Facebook to launch ‘something awesome’ next week: Zuckerberg

Boston: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has a surprise up his sleeve for the over 500 million users of his social networking site with the billionaire CEO on Friday saying his company is planning to “launch something awesome” next week.

Zuckerberg, speaking at his company’s office in Seattle, did not divulge any further details apart from saying that the company planned to “launch something awesome” next week.

However, it is being speculated that the new feature to be launched could be in the mobile or tablet space.

A report in the Los Angeles Times said there are various mobile products in development at Facebook, including the release of a long-awaited Facebook application for Apple’s iPad and a specialized application for photo-sharing on the iPhone.

“We are working on a number of exciting things that we have not yet announced, but stay tuned for next week,” the report quoted Facebook director of engineering Andrew Bosworth as saying.

The project has been developed at the 40-person Seattle office, which is Facebook’s only major engineering hub outside of its Palo Alto, California headquarters.

In the past, the Seattle office has played a key role in Facebook’s mobile efforts, the report said.

Facebook’s Seattle office has made a mark on the company’s mobile efforts, playing a central role in the development of Facebook’s unified mobile site, unveiled in March, it added.