Is there a replacement for Facebook?

Facebook claims to have more than 400 million active users. In fact, according to Web analytics firm Alexa, only Google is a more popular site. So, with all that going for it, why are so many users unhappy, with one poll showing that more than half of Facebook users are thinking about leaving?

The one-word answer: privacy. By default, Facebook has made almost everything on your account open to the world. You can lock down your Facebook account, but it's a tedious process.

New tools unveiled this week are designed to make this easier, but the next time Facebook changes its policies and system, you may need to do it all over again. There are also external tools that can check out just how secure your account is, but again, when Facebook changes its software, they may not work.

Last Monday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally admitted that Facebook has made some mistakes. Some users are staying put despite their distrust of the company. But others think it's too little too late and are talking loudly about leaving. There's even a group that has announced that May 31 is Quit Facebook Day.

Will a significant percentage of Facebook users actually leave? No matter its faults, Facebook has a huge user base, and those users, in turn, have all their friends on the service, all their photos and, yes, even all their Farmville farms. Will that many people really want to abandon Facebook and start all over with a new platform?

They have before. In social networking's early days -- all of five years ago -- Friendster, MySpace and Xanga all had their days in the sun. Now those once-popular social networks are in decline.

There are, of course, the other existing social networks. But some, like MySpace and LiveJournal, seem to have missed their moment. Others, such as the professional-oriented LinkedIn, have established a specific niche or, like Twitter, address different needs.

The alternatives
A group of would-be Facebook replacements have recently raised their hands, hoping that enough disenchanted users will see them as viable alternatives. Some are already out there, some are in beta, and some have hardly gotten past the "what-if" stage.

Who are these players, and do any of them have what it takes to become the next big social network?

Appleseed
While this open-source project is still in beta, it's an interesting take on social networking. Instead of being under the control of one company and one set of administrators, Appleseed works via a distributed server software package tied together with the ASN (Appleseed Social Network).

That means that as a user, you select and log into an Appleseed site. Once there, you connect with friends, send messages, share photos and videos, join discussions and participate in all the usual social networking stuff. Don't like the specific Appleseed site you're on? Then sign up for a different one and, according to the site, "immediately reconnect with everyone in your network."

It sounds good, but I can't help but notice that even though the program is officially in beta, I couldn't find any ASN sites to log into yet.

In a recent New York Times article, Michael Chisari, an Appleseed developer, said that the project is six months away from opening its doors to the public. It looks promising, but I'm not holding my breath on seeing Appleseed give Facebook serious competition anytime soon.

Diaspora
Diaspora, for all the headlines it's gotten, is still not much more than an idea. Mind you, with almost $200,000 of support from thousands of donors at Kickstarter.com, it's also a very popular idea.

Technically, Diaspora sounds a lot like Appleseed. It's also going to be built from open-source software, and it's going to be a distributed network server application. More power to them, but at least Appleseed already has some code.

The first Diaspora code release is slated for September.

2010 Lamborghini Gallardo

MSRP
$205,000 - $229,100
Invoice
Not Available

The 2010 Gallardo is a 2-door, 2-passenger luxury sports car, or convertible sports car, available in 4 trims,... read more ranging from the LP560-4 Coupe to the LP570-4 Superleggera.

Upon introduction, the LP560-4 Coupe is equipped with a standard 5.2-liter, V10, 560-horsepower engine that achieves 12-mpg in the city and 20-mpg on the highway. A 6-speed manual transmission with overdrive is standard, and a 6-speed automatic transmission with overdrive is optional. The LP570-4 Superleggera is equipped with a standard 5.2-liter, V10, 570-horsepower engine that achieves 14-mpg in the city and 20-mpg on the highway. A 6-speed automatic transmission with overdrive is standard, and a 6-speed manual transmission with overdrive is optional.

The 2010 LP560-4 Coupe is a carryover from 2009. The LP570-4 Superleggera has been reskinned for 2010.

2011 Hyundai Sonata

MSRP
$19,195 - $25,295
Invoice
$18,390 - $23,648

The 2011 Sonata is a 4-door, 5-passenger family sedan, available in 6 trims, ranging from the GLS Manual to... read more the Limited Auto PZEV.

Upon introduction, the GLS Manual is equipped with a standard 2.4-liter, I4, 198-horsepower engine. A 6-speed manual transmission with overdrive is standard. The Limited Auto PZEV is equipped with a standard 2.4-liter, I4, 190-horsepower engine that achieves 23-mpg in the city and 35-mpg on the highway. A 6-speed automatic transmission with overdrive is standard.

