The Social

News Corp. has chosen Groundhog Day for its launch of The Daily, a digital publication designed for tablet devices--and it's chosen New York, not the previously rumored San Francisco, for the February 2 event.

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch will be making the announcement at the event at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Apple Vice President of Internet Services Eddy Cue will join him. This is in contrast to News Corp.'s initial plans to hold the event at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in late January.

A source close to the matter had informed CNET … Read more

A massive banner with the logo of digital content company Demand Media was hanging on the front of the New York Stock Exchange this week to commemorate the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company's initial public offering on Tuesday.

It was the first venture-backed IPO of 2011, and it performed better than expected: Analysts projected an initial price of $14 to $16 per share, which Demand ultimately beat at $17 per share. When markets closed yesterday--Demand's first full day of trading--shares were at $22.65, a jump of one-third.

There had been many skeptics about Demand's success on … Read more

Even the basic driving directions from New York City to IBM Research's headquarters in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., make the whole thing sound like an arm-twisting inconvenience worthy of the difficulty that the city's metro region has had in fostering Silicon Valley-style innovation: "Take the Sprain."

That'd be the Sprain Brook Parkway, a squiggle of highway that reaches up from the northern end of the Bronx into the small towns of Westchester County, which turns into the Taconic Parkway a few minutes before the exit onto Kitchawan Road that leads to IBM's Thomas J. … Read more

Social media has ingrained itself so thoroughly as an instrument of activist organization that it's targeted by many an authoritarian government seeking to quell an uprising. This week, as protests descended upon the Egyptian capital of Cairo, Twitter confirmed that it had been blocked in the North African country. On Wednesday, rumors began to spread that Egypt was trying to block Facebook as well--especially since it appears that a Facebook "event" page had been how many of the protesters found out about the gathering.

Not quite. "We are aware of reports of disruption to service but … Read more

There seems to be a contingent out there that analyzes each of the globe's various political conflicts and attempts to figure out, through plenty of speculation and the occasional Wikipedia look-ups of far-flung sovereignties, which uprising will mark the first true "social media revolution."

A dictator toppled by Twitter or ousted through the efforts of a Facebook group? It's an enticing idea, particularly for those who are in the business of social media and have a personal stake of sorts in tallying each instance of social media's global value making headlines. Twitter punditry this week … Read more

Update at 5:05 p.m. PT: Twitter has confirmed that it has been blocked in Egypt. According to the @TwitterGlobalPR account: "We can confirm that Twitter was blocked in Egypt around 8am PT today. It is impacting both Twitter.com & applications." Also: "We believe that the open exchange of info & views benefits societies & helps governments better connect w/ their people."

As fierce anti-government protests in the Egyptian capital of Cairo began to escalate, word broke out this morning that government forces had blocked access to Twitter's Web site. Twitter users throughout … Read more

Just hours before its 2010 fourth-quarter earnings call, Yahoo has confirmed an NBC Local report that it has laid off about 100 to 150 employees, or 1 percent of its global workforce.

"The personnel changes we are making are part of our ongoing strategy to best position Yahoo for revenue growth and margin expansion and to support our strategy to deliver differentiated products and experiences to the marketplace," a statement from Yahoo read. "We'll continue to hire on a global basis to support our key priorities. Today's action impacts approximately 1 percent of the global … Read more

The claim by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin that he was unduly ousted from the social network's early executive team formed the basis for "The Social Network," the controversial yet acclaimed film about the birth of the company. Perhaps with a touch of unintended irony, when nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards were announced this morning, the actor who played Saverin was snubbed.

"The Social Network" netted eight nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards. Among them was the coveted Best Picture category--but actor Andrew Garfield, expected to be a shoo-in nomination and even a favorite to … Read more

When Demand Media holds its initial public offering tomorrow, it'll be the first venture-backed IPO of 2011 and, though relatively small by Wall Street's standards, the most talked-about technology IPO in quite some time. That'll happen in this peculiar era of tech-industry financials, when the the big trend has been to prolong an IPO in favor of less restrictive private-market trading activity.

But that's not what everyone's talking about with Demand--nor is the $179.4 million in revenue it reported in the first nine months of 2010 (an operating loss of $6.4 million), nor … Read more