Facebook

Facebook had a rocky two days the stock market, sparking fears of a tech bubble. As you can see by the Google Trends chart embedded above, searches for the words “tech bubble” haven’t been this high since the LinkedIn IPO last year.

The Atlantic Wire saw a bubble: “Facebook’s second day on the market hasn’t eased our fears that we’re in a social media bubble. In fact, it only suggests the bubble is coming to its end. At this very moment, the stock is trading at around $34, down about 11 percent from its already IPO price of $38.”

Fortune ruled against a tech bubble: “So no, there is no bubble on any scale that should concern everyday investors in the stock market. The Nasdaq is, barring any global calamities, not going to lose three-quarters of its value. But there is a growing trend of dealmaking that seems to leave logic locked outside the conference-room doors. And there are few financiers in Silicon Valley who seem to care, creating a complacent environment where the nonsensical is increasingly received as sensible.”

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As the Facebook IPO launched today, with the share price trading between $38 and $42 in the first few hours on the stock market.

While the app market is booming, some fear that we are nearing another tech bubble. Every week we will keep track of tech bubble predictions as we cover this space. Today’s feature comes from The Huffington Post business section, where they are keeping a “Tech Bubble Death Watch” over the industry.

What do you think? The post worried about the future of Facebook: “Its revenue growth is slowing. It hasn’t quite figured out how this whole “cell phone” thing works yet. Advertisers aren’t too sure they can make money buying ads on Facebook, the New York Times writes. One, General Motors, has already pulled its ads. Insiders will be dumping shares in an unusually big way at the IPO. Some 57 percent of the shares that will be available to the public will come from investors who bought the company early and are cashing in on the IPO, writes the Wall Street Journal — a high percentage for any IPO, particularly for a tech IPO.”

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Facebook is opening its own app store called the App Center, “a new place for people to find social apps.” The App Center will feature all kinds of apps, including iOS, Android, web and mobile web apps.

Like in other app stores, the App Center will include rankings and listings for top apps. Here is more from the Facebook developer’s blog: “We use a variety of signals, such as user ratings and engagement, to determine if an app is listed in the App Center. To help you monitor user feedback, we are also introducing a new app ratings metric in Insights to report how users rate your app over time. Well-designed apps that people enjoy will be prominently displayed. Apps that receive poor user ratings or don’t meet the quality guidelines won’t be listed.” Read more

Could this be the next AOL? Facebook has just acquired Push Pop Press, creator of Al Gore’s Our Choice eBook app.

The financial details haven’t been disclosed, but PPP did say that “we’re taking our publishing technology and everything we’ve learned and are setting off to help design the world’s largest book, Facebook.” PPP will be getting out of the eBook  making business and  will be focusing its efforts on internal Facebook development.

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