It seems the creator of the Facebook is not a fan of the recently released movie “The Social Network”. Many were curious to know if the new social network movie was in fact reality, or “Hollywood”? According to the Yahoo movie blog, Mark Zuckerburg, does not agree with a lot of what the movie depicts about his famous social networking site. One major thing that seems to be depicted wrong was the fact that the movie inferred that Facebook was created out of anger for being dumped by a girl, and that was not in fact the case.
Seen the movie??? What do you think? Thumbs up, or thumbs down?

According to new reports done by The International  Telecommunication Union, by the end of this year there will be 2 billion internet users worldwide. Although people all over the world are going online, the gap between countries that are still developing versus those that are more technologically advanced is still considerably large.

Just having access to high-speed internet is giving other countries more of an opportunity to connect. The ITU says that internet usage has actually doubled in the last 5 years. With only about 8% of the population currently using Broadband, it is supposed to help make an impact on the market by connecting more people in the future. Leadpile thrives on the usage of the internet as many from around the world are beginning to do the same.

Facebook did a 5-for-1 stock on Friday marking the third split in the company’s history.  It’s true market value is still unknown until the company goes public.  Expectations for an IPO isn’t expected until 2012 at the earliest. Currently, Facebook shares can be sold on SecondMarket which puts Facebook’s current valuation at around $30 billion.  Nearly $150 million Facebook stock sales have been recorded since April 2009.

While a stock split will not increase a shareholder’s equity, increasing the number of company shares can increase liquidity and make the company’s shares easier and less expensive to trade.

An interesting note, Google’s stock split several times prior to going public back in 2004.

Just before the release of the movie “The Social Network”, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced he was donating $100 million for education that will go toward improving public schools in Newark, New Jersey. A new foundation named Startup: Education will focus on improving education in the United States. The mayor will be working with the education plan to strategize this reform.

Zuckerberg is hoping that his donation being public will help to influence others to do the same thing. This is the first donation that he has decided to do with his $6.9 billion fortune, making him one of the youngest billionaires on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans.

Despite some skepticism over the timing of the donation being so near to the movie release,  the donation is nonetheless valuable. With over 500 million users to Facebook, it is good to see that the social network is giving back to the community in such a large way. Hopefully, this is the beginning of more donations to come and not just for good press to surround the movie.

Social networking sites are a part of most people’s daily lives. Unfortunately, telling too much information seems to be something that people aren’t paying enough attention to. For instance, Facebook users consistently update their status and what they are doing at any given time during the day. However, people are updating their status telling the “world” they are going out of town. How about do you have your full birth date and/or address listed on your profile? None of these items would create any security issues if you have a limited number of Facebook friends that you personally trust, AND you have your privacy settings set that those that are not “friends” with you can not see profile information. If these two items are the case, then this information might not apply to you.
Yahoo Finance pointed out some great things that you should be conscious of with your Facebook accounts.

Things you should never reveal on Facebook:
1. Your birth date and birth place
2. Vacation plans
3. Home address
4. Confessionals
5. Password hints
6. Risky behaviors

Not only are these items above revealing more information then you should be sharing with a total stranger, this information could be potentially viewed by your future employers, insurance company, lenders etc.
Bottom line: limit what you put on your Facebook account because you don’t want just anyone to know everything and anything you are doing in all hours of the day.

Twitter recently announced some of their biggest news all year offering video and pictures for tweet posts. This new feature will show a sidebar on the twitter screen that will allow the user to post a picture or video relating to their tweet as opposed to a link or a separate website. Before this, users were limited to 140 characters to share their tweet without visuals.

The new Twitter is also expected to include better advertisements and a way to scroll to the bottom of the page without clicking on a “more” button. They believe these moves will help make them more “user friendly”.Twitter partnered with several media providers including YouTube and Google in order to make this move possible. With Facebook continuing to gather people all over world, Twitter may be thinking of ways to keep with their social media users. Will you be switching to Twitter to share pictures or videos or continue to post them on outlets such as Facebook?

The internet has been buzzing today about Google’s new home page and how the logo has changed. The previous logo has gone from the solid colored “Google” font to moving colorful dots that scatter through out the screen when the mouse goes by it.
Many people are speculating if the new logo has to do with Google’s 12th Birthday, new innovations, or if it’s just an entertaining change for the site.

This morning, a Google spokesperson stated,

“Today’s doodle is fun, fast, and interactive, just the way we think search should be,”.

