Update: Skype integration looks like the most likely candidate. Rumor: Facebook to launch Skype video chat this Wednesday.
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told reporters earlier this week that the company was planning to “launch something awesome” next week. Today, Facebook e-mailed journalists (including myself) with the above image and one sentence: “Please RSVP to me if you’re interested in attending in person.” There’s also a Facebook Event with a bit more details.
As you can see in the image, the event begins at 10:00 AM on Wednesday July 6, 2011. It also notes that Check in begins at 9:10 AM. I won’t be able to attend in person, but don’t worry, I will cover whatever is announced.
The project was developed at the 40-person Seattle office, Facebook’s only major engineering center outside of its Palo Alto, California headquarters. The Seattle office has been particularly focused on the company’s mobile efforts, playing a central role in the development of Facebook’s unified mobile site, which was unveiled at the end of March 2011.
Here’s what I wrote yesterday about the possible announcements:
Speculation has hit an all-time high. Some believe it is an official Facebook iPad app, which would be the first tablet app developed by the social network. Others think it could be the recently leaked Facebook photo sharing app for the iPhone. Either of these seem plausible to me.
A few think it could be codename Project Spartan, an HTML5 platform that will take on Apple’s App Store. Even less likely, but still possible, is the unveiling of some kind of integration with either Netflix or Skype, which would be awesome indeed.
I also noted it of course could be something that we haven’t heard about yet. Then again, there’s still time before Wednesday for something to leak!
