The Government is Watching You - on Facebook

Rafael Cohen reports: It turns out Facebook and MySpace aren't only good for catching up with high school classmates. They're good for background checks -- by the government -- as well. According to a report on Foxnews.com, the Department of Homeland...

Sep 10 2008

Facebook: The Movie in the Works

Sam Gustin says: Aaron Sorkin is developing a movie about the creation of Facebook for Sony Pictures, to be produced Scott Rudin, a Sony spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.Sorkin made arcane public policy debates seem like the stuff of high drama in The West Wing. Can he do the same for the ...

Aug 27 2008

New Facebook Group: "Join the Class Action Lawsuit...Against Facebook."

Sam Gustin asks: Did Facebook violate your privacy and commit computer fraud through its Beacon advertising platform?If you think so, feel free to sign up for a new online group called: "Join the Class Action 'Beacon' Law Suit against Facebook."On...

Aug 14 2008

First Bytes: Google, Bezos, Facebook, more

--Google stock took a hit right before the closing bell yesterday in a trading error that drove the company's stock price down 10 percent. Nasdaq canceled the "erroneous orders" that beat down Google's stock, bouncing it back up to a...

Oct 01 2008

New Facebook, Whether You Like It or Not

Kevin Maney writes: Gak! Gak! Gugugug! Pardon me. That's the sound of the Facebook redesign being shoved down my throat. As of today, most users can no longer opt to use the old Facebook -- we're being forced into the...

Sep 11 2008

Facebook Movie Linked to Tell-All Book

Sam Gustin says: 02138, the magazine about Harvard that scuffled with Facebook last year after publishing founder Mark Zuckerberg's social security number and home address, is reporting new details of the Facebook movie currently under development by Aaron Sorkin.Sony Pictures...

Aug 29 2008

Last Bytes: Netflix, Apple, Facebook, Android

- Wondering why your Netflix DVD's haven't been arriving in your mailbox like normal? So is Netflix, apparently. [WSJ]- Former Apple general counsel Nancy Heinen completed her swan dive under the bus for Steve Jobs in the company's options backdating...

Aug 14 2008

AOL: You've Got Gmail

The once walled garden is making a big push to be a more open one-stop-shop, starting today with the launch of aggregated email. With hopes of becoming your homepage, visitors can now log into not only their AOL email,...

Sep 10 2008

Why Isn't There a Corporate Facebook?

Ran across this MSNBC story about companies getting sick of employees spending time on Facebook, so they're blocking the social networking site. But it makes me wonder: Why hasn't Facebook created a product for internal company use? I mean, I...

May 07 2008

Facebook Page? Or Exhibit A in Court?

Facebook pages as potential courtroom evidence? Defense lawyers representing Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey are pushing the envelope in two pending class actions. They are seeking to hold the insurer liable for its refusal to pay health...

Feb 05 2008

MySpace Launches Self-Service Ads

Just in time for the imminent launch of its music site, MySpace quietly went live with its Self-Service Advertising Service last night. The new product allows any user to create and post an advertising unit to the site. Based...

Sep 24 2008

First Bytes: Yahoo, Best Buy/iPhone, Facebook, eBay

- Yahoo is close to naming former Viacom chief Frank Biondi and former Nextel chief John Chapple to its board, joining Carl Icahn, who had put their names up as part of his settlement with the company. [Reuters] - Best Buy...

Aug 13 2008

First Bytes: Tech Meltdown, Facebook, Nokia, Princeton

--The stock meltdown hit tech the hardest. Is there a spending freeze for Apple and other tech products ahead?[NYT]--On top of launching a new application for the iPhone last night, Facebook also unveiled a new homepage and has gone Hallmark...

Sep 30 2008

Facebook Beefs Up, Hires Former White House Lawyer

Facebook has picked up Ted Ullyot as vice president and general counsel, a man who's served as both former chief of staff for Alberto Gonzales as well as a top lawyer for AOL Time Warner in Europe, reports the...

Sep 29 2008

Stop with the $15 Billion for Facebook

Russ Mitchell emits: Maybe Facebook isn't worth $15 billion after all. Matt Cohler, Facebook's product guru and one of its earliest employees, announced he's leaving to play golf...er, become a VC.. at Benchmark Capital.That silly $15 billion figure gets thrown around...

