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Users are outraged about changes that Klout has made to the way it calculates online influence, and some argue these scores are meaningless. But measuring “reputation rank” is clearly a huge potential market, and Klout is far from the only one interested in doing it. Read More »

Facebook on Thursday morning unveiled new features aimed at making people feel more secure on the ever-growing social networking site, including “Trusted Friends” and “App Passwords.” These are just the latest in a series of major privacy changes Facebook has announced in recent months. Read More »

 
 

The Open Compute battery cabinet.

The Open Compute Foundation, with directors including Andy Bechtolsheim, aims to bring more vendors to the Open Compute mix, make sure contributed IP is well tended, and foster the idea that open-source development — so important in software — can benefit the stodgy world of data … Read More »

New social networks — such as the newly launched Unthink, as well as the open-source Diaspora — are pitching themselves as alternatives for those who are upset with or afraid of Facebook. But as Myspace found out, a social network really requires one thing to succeed: … Read More »

Peter Thiel (photo courtesy of The Thiel Foundation)

Peter Thiel, the tech industry magnate known for co-founding PayPal and being an early investor in Facebook, is launching a new program called Breakout Labs aimed at funding cutting edge technology research ideas. It’s a big effort, but Thiel himself is known for bold ideas. Read More »

Facebook is offering companies more information on the way fan pages are used — and new data shows that it’s for one simple reason: it’s by far the most effective way for brands to reach customers, which makes it an easy way for Facebook to cash … Read More »

Facebook isn’t a true PayPal competitor, but it’s taking some steps toward becoming an online payments provider outside of its Facebook properties. The social giant has begun testing the use of Facebook Credits on Uno Boost and Collapse! Blast, both available on gaming portal GameHouse. Read More »

Reports that Google will include social features in its new music service reinforce what the rise of Spotify and other services have already made obvious — namely, that Apple and iTunes are falling behind in the social-music race, which could have significant consequences for the company. Read More »

Siri may be the hottest personal assistant since I Dream of Jeannie, but Apple’s artificial intelligence is only the tip of the iceberg as we combine ubiquitous connectivity, sensor networks, big data, new AI and programming into a truly connected network. Read More »

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo talked about the company’s recent growth during an interview at the Web 2.0 conference, but he also made some strong statements about Twitter’s commitment to free speech and to defending the rights of its users against governments in Britain and the U.S. Read More »

In an interview with GigaOM, UberMedia CEO Bill Gross — who is launching his new content-based social network, Chime.in, today — says existing social networks like Facebook and Google+ suffer from a signal-to-noise problem and a monetization problem, and that Chime was designed to help with … Read More »

Bill Gross takes on Twitter, Facebook & Google+

Entrepreneur Bill Gross is launching a content-focused social network called Chime.in that will compete with Twitter, Facebook and Google+, as well as link-sharing sites like Digg. He says there is a need for a better way of filtering content, but the odds are stacked against him. Read More »

More Must Reads

Google has taken the axe to several of its previous social efforts, including Buzz and Jaiku, in order to focus all of its energies on its new Google+ network. But has the web giant really learned that much from its earlier failed social projects? Read More »

Software development is always evolving and advancing, and business models and cultural norms evolve along with it. New capabilities spring up regularly, and business models can change overnight, meaning laws written to address specific concerns can fast become obsolete or, perhaps worse, hindrances to innovation. Read More »

Last year, I did a back of the envelope estimate of revenues for Spotify for 2010 at $134 million, of which $80 million came from subscriptions and rest from advertising. It’s time for a mea culpa: I blew it. Here are the updated numbers. Read More »

A new iOS and Android app called Eye-C turns hashtags into collaborative media playlists, allowing you to play a continuous stream of videos from the #occupywallst movement or check out the artists your friends are listening to. All media can be beamed straight to your TV. Read More »

What your mother told you still holds true, even online: First impressions matter. Zynga aspires to make all its games pass what the company calls the “three click” test with games that people can enjoy and get hooked on within the first three mouse clicks. Read More »

Zynga may be best known for its hit online and mobile games, but the company has its eye on a much bigger prize. On Tuesday, Zynga unveiled a major new “Zynga direct” platform — codenamed Project Z — showing that its ambition goes well beyond single … Read More »

Despite recent reports about a dramatic decline, Google+ still appears to be growing relatively strongly. But the network still has a substantial mountain to climb in terms of gaining a broad user base, and it’s not clear what Google has to offer that’s radically different. Read More »

Mobile app analytics firm Localytics found that 20 percent of all mobile apps have social integration through Facebook or Twitter. While Facebook is the most popular tool for social sharing, the average Twitter user drives three times more traffic. Read More »

On Monday the social networking company debuted its long-awaited native application for the iPad, capping off months of speculation of the whens and hows of a potential launch. The app has a few features made especially for the iPad experience, particularly when browsing photos. Read More »

