I Say, Old Chap, Big Brother Is Watching Twitter

Guess what? A lot of them should be followed by the general public

(NEWSER) - The US Army has some rules for social media use—but even if you’re not a soldier, you might do well to adhere to some of those rules. From the Atlantic Wire :

• On Facebook: DO “spell check every post prior to posting; the Army’s reputation is at stake.”
• On Facebook: DON’T “use social media (teen) language in professional posts (ex: i wanna b ur bff 2day & 4evr)."

People weren't ready for it then, but they are now: Tom Anderson

(NEWSER) - News that Facebook is teaming up with Skype must have sounded like deja vu to MySpace founder Tom Anderson. In a Google+ post , he notes that MySpace partnered with Skype in 2007 and had video chats three years before that, reports PC Magazine . But Anderson isn't joining the critics knocking Facebook for coming late to the video party: "The point is that people weren't really ready for it back then—now is the time, and FB has the userbase," he writes. "The large userbase (750 million) paired with a simple integration of the arguably the best voice/video tech (Skype) is what makes this news." More»

With more than 117M followers, the league brings fans close to the action

(NEWSER) - While the NFL tortures its fans with a lockout , the NBA is increasingly bringing fans closer to the action with an aggressive and sophisticated social media campaign. In the midst of a marquee finals match-up between the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks, the league consistently beats traditional news services to the story with constant Twitter updates and online polls created by a team of contributors, reports Fast Company . More»

But Facebook and other companies claim it's an unintentional side effect

(NEWSER) - Those ubiquitous “Like” buttons are a convenient way to quickly share hilarious videos and buzzed-about articles with all your Facebook friends—but they’re also a convenient way for Facebook to track you, the Wall Street Journal reveals. Facebook’s “Like,” Twitter’s “Tweet," and other social widgets allow their creators to collect information about the websites people visit—even if the buttons are not actually clicked, a Journal study shows. You only have to log in to your Twitter or Facebook account once in the past month for Twitter or Facebook to know your browsing habits. More»

New rules will call for improvements on social networking sites

(NEWSER) - The EU is demanding enhanced privacy on Facebook and other social networking sites, calling for a “right to be forgotten." The justice commissioner will unveil rules before summer demanding, among other things, that strict privacy settings be the default for users. Sites like Facebook “can't think they're exempt just because they have their servers in California or do their data processing in Bangalore,” says a spokesman. “If they're targeting EU citizens, they will have to comply with the rules.” More»