There's no denying the cultural impact of Facebook. It has united almost 700 million people, including most of you reading this, becoming the greatest social introduction platform the world has ever seen. But there are also some recent signs of "Facebook fatigue." There is only so much you can do to socialize online, especially after you've exhausted your friend list. Some people also complain they're spending so much time on Facebook that they're short-changing the rest of their lives.
Facebook has been making an effort to attract journalists through its subscribe feature. Apparently it has had some considerable degree of success. Those using the tool have reportedly seen an average increase of 320% since it was launched in November.
Naysayers suggest this increase is more to do with quantity than quality and Twitter remains a better tool for journalists. Elsewhere, funnily enough, teenagers seem to be saying something fairly similar. Conversation is better on Twitter.
The Next Web describes how some journalists are complaining that they are collecting thousands of followers through their Facebook "Subscribe" buttons who appear to have no interest in their work. These new subscribers, they say, leave comments that are irrelevant, "spammy" or even obscene.
Facebook is opening up their server technology used in their data centers.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said he hoped the unusual technology-sharing program, which Facebook is calling the "Open Compute Project" would encourage industry-wide collaboration around best practices for data-center and server technology. "By sharing this, we will make it more efficient for this ecosystem to grow," he said.
Google launched its most ambitious social-networking effort yet, broadening a battle with Facebook Inc. to grab the attention of Web users and future advertising dollars.
The new service, a top priority for new Google Chief Executive Larry Page, is aimed at exploiting what has been considered a weakness of Facebook-that by default people using Facebook share all their information with a big group of friends.
The new Google social network, called Google+, was released Tuesday in a "field trial period," meaning it is an invitation-only product and will be available more broadly later.
Social networking is bad for society -not a new argument but one that is becoming louder.
Social networking is neutral, it is a tool, it can be used for good or bad. We are just beginning to understand it. The most popular social network is Facebook -this proves to me that social networking is not fully understood yet.
We need to find ways to present a venue for real discussion. Facebook is nice for connecting with old friend, but hardly a good place for a deep conversation. This is key, using the tools available to create the right platform and venue for creating positive outcomes.
LinkedIn Corp.'s splashy initial public offering of stock earlier this month underscored the company's status as a major professional network. But several start-ups are banking that the future of career networking is actually on Facebook Inc
"I've been testing a service called ZoneAlarm SocialGuard that I think strikes a good balance between safety and privacy, between a parent's peace of mind and a teen's sense of freedom. Every five minutes, it monitors kids' Facebook accounts for approaches by potential predators and strangers, cyber-bullying, age fraud, account hacking, and links to inappropriate or malicious websites. It uses algorithms that look for certain types of language, profile data, or other clues that unwanted activity may be under way."
Americans spent nearly one-quarter of their time online visiting social networks and checking blogs, according to a report by Nielsen.
Facebook was named the top social media destination, taking up more than 53 million minutes from 140 million visitors in the United States for the month of May. Blogger was the next most popular destination among American social media users. But the Google-owned brand's audience of more than 50 million in May was nearly three times smaller than Facebook's, according to Nielsen's quarterly social media report.
Timeline organizes your life in reverse chronological order based on the content you've shared on your Facebook profile. The layout is designed as a dual-column view with a large main column for viewing content and a smaller one on the right for fast navigation.
If you've entered when you graduated high school or college, when you got married, when your first child was born or when you started a new job, all that data will show up in your Timeline. You can also go back and add photos and captions to important past events, or remove particularly embarrassing photos or other content from your new profile page.
The Enterprise gets social: "Enter Hearsay with a social media management platform it says makes Facebook far more palatable to IT with compliance and management features lacking in other services. The new Hearsay Social also provides full integration with the LinkedIn API."
The All Facebook blog reports on the work of Robin Dunbar, professor of evolutionary anthropology at Oxford University. According to Prof. Dunbar the maximum number of meaningful friends you can have is about 150.