Beyond Binary

SAN FRANCISCO--It's a little hard to write more about the movie "Catfish" without spoiling its thrilling twists, but I'm going to try, because really, who likes spoiled catfish?

The documentary that tells the tale of Nev Schulman, a New York City photographer who develops a close online relationship with three members of a rural Michigan family. It begins when the young daughter of the family, Abby, starts painting adaptations of some of the photographer's work. Schulman also starts an intense cell phone, text message, and Facebook relationship with Abby's older sister, while conversing with … Read more

As of Tuesday, Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger users will now be able to send instant messages to Facebook friends who are logged into the social-networking service.

Microsoft is the first of the major instant-messaging services to connect directly to Facebook Chat. It's part of an effort by the folks in Redmond to evolve Messenger from purely an instant-messaging program to a social hub with activity feeds, video chat, and other connection options.

The addition of the Facebook Chat connection comes as part of an update to the test versions of the next generation of Windows Live programs. Not … Read more

While the upcoming "The Social Network" movie will offer one view of Facebook, another big-screen release may do a better job of showing both the power and pitfalls of the social network.

Catfish, which played at Sundance earlier this year and debuts in several cities next month, is a documentary that tells the tale of Nev Schulman, a New York City photographer who develops a close online relationship with three members of a rural Michigan family. It begins when the young daughter of the family, Abby, starts painting adaptations of some of the photographer's work. Nev, the … Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended his company's approach to privacy, saying it makes sense for users to have a mix of information: some that's shared narrowly and some that should be made broadly available.

"There have been misperceptions that we are trying to make all the information public," Zuckerberg said, speaking at the D: All Things Digital conference here. That said, for social networks to link people to one another, some information must necessarily be public, he said. "There's some serendipity that can only happen if you are sharing," … Read more

If you use both Outlook and MySpace, you are part of an interesting demographic. But you are also in luck.

Microsoft and MySpace said on Wednesday that they are ready with the beta version of a tool that lets Outlook users see their MySpace connections within the e-mail and calendaring program. A new "social connector" feature for Outlook lets users connect to social networks, including MySpace, LinkedIn, and soon Facebook, too.

In a blog posting, Microsoft said the connector for MySpace is now ready.

"MySpace for Outlook enables you to view activity updates for friends and colleagues … Read more

In case you weren't on Twitter or Facebook in the last few minutes, Lindsey Vonn wants you to know that she's feeling a bit better about her injured shin and her prospects at the Winter Games.

"I was really happy to be back on snow today even if it was for only 1 freeski run," Vonn said in a Facebook post. "My shin was still very painful, but I feel like the injury is finally progressing a bit. The pain level has gone down from a sharp debilitating pain to something that I feel I … Read more

Microsoft said on Friday that has lost the remainder of Facebook's display advertising business as the social network will now handle all of the graphical ads on its site.

"We made the mutual decision that Facebook would take over responsibility for selling display advertisements on its own site," Bing general manager Jon Tinter said in a blog posting. "We have been working together on advertising for a long time, creating the best experience for (Facebook) users and advertisers. Given the kinds of advertisements that make sense within a product as unique as Facebook, it just made … Read more

CARLSBAD, Calif.--MySpace's problem is pretty simple, says former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta, who is now MySpace's CEO.

"If you don't continue to innovate...people are going to shift interest elsewhere," Van Natta said, appearing on stage at D: All Things Digital, along with with News Corp. digital chief (and former AOL executive) Jon Miller. "We need to continue to innovate a lot more rapidly than we have been."

Van Natta said that, on the plus side, MySpace is more open than a lot of its rivals.

"There's a lot … Read more

One of the things clearly worth noting about Tuesday's announcement about a $200 million investment in Facebook is the fact that it values the company at $10 billion, down a third in the 18 months since Microsoft poured $240 million into the company.

However, the fact that Facebook isn't worth $15 billion, while confirmed on Tuesday, has been pretty well understood for some time. Ever since Microsoft took its stake, there have been questions about what the social network was "really" worth.

The $200 million investment announced Tuesday came from European company Digital Sky Technologies, which … Read more