FTC Warns Bloggers on 'Reviewing' Freebies

Young people turn from long posts to short tweets

(NEWSER) - Just a few years ago, blogging was hot enough to be Merriam-Webster’s word of the year—but as Facebook and Twitter have grown, blogging has declined, the New York Times reports. The trend is particularly notable among the young: between 2006 and 2009, a survey found, blogging’s popularity among 12- to 17-year-olds dropped by half, while between 2008 and 2010, it fell 2 percentage points among the 18- to 33-year-old set. More»

(NEWSER) - The Georgian blogger who was taken offline in the cyberattack that shut down Twitter on Thursday believes Moscow is the culprit, he tells the Guardian. The economics professor, who goes by the online name Cyxymu, says he believes Russian authorities targeted him with the denial-of-service attack because of his persistent criticism of the country's conduct in its war over the disputed South Ossetia region. More»

From Facebook to Google, Silicon Valley frowns on flashy spending

(NEWSER) - Facebook's staff may be full of zillionaires, but don't expect Ferraris in the parking lot. Silicon Valley, where almost 14% of homes earn more than $200,000 per year, is deeply opposed to conspicuous consumption—hence Mark Zuckerberg's iconic hoodies and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's underground house. "The message here is, ‘Keep shipping product,'" an insider tells the New York Times . "If someone buys a fancy car and posts a picture of it, they get ridiculed and berated." More»

Second-quarter date sounds 'terrifically optimistic,' anti-trust lawyer says

(NEWSER) - Facebook and Instagram aren't likely to finish tying the knot by the second quarter as they'd originally intended, because the Federal Trade Commission has launched a competition probe into the deal. Investigators are already collecting information from competitors like Google and Twitter, sources tell the Financial Times . Competition probes are par for the course with acquisitions of more than $68.2 million, but the process could take six to 12 months. More»

Maryland may ban practice

(NEWSER) - Some employers and colleges have found an ingenious way around Facebook's pesky privacy settings: Simply demand that applicants or students friend you, give you a tour of their account, or even divulge their usernames and passwords. MSNBC reports on a number of places instituting the troubling practices:

• At Maryland's Department of Corrections, job applicants are asked to log in to their account and allow an interviewer to watch as they click through their photos and posts. The Department of Corrections used to ask for username and password outright, but stopped after an ACLU complaint last year.
• Colleges are requiring student athletes to "friend" a coach or school official so that their Facebook posts can be monitored. If they refuse, they don't play. "Each team must identify at least one coach or administrator who is responsible for having access to and regularly monitoring the content of team members’ social networking sites and postings," reads the University of North Carolina handbook.
• Though social media monitoring seems to take place mostly with student athletes, non-athlete college applicants have reported to one lawyer that they were asked for their login information during interviews.