Face.com just announced that it sold Face.com to Facebook.com for an undisclosed price although TechCrunch.com is reporting the sale could have been as high as $100 Million.

“Facebook has acquired Face.com! ” according to Face.com blog:

“Our mission is and has always been to find new and exciting ways to make face recognition a fun, engaging part of people’s lives, and incorporate remarkable technology into everyday consumer products. If you’re anything like us, Facebook is a part of your life every single day. We keep up with our friends and family, share interesting (or mundane) experiences from our daily lives, and perhaps most importantly for us, we share a LOT of photos.

We love building products, and like our friends at Facebook, we think that mobile is a critical part of people’s lives as they both create and consume content, and share content with their social graph. By working with Facebook directly, and joining their team, we’ll have more opportunities to build amazing products that will be employed by consumers – that’s all we’ve ever wanted to do. :)

Now, lots of developers use Face.com technology to power various apps and make wonderful products. We love you guys, and the plan is to continue to support our developer community. If there are new developments you can expect to hear from us here, on the developer blog, and through our developer newsletter.

Thank you to all of our supporters, our amazing dev community, to our employees and to our friends and family who have seen us through many long days and longer nights. The next steps are going to be exciting for all of us.”

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Face.com just announced that it sold Face.com to Facebook.com for an undisclosed price although TechCrunch.com is reporting the sale could have been as high as $100 Million.

“Facebook has acquired Face.com! ” according to Face.com blog:

“Our mission is and has always been to find new and exciting ways to make face recognition a fun, engaging part of people’s lives, and incorporate remarkable technology into everyday consumer products. If you’re anything like us, Facebook is a part of your life every single day. We keep up with our friends and family, share interesting (or mundane) experiences from our daily lives, and perhaps most importantly for us, we share a LOT of photos.

We love building products, and like our friends at Facebook, we think that mobile is a critical part of people’s lives as they both create and consume content, and share content with their social graph. By working with Facebook directly, and joining their team, we’ll have more opportunities to build amazing products that will be employed by consumers – that’s all we’ve ever wanted to do. :)

Now, lots of developers use Face.com technology to power various apps and make wonderful products. We love you guys, and the plan is to continue to support our developer community. If there are new developments you can expect to hear from us here, on the developer blog, and through our developer newsletter.

Thank you to all of our supporters, our amazing dev community, to our employees and to our friends and family who have seen us through many long days and longer nights. The next steps are going to be exciting for all of us.”

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Internet advertising revenues for the first quarter of 2012 set a new record for the reporting period at $8.4 billion, according to the latest IAB Internet Advertising Report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC U.S.

It is the highest first-quarter revenue ever measured by the IAB and PwC and a $1.1 billion–or 15 percent increase–over the $7.3 billion figure reported in the first quarter 2011.

“More online consumers than ever are taking to the internet to inform and navigate their daily lives—by desktop, tablet or smartphone,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “Marketers and agencies are clearly–and wisely–investing dollars to reach digitally connected consumers.”

“Digital media captures consumers’ imaginations, and marketers increasingly turn to interactive advertising to successfully speak to their customers,” said Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President, Research, Analytics & Measurement, IAB.

“The year-over-year growth between Q1 2011 and Q1 2012 sets quite a milestone,” said David Silverman, Partner, PwC U.S. “Moreover, a 15 percent increase over the comparable period in 2011 is a solid affirmation the internet is delivering on its promise to attract consumers and the advertising dollars that follow.”

The IAB sponsors the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, which is conducted independently by the New Media Group of PwC.

The results are considered the most accurate measurement of interactive advertising revenues because the data is compiled directly from information supplied by companies selling advertising on the Internet. The survey includes data concerning online advertising revenues from Web sites, commercial online services, free email providers, and all other companies selling digital advertising.

The full report is issued twice yearly for full and half-year data, and topline quarterly estimates are issued for the first and third quarters. PwC does not audit the information and provides no opinion or other form of assurance with respect to the information. Past reports are available a by clicking here

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According to CNET.COM, Facebook.com is in deep negotiations to buy Face.com for $80 Million To $100 Million Dollars.

Now before any domainer gets too wound up lets just say right away that Face.com is not only a full developed sit, its a facial-recognition technology company.

“”The technology made a splash in 2009 when it released Photo Tagger, a free third-party application for Facebook that uses facial recognition technology to automatically tag photos of people, as well as a recognition-based alert service for Facebook. ”

“In 2010, Face.com released an open API to the public that allows third-party developers to incorporate the technology in their apps.”

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About 3 weeks ago, we wrote about the sale of the domain name GameGlobe.com by Marchex for $50,000.

Today the buyer emerged and it is in fact a gaming company who has HUGE plans for the domain.

The buyer is German online games company Bigpoint, who laid out its plans for GameGlobe to Gamasutra.com

“Gameglobe, a brand new free-to-play game platform that throws players into “limitless game worlds” directly through their web browser”.

“Gameglobe is an action adventure game first, and a set of game creation tools a close second. Players can begin by exploring the various developer-designed worlds of Gameglobe, with 3D environments ranging from medieval fantasy settings to more futuristic jetpack-driven storylines.”

“Once a player has seen enough of what the development team has to offer, he or she can then switch over to the user-designed levels and worlds and tackle a seemingly never-ending supply of content, or even try their hand at making their own levels. There is a heavy focus on this user-built content, as players can create and share their own games, worlds and environments with other players.”

Bigpoint has a partner in the project and its a company by the name of Square Enix a maker of console and PC games.…

According to a Press release just issued, Archives.com was just bought by Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) for $100 million in cash.

“Inflection launched Archives.com, then dubbed GenealogyArchives.com, in July 2009 to satisfy a growing demand for comprehensive online access to historical records. ”

“From humble beginnings, Archives.com rapidly grew to encompass over 2 billion records and generate over 5 million monthly visits.”

“Key partnerships, like those with FamilySearch International and NewspaperARCHIVE, have supported Archives.com’s massive content acquisition effort. Of special note is Archives.com’s partnership with the National Archives and Records Administration to provide free digital access to the 1940 U.S. Census, culminating in the April 2nd debut of 1940census.archives.gov, the most hotly anticipated genealogical record release of the decade.”

“The 1940 census release was an extraordinary event for both Archives.com and family history in general,” said Inflection Executive VP of Business and Corporate Development John Spottiswood. “It spawned a new level of mainstream awareness about family history, and we’re excited that this momentum will only grow as Archives.com joins the Ancestry family.”

“While Inflection was already superbly poised going forward, the sale of Archives.com significantly improves our ability to develop an array of incredible new products for consumers, professionals, and small businesses,” said Brian Monahan, the company’s Co-Founder and Chief Idea Guy. “The Inflection team will continue to be a top destination for technology talent and an industry-leader in data services.”

The sale is an exciting moment for Inflection and the broader family history community,” said Inflection CEO Matthew Monahan. “Thanks to Archives.com General Manager Joe Godfrey’s inspired leadership and our extraordinary team, Archives.com has quickly become one of family history’s most dynamic web properties. Our plan for a simple and affordable family history experience will be accelerated thanks to Ancestry’s deep expertise and resources.”

“Once the acquisition is completed, Ancestry.com will continue to operate and develop Archives.com using the existing Archives.com brand and website. Most of the Archives.com team, including key personnel in leadership, engineering, design, marketing, and business development, will transition to Ancestry.com.”

“The past three years have been marked by tremendous growth for Archives.com, as we’ve focused intently on making family history simple and affordable for millions of budding family historians,” said Joe Godfrey. “The acquisition by Ancestry.com will further fuel this momentum, and the team and I are thrilled.”…

According to a story in AllthingsD.com today, Word Press now powers 70 million sites, up from 35 million sites a year ago.

“Almost half of the biggest blogs in the world are hosted by WordPress.com”

The company behind WordPress is Automattic which expects according to the story to generate $45 million in revenue this year.

“The majority of Automattic revenue comes from premium subscription services, and that’s supplemented by a “VIP” enterprise publisher business — in total, there are half a million paying customers — as well as a recently launched advertising revenue-sharing network.”

The company has 106 employees.

TheDomains.com operates on Word Press.…

33 people were just inducted as the inaugural group into the Internet Hall of Fame.

Included in the group is the current Chairman of ICANN Steve Crocker.

“Dr. Crocker has been involved in the Internet since its inception. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, while he was a graduate student at UCLA, he was part of the team that developed the protocols for the ARPANET and laid the foundation for today’s Internet.”

Included in the 33 honored today was also Vint Cerf who is widely known as the father of the internet.

“Verf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet”

Even former Vice President Al Gore was inducted into the Hall for being:

“a key proponent of sponsoring legislation that funded the expansion of and greater public access to the Internet. Instrumental in helping to create the “Information Superhighway,” Gore was one of the first government officials to recognize that the Internet’s impact could reach beyond academia to fuel educational and economic growth as well.”

Craig Newmark the founder of Craigslist.com was also inducted.

You can see a full list and read a bio about each at the InternetHallofFame.org

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According to a post on xBiz.com tonight, two of the largest adult companies in the world, are planning to merger.

Manwin who owns and operates many popular adult sites, including Youporn.com, filed a merger notification with Austria’s Federal Competition Authority, an agency that probes mergers and acquisitions to merge with Miami-based RK Netmedia Inc.

RK Netmedia, Inc most well known adult brand is Reality Kings.

Manwin is the company which is currently suing ICM the operator of the .XXX registry for antitrust violations.

“The merger notification between Manwin and RK Netmedia was made April 16.”

“Every entrepreneur, whose legal or economic interests may be affected by the merger, may within 14 days (April 30) from the date of the notice … submit a written statement,” the authority said.

“The agency plans to end its investigation of Manwin’s planned Reality Kings acquisition on May 14.”

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HostExpolit publishes a quarterly list entitled “The To 50 Bad Hosts & Networks” and for the list just published today for the 1st quarter of 2012, both Godaddy.com and Oversee.com made the list.

Godaddy.com came in at number 40 overall on the top 50 worst list.

Oversee.net came in at number 49 overall, but was ranked number 5 in the world for “Badware”.

That’s actual and improvement for Oversee.net which was listed as number 1 in the world for “BadWare” in the last report for 4th Q of 2011 .

HostExploit analyzed all 40,000+ publicly-advertised Autonomous Systems (including web hosts, commercial networks and registrars) for things including:

MaliciousURL

Badware

Botnets

Exploit Servers

Spam

Phishing

You can check out the whole report by clicking here

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