FRANKFURT (By Georgina Prodhan and Harro ten Wolde, Reuters) – Germany’s cartel office has opened an investigation into Facebook for suspected abuse of market power through breaches of data protection law, it said on Wednesday. The watchdog said Facebook’s terms of service regard … | Continue reading
Yahoo has launched a new section on its network dedicated to covering esports. The company hopes that it will eventually become the “premiere destination for all things” in the gaming world, providing not only original and syndicated content but also a bounty of video interviews … | Continue reading
ANALYSIS: Speculation is increasing that Facebook will open up its Messenger chat service to outside businesses, potentially as early as its F8 conference on April 12-13. Facebook won’t comment on its plans, but such a move could open the floodgates to a revolution of sorts in co … | Continue reading
Social marketing company Nanigans announced today that it’s launching support for Twitter.Nanigans is best known as a Facebook ad automation tool, but CEO Ric Calvillo said last year that one reason for raising the company’s $24 million Series B was to expand beyond Facebook. He’ … | Continue reading
Zynga has returned again to the Electronic Arts well of talent. The social mobile game company has named former EA executive Frank Gibeau as its new chief executive. Zynga made the announcement today, after Gibeau served for seven months on its board of directors. Mark Pincus, th … | Continue reading
Facebook is tweaking its News Feed algorithm when it comes to what’s live versus recorded. The company announced that with more people consuming Live videos, it’s looking at making this format a “new content type” that’s different from normal videos you upload later. It’s first s … | Continue reading
If you’re sick of running out of paper checks and stamps or hassling with routing numbers to send zero-fee payments, you can bank on Checkbook. The startup today launches its digital check service where you can send anyone a check with just their email address, and they can depos … | Continue reading
Just in time for Super Tuesday, the AP has launched a new tool in partnership with Google and Twitter that helps voters visualize what people are saying about the current elections, candidates and issues, as well as how that interest has changed over time. Effectively, the produc … | Continue reading
Facebook called the detention of its vice president for Latin America on Tuesday an "extreme and disproportionate measure" stemming from a case in Brazil involving its messaging service Whatsapp, which operates separately from the Facebook platform. | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: Instagram is one of the few “authentic” social networks. Why? Because it lacks a feature Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn all enjoy, but one that makes those platforms open to abuse and bots. Automated posting. Because Instagram doesn’t allow you to create posts through … | Continue reading
LinkedIn advertisers are getting a new way to target their campaigns — specifically, a feature allowing them to aim Sponsored InMail and Sponsored Updates toward companies where they’re actually trying to make sales.Russell Glass, the head of products for LinkedIn Marketing Solut … | Continue reading
Twitter filed today its annual report with securities regulators. While there are no earth-shattering revelations, there are plenty of nuggets that show how recently re-minted CEO Jack Dorsey continues to put his stamp on the company as well as the challenges it faces. Here are 1 … | Continue reading
Leonardo DiCaprio made history multiple times during the 88th Academy Awards on Sunday. Not only did the actor finally win Best Actor for his performance in “The Revenant,” but Twitter said that he created the most-tweeted minute ever to take place during an Oscars telecast. It u … | Continue reading
China's cyberspace watchdog said on Sunday it had ordered the closure of a microblog account of a former property tycoon, known for his bold remarks on China's economic policy, for "spreading illegal information". | Continue reading
GUEST: This week, Facebook rolled out to its 1.55 billion active users a mini-dashboard of new reaction icons designed to make it easier for people to express how they feel about a post in more situationally appropriate ways than a simple “like” could ever do. Perhaps inevitably, … | Continue reading
This is not how you run a platform. Developers remember. Pull the rug out from under them once, and they’ll be reluctant to stand with you in the future. So despite having a record-setting January with $1 billion transferred in its peer-to-peer payments app, Venmo just shot itsel … | Continue reading
Talkwheel, a company that offers a unique way to visualize customer conversations, has been acquired by Clickable.I last wrote about Talkwheel in 2014. The company aggregates the online conversation around a given company or topic in a circular format — it’s supposed to help you … | Continue reading
Tower above your army of monsters, lean across the battlefield and make your opponent’s face explode. That’s Dragon Front, a virtual reality card game coming to Oculus Rift. While many VR games see you flailing your arms or head about, or swinging swords and shooting bows and arr … | Continue reading
Facebook has announced that it is finally expanding its live video-streaming tool to Android devices, but only in the U.S. for now. Today’s news comes one month after the social network opened Facebook Live to all iOS users in the U.S., following a short period of limited availab … | Continue reading
With Twitter struggling for growth and focus, what better person to ask for advice than the head honcho of a rival social network that’s emerged as one of the world’s most valuable companies in the world? While Jack Dorsey won’t be calling Mark Zuckerberg any time soon, during a … | Continue reading
ANALYSIS: If there’s one thing the world doesn’t need, it’s another social messaging app. From Facebook Messenger and Snapchat onto WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, and beyond, it’s safe to say that most bases are covered. Right? Well, maybe. A new startup launched out of stealth in th … | Continue reading
A group of Isis hackers have posted a video online which includes what looks to be a direct threat against Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Read More | Continue reading
