Facebook, Social Media News & Practices

In its plan to connect every single person in the world, Facebook drew attention last September when the network announced it would upgrade to a new and improved timeline structure, and subsequently release a series of “frictionless apps,” to enhance overall sharing experience for its club of 800 million. These specialized apps are hybrid tools created specifically for your profile page, enabling unique ways of exposing even more about yourself. From what you eat, where you travel, what you listen to, and where you shop, Facebook has invented an efficient way to broadcast everything to your personal globe, so that at any given moment, you can be tracked. Now that the company maintains no privacy, apparently the rest of us must follow suit.

First it was Apple iAds, then Promoted Tweets. Soon, it will be Facebook mobile ads. Whether this was part of the plan all along or due to a sudden need to monetize its growing mobile base in light of its recent IPO, Facebook ads are rumored to start showing sometime next month. Like anything Facebook does, speculation about what mobile ads means for users, stakeholders and prospective investors abound.

With all the news of Facebook's IPO this week, Google's still-fledgling social service marched over another user milestone as the improvements and other changes in the Google ecosystem keep on coming.

Not sure if you heard, but Facebook went public yesterday. The news, while no surprise to most, quickly became the subject of widespread debate, with everyone from Wall Street analysts to Silicon Valley Porsche dealers considering the financial impact of the decision. Will it be the investment of a lifetime or one to pass over, and furthermore, how much are those fortunate little staff members going to inherit from the trade?

Bringing the live experience even closer to home, MediaPlatform today further broadens its WebCaster software to facilitate for the streaming of live or pre-recorded webcasts on Facebook Fan Pages and SharePoint collaboration sites. For corporations, brands and maybe even random YouTube sensations, the possibilities are endless.

Investors can barely contain their excitement about the latest rumors that Facebook, Inc. might be filing its initial public offering (IPO) as early as this week.  Tech IPOs happen almost every day, so why all the excitement about this one? Facebook’s IPO will be one of the largest in history. It will generate thousands of millionaires from those lucky enough to purchase the stock.

A shot was heard 'round the world this week, as Microsoft, Google, AOL, Yahoo!, and Facebook teamed to lead the fight against email spam scandals. It's news even the least savvy of Internet consumers can understand. Finally, justice for all! Or at least a step in the right direction.

Twitter is eyeing an international expansion, and with this, the company wants to overcome regulatory and political hurdles, particularly from governments that practice online restrictions. As such, in light of the ideal that "the Tweets must flow," Twitter will be imposing a selective country-based censorship, to ensure that Tweets do flow, albeit with some limitation.

For those fed up of skipping between social sites, RockMelt offers all your social activity front-and-center in a highly customizable browser environment. Check out the latest beta with more sharing, interactivity and smarter information displays.

Internet security company Dasient announced in a blog post that it had been acquired by Twitter.

Chinese authorities have recently decided to expand its "online accountability" regulations, with users of microblogging services now required to verify and use their real names. With today's increasing concerns on online censorship and freedom of information around the globe, how will this new regulation affect the growth of social networks and services that thrive on user-generated content?

Facebook announced 60 new apps and invites developers to build more on its Open Graph platform.

Facebook is rumored to be announcing the launch of Open Graph applications in a press event. First announced last September, Open Graph applications make sharing "frictionless."

With all the fuss about tomorrow's Apple education-themed event, its easy to forget that the company's next big launch isn't that far off. Reports suggest that the iPad 3's launch profile could match or beat that of the iPad 2 last year, as Apple aims to stay ahead of Samsung.

Google is on the rack this week for ignoring Twitter from its "plus Your World" expanded search feature and over-focusing on its own Google+. We look at the ramifications of that, a ruckus in Africa and see what else happened in the wide world of the company this week.