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Facebook turns to other game developers, highlights Avengers Alliance

Facebook put up a new blog post today, patting itself on the back for Open Graph's role in the success of Playdom's Avengers Alliance game.

The social network said shared stories that linked to the game on people's news feeds and timelines were clicked on 7 million times -- the third-largest source of clicks to the Marvel game -- and users who installed the game after clicking through Open Graph stories made an in-game purchase twice as often as those who joined the game through an invite.

The post also included comments from the game developer about … Read more

Facebook app now auto-uploads smartphone photos

Facebook is releasing photo sync for iOS to the general Facebook community, after months of testing.

The new feature, available for Android and the iPhone, automatically uploads photos taken on a smartphone to a private album on a user's Facebook profile. Those photos can then be removed, kept private, or shared publicly. A total of 2GB worth of photos can be stored from mobile devices.

Facebook said it began testing photo sync in August and "will continue to make it available to more people."

Don't like the idea of your photos automatically sent to your Facebook … Read more

Friday Poll: Has Facebook jumped the shark?

A lot of things have jumped the shark. The Fonz did it first, literally donning water skis for the stunt and marking the beginning of the end for "Happy Days."

MySpace did it. Even the phrase "jumped the shark" has done it.

And what about the most popular social-networking site? In some people's eyes, Facebook is pulling on its swim trunks and eyeing the big beastie.

Bradley Horowitz, chief of rival Google+, argues that Facebook has already landed on the other side of the shark. Horowitz recently called Facebook out for the way it implements … Read more

The crazy truth: Google+ can thrive alongside Facebook

It's easy to call Facebook the social network of the past. It's harder to build the social network of the future.

To hear Bradley Horowitz tell it, though, Google is well on its way. Google+, he says, lets people share with others in a more natural way than its competitors. Easy privacy controls, an environment free from obtrusive advertising, and highly polished mobile apps combine on Google+ to deliver a next-generation social network, as Horowitz tells it.

"It's not attempting to chase the social networks of the past," he said this week at a Business Insider conference in New York, … Read more

Ceglia ordered to pay Facebook $90,000 in legal fees

In an effort to make billions of dollars by suing Facebook, Paul Ceglia is actually putting a large dent in his own wallet.

Federal Magistrate Leslie Foschio ordered Ceglia to pay the social network almost $90,000 in attorney fees today, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The order comes because of Ceglia's last-minute cancellation of legal depositions that Facebook had already paid its lawyers to do. Foschio also ordered Ceglia to reimburse an additional $7,000 in travel and lodging expenses for the social network's experts that were to be deposed.

Ceglia is suing Facebook with the … Read more

Facebook: We're not getting into the game business

Zynga just can't catch a break.

After the stock market closed today, the teetering game maker revealed that it amended its contract with Facebook -- the company on which Zynga was entirely built -- and the details are already spooking Wall Street. In after-hours trading, shares of Zynga are down more than 12 percent to around $2.30.

The concern? A line at the bottom of the SEC doc that says that Facebook will soon be free to develop its own games that could compete with Zynga -- something that was prohibited under the original agreement:

In addition, effective … Read more

Under new deal, Zynga less tied to Facebook

Zynga and Facebook have amended their contract, which means Facebook will treat Zynga like every other developer, according to SEC documents filed today.

The amendment, which applies to an agreement set to expire on May 13, 2015, details the loosening of Facebook reigns in exchange for an important promotion tool. Neither company would say which side pushed for these changes initially.

Zynga will no longer have to display Facebook ads on its site, use Facebook credits in its games, or develop only for the Facebook platform, according to the documents. In exchange, Zynga won't be able to use Facebook … Read more

Facebook ranking would climb with new ComScore system

ComScore has an early Christmas gift for Facebook -- a slight boost in its Internet audience ranking thanks to a change in its measurement system.

ComScore, which tracks Web site visitors and other information, today unveiled its new digital audience measurement and media planning tool dubbed the "Media Metrix Multi-Platform."

Currently in beta in the U.S., the technology tracks audience size and demographics on traditional desktop browsers as well as mobile devices. And it does so in such a way that accounts for people using multiple devices to access the sites.

Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of … Read more

Google's Horowitz: Facebook is social network of the past

NEW YORK--Facebook is the social network of the past, and the way it implements advertising doesn't really work, a Google executive overseeing the search giant's social-networking product said today.

Bradley Horowitz, the Google vice president of product for Google+, said Facebook isn't set up in a way that's compatible with the real world. People should be able to have a conversation with a certain group of friends without involving others. And they should be able to have real conversations, he said, not 140-character blurbs like Twitter.

"In designing Google+, we keep thinking about the real … Read more

Give annoying Facebook friends an imaginary time-out

A new Facebook app lets you poke fun at your friends who post annoying content by putting them in a virtual time-out and announcing it to the Facebook world.

Defriendtion, which launched today, has users fill out a form explaining why they want to "dislike" their friends temporarily, along with evidence in the form of links, photos, or quotes and the number of hours of "defriendtion" you want them to serve.

When you put your friends in this virtual detention, the app posts a message to their wall and Timeline, as well as the news ticker. … Read more