Jun 19 2008

Last Bytes: Google, YouTube, Viacom, Facebook, more...

A federal judge ordered Google to hand over to Viacom a record of every video watched on YouTube.

Jul 03 2008

Microsoft Live Search to Facebook: Good Move, But No Silver Bullet

Sam Gustin wonders what took Facebook so long to incorporate Microsoft Live Search? Could it be because Redmond's been a little distracted lately?In any event, the deal announced today, which will bring Microsoft Live Search and search advertising to Facebook's...

Jul 24 2008

Meebo and Facebook Chat

Soon after Facebook Chat showed up on my Facebook page, I emailed Seth Sternberg, one of the founders of Meebo, and asked if he'd be pulling Facebook Chat into Meebo. Seth replied: "Facebook has said publicly that they plan on...

Apr 29 2008

MySpace Is This, And Your Space is That

Is Chris DeWolfe just trying to get through an interview, or is MySpace about to exploit Facebook's recent privacy issues?

Dec 28 2007

Facebook Looks to Europe

Facebook has received a "significant" investment from the Samwer brothers, three German Internet entrepreneurs, Reuters reports. Alexander Samwer declined to divulge the value of the investment, though he said that it was less than the $240 million that Microsoft paid...

Jan 15 2008

First Bytes: Gmail, Apple, Facebook, more....

- Google's web-based email service, Gmail, suffered a major outage Monday afternoon, renewing concerns about the reliability of Web, or "cloud," based services. The company apologized. [GigaOm, Google]- Meanwhile, Apple continues to have trouble with the e-mail component of MobileMe,...

Aug 12 2008

Google Faces Off With Facebook

It's been one year since Google bought web darling YouTube for $1.65 billion, a deal that came to symbolize a new iteration of Internet euphoria loosely described as Web 2.0. The year since has seen the emergence of a new...

Sep 24 2007

Yahoo, Google, and MySpace Versus Facebook

Beleaguered Web giant Yahoo, under takeover threat from Microsoft, has joined Google's OpenSocial consortium, which is developing universal standards for applications across social networks. In a joint announcement, Yahoo, Google, and MySpace announced the creation of OpenSocial Foundation, which will...

Mar 25 2008

Zuckerberg's Facebook F8 Keynote Cures Insomnia

Sam Gustin says: You've got to give Mark Zuckerberg some credit. At least the 24-year-old Facebook chief executive is trying to lighten up. During today's F8 Facebook developer conference, he even tried cracking a few jokes. Didja hear the one...

Jul 23 2008

Idle Chatter: Ratings 'Ronin'; 'Facebook: The Movie'

-CNN and NBC are arguing over which network drew more viewers for its convention coverage on Wednesday. [WaPo] -West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin is writing a movie about the contested origins of Facebook. [Reuters] -Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin is in talks for a two-book deal. [NYP] -Pharmaceutical companies have found ...

Aug 29 2008

Facebook Loses Face Again

Early this afternoon, Gawker.com exposed a new (as yet unannounced) feature on Facebook: Put your cursor in the 'search' box, press the down arrow, and a list of five names will appear. The early speculation was that the list represented...

May 13 2008

Ballmer's Facebook Lust: Like High School?

If you hang around the tech industry long enough, you realize: It's just like high school. These grown men and women may have millions or billions of dollars, but it's the same old set of dramas on a bigger canvas....

May 08 2008

LinkedIn Goes Mobile

LinkedIn, the fast-growing social network for business professionals, is going mobile, beginning today. The company plans to announce that its 19 million members can now access the service from BlackBerries, iPhones, and other Web-enabled wireless devices. Unlike social networking websites...

Feb 25 2008

Facebook Wins

In the weeks since Facebook opened up to application developers, tech industry power players have jumped into the site in a big way -- as users. People like Ning CEO Marc Andreessen, Lotus founder Mitch Kapor and Real Networks CEO...

Jun 15 2007

Facebook Discovers the Value of Privacy

With little fanfare, Facebook today started allowing users to easily categorize their friends, and thus partition their "social graph" into personal, professional and other spheres. The move has been anticipated ever since the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ">hinted at the...

Dec 19 2007