Facebook focuses on media sharing

22 September 2011 Last updated at 16:39 ET

Facebook has outlined plans to encourage users to share more of the media they consume - including music and movies - with friends.

Its founder Mark Zuckerberg also unveiled a dramatic redesign to the website, replacing user profiles with an audio visual timeline of their life.

The updates were revealed at Facebook's annual F8 developer conference.

A wave of new features in recent weeks have been welcomed by some users and caused annoyance to many others.

Facebook's latest changes point to a desire to keep users engaged through new features, in the midst of rapid innovation from social networking rivals.

The site's application platform has been redesigned to allow users to share what they are consuming on streaming music services such as Spotify, and the movie rental site Netflix.

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"Start Quote

...knowing you helped a friend discover something new and they liked your taste in music, and that you now have that in common is awesome"

End Quote Mark Zuckerberg Facebook founder

News sites, including the Guardian and Independent newspapers, are also included in the initial roll out.

Depending on privacy settings, users will be able to see what friends are doing - for example, playing a song - then listen-in themselves.

Mr Zuckerberg said he wanted to create, what he called, "real time serendipity".

"Being able to click on someone's music is a great experience, but knowing you helped a friend discover something new and they liked your taste in music, and that you now have that in common is awesome," he added.

Facebook said that users would only be able to do as much on the site as its media partners allowed in each country, so free music sharing through streaming apps would only work where that service was already available outside Facebook.

New look

Alongside the deeper integration of media content, the restyling of Facebook's profile pages is also likely to prove a hot topic among users.

The most radical departure so far from the site's well known profile format will doubtless prove contentious with its sometimes conservative members.

Identities will now be defined through a densely packed vertical timeline of major life events, made up of photos, videos and other items. The level of detail diminishes the further down a reader scrolls.

Profile pages had previously been limited to basic information along with a stream of every single item posted by a user.

The latest offering is significantly different to those of Facebook's biggest social networking rivals, Google+ and Twitter, and more closely resembles the once-popular site Myspace.

"Facebook is positioning itself as not just your social graph online, but your life online," Forrester Research analyst Sean Corcoran told the Associated Press.

"These changes not only help trump rival Google but will open up new opportunities," he said. "But concerns around privacy and immaturity in how to do these things effectively will make it a slow go."

Facebook stressed that all of its new offerings could be controlled by members using its recently simplified privacy controls.

In particular, it stressed that timeline items could be modified within the new "activity log", allowing users to limit who can view certain events from their past.

The updates are expected to start appearing on users' computers in coming weeks.

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HP replaces its chief executive

22 September 2011 Last updated at 16:35 ET

Leo Apotheker has been replaced as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard by Meg Whitman, the former head of eBay.

Mr Apotheker was in the job less than a year, but had overseen a collapse in the share price and a fall in sales.

Ms Whitman, who once ran for governor of California, resigned from eBay in 2008 and is credited with building it into a global force.

HP announced the departure after board meeting on Thursday, but there had been speculation for days about his future.

In a statement, Ray Lane, who was named executive chairman, said: "We are fortunate to have someone of Meg Whitman's calibre and experience step up to lead HP.

"We are at a critical moment and we need renewed leadership to successfully implement our strategy and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead."

Ms Whitman said in a statement: "I am honored and excited to lead HP. I believe HP matters - it matters to Silicon Valley, California, the country and the world."

It would be the second time in two years Mr Apotheker has been forced out of a top job. He stood down from German business software maker SAP last year, after less than a year as chief executive.

He took over HP after the departure of former boss Mark Hurd, who quit after a sexual harassment investigation.

The new chief replaced a third of the HP board, brought in Ms Whiman, annouced plans to sell the personal comptuer division - the world's largest - and bought UK software maker Autonomy for �7.1bn ($11.7bn).

But his strategy has failed to impress investors. HP's shares have fallen 45.4% this year, making it one of the worst performers in the Dow Jones index of leading US companies.

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TalkTalk tops UK complaints list

22 September 2011 Last updated at 08:00 ET

TalkTalk is the most complained about provider of broadband and phone services, according to the latest data from industry regulator Ofcom.

From April to June, it topped the list of angry customer correspondence, while Virgin Media attracted fewest complaints.

However, Ofcom noted that TalkTalk had got better since its last report.

In mobile, the most complaints were about 3, driven by disputed charges and customer service issues.

Over the same period, O2 was the least complained about.

Ofcom published its first report of this kind in October last year, when TalkTalk and 3 also featured as the most problematic firms.

As a direct result of the 1,000 complaints it received last year, Ofcom slapped a �3m fine on TalkTalk and its Tiscali UK subsidiary for incorrectly billing more than 65,000 customers for services they had not received.

It was the largest fine that the regulator has given to a telecoms firm.

TalkTalk, which bought Tiscali UK in 2009, blamed the billing errors on the amalgamation of the Tiscali UK business.

It has since paid more than �2.5m in refunds and goodwill payments to affected customers.

Temporary blip

Commenting on the latest report, Talk Talk said: "It's encouraging that Ofcom's data demonstrates that, following the Tiscali integration, the service we offer our customers has significantly improved in the last quarter with the number of complaints as a percentage of customers dropping by over 50%.

It added: "We're committed to providing good service alongside our best value and, while we clearly still have lots to do, we're confident that our customers are beginning to see the benefits of the changes we continue to make."

Mobile operator 3 described its increase in complaints as a "temporary blip".

"We are disappointed by these figures and we will work with Ofcom to better understand what is driving them," said a spokesman.

Identify issues

Ofcom's report includes providers with at least a 4% market share who generate at least 30 complaints in a month.

This covers around 89% of the fixed telephony, fixed broadband and mobile markets.

From October 2010 to April 2011, Ofcom received just over 70,000 complaints from members of the public.

Problems are not dealt with on an individual basis by the regulator, but are used to identify any particular issues that require new rules or an investigation into a particular company.

Ofcom advised consumers to follow their provider's complaints process in the first instance.

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Google denies 'cooking' searches

21 September 2011 Last updated at 20:34 ET

Google's executive chairman has denied that the company fixes its search results to promote its own websites and services.

Eric Schmidt told a congressional hearing in Washington: "May I simply say that I can assure you we're not cooking anything."

The Senate Judiciary subcommittee on anti-trust is looking at whether Google abuses its market position.

The US Federal Trade Commission is also investigating the same issue.

The website search giant faces a further continuing investigation by the European Commission.

'Extraordinary advantage'

Mr Schmidt told the senators: "Google does nothing to block access to any of the competitors and other sources of information."

When asked whether Google was a monopoly company, Mr Schmidt said the search engine giant was "in that area", adding that it recognised it had a special responsibility because of its market power.

In reference to software giant Microsoft - which faced years of anti-competition investigations and subsequent fines - Mr Schmidt said: "We get it. By that I mean, we get the lessons of our corporate predecessors."

Concern over Google's domination of the internet search - it has a global market share of about two-thirds - has grown as the company continues to expand into other internet areas, such as its own price comparison website and buying US mobile phone firm Motorola Mobility.

Sen Michael Lee of Utah said that Google's market dominance gave it an "unnatural and extraordinary advantage", and it had a "clear and inherent conflict of interest".

Mr Schmidt was chief executive of Google for 10 years until April, when he was replaced by Larry Page, one of the company's two founders.

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