Social networking

Every time a student gets hold of guns and begins to shoot them all over campus, wise people theorize.

What was it that brought him (seems always to be a "him") to such extreme action? What personality factors should have made his state of mind obvious? What behavior should have been spotted so that he could have been offered care and guidance?

Such a discussion has again emerged after Colton Tooley, a 19-year-old math student, allegedly availed himself of an AK-47 and randomly shot it around before shooting himself on the University of Texas campus.

The AP reports … Read more

New research from social-analytics company Sysomos reveals--surprise!--that your tweets have fleeting value over the course of a day and, moreover, a lifetime.

Using the retweet as a key indicator for the life of a short message, Sysomos examined 1.2 billion tweets posted in the last two months. The data shows that 29 percent of tweets produced a reaction, either a reply or retweet, and that 92 percent of retweets occur within the first hour of the original message.

This is an interesting set of data, with respect to the fact that companies have begun to embrace social media … Read more

NEW YORK--Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg talked about a lot of things in an on-stage discussion Wednesday afternoon with Huffington Post co-founder and namesake Arianna Huffington: the roles of women in the business world, the controversial nature of "The Social Network," and the unsanctioned cinematic retelling of Facebook's early days that premieres on Friday.

"The movie's really fun, and it's very Hollywood," Sandberg said, a cheerier reaction to the film than Facebook executives reportedly made behind closed doors upon seeing an early cut of the David Fincher-directed film. She did, however, classify … Read more

Let's face it: the typical tweet in the Twitosphere (if you need help with the vernacular, consult the Twictionary) is about as revelatory as the words going into the cell phone of the girl sitting behind me on the bus last night. The vast majority are meaningless to strangers--and probably even to close friends.

But the sheer volume of Twitter activity (the site is "over capacity" as I type this) turns otherwise banal tweets into telling trends, when scrutinized in the aggregate, and health trends are no exception.

"A microblogging service such as Twitter is a … Read more

You didn't think Facebook would integrate with Google Voice, did you?

Actually, according to sources close to the situation, Facebook and Skype are poised to announce a significant and wide-ranging partnership that will include integration of SMS, voice chat, and Facebook Connect.

The move by the pair--which have tested small contact importer integrations before--is a natural one for the social-networking giant, which is aiming to be the central communications and messaging platform for its users, across a range of media.

Facebook's goal, according to sources: to mesh communications and community more tightly together and add more tools to … Read more

If you needed any further proof that the story of Facebook's origins has captivated the world, get this: A Vancouver-based comic book company called Bluewater Productions announced on Monday that later this year, it'll be releasing a title called "Mark Zuckerberg: Creator of Facebook."

The team behind it says it is attempting to strike a balance between portraying Zuckerberg as a benevolent philanthropist and critical player in the hot education reform movement, and a ruthless young business genius in the league of the film "The Social Network," which premiered Friday in New York to rave reviews.… Read more

As part of its efforts to better monetize its services, Friendster is looking to expand its brand beyond just a social-networking site to one that encompasses games and location-based services.

In an interview with ZDNet Asia, MOL Global CEO Ganesh Kumar Bangah highlighted social networks, social games and location-based services as three key areas of growth, noting that the company now wants to bring these elements together and expand Friendster beyond just a social network. A Malaysia-based payments company, MOL acquired Friendster last December.

Pointing to Facebook, Zynga, and Groupon as currently the biggest players in the three respective segments, … Read more

I am sure you were, as I was, worried. When a Windows Phone 7 ad appeared that promised revolution, one felt several unnecessary revolutions in one's normally placid parts.

However, two new ads, which appear slightly unfinished, have leaked via WMPowerUser, and there is no hammer and sickle, no mention of Cuba, not even some sad, slick promise that your life will be revolutionized. (It does, however, appear that some of the scenes were shot in Budapest.)

Instead, very cleverly, Microsoft is suggesting you get a life. One that doesn't involve staring into your phone all day. The … Read more

Apple has made a small but important change to Ping that improves it considerably. It's not enough to make the much-maligned social network a real winner, but it's a good a start: An update to iTunes now allows you to interact with Ping directly from your music player, instead of having to make a visit to Ping itself.

So now you can recommend songs to your friends, and see the music they recommend, at the same you're actually listening to songs.

It's a such an obvious feature that it's hard to believe that Apple didn'… Read more