Social Media News Headlines - Yahoo! News

A year after IPO, Facebook aims to be ad colossus

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:21:53 -0400

It was supposed to be our IPO, the people's public offering. Facebook, the brainchild of a young CEO who sauntered into Wall Street meetings in a hoodie, was going to be bigger than Amazon, bigger than ...

Cricket-Warner to face disciplinary hearing over Twitter rant

Sun, 19 May 2013 02:23:51 -0400

May 19 (Reuters) - Australia opening batsman David Warner will face a disciplinary hearing for his Twitter outburst against two senior Australian cricket journalists, the country's cricket board said on Sunday. The flamboyant left-handed batsman criticised News Limited journalists Robert Craddock and Malcolm Conn in an expletive-filled tirade, which grabbed headlines in Australia. The 26-year-old has been charged with breaking the code of behaviour which pertains to "unbecoming behaviour, regarding comments posted on his Twitter account," Cricket Australia said in a statement. ...

Wyo. student who threatened to rape self on Facebook was convicted of assault

Sat, 18 May 2013 13:48:02 -0400

The 28-year-old University of Wyoming student who allegedly threatened herself with rape in a Facebook hoax in April was convicted of aggravated assault in 2005 after she brandished a gun at an employer who fired her.

Why Facebook makes breaking up even worse

Sat, 18 May 2013 09:30:00 -0400

Don't underestimate the emotional pain of going from "In a Relationship" to "Single"

Cricket-Australia to investigate Warner's Twitter rant

Sat, 18 May 2013 01:17:08 -0400

May 18 (Reuters) - Cricket Australia is to investigate an extraordinary Twitter outburst by opening batsmen David Warner that attacked two senior Australian cricket journalists. The 26-year-old Warner criticised News Limited journalists Robert Craddock and Malcolm Conn in an expletive-filled tirade, which has created headlines in Australia. "Cricket Australia is aware of comments made on David Warner's Twitter account overnight," Cricket Australia said in a statement on Saturday. "Cricket Australia is attempting to contact Warner and will continue to investigate the matter. ...

Syrian Electronic Army Adds Financial Times to Its Social Media Hacks

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:43:12 -0400

The Financial Times became the latest news agency to fall prey to the Syrian Electronic Army, the hacking group which has claimed the social media scalps of the AP, The Onion, the BBC, and NPR, perhaps signaling that news outlets should be more like The Onion and come clean about how they're getting hacked.

Are the new messaging apps from Facebook and Google a sign of fear?

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:05:44 -0400

It’s pretty fascinating that Facebook and Google debuted new messaging paradigms within six weeks of each other. Facebook Home’s one key feature is the prominent placement of its “chat heads” messaging alerts on the home screen. Google is launching a new messaging app particularly focused on group messaging. The debuts of these two initiatives fit within the same timeline: a sudden realization in 2012 that smartphone messaging had started evolving, followed by the feverish development of a new product that would finally launch in the spring of 2013. Facebook and Google are very much on the defense here. So what happened in 2012 that suddenly awakened these slumbering giants? Of course, there was the sheer volume explosion of WhatsApp, which

Syrian hackers compromise FT blog, Twitter feeds

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:47:00 -0400

LONDON (AP) — A clutch of Twitter accounts and a blog maintained by the Financial Times were hacked Friday, the latest in a series of cyberattacks claimed by the Syrian Electronic Army, a pro-government group which has regularly targeted media organizations it sees as sympathetic to the country's rebels.

Ore. bill guards workers' social media passwords

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:52:41 -0400

The Oregon Legislature has passed a bill barring bosses from demanding employees or job applicants turn over their Facebook passwords and other social media login information. In a 56 -3 vote on Thursday, ...

