Twitter To Take More Control Over Link Shortening
photo: Flickr / carrotcreative
Twitter will soon automatically shorten all links shared on its service — a move that may once again pit it against startups that have buil… Read more »
Wowio Buys Webcomics Community DrunkDuck
Electronic book store WOWIO has followed up its purchase last week of comics social networking site WEvolt by buying up another webcomics co… Read more »
RockYou Gets $10 Million For Asia Expansion
RockYou, the big social networking app developer, has raised $10 million more in funding from SoftBank, which it says it will use to expand… Read more »
Facebook Buys Web ‘Conversation’ Startup ShareGrove
Facebook has made another small acquisition, buying up ShareGrove, a startup which lets users start private conversations with groups. With… Read more »
Facebook Unveils Its New Simpler Privacy Controls
photo: Flickr
As promised, Facebook is rolling out a new, much simpler way for users to control their privacy settings. With one control, users will now b… Read more »
Yahoo Buys Indonesian Location-Based Social Network Koprol
No FourSquare deal (at least yet) — but Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) has purchased Koprol, a location-based social network, which has attracted a fo… Read more »
Facebook’s Zuckerberg: “We Have Heard The Feedback”
photo: AP Images
Facebook is finally relenting in response to more than a month of non-stop criticism about its approach to user privacy. In a Washington Pos… Read more »
New Privacy Charges Leveled At Facebook
photo: Corbis
The latest charge leveled against Facebook, which is facing a torrent of criticism over its privacy practices: The WSJ reports that the soci… Read more »
Interview: iVillage’s Kahn: From Beauty To Pregnancy, To Mobile And Premium
Since NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) acquired iVillage for $600 million four years ago, the women’s content network has tried a variety of ways to… Read more »
Facebook, Zynga Settle Dispute; Announce Five-Year Partnership
Facebook and social games maker Zynga, which had been battling over their relationship, have settled their differences, ensuring that Zynga… Read more »
Group Collab Service Huddle Raises $10.2 Million For U.S. Drive
London-based Huddle, a software-as-a-service team web collaboration tool, says it’s raised million in VC funds to try making an entry to th… Read more »
EU Is The Latest To Criticize Facebook’s Privacy Changes
photo: Corbis
Poor Facebook. It’s in the midst of a very loud uprising by the tech elite over its latest batch of privacy changes — and it’s still being… Read more »
Viral Content Tracker BuzzFeed Raises $8 Million
BuzzFeed, the self-proclaimed tracker of the “web’s obsessions,” has raised $8 million in its second round of funding. The site’s home page… Read more »
A Purchase-Sharing Frenzy? Swipely Raises $7.5 Million
photo: Corbis
At least two startups — and a long list of prominent investors — are now betting that people will happily put aside any privacy concerns i… Read more »
Lithium Technologies Buys Social Media Monitor Scout Labs
photo: Corbis
Lithium Technologies, which sells white label social networking tools to businesses, has bought up social media monitoring startup Scout Lab… Read more »
NileGuide Buys Travel Q&A Site Localyte
photo: Flickr / JDFG
Even more deal activity in the question and answer website market. Travel review aggregator NileGuide has bought up Localyte, a site that le… Read more »
In Wake Of CEO’s Departure, Digg Cuts 10 Percent Of Staff
Digg, which saw the departure of longtime CEO Jay Adelson a month ago, is now laying off 10 percent of its staff. In an e-mail sent to emplo… Read more »
Paid Personal Finance Site HelloWallet Gets $3.6 Million From Case, Others
HelloWallet, a new paid site designed to help people manage their personal finances, has raised $3.6 million in a first round of funding. Th… Read more »
The Downsides Of Adopting Facebook Connect
Ty Ahmad-Taylor is the founder and CEO of FanFeedr, a real-time personalized sports feed. Previously, he was SVP of Strategy and Product Dev… Read more »
LivingSocial Raises Another $14 Million To Expand Group Buying Sites
Here’s another sign of how much promise investors think there is in the group-buying market: LivingSocial, which runs a group-buying service… Read more »
