While apologies from BP to the world regarding its environmental disaster and even from a U.S. Congressman to BP have stolen headlines of late, the tech industry has not been without its fair share of apologies during the first half of 2010 either.
Facebook, according to its CEO, is built around the simple idea that people want to share things with "their friends and the people around them."
Facebook claims to have more than 400 million active users. In fact, according to Web analytics firm Alexa, only Google is a more popular site. So, with all that going for it, why are so many users unhappy, with one poll showing that more than half of Facebook users are thinking about leaving?
It looks like Zynga, the casual online games developer known for its wildly popular farm simulations, ticking off Facebook, and alleged "lead generation" scams just added another lifeline to its list of audience-expanding deals by cozying up to Yahoo.
Facebook deserves plenty of blame for messing too much with its privacy settings, but no amount of fixing will stop people from embarrassing themselves on the Internet.
Want an expert lesson in how to respond without actually responding and how to apologize without saying you're sorry? Then you need to read Facebook CEO Mark Zukerberg's quasi-mea culpa in today's Washington Post. Do it now; I'll wait.
New Yorker Barry Hoggard draws a line in the sand when it comes to online privacy. In May he said farewell to 1251 Facebook friends by deleting his account of four years to protest what he calls the social network's eroding privacy policies.
Facebook's privacy problems reportedly have the social network rethinking its approach, and a new poll suggests that the threat of user decline is real, but don't expect a mass exodus any time soon.
As complaints about Facebook continue to pile up to epic proportions, its competitors are receiving glittering press, financial support, and spikes in site traffic. Is this a signal that the Great Facebook Exodus has begun, and can the trend maintain momentum?
Facebook appears to be working diligently at establishing itself as the site that people love to hate. Don't get me wrong, passionate views are a mark of success--just look at Microsoft, Apple, and Google. Still, the trick is to foster that passion (and generate revenue) without inviting undue regulatory scrutiny or legal backlash.
Facebook wants to know "What's on your mind?" Twitter asks "What's happening?" But that's getting old already. The burning question for the next wave of social networking is "Where are you?"--and services like Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite, and Loopt want you to use your smartphone to answer it.
Facebook has been awarded a patent for "dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network."
Dear Facebook, I appreciate your service. I really do.
The most popular Web sites are under increasing pressure to add support for IPv6, a long-anticipated upgrade to IPv4, the Internet's main communications protocol.
Facebook is tracking your every move on the site -- or so says one purported Facebook employee, according to an anonymous interview with the Rumpus. In the interview, the Facebook employee, whose identity was protected so she wouldn't lose her job for talking to the media, also said that Facebook employees have relatively easy access to user accounts.