The 2011 Sonata is redesigned for 2011.

Blair to Join Venture Firm as Adviser on Technology

SAUSALITO, Calif. — Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, is turning his attention to Silicon Valley. Mr. Blair is becoming a senior adviser at Khosla Ventures, the venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, an investor and a proponent of green technology.

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Eric Risberg/Associated Press
Tony Blair, right, with Vinod Khosla on Monday. Mr. Blair plans to offer guidance on public policy and green technology.

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Times Topics: Venture Capital | Tony BlairKhosla Ventures, which Mr. Khosla founded in 2004 after leaving the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, made the announcement here on Monday at a meeting of its investors. The firm is investing $1.1 billion in clean technology and information technology companies.

Mr. Blair will offer strategic advice on public policy to the firm’s green portfolio companies. They include Calera, a manufacturer that uses carbon dioxide to create cement products; Kior, which converts biomass like wood chips into biofuels; and Pax Streamline, which aims to make air-conditioning more environmentally friendly.

“The more I studied the whole climate change issue and linking it with energy security and development issues, I became absolutely convinced that the answer is in the technology,” Mr. Blair said in an interview.

Mr. Blair worked on international climate change policy as prime minister, and now leads the Breaking the Climate Deadlock initiative, through which he aims to help shape international climate policy.

Silicon Valley and Washington have a distant and at times adversarial relationship. That is fine when it comes to information technology, Mr. Blair said, because government is not its driving force.

Green technology is different, though, because governments are trying to use it to achieve policy goals. “Technological breakthroughs that are economically viable — for governments, that’s the holy grail,” he said.

Mr. Khosla said that people who worked in technology underestimated the importance of working with policy makers, and that Mr. Blair would help bridge that divide.

Like Al Gore and Colin Powell, who are advisers at Kleiner Perkins, Mr. Blair will lend his name to projects, make introductions and dole out advice, but will not be involved in the firm’s day-to-day activity.

For example, Mr. Blair said, he could potentially help to broker a deal for one of the companies to build a demonstration plant in a particular country.

Khosla Ventures, based in Menlo Park, Calif., generally invests between $5 million and $15 million in technology start-ups, and also invests smaller amounts, around $2 million, in what Mr. Khosla calls “science experiments” — green-technology ideas that are so risky and early-stage that they will likely fail.

Its goal is to help build technologies that do not require government subsidies to survive and that are economically viable in countries like China and India, Mr. Khosla said.

“We are not trying to do incremental things,” Mr. Khosla said. “We are trying to do things that are the stuff of dreams.”

Khosla Ventures is increasing its green-tech investment as most venture capitalists have been scaling back on such investments, particularly those that require building factories to produce alternative energy.

MasterCard Wants Programmers to Use Its Payment Technology

There has been a lot of talk about digital forms of payment replacing cash and even credit cards. But MasterCard intends to stay in the middle of the technological innovation.

On Tuesday, MasterCard announced that it would let software developers use its technology in their own online apps and on mobile phones.

“A big part of the strategy is to be able to harness the innovation of others in the developer community to really push our business forward,” said Josh Peirez, MasterCard’s chief innovation officer.

E-commerce and mobile payments are changing the way we use money, Mr. Peirez said. Though MasterCard, Visa and other payment companies have experimented with building their own apps for things like mobile money transfers, MasterCard wants to see what other people can come up with for paying online and in the real world.

“You’re seeing quite different ways people are paying for digital goods, but you haven’t really seen that translate into physical goods,” he said. “It’s still really hard to buy a physical item from your phone.”

MasterCard has already built a few apps, including the MasterCard ATM Hunter iPhone app. But if outside developers wanted to use its payment technology, they have had to get a merchant agreement, set up the payment system and make the consumer enter data each time. No one wants to do that.

Developers could use the new open platform to embed a payment feature in virtual games or in e-commerce apps on Twitter or Facebook, or to build an app that sends a text message to the card’s owner before a purchase is made, for instance.

But the most creative uses of MasterCard’s technology will be those that MasterCard hasn’t even thought of, Mr. Peirez said.

MasterCard is following in the footsteps of PayPal, which opened its platform late last year. Developers have built apps like MyHomie, a Web app for roommates and families with to-do lists, calendars and a bill payment system, and GoSqueesh, a group buying service like Groupon.

