We’re well used to the year end search query lists, published by the major search engines, being used as handy barometers of what’s been going on that year, but this is the first time I can remember facebook doing the same thing with status updates. The social network has today published a list of the top themes in the more than 45 million status updates a day (from 30 million unique visitors) that facebook enjoys. (more…)

The folks at Facebook will have to hope that the old adage about all publicity being good publicity is true today, as news breaks that the social network is cited in as many as 20 percent of divorce petitions. These statistics come courtesy of divorce online, a firm of lawyers who specialise in divorce cases and who say that a staggering number of marriages are now ending as a result of the extra-marital liaisons arranged through the site. (more…)

Parents and youth advocates have long worried about the potentially harmful influence social networking sites like facebook could have on the young. In response to these worries, facebook has decided to install what is being referred to as a ‘panic button’ on their site so that children can quickly alert site administrators whenever they see material that is offensive or obscene. The button will work in a similar fashion to the one that features on the social networking site Bebo, whose demographic skews much younger than facebook. (more…)

Aside from slightly sinister fringe benefits like being able to vet and monitor employee’s social lives, it’s fair to say that facebook has been nothing but hassle for employers. With employees wasting company time poking each other and absent mindedly posting corporate secrets on each other’s walls left, right and centre, many employers could be forgiven for wishing that the social network had never been invented. (more…)

Social networking site, Facebook has begun testing a pared down version of its full website for use in countries with unreliable access to high speed broadband. The service, known as Facebook Lite, is being piloted in India and will allow users access to the core elements of the network like photos, status updates and the wall. The fast loading version of the site is said to have a very ‘clean’ look, somewhat reminiscent of the original Facebook site.

According to a statement from Facebook, ‘We are currently testing Facebook Lite in countries where we are seeing lots of new users for the first time and are looking to start off with a more simple experience.’

However, it has been suggested by some that Facebook Lite is, in part at least, a reaction to the proliferation of Twitter over the last few months. The theory being that a simplified Facebook would occupy practically the same space as the hugely popular social network and, thanks to the brand loyalty that Facebook has built up over the years, might therefore stand a chance of competing.

it is also thought that this new version would appeal to the reasonably large number of Facebook users who dislike the more advanced functionalities like Facebook apps.

It would appear that the British military is having some trouble making up its mind on the subject of social networking. Only a couple of months after the Sun and other publications reported that the top brass had banned facebook and other social media platforms at all military bases, it has emerged today that not only are they now allowing use of social networking sites, they are actually encouraging personnel to use them. (more…)

Sir John Sawers, the new head of MI6 , has become embroiled in an embarrassing security breach after it emerged that his wife, Shelley uploaded several pieces of compromising information about him to her Facebook page. The postings included holiday photographs of Sir John as well as information about the couple’s children, their friends and most troubling of all, their home address. (more…)

The government could be about to gain access to your Facebook account, that’s if new plans announced today are approved. The home office is proposing forcing some social networks to hold data on the movements of their members in an effort to disrupt the activities of criminals.
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For a group of people who are supposed to be right at the vanguard of modernity, Facebook users aren’t half stuck in their ways. Every time the webmasters change so much as a hair on their beloved Facebook’s head they go into hysterics, suddenly ‘I hate Facebook’ groups are set up left, right and centre, by people apparently unaware of the irony of setting up Facebook groups to denounce Facebook and there’s a bit of a furore for a few weeks or so. Then, they promptly get over it.
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Facebook has granted users power over their own privacy, with a range of new options to control exactly how public/private you want your profile to be. The measures are being widely viewed as a response to the outrage that Facebook caused amongst its users last month when it changed major sections of its user agreement without properly consulting its members.
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The major selling point that twitter has over Facebook is its real-time nature. Updates on twitter happen almost instantaneously, changing before your eyes as whoever you’re following updates their status. This week it seems that Facebook has woken up to this threat, tweaking its algorithm so that now fresh information floats serenely to the top of search results almost as soon as your friends change anything.
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Facebook users are being warned to display vigilance when it comes to using third party apps on the popular social networking site. The warning comes after hackers launched yet another programme specifically aimed at convincing users to give up their log in details.
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The British Army have caused consternation amongst troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, after taking steps to curtail the use of Facebook and all other social networking sites. The Army is worried that troops who talk about their exploits in status updates or messages could be breaching the public disclosure of information act. In an order issued to all soldiers entitled, ‘Contact with the Media and communicating in public,’ members of the army were ordered to severely limit what they say on social networking sites.
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Corporate law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, have slipped up by revealing exact monetary details of a legal settlement paid by Facebook to smaller social networking site, Connect U. The leak revealed that Facebook paid the princely sum of $65 million dollars to the site after they accused CEO Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their ideas in Facebook’s early development stages.
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