Networking site revamps image to keep up with rivals
PC World Dec 10, 07 2:57 PM CST
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LinkedIn will start allowing user-created applications as part of an effort to keep up with social networking competitors like Facebook and MySpace, PC World reports. The professional networking site said today it has redesigned its home page and plans to display relevant BusinessWeek stories on users' profiles, as well as highlighting stories their colleagues are reading.
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Concern over new surveillance software
Associated Press Dec 10, 07 4:00 CST
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A marketing data company is blending information about consumer habits online - and offline - to create more accurate and detailed information for advertisers. AP reports Acxiom Corp is bringing to the Internet the consumer profiles and 'life-stage' categories for which it is already well known among direct-mail companies and telemarketers, using a new surveillance program called Relevance-X.
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Users can disable service after wave of privacy complaints
Wall Street Journal Dec 5, 07 5:07 PM CST
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Facebook CEO's apologized today for the company's new advertising system and told users they can disable it, the Wall Street Journal reports. The system, which tracks users' web activities, raised a firestorm of complaints over privacy concerns. "We've made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we've made even more with how we've handled them," Mark Zuckerberg wrote on the company's blog.
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Fastest-growing US search term in 2007
Reuters Dec 5, 07 12:28 PM CST
(Newser)
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The iPhone topped Google’s list of fastest-growing search terms this year, reports Reuters. "iPhone, of course, is a word very few people typed in a search box in 2006,” said a Google rep. “It didn’t exist.” The list was dominated by social networking and celebrity terms. iPhone Webkinz TMZ
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Lessons of dot-com bust learned, startups wait until near-profitable
MarketWatch Dec 5, 07 11:10 CST
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Tech IPOs are back--but this time around, things are more subdued than in the heady days of the dot-com boom. These days, tech startups wait until they are profitable, or at least cash-flow positive, before making a public debut, MarketWatch reports. The strong performance of VMWare's August IPO has boosted investor confidence in the tech IPO market.
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Admission contradicts earlier denials
PC World Dec 3, 07 8:21 PM CST
(Newser)
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Facebook has admitted that its Beacon ad system is tracking users even when they've logged off the site, PC World reports. Even those who opt out of the system that broadcasts activities to friends are being monitored. The company's email announcement reverses earlier denials and will likely stoke criticisms of the system by privacy advocates.
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LiveJournal's new owners plan to add cash, expand globally
Reuters Dec 3, 07 3:03 PM CST
(Newser)
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A free blog site that pioneered personal web publishing among Russia’s intellectuals has been sold to a pair of entrepreneurs who promise to add cash and expand it globally, Reuters reports. Six Apart said it sold LiveJournal, which claims 14.3 million blog accounts and 20 million visitors a month—in the US, largely among teenage girls—to SUP. Terms were not disclosed.
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OPINION
Zuckerberg's attempted censorship 'a major fumble', says columnist
All Things Digital Dec 2, 07 1:38 PM CST
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Facebook has been handed a defeat in its attempts to censor the independent Harvard alumni magazine 02138 , which published confidential court documents relating to founder Mark Zuckerberg's earlier work for a rival site. That's a good thing, says Kara Swisher of the Wall Street Journal , for whom the attempted injunction was "essentially a legal temper tantrum."
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But it's proving difficult to get right on social networking sites
Ars Technica Nov 30, 07 11:42 CST
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Facebook's efforts to fix its Beacon system show that talk isn't cheap, as marketers increasingly are finding it’s a great way to spread the word about their product. Word-of-mouth advertising has taken off, with nearly $981 million being spent on campaigns last year, a 36% increase from 2005, reports Ars Technica. Companies are now integrating WoM into every campaign.
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Switches ad platform
to 'opt-in' format after users decry involuntary 'sharing'
Washington Post Nov 30, 07 6:36 CST
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Facebook has watered down its unpopular Beacon ad platform, which "shared" information about users' online shopping habits with everyone in their Facebook network—without their permission. Now, instead of making users opt out every time they make a purchase if they don't want it to be broadcast, Facebook will only broadcast the transaction if user click "ok."
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Social networking sites for the super-rich
Wall Street Journal Nov 29, 07 10:49 PM CST
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The super-rich are joining the social networking craze, but they're certainly not going to mix with the masses on MySpace. Exclusive sites for millionaires using the same membership criteria as snooty country clubs are appearing on the Web, reports the Wall Street Journal . Invitation-only site aSmallWorld.net has proven popular—some say too popular.
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Users feel 'creeped out' by advertiser info-sharing platform
BusinessWeek Nov 29, 07 7:54 CST
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Facebook execs are pondering changes to the unpopular Beacon advertising platform after massively negative feedback, reports Business Week, and an announcement on "evolving" it could come as soon as today. Users are threatening mutiny over the tool, less than a month old, that tells their friends all about their purchases from other sites—a service many view as an invasion of privacy.
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Trying to reach younger readers, more
will link to Facebook and MySpace
Reuters Nov 28, 07 10:26 CST
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Newspapers readers at an increasing pace are turning to Pluck, a media syndication company, to link their sites to social networks, like MySpace and Facebook, giving them access to 165 million users, Reuters reports. Pluck will use the Facebook programming interface and Google's OpenSocial system to share information between its customer's sites and the most prominent social nets.
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OPINION
Unwanted interactions killing social networking
InformationWeek Nov 27, 07 10:05 CST
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Aggressive new advertising tactics make Facebook look more evil by the day, but don’t worry, InformationWeek columnist Cory Doctorow writes, because it’s doomed anyway. Sure social networks are “pure crack” for some, but sooner or later everyone gets friended by someone they’d rather avoid, and eventually that awkwardness is too much to bear.
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Independent Harvard alumni magazine dishes the dirt on it
02138 Nov 27, 07 8:59 CST
(Newser)
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Three former Harvard students who are suing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for stealing their idea are finally about to get their day