Metacafe Buys Action Sports Video Site Go211
Entertainment-focused video site Metacafe has made a small acquisition, buying up Action Sports, which is behind action sports community Go2… Read more »
Bebo Adds Xbox Co-Founder Bachus As Chief Product Officer
Bebo has hired Kevin Bachus, who is best known as a co-founder of the Xbox, as its chief product officer. New owner Criterion Capital Partne… Read more »
Embattled Digg Picks An Amazon Executive As CEO
Digg, which has been in tumult since the departure of long-time CEO Jay Adelson in April, is turning to an Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) executive to… Read more »
MySpace Lets Users Sync Profiles With Facebook
photo: AP Images
Almost a year after reports first came out that Facebook and MySpace (NSDQ: NWS) were working on a deal that would let MySpace users share c… Read more »
Coming Soon: Glu’s Strategy For Revamping Its Mobile Games Business
photo: Mobile Entertainment
Eight months ago, Niccolo de Masi took over the helm at Glu Mobile (NSDQ: GLUU) — and just now — we are about to see the results of his la… Read more »
Facebook Investor Thiel Backs A New College-Only Social Network
PayPal co-founder (and early Facebook investor) Peter Thiel is backing a new social network, which restricts membership to students with ver… Read more »
Confirmed: Facebook Buys ‘Real-Time’ Startup Hot Potato
photo: Hot Potato
Facebook has confirmed that it has bought up Hot Potato, a startup behind a service that lets users communicate about activities they are do… Read more »
New Friendster Owner Plans To Remake Site Around Games
photo: Flickr / enda_001
Friendster, the long-time social networking site, which was purchased by Asian payment company MOL Global late last year, is moving away fro… Read more »
Presentation Sharing Site SlideShare Adds A Paid Option
photo: Corbis
SlideShare, the popular presentation sharing site backed by Mark Cuban, among other big names, has launched a paid version, providing it wit… Read more »
Twitter Adds Its Own Sharing Button
Twitter is launching a Tweet button that publishers will be able to add to their sites so visitors can share content on the social net. The… Read more »
Facebook Has One In Six UK Page Views, But Is It Reaching Saturation Point?
Facebook is the second most visited website in the UK: in July it accounted for 7.14% of all UK Internet visits and over half (54.48%) of al… Read more »
United Online Plans To Remake Classmates.com As A ‘Nostalgia Content’ Site
photo: Flickr / torbkhopper
United Online (NSDQ: UNTD), which is trying to turn around its struggling Classmates.com social network, is planning a major revamp of the s… Read more »
Facebook Takes Over Patents From Friendster
photo: Flickr / enda_001
About that deal Facebook announced last month with MOL Global to have the Friendster parent distribute Facebook Credits through its own netw… Read more »
Google Buys Slide In Social Networking Push
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is buying social app maker Slide, as part of its soon-to-come new entry into the social networking/social games space. S… Read more »
Google To Halt Development Of Google Wave, Citing Low Adoption
photo: Corbis
Add Wave to Lively, Jaiku, Dodegball, Mashup, Nexus One and Notebook — all products that Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has given up on. The company,… Read more »
LinkedIn Buys Personalization Startup mSpoke
photo: Flickr/tychay
LinkedIn is buying up personalization technology startup mSpoke in what is its first acquisition ever. MSpoke’s customers include publishers… Read more »
Viacom Offloads Gaming Community Xfire To Titan Gaming
Viacom (NYSE: VIA), which purchased online gamer community Xfire for $102 million four years ago, is offloading the business to Titan Gaming… Read more »
Twitter Makes It Easier To Find People To Follow
photo: Flickr / carrotcreative
Twitter’s latest move to keep users engaged on its site: a new tool that suggests other members users might want to follow “based on several… Read more »
Confirmed: Zynga Raises $150 Million From Softbank
Zynga is confirming this evening that it has indeed raised $150 million in funding from Japanese internet and telecom firm Softbank. Reports… Read more »
Facebook (Finally) Debuts Its Q&A Service
photo: Corbis
Facebook, which has been testing a new feature that lets users pose questions to the entire Facebook community and answer others, is finally… Read more »
