Do startups create jobs, or more accurately, do they create jobs the way they used to? In a House hearing Wednesday, a researcher said the number of startups created have been declining since 2006, and when they are created they tend to generate fewer jobs. Read more »
As experts have studied the “Arab Spring” revolutions that took place in Tunisia and Egypt, it has become increasingly clear that while social-media tools such as Facebook and Twitter may not have caused these events, they played a crucial role in how they occurred. Read more »
Facebook plans to build a solar system on the rooftop of its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., from startup Cogenra Solar that will generate both electricity and heat. Read more »
The race to become the default identity platform for the social web continues to intensify, but while both Facebook and Google are determined to win and have substantial resources to throw at the problem, there are some compelling reasons to believe Twitter has the upper hand. Read more »
Music streaming service MOG just released new growth figures, and it turns out that the music platform launched by Facebook in late September has given it a big boost. MOG now has 160,000 monthly active users, representing 264 percent growth for the month of October. Read more »
Companies blitzing consumers with messages on Facebook and Twitter in a frantic attempt at engagement are about to learn a tough lesson: It’… Read more at paidContent »
WeVideo is launching a new product that will enable organizations to use its collaborative editing products in the cloud. The WeVideo Commercial product is aimed at bloggers, journalists, marketers and other creators who wish to easily edit, manage and publish videos from a single online platform. Read more »
Yes, Twitter and Facebook can be fun. But increasingly the social media sites have become important barometers for very serious things, too. A recent survey found that 61 percent of adults expect candidates in the 2012 U.S. presidential election to have a social media presence. Read more »
The Open Compute Foundation’s new board of directors includes a big name from Intel, but not from AMD. And, Open Compute Project members so far include Dell but not HP. What vendors are in or out is of interest to data center pros. Read more »
David Shing, the “digital prophet” for AOL, says he expects unfriending and unfollowing to become a major phenomenon, as more people become overwhelmed with social information. I know just what that feels like, because a friend unfollowed me on Twitter recently for that exact reason. Read more »
Celebrities can cash in big time if a company uses their image without permission. But what happens if Facebook displays pictures of its use… Read more at paidContent »
Facebook said Friday it will shut down Beluga, the social text messaging service the company acquired in March 2011. It’s not an unexpected move: GigaOM first reported that Beluga’s future was up in the air in August, when Facebook debuted the Facebook Messenger mobile app. Read more »
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 »
Facebook officially announced the data center that it’s building in the chilly climate of Lulea, Sweden, and it’s going to be powered “primarily from renewables.” No, not solar or wind but hydropower (water and dams), which is still the cheapest kind of clean power. Read more »
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 center servers. Read more »
John Desmarais is famous in patent law circles for obtaining a $1.5 billion verdict against Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) in 2007 and, more recentl… Read more at paidContent »
Normally, if you ask Siri to tweet for you, it’ll say it can’t help with Twitter. If you ask about Facebook, you’ll get even less of a response. However, using both these social networks’ SMS features, you can get Siri to update Twitter and Facebook indirectly. 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: utility. Read more »
Apple has been laying plans for a solar farm next to its massive data center in Maiden, N.C., according to The Charlotte Observer. The solar project will reportedly be built across the street from its $1 billion data center that will partly serve Apple’s iCloud. Read more »
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 in. 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 »
Last Tuesday marked the premiere of two very different web series — a teen-skewing action comedy produced by a major studio and an independent sci-fi thriller — with one major similarity: They both chose to debut exclusively on Facebook. Could this be the new normal for web content? Read more »
When Tim Berners-Lee invited newsgroup users to the World Wide Web with the invitation “collaborators welcome,” he never could have expected how completely that concept would fundamentally transform work. Here, Huddle’s Andy McLoughlin shows the timeline of that transformation. Read more »
Five lawyers have already parted ways with Paul Ceglia, the man who claims he obtained control of Facebook for $1,000 in 2003. A sixth lawye… Read more at paidContent »
Don’t hold your breath waiting for Facebook’s new Timeline, the feature that will replace user profiles with a chronological digital scrapbo… Read more at paidContent »
Tech companies so far have stumbled when it comes to getting people to be mindful of their energy use and conserve. But startup Changers thinks it’s come up with a better idea: sell mobile solar chargers and create a social networking around energy credits and shopping. Read more »
Facebook’s launch of its mobile applications platform has been an exercise in diplomacy. It plays nice with the iOS ecosystem, pointing peop… Read more at paidContent »
Facebook Messenger has been around for a while now, and on Wednesday it got an update that introduces new features that could make it a more compelling competitor for other group messaging services. It also borrows a trick or two from recent Facebook web updates. 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 both. Read more »
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 »
Facebook, energy software startup Opower, and the NRDC plan to launch a Facebook social energy application next year that they think could be “the world’s largest social energy community.” Read more »
In today’s new universe of video content, consumers need more than a five-button remote to effectively navigate the thousands of choices available. Fortunately, the same technology that has made it possible to create so many offerings can also provide the intelligence to help us find what we want to watch. Though it’s not clear which of the new approaches will win, services from Microsoft, Google, Apple, Roku and others are leading the way towards enormous rewards when it comes to the new era of TV interfaces. Additional companies mentioned in this report include Rovi, Technicolor and Hulu. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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 »
Over the past couple years, Facebok has released details on a number of its internal efforts to automate and simplify the management of its massive infrastructure. As reliance on web applications and cloud services become more common, Facebook’s tools and technologies could be a cash cow. Read more »