The Former Head of the FCC Is Now on Twitter

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:14:03 -0400

Julius Genachowski may no longer be a public servant. But that doesn't mean he's out of the public eye. On his last day as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Genachowski launched his own Twitter account. Of the four tweets he's posted so far, though, only one of them was written from his own account:

Syrian hackers compromise FT blogs, Twitter feeds

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:08:59 -0400

LONDON (AP) — A clutch of blogs and Twitter accounts maintained by the Financial Times were hacked Friday, the latest in a series of cyberattacks claimed by the Syrian Electronic Army, a pro-government group which often attacks media organizations it sees as sympathetic to the country's rebels.

Facebook’s first year as a public company: By the numbers

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:44:00 -0400

A look at how the social giant has fared on Wall Street

Saudi Twitter Users Have More to Worry About Than Going to Hell for Tweeting

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:30:54 -0400

Twitter was amused earlier today by reports of a Saudi Arabian sheikh dooming Twitter users to a loss of "this world and his afterlife." What to an American observer seems like inexplicable hyperbole may actually be an escalation of attempts to crackdown on a key tool for dissent.

Google Glass adds key apps, including CNN, Twitter, Facebook and Evernote

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:00:44 -0400

On the second day of Google’s I/O Developers conference, the company announced the availability of more “glassware” applications for its heavily hyped wearable computing device. Google Glass applications including CNN, Elle, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Evernote are available now to early Glass adopters, The New York Times reported. The applications join Path and The New York Times’ own app, which were previously the only other third-party apps available for the device. Each application will bring something unique to Google Glass. The CNN application, for example, allows users to be notified with news alerts for a specific topic, while the Evernote app will let users send notes, such as a grocery list, to Glass for reference later on.

Facebook, Twitter apps come to Glass, Google's wearable computer

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:42:34 -0400

By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Social networking services Facebook Inc and Twitter are coming to Google Glass, the wearable computer made by the Internet search company. Google Inc announced on Thursday a half-dozen apps specially designed to work on its Glass devices. News network CNN, fashion magazine Elle, as well as online apps Tumblr and Evernote were among the half-dozen new apps for Glass unveiled during Google's annual developer conference in San Francisco. ...

Why Miley Cyrus Refused To Delete Her Maxim Hot 100 Tweet

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:34:19 -0400

Miley Cyrus continues to be untamable!

UK politician sues for defamation in high-profile Twitter case

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:13:04 -0400

By Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - A retired British politician sued the wife of the House of Commons Speaker for defamation on Thursday, accusing her of implying in a tweet that he was a pedophile guilty of sexually abusing boys living in a care home. Alistair McAlpine, an associate of the late former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, is seeking damages from Sally Bercow in Britain's most high-profile Twitter defamation case to date. ...

Cricket-'Jeeks', 'nuffies' and moms targeted by cricketing Facebook

Thu, 16 May 2013 02:59:52 -0400

By Greg Stutchbury WELLINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - Hunched over desks staring at computer screens paid for in part by New Zealand cricket captain Brendon McCullum, employees at a small Wellington company are hard at work laying the foundations for what they hope will be the next social media revolution. Targeting the estimated billion players and fans of the English bat-and-ball game around the world, CricHQ aims to build an online community which could be crudely described as Facebook for cricket. ...

College grads think Microsoft is a better place to work than Amazon or Facebook

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:40:09 -0400

College graduates would love to land a job at Google, Apple or one of the many startups in Silicon Valley. But according to a survey from Universum Global, there are quite a few students who would prefer the rainy days in Washington over working in the golden state. The American Student Survey asked students from five different fields of study — business, engineering, IT, natural sciences and liberal arts — about their ideal company to work for. Companies such as Google and Apple unsurprisingly topped the charts in almost all categories, however there were some surprising results: Microsoft consistently outranked both Facebook and Amazon. The company ranked higher than Amazon in all fields of study and even higher than Apple in IT. Students

Google boosts photo offerings to rival Facebook

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:24:09 -0400

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is digging deeper into its technology toolkit to turn its social networking service into a more formidable threat to Facebook, sprucing up its photo features at a time when sharing snapshots online and on mobile gadgets is growing more popular.

