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Facebook exec downplays Google row

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya said Wednesday that the social network wants to work with anyone, including Google, as long as the company respects privacy.

Palihapitiya called a recent tussle with Google over the search giant's new social-networking application Friend Connect a "tempest in a teapot."

"Google built an application that violated our terms of service so we asked them, like we do with all applications that violate our terms of service, to remediate," Palihapitya, vice president of product marketing, said here Wednesday in an interview after a press event.

"We temporarily … Read more

Developers, critics sound off on Facebook's profile redesign

On Wednesday, after months of nothing but ambiguous screenshots, Facebook finally talked about its upcoming site redesign. It'll make it easier for members to see immediate, dynamic updates from their network of friends, a company representative said, and it'll cut down on some of the profile clutter by distributing user information across a set of tabs rather than having it all on one page.

The big question: Will members like it?

"Any user interface changes, large or small, carry with them a certain risk," developer Kyle Bragger told CNET News.com, adding that big decisions can … Read more

Facebook execs explain profile redesign

This post was updated at 12:30 p.m. PDT with more detailed information and quotes.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Facebook plans to unveil a redesign of profile pages in coming weeks to help members cut down on the clutter, executives said here at a press event Wednesday.

Executives also said they'll introduce a beta version this week that will allow developers to test the new pages before it rolls them out to members in June.

The redesign, a preview of which was released Tuesday night, slots member information under five new tabs: personal news feeds; profile information; photos; applications; … Read more

Facebook's new profile design is all about tabs

Facebook has just published new photos and descriptions of its impending profile redesign to its Facebook Profile Previews page.

The new profile design will, as we have known for a while, be centered on tabs. Profiles will be broken off into five separate tabs: Feed, Info, Wall, Photos, and Applications. Facebook's latest round of screenshots seems to indicate that users will also have the ability to add additional tabs, with the inclusion of a plus sign to the right of the Applications tab.

Breaking down information into tabs will make the new Facebook profiles seem far less cluttered--a growing concern with users, especially with the addition of applications--and improve load times. A major change included in this release will be the publisher box.… Read more

Apple and MySpace win at Microsoft's expense

Apple's market share in the >$1,000 retail computer segment is an astounding 66 percent, according to eWeek. While Apple is almost entirely alone in this segment of the market, it still speaks to Microsoft's increasingly fragile hold on its once indomitable market power.

But to truly get a sense for why Microsoft has never been weaker, consider where web development is going: MySpace and Facebook, according to new research from O'Reilly Media. The two web platforms have attracted tens of thousands of applications in the past year alone.

If you're a platform company, as … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 727: Microsoft to Yahoo: Let's take it slow

Actual tech news today! For example, Microsoft is re-wooing Yahoo, Nintendo is stomping through the console market like Godzilla in Mario's Kart, the first public Firefox 3 candidate is now available, and Apple is trying to win direct downloads for the new iPhone. Oh, and if our caller from UPS is to be believed, those iPhones might be starting to arrive in stores right now! (Dear CBS: Send pie!) Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 727

Microsoft, Yahoo forced into each others’ arms http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9947185-56.html http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Microsoft-Yahoo.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7407585.stm… Read more

Playing out Microsoft's online strategy

The latest wild rumor circulating is that after doing a search ad deal with Yahoo, Microsoft will spend its cash acquiring Facebook for $15 billion to $20 billion.

At a press conference in Tokyo on Monday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was asked about Facebook's future as a standalone company. "You can tell, from our history and what we've done, that we really wanted to keep the company independent, by focusing on building and focusing on the long term," Reuters reported.

Zuckerberg declined to comment on a follow-up question regarding the prospect of a sale. Microsoft invested $… Read more

Zuckerberg says he wants to talk with Google

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to sit down with Google to resolve issues surrounding the search engine's use of Facebook data, according to news reports.

"We want to talk to Google about this and see if there's a way we can make it work," InfoWorld quoted him saying Monday at a press conference in Tokyo.

Facebook and Google have been squabbling over Google's Friend Connect service, which allows Web sites to add social-networking features. Facebook said the Google application violated its terms of service. Google denied the claims, and even took the step of putting up a primer … Read more

Kongregate serves up a Facebook challenge platform

The online gaming site, Kongregate, makers of some of the best time sucking games out there, is adding a challenge platform to its Facebook application on Monday. As of Tomorrow, Facebook users will be able to challenge their friends to a variety of Kongregate games, which are playable through embedded versions in Facebook. Right now, you are able to challenge your friends to eight different games.

The implementation here is really great. Kongregate makes it very easy to throw down the gauntlet against one of your friends and see who is really the best. You earn points for doing a … Read more

Amateur hour at Facebook. What gives?

In the latest bloviation-fest (see Techmeme) over how to integrate user profiles and friends lists from social networking sites, Facebook's getting creamed.

If feels like almost yesterday that Leslie Stahl was cooing over Mark Zuckerberg. And how about the crowd rallying behind their boy when Sarah Lacy tried to ego-hog his keynote interview at South by Southwest.

But that's ancient history now and Facebook is coming off badly since it began blocking Google's Friend Connect last week. And just to make sure that we didn't forget that Google was on the side of the angels, the … Read more