facebook

As Congress readies for what's sure to be a heated debate over the controversial cybersecurity bill CISPA, leaders in the tech community are speaking out.

Unsurprisingly, a known activist for Internet freedom and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian is one of those leading the charge. In a comical video released today in conjunction with digital rights advocate group Fight for the Future, Ohanian calls on tech CEOs to join his cause (see below).

"I'm hoping all of these tech companies take the stand that their privacy policies matter. Their users' privacy matters," Ohanian said in the video. &… Read more

Facebook is adding a new twist to status updates as of today. Any TV show, movie, or book that users mention in their status update will also contain an icon and link to the Facebook page of whatever's mentioned.

"For example, if you share that you're watching a movie like 'Jurassic Park,' your post will contain the movie icon and a link to the movie's page," Facebook wrote in a blog post today. "'Jurassic Park' will be added to the Movies section on your timeline."

In other words, those TV shows, movies, or … Read more

If you say something often enough, does it become true?

For a little while, rumors that teens see Facebook in the same way they see their dad's pale, baggy jeans have been wafting around the social biosphere.

Earlier this year, a couple of slightly anecdotal studies suggested that Facebook was showing its laughter lines and that teens were moving toward exciting places like Tumblr.

Now along comes a survey from Piper Jaffray that suggests teens are increasingly giving Facebook a "meh" rating.

It's a fascinating survey -- offering moving gems such as the fact that teens … Read more

Facebook Home for Android is an interesting, and odd, experiment from the big dog in social networking. On the one hand, the home-screen replacement software introduces some daring, even likable, ideas about how to interact with your friends on your phone -- and soon, on your tablet. On the other hand, Home is very much first-generation software that could use more time in the oven to become truly useful for Facebook fanatics.

The software, which supplants your home screen interface with images and status updates from your friends' Facebook news feed, is niche at best. At worst, it's a … Read more

Facebook finds the heart of your smartphone with Facebook Home, a family of applications that bring social-networking mainstays such as the News Feed and Facebook Messenger to your mobile device in radically altered designs.

The software package, shown off at a press event last week, is moving to select Android devices April 12. The HTC First, the first handset optimized for Facebook Home, hits the market on the same day, exclusively with AT&T.

After spending a few days with a review unit of the HTC First, I believe Facebook has created a visually arresting mobile home like no … Read more

When General Motors pulled its $10 million advertising campaign from Facebook last year, it caused quite a commotion. Now, the carmaker seems to be having second thoughts.

GM has confirmed that it will reignite its ad campaign on the social network, according to Ad Age. This is a major turnaround from last year, when it proclaimed that Facebook ads simply didn't work.

"Chevrolet is testing a number of mobile-advertising solutions, including Facebook, as part of its 'Find New Roads' campaign," Chevrolet's U.S. VP of marketing, Chris Perry, told CNET. "Yesterday, Chevrolet launched an industry-first, '… Read more

If you've been on Facebook for a while, then it's likely you have amassed a fairly sizable collection of photos. Should you want to edit one of those photos -- or any photo you encounter on Facebook for that matter -- you could download it, edit it on your computer, and then share or save it as you wish. Or you could skip the downloading part and edit it with Chrome extension Fly Photo Editor, an online photo editor powered by Aviary.

After installing Fly Photo Editor, you'll see a new menu option below any photo opened … Read more

Facebook users in the U.K. are being treated to the same premium charges their counterparts in the U.S. have been hit with when sending messages to certain high-profile members on the social network, as well as people outside their circle of friends.

According to U.K. news site The Sunday Times, Facebook users in the U.K. late last week started being charged as much as 10 British pounds (about $15) to send messages to celebrity-status Facebook members. Olympic diver Tom Daley and former Children's laureate Michael Rosen are the most expensive celebrities to contact.

Facebook last year announced what it called a "small experiment" … Read more

Facebook Home, the social network's latest, major push into the mobile devices arena, has been leaked before its official debut in the marketplace.

Mobile news site MoDaCo obtained a copy of a prerelease build of Facebook Home from an HTC First ROM. The site reports that the installation is "rather buggy and incomplete" and it couldn't get the platform's Chat Heads to work.

However, many of Facebook Home's other features were accessible, and MoDaCo published photos of the application in action. For those who want to take the risk of running prerelease software, MoDaCo … Read more