RELATED: Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian Calls Internet Blackout: ‘Geekiest Protests Ever’

“The world today needs political leaders who are pro-internet,” Zuckerberg continued. “We have been working with many of these folks for months on better alternatives to these current proposals. I encourage you to learn more about these issues and tell your congressmen that you want them to be pro-internet. You can read more about our views here.”

Read Zuckerberg’s status update of support below:

(h/t Brian Stelter)

In one fell swoop, NMA takes on Facebook’s new front page graphic updates, the F8 conference where Mark Zuckerberg (and his doppelganger Andy Samberg) announced even more Facebook features, and the new Facebook timeline feature. The video even briefly looks at what Facebook’s increased interest in user information will mean for the future of internet privacy.

Watch the video below, courtesy of YouTube:

h/t LA Times

(H/T The Atlantic Wire)

So what to make of Mogulite? Well let’s let our newest cohort Amy Tennery explain its raison d’etre:

Why launch a site about moguls? Now? The reasons range from the absurd to the sensible. For starters: peering into the lives of the ultra-wealthy is fun! Furthermore, many of these people control our everyday lives but don’t like to be seen or scrutinized. This doesn’t make sense to us. Even the most reclusive moguls should be getting just a fraction of the press coverage of the cast of “Dancing with the Stars.” Well, at least I would like to see more moguls on that show… or maybe not.

We’re committed to the idea that what the ultra-wealthy and powerful do matters, as much as many would like to deny it. We’re ready to celebrate those helping to change things for the better – while, on the other hand, highlighting hypocrisy and exposing those secretly serving as puppeteers, to make our lives more treacherous. We’d like to keep apace with the gobstoppingly wealthy — preferably over a round of aged scotch. If we can’t make it into the boardroom, we can at least join you top tax bracket folks at the Harvard Club and share a drink, right? No? Okay, fine. We’ll be at our laptops.

The point is, we’ll be neither sycophantic nor cruel – we will, however, be merciless.

In honor of Mogulite’s launch, we’ve assembled a list of the top ten Media Moguls according to the Mediaite Power Grid. Enjoy!

The actual question, the final of the night, was phrased like this; “If you had to do anything differently during your first four years, what would it be?” Obama got around the trick part of the question and pointed out that he’s only actually been in office two and a half years (Ah, I see you do know how to keep track of time. Well done, sir.”) and then got down to business.

“You know, there are all sorts of day to day issues where I say to myself, ‘Ah, I didn’t say that right,’ or ‘I didn’t explain this clearly enough,’ or ‘Maybe if I had sequenced this plan first as opposed to that one, maybe it would have gotten done quicker.’ Health care, obviously, was a huge battle. … We wouldn’t have gotten it done if it hadn’t been for great work in Congress. But I do think that it was so complicated that, at a certain point, people started thinking ‘This is typical Washington bickering’ and I ask myself sometimes if there was a way we could have gotten it done more quickly and in a way that the American people wouldn’t have been so frustrated by.”

Obama then smoothly transitioned from things he has done to things he has to do, talking till the end of the Town Hall about the many ways he wants to spend the rest of his term and whatever (cough second term cough).

Man, I bet this guy is awesome at job interviews.

Check out the clip from C-Span below:

While The New York Times explains that nothing’s a done deal yet and this would conflict with the timetable Gibbs had previously set out for his future (work on President Obama’s reelection and then go into the private sector), they do point out that, with all the attention the company received after the release of The Social Network, a guy like Gibbs would come in handy. And it wouldn’t be such a bad move for Gibbs either. After all, Facebook is mega rich.

From the New York Times:

“A job for Mr. Gibbs at Facebook could be worth millions of dollars. While details of his potential compensation package have yet to be discussed, people briefed on the talks said that he would receive a cash salary as well as shares ahead of the initial offering. Facebook is being valued by some investors at more than $60 billion and could be the largest offering in history.”

Remember, Mr. Gibbs, when discussing a salary with Facebook, a million dollars isn’t cool. You know what is? Multiple millions of dollars.

(h/t Soup)

Zuckerberg may not be heading to the Capitol anytime soon, but he has two weeks to answer for a recent announcement that the company may be providing private user information to third parties. According to CNN, the letter request sent to the Facebook CEO centered around concerns that the company could be profiting off of privacy breaches users may have little to no information on:

“Please explain why Facebook, while previously acknowledging in its letter to us that sharing a [Facebook User ID] could raise user concerns, subsequently considered sharing of a user’s home address and mobile phone number – even more sensitive personal information than a UID – to be information that should be more easily accessible to third parties,” they wrote in the letter.

They also question whether the announcement of such a policy was made sufficiently public as to give users notice should they want to block their information. It’s not the first time Facebook finds itself in hot water for their

Time was able to get a hold of the letter Papa Zuckerberg has been sending out to new residents of Dobbs Ferry, highlighting his connection to what is probably the most well-known social network of all time (Sorry, Xanga). Here’s the relevant portion of his letter. Emphasis is Zuckerberg’s own:

Technologically, I am proud to inform you that my office has always been on the cutting edge as early adopters of technology. Indeed, I am literally the Father of Facebook!

