If you’ve ever engaged in a bit of back-and-forth with another Twitter user and you realized you needed to take the conversation off of everyone else’s timeline, you may have had to resort to multiple direct messages, e-mail, Skype, or any number of alternative communication methods. Even the dreaded “telephone” you’ve seen in the …
Social Networking
Facebook Boston? Zuckerberg Recruits Harvard, MIT Students
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg returned to his alma mater—Harvard—today on a recruiting swing for the world’s most popular social network. He made another trip to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well. I caught the (very) brief press conference at MIT, where Zuckerberg only had time to answer a few questions.
The …
Number of the Day: 5,000,000
According to a report by the Associated Press, the Central Intelligence Agency is monitoring up to five million tweets a day. For those concerned about the amount of intelligence community snooping of supposedly free communication, there is an upside in that that’s less than three percent of the over 200 million tweets posted each day by …
Google Can Now Index Your Comments Made Through Facebook
I know that you, fair Techland readers, are always civil in the comments section. Those who aren’t might want to think twice about saying something nasty, as Googlebots (a.k.a. Google’s infamous web spiders) can now index website comments from engines like Facebook, Livefyre and Disqus.
Before, the fact that those commenting engines …
How to Get Your Underage Kid on Facebook: Just Lie!
Hey parents, did you know Facebook has an age limit, or don’t you care? Turns out it’s the latter for most of you: Facebook sets the minimum age threshold at 13, a point I, too, was ignorant of until this study popped up, indicating that virtually all parents of underage kids that sign into Facebook on the sly are aware of and in fact …
If Zuck Had a Time Machine, Facebook May Have Stayed in Boston
In an interview with Startup School’s Jessica Livingston this weekend, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that had he known what he knows now, he may have kept Facebook in Boston instead of moving out to Silicon Valley. The entire interview can be found here—the part with Zuckerberg starts near the 43-minute mark, and the …
Facebook Announces New ‘Trusted Friends’ Security Feature
Now you can get back into your Facebook account with a little help from your friends: Facebook just announced a new feature called Trusted Friends, which uses—surprise, surprise—your social network to log you back in if you forget your password.
This is how it works: First, you pick five Facebook friends you trust. If you get …
Chinese Microblogging Site Bans ‘Occupy’ Search Terms
Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo—said to resemble the lovechild of Facebook and Twitter—is reportedly filtering out search results containing the word “occupy” when paired with the names of various places.
China Digital Times (CDT) reports:
“As the Occupy Wall Street movement goes global, China’s call for calm observation
…
25 Facebook Profiles You Should Subscribe to Right Now
Facebook’s new subscribe feature has been live for a few weeks. Take a look as we honor our favorites from Facebook, from the savvy digitalists to the up-and-coming social scamps.
Google+ Will Soon Offer Pseudonyms, Anonymity
Time for the fake Lady Gagas to come out of the wood work. At a Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and SVP of Social Business Vic Gundotra dropped the news that it’s okay to have “other forms of identity” on Google+.
Beyond that, they’re also getting branding pages ready, a long awaited-feature …
Does Facebook Make Your Brain Bigger?
How social you are on social networks may depend on the size of your brain, according to new research. Or, at least, the size of your superior temporal sulcus, middle temporal gyrus, entorhinal cortex and amygdalae.
The research, from University College in London, discovered that those who are more social in general tend to have …
PSA: Starbucks Is NOT Giving Out $50 Gift Cards on Facebook
Anatomy of a Facebook scam: “Like” some product and you’ll get it for free—after handing over some sensitive personal information about yourself. The latest round includes “free” gift cards to Tim Hortons and Starbucks.
The $25 gift cards to Tim Hortons may be somewhat believable, though that’s still a lot of money for a coffee …