Web 2.0

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Digg Sold for Just $500K
 Digg Sold for Just $500K 

Digg Sold for Just $500K

Sale price makes former web darling bigger flop than MySpace

(Newser) - Social media site Digg—or, at least, what's left of it—has been sold to BetaWorks for the bargain-basement price of just $500,000, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . The site, which allows users to post links and vote other submissions up or down, was once one of...

Facebook, Google Could Fall Apart
 Facebook, Google 
 Could Fall Apart 
OPINION

Facebook, Google Could Fall Apart

Eric Jackson says the web's top companies never seem to last

(Newser) - Right now, Google and Facebook seem invincible, but in five to eight years they could well be gone, argues Eric Jackson in Forbes . "Not bankrupt gone, but MySpace gone." After all, it's happened to loads of web giants before them. The more you look at the Internet,...

Ask.com Hires Real People to Answer Questions

Stick it, Jeeves

(Newser) - Big news: Ask.com still exists! Bigger news: It’s going to start ripping off Yahoo Answers, Quora, and all the other Web 2.0 question-answering services! The search site, which apparently still gets a lot of traffic, has launched a beta service called “Ask the Community.” Users...

5 Ways Facebook Could Fail

 5 Ways Facebook 
 Could Fail 

5 Ways Facebook Could Fail

How the giant may be slain

(Newser) - Facebook, which this week welcomed its 500 millionth user , is the undisputed king of the Internet. But, warns Ryan Singel on Wired , other giants (think: Friendster, Geocities) have fallen. Here are some of Facebook's potential foes:
  • Open Sourcing—New ventures like Diaspora, OneSocialWeb, the Appleseed Project, and WebFinger are experimenting
...

Yelp Turns Down $550M Google Bid

 Yelp Turns Down 
 $550M Google Bid 
THANKS, BUT NO THANKS

Yelp Turns Down $550M Google Bid

User reviews site may have been approached by rival

(Newser) - Crowd-sourced local business review site Yelp has backed out of a $550 million acquisition by Google that was thought to be almost certain just days ago. Michael Arrington, writing on TechCrunch , is uncertain as to why the deal fell apart, but surmises that “someone” came up with a counteroffer...

Would You Friend This Fake Person? Probably
Would You Friend This
Fake Person? Probably
FACEBOOK STUDY SAYS

Would You Friend This Fake Person? Probably

Distressing response rate for fake Facebook friend requests

(Newser) - If someone you don’t know, represented only by a photo of a rubber duck, tries to friend you on Facebook, you’ll probably...accept. That’s the conclusion of a study by a security firm that created two fake accounts—the fictitious woman behind the duck was named Daisy...

Contributors Flee Wikipedia's Stricter Rules

Effort to combat bias, vandalism has thinned ranks by 49K

(Newser) - In an attempt to rein in the lawlessness and veiled opinion running rampant among its volunteer editors, Wikipedia may have shot itself in the foot. In the first 3 months of this year, there's been something of a stampede of contributors exiting the crowdsourced online encyclopedia, leading to a net...

Online TV, Movie Guide Impresses
 Online TV, Movie 
 Guide Impresses 
WEBSITE REVIEW

Online TV, Movie Guide Impresses

Clicker takes the drudgery out of finding what you want

(Newser) - The Web is so rich with TV and movie options that organizing the content is a daunting task. “You could browse multiple sites, including crowd-pleasers like Hulu, but that's too slow and tedious,” Jeff Bertolucci writes. Enter Clicker , a new aggregating website its CEO calls “one part...

Facebook Is Now Offering Alibis
 Facebook Is Now Offering Alibis 

Facebook Is Now Offering Alibis

NYC teen charged in robbery couldn't have done it, status update proves

(Newser) - We’ve all read about bonehead criminals getting caught because of social networks, or people’s online lives coming back to haunt them in divorce proceedings—but can Facebook actually help you in court? The answer is yes, at least for one New York teen, who is free after he...

Facebook Gives Death a Makeover
 Facebook Gives
 Death a Makeover

Facebook Gives Death a Makeover

Gravestones are so 1.0, site spins; try memorializing your page

(Newser) - Facebook has responded to yet another qualm arising from its revamp last week. This one was actually sort of serious: Users were inundated with suggestions that they “reconnect” with friends who—though their Facebook pages were still active—had in reality shuffled off this mortal coil. “Would that...

