Facebook goes back to college, releases Groups for Schools

April 11, 2012 1:32 PM Jennifer Van Grove
Jennifer Van Grove

It’s back to school time for the world’s largest social network.

Partially returning to its roots as a locked-down site just for college kids, Facebook has launched Groups for Schools, or university-centric Facebook communities restricted to active faculty and students …

Snatchly, the Pinterest for porn, signs up 15K users in less than 2 months

March 30, 2012 10:00 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Editor's Pick

Social media darling Pinterest is dominated by female users. Men, for the most part, haven’t yet been attracted to the concept of “pinning” pictures they like and sharing them. But Snatchly, a recently launched Pinterest imitator, might have found a …

Secrets of Facebook’s success: Identity

March 27, 2012 2:18 PM Rakesh Agrawal
Rakesh Agrawal

Identity is important to everyone, but many startups get it wrong. Getting identity right has been one of the main keys to Facebook’s success.

As Facebook gets ready for its monster IPO, which will likely value the company at more …

The President now pinning on Pinterest

March 27, 2012 12:08 PM Jennifer Van Grove
Jennifer Van Grove

Hello, Pinterest? The President is calling.

Taking inspiration from the legions of web denizens (and potential voters) already hip to the pinning craze, U.S. President Barack Obama is now sharing his collection of favorite politically themed things and family recipes …

34 iOS app makers at center of congressional inquiry on data collection practices

March 22, 2012 10:56 AM Jennifer Van Grove
Jennifer Van Grove

Not satisfied with Apple’s updated privacy policies, members of a congressional subcommittee dedicated to consumer protection have gone directly to the makers of social iOS applications and are demanding answers on how these apps access personal data.

G.K. Butterfield and …

Facebook tries to stop unfriending fad with new alternative

March 21, 2012 3:51 PM Jennifer Van Grove
Jennifer Van Grove

All Facebook friends are not created equal, and today the world’s most popular social network is giving its members a more socially acceptable way to separate more of the folks they maybe sort of like from those they actually care …

Pinterest grew 52% to 17.8M unique visitors in February

March 21, 2012 12:37 PM Jennifer Van Grove
Jennifer Van Grove

Love was most certainly in the air for digital inspiration board site Pinterest during the month of February.

The newly crowned princess of the Internet was the object of everyone’s attention and saw more than 17.8 million unique visitors in …

Tim Cook reportedly questioned Path CEO after iPhone privacy fiasco

March 16, 2012 11:54 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

After social network Path was caught red-handed for copying personal data from people’s iPhones, CEO Dave Morin apologized for the major screw up and moved on. But before the apology came, Morin was reportedly dragged into Apple CEO Tim Cook’s …

New Pinterest profile pages are now live

March 16, 2012 8:04 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Hot-as-heck startup Pinterest has just introduced brand-new profile pages, its first major design change since its major rise in popularity over the last six months.

Pinterest launched in 2010, but recently it has seen astronomical growth and counts as one …

Pinterest iPad app and new profile pages in the works

March 14, 2012 7:36 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Pin-board social network Pinterest will soon launch new profile pages and an iPad app, important steps that will help the company solidify its status as 2012′s hottest startup.

Pinterest launched in 2010, but in the past six months it has …

Biologic offers strangest way yet to browse social networks on iPad

March 8, 2012 5:06 PM Jennifer Van Grove
Jennifer Van Grove

Bored with the mundane, linear way of reading status updates? Fire up the iPad and load Biologic, a brand new app for browsing social network feeds.

Biologic, which comes from the creative minds at data science startup Bloom Studio, is …

Yammer closes $85M round, new desktop apps planned

February 29, 2012 12:00 PM Tom Cheredar
Tom Cheredar

Business-focused social network Yammer has closed a new $85 million round of funding, the company announced today.

The news confirms earlier reports that Yammer was seeking to raise $50 million and had interest from investors for up to $100 million.…

Ghost town watch: People spend more time monthly on MySpace than Google+

February 28, 2012 8:55 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

The average Google+ user only spends an average of three minutes per month on the social network, while MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter are all seeing more time spent per user each month, according to research firm comScore.

In a scathing …

3 hot security startups to watch

February 27, 2012 6:49 PM Meghan Kelly
Meghan Kelly

Three security startups caught our eye at the RSA Conference here in San Francisco today. Impermium, Pindrop Security, and MokaFive all showed off their technology as part of the conference’s Innovation Sandbox competition for startups.

10 startups got the chance …

Unfriending and private profiles are the new trends on social networks

February 25, 2012 3:05 PM Jennifer Van Grove
Jennifer Van Grove

A growing percentage of people are wising up to the consequences of willy-nilly friending and status update-posting.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project, which surveyed 2,277 adults 18 and over, determined that two-thirds of people online are using social …

Americans spend 100K years on Facebook each month (infographic)

February 17, 2012 12:43 PM Jennifer Van Grove
Jennifer Van Grove

From posting status updates to consuming news, the collective time Americans spend on Facebook amounts to more than 100,000 years each month.

The eye-popping figure comes by way of statistics portal Statista. The company pulled data from comScore, Compete, and …

By surrendering to Facebook, MySpace was able to find a pulse. Adds 1M new users

February 13, 2012 8:00 AM Ben Popper
Ben Popper

It’s alive! MySpace, once the king of the social networking space, has been bleeding users for years.  Now it’s set to report a million new users have signed up since December, says the New York Times. (Maybe new investor Justin …

HootSuite adds support for Digg, Trendspottr, and InboxQ

February 1, 2012 4:58 PM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

Popular social networking management service HootSuite announced Wednesday it has added support for more social apps and opened its Engagement API.

Digg, Trendspottr, and InboxQ have joined the HootSuite App Directory; a collection of apps and social media sites that …

Facebook said to be filing $5B IPO, Morgan Stanley selected to take lead

January 31, 2012 2:59 PM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Social network king Facebook will likely file its first papers with regulators on Wednesday morning for a $5 billion initial public offering, “sources close to the deal” have told Reuters subsidiary IFR.

We heard at the end of last week …

Larry Page wasn’t lying about the Google+ engagement numbers

January 21, 2012 12:04 PM Ben Popper
Ben Popper

Google+ is a social network that is being built backwards. Hundreds of millions of people rely on Google, but not its social network. That makes things awkward in a lot of ways, and certainly Google’s efforts to find a foothold …