The Social

Internet radio company Pandora filed a registration statement this afternoon to go public, according to a release. The number of shares to be issued and pricing information has not yet been determined, but the underwriters of the IPO are investment banks Morgan Stanley & Co. and J.P. Morgan Securities.

The wildly popular Pandora, which uses a "music genome" algorithm to create custom radio stations based on a single song or artist and offers paid subscriptions as well as a free, ad-supported version and a suite of popular mobile apps, has had a spectacular rise as well as … Read more

There were two critical masses that led to the resignation of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Friday: One was the horde of protesters who flooded Tahrir Square in the country's capital of Cairo for two weeks. The second was the fusion of millions of observers, pundits, and supporters around the world into a sort of leaderless digital watchdog, an unwavering force that ensured the international eye would not stray from Egypt.

It's the latter where we can credit social media.

We shouldn't go so far as to call this a social media revolution, but it nevertheless is … Read more

It's a minor badge of honor to say that you were a fan of actor James Franco back in the day: He starred on the late-'90s high school drama "Freaks and Geeks" alongside fellow then-unknowns Seth Rogen and Jason Segel, and then sort of disappeared for a few years when the show was canceled after one season. (But he was so cute.)

Now the guy is everywhere: hosting the Oscars this month while up for a Best Actor award for "127 Hours," trying his hand at directing and screenwriting, and simultaneously participating in graduate … Read more

Yahoo announced a product today called "Livestand," an app for tablet and mobile devices that will start as a personalized browsing tool for Yahoo-owned content and, in the future, possibly external content as well. Powering it is technology that Yahoo envisions as a way for both publishers and advertisers to easily reach tablet and smartphone users.

At launch, Livestand will feature content from Yahoo Sports, Yahoo News, Flickr, celebrity gossip site OMG, and the Yahoo Contributor Network (fueled by media from Associated Content, the freelance clearinghouse that Yahoo acquired last year). The content will be customized based on … Read more

British start-up INQ Mobile will be releasing a new phone that spices up the Android operating system with tight Facebook integration, according to a demo video taped by TechCrunch. Among the features of the new phone, called the INQ Cloud Touch, are four Facebook-related buttons on the home screen, Facebook friends integrated with contacts, and a prominently featured real-time News Feed of Facebook activity.

The phone is intended to be a mid-level device geared toward teenagers, meaning that it could be available for a rather low price--perhaps as low as $50--when purchased with a contract. The Cloud Touch will also … Read more

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit fund created by the Microsoft co-founder and his wife, has made its first equity investment in a for-profit company: Inigral, a start-up that makes Facebook applications for educational institutions that want to "get your students engaged, from the point of admission through graduation." It's pitched toward schools that have problems with high dropout rates.

The Gates Foundation led the $4 million funding round, contributing $2 million. Retro Venture Partners contributed $1 million, as did the Founders Fund, a venture firm that counts early Facebook investor Peter Thiel and former … Read more

On a Monday morning late last month, at the headquarters of the Finger Lakes Wine Country Tourism Marketing Association, the promotional vehicle for a vineyard-speckled region about four hours northwest of Manhattan, something was amiss with Foursquare.

Namely, the Corning, N.Y.-based tourism group's account on the location-sharing social-media site was doing something funny: It was triggering friend requests. That's not supposed to happen with a Foursquare account that's set up as a brand or business page--users should be able to automatically follow the brand or company, rather than having to wait to have their requests … Read more

In one of the more bizarre headlines to pop up about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, gossip outlet TMZ revealed late Monday that a restraining order had been issued against a man who had been allegedly stalking the Facebook CEO.

Today, TMZ posted a bizarre letter that it claimed the man, Pradeep Manukonda, had sent Zuckerberg; the handwritten letter begged for financial assistance for the author's allegedly ill mother.

The restraining order, TMZ reported, was issued after Manukonda sent Facebook messages to Zuckerberg, his sister Randi Zuckerberg, and his girlfriend Priscilla Chan, and then attempted to show up at several … Read more

The expected in-depth analysis of Sunday's Super Bowl advertisements was almost completely wiped from the media punditry's agenda when, at midnight on Monday, AOL announced its deal to acquire The Huffington Post for $315 million.

It's "the equivalent of a fourth-quarter Hail Mary pass," Ken Auletta wrote in The New Yorker. Or "a slow-motion train wreck and will end in disaster," according to Dan Lyons in The Daily Beast.

Even those who were more bullish on the deal expressed surprise and a bit of skepticism at the idea of AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, … Read more