Instant Articles, meet Instant Ads. Facebook wants to give advertisers an immersive way to reach people without making them leave the social network. So today it officially launched its ad Canvas. When users click a Facebook ad, it opens a full-screen, rich media page inside of F … | Continue reading
Twitter is getting ready to roll out an update for how embedded timelines look, following up on the announcement the company made during its Flight developer conference in October. On March 3, Twitter will roll out a refreshed design for the timeline display that has a modernized … | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: Keyboards are hot lately. Microsoft bought one earlier this month for a quarter of a billion dollars, and then released another just yesterday. Why? One reason: Keyboards are the one thing that tie all apps together. Tying things together is not a big part of one of th … | Continue reading
Instagram has attracted more than 200,000 advertisers, the company announced Wednesday, a clear sign of its potential for significantly contributing to Facebook’s revenue. | Continue reading
Instagram announced today that it has 200,000 monthly active advertisers. To compare, Facebook said a year go that it had more than 2 million active advertisers, while Twitter says it has 140,000. Probably the most impressive thing about the Instagram number is the fact that the … | Continue reading
How you respond to your friends on Facebook is about to change, as the social networking company begins rolling out its new Reactions worldwide. The new feedback “emotions” offer you more ways to react to someone’s post by including responses such as love, laughter, excitement, s … | Continue reading
Branded.me* isn’t just a website builder anymore — it’s adding tools allowing users to connect with other users and publish their own content. CEO Nick Macario said that the site’s goal is to be “the creative platform for professionals” — in other words, it’s where professionals … | Continue reading
If you want new ideas, you may need to come up with fresh ways of soliciting them. And that’s why the University of California at Davis made a game. Envision UC Davis is a massively multiplayer online game that launches at 11 a.m. Pacific time tomorrow. It runs for 36 hours, and … | Continue reading
But these aren’t the crappy click-bait you see below lots of blog posts. “We’re being very choosy” Pocket founder Nate Weiner tells me. “We don’t want this to become the bottom of the barrel content.” If Pocket can convince users that these articles would be worthy of appearing i … | Continue reading
Zynga has put its San Francisco headquarters up for sale, confirming a report today from the San Francisco blog SFist. The social mobile game company’s headcount is down around 2,300 or so, significantly down from its peak above 3,500 people. That means it doesn’t need as much sp … | Continue reading
Twitter today is announcing the availability of a mobile app for its Fabric mobile development toolkit. The app is immediately available on both iOS and Android. No longer will app developers need to rely on their desktops and laptops in order to check on the health of their apps … | Continue reading
Snapchat wants to add a little flair in honor of your birthday. It has launched a new lens feature called Birthday Party that makes snaps look extra festive, and the only thing you have to do to enable this feature is make sure your birthday is added in the app. Birthday Party wo … | Continue reading
Today Snapchat announced a new feature called Birthday Party, which is essentially a duet of lenses – one of which can only be used on your birthday, and one that can only be used if snapping friends on their birthday. Snapchat will also put a cake emoji next to the name of frien … | Continue reading
VB WEBINAR: You can’t survive as a business today without social media — but succeeding in social media has its challenges (understatement). Join VB’s Director of Marketing Technology Stewart Rogers and Smule CEO Jeffrey Smith in our upcoming webinar as they unpack the most curr … | Continue reading
Facebook had a high-profile setback when its Free Basics mobile connectivity program got blocked in India earlier this month over net neutrality issues, but its CEO Mark Zuckerberg is adamant — even upbeat — about the social network continuing to look for other ways to provide se … | Continue reading
Twitch shouldn’t be, well, twitching just yet, but another site wants a piece of that streaming pie. DingIt, a global streaming site specializing in esports, noted today that it has an average of 20 million monthly viewers a year after its launch. Of course, it has a ways to go i … | Continue reading
Foursquare announced a new product today that should help brick-and-mortar advertisers measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. The company has already been expanding the ad side of the business, for example launching new ad targeting product last year and recently bringing … | Continue reading
Here at Mobile World Congress 2016, the annual Barcelona-based flesh-pressing of the telco industry, Google and a bunch of carriers have put out a press release talking up how they are apparently ‘aligning’ to try to drive adoption of RCS. Read More | Continue reading
BARCELONA, Spain — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivered a much-needed shot of adrenaline to Samsung’s Unpacked press conference by making an unannounced appearance on stage to talk virtual reality and to praise his South Korean partner. “VR is the next platform, where anyone ca … | Continue reading
Facebook today announced a few updates for its virtual reality (VR) efforts. The company said it has established a formal Social VR team that will build on the achievements of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. Of course, the new team will collaborate with the Facebook … | Continue reading
The rise and rise of carsharing is a relatively easy trend to explain: For people who live in densely-populated urban areas, owning a car is a royal pain in the ...The post Carsharing City: Audi Shared Fleet Targets Company Car Market appeared first on Silicon Allee News. | Continue reading
In late 2011, I was contacted by a very charming, smart and persuasive French gentleman who spoke of clouds, platform-as-a-service, and polyglot programming. It took him and his team a couple of months to get me thinking seriously about a career change, after 10 great years at IB … | Continue reading