Source:
The ObserverIt could be described as a poke, but not a friendly one. For those who have not yet succumbed to Facebook, the latest craze on the internet, a 'poke' is an electronic greeting sent, for example, to an old friend from university. In the case of Mark Zuckerberg, who stands to make a fortune from the website if and when he sells it, the contact made by three of his former student colleagues represented an aggressive jab to the ribs.
Facebook has been described as the most sophisticated and powerful socialising device on the internet, growing so rapidly - with 150,000 new members every day - that Rupert Murdoch, owner of the rival MySpace, is said to be worried. The fact that its millions of British users include not only David Miliband, Orlando Bloom and Tracey Emin but senior members of the media - such as Jonathan Dimbleby, Andrew Neil, Spectator editor Matthew d'Ancona, and even Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth - has helped guarantee its high profile. MySpace was bought by News Corporation in 2005 for $580m, now regarded as a bargain. Facebook is expected to sell for more than double that, turning Zuckerberg, its 23-year-old creator, into the latest dotcom millionaire and darling of Silicon Valley. But there is a glitch. This week, at a federal court in Boston, Zuckerberg will be accused of snatching the idea for Facebook from under the noses of three fellow students who believe its wealth and influence should be theirs.
Cameron Winklevoss, his twin brother Tyler and their colleague, Divya Narendra, recruited Zuckerberg to their social networking site when they were all students at Harvard University. They now claim that he deliberately stalled its progress, stole the source code, design and business plan, then set up his own rival. Facebook sped away while their site, now called ConnectU, was still in the traps. 'It's sort of a land grab,' Tyler Winklevoss has said. 'You feel robbed. The kids down the hall are using it, and you're thinking, "That's supposed to be us." We're not there because one greedy kid cut us out.'
At the first court hearing on Wednesday they will ask a judge to shut down Facebook and transfer all its assets to them, plus damages. At stake is a large slice of pride, one of the most coveted prizes of the Web 2.0 goldrush and potentially millions, or even billions, of dollars. Last week Facebook signalled its ambitions by making its first acquisition, reportedly beating even Google to buy a web-based operating system called Parakey and fuelling bloggers' suspicions that Facebook could threaten the web's diversity by sucking the best of it into one place.
Read more:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2132114,00.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
