Facebook

Facebook has made a big point over the years of having real identities for its users, but it looks like that requirement is soon going to disappear, and users will able to use made-up names for more anonymity. Call it the Snapchat effect. According to a profile of Mark Zuckerberg published on Thursday in BusinessWeek Continue Reading →

As has been rumored for some time now, Facebook on Thursday announced a new iOS app called Paper that uses a newspaper metaphor as a way of aggregating content from the social network, complete with topic-based sections and content selected in part by human editors. For traditional publishers — who already see the giant social Continue Reading →

Over the last month or so, a few keen-eyed Android users may have been startled by some peculiar permission requests when they tried to update their Facebook app. One request asks to “read your text messages (SMS or MMS).” That’s not exactly the kind of language users are likely to find reassuring, especially after recent Continue Reading →

Barely a week goes by without Facebook facing one crisis or another, according to the media — usually relating to the fact that US teenagers are using other services more regularly. Most recently, boffins at Princeton used data to suggest 80 percent of users will leave Facebook by 2017. Facebook then humorously debunked that by Continue Reading →

Pour one out for Facebook, which in a few short years may become a shell of its current, blue-bordered self. According to a new study out of Princeton’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Facebook will see a dramatic drop in usage rates before the end of the decade, losing 80% of its peak user Continue Reading →

Facebook has just announced a slight tweak to the Newsfeed algorithm. The newest version of the Newsfeed will show fewer text-based status updates from Pages, but will serve more text-based status updates from users. The good news for Pages administrators is that Facebook will probably be distributing more status updates from Pages that are media- Continue Reading →

Following tests of Twitter-style Trending Topics on the web and mobile in August, Facebook on Thursday officially launches a redesigned “Trending” section on its web homepage’s sidebar in the US, UK, Canada, India and Australia. The richer design shows personalized lists of the most mentioned words and phrases of the moment with short explanations of Continue Reading →

After years of experimentation, cancellations and redesigns, Facebook looks like it is finally going to launch in the coming weeks a news reading service built for mobile devices. The product is known as “Paper,” according to a source familiar with the matter, and it is similar to Flipboard, a buzzy mobile-focused news reading app. Paper Continue Reading →

Link-sharing service Branch and sister service Potluck have agreed to be acquired by Facebook for around $15 million, sources familiar with the deal told The Verge. Branch CEO Josh Miller broke the news in a Facebook post this morning, but didn’t disclose a price. Branch’s team of nine will remain in New York, Miller says, Continue Reading →

More lending companies are mining Facebook, Twitter and other social-media data to help determine a borrower’s creditworthiness or identity, a trend that is raising concerns among consumer groups and regulators. Lending companies—some of which are backed with venture funding from Google Ventures, the venture-capital arm of Google Inc., and Accel Partners, an early Facebook Inc. Continue Reading →