Facebook Sees Big Bucks in Virtual Goods
 Facebook Sees Big 
 Bucks in Virtual Goods 
ONLINE GAMING

Facebook Sees Big Bucks in Virtual Goods

Social networking site wants a cut of gaming transactions

(Newser) - Gaming is blowing up on Facebook, and the social networking site hopes to take a cut of the very real revenue generated by virtual interactions. Analysts think credits and other services bought to enhance the likes of “Farmville” and “Mafia Wars” will be trading at a clip of...

Google Moves In on Online Music

Search giant to partner with streaming/download services

(Newser) - Google is getting into the online music business. TechCrunch has learned that the search giant will partner with iLike and LaLa to integrate clips into its search engine. An announcement is planned for October 28. Both companies allow streaming on first access, a 30-second clip thereafter, and the option to...

Facebook Divorce Rule No. 1: Don't Overshare
Facebook Divorce Rule No. 1: Don't Overshare
ANALYSIS

Facebook Divorce Rule No. 1: Don't Overshare

Divorcee, beware. His lawyer might be reading those posts

(Newser) - Like many things, the etiquette for dealing with marital troubles on Facebook isn’t exactly covered in the Terms of Service. And like any other Facebook action, Amanda Fortini writes, users would do well to think before they type. When a recently separated woman posted a status update reading “...

How to Get Yourself Retweeted

Data analysis tells you words to use and when to build your brand

(Newser) - You might think all you need to do to get your 140-character gems rebroadcast on Twitter is make them, well, good. Wrong. Fast Company looks at some data-proven tips from Hubspot's Dan Zarrella:
  • Links work—If they're the right links: Retweets (or RTs) are three times more likely to have
...

Self-Serve Ads, Goods Work Well for Facebook
Self-Serve Ads, Goods
Work Well for Facebook
ANALYSIS

Self-Serve Ads, Goods Work Well for Facebook

After missteps, Zuckerberg and co. have found some winning formulas

(Newser) - Reports on Facebook’s newly announced profitability have focused on a fixed deal with Microsoft that generates a large chunk of their income. But the site’s homegrown revenue sources—self-serve advertising and virtual gifts—shouldn’t be discounted, writes Bobbie Johnson for the Guardian. The personal information on Facebook...

Twitter Is Just a Fad
 Twitter Is Just a Fad 
OPINION

Twitter Is Just a Fad

Social networking site has no long-term viability: Friedman

(Newser) - Jon Friedman doesn’t really like Twitter, he writes for MarketWatch. He thinks the 140-character cap keeps Tweets superficial—which is why Ashton Kutcher loves it. It proved useful for Iranian protesters, but for those of us in relatively stable countries, Friedman agrees with blogger Jon Taplin: "Twitter has...

This Guy's Getting $60K to Tweet About Wine

Winner will live in California, Tweet about wine

(Newser) - Hardy Wallace recently lost his job—but he’ll soon be making $10,000 a month promoting Murphy-Goode winery on the Web, as the winner of the much-touted “Really Goode Job,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The Atlantan, who has a wine blog and has taken sommelier education...

Pirate Bay Launches New YouTube Clone

VideoBay streams content, without that pesky copyright stuff

(Newser) - If YouTube's limits on copyrighted material have exhausted you, the Swedish hackers who call themselves Pirate Bay have a solution: VideoBay, a new streaming video site that's utterly indifferent to intellectual property laws. The new service, rolled out just as Pirate Bay was sold to a Swedish software company that...

For Latest on Iran Unrest, Check Online First

(Newser) - Traditional media are having a tough time covering the Iranian election fallout, but fear not: Web 2.0 is up to the task. The Washington Post runs down the best destinations for those hoping to stay on top of the situation:
  • PicFog.com: Current, unedited photos containing "a level
...

'Web 2.0' is English's Millionth Word

A new word emerges every 98 minutes

(Newser) - The millionth word to enter the English lexicon is pure geek-speak, the Telegraph reports: Web 2.0 was entered this morning by Global Language Monitor, which recognizes words once they’ve appeared 25,000 times in the media, blogs, and social websites. The linguistic cataloger estimates that a new word...

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