Same-Name Couple to Wed After Meeting on Facebook

(NEWSER) - Facebook has a thing against funny names, particularly if they’re actually yours, the Washington Post reports. Caitlin Shaw, who wanted to add her maiden name, Batman, to her profile, endured weeks of back-and-forth emails, while Starkiller Unleashed sails through. Facebook says it scrutinizes the real applicants because they are “fewer than the number of people who could potentially misuse the name on the site.” More»

Social network sees 20% plunge since IPO

(NEWSER) - Facebook shares continue to plummet: They've now dropped more than 20% from their $38 IPO price, falling below $30 today to their lowest point yet, reports Reuters . At about 12:45pm EDT they were trading at $29.44. But among tech stocks, $30 per share still gives it a comparatively "generous" valuation, notes Dan Gallagher at MarketWatch : The site is trading at about 55 times its estimated earnings for this fiscal year. Google, on the other hand, trades at about 14 times its estimated earnings, and Apple, IBM, and Microsoft are in the same ballpark. But he notes that higher valuations seem more common among social sites: Groupon trades at some 64 times its estimated earnings, while LinkedIn is trading at a hefty 145 times its estimated earnings. More»

Test running in New Zealand only

(NEWSER) - Want to make sure your friends see your latest uber-important Facebook update? Now you can—if you live in New Zealand and are willing to drop a couple bucks. Facebook is testing a service in the country that allows users to pay between about 40 cents and $2 to highlight posts, the BBC reports. A user who spotted the offer and reported it to the media thought he was being conned at first. Nope, said a Facebook rep. More»

Feds want you to plan what happens to your online profile

(NEWSER) - Social networking has already changed our lives; now, officials want us to consider its implications after our death. On its blog, the US government is calling on Americans to create "social media wills," which detail our wishes for the future of the huge range of online accounts we all have these days. Email and Facebook are just the beginning: The average person has 25 password-protected accounts, a law professor tells Mashable . About half a million Facebook users reportedly died last year. More»

Slate essayist disagrees with cover story in 'Atlantic'

(NEWSER) - The Atlantic's cover story is a much-discussed piece by novelist Stephen Marche, who concludes that Americans in the age of Facebook "have never been more detached from one another, or lonelier." It's strong stuff, but it's just the latest entry in a long list of articles and books on the theme that are "built on fables and fantasies," writes Eric Klinenberg at Slate . There's "zero evidence" to support Marche's claim that Facebook in particular and social networking in general are producing a "new isolation." More»