Social Networks

This week CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook has reached 1 billion active monthly users. The number is a nice round one for the firm to publicize -- especially in light of the past few rocky months. However, like anything Facebook these days, the announcement was accompanied by a healthy dose of...

LinkedIn took the first step toward opening up its walled garden with the introduction on Tuesday of a feature that lets members follow 150 of the most influential thought leaders on its network. These super-influencers include President Obama, Mitt Romney, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, British...

MySpace is rolling out a sleek, media-centric new version of its social network in an effort to restore some of its Web popularity. MySpace was once one of the hottest online social networks, but it declined with the rise of Facebook and Twitter. MySpace posted a video this week previewing its new l...

Google is poised to climb past Facebook and be this year's top earner in display ad revenue, according to new research from eMarketer. Google is expected to earn $2.31 billion in display ad revenue this year, a 38.5 percent jump from last year, just ahead of Facebook's expected $2.16 billion in earn...

Twitter unveiled a new design for its iPad, iPhone and Android users this week, offering a more streamlined look on its mobile apps and asserting more control over how its mobile users interact with the social network. Twitter's revamped apps are now common across Apple and Android phones. The iPad ...

On Monday, news that Google had purchased Nik Software triggered speculation that the Internet giant was following in Facebook's footsteps. Nik is the maker of the Snapseed photo editing app. Facebook in April purchased Snapseed competitor Instagram for $1 billion, and Monday's announcement was seen...

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended his company Tuesday and outlined plans for growth in the mobile space in his first public appearance following Facebook's botched IPO and stock plunge. Since Facebook's debut on the public market in May, its value has halved and investors have worrie...

Twitter is ahead of its social networking competitor Facebook in mobile advertising revenue, but that lead could reverse given Facebook's recent ad initiatives, according to new research from eMarketer. The study includes a tally of U.S. mobile advertising revenue for major companies including the c...

Twitter is rolling out new ad-targeting capabilities that will allow marketers to identify and send messages to consumers based on their interests or likes. So, a consumer who has indicated an interest in gardening would be shown ads for gardening and outdoor-living products. There are two different...

Google is looking at its enterprise customers with greater integration of Google+ and Google Apps. On Wednesday the search giant introduced a preview of how Google+ features have been optimized for workplace users with specific integration of Google Apps and Gmail. While Google+ hasn't caught on to ...

App.net founder Dalton Caldwell watched the social Web's trajectory with admiration and then dismay over the years. From all accounts, he liked its initial promise. As it morphed into a commercialized, ad-supported ecosystem of products, however, he apparently grew disillusioned. Hence the crowd-fun...

Facebook on Tuesday launched "Bingo & Slots Friendzy" -- a bingo game that uses real money -- exclusively for its members in the UK. As with all of its apps, Facebook is taking 30 percent of the revenue. Facebook has its fingers in numerous revenue-generating pies. To name a few examples, it is ...

Privacy in the cloud may be an illusion, given the known cybersecurity risks, not to mention the laws in the U.S. and around the world that permit government agencies relatively easy access to remote data including data stored in the cloud. Of course, businesses have relied on storing data in the cl...

Facebook on Thursday released its first quarterly earnings report since its monster IPO in May. During the period, Facebook reported revenues of $1.18 billion but couldn't turn a profit, losing $157 million, or eight cents a share. Investors weren't happy with what they saw. The company's stock pric...

Zynga reported second-quarter earnings lower than expected Wednesday, sending its stock sinking as much as 40 percent Thursday morning. The maker of popular social games such as "FarmVille" and "Words With Friends" reported a net loss of more than $22.8 billion, or 3 cents per share. Facebook was pa...