IT Buoy

Earlier this week, BoomTown visited MySpace HQ in Beverly Hills, Calif., to interview its new co-presidents , Michael Jones and Jason Hirschhorn, and get a look-see at its evolving revival plans to stop the social networking ship from sinking further. Thus, I got a tour of a storyboard-like room at MySpace, where the team is trying to formulate the “discover and be discovered” motto it is now using, which is pretty much its old motto restated. Can the old become new again? In fact, a lot of the plan does sound a lot like shades of the past at MySpace, focusing on a younger, artistic demo with a heavy dose of pop culture. Jazzed up, of course, with the latest social networking hooks, a cleaner user page redesign, topics pages, a focus on sharing content of all kinds, especially music, games and entertainment, and more. That includes a new Today on MySpace, or TOM, to greet new users, rather than the famous analog Tom Anderson, co-founder and former first friend to all. Get it?

The following series of stories detail some of what happened in 2003 and 2004 after then Harvard-sophomore Mark Zuckerberg launched a site called theFacebook.com .

The WSJ’s Jessica Vascellaro has a long profile on Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, and the forthcoming IPO. Here are the highlights: Mark confirms that Facebook is going public, but not for a while Accel partner Jim Bryer says that the IPO won’t be in 2010 (read: 2011) Facebook expects to do between $1.2 billion and $2 billion of revenue this year Employees are agitating for an IPO to cash in, but the private-market sale plan mollified them somewhat Facebook got around the rule that forced Google to disclose its financials (having more than 500 shareholders) by switching to restricted stock units instead of options.

Tech Today gathers all the biggest technology news of the morning’s Wall Street Journal into one place for your reading pleasure. Facebook in No Rush to Go Public: The eventual IPO of social-networking site Facebook could make its founder the world’s richest 25-year-old. Yet CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems intent on deferring that multibillion dollar payday. Apple Suit Could Pressure HTC: Apple’s move comes as the Taiwanese smartphone maker struggles to compete against bigger rivals to sell smart phones to the mass market. RealNetworks to Stop Selling DVD Copying Software: RealNetworks has settled lawsuits with six movie studios that sought to stop it from selling technology that let consumers copy DVDs to their computers. IBM Claims Chip Advance: IBM researchers claim an important advance in the way computer chips communicate, sharply boosting speed while lowering energy consumption. Watch Video, Wirelessly, on Your TV: Intel’s Wi-Di and MediaMall’s PlayOn offer ways to watch your computer videos on your TV, but they are expensive solutions that have downsides.

In a bid to become part of Google’s fiber-optic broadband test, the mayor of Topeka, Kan., issued a proclamation Monday that the city will temporarily be referred to as … wait for it … Google, Kansas. Associated Press The sun sets in Topeka, Kan. The proclamation by Mayor Bill Bunten isn’t the same as an actual name change, but on Topeka … er, Google’s official Web page , the word “Topeka” already has been replaced with Google’s colorful letters. The proclamation itself even goes so far as to praise every aspect of Google’s corporate philosophy, saying that Google’s belief in “every employee” mirrors the city’s belief in every citizen’s importance. The Journal’s Jessica Vascellaro and Amy Schatz reported in February on Google’s decision to offer broadband “at a speed of one gigabit per second—100 times faster than what many U.S. consumers have access to today.” Google is now choosing locations for a test of its service, and cities across the country are vying for the opportunity. The Los Angeles Times points out that a number of areas have created Facebook groups to generate support for their campaign. So far, Topeka appears to be the only city to go so far as to rename itself