Thursday, October 25, 2007

Thursday, October 25, 2007

The Facebook Phenomenon...

When you go to facebook.com, you get the following message: Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you. Talk about identifying your product right off the bat! You are then encouraged to sign up. At the bottom of the (half) page welcome is a Find your friends search. And how valuable is this four-year-old website started by former-Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg? Well yesterday he sold a 1.6% stake of Facebook Inc. to Microsoft Corp. for $240 million (gulp)...

The Palo Alto based company totals less than $200 million annually but has been appraised at $15 billion (gulp). After losing a stake in AOL and ownership of YouTube and internet ad service DoubleClick Inc. to Google, Miscrosoft has struck gold with Facebook Inc. 23-year-old Zuckerberg turned down a $1 billion takeover offer from Yahoo Inc. just last year - a very good decision...

Although MySpace remains the largest social network, Facebook has been growing much faster in the past year. Facebook attracted 30.6 million U.S. visitors in September compared with 68.4 million at MySpace. Social networking is the fastest growing online community of consumers giving Web surfers a place to search for dates, connect with friends and family and share photos, videos and music...

And it all started with the spots we used to run on the all-night show for dating services. Remember those? No program director in radio felt comfortable with those commercials that gave a phone number to call to match you up, but look at those numbers today, 99 million if you combine MySpace and Facebook Web surfers. Even taking into consideration that many consumers use both, that's a ton of users...

10 Timeline Memories:

  1. 1854] The 'Charge of the Light Brigade': Takes place during the Crimean War as an English brigade of more than 600, facing hopeless odds, charges the Russian army in the Battle of Balaclava and suffers heavy losses...
  2. 1962] Hell freezes over: In one of the most dynamic speech's of all-time, Adlai Stevenson, addressing the U.N. demands that Russian ambassador Zorin explain the presence of missiles in Cuba, saying "I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over". Simply brilliant!!!
  3. 1964] And you thought your sense of direction was bad?: Viking Jim Marshall, a very good player without a keen sense of direction, runs 66 yards in the wrong direction after picking up a fumble, resulting in a 2-point safety...
  4. 1981] World Series Memories: In one of the more bizarre George Steinbrenner moments, "The Boss" claims that he broke his hand in an elevator fight in L.A. during the 1981 World Series. Although the Yankees win the first two games at Yankee Stadium, they get swept in Los Angeles and then back home, "handing" the series to LA...1986] Bill Buckner happens and here's Vin Scully calling the play after some personal YouTube chatter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih7-PAB7pkU ...2003] The Marlins' Josh Beckett pitches Florida to the World Series Championship with a 2-0 shutout of the Yankees when he tags Jorge Posada on the hiney for the final out. And what a game, the new "Mr. October" pitched last night...
  5. 1990] Strike Out: The New York Daily News goes on strike. The strike will last until March, 1991...
  6. 1990] A champ named Evander: Evander Holyfield KOs Buster Douglas for the heavyweight title. Douglas held the title briefly following a surprise KO of Mike Tyson and here are the highlights of that (Holyfield-Douglas) fight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpSQfdfsBek ...
  7. 1991] "Happy Trails": Rock promoter Bill Graham dies in a helicopter crash at 60...1992] Singer/songwriter Roger Miller is a victim of cancer at 56...1993] Horror film legend Vincent Price, a heavy smoker, dies of lung cancer at 82...1999] Colorful golf pro Payne Stewart and 5 others die in a Learjet crash in South Dakota. Stewart was 42...2005] Co-owner of the Giants, Wellington Mara succumbs to lymphoma at 89...
  8. 1994] Guilty as charged: Susan Smith claims that a carjacker drove off with her two sons but later confesses to drowning them. She will be convicted of murder and sentenced to life (a term she's now serving)...
  9. 1996] How do you mend a broken heart?: Joe Torre's brother Frank receives a heart transplant during the 1996 World Series. Frank is now 76...
  10. 2003] Winner, spelled B-o-w-d-e-n: Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden becomes the winningest, dad-gum coach in major college football history with his 339th victory as his Seminoles beat Wake Forest 48-24. Bowden adds to that figure with every Florida State win...

Music Memories:

Commentary:

If you have relatives and friends in Malibu and surroundings, like me, you're concerned about their welfare. Harvey Mednick describes the magnitude of the fires in this e-mail: "It's been amazing...although we live on the west side of L.A. about 15 miles from Malibu, we were never in danger, nor were any of our friends who live out that way. The devastation is incredible...they said the fire line in San Diego was longer than Manhattan island. And the pity of it all is that although the Malibu fire started when a power pole was knocked over by high winds, the San Diego fire was arson...makes ya crazy". One estimate of the damage is $1 billion so far. I'm glad to know you're safe. Thanks for the report Harvey...

"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":

Pedro Martinez (36), Mike Eruzione (53), Dave Cowens (59), Helen Reddy (65), Bobby Knight (67), Marion Ross (78) and Bobby Thomson (84)...

Timeline Countdown: Game 2 of the World Series is tonight (GO SOX), 6 nights until Halloween, 10 days until Standard Time and 22 days until Thanksgiving...

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