Extremely uncomfortable use of “literally” aside, this all seems quite cute. We wonder, however, what Mark – along with sister Randi Zuckerberg, who also works at Facebook, think about their dad drawing attention to their work.

On a related note: Has anyone ever visited Dr. Zuckerberg? Because we are actually in need of a new dentist, and Dobbs Ferry isn’t too far. Not surprisingly, his practice has its own Facebook page.

How did that happen, and why?

Critically the film was a smash.

Film review site Rotten Tomatoes says: “Impeccably scripted, beautifully directed, and filled with fine performances, The Social Network is a riveting, ambitious example of modern filmmaking at its finest.”

Which is to say – it’s a good story. But, is it true?

Many of the people who went to see The Social Network found themselves entertained, and then wondering just how accurate it was.

Dustin Moskovitz one of Facebooks co-founders, called the film a “dramatization of history … it is interesting to see my past rewritten in a way that emphasizes things that didn’t matter.”

Blogger Jeff Jarvis called the film “well-crafted” but labeled it “the anti-social movie” blasting it as “the story that those who resist the change society is undergoing want to see.”

Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig blasted the film for ignoring what he called the real villain, the American legal system. Said Lessig: “did Zuckerberg breach his contract? Maybe, for which the damages are more like $650, not $65 million. Did he steal a trade secret? Absolutely not. The code for Facebook was his, and the “idea” of a social network is not a patent.”

David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect – posted on The Daily Beast “What’s True About the Facebook Movie” may have underlined what was bothering moviegoers and Academy Members most.

It would be easy to write off The Social Network as a guilty pleasure and a terrific piece of scriptwriting by Aaron Sorkin. The problem is that Facebook is an important and growing piece of our society’s digital eco-system, and the story of it’s founding and the motivations of its founders are, in fact, important.

Imagine if the first and most widely viewed historic biography of Abraham Lincoln were the cult hit “Hard Drinking Lincoln.” No doubt historians and teachers would want to replace the profane and fictional animation with a more accurate portrayal.

So, as the film critics’ praise of The Social Network fades, and the film’s central characters and biographers stand up and collectively begin to label the film as little more than Hollywood nonsense, it’s reasonable to imagine Academy voters enthusiasm cooling for the picture.

Then, along comes The King’s Speech. A period film that could easily have been ignored at the box office takes flight, in part because it turns historic events into a riveting story (much as Social Network attempted to do). And, there’s no doubt that there are historical nips and tucks – as outlined by Andrew Roberts in The Daily Beast. But two things set The King’s Speech apart from The Social Network.

First, The King’s Speech has a message – that we can face and overcome our demons and rise above them. That story, brilliantly played by Colin Firth, resonates with audience of all shapes and sizes.

Second, while there may be a historical detail missed or change, The King’s Speech is fundamentally a true story. King George VI did have a speech impediment. Lionel Logue was his Australian born speech therapist. And their relationship, and friendship, is widely agreed to be accurately portrayed.

There’s no doubt that artists take liberties with the world, as they create their work. But to what end? Were the changes, omissions, and inaccuracies of The Social Network simply dramatic flourishes and sloppy fact checking? Or as some seem to suggest – an editorially delivered character assassination of both Mark Zuckerberg and the very founding principals of Facebook?

As we look toward February 27th, and the 83rd Annual Academy Awards – it’s worth thinking about what it means to have popular films hijack and re-write history.

It seems like audiences and critics both prefer their history with at least an attempt to tell both the facts and the drama, rather than construct them to serve a fictional narrative.

Steve Rosenbaum is the CEO of the video platform Magnify a former magician, and an innovator in the new media space.

Watch the clip from NBC below:

In addition to evidently being an excellent sport, as she posed with umpteen photos with Facebook staffers and chowed down in the cafeteria for Nacho Wednesday in the Facebook Cafe, Perry was also evidently impressed with Facebook’s Person-of-the-Year inspiration-for-the-Golden-Globe-winning-best-picture and, according to Scott Rudin, person-who-let-them-use-his-life-story Mark Zuckerberg, with whom she took a number of genial meet-and-greet photos – one of which she posted on her Facebook wall with the following caption:

Ya know just hangin’ @ “the” facebook with “the” CEO. Baller style. I like him!

Gotta say, it looks like a pretty decent place to work. Here are a few photos, courtesy of Andrew Bosworth, Director of Engineering at Facebook, who apparently goes by Boz. Check a few out below:

Here’s a screengrab of Katy and Randi having their chat. Cute!

Katy, meet Mark. Mark, meet Katy.

Aw. “Like!”

So many photos! I wonder wherever we would find them online.

Nacho Wednesday! OK, I want to work there.

“I met Wayne Kao and I liked it!”

