path

Aunt Jill Schlesinger of CBS Moneywatch and Jill on Money is back in the studio today answering all your financial questions and helping us make sense of Facebook's $1 billion purchase of Instagram.

She also gets heated with another social network -- LinkedIn. We'll collectively discover the perils of stalking your ex-coworkers on the site and why an active profile on LinkedIn is kind of like cheating on your current employer.… Read more

There's a lot of speculation today about why Facebook would spend $1 billion to acquire the uber-hip photo-sharing app Instagram. To some, it seems obvious; to others, it's the biggest sign yet of a growing Web bubble. To me, it just raises question after question, and the biggest one is "why." What does Facebook gain from buying Instagram? Let's look at some of the possible reasons, shall we?

Users: Instagram has 30 million users and a potentially huge influx of more, thanks to its recent expansion onto the Android platform. Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom says … Read more

Path, the hot San Francisco startup that ignited a firestorm of privacy concerns when it was revealed that it was absorbing entire address books from users' phones, today said it's come out with a fix.

In a blog post, Path said that with the release of Path 2.1.1, "we are enhancing our security by hashing user contact data so that it is anonymized."

This, the post goes on, will anonymize "last names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, Twitter handles, and Facebook IDs" -- all information that Path collects to make its social network more … Read more

Bliss Control is a Web service that aims to ease the burden of updating a variety of settings on multiple social networks. It supports 12 settings on 13 different social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+.

Bliss Control doesn't require access to your account or password because all it's providing is a direct link to where the specific settings are. Granted, it's not that difficult to find these settings on your own, but if you're trying to update your profile pic, e-mail address, or bio on several sites at the same time, Bliss Control can … Read more

Thirteen individuals have filed a lawsuit against more than a dozen mobile app makers--including Path, Twitter, Apple, and Facebook--who were accused of automatically uploading user address books without permission.

The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Austin, Texas, names 13 plaintiffs, most of them from Austin, and seeks class-action status. The defendants in the suit are: Path, Twitter, Apple, Facebook, Beluga, Yelp, Burbn, Instagram, Foursquare Labs, Gowalla, Foodspotting, Hipster, LinkedIn, Rovio Mobile, ZeptoLab UK, Chillingo, Electronic Arts, and Kik.

"Literally billions of contacts from the address books of tens of millions of unsuspecting wireless mobile device … Read more

Every startup CEO, founder, or co-founder hopes that this year, South by Southwest will be the event that turns them into the next Twitter, Foursquare, or Beluga. They come to Austin, Texas, in search of exposure, new friends, more money, and parties (of course). This year, CNET's Brian Tong and I sat down to talk to a few of the companies we thought were interesting--out of the many, many, many others that are also interesting, don't get us wrong.

From our interview home at the Thirsty Nickel, we spoke with Dave Morin, the CEO of Path, who assured … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Path, which found itself as the target of outrage last month after it was discovered that its app was absorbing users' address books without notifying them, is promising to "hash" personal data it uses in the next release of its app.

The issue came up at a gathering at Path's headquarters in which it rolled out version 2.1 of its popular app.

Dave Morin, the CEO and founder, said that he handled the controversy as best he could. He said Path is working with Truste, a third-party certification company.

"We did what we thought … Read more

Are you a fan of Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? Shazam? Nike+?

Would you be interested in a service that essentially combines the functionality of all these mobile apps into one sleek and simple-to-use program? Then perhaps you should give Path a try.

After its most recent update (see my colleague, Paul Sloan's take here), Path could become a major player in the social networking game, expanding its existing 2 million user base. All these enhancements take the brain-child of former Facebook platform manager, angel investor Dave Morin, to a whole new level.

The major integration win for Path comes in … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Path is launching a partnership with Nike so that users can share their runs with all their friends on the social-networking app. It's also adding Schazam-like music features and enhancing its camera as part of version 2.1 of its iPhone app, which rolls out today.

"When you step out for a run, Path will...update and say you're running through San Francisco and perhaps even tell you it's a certain kind of weather," said CEO and founder Dave Morin, who hosted a group of reporters at its headquarters here in downtown San Francisco. … Read more