Bahrain convicts 6 of Twitter insults

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:08:00 -0400

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — A lawyer says Bahraini courts have sentenced six people to a year in prison on charges of making Twitter posts deemed offensive to the Gulf nation's king.

Facebook VP, former Diageo exec join Hertz board

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:49:35 -0400

Rental car company Hertz Global Holdings Inc. said Wednesday that a Facebook marketing executive and a former executive with alcohol maker Diageo have been elected to its board. Carolyn Everson is a marketing ...

Bahrain court jails six for insulting king on Twitter

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:57:38 -0400

DUBAI (Reuters) - A Bahraini court jailed six people for a year on Wednesday for insulting King Hamad bin Issa al Khalifa in messages on the microblogging site Twitter, the official news agency said. The six were accused of writing remarks "undermining the values and traditions of Bahrain's society towards the king on Twitter," the Bahrain News Agency quoted the head of the public prosecutor's office, Nayef Youssef, as saying in a statement. ...

As China's social media takes off, Beijing's censorship campaign heats up

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:53:41 -0400

Chinese government censors are silencing influential opponents by shutting down their social media accounts on the pretext of a campaign against online rumors, victims of the practice say.

Google+ seemingly still a ghost town; brands continue to prefer Facebook, Twitter

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:45:03 -0400

Google announced last fall that its social networking site was home to 400 million members with more than 100 million active monthly users. Despite these numbers, many people are apparently continuing to ignore Google+, a service that has been labeled a ghost town. Perhaps even more concerning is Google’s inability to win over brands and businesses that have instead turned to connect with customers on competing websites. “The main reason we are more active on Facebook than Google+ is because that is where our customers and our target demographic are spending their time,” said Dave Gilboa, the co-founder of online eyewear company Warby Parker, said to Reuters. Data from Nielsen Media Research revealed that in March the average U.S. Google+ user spent a mere

Google’s new Android boss says software like Facebook Home could be blocked

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:50:21 -0400

Android will likely always be open source, but just how open the platform will remain is an ongoing question. In a recent interview with Wired, Google’s new Android boss covered a lot of bases. He discussed the future of Android and dispelled speculation that it might merge with Chrome OS, but he also gave a somewhat unexpected answer to a question that many industry watchers have pondered for some time now: Just how open will Android be in the future? From Wired’s recent interview with Sundar Pichai: Some people worry that Google might respond to Facebook Home by blocking this kind of approach in a future release. We want to be a very, very open platform, but we want a way by

Social Roulette Is the Best (and Scariest) Way to Delete Your Facebook Account

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:12:57 -0400

If you have suicidal Facebook tendencies — as in, you want off the social network but just can't bare to part with your photos, wall posts, and all those precious, precious likes — then you should probably try playing the new game Social Roulette.

The Facebook Phone Is Reportedly Dead

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:09:17 -0400

The end of the Facebook phone is nearing. Five weeks after Facebook debuted the HTC First — and four days after AT&T dropped the price on the phone to less than a dollar (with contract) — the joint venture appears to be unraveling. Tech blog BGR reported on Monday morning that AT&T officials are planning to discontinue the phone due to the poor sales, and return any unsold phones to its Taiwanese manufacturer, HTC. ...

Facebook’s billion-dollar Waze deal reportedly hits a serious snag

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:55:25 -0400

Facebook’s bid to buy social navigation company Waze has seemingly hit a serious snag that has stalled the deal for the time being. Calcalist, the Israeli newspaper that first broke news of Facebook’s plans to acquire Waze, has followed up its original report with news that the two companies are having problems coming to terms in a few key areas. The biggest issue appears to be Facebook’s desire to shutter Waze’s Israel-base research and development center and transfer several key Waze employees to Facebook’s U.S. headquarters. According to the paper’s sources, Waze CEO Noam Bardin and company founders Ehud Shabtai, Uri Levine and Amir Shinar insist that the firm’s main R&D center should remain operational and they want to keep all of their employees