Facebook swag. That I want. With FB employee Sara Sperling. She’s the Learning and Development Consultant at Facebook. I found that out on Linkedin.

Okay don’t mock me, but who is this dude? I know I know. But he’s not tagged. So just tell me so I can kick myself.

“Move Fast and Break Things” “Done Is Better Than Perfect” – love it. This is what’s apparently known as the Games Loft. And per Boz’s comment on the shot: “she YELLED at you guys and Zuck shouted to and not a single person turned around. Everyone was wired in.” Okay *that* is dedication.

Also, for verification purposes, screengrabs authenticating Katy Perry’s new friendship with Mark Zuckerberg. He’s her new profile picture, aw. You don’t get to 48,076,943 plays on YouTube without making a few friends. You know what’s cooler than Katy Perry? Katy Perry spending the day in your office taking photos and yelling at your devs in the games loft. Let’s go all the way tonight, no regrets, just Nacho Wednesday. Don’t ever look back, don’t ever look back.

Notes the NYT’s Dealbook, which broke the scoop: this makes Facebook “worth more than companies like eBay, Yahoo and Time Warner.” It also doubles Mark Zuckerberg‘s multi-billion-dollar worth. It also makes Goldman Sachs the gatekeeper to who now gets to invest in the super-hot Facebook, and to the inevitable Facebook IPO. According to Dealbook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin and Evelyn Rusli, Goldman is “planning to create a ‘special purpose vehicle’ to allow its high-net worth clients to invest in Facebook, which would allow for max investment while circumventing disclosure rules for companies with 500 or more investors. Clever, that.

So: This is a big deal. Everyone’s already saying that this is putting Google even more on the ropes (seeing as now Facebook is the most visited website in the land) and that Goldman couldn’t be sitting prettier. Here are a few other things it means:

(1) Facebook hiring spree! To paraphrase Antoine Dodson, hide your startups, hide your engineers — Facebook’s a-comin’. Snapping up Hot Potato and Drop.io? Poaching Foursquare’s Nathan Folkman? That’s nothing compared to what Facebook’s got coming. Rumor has it they’re about to close on purchasing the Sun Microsystems campus in Menlo Park from Oracle. That’s probably not just for the scenery. They want to stock up, preferably with talent – and, importantly, companies – that will help it integrate across every platform possible. (I’m guessing one of the new buzzy photo apps will be snapped up.) If you think people are complaining about a developer shortage now, just wait.

(2) China! Mark Zuckerberg recently returned from a trip to China. Innocent pleasure jaunt for the Mandarin-speaking Facebook founder or connection-making relationship-building fact-finding mission to the land of 450 million potential users? China is certainly not an easy place to do business — they just kicked out Skype — but in a globalized, connected world, it’s certainly tough to ignore. Approximately 33% of its massive population is online and as we all know from the rest of the world, that is growing. It’s an insane market to ignore and smart, Mandarin-speaking audacious visionary CEOs probably aren’t going to shy away from trying. Facebook China. It’s gonna happen.

(3) Goldman’s PR Whitewash The Vampire Squid just attached itself to the buzziest, growing-est, Oscar-nominated-est, Person Of The Year-iest tech company around. Who will remember their year of scandal and record bonuses and how everyone hated Goldman Sachs (sample Gawker headline: “Who do you hate more, BP or Goldman Sachs?“). Goldman’s not there for you to like them, people, they’re there to make money — lots of it. But they did have a bruising year and being attached to the shining future-makers at Facebook (never mind the gatekeeper to the Facebook IPO) will certainly help. This lets them offer something shiny to their clients, and bask in that reflected glow. (And guaranteed cashola.) That doesn’t fool the people who know — I like Howard Lindzon‘s take:

For Goldman Sachs, this is a no lose situation. If it works, they get the IPO and make some money. That is their job. They got off so easy with the government that this is like Vegas money they probably thought would be the taxpayer’s at some point a year back…The only thing I DO know is that Goldman could give a rat’s ass about the social web and sharing. If they are the top in social web, it’s small potatoes. The war in bonds, currencies and commodities is where the real money is at. This is play money. I hate that Facebook is letting them in.

This is not a coup for Goldman Sachs, this is a shame for the social web.

Okay I lied. I love Howard Lindzon’s take. So, maybe Goldman’s got an uphill PR sell. But — they’ve also got Facebook. Watch the narrative change.

(4) Bigger Players, Bigger Bets When Lindzon points out that this is small potatoes for Goldman, he’s not kidding. But now the bigger fish are sniffing around and what started as mutterings about a bubble somewhere in the late fall now seems to be turning into a gold rush. (Doesn’t Google and their adorable $6 billion offer for Groupon seem so quaint right now? Never mind Twitter’s recent $3.7 billion valuation.) These are billion-dollar figures, and they are actually now starting to sound…eensy. As Ray Kurzweil points out, when technology advances it does so exponentially — so it makes sense that the explosion of tech startups would chicken-egg in conjunction with an explosion of investor dollars — not just the usual (and educated!) suspects, but people on the sidelines reading about Facebook in their Time magazines and deciding that maybe the Internet’s not a fad, after all. (Yes. These people do exist, and many of them have a LOT of money.) High valuations, big deals, young companies getting scooped up — it’s gonna be a dizzying year.

