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Back when a certain 1967 Karmann Ghia rolled off the assembly line, nobody could have expected that one day it would be gutted, filled with batteries, and turned into an electric car that runs thanks to social-media feedback. The car is part of the Minddrive after-school program, a Kansas City (both Missouri and Kansas) organization dedicated to working with at-risk students.

For Minddrive's latest automotive design project, students chose to refurbish an old Karmann Ghia, turning it into an electric car. The car will be driven from Missouri to Washington D.C. starting on May 31, but it will take a lot of help to get it there. The car is designed to run only if there is enough social-media support to keep it going.… Read more

Scan Twitter, Instagram, or Tumblr. Watch your favorite television show, or even listen to the radio, and you might notice that the biggest social network of them all is disconnected from pop culture -- at least when it comes to hash tags.

Hash tags are a form of expression that Facebook, like your grandparents, just can't understand. The social network appears motivated to change that, although a spokesperson wouldn't share details on when and how it will roll out hash tags.

However it shakes out, hash tags on Facebook are long overdue. Their presence could help Facebook lure … Read more

Paul Adams, Facebook's global head of brand design, announced Friday that he has left the social network to join startup Intercom, which makes a social customer relationship management tool.

Adams joined Facebook in early 2011 and led the social network's design and marketing projects for clients such as Starbucks and Nike.

Prior to Facebook, Adams spent four years on Google's user experience team, and worked on Gmail, the now-defunct Latitude and Buzz, and YouTube. He also helped dream up the idea behind Google+ Circles, a way to group friends, which was released only months after his departure. … Read more

MENLO PARK, Calif. -- Facebook highlighted its developer platform on Thursday, throwing out some big numbers around how third-party apps benefit from connecting to users through the social network.

The social network opened up its platform to independent developers six years ago Friday, Director of Product Manager Doug Purdy told journalists today at a press conference at Facebook's headquarters here. Attracting more developers means more apps for Facebook users.

More than 550 million people use third-party apps through Facebook, and those users share 1 billion stories a day, Purdy said.

He didn't forgot to spotlight mobile numbers as … Read more

Facebook Home is officially in remodel mode.

The social network said Thursday that it has decided to halt the U.K. release of the HTC First, the first smartphone to ship with Facebook Home, as well as limit support for additional Android devices until it can fix things up a bit.

"We've listened to feedback from users on their experience using Home. While many people love it, we've heard a lot of great feedback about how to make Home substantially better," a Facebook spokesperson told CNET. "As a result, we're focusing the next few … Read more

Just as Syria recovers from last week's countrywide Internet outage, a number of government opposition groups are reportedly saying that their Facebook pages have been shuttered, according to Al Arabiya.

One of the pages that is no longer available is the profile page of the former brigadier general of the Syrian Republican Guard, Manaf Tlass, who defected from the government last year. According to Al Arabiya, his page was visited by tens of thousands of Syrians to discuss the country's civil war.

Tlass told Al Arabiya that he reached out to Facebook to get his page back online … Read more

Pandora listeners can now easily share their favorite tunes with their Facebook friends.

The Pandora Web site and the iPhone and Android apps now let you automatically publish your music listening activity to your Facebook Timeline. On the Web site, simply click on the Publish button under the current tune and choose the Publish to Facebook command. Tapping on the Menu item on your iPhone or your Android device gives you the same choice.

You can set various options to determine what get's shared. Your Facebook friends can then discover which tunes you listen to and which ones get … Read more

Sharing is caring -- if your Facebook and your network depends on it.

Monday, the social network simplified the process for sharing activities from third-party iOS apps to Facebook. The company rolled out something called the "Share Dialog," previously in beta, for its iOS software development kit, which means developers can now update their applications to make sharing to the social network as fast and brainless as possible.

Specifically, the developer tool gets the iOS app user from app activity to Facebook share with a single click. With the addition of the special dialog box, app users can … Read more

Yahoo isn't the only tech titan with eyes for blogging sensation Tumblr. The 6-year-old startup that powers nearly 108 million blogs has piqued the curiosity of both Facebook and Microsoft who seem ready to duke it out over the object of their affection, according to a new report.

The Thursday night rumor mill had Yahoo ready to commit to a Tumblr partnership, investment, or possibly even a $1 billion purchase. Now Forbes is reporting Tumblr has entertained equally serious gestures from Facebook and Microsoft.

Yahoo has a lock on negotiations, according to Forbes, which means Tumblr can't field … Read more