News Corp.’s IGN Launches A Gamer-Focused Social Network
IGN, the News Corp.-owned video game site, is launching a gamer-focused social network called My IGN. On the social network, which launched… Read more »
Disney Buys Playdom For Up To $763.2 Million
Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) is making a big move into social games, with the purchase of fast-growing social game developer Playdom for up to $7… Read more »
Triangulate Gets Cash From Playdom Chairman, Others For Facebook Dating App
Triangulate, a startup trying to build an online dating business on Facebook, has raised $750,000 from Trinity Ventures and Playdom Chairman… Read more »
RockYou Is Latest Developer To Sign On To Facebook Credits
photo: Corbis / Brooks Kraft
Facebook has gotten another top app developer to agree to use its Facebook Credits payment system. The latest to do so is RockYou, the sixth… Read more »
It’s Official: Facebook Now Has 500 Million Users
photo: Facebook
Facebook says it officially now has 500 million users, a milestone that the company had been expected to hit for months. The timing of the a… Read more »
Jive Software Raises $30 Million From Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia
Fast-growing Jive Software, which provides social networking tools that companies use to communicate internally and to build online communit… Read more »
NBC Universal’s Peacock Equity Backs In-Game Voice Service Vivox
NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) and GE Capital joint venture Peacock Equity is the latest investor to back Vivox, which powers voice chat in online… Read more »
Social Network Hi5 Raises $14 Million
More than a year after reportedly being forced to lay off half of its staff because it was unable to raise new cash, social network Hi5 has… Read more »
Facebook Puts Virtual Currency Into Drive
photo: Corbis
Facebook, which had been oh-so-very slowly rolling out its Facebook Credits payment system, now seems intent on speeding that process up. Tw… Read more »
Facebook Buys Travel Review Site Nextstop
photo: Corbis / Brooks Kraft
Facebook is buying Nextstop, a travel review site launched a year ago by two high-profile Google (NSDQ: GOOG) alums. When we profiled the st… Read more »
Personal Finance Site Wesabe Closes Down
photo: Corbis
Personal finance site Wesabe is shutting down, after months of operating on a “shoestring budget.” In a blog post, CEO Marc Hedlund says tha… Read more »
CrowdStar To Use Facebook
CrowdStar, the big social game developer, says it will use Facebook’s virtual currency system in all of its games under a “five-year strateg… Read more »
LinkedIn Plans Acquisitions To Expand Mobile Access
photo: Flickr/tychay
LinkedIn, the professional networking site, plans to make acquisitions to expand into mobile. The site Read more »
Facebook Revenue Estimates Go Up, Up, Up
photo: Corbis
The latest guess in what has become a favorite Silicon Valley parlor game: Reuters cites sources who say Facebook’s 2009 revenue was between… Read more »
DeNa Fires Back At Zynga With A $27.5 Million Social Gaming Venture Fund
Expect even more deal activity in the social gaming sector. DeNa, one of Japan’s biggest social gaming players, is launching a new $27.5 mil… Read more »
ReachLocal Starts Expansion With Launch Of Local Business Site Bizzy
ReachLocal, which went public just a month ago, is introducing a new site called Bizzy, which local businesses can use to communicate with t… Read more »
Gannett Looks Outside To Create Community Sites Around Local TV Stations
Gannett (NYSE: GCI) is continuing to build local community sites, but now, it’s concentrating on its broadcast side in addition to its newsp… Read more »
Twitter Adds More Geo Data To Tweets
photo: US Geological Survey / Corbis
Twitter is zeroing in with its location plans. The company says in a blog post that users will now be able to tag their tweets as coming fro… Read more »
Social Games Studio Mytopia Sold To Online Gambling Firm For $18 Million
The social games deal-making rush is now extending to online gambling; 888 Holdings is buying up social gaming studio Mytopia for $18 millio… Read more »
CrowdGather Buys Digital Ad Agency Adisn For $5.5 Million
photo: Corbis
Community forums owner CrowdGather has purchased digital ad agency Adisn for $5.5 million in stock. CrowdGather is known for its acquisitve… Read more »