(5) Sympathy For The Google. It’s official: Facebook has gone from underdog challenger of the mighty Google to the top social-tech dog. So watch for everyone to start rooting for Google again. After a wave of backlash (see here and here), the pendulum will swing back around to rooting for the loveable search giant with the cuddly name. Google can take your pity – its market valuation is almost four times Facebook’s at $190 billion, and its current year revenue is about $22 billion to Facebook’s $2 billion. Back to Lindzon: “I think that Google has to buy Twitter and that will start to be a meme soon. It’s a chess game and nuclear war now in the social space.” That sound you hear is the sound of the tech press collectively wetting itself. Ew. But still — everyone likes to root for an exciting matchup. Expect to see some bold moves from Google, soon — if they’re smart. Big “if” (RIP Google Buzz). But isn’t that how underdogs like it?

(6) New Facebook Ad Models. All that said…Facebook has made a big point about how it hasn’t really focused on the silliness of “making money” yet, despite that $2 billion annual rev and nearly 1 trillion display ads per year. I believe them — can they really not do better than targeted ads for Jewish singles in your area? You bet they can: They also make a point about knowing every little bit of information about you for the ultimate in micro-targeting. The online ad industry is evolving and innovating right along with the rest of the web (see AdKeeper) and the key to dominating going forward will be data — using it wisely to convert your users into dollars for advertisers. This is where smart technology will take user data and figure out how to map it on top of shopping data, so that purchasing intent can best be harvested. The stigma about buying online has now pretty much disappeared. With more people using the web, and mobile devices, more often do run more of their lives, there are big bucks at stake. And I’m not even TALKING about how Facebook is looking to horn in on search.

(7) New Facebook Business Models. They have all these users. All this data. They’d be crazy just to stick with what they’ve got. Hell, now they’ve got fun money just to fling up into the air and see where it goes. They’re poaching the best and brightest who all gush on and on about how “exciting” and “creative” and “free” it is. Clearly these people are getting to work on some fun stuff. So far Facebook has shown itself as adept at replicating the innovations of its competitors (see: Foursquare –> Facebook Places). But with all the resources at their disposal and innovations happening across every industry on every platform, they’d be nuts not to at least test the waters. Hey, that car’s not gonna drive itself. Oh, wait.

(8) People Generally Freaking Out This has already started to happen. First Groupon (“What? But they AREN’T EVEN A TECH COMPANY!!!”) and now Super-Sized Facebook. Entrepreneurs and founders and people with fledgling ideas that are half-built that they’ve been slaving over at night are obsessing about all day are suddenly freaking out that they have to get to market NOW before the bubble pops and the money dries up. Chill out, dude. (And, ladies!) If you’re making something of value, it’ll take. Just focus on it, be smart, and don’t let Twitter and TechCrunch freak you out. (Here, take some advice from these people.) Just a moment of Zen amidst the craziness. All right, now – onward! It’s 2011 and YOU’D BETTER NOT SCREW THIS UP. Haa, just kidding. Mostly.

Well: It should be interesting. Happy New Year, everybody!

Related:
Goldman’s Facebook Coup [Felix Salmon - Reuters]
The Social Web Index … All-Time Highs in Pressure and Price and Shame on Facebook [Howard Lindzon]
Was Goldman wise to invest $500m in Facebook at a $50B valuation? [Quora]
Goldman Sachs Just Bought The Facebook IPO [Business Insider]

Follow Rachel Sklar on Twitter here.

Illustration of Mark Zuckerberg as Avatar-ized Time Person of the Year from Sandbox World (via Boing Boing) (hat tip: Bnter).

So, before you try to shake off that Cold Duck and Four Loko hangover, and blearily search for a gym membership you can get out of when you get tired of it after 3 sessions, why not check out our list of New Year’s Resolutions for Everyone Else?

Chris Christie: Cancel the living shit out of my vacation.

Corey Booker: Buy the rights to “Mr. Plow” jingle from Homer Simpson.

Time Magazine: Check into this “MySpace” phenomenon. Person of the Year=Tom?

Barack Obama: F**k it, I’m getting a Birth Certificate tattoo.

Andrew Breitbart: Launch “BigBig.com,” website devoted entirely to fave Tom Hanks movie. Launch with James O’Keefe hidden-cam investigation of FAO Schwarz.

Katy Perry: Finally introduce Elmo to my parents.

Michael Vick: Ask Tucker Carlson why he’s doggin’ me. What, too soon?

Conan O’Brien: Find out what channel my show is on.

Major Garrett: Leave National Journal to become a “Newsie.”

Major Garrett: Change first name to “Private,” and last name to “Dancer.”

Bill Clinton: Make sure I block the exits to the White house briefing room.

