Texas Governor Coaxes Facebook To Open New Office

Although it isn't quite a done deal, Texas Governor Rick Perry seems to have more or less ensured that Facebook will open a sales and operations office in Austin.  Perry's offered the company $1.4 million as an incentive to establish the branch and create some jobs.

Fittingly enough, Perry's office announced the development with a Facebook note.  In it, he stated, "Facebook's expansion in Austin will enhance the area's robust technology industry, create 200 jobs for Texans, and strengthen the economy in Central Texas."

There were also a few figures implying that $1.4 million isn't an insane bribe, as the Texas Enterprise Fund has already doled out more than $388 million to create another 52,000 jobs.

Finally, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO, said, "We've been exploring various options around the U.S. to establish an additional online sales and operations office and we're grateful to the assistance we've received from the Governor's office and the state's leadership in discussing the possibilities in Austin. . . .  Austin, with its deep talent pool, would allow us to hire the high-caliber employees we need to properly serve the people, advertisers and developers that rely on our service."

Which all sounds very nice.  The one remaining step (aside from choosing a site and actually building and staffing the office) is to get the City of Austin's okay.   A vote should take place in the near future to settle that matter.

Google Again Linked To Australian Data Center Plans

The rumor that Google might build a data center in Australia has been circulating for some time; our first report on the subject was written in October of 2008.  Now, although construction crews haven't exactly been mobilized, there's at least been a sign that Google hasn't given up on the idea.

Deepak Ramanathan, the head of Google's enterprise marketing arm in the Asia-Pacific region, recently spoke at an event in Sydney.  Renai LeMay reported that people representing several Australian corporations expressed an interest in Google Apps while there.

Then here's the more interesting part: according to LeMay, Ramanathan responded by saying that "the search giant was not ruling out an Australian datacentre for services like Gmail, and that discussions were ongoing."

The last time we talked about Google building a data center in Australia (April of last year), the main stumbling block seemed to be the economy.  Obviously, it's gotten better (Google's stock, for example, is up about 45 percent since then).

So as more and more Australian organizations go to Google for different services, we may finally reach the tipping point at which the company will see fit to build a data center in that country.

Facebook Publishes 2009’s Top Status Trends

Facebook users are a pretty important group of people; after all, in recent months, it's been established that there are more of them than there are individuals in the United States.  So to wrap up 2009, Facebook's provided a list that helps spell out what its users have been thinking about all year.

You can view the list of top status trends below.  It was made possible thanks to something termed "Facebook Memology," and as you can see, has been a bit simplified (condensing Farmville, Farm Town, and Social Living into "Facebook Applications," for example).

We'll respect your intelligence by just hitting some of the items that might not be completely obvious.  Here's a quick one: at number two, "FML" stands for "f*ck my life."  Which makes sense given the economy's nosedive.

Then, at number eleven, "years" is nothing more than a reference to dates like 2008, 2009, and 2010.  Apparently a lot of folks thought about life on something other than a day-to-day basis.

Finally, "yard" is simply a reference to the green things that surround houses.  To explain this word's presence, data scientist Lars Backstrom theorized on the Facebook Blog, "[H]ipsters' moms and dads are also on Facebook, and these folks have yards that require some tending."  Or it might have something to do with the housing stimulus and a fair number of young people getting yards for the first time.

Have You Read This?

> Facebook Releases User Diversity Data

> Facebook Directs Companies, Celebs To Preferred Developers

> Facebook Gives Translators Awards For Their Services

Google Checkout Discounts Announced

It's no secret that the economy hasn't been good this year, but today's Cyber Monday, and if you're planning on doing some shopping online, Google wants to help.  Individuals who pay for things using Google Checkout may be able to save as much as $20 per purchase thanks to a new promotion.

A post on the Official Google Blog urged readers this morning to "save with exclusive discounts of $5, $10 or $20 at hundreds of participating stores, including TigerDirect.com, BlueNile.com and Petco.com."

What's more, the promotion runs through December 17th, so Google's not trying to push consumers into making snap decisions.  And a new Google Checkout: Deals page makes it easy to see what sorts of discounts are available.

The only things that are time-sensitive are a few offers from places like Toysrus.com, Babiesrus.com, and Buy.com.

This campaign may help Google Checkout gain a little ground on PayPal over the next 18 or so days.  It could be viewed as a sort of assault on Bing Cashback's position, too.

Of course, it also seems that Google missed a big opportunity by not ramping things up prior to Black Friday.

Have You Read This?

> Google Checkout Gets A New Promotions Feature

> Google Reduces Restrictions On Google Checkout

> Google Introduces Multi-Client Accounts For Product Search

Next Page »