No Home for Facebook at AT&T: HTC First to be discontinued

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:10:28 -0400

The HTC First, or “Facebook phone” as many prefer to call it, is officially a flop. It certainly wasn’t a good sign when AT&T dropped the price of HTC’s First to $0.99 just one month after its debut, and now BGR has confirmed that HTC and Facebook’s little experiment is nearing its end. BGR has learned from a trusted source that sales of the HTC First have been shockingly bad. So bad, in fact, that AT&T has already decided to discontinue the phone. Our source at AT&T has confirmed that the HTC First, which is the first smartphone to ship with Facebook Home pre-installed, will soon be discontinued and unsold inventory will be returned to HTC. How much unsold inventory

Another reason for Facebook Home’s rough start: The team behind it didn’t fully understand Android

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:20:17 -0400

Facebook Home gave the world its first glimpse at the future of Facebook’s mobile strategy, and it shows a huge amount of promise. The flood of poor reviews from early adopters showed that Facebook still has a lot of work to do to tweak the software, however. According to a new report, part of the reason so many Android users disliked the first version of Facebook Home is because not everyone on the team behind the new Android software was well-suited to build Home. One of the reasons Home was received poorly was the face that it completely hides several of Android’s key functions like real-time data available in widgets, docks and app folders. According to TechCrunch, these features are

9 suspected criminals who got themselves caught via social media [Updated]

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:43:00 -0400

Sometimes oversharing on the internet does more than just annoy your friends. It can even land you in jail

NBC promotes fall season with Twitter contest

Mon, 13 May 2013 08:42:31 -0400

NBC is giving the public more than just a new slate of programming. There are prizes to be had, too. The network said Sunday that it's holding a Twitter-based sweepstakes linked to its fall schedule presentation ...

Facebook owns up to Home flaws, vows to push out quick fixes

Fri, 10 May 2013 22:45:37 -0400

It’s difficult to tell whether Facebook Home has been successful or not since it has been downloaded more than 1 million times so far but has also been bombed with negative reviews that could mean it has a short shelf life. Technology Review reports that Facebook is acknowledging that its first attempt at creating its own Android overlay has some flaws and it is vowing to fix them in future releases. Among other things, Technology Review says that Facebook is adding “a launcher that makes it easier to see your non-Facebook apps and doesn’t reorganize them,” “a way to create folders of apps within the launcher” and “a dock at the bottom of the screen that gives you quick access

Where do Twitter's racist users live?

Fri, 10 May 2013 12:37:00 -0400

Probably closer than you think

Twitter eyes big business in Brazil's World Cup, Olympics

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:54:00 -0400

By Esteban Israel SAO PAULO (Reuters) - While Brazil struggles to finish its stadiums in time for the 2014 World Cup, Twitter is already working to cash in on what the U.S. company's head of revenue, Adam Bain, sees as a potentially huge business opportunity. Robust consumer spending, growth potential from still-low Internet penetration and fast adoption of smart phones have turned this nation of 194 million people into an attractive market for Twitter and other online giants. ...

Is Facebook barking up the wrong tree with Home?

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:00:55 -0400

Is Facebook doing its homework? We trust that Facebook is analyzing usage stats when deciding which handsets to address with its Home rollout, but it seems odd that Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and the HTC One, which both became supported by Home on Friday, would be high on the list of devices used by hardcore Facebook addicts — the ones Home is likely best suited for. Home is an immersive software suite that takes over an Android phone’s home screen and app launcher, replacing them with a river of Facebook photos and a new launcher that provides quick access to various Facebook features. Could a Facebook takeover possibly be something the average Galaxy S4 or HTC One user is looking for?

Facebook's Emerging Markets: Brazil, Mexico & Your Dad

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:31:06 -0400

The tales of Facebook's demise have been greatly exaggerated. And that growth is not just outside the United States. New research expects Facebook users to grow by at least 30 percent this year, reaching a total of 1.26 billion global users by next year.

Social media raises concern about Disney trademark

Thu, 09 May 2013 20:49:46 -0400

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — When Lalo Alcaraz learned this week that Disney was seeking