Technology News: Social Networking

Google Buzz Bridges Social Media and Gmail
February 09, 2010

Google has certainly generated more than its share of buzz regarding its plans to get deeper into social media. On Tuesday, the search giant revealed those plans: Google Buzz, which takes a big step into Facebook and Twitter territory while keeping one foot firmly planted on its Gmail foundation.

Facebook's Virtual World War II Memorials
February 07, 2010

Henio Zytomirski's Facebook profile picture stands out from most. The grinning 6-year-old is captured in black and white and poses in an old-fashioned buttoned-up shirt and shorts. The photograph, shot in 1939, is probably the last taken of him before he was murdered in the Holocaust.

For Privacy Advocates, Facebook's 'Next Best Thing' Doesn't Cut It
February 06, 2010

Just over two years ago now, Facebook began deploying a behavioral tracking service it called "Beacon," which automatically enabled the tracking of Facebook users' behavior but shared that data with advertising partners. It wasn't an "opt-in" service by anyone's definition, and after Facebook took down most of the service, customers filed a class-action suit against the social network.

Twitter Smells a Password-Snatching Rat
February 03, 2010

Twitter users have come under attack from scammers once again, and the microblogging site has asked several users to reset their passwords. This latest attempt came through torrent file-sharing sites that contained hidden security exploits and backdoors. Opinion is divided as to whether these security holes were the result of bad coding or were deliberately created so the coder could later activate them.

Facebook: A Tempting Danger Zone for Businesses
February 02, 2010

Social networking sites are a threat to online security, and Facebook is the worst offender, a report from Sophos states. The number of businesses hit by malware and spam attacks through social networks rose by 70 percent in 2009, the report found. More than 72 percent of businesses believe employees' behavior on social networking sites could endanger security.

'FarmVille' Provides a Sugar-Coated Taste of the Ag Biz
January 31, 2010

Even while calling Chicago home, Laura Hawkins Grimes is a country bumpkin. Her scenic rural spread has three dairy farms, two ponds and a log cabin, all skirted by a white picket fence as scarecrows stand sentry over her blackberries. The best part is the 40-year-old sex therapist never has to leave her computer to tend to it all.

Google Stamps Social Search With Beta Status
January 28, 2010

Google promoted its Social Search experiment to beta status on Wednesday. Social Search adds information and images from users' public pages to the results of online searches conducted by members of their social network. Users need a Google profile to get results from Social Search.

The Golden Age of Marketing
January 27, 2010

One of the reasons that sustainability is such a big issue for all of us is the way the marketplace has shaped up in the last few years. A telltale sign is the initial public offering market. The once-vibrant activity of bringing new companies to the stock markets has shriveled up, and with it you have a graphic description of a relative lack of innovation in the economy.

Is the Ball in Chinese Netizens' Court?
January 25, 2010

The Chinese government issued a series of statements defending the country's Internet censorship policies and accusing the U.S. of having a "double standard" when it comes to online surveillance. The comments, made through the state news agency Xinhua, were in part a reaction to statements made by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton last week on the topic of Internet freedom.

The Rise of Digital Maoism
January 22, 2010

One might guess that a computer scientist who is touted as a pioneer of virtual reality would be a fan of that whole social media thing. After all, Jaron Lanier works as a genius-in-residence of sorts at Microsoft, which is one of several big companies pushing cloud computing, the technological innovation that's brought a lot of Web 2.0 companies to life.

Creepy Ways Your Social Media Data Can Be Used
January 21, 2010

People who use social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are not known for their reticence -- many put just about any personal information imaginable out there. The risks to such openness are clear -- from inviting tailored phishing attacks to appalling potential employers with one's late-night party habits -- but many users who are tech-savvy appear willing to brave them.

Tech Volunteers Build New Tools to Aid Haiti Relief Efforts
January 20, 2010

Hundreds of tech volunteers spurred to action by Haiti's killer quake are adding a new dimension to disaster relief, developing new tools and services for first responders and the public in an unprecedented effort. "It really is amazing the change in the way crisis response can be done now," said Noel Dickover, a Washington, D.C.-based organizer of the CrisisCamp tech volunteer movement.

The Accidental Hacker
January 17, 2010

A Georgia mother and her two daughters logged onto Facebook from mobile phones last weekend and wound up in a startling place: Strangers' accounts with full access to troves of private information. The glitch -- the result of a routing problem at the family's wireless carrier, AT&T -- revealed a little known security flaw with far-reaching implications for everyone on the Internet, not just Facebook users.

Google to China: Tear Down This Wall
January 15, 2010

For lots of U.S. Internet companies, doing business in China is virtually a no-brainer -- the market opens up well over a billion new potential customers. The only downside is the Chinese government's pet peeve regarding public dissent. It sponsors what has to be the biggest censorship operation on the planet.

The Bane of Technology Analysts Is ... Technology?
January 15, 2010

In 13 years of covering technology, I've evolved into the journalistic equivalent of Blanche DuBois; I've always depended on the kindness of analysts. Whether they were securities analysts working for the big Wall Street firms or technology analysts toiling for the major research companies targeting CIOs and IT-types, I've benefited from their work.

Facebook Partners With McAfee to Chase Out the Rats It Let In
January 13, 2010

Facebook has partnered with McAfee to improve the social network's security measures. The arrangement will have McAfee remotely clean up Facebook subscribers' PCs if the social networking site detects that the computer is infected. These subscribers will also see an ad for a six-month free subscription to McAfee's Internet Security Suite software.