Last time Google received this much attention for their homepage was back in May when it was turned into a playable Pac-Man game for the game’s anniversary. This page was so popular it was reported to have used 4.8 million hours of productivity from those who used it.

One way or another, Google is once again  receiving attention for simply changing their home page look.

Are you a brand name buyer? Are there certain products that you buy generic or store brand? Comparing the pricing on these may shock you and really add up over time! Taking into consideration, the quality of the product – some things generic just may not add up.

A few products you are safe to save some cash and buy the generic version:

Breakfast Cereal – $2.99 for brand name, $0.99 for generic; the ingredients are typically exactly the same and they are just as tasty!

Prescription Drugs – Pricing on generics can be more than half of the cost of brand name. Pharmaceutical companies are required to use the same ingredients, so if it’s available – why not?

Cooking & Baking Ingredients – Flour, butter, sugar, salt & spices , these are all the same and can offer a huge savings!

Fruits & Veggies – Unless looking for a very specific or rare type of produce, locally grown or lesser-known brands of produce can be just as delicious as a brand name banana or apple. Try it out, if you don’t like it, switch back – but if you do, you could save some additional money!

According to msnbc.com , the average consumer can save $200-$1,500 per year by purchasing generic!

The US may not hold the world record for fastest texting any longer. Melissa Thompson from Salford, England has just broken the record for fastest typing on a phone using the sentence,

“The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.”.

The previous Guinness World Record was held by Franklin Page from Seattle with a text speed of 35.45 seconds. If approved by Guinness, Thompson will hold the new record for texting the sentence the most quickly in 29.54 seconds. Although she says she has slowed down, Thompson accredits her texting abilities to writing her boyfriend 40-50 times a day. Clearly, she’s had quite a bit of practice.

Can you text the above sentence used by Guinness Records in less than the current record time? Being on the internet so often, I’m almost willing to bet some of the people here at Leadpile could!

Yet another way for your friends and family to have up-to-date notifications of your “who, what, when, where and why” ? Facebook announced Wednesday a new location-sharing program that will allow you to send updates letting you announce your location. Similar to the iPhone application Foursquare that has been previously the leading location-sharing site. Foursquare reached a membership level of 2 million users in July.

Privacy uses have already been brought to the table with FaceBook “Places” as it gives friends the option to tag others when they check in somewhere, posting the updated location for everyone tagged. There is a “yes” option allowing friends to tag you, however there is not a “no” option, only a “not now”.

Facebook has said that “this is not a service to broadcast your location at all times, but rather one to share where you are, who you are with, when you want to…It lets you find friends that are nearby and help you discover nearby places”. The “Here Now” feature will let anyone who has checked into a pace see who else has done the same.

Companies and products have been buying people to “like” their pages on Facebook hoping to bring in as many customers as possible. The ability for people to “like” something was replaced by the previous “fan” option. One of the companies topping off the list of “liked” Facebook pages for their company is Starbucks with 11.8 million “likes”. They even offer a way for the customers to keep track of their spending as an incentive. Other companies/products with an abundance of “likes” are Coca-Cola with 9.6 million, Oreos with 7.9 million, and Skittles with 7.8 million.

While some companies are going out of their way to accumulate as many “likes” as possible, others are only interested in quality customers. Mike Corrales, Vice President of BillMyParents says,

“I would rather have 2,500 real, authentic people than have 250,000 fake ones”.

There are so many different social media outlets today, making the potential for new customers easier to reach. On the same note, quality traffic is something that is more difficult to come across. Leadpile focuses on the best quality traffic for consumers.

It seems like everyone including Moms and Grandmas are on Facebook sharing pictures, status updates and commenting on pages. With all of the updates and changes Facebook is constantly requiring users to update privacy settings….However, if you are not watching this with an Eagle eye, you may be one of the 100 million “FB” users that personal details have been collected and published online, making it hard to impossible to remove this information from the public view.

This data was collected and posted by the Internet site Pirate Bay. Using a code to scan the 500+ million Facebook profiles for any information not hidden by privacy settings. Stated by Ron Bowes of Pirate Bay on his website www.skullsecurity.org the results of this code/search were “spectacular” allowing him to capture 171 million names, 100 million of these being unique.

Facebook is currently downplaying the absorption of this information saying no private data had been compromised. In a statement emailed to msnbc.com, Facebook stated the information on the list was already available online.