Social

Taking on Twitter’s Vine, Instagram Launches Video Sharing

instagram

Instagram announced video sharing capabilities this week at a special event in Facebook’s headquarters, giving Twitter’s Vine a run for its money. Instagram will enable 15-second clips of video (with a three second minimum), a bet on slightly larger content over Vine’s six seconds, and comes backed with 13 different filtering capabilities that work … [Read more...]

Fab Scores $150M at $1B Valuation to Expand Internationally

Money Sign

Fab has come a long way since its original debut back in 2010 as Fabulis.com, a gay social network. The company evolved from a social meet up place into a flash-sales pipeline, and has since morphed into an entity offering its own products with plans to soon open a physical design store of its own. Based in New York City, the company has … [Read more...]

Facebook’s Like Button Knows You Better than You Do

facebook

Facebook knows all about you, more than you probably know about yourself. A new study reveals that Facebook “Like” button data can reveal a surprising amount of information. Studying more than 58,000 volunteers who participated in the “myPersonality” app on Facebook, the research shows that the magical “Like” thumb can be used with over 80 percent … [Read more...]

Facebook Launches Free Calling on iOS App

facebook

Facebook may have thrown its idea for a Facebook phone into the virtual trash bin, but that doesn’t mean the company has abandoned voice. Its latest update for its iOS app allows users in the US and Canada to place voice calls to other users, even if they don’t know the other person’s phone number, providing both are online and have the latest … [Read more...]

Facebook’s New Action Verbs Help You Socialize and Brands Categorize

facebook

Facebook enriched its revamped news feed this week with action verbs for developers that enable users to instantly post about their activities. The verbs provide Facebook users an easy way to socialize their run schedule or what they’ve been reading, for example, while providing Facebook as well as brands with critical, concrete data that can then … [Read more...]

Facebook Gives News Feed New Facelift

facebook

You’re News Feed will never be the same. That could be a good thing, or a bad, but one thing’s for sure, many of Facebook’s users probably won’t like it. They never do. Change sucks. Facebook will be rolling out a facelift of its News Feed this week, Reuters reported. The changes are the biggest to hit the world’s biggest social network in … [Read more...]

Low on Cash, LivingSocial Raises Another $110M, Strives for Profitability

livingsocial

Amazon has thrown LivingSocial a lifeline. The daily deals company has raised another $110 million, bringing the company’s investment funding to a staggering $910 million since its founding in 2007. Investors in this latest round include Steve Case, Grotech Ventures, Revolution, US Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, JP Morgan, T. Rowe … [Read more...]

German Court Rules in Facebook’s Favor on Real Names Policy

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A German court ruled in favor of Facebook’s real names policy, stating that because the social network is headquartered in Ireland, it does not need to comply with an earlier German agency demand for the company to allow pseudonyms, the AP reported. Last December, the Unabhaengiges Landeszentrum fuer Datenschutz maintained that as German law … [Read more...]

ComScore Report: 5.3 Trillion Ads in 2012, Social Media Taking Lead

trillions

ComScore released its Digital Future in Focus report for 2013, revealing that nearly 6 trillion ad impressions were served up the US. What’s more, social media is steadily taking the lead, accounting for 16.6 and will soon surpass portals as the most engaging online activity. Facebook naturally leads this surge, contributing to the largest share of … [Read more...]

US District Judge Tosses out 4 Facebook IPO Lawsuits

Facebook IPO

A US District court dismissed four shareholder lawsuits related to Facebook’s botched IPO, on the grounds that the individual investors behind the cases purchased the company’s stock after the company had already amended IPO filings, including warnings about an unproven ability to monetize its mobile efforts, Reuters reported. The lawsuit, as … [Read more...]