Facebook

Say goodbye to those messages on Facebook asking you to send your friends a gift on their birthdays. A year ago, Facebook killed off the part of its Gifts service that allowed users to order physical presents through the social network. Now, the company says it is shutting down the remainder of the Gifts business, Continue Reading →

Over the next few days, Facebook will stop allowing messaging in its main iPhone and Android apps, and force all their users around the world to download its standalone Messenger app. Facebook first started requiring users in Europe to use Messenger back in April, but after seeing “positive results” in terms of engagement, its rolling Continue Reading →

Mark Zuckerberg must be looking to Asia for inspiration for the kind of platform Facebook Messenger could become. Here’s one idea: An integration with popular car-hailing service Uber that would be beneficial to both companies and, presumably, their users. Such a deal could be a first step in Facebook’s goal of turning the Messenger app Continue Reading →

So you’re on Facebook, skimming pictures of your friends’ kids* and clicking on viral content built specifically to be skimmed on Facebook, and you find something you’d actually like to see again. How can you do that? It seems odd that Facebook hasn’t offered a solution for this one before, but now they have: The Continue Reading →

There’s a new internet retailer on the world’s smartphones, tablets, and PCs. It’s called Facebook. Last week, Mark Zuckerberg and company started testing a “Buy” button inside the News Feed posts and ads that turn up on the world’s most popular social network, letting users instantly pay for goods and services from other merchants without Continue Reading →

Facebook is try out letting you pay for ecommerce purchases from other businesses without leaving its site or app. For now it won’t be charging the few small and medium-sized businesses in the US to test this new Buy button on their News Feed Pages posts and ads. When I asked if Facebook would be Continue Reading →

  The Internet Association, a trade group composed of some of the biggest tech companies in the world, has filed comment with the FCC asking it to intervene in the conflict over payments being demanded by big ISPs. According to a report in The Hill, companies like Comcast and Verizon are charging Netflix and others Continue Reading →

Both Twitter and Facebook say they’ve hit new usage records thanks to Sunday’s World Cup Final. Facebook reveals that 88 million people left more than 280 million posts, comments, and likes about the Germany vs. Argentina game, surpassing the previous engagement record for a single sporting event set during Superbowl XLVII (245 million interactions). The Continue Reading →

If you’re worried about Big Brother and computerized facial recognition, this summer has given you plenty of reason to be scared. Law enforcement has been toying with facial recognition for a while, but the FBI is getting set to deploy its own system, called Next Generation Identification (NGI for short), planned to be fully operational Continue Reading →

It’s a scene that will be familiar to many: after hours of dancing, synchronized teeth grinding, and hugs, your new best friend disappears into the night, never to be seen again. At Belgium’s Tomorrowland music festival, a new wristband may make such predicaments a thing of the past. Tomorrowland’s organizers have transformed the traditional festival Continue Reading →