facebook

The marketing push for Facebook Connect, the social network's new data-portability project, goes on. Their angle: It's really easy to install on any site or blog.

A post on Facebook's developer blog contains a video that explains the most basic way to integrate Facebook Connect. The just-under-ten-minute video is the first of several instructional pieces, Facebook engineers said.

Focusing on ease of use is particularly important as Facebook attempts to win over site owners and publishers. There are other data-portability options out there, like OpenID and the just-launched MySpaceID, and Facebook's best bet is to convince … Read more

Wednesday, I discussed all the features Twitter's competitors offer that it doesn't. Now I'm back with a discussion about Facebook and all the features its competitors offer that it doesn't. Will it take the advice and start rolling them out?

Bebo: Sharing an artist's dream Maybe Facebook's groups feature is enough for some writers and musicians to come together and share their work, but I don't think the social network does enough.

Bebo, on the other hand, doesn't just allow users to band together around similar interests; it provides an author's … Read more

I've just been informed by the engineering team here that we have completed integration of the Facebook Connect log-in system with CNET. Now, when you want to comment on a blog post on a CNET site, or add a user review, you can log in with your Facebook ID and password. If your computer is already logged in to Facebook, you won't have to log in at all.

There's a one-time step you might have to take first: If you already have a CNET ID and password, you can connect your CNET account and your Facebook account. … Read more

Facebook's upper ranks are getting some old-media flavor: Don Graham, chairman and CEO of The Washington Post Co., will join the social network's board of directors in January.

Graham, the son of legendary Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham, has been at the newspaper company since 1971. He is--wait for it--a graduate of Harvard University, which Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and several other company executives also attended (like COO Sheryl Sandberg, General Counsel Ted Ullyot, and communications czar Elliot Schrage, who obtained his law degree there).

"Don Graham understands how to build and manage an organization for the … Read more

Accel Partners, a longtime investor in social network Facebook, has created two new funds that add up to just over $1 billion, according to The New York Times.

One of the funds, totaling $525 million, will be used to invest in European start-ups.

But the interesting part, at least where juicy tech gossip is concerned, is the other $480 million, which is going toward a new late-stage venture fund. A few speculative bloggers have connected the dots and taken this to mean that Accel may be looking to pump more cash into Facebook.

The firm first invested in Facebook in … Read more

The buying and selling of virtual goods is an extremely nascent market that seems to be heating up dramatically. Almost daily there are announcements pronouncing large virtual good revenues on the horizon and new forms of payments and rewards for the intrepid user.

Just today social network Hi5 introduced multicultural holiday gifts along with a new payment system. Virtual world Habbo also introduced a new type of currency and reward program for loyal users.

With all of this interest and efforts toward monetization, is this a bubble waiting to burst?

So far, my answer is no.

Virtual goods are part … Read more

Announcing a new way to get your friends drunk: GiveReal.com, a Facebook application (and standalone Web site) that just emerged out of private beta. It's hoping to pioneer what the founders call "social e-commerce" by letting people send virtual drinks to each other that can be translated to a real-life libation.

The concept is, in theory, very similar to start-ups like buyyourfriendadrink.com. But services like that are only compatible with participating bars, and Give Real has found a workaround that will make its gifting service compatible with any bar that accepts credit cards. You opt … Read more

Editor's note: This is part of a series of stories about the recession's effect on the tech industry.

Suleman Ali cashed out just in time.

The 26-year-old, a former Microsoft employee who helped put together the Windows Home Server product, founded a company called Esgut within months of the debut of Facebook's developer platform in May 2007. Esgut is a portfolio of Facebook applications, and a few of them, like Superlatives and Entourage, became genuine viral hits. In April, Ali sold the 12-employee Esgut to the Social Gaming Network, a Silicon Valley company backed by the likes … Read more

Katherine Evans, an 18-year-old from Pembroke Pines, Fla., thought her English teacher, Sarah Phelps, was "the worst teacher I've ever met."

As any fine, young citizen of the 21st century does, she thought it aloud on Facebook.

The principal of Pembroke Pines Charter High School, Peter Bayer, didn't think much of her thoughts. He suspended her for "bullying and cyberbullying harassment towards a staff member.''

So, now that she is all grown up and in college, Evans has decided to sue--with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union. The lawsuit claims that Katherine'… Read more