social networking

Tom Raftery

Twitter Users Frustrated By Disappearance Of “@-Replies”

When Twitter was created, there was no built-in way to indicate that you were Tweeting to a particular account, so users came up with the “@username” method for tagging others in their Tweets. In the decade since, the @- reply has gone from obscure shorthand to commonplace usage by hundreds of millions of people. But as part of Twitter’s recently announced changes, the @-reply is vanishing — and some folks are not happy. [More]

FTD, Classmates Inc. To Pay $11M To Resolve Multi-State Allegations Of Deceptive Advertising

FTD, Classmates Inc. To Pay $11M To Resolve Multi-State Allegations Of Deceptive Advertising

The attorneys general from 22 states signed an $11 million settlement with a national flower delivery service and social networking site today to resolve allegations that the two companies misled consumers into buying subscription services they didn’t want. [More]

How To Save Your Instagram Photos Before You Delete Your Account

How To Save Your Instagram Photos Before You Delete Your Account

If you’re miffed that Facebook has flung its billions around to engulf Instagram, you may want to take your photos and run. [More]

Keyboard Shortcuts That Make It Easier To Use Facebook

Keyboard Shortcuts That Make It Easier To Use Facebook

The more keyboard shortcuts you learn to use, the easier you’ll be able to navigate most applications. Several little-known keystrokes work particularly well on Facebook. Practice using them and you can be more efficient while wasting your time on the site. [More]

Facebook Adds Verified Accounts And Nicknames, But Only For The Coolest Kids

In a series of moves seemingly geared to make the site more attractive to celebrities, Facebook is rolling out “Verified” accounts, granting the status to its most popular users who prove their identities to the site’s high command. The chosen ones will then be allowed to buck Facebook tradition by using aliases — for instance, stage names — on their timelines. [More]

3 Ways To Boost Your Online Job-Hunting Bait

When people are considering hiring you for a job, one of their first moves is presumably to look you up online. Ideally you’ve anticipated this step of the screening process by selling yourself with an online presence that comes up prominently in a search of your name. Once you’ve got a prospective employer looking at your online footprint, you’ve got to make sure you make a good impression. [More]

MySpace Suddenly Adding More Users Than It's Losing

After years of increasing loneliness, Tom suddenly has some new friends. Or at least he would if he still used the service. MySpace’s new ownership revealed the social networking service has added 1 million new users in the past month. The company is trumpeting the change as a sign that MySpace’s transformation into an entertainment hub is breathing new life into the former networking giant. [More]

Viral Facebook Status Update Hoax Won't Protect Your Privacy

A generally harmless but misleading — as well as quite annoying — status update is worming its way through Facebook, imploring contacts to perform a ritual that will supposedly stop strangers from seeing their comments on the sidebar. (It won’t). [More]

Report: Facebook IPO Should Happen Soon

Report: Facebook IPO Should Happen Soon

If you’ve always wanted to add the title “Facebook part-owner” to your resume, the opportunity could be arriving soon. That Facebook Initial Public Offering that wasn’t supposed to occur until late this year could happen this week. The stock sale could be one of the most lucrative ever for an American business, pumping as much as $10 billion into the company. [More]

Circle K Helps Place Bounties On Heads Of Anonymous Thieves On Facebook

Circle K Helps Place Bounties On Heads Of Anonymous Thieves On Facebook

Figuring cops shouldn’t be the only ones chasing down criminals via Facebook, convenience store chain Circle K has started going after small-time alleged thieves by posting surveillance video footage on Facebook. The chain’s partner, crime fighting nonprofit Silent Witness, gives as much as $100 to those who spot acquaintances and soon-to-be-former friends making off with beer. [More]

Rescue Messages From Facebook's De Facto Spam Filter

Rescue Messages From Facebook's De Facto Spam Filter

When Facebook thinks you don’t particularly want to read a message that’s sent your way, it redirects it into a folder dubbed “other.” Some users forget to check the box regularly, and others may not even be aware that they have it. [More]

Steps To Stop Social Media From Sucking Away All Your Time

Steps To Stop Social Media From Sucking Away All Your Time

Not that this has happened to us, but our friends say that they’ve found themselves wasting away entire days at work not having accomplished much of anything other than getting sucked into an endless vortex of status updates, instant messages and YouTube videos. Social media is a powerful tool that can actually increase your efficiency, but it can also dominate those who lack the discipline to compartmentalize it. [More]

After Struggle, Salman Rushdie Gets Facebook To Let Him Use His Own Name

After Struggle, Salman Rushdie Gets Facebook To Let Him Use His Own Name

Facebook can be quite the stickler when it comes to enforcing its real name policy. Celebrity writer Salman Rushdie took to Twitter complaining that Facebook deactivated his account because it thought it was a fake. After he proved his identity, the powers that be reactivated his page in his given name, Ahmed. Only after taking his problem public via Twitter did he get Facebook to back down and let him use Salman. [More]

Diaspora Co-Founder Dead In Apparent Suicide

Diaspora Co-Founder Dead In Apparent Suicide

Last year, four NYU students got together to form Diaspora, a social network meant to value privacy in a way they said Facebook never intended to. Now one of the entrepreneurs has been found dead at age 22. [More]

How To Build More Social Media "Klout"

How To Build More Social Media "Klout"

Some see the social media scene as an ever-fluctuating competition, with everyone scrapping to claw market share away from one another. Encouraging this mentality is Klout, which claims to filter peoples’ social media influence and assigns them a score out of 100. Some dismiss the service, but most involved in the scene keep an eye on their scores. [More]

Facebook Invites You To Name A Few "Trusted Friends"

Facebook Invites You To Name A Few "Trusted Friends"

If you are hyper-paranoid about getting cut off from Facebook and want to allow members of your trusted inner circle to swoop in and help you out when you’re in need, you’re now covered. Facebook is testing a feature called “Trusted Friends” that lets contacts you choose retrieve access codes to pass along to you if you find yourself unable to log on. [More]

Don't Let Mario Kart Facebook Scam Spin You Out

Don't Let Mario Kart Facebook Scam Spin You Out

Those who toil away on free-to-play Facebook games may have built up a false sense of security as they blindly click on all the permission buttons in order to get to the good stuff. But an ad that claims to offer Facebookers access to a free Mario Kart game is a trap, like one of those upside down question blocks in the real version of the game. [More]

Introduce Yourself To The Internet Without Embarrassment

Introduce Yourself To The Internet Without Embarrassment

Even more than in real life, snap judgments people make about one another online forever shape the way they see one another. A one or two-sentence bio you post about yourself on Twitter or elsewhere can make you seem intriguing, irritating or boring. And the latter two groups probably always assume they fall into the former. [More]