social networking

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Iran: Foreign Media Speaks for 'Hooligans'

Journalists 'damaging the Islamic republic'

(Newser) - Iran has slammed foreign journalists for sparking unrest in the country as the “mouthpieces” of “hooligans,” CNN reports. The foreign ministry said “hundreds” of foreigners had been allowed into Iran in “a sign of the total transparency in the trends of the elections,” but...

How MySpace Lost Its Crown
 How MySpace Lost Its Crown 
ANALYSIS
Jun 17, 2009 7:50 AM CDT

How MySpace Lost Its Crown

Failure to innovate halts site's once red-hot momentum, letting Facebook take the lead

(Newser) - MySpace was overtaken by Facebook for the first time last month and without some serious innovation, Rupert Murdoch's big buy may end up joining Friendster in the ranks of the also-rans, Dawn Chmielewski and David Sarno write in the Los Angeles Times. The world of social networking moves at an...

Twitter Delays Downtime to Aid Iran Protesters

Maintenance reskedded to accommodate information flow

(Newser) - Twitter has pushed back work that would have taken the site offline to avoid disrupting the flow of information from Iran, Computer World reports. The site, which has proven to be a vital link between Iranian protesters and the rest of the world, will now be offline 2 to 3...

550 Facebookers Per Second Vie for New URLs

Members claimed vanity addresses at more than 550 a second

(Newser) - Facebook’s offer of personalized URLs drew 500,000 members in 15 minutes after midnight today, Bloomberg reports. “We saw higher than usual traffic,” said a spokesman. “Planning allowed us to handle that traffic well.” The feature, designed to make Google searches easier, allows the site’...

Sorry Folks, No 'Twitpocalypse' Tonight
Sorry Folks, No 'Twitpocalypse' Tonight
analysis
Jun 12, 2009 7:09 PM CDT

Sorry Folks, No 'Twitpocalypse' Tonight

(Newser) - Rumors of a Y2K-style Twitter bug crashing the microblogging site tonight are mere tweeter-tattle, Ryan Paul writes on Ars Technica. True, Twitter assigns each missive with a numerical ID, and their total will soon exceed 2,147,483,647—the most a 32-bit assigned interger can fit. But the site,...

'Pregnancy' Blog Was Anti-Abortion Hoax

Blogger had thousands of followers

(Newser) - A popular anti-abortion blog that told the story of a woman who gave birth to a terminally ill baby was a hoax, the Chicago Tribune reports. For months, thousands of readers logged on daily to follow "April's Mom." They rallied around her, sending photos, gifts, and prayers. On...

Don't Get 'Tagged' By This Site
 Don't Get 'Tagged' By This Site 
OPINION
Jun 11, 2009 2:58 PM CDT

Don't Get 'Tagged' By This Site

Social network spams contacts without permission

(Newser) - The US’ third-largest social network is also the world’s most annoying website, Sean Gregory writes in Time. An e-mail about photos from an ex-boss lured him to Tagged, only to lead him through a confusing registration that spammed all his contacts with an informal note. “I don’t...

Tiananmen Sweeps Twitter as Chinese Thwart Ban

'Tiananmen' becomes one of site's most-discussed topics as users turn to proxies

(Newser) - China's blocking of Twitter ahead of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre last week didn't foil the country's computer-savvy youth for very long, the BBC reports. Users swiftly shared information about visiting the site through proxies or software applications, and the subsequent twittering made Tiananmen one of Twitter's most-discussed...

Site Hopes to Catalog Every Concert, Ever

(Newser) - A website hopes to meet the "tiny challenge" of cataloging every concert ever given, writes MG Siegler on TechCrunch. Songkick, a site developed in 2007 to provide recommendations for live music based on where you live and what you like, also wants to add a mix of social networking...

Facebook Set to Offer Personalized URLs

(Newser) - Facebook will now offer users an alternative to the clumsy random URLs currently assigned for personal pages, Mashable reports. Starting Friday, users can apply for an actual named website to supplant a mix of numbers, such as facebook.com/john.q.public. The “vanity URL” system has been available on...

Twitter Growth Stalls, Study Shows Just 10% Tweet

(Newser) - Just last week, Twitter was on the cover of Time; today, everyone’s crowing about its demise, writes Om Malik for GigaOm. According to Compete.com, Twitter’s unique visitor growth stalled in May after months of sensational gains, up a mere 1.47% compared to Facebook’s 8%. The...

Real-Life Social Network Stays Same Size

You replace half of old friends with new ones every 7 years: study

(Newser) - It might not be so on Facebook, but the size of people’s actual social networks stays about the same throughout life, LiveScience reports. Most people replace half their friends every 7 years, a survey of 1,000 people finds. The study—which also notes that people often make new...

Jilted Guy Hides Ring in Twitter Treasure Hunt

Will tweet clues as searchers scour his New Zealand city

(Newser) - What to do when "Em, no" greets your question from bended knee? A New Zealand man who finds himself with a “spare ring” is going to hide it somewhere in the capital city Saturday—and post clues as to its location on a Twitter treasure hunt, the Dominion ...

Facebook Wants Your Friendship and Your Money

Site rolls out payment system aimed at getting profit from apps

(Newser) - Facebook is breaking an age-old business rule: Never do business with friends. In a bid to achieve profitability, the social-networking site is testing an internal payments system that allows its 300 million users to purchase credits redeemable for virtual goods, from Facebook itself or third-party applications. “Over time, this...

To Entice Burglars, Just Tweet About Vacation

Even robbery doesn't stop microblogging fanatics from self-promotion

(Newser) - Going on vacation? Post a 140-character update on Twitter and you can tell all your friends—plus burglars who now know you're not at home. One prolific Twitterer returned home to Phoenix to find his house broken into, and rather proudly insisted that the criminals must have read his microblog,...

Twitter 'Twollars' Raise Cash for Charity

(Newser) - Twitter has unveiled an online currency of sorts, the “twollar,” aimed at boosting charitable giving, the Guardian reports. Twitter users start out with 50 twollars (the equivalent of $5), which they can award to other users for astute posts and the like. Twollars are currency, but only charities...

Iran Restores Facebook Access

(Newser) - Access to Facebook is back in Iran after being blocked late last week. Facebook was cut off Saturday, leading to accusations that authorities were trying to muzzle one of the main campaign tools of reformists opposing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 12 elections. The main pro-reform candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi,...

$200M Russian Investment Values Facebook at $10B

(Newser) - Facebook is getting a $200 million investment from a Russian Internet investor that values the social networking company at $10 billion. The investment gives Digital Sky Technologies a nearly 2% stake in the Palo Alto, California-based company's preferred stock.

Pope Benedict Wants to Meet You on Facebook

(Newser) - Pope Benedict probably isn’t at the computer himself, but the Vatican is making a major push to lure young believers online, Reuters reports. It’s launched www.pope2you.net, which offers Web 2.0 applications like “The pope meets you on Facebook,” and another that downloads the...

Social Sites Don't Delete Photos Promptly: Study

7 sites left photos up after purportedly removing them

(Newser) - Uploaded photos remain on social-networking sites long after users think they’ve deleted them, a study finds. Researchers put photos on 16 popular sites and then deleted them. A month later, the BBC reports, the photos were still accessible using their direct URLs on seven of those sites, including Facebook—...

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