.

'Mark listed FB'

From a student dormitory at Harvard to plush headquarters in Silicon Valley, Facebook - now the world's second-most-visited website - has grown rapidly since its founding in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg.

Wearing his trademark hoodie and standing before a huge crowd in Menlo Park, California, Zuckerbergremotely opened trading this morning on the NASDAQ Stock Market.

"With 1,000 other Facebook employees, Zuckerberg had an all-night code-a-thon," Al Jazeera's Scott Heidler reported from New York.

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Facebook fails to set stock market alight

Kids need counselling on networking sites: Experts

(IANS) / 19 May 2012

Children addicted to social networking sites without understanding their implications are falling victim to grudges which move from cyberspace to the real world, say police, teachers and psychologists.

Their views come in the wake of a Class 10 student on Wednesday stabbing his classmate in a central Delhi school, apparently miffed at the latter posting a photograph of his on Facebook.

Recently, we came across a case where students had created a page on their teacher on a social networking site so that they can make fun of her and abuse her, a officer of Delhi Polices cyber cell, who did not want to be identified, said.

The lack of counselling and emotional management skills in children along with unhindered access to networking sites are giving way to violent expressions among children unable to handle the situation, the experts said.

Children need to be told that networking sites are not for spreading hatred or vent anger. Schools should take initiatives and counsel the students. This is a must. Unfortunately, not much attention is being given to counselling on cyber activity, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Economic Offence Wing) K.K. Vyas said.

Social media provides space for youngsters to hide and vent their anger. So, teaching children anger management will be the best solution for controlling violence, said Director of Mental Health and Behaviourial Sciences at Fortis Hospital Sameer Parekh.

He said schools must teach anger management. Parents and teachers must also pay attention to childrens behaviour, he said.

However, with unhindered access from their homes, teenagers just could not get enough of networking sites, said a teacher.

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Kids need counselling on networking sites: Experts

NEW YORK (AP) -- Facebook may have made social networking a worldwide cultural phenomenon, but it wasn't the first Internet company to connect people online. And it won't be the last. Here's a look at how social networking has evolved. Some companies have come and gone. Some are mere shells of their former selves. And others show promise, even as Facebook dominates the social Web.

Geocities

Launched in 1994, Geocities offered a way for people to build websites and tell the world about themselves with postings and photos. Users could also buy and sell things through online stores. Pages built to feature different subjects formed virtual communities. Yahoo bought it in 1999, at the height of the dot-com boom, for about $3 billion and shut it down a decade later. Geocities was among the early services that let people form online communities. Yahoo shut down GeoCities in 2009.

Classmates.com

The website created to connect former schoolmates with one another launched in 1995, possibly before its time. It filed to go public in 2007 when it had about 50 million users, but withdrew the IPO that December, citing "market conditions." Classmates.com still exists today, but is overshadowed by Facebook. It's owned by United Online Inc., which is also home to online florists such as FTD and Interflora.

SixDegrees

Started by Andrew Weinreich in 1997, SixDegrees was "the first online business that attempted to identify and map a set of real relationships between real people using their real names," writes author David Kirkpatrick in "The Facebook Effect." Though it attracted millions of users, the site failed to catch on and shut down in 2000. Weinreich later told Kirkpatrick that "We were early. Timing is everything."

LiveJournal

Launched in 1999, LiveJournal offered and still offers a rudimentary form of social networking. Users write online journals and share them with friends or the general public. The site doesn't require people to use their real names, and with short status update snippets more popular today, seems more akin to blogging than to social networking. It's owned by Moscow-based SUP Media and remains popular in Russia.

Friendster

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Beyond Facebook: A look at social network history

General Motors will stop advertising on Facebook, even as the social networking website prepares to go public.

While GM gave no specific reason for dropping Facebook ads, a source familiar with the automaker's plans said the company's marketing executives decided Facebook's ads had little impact on consumers.

While GM's decision could be an exception in the advertising world, it marked the first highly visible crack in the Facebook strategy, said Brian Wieser, Internet and media analyst at Pivotal Research Group.

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"This does highlight what we are arguing is the riskiness of the overall Facebook business model," he said. "It is not a sure thing. It sure looks likely that it will be one of the most important ad-supported media properties, but it's not certain because there will be marketers who are challenged to prove the effectiveness of the marketing vehicle."

Facebook, founded eight years ago by Mark Zuckerberg in a Harvard dorm room, is expected to start trading on the Nasdaq on Friday. The world's No. 1 social networking site raised its IPO price range on Tuesday, potentially giving the company a valuation of more than $US100 billion.

An executive at another large consumer products company said the issue with advertising on Facebook is nobody really knows yet if it works better than traditional media and is worth the money spent. "Is it just a shiny new object, or is it a real value proposition?" said the executive, who asked not to be identified.

GM said it will still have Facebook pages, which cost nothing to create, to market its vehicles. GM pays no fee to Facebook for its pages, which allow the automaker to reach consumers directly.

GM said it regularly reviews how it spends its marketing budget and adjusts its approach as needed.

"It's not unusual for us to move our spending around various media outlets - especially with the growth of multiple social and digital media outlets," the company said in a statement.

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Low impact: GM axes Facebook ads

The new Nokia 112 (left) and Nokia 110 (right) give users web-browsing access at a low cost. Image: Nokia

Dont look now, but Gadget Lab is actually excited by a couple of feature phones.

Nokia isnt just focused on bolstering its position in the smartphone market. The company on Tuesday unveiled two new feature phones the Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 that will bring web browsing, social networking and gaming to budget-conscious consumers and emerging markets.

The Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 will both cost less than $50 without contracts, and will run on Nokias Series 40 operating system. Users will have access to the web through the Nokia Browser, which reduces data consumption by 90 percent by compressing websites to a cloud-based server, according to Nokia. This will keep data costs down for Nokia 110 and 112 users.

Both phones also feature Facebook and Twitter access directly on the home screen. And in its aim to target younger customers, Nokia will make 40 EA game titles available to Nokia 110 and 112 owners to download for free. On board theres also an FM radio and a media player that can play both music and video.

Both feature phones have a 1.8-inch TFT LCD screen, a VGA camera, dual SIM card capacity, and MicroSD slots that support up to 32 GB of storage. The main difference between the two devices lies in battery life the Nokia 110 gets up to 10.5 hours of talk time, while the Nokia 112 offers 14 hours.

While these definitely arent the kinds of phones youll want to wait in line for, both models pack a lot of features at a minimal cost. And Nokia definitely needs to give its feature-phone sales a boost. According to its Q1 earnings, Nokias feature and basic phone sales dropped 16 percent, mainly due to competition from microvendors in emerging markets. Differentiating its phones with web browsing and social-network access, at a low cost, is a sensible move for the company.

The Nokia 110 is set to ship in the second quarter for 35 euros, or around $45, and the Nokia 112 is scheduled to ship in the third quarter for 38 euros, or around $49.

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Nokia Brings Web Browsing, Social Networking to New Low-End Phones