Social Media

Facebook on Monday announced its acquisition of Branch, which it plans to use in a new unit or product called "Facebook Conversations." Branch's model mimics an Internet forum in that the users create "branches" to discuss topics. Links are shared and friends are invited to participate. Participants...

Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg are selling close to 70 million shares of Class A common stock, which carries one vote per share, in advance of the company's being listed on the S&P 500 index. Facebook will use its proceeds from the sale of 27 million shares for working capital and other genera...

Facebook has announced a new feature that allows users to donate money to nonprofit organizations through the site, a move designed to help raise both funds and global awareness for the charitable causes. Facebook was inspired to launch the donation feature following last month's successful partners...

Twitter reportedly is testing Nearby, a new timeline feature for its mobile app that displays tweets from people who are geographically close. Both the users viewing the tweets and those tweeting must have their location tagging option enabled for the feature to work. The Nearby service will display...

Attorneys for Snapchat executives Evan Spiegel and Robert Murphy have applied to the California court for a restraining order and order to show cause against cofounder Reggie Brown, who is currently in litigation with the company over his ouster. The restraining order would keep Brown from publicizi...

The furor around popular technology startups shows no sign of letting up. The latest big-money rumor centers on Snapchat, the company behind the eponymous 2-year-old smartphone messaging app that has yet to earn a cent. Facebook reportedly made an all-cash $3 billion offer in recent weeks, but Snapc...

Facebook has reportedly joined the GSM Association, making plain its heightened interest in mobile and wireless. GSMA is a group made up of mobile operators and other technology companies interested in standardizing and promoting the GSM cellular system. Nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators ar...

A class action asserting that LinkedIn harvests and sells users' email addresses was brought in September 2013. More than a month after the lawsuit was filed, LinkedIn still uses the same approach to collect email addresses and personal information -- that is, it encourages users to "sync your conta...

Google on Monday introduced a new social media feature called Helpouts, a real-time channel that's designed to let businesses and individuals give and get help over live video. Powered by Google's Hangouts video chat platform, Helpouts can be used to offer instruction in a wide range of areas, from ...

Facebook on Wednesday reported a rise in third-quarter profit and growth in mobile ad revenue. It posted total revenue of $2.02 billion, a 60 percent jump from the $1.26 billion it reported in the year-ago quarter. Advertising accounted for $1.8 billion of that revenue. Facebook now has 1.19 billion...

Instagram on Thursday gave users a taste of what its upcoming sponsored photos and videos will look like. Instagram has assured users that the posts will feel natural and not compromise the network's aesthetics. The photos and videos will appear in the same format as an ordinary Instagram Post, with...

LinkedIn on Wednesday announced three new mobile apps designed to increase users' productivity and mobile reach. First and foremost, LinkedIn Intro is a brand-new mobile app for iPhone Mail that gives users a preview of the credentials of people who send them email from popular email accounts. With ...

Facebook has introduced Stories to Share, a tool to help media outlets -- from online publications to TV broadcasters to music startups -- maximize value. Appearing in the media panel of a publisher's Facebook page, Stories to Share makes recommendations based on the number of shares a post has rece...

Facebook on Monday announced it was acquiring Onavo, a 3-year-old company that has developed a data compression technology for smartphones, among other things. Based in Israel, Onavo will give Facebook a foothold in a market known for its advanced tech talent base. Onavo's Tel-Aviv office will becom...

Google has announced changes to its Terms of Service that will take effect Nov. 13. In short, users' profile names and photos will be served up together with content such as reviews they share, ads they +1, comments they post, or who and what they follow. Only people users choose to share content w...