Zuckerberg participates in Code.org video – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, along with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Twitter and Square co-founder Jack Dorsey and other popular tech figures, appeared in a short film by Code.org to promote computer science education. The video, called ”What Most Schools Don’t Teach,” discusses the gap between the number of available programming jobs and the number of qualified graduates to do them. ”Our policy (at Facebook) is literally to hire as many talented engineers as we can find,” Zuckerberg says. “The whole limit in the system is that there aren’t enough people who are trained and have these skills today.” The video aims to raise awareness of the issue and make coding seem more approachable for students.

Facebook declares support for same-sex marriage – Facebook joined a coalition of about 300 companies including Amazon, Apple and Google, in submitting briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court supporting same-sex marriage this week. The briefs explain how the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8 discriminate against employees in same-sex marriages and create undue burdens on companies and employees. The document argues ”recognizing the rights of same-sex couples to marry is more than a constitutional issue. It is a business imperative.”

Facebook runs sale on Facebook Gifts - Facebook continues to promote its Gifts business with new features and deals. This week some users saw offers to get $4 off a gift of $5 or more. This enabled users to send users to, for example, send a $5 Starbucks gift card for only $1. Facebook previously ran $1 gift promotions before Valentine’s Day. Image via CNET.

SocialCode launches Message Optics – Facebook Strategic Preferred Marketing Developer SocialCode this week announced the launch of Message Optics, an extension of its analytics platform. With Message Optics, advertiesrs can monitor the organic and viral performance of their page posts in order to make decisions about what to post in the future and where to allocate paid media to amplify reach.

Facebook CFO calls Instagram ‘competitor’ to Facebook – Facebook CFO David Ebersman told investors at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, & Telecom Conference this week that Instagram could still be considered a competitor to Facebook, despite the company’s ownership of the photo sharing service. When asked about whether competitors are taking users away from the social network, Ebersman said, ”One of the services that is, I think, a quite formidable competitor is Instagram.” The app is particularly popular among younger users who are not necessarily as engaged with Facebook.