The good people at Facebook never seem to learn from their mistakes, their constant updating of the privacy settings on the site never seem to go down well with users and have often caused other problems yet the social networking site has announced yet another raft of changes. (more…)

As the year progresses and we get ever closer to summer it would seem that competition in the online world is really hotting up. Perennial innovators Google are leading the pack with the announcement that they are set to purchase their third company this year. (more…)

Two giants of the online world, Microsoft and Facebook, have come together to form a mutually beneficial agreement. The companies have decided to revise their search pact into a global deal. This would mean that the social networking behemoth Facebook will sell its own advertisements and receive more of Bing’s features on its web results. (more…)

Despite recently going public about his belief that privacy is no longer a ‘social norm,’ Mark Zuckerburg has made a move to placate the sizeable wing of Facebook users that are less than pleased with his website’s privacy and security arrangements. Virus protection company, McAfee have launched a partnership with Facebook in order to provide users with six months of McAfee protection absolutely free and a discount subscription after that. (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…)

As you may have heard, if you’ve been paying attention, MySpace/News Corp are currently in the process of trying to sell Photobucket, the video and image sharing service it acquired for $250 million dollars with an additional $50 million earnout in 2007. The buyer is a company called Ontela, who come with 40 million backing from Disney’s Steamboat Ventures arm. The deal with Ontela is thought to be at an advanced stage though sources close to both companies are putting the valuation at around $60 million, an 83% reduction from what MySpace paid. (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.

A facebook post from a disgruntled worker known only as Lyndsey has led to her being dismissed from her job. The post, entitled ‘OMG I hate my job’ was doing the rounds all last week and even made it as far as the blogging site Digg, where it has reached an even bigger audience. (more…)

By the end of the year many MySpace users will have their very own ‘@myspace.com’ email address. The launch, scheduled for late 2009, will be low key and initially limited only to the USA. The scheme is intended to be rolled out to the rest of the world, though a plan for this is yet to be drafted. Sources within the popular social networking site have called the email plan the ‘logical extension’ of the brand and its existing ‘instant messaging tool.’ (more…)

With so much of the world now poking, tagging and micro blogging their way across the social networking landscape, you’d be forgiven for thinking that social networking didn’t have much room to grow. Well, apparently not. According to Nielsen Online, the amount of time the USA spends on social networking sites has risen by a whopping 83 per cent over the last year. (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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