Facebook Beefs Up Privacy Protection

Marvin Potter charged with 'senseless' Tennessee slayings

(NEWSER) - Two Tennessee men have been charged with killing a couple over what police describe as a "senseless and stupid" motive: A defriending on Facebook. Marvin Potter, 60, was enraged by the couple's decision to scratch his 30-year-old daughter from their list of friends, according to police. The two were found shot dead in their home, with their 8-month-old daughter lying unharmed in her mother's arms, reports AP . More»

Former editor Jesse Kornbluth explains how web giant fell from grace

(NEWSER) - Jesse Kornbluth has a cautionary tale for Facebook, which he says he worked for a decade ago. "Back then, it was called America Online," he writes in the Wall Street Journal . Kornbluth was AOL's editorial director from 1997 to 2003. In those days, AOL had lots of great content, but what really mattered was its community section—which "was Facebook before there was Facebook." That's what drove the growth of the service. At the same time, "we had only modest adult supervision, and we made the most of it." More»

A minority makes the experience more rewarding for the majority: Study

(NEWSER) - This might help explain why Facebook is closing in on 900 million users: Most people "receive more from their Facebook friends than they give," concludes a new Pew study . Among the findings from the one-month analysis:

• 40% of users made a friend request in the one-month period, but 63% received a request themselves
• Users hit the like button 14 times on friends' content, but received 20 likes on their own content in the same span
• 12% tagged a pal in a photo, but 35% were tagged by others

Filing 'an American milestone'

(NEWSER) - The company Mark Zuckerberg founded in his dorm room eight years ago is expected to file for Silicon Valley's biggest-ever initial public offering today. The Facebook IPO will aim to raise $5 billion, and will value the company at between $75 billion and $100 billion, insiders tell Reuters . The filing paves the way for the stock to start trading in May, and many observers expect a twist, possibly involving a way in for Facebook's 800 million users. "Pandemonium is what I expect in terms of demand for this stock," an IPO expert tells AP . "I don't think Wall Street would want to anger Facebook users." More»

Users shatter Guinness World Record

(NEWSER) - A team of about 100 Facebook pals has collaborated to comment more than a million times on a post—setting an official Guinness record, KTXL-TV reports. The initial post was made in October in the Facebook group Ffgpioneers/gwr/attempt . (It was an innocuous post made just for this purpose.) To garner 1,001,619 comments (and counting), each user had to post some 9,300 times on average, the Huffington Post notes. The previous record was 529,335. "I'm no spring chicken anymore and I really haven’t done anything phenomenal," one of the posters said. Now she has. More»