Hillary Clinton: Save it for 2012, Hill, save it for 2012!

Michelle Obama: Get Lady Gaga to make her next dress from the White House vegetable patch.

Michelle Obama: Stop sending Sarah Palin the Vegan Cookbook of the Month. It just seems to piss her off.

Sarah Palin: Pretend I knew all along that “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” didn’t literally mean that I owned Alaska.

Sarah Palin: Double-check with lawyers that I don’t actually own Alaska.

Dave Weigel: Finally make enough money to quit side-job as Charlie Sheen paparazzi decoy.

Christine O’Donnell: Pitch Gingrich campaign on “Aye of Newt” bumper stickers.

Carl Palladino: Let people see the tears.

Jake Tapper: See if I can get people to start calling me “Jake Twitter.” Because I’m on Twitter a lot.

Robert Gibbs: Will pay special attention to the 4th and 5th rows this year.

John Boehner: This year, I will…oh look, that ball (sniff), it fell so far…so (voice cracks) fast…I’m ok. Wow, Kathy Griffin‘s hair looks like my face.

Rick Sanchez: Ad-lib a New Year’s Resolution.

Kanye West: Sue the direction “West.” Because I can.

David Shuster: Bring back obscure Goldmember tagline “Let the Shusting begin!”

John McCain: Welcome any and all comers to my lawn.

John McCain: Teach Learning Annex course on how to “Dag-Nab” a variety of things.

Joe Scarborough: Change my first name to “Wood.” Cialis sponsorship, here I come!

Demon Sheep: Finish the “I am not a demon, I am you” ad. Eat only high-fiber, low carb souls.

Sharron Angle: Form exploratory committee to run for President of Asia.

Glenn Beck: Continue preparations for arrival of the Mothership.

Keith Olbermann: Figure out how I can trademark the word “Sir.” Also, write Special Comment about people with honorary knighthoods. Lol.

Rachel Maddow: Have my producer bleep me when I say “bull-pucky.” Too cute by half.

Tony Hayward: Make spec ad for “Life” cereal. “I want my Life back!” Lol.

Tommy Christopher: Fall off of something tall, and live-tweet it. Survive.

“It shouldn’t be that Mark Zuckerberg gets away with behaving that way,” Cameron told the New York Times, who again delved into the legal battle between Facebook and the brothers Winklevoss—the same one you might remember from Aaron Sorkin‘s The Social Network.

“The principle is that they didn’t fight fair,” Tyler added. “The principle is that Mark stole the idea.”

That’s the story they’ve been sticking to since their days at Harvard, when they first accused Zuckerberg of cribbing the idea for their site Harvard Connection (later ConnectU) and turning it into TheFacebook (now Facebook). The Winklevii did in fact reach a settlement with Team Zuckerberg some time ago but are now experiencing what Facebook says is “settlers remorse.”

Their argument is that Facebook deceived them about the value of the shares, leaving them with far less than they had agreed. Whatever their value at the time of the deal, Facebook’s shares have soared since, putting the current worth of the settlement, by some estimates, at more than $140 million.

There simply aren’t enough millions of dollars to sate these bros. You can check up on their past, present, and future struggles with Facebook over at the Times.

[Via Daily Intel]

Yet despite his sneering, it seems that Assange ended up taking the quiz anyway. “I’m a Samatha,” the alleged lothario said. “But if the Swedish police ask, I’m a Charlotte.”

He also threw a couple of barbs at how differently WikiLeaks and Facebook define “invasion of privacy.” His organization reveals corporate tidbits to consumers for free, while Zuckerberg’s company inverses the equation, selling your personal information to corporations.

But that’s heavy stuff. So we mostly got more jokes: “If you want to make a movie about Mark Zuckerberg, you’ll have to make stuff up to make it interesting,” went his routine. “If you want to make a movie about me, just to rate it R, you’ll have to leave stuff out.”

And so forth! You can see the rest of the budding stand-up comic’s act in the NBC clip below.

The hosts chuckled at TIME‘s selection of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg as Billionaire Person of the Year, conceding that, sure, Facebook is clearly a global big deal and Zuckerberg’s obviously smart.

But the Viewsters say the guy who’s really POTY-worthy is Assange.

“He’s more influential,” said Joy Behar, reminding viewers POTY’s not a popularity contest, and that among the previous cover boys is Adolph Hitler. But the real put-down came from Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who said you bet, lots and lots of people are on the Facebook:

“On that little sort of gnat-moving scale Mark Zuckerberg is influential, but I think over time, in terms of security, wars, et cetera, Assange will end up being the more influential…”

Then Behar agrees, and says international affairs and leaked classified cables trump “the Friendsbook,” which she said “was nice.” Oh, my gravy.

Watch it here, from ABC:

Yesterday Wedbush Morgan analyst Lou Kerner raised his rating on Google to Outperform from Neutral and set a $750/share price target for the company’s shares, saying:

“We are raising our rating and price target on Google based on our belief that mobile and social secular trends are accelerating the growth of time spent online and the growth of global searches. Coupled with the increasing global domination of Android, strong moves in local, rapid market share gains by the Chrome browser, and the potential of Chrome OS, we believe Google is remarkably well positioned to benefit from the major secular trend of our times — the digitization of human life.”

The problem with this thesis is that even as we “digitize” our lives, the population’s consumption patterns remain finite. Growth is constrained by the absolute spending power of businesses and consumers. Even if the form of consumption shifts there are still limits on the value attainable. While the market gets creative with new ways to justify higher valuations, remember “price per click” from the first internet bubble, as a company’s size increases growth becomes more difficult.

In a recent blog post, author and former venture capitalist Peter Sims talks about the challenges Google faces not to suffer the same fate as every other dominant tech company before it:

The company has run out of easy growth opportunities and must now find big chunks of new revenue. With the core search business maturing, Google increasingly seems to increasingly feel the need to make some “big bets.” That is a problem that maturing companies face that CEOs call “the tyranny of large numbers.”

Great Companies/Bad Stocks

There is no doubt both Google and Facebook are fantastic and wildly innovative companies that have changed consumers’ lives and consumption patterns. What they have not done is changed the rules of investing or altered the limitations posed by a finite economy. Both companies carry massive and historically unprecedented valuations only witnessed in previous stock market bubbles. During the internet bubble of 2000, InfoSpace (INSP) stock traded for $1300, it now fetches $8/share. So while we take a moment to toast Zuckerberg’s accomplishments, I wonder if it marks the top of the current iteration of the Internet stock bubble.

Steven Bulwa is an investment analyst with a focus on new developments in technology and the companies poised to benefit. He has contributed to TheStreet.com, Realmoney.com and SeekingAlpha.com, among others. Come to www.bulwatechreport.com, or follow @BulwaTech, to learn about technology companies with true growth prospects for 2011 and beyond.

The announcement was made live this morning on NBC’s TODAY by TIME managing editor Richard Stengel.

When it came right down to it, as Stengel told Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira, it was Zuckerberg’s social networking site Facebook (perhaps you’ve heard of it?) that was the deciding factor:

“It’s something that is transforming the way we live our lives every day. It’s social engineering, changing the way we relate to each other.”

Zuckerberg’s also the subject of an Oscar-buzzy film, The Social Network, which portrays the Facebook mogul as a geekily shy CEO. As Stengel put it:

“He’s very affable, he’s in the moment, he’s quick-witted,” Stengel said, but “he has this thing when he gets on camera” and becomes suddenly shy.

Also-rans in the Person of the Year competition were WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, those Chilean miners, and members of the Tea Party.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Pledge, which was formally announced in June of this year, is the brainchild of two other moguls: Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Its goal is to encourage tycoons to engage in philanthropy earlier in life than their predecessors. As the WSJ’s Robert A. Guth and Geoffrey A. Fowler write, the Pledge is also partially the result of Buffett’s dislike of “dynastic wealth”:

Mr. Buffett over the years has schooled Mr. Gates on philanthropy, giving him a copy of “The Gospel of Wealth,” in which steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie argued that fortunes were often wasted by heirs and thus should be put to charitable use.

Starting last year, Mr. Gates, his wife Melinda Gates, Mr. Buffett and other wealthy individuals hosted a series of dinners for billionaires to discuss setting up the pledge. That led to an announcement in June of the pledge and its earliest signers.

Since then, Mr. Gates, Ms. Gates and Mr. Buffett have been calling on billionaires to get their commitment. The pledge doesn’t ask for specific donations, nor does it track giving; rather, it asks that a pledge maker commit to giving away the majority of their wealth.

That proposition at times has been a tough sell, the pledge founders said. “People are super nice to us, but there is a certain awkwardness because it’s a big decision,” Mr. Gates said in an interview this week. “Sometimes the wife and the husband have never really talked through their priorities on the charity stuff.”

Altogether, over 50 bigwigs have taken the Pledge. Read their names and learn more about their philanthropy at the organization’s official website.

Interestingly enough, the second suit was filed long before The Social Network made the original Zuckerberg/Winklevoss story famous. Documents leaked to Radar Online show that the twins struck again this summer, after alleging that they had been the victims of securities fraud. Facebook is calling their new suit totally without merit:

“The CU Founders argue that the Settlement Agreement is not binding even though the document they signed declared it was “binding”,” their court filing says; CU referring to the Winklevoss’ former social networking site ConnectU.

“They acknowledge that Facebook never made any representation as to the value of its shares. Rather, they admit that they calculated the value themselves, based upon a truthful press release from several months earlier.

“Their fraud claim is based on omission: they fault Facebook for not volunteering a more recent — and, they claim, lower — valuation of different Facebook stock. They already had numerous valuations.

“If they and their lawyers really thought the more recent valuations were so important, they had any number of ways to secure the information: (1) through discovery; (2) by demand during the mediation; or (3) by insisting on a warranty as to value in the Settlement Agreement.

“They failed to take any of these steps, but fault Facebook for not volunteering the information.

“They insist that their sworn enemy had some special duty to open its books and volunteer any information that bears on the value of this closely held company.”

Regardless of the second suit’s outcome, it’s good news for Sorkin and David Fincher, director of The Social Network, that news of it leaked this month. After all, awards show season is coming up; now their film is more likely to be at the forefront of Hollywood’s collective mind, even though it was released way back on October 1.

[h/t Gawker]

Stahl seemed absolutely floored by the idea of a girl wanting to date Zuckerberg before he secured his Facebook fame. “Wait, what?” she asked. “Say that again? The girl, your current girlfriend, you were dating back then?”

Zuckerberg responded to her awkward disbelief by stammering out a “Yeah.”

Beyond this issue, however, he generally enjoyed The Social Network. He complimented the movie’s sartorial accuracy, saying that the wardrobe department got “every single t-shirt” right, as well as the sandals. Which is cool, except that we already knew that.

Watch to CBS clip below to see Zuckerberg trying to convince 60 Minutes that he can get girls on his own.

Fast Company’s Austin Carr notes the highlights of Bush’s humor offensive, which began when 43 immediately chided Zuckerberg by noting that Zuck is “not exactly Jay Leno” after the billionaire introduced Bush:

Likely encouraged by the audience’s laughter, Bush then asked whether Zuck graduated from his alma mater Andover before correcting himself: “Oh, you went to [rival] Exeter!”

Next, Zuckerberg transitioned into his first question, asking Bush why he chose Facebook (and presumably not Google, Apple, or Twitter) to speak. Rather than offer a string of compliments for the service as Zuck might’ve expected, Bush quipped, “Because you got a lot of people paying attention to us, and I’m trying to sell books!”

The conversation turned to education, and the moderator suggested both Bush and Zuck have a “shared interest” in the field, especially given Facebook’s recent investment in the Newark school system. But Bush wasn’t finished:

“You didn’t even graduate from college,” Bush joked, turning to Zuck with a wide grin. “He didn’t write the book! I wrote the book!”

There’s also a moment when the moderator jokes that Zuckerberg enjoys being called “The Decider,” and Bush shoots back that the nickname only “sounded cool when I said it.”

All in all, this is certainly the most fun we’ve seen Bush had on his publicity tour—and it’s also the most entertaining interview by far he’s given this fall. The chat in all its glory is embedded below.

It’ll surely pay off in the long run, despite the fact that the potential trademark wouldn’t apply in all situations—but enough to make Mashable afraid:

The trademark covers the word face only in the context of “telecommunication services, namely, providing online chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among computer users in the field of general interest and concerning social and entertainment subject matter, none primarily featuring or relating to motoring or to cars,” the pending document reads. While the context in which the trademark can be enforced is quite narrow, it’s still scary to see Facebook owning a trademark for a term as general as “face.”

And this isn’t the only time the social-media giant has tried to achieve such a feat. According to InsideFacebook, the company “has at least 15 trademark applications around the ‘like’ buttons it launched in April, some of which cover the word ‘like’ itself.” The word ‘book’ isn’t off-limits from Facebook either, as was demonstrated by their lawsuit against Teachbook. It appears that they’re also trying to own the word ‘overzealous’ as well.

You can imagine my not-in-Kansas-anymore reaction to passing clubs on a Saturday with a line around the corner — “hackathons” don’t exactly draw such crowds. While I’ve lived in NYC twice before during the summers of 2002 and 2009, I had mostly forgotten about Cool. Perhaps it’s because the tech world has always been the anti-Cool (or “Zero Cool” if you want…) and much of its culture and identity has been developed around an aversion to all forms of hipness.

Yet I can’t help but think about how the release of The Social Network will change mainstream perception of the tech world. In the same way that Hot Topic and Urban Decay hip-ified and mainstream-ified punk/goth/grunge right around the time when kids like me worshipped Kurt Cobain, I wonder if the same thing will happen to the once sacredly anti-Cool world of nerdom.

One of the first things I did upon my return to the city was accompany a friend to “Nerd Nite“. It was a series of lectures about topics that ranged from Race & Role Playing Games to Cancer. And while I thought I knew the types of people that attended stuff like this, I had clearly misjudged – when I looked around the room halfway through I noticed there was a healthy percentage of very dressed-up model-esque types in attendance. And for further evidence, look no further than the NY Times Sunday Styles section — with stories on TEDx, iPhones for babies, and, of course, The Social Network.

Has geekdom officially jumped the shark?

I was in high school in 2001 when the PBS Frontline Report “The Merchants of Cool” came out. I watched it with my best friend and remember how it shook our collective worlds in this profound way (when you’re 17, everything is profound). It was an hour-long exploration into how marketers try to manipulate teens. We were right in the sweet spot of the demographic and I was at once outraged and enlightened. Was everything I so deeply believed in just the product of some evil marketing overlord?

Thankfully, nerds have always been pretty crappy marketers (huge exception: Apple). They never had to be good because of phenomenons like “virality” and network effects and because advertising and branding were professions reserved for people who had some interest in Cool. The marketing budget for many tech/mobile startups is $0, even today. But I dare you to try and launch an energy drink with a $0 marketing budget.

I believe that is changing. There’s a great presentation about the impending convergence between Madison Avenue and Silicon Valley. While it will still take some time for Cool to trickle all the way across the country to Silicon Valley, I can feel its omnipresence in NYC Tech, even more strongly than I did just last summer. NYC knows how to manufacture Cool, and the cruise-ship-like behavior of big brands is finally starting to embrace “digital spend” in more creative ways (thanks Old Spice guy).

This feels somewhat new, and I’ll be honest, kind of bizarre. What happens in a world where where Paul Graham and Ashton Kutcher are homeboys, Biz Stone hawks liquor and Mark Zuckerberg is the new Kurt Cobain?

Stay tuned.

Amanda Peyton is the co-founder of MessageParty, a location-based mobile messaging application. She is a Y Combinator alumni, recent MIT Sloan graduate, and New York City resident. This column has been modified from a version originally published in her newsletter. Find out more at amandapeyton.com.

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Related: Groupon’s Founder on How to Get Super Rich [Mashable]

Saverin has written an article for CNBC about his feelings watching the film. And, though he admits he watched it with “amazement and humility,” his piece (wisely?) skips over the actual details in the movie and instead focusses on how inspirational it may be for the future business leaders of tomorrow.

From CNBC:

“What I gleaned from viewing “The Social Network” was bigger and more important than whether the scenes and details included in the script were accurate. After all, the movie was clearly intended to be entertainment and not a fact-based documentary. What struck me most was not what happened – and what did not – and who said what to whom and why. The true takeaway for me was that entrepreneurship and creativity, however complicated, difficult or tortured to execute, are perhaps the most important drivers of business today and the growth of our economy.

America, and its strength in technological innovation, has benefited for decades from a society that encourages entrepreneurship and creativity.”

Well, it’s good to know he’s doing ok since the movie’s end mostly makes audiences want to give Andrew Garfield’s Saverin a big hug. Of course, we probably should have guessed he’s doing ok since he’s insanely rich. And we should have guessed he liked the movie since he comes off like a champ and it was based on a book he was the main source for.

The real question now is what Sean Parker thought of the movie. Just a guess, but I doubt he felt it was nearly as inspirational.

(photo via)

Rivera told the story of his face-to-face meeting with Mark Zuckerberg, and revealed how the 26-year-old billionaire “absolutely freaked out” for some reason.

Rivera had David Kirkpatrick as a guest to talk about his book, The Facebook Effect to talk about how true the movie actually was – 40% was his percentage. Then, Geraldo brought in his own story. Apparently he attended the press conference when Zuckerberg announced the 100 million dollar donation to the Newark public school system. He asked a question, and Zuckerberg gave a “very forthcoming and sincere” answer. But then he was invited backstage by Mayor Cory Booker, and things got weird.

He absolutely freaked out when he saw me. I thought he was going to jump into the arms of his handlers. I extended my hand to shake his hand and its the first time ever someone refused to shake my hand, and ran out of the room.

Kirkpatrick followed up, “He wouldn’t shake your hand?” “He refused to shake my hand and he ran out of the room,” said Geraldo. “He wouldn’t even look at me.”

So what’s up, Mark? If only Geraldo was on Facebook (he’s not), you could friend each other and make up.

Here’s the video, from Fox News:

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It’s a device that’s meant to connect us, to bring us closer together. I think, and I know I’m in the minority, at minimum there are 500 million people who disagree with me, I think it’s pushing us further apart [applause]. I think socializing on the Internet is to socializing what reality TV is to reality.

And the table says amen (he got a lot of applause for this). Presumably Sorkin forgot that Elisabeth Hasselbeck got her start on Survivor. Hasselbeck meanwhile did not mention it but did say sometimes good things things have come out of shows like American Idol so maybe something good will come out of Facebook. Sorkin readily concedes this in true…particularly in the case of organizing political events, but on the whole it is perhaps not the healthiest addition to our lives. Watch the clip below. I think the lesson here is that try as we might eventually technology will make us sound like old fuddy duddys.

The shifting list confirms the evolving new media landscape in which relative new comers like Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin (both tied for 11th) and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (18th) have suddenly become more valuable than Condé Nast’s Si Newhouse (tied with Murdoch for 38th) — whose company publishes The New Yorker and Vogue, and whose name graces Syracuse University’s journalism school — and Viacom’s Sumner Redstone (124th).

Zuckerberg, whose worth is estimated to be $6.9 billion, is one of only eight people under the age of 40 to be listed on the latest Forbes 400 list. Dustin Moskovitz (290th), one of his Facebook cofounders, was born eight days after Zuckerberg, making him the youngest member on the rich list.