by Amar Toor on April 1, 2011 at 11:00 AM

Twitter has issued a warning to all UberSocial and Twitroyd users after discovering that some direct messages sent via the apps have become publicly visible. Twitter's Trust and Safety Team confirmed the vulnerability yesterday, explaining that it could affect any direct messages exceeding 140 characters in length, sent via "d username." Twitter says it has notified the apps' developer and is ...
by Amar Toor on March 31, 2011 at 03:30 PM

Ever wonder how easy it would be for someone to track your every move? You can now find out with a new app called 'Creepy.'
Created by 26-year-old Yiannis Kakavas, 'Creepy' is a software package that allows users to pinpoint anyone's location, using geographic data embedded within shared photos. All you have to do is type in a person's Twitter or Flickr username, and hit the 'Geolocate ...
by Amar Toor on March 31, 2011 at 09:19 AM

Google reached a historic settlement with the Federal Trade Commission yesterday, bringing an end to the FTC's investigation into Google Buzz -- the social network that has mired the company in allegations of privacy violations.
Under the settlement, Google will have to implement a "comprehensive privacy program," and will be subject to independent audits for the next two decades. Yesterday's ...
by Thomas Houston on March 30, 2011 at 03:00 PM

Adding yet another thing to click as you make your way across the Web, Google has finally launched its long-rumored '+1' recommendation service. (Try it out here.) It seems that Google is augmenting its algorithmically derived search results with your contacts' recommendations. Google's Matt Cutts told AdAge, "When someone recommends something, that's a pretty good indicator of quality." The ...
by Matthew Zuras on March 29, 2011 at 10:40 AM

Forget Time's list of Twitter's best. Our newest local celebrity, a king cobra snake who's lately gone missing from the Bronx Zoo, has just won Twitter. (Fine, it's likely a spoof ghostwriter, but don't crush the dream.) The "super venomous, but not poisonous" Egyptian cobra disappeared on Saturday from the Reptile House exhibit; according to his Twitter account, he's since gone on to gawk at ...
by Amar Toor on March 29, 2011 at 10:00 AM

Twitter may be growing in population and volume, but, according to a new study from Cornell University and Yahoo Research, the site still relies upon a small fraction of its users to churn out the majority of its tweets.
The site currently boasts around 200 million users and sees about 140 million tweets per day. Half of those, however, are generated by less than 0.05-percent of all Twitter ...
by Amar Toor on March 29, 2011 at 09:15 AM

Police in South Carolina have arrested a teenage boy who has been accused of impersonating an officer on Facebook in hopes that his false identity would convince women to have sex with him.
Horry County police were alerted to the teen's scheme on March 14th, when a woman named Tonya Godwin complained that an officer was harassing her on Facebook. According to Godwin, a man going by the name of ...
by Terrence O'Brien on March 29, 2011 at 07:30 AM

'The Social Network' and '60 Minutes' may have given you a glimpse at the life of Mark Zuckerberg, but what do we know about the day-to-day operations at Facebook? MTV's 'Diary' plans to expose the inner workings of the social network by profiling a technical engineer named Pedram and a consumer-marketing employee named Erin. The episode will air this Wednesday at 11:00 p.m. ...
by Leila Brillson on March 28, 2011 at 03:30 PM

Time Magazine, master of the almighty listicle, has put together a list (two years too late) of the 140 best Twitter feeds. No-brainers like Lady Gaga and Ashton Kutcher obviously make the cut; suspiciously missing is the newly anointed warlock Charlie Sheen, or the acerbic insight of The Awl co-founder Choire Sicha. In their place lies the banal: the giggly ramblings of Taylor Swift, the ...
by Amar Toor on March 28, 2011 at 12:30 PM

Warner Bros. has announced that five new movies are now available to rent on Facebook, as part of a service that the studio launched earlier this month. In addition to 'The Dark Knight,' users will now be able to rent 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,' 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,' 'Inception,' 'Life as We Know It' and 'Yogi Bear.' Each film can be rented for 48 hours using ...
by Leila Brillson on March 28, 2011 at 12:10 PM

Odd Future, the group of relatively unknown teens from So-Cal who suddenly got the entire music world buzzing, are now known for many things. Eating and regurgitating roaches, hating on cops and storming out of shows are a few new trademarks, but member Tyler the Creator can now add romantic human flesh searches to his weird resume. This weekend, he tweeted, "Back In October I Met The Girl i ...
by Terrence O'Brien on March 28, 2011 at 10:00 AM

Twitter is better known for its ability to cost people jobs, but it can also land you a position with an employer (and not just by having your lame Twitter feed turned into an even lamer TV show). Advertising firm Campbell Mithun selected its incoming crop of summer interns through a Twitter contest dubbed 'Lucky 13.' Applicants were asked to pitch their qualifications in 140-character ...
by Abby Seiff on March 25, 2011 at 06:30 PM

MySpace -- wait, what? yes -- lost more than 10 million users in a matter of weeks. ComScore reported the drop came in a single month, between January and February. The fall follows a larger trend; the social network has bled some 50 million users in the last year.
The timing has a bit of chicken/egg feel to it, these numbers come right on the heels of January's massive layoffs, when nearly ...
by Amar Toor on March 25, 2011 at 01:10 PM

If you're over the age of 12 and not on Facebook, you're in the (slight) minority. According to a soon-to-be-published report from Edison Research, 51-percent of all American "adults" (i.e., ages 12 and up) have an account on the social networking site. Just three years ago, that figure was only 8-percent. There are also plenty of 12-year olds using the site, but Facebook is exterminating those ...
by Terrence O'Brien on March 25, 2011 at 06:30 AM

Back in July, Facebook launched Questions, a feature meant to take on reigning Q&A kings Quora, Aardvark and Yahoo! Answers. Saying that it fell short is being polite. Now the service is relaunching in a form that's nothing like its original targets. The new Questions is limited to friends and provides responses in an easy to read poll format. You can check it out now at ...