Match.com’s Dating Stat War Goes Beyond PlentyOfFish
photo: Corbis / Doctor Stock
Match.com has sent letters to several rival dating sites demanding that they stop circulating what the company considers to be false statist… Read more »
Mobile Payment Provider Zong Raises $15 Million Following Spin-Off
Mobile payment provider Zong of Palo Alto, Calif. has spun off from its Swiss parent Echovox and has raised $15 million to help pay for its… Read more »
An Over-Sharing Blunder Follows Blippy’s Big Round
photo: Corbis
Here’s a serious lesson in the dangers of over-sharing: Blippy, the site both loved and vilified for letting users share their latest purcha… Read more »
Viewpoints Buys ‘Green’ Reviews Site Ecoscene
photo: Corbis
Reviews startup Viewpoints has bought up Ecoscene, a site which offers staff-written reviews on eco-friendly products. Members join for free… Read more »
Facebook Takes Its “Like” Button Across The Web
photo: AP Images
Facebook is making it even easier for users to take their Facebook identity with them as they navigate the web. At its developers conference… Read more »
Facebook Stops Serving Its ‘Lite’ Version
photo: Ocean / Corbis
Less than a year after launching a streamlined version of its site, which was designed for new users “looking to start off with a more simpl… Read more »
Ning Cuts 40 Percent Of Staff; Goes All Paid
Looks like the departure exactly a month ago of long-time Ning CEO Gina Bianchini was not as benign as Ning tried to portray it. The build-y… Read more »
The Twitter Stats We’ve Always Wanted To Know
Twitter has always been mum on some key stats about its service — like how many people have actually signed up to use it. But at its Chirp… Read more »
Will Facebook Be Next To Enter The Q&A Market?
photo: Corbis
The Q&A market, which is seemingly getting more crowded by the day, may soon have a new competitor in Facebook. The social network is “testi… Read more »
Twitter Finally Unveils Its Ad Model
After months and months and months of speculation, Twitter is finally unveiling its long-awaited business model. Starting tomorrow, the comp… Read more »
Spark Networks Rebuffs PE Firm’s Bid; Says It’s Open To ‘Strategic Alternatives’
photo: RelaXimages / Corbis
Online dating company Spark Networks has rebuffed a proposal by PE firm Great Hill Partners to buy the company. Great Hill, which already ow… Read more »
More Online Dating Action: Daily Mail Sells Dating Sites To EasyDate
More consolidation in the online dating industry, this time in the U.K.: EasyDate has bought up Allegran — which operates four of the top 1… Read more »
Digg CEO Adelson Resigns
Longtime Digg CEO Jay Adelson is stepping down, saying in a blog post that went live just now that he is “ready to incubate some new busines… Read more »
Playdom Buys Three Melons To Expand Abroad
Social gaming startup Playdom is continuing with its shopping spree, making its fifth investment since raising $43 million in a first round… Read more »
Yelp Co-Founder Stoppelman Invests In Eventbrite
Online events registration service Eventbrite — which already counts YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim and Bebo co-founder Michael Birch among… Read more »
Twitter Tries To Seem More Social With A New Homepage
Twitter — which is still trying to do a better job of making itself accessible to the new Tweeter — is redesigning its home page for the s… Read more »
Former Facebookers Get $11 Million For Q&A Startup
photo: Corbis
Quora, a Q&A startup founded by several early Facebook employees, including former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo, has raised $11 million in a… Read more »
Facebook Tweaks Privacy Policy (Again) To Allow ‘Place’ Sharing
photo: US Geological Survey / Corbis
Facebook is paving the way for its forthcoming location-sharing feature with yet another update to its privacy policy. In a blog post, Faceb… Read more »
Long-Time Plaxo CEO Golub Leaves
Ben Golub, the long-time CEO of Plaxo who oversaw the social networker’s sale to Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) two years ago, is leaving the company… Read more »
Microsoft’s Bing Adds Foursquare To Maps
To add to Microsoft’s growing list of partners in its battle to take on Google (NSDQ: GOOG) in the search market: Hot location startup Fours… Read more »
