Facebook

The sharing (and selling) of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg

Once they've made a movie about you, can you ever be you again?

Perhaps that depends on whether you were you in the first place. Or rather, whether the you that people saw had very much to do with the real human being that lived inside your body.

This has been the dilemma of Mark Zuckerberg for some time.

As his ambitions (and Facebook) got bigger and bigger, as his contempt for any norms of privacy exceeded those of your most nosy grandmother, he suddenly had to appear in the public eye.

Yes, the man who peddled sharing as … Read more

Facebook actually sorry for banning breastfeeding pic

Facebook's relationship with breastfeeding mothers has some Oedipal tinges.

It seems that ever since the site became populated by people who weren't university students desperate to find a warm body, Facebook has shivered at the site of anything that resembled a naked breast.

Even when it was actually an elbow.

Though breastfeeding mothers have always railed against Facebook's anti-breast policies, the company has always claimed that it is a medium, and therefore abides by the same standards as other media.

This is odd, because at the launch of Facebook Home, Mark Zuckerberg insisted that Facebook was actually … Read more

One-on-one with the guy who built Facebook's Home

If Facebook Home, the company's family of applications that make the social network unavoidable on Android devices such as the HTC First, had an architect, it would be Director of Product and project lead Adam Mosseri.

CNET sat down with Mosseri on Thursday after the company lifted the curtain on Home. Mosseri proved a lively interview subject. He didn't completely divert away from our first serious question as to why anyone would want this much Facebook in their phone, and he admitted that if you don't want to see the feed all the time, then this isn'… Read more

Facebook's one small step for mankind

Soon after Facebook announced its new family of apps for mobile devices, Michael Gartenberg, who works as an industry analyst at Gartner, quipped over Twitter, "So I pay $99 for a 2-year-contract on a sub standard phone. Turn my life over to Facebook and get ads on my home screen?"

Gartenberg's tweet contained more than a kernel of truth and, besides the snarky humor, it was appropriate to the occasion, as big companies like Facebook are always looking for ways to shove advertising in front of our faces -- in this case by locking you into Facebook'… Read more

Facebook Home isn't where your privacy is

When Mark Zuckerberg and friends debuted Facebook Home yesterday, they downplayed the ever-growing importance your data has for the company. While the Facebook-obsessed may love Home, chances are your privacy won't feel welcome at all.

Facebook has earned a reputation for developing new products and features that are respectful of user privacy, and then slowly, sometimes with great subtlety and sometimes with mastodon-like lumbering, walking those policies back to a decidedly less-respectful state.

There's little indication that Facebook Home will be any different. At the Facebook Home question-and-answer session that followed Thursday's announcement, Zuckerberg said, "Analytics … Read more

Facebook wrestles Google for control of your phone

Facebook doesn't want anything to come between you and your friends, not even Google or Android.

Facebook today unveiled a new downloadable user interface that takes over your smartphone's home screen, lock screen, and wallpaper. Instead of the regular Android features, you're treated to a slideshow of updates, photos, and shared links.

Facebook wants to take direct control of its user base, and it's going about it in a smart way. Home, which will be available for download on April 12 on select Android phones, isn't a new phone or operating system, or even a … Read more

Hey haters, 'Home' is the right amount of Facebook on your phone

Toss aside the remarks about making people more prominent than apps. Throw out the blurb about changing our relationship with technology. You don't need the warm-and-fuzzy spiel to get Facebook Home, you just need to see it.

Thursday, the social-networking company unveiled Facebook Home, a family of apps that takes up residence at the center of your Android smartphone.

Facebook will be unavoidable to those who opt to download Home. And yet the company has tactfully pushed its way further inside the smartphone with a technique that's neither too obtrusive nor too bland. In fact, Facebook Home is … Read more

Facebook touts Home's benefits for developers

Facebook launched Home to put a user's friends at the center of the phone. But for developers, it means a new way to help people discover their apps and reengage with existing users, the company said.

Facebook today launched Home, a family of apps and a skin that runs over Android. The company said users will be able to download the user interface in the Google Play store, and that links would be found in its Facebook and messenger apps. Facebook said that there would be monthly updates to add features and broader availability, and it also will expand … Read more

Facebook's Zuckerberg: Home is actually good for Android

Facebook's new Home family of apps might seem like a threat to Google, but Facebook says that actually the opposite is true.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, speaking during an event today in Menlo Park, Calif., said that "this is really good for Android."

"Most app developers put most of their efforts on iPhones," he said. "In a way this can start to bring some of these high quality experiences to Android and that could be good for Android."

He added that while there are not yet ads on Home, there will be, … Read more

Facebook launches Chat Heads for staying in touch with friends

Facebook today unveiled its new Chat Head feature for Android devices, giving users a way to stay in constant contact with friends, no matter what they're doing on their mobile devices.

Whenever someone messages you either through text or chat messaging, a small photo of the person will pop up at the top of your screen. It will initially show a brief preview so you know what the message is about. While the preview will go away, the Chat Head image will remain on the top of the screen, no matter what app you access or what else you … Read more