Despite the threat of online fraud, consumers are increasingly getting comfortable shopping online. ThreatMetrix and the Ponemon Institute did some consumer surveys and found that one-third of people said they plan on spending more online than they do in-store this year. Read More »

Facebook has acquired friend.ly, a startup that makes a Facebook app for asking and answering questions with your friends. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Friend.ly was founded in 2010 and has reportedly raised $5 million in venture capital to date. Read More »

A presentation at the recent Society for News Design conference imagined a future in which real-time updates about a news event would be shown in heads-up displays on picture frames, windshields and even eyeglasses. But would this make our information-overload problem better or worse? Read More »

A leading British politician is in hot water after mistakenly publishing a message to Twitter that was intended to stay private. But while his error provides some fun for the peanut gallery, the slip underscores a larger usability problem that Twitter has failed to deal with. Read More »

Facebook has made some changes to the analytics it offers to brands, to try and get them to focus more on engagement with their users and customers instead of just looking at clickthrough rates. It’s a message that suits Facebook’s interests, but will advertisers bite? Read More »

It’s become a piece of widely-accepted startup lore to say that failure is an important part of success. But this trio of examples highlight the fact that entrepreneurs have as much in common with Tiger Woods as they do with each other. Read More »

Last week, the Wall Street Journal updated its online privacy policy to actually give it more rights to our information. The resulting lack of outrage highlights that we have a long way to go to get online privacy where it needs to be. Read More »

Shares in Russian Internet group Mail.ru have fallen to their lowest point since the company went public last year. But since the company has been indirectly fueling Silicon Valley’s latest investment boom, a serious slump could have repercussions far beyond Moscow. Read More »

One argument likely to play a role in the federal government’s antitrust case against Google is that the company’s market position is unassailable thanks to network effects and a number of other factors, and therefore it is literally unkillable. But is this really true? Read More »

Facebook is now over 800 million strong. Nearly 350 million people use it on their phones. It is regarded as the instigator of political change around the world. This video-infographic based on a University project captures the size and scope of Facebook. Read More »

After a brief break, this week I return with some great readings that involve Biggie Smalls, Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Google’s Larry Page and Amazon’s Kindle Fire. And just when you were feeling too smart, well, I got some news for you. Read More »

Facebook’s recent launch of what CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls “frictionless sharing” has caused a lot of controversy over whether the feature is an invasion of privacy. But the reality is that Facebook is simply adapting to the increasingly social way we are living our lives online. Read More »

Creating a Facebook app for your newspaper — or an iPhone app, or an app for Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet — is a nice project, but real innovation consists of rethinking how a media company functions in a digital age on a more fundamental level. Read More »

Many of us still access Facebook through our web browsers, but it is increasingly becoming a mobile powerhouse. At GigaOM Mobilize, Erick Tseng, Head of Mobile Products for Facebook, said it may soon be more of a mobile company than one which develops for the web. Read More »

Some of Web 2.0′s brightest talents are returning with new projects, from revitalized bookmarking sites to fresh online games. But the challenges they face today are different than back in 2005, because the internet is radically changed — not least because of Facebook. Can they succeed? Read More »

Less than a year after it launched its photo-sharing app, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom told attendees at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference that new users are signing up at a rate of 78 per minute, and 26 photos are being uploaded to the service every second. Read More »

Is Facebook’s iPad app stuck in pre-release mode or are finishing touches being applied right now? There are two reports Monday concerning the social network’s much-anticipated iPad application that paint two somewhat different pictures of the situation. The latest says Facebook’s app could arrive next week. Read More »

The success of Tumblr — which has raised $85 million in funding and sees 13 billion pageviews a month — contains lessons for media companies, and the main one is that social sharing can be an incredibly powerful force if you make it as easy as … Read More »

What do Belichick defensive schemes, Tom Clancy novels, Google+ and Facebook have in common? The answer is that all are so byzantine that they leave people scratching their heads to figure them out. Somewhere along the way social media lost sight of keeping things simple. Read More »

The Washington Post’s new Social Reader is an attempt to bring the news to the people, according to CEO Don Graham. The company is taking the bold step of diffusing its own brand in order to reach a wider audience with its content. Read More »

The changes that Facebook launched this week have clearly upped the ante for Google, which desperately needs the signals that come from social activity to feed into its search and advertising algorithms. But Twitter is playing a somewhat different game than either Facebook or Google. Read More »

Music services such as MOG, Rhapsody and others were expected to be part of the big Facebook re-launch. They were, except as an afterthought. Somewhat predictably, Mark Zuckerberg brought the CEO of Spotify on stage while competitors were relegated to little icons on a single slide. Read More »

Timeline is more than a design change: It’s a bigger push by Facebook to mine the opportunity in the past. Timeline means there can be a point to all of this sharing: a lasting repository that helps paint a picture of your life. Read More »

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social-reading apps the network launched with The Washington Post and other outlets would change the “way the news industry works,” but it feels more like those outlets have signed over a big part of their destiny to an AOL-style portal. Read More »

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