So far, MasterCard has identified about 20 of its services that developers will be able to use in their applications. They include payment technology, bill payment systems and data streams like consumer spending patterns, which could be used to send coupons.

This is the first project to come out of MasterCard Labs, the research and development group that the company started in April.

Developers will be able to tap into the platform by the end of the year.

MasterCard is also working on a way to share the revenue that developers get from payments.

Facebook to Make Privacy Control Easier

On Wednesday, Facebook will unveil a new version of its privacy menu intended to make adjusting the settings much easier for its members.


Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via Associated Press

Facebook’s complicated privacy settings have frustrated some users.Chris Cox, vice president for product at the company, speaking on-stage at TechCrunch Disrupt, a technology conference in New York City, described the revised controls as “drastically simplified.”

Mr. Cox said that the move was part of a larger effort to quell the growing frustration of some Facebook users befuddled as well as concerned by recent revisions to its privacy policy that makes more personal information public.

Currently, Facebook users are required to navigate through 50 settings with more than 170 different options to adjust how much of their profile information is accessible to anyone on the Internet. As Facebook extends itself to other Web sites across the Internet, that information is shared more widely.

Mr. Cox declined to offer any more details, but said the company was responding to user feedback and is working with consultants to address recent privacy concerns.

“It’s been a humbling couple of weeks for us,” Mr. Cox said.

Mr. Cox’s announcement comes one day after Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive of the company, published an editorial in The Washington Post, saying the company “moved too fast” with its most recent changes

Microsoft Shakes Up Products Unit

Microsoft disclosed a series of management changes on Tuesday that will alter the shape of its business unit responsible for products like the Zune music player, Xbox gaming console and phones.

Most notably, Robbie Bach, the head of the entertainment and devices group, will retire from Microsoft after 22 years at the company. As a result, Mr. Ballmer will take a more hands-on role in Microsoft’s gadgets and games by having various division heads report directly to him.

In a statement and in discussions with reporters, Microsoft representatives stressed that Mr. Bach would leave the company on good terms.

Mr. Bach’s division has had a number of successes, including the Xbox, but has also produced some of the company’s greatest disappointments, including lackluster phone software and the slow-selling Zune. It also botched its approach to the tablet computer market.

"For the past 22 years, Robbie has personified creativity, innovation and drive,” Mr. Ballmer said in a statement. “With this spirit, he has led a division passionately devoted to making Microsoft successful in interactive entertainment and mobility.”

Mr. Bach, 48, will remain at Microsoft until the fall, at which point he plans to spend more time with his family, Microsoft said. During a meeting with reporters and editors at The New York Times on May 14, Mr. Bach did not mention any plans to leave the company, instead focusing on the future of the Xbox and new phone software.

J Allard, the head of design and development in Mr. Bach’s group, will also leave Microsoft after 19 years at the company, although he will continue to advise Mr. Ballmer, the company said. Mr. Allard has worked on a variety of products, including Windows, Xbox and Zune.

Microsoft recently scrapped a project code-named Courier that included a new type of tablet computer that would have competed against Apple’s iPad. Mr. Allard had backed the product internally.

Microsoft’s entertainment and devices group, which competes against Apple, Sony, Nokia, Google and others, has failed to turn into the large profit center that the company envisioned.

“They certainly expect to be one of the top two companies in market share in the areas where they play,” said Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. “With the exception of Xbox, they have failed to achieve that with any of the components in Robbie’s organization.”

Some of the recent shifts in the computing industry have dealt particularly hard blows to Mr. Bach’s group.

For example, Microsoft spent years working on tablet computers, only to watch as Apple’s iPad took over the market in a matter of weeks. In addition, Hewlett-Packard, one of Microsoft’s closest partners, just moved to acquire Palm, a maker of mobile device software. This deal sent a clear signal that H.P. thought it could no longer bet on Microsoft’s Windows software in the mobile market, analysts said.

Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, said he questioned Mr. Ballmer’s ability to correct some of these problems by embracing a more direct role in overseeing the products.

Microsoft continues to lack what Mr. Kay described as a “maestro” who is capable of reading the tastes of the consumer device market and moving the company quickly enough to take advantage of that intuition.

“I think that is a very special thing that Apple has, and that Microsoft doesn’t,” Mr. Kay said.