Zuckerberg denies the Facebook phone.What’s the evidence?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday in the company’s first-ever earnings call that “it wouldn’t  really make much sense” for the social networking monolith to build its own smartphone.
A “Facebook phone” has been rumored for some time, however — and many analysts regard its appearance as a matter of when, not if.

So what’s the evidence that a mobile device based entirely around the social network is on its way?
Back in November of last year, the scuttlebutt originally reported by All Things D was that Facebook and HTC were working together to develop a phone codenamed “Buffy” that would hit store shelves in 12 to 18 months — as soon as this coming fall.

Buffy was said to run on a modified version of Android, tweaked heavily to revolve more prominently around Facebook and HTML5 support.

Then The New York Times reported this May that Facebook had hired “more than a half dozen” former Apple engineers who had previously worked on the iPhone or iPad to help build hardware for a Facebook phone. Finally, a Bloomberg report earlier this month reiterated much of what ATD reported in November, but pegged the mysterious “Facebook phone” launch to mid-2013.

The anticipation has grown so great that some designers have already began mocking up Facebook phone concepts (see gallery below).

While Zuckerberg denied the logic of Facebook building a phone, there are plenty of reasons why doing so would, in fact, make a lot of sense.

Facebook has been widely criticized for struggling to adapt to an increasingly mobile web, which most analysts see as dominating the emerging wave of digital life. One hedge fund manager recently predicted that Facebook’s mobile sluggishness would lead to the company virtually disappearing by the year 2020.

A Facebook-centric operating system — on a Facebook-branded smartphone — could go a long way toward capturing more mobile users and ad dollars.

So have all the rumors simply been hot air and will Facebook instead focus its efforts on improving a widely maligned mobile app? Or is Zuckerberg simply hedging his bets with some tricky wordplay, and a Facebook phone is in fact on the way? Let us know your take in the comments.

  1. The Facebook Phone

A Facebook smartphone concept on Yanko Design -- and created by designer Michal Bonikowski -- gives us a look into what the device could potentially look like.

2. Front Look

Featuring a sleek case in Facebook’s signature blue, the device is made from metal and touts a 4.2-inch screen.

 3.Back View 

It also features a 5-megapixel camera in the front and an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera.

4. The Full Concept

A look at both sides.

5. Docking Station

Bonikowski also included in his design a docking and charging station.

Without Social Media, 18% of teens would ‘Stop Communicating’

18% of teens would stop communicating altogether if their favorite social networks shut down. That’s according to a recent survey of American high school and college students by email marketing company AWeber.

According to the survey, 90% of teens are on Facebook, and an astounding 93% of teenagers use mobile phones -– the same amount that use email. 74% of teens are YouTube users and 47% use Skype to keep up with others.

Facebook and Email own almost equal parts of teens’ hearts. With teenagers going for both when they wake up in the morning, while they’re in class, and even while they’re on vacation.

6% of teens thought they might replace their cell phones with a landline or writing more letters if mobile phones suddenly became unavailable. A whopping 18%, however, thought they would stop communicating altogether if their favorite channel of communication disappeared.

Check out the infographic below for a closer look. What would you do if your favorite social network suddenly closed? Let us know in the comments.
 

Here’s what Facebook’s ‘Want’ button will probably look like

It’s been said that Facebook is developing a new “Want” button that would allow you to add products to a virtual wish list, and now we have a glimpse at what the icon could look like.

Tom Waddington, a web developer who recently found a disabled Want button included in Facebook’s Javascript coding list of social plug-ins, and the social network has been actively working on the feature. He embedded the code last week onto his personal blog and it has since turned from an error code into a clickable “Want” button. (See below for image).

“The button has been updated since last week, so it’s definitely been worked on,” Waddington said. “This shows that it’s still under active development, rather than being a ditched project.”

With a Want button, in addition to existing plug-ins such as Subscribe and the Like button, Facebook friends would likely be able to see items others in their network want to purchase.

Waddington has also found a series of new coding actions that would allow users to share product purchases, charitable donations or items purchased within Facebook games to profile pages and Timeline.

“The fact the code contains references to ‘socialcommerce’ is a sign that they’re taking it seriously,” Waddington said. “In the same way music, news and videos are shared on the site, Facebook is planning to allow users to share both Wants and Purchases, from items bought within games to donations.”

 “We’re always looking for new features for the platform,” Facebook said. “However, we have nothing new to announce.”

What do you think of the “Want” button? Will it be a hit on the site? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

6 Ways Google Can Secure its Social Future

David Clarke is CEO and co-founder of BGT partners, 2010, 2011 and 2012 Ad Age Top 15 Best Places to Work in the U.S honoree. BGT creates interactive marketing and technology solutions for global corporations that strengthen brands, develop more engaging relationships, and transform businesses.

Social media has radically transformed the way we search, buy, and consume content online. Facebook has not only taken advantage of this, it’s become the driving force behind the new social web. Google Wave, Google Buzz and Google+ were all Google Inc.'s way of trying to win this war against Facebook, but the company is still far behind.

That’s because the current state of Google’s contribution is to act as the bottom feeder of social media, by collecting content from other social platforms, but doing little with it. Google’s biggest opportunity is to create a social ecosystem where content is created, distributed, marketed, attributed and measured. Here are five ways Google can do that, and secure its social future. 

1. Buy a Social Media Dashboard/Distribution Tool

Success in social means you have to enable content creation, distribution, and integration. Facebook realized this long ago with the addition of its apps platform and now with the purchase of Instagram. Social media dashboards provide powerful content distribution features to most of the major social platforms.

This is why Google should consider buying TweetDeck (Yes, Twitter owns them. Check bullet #2.), or HootSuite, as they both have a dedicated following, offer an engaging experience, and are constantly evolving. The data collected from TweetDeck or HootSuite would be extremely valuable to Google, as it’s one of the few companies that can monetize that data as it’s created and captured. If Google really wanted to, it could even integrate the content in real time, similar to a sports ticker, into Google Search. This would create a truly unique offering and a powerful tool.

2. Buy Twitter

This expensive piece of social real estate will get Google in the game much faster and raise its social credibility. Although Google did purchase Blogger in 2003, it still doesn’t have the social impact of a platform like Twitter. Not to mention, the huge cost and commitment that went into building and marketing Google+ has shown nominal results because it’s simply not better or different enough from other similar platforms.

More than anything, Twitter can be Google’s next YouTube. When Google was accused of overpaying $1.65 billion for YouTube in 2006, it understood that the sum of both companies was worth significantly more than the purchase price. Think Instagram. Who would pay $1 billion for a company that made no revenue? The answer is a company that could leverage the content and make it more valuable. If Google buys Twitter, it needs to integrate Twitter, not assimilate it.

3. Integrate Reporting into the Social Ecosystem

The future needs to be robust social reporting through Google Analytics that seamlessly integrates into the ecosystem. That means Google should incorporate PostRank and SocialGrapple into the social media dashboard. This will open up new opportunities for marketing, will tap into an existing audience of users and, most importantly, provide value to businesses by giving them access to rich consumer data.

4. Monetize Content

Monetizing content can be achieved in three ways: One, allow advertisers to advertise within their social ecosystem, similar to how Gmail serves up useful and relevant ads to its users. Two, provide marketers with more relevant social consumer data so they can better spend their advertising dollars. Three, tag social content and turn it into contextual ads, as Google is currently doing with Google+ and Gmail.

5. Succeed in Social Marketing Attribution

Social utopia for marketers is the ability to understand and measure social advertising or content and how this directly impacts conversions or goals. This is the final frontier and something Facebook has been slow to provide, probably because poor results will impact advertising spend.

Attribution is beneficial to Google, as it has a larger advertising network, makes little from its social initiatives, and Facebook advertising revenue is growing. Google Analytics is currently doing this in beta. However we have to wait and see how robust the functionality will be and if this will be integrated into the larger social ecosystem. Social attribution would give marketers the best reason to spend their advertising budgets with Google, and significantly differentiate Google from Facebook. 

6. Purchase a Significant or Niche Social Site

The purchase of Zagat, fflick, and Angstro were fairly small and didn’t have the growth impact of a much larger social platform. Some better bets are Yelp and LinkedIn. Here’s why.

Yelp is a good match for its high-quality content and loyal audience. Also, it might be a good deal because Yelp could run out of money before it gets in the black. If Google really wants to buy something of substance, LinkedIn would be an extremely expensive purchase but would give Google the world’s largest business network. The potential of this combined company would be greater than the sum of the purchase. LinkedIn’s explosive growth in hiring solutions alone could be detrimental to Monster and CareerBuilder.

Yes, there’s a downside in building out this social ecosystem, as it could be used to help grow Google’s competition. But Google’s strength is its ability to make money on data, and social “enemies” are a business reality. Google is far from throwing an AOL/Time Warner Hail Mary, and the company’s success in mobile gives it a huge runway to figure this out. However, at some point, Google’s growth will slow and more nimble, aggressive companies will innovate faster.

Facebook Releases Instagram Clone

Less than two months after announcing its plans to acquire photo app company Instagram for $1 billion, Facebook has released an iOS app that looks and functions almost identically to Instagram’s.

Facebook Camera, which is now available in the App Store for free, sincerely improves upon the photo capabilities offered by Facebook’s primary app for iPhone and iPod touch devices.

Like Instagram, your friends’ latest photos are displayed in a single scrolling feed. You can also now simultaneously upload multiple photos to Facebook; Facebook’s main app only allows you to upload photos one at a time. And like Instagram, the app allows you to crop, rotate and apply filters to your photos.

Interestingly, none of the app’s 15 filters were developed by the Instagram team, Facebook product manager Dirk Stoop told  The New York Times. The app, the Times suggests, has been in development for much longer.

The Camera App is the third mobile app dedicated to one of Facebook’s key features. The first, a dedicated messaging app, was released last April. Another, for brand pages, hit the App Storethis May. These apps, we feel, are smart ideas: Facebook simply has too many features and tools to bundle into a single mobile app.

It’s likely more such apps will be released this year. In an address to 200 investors leading up to Facebook’s IPO earlier this month, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that mobile is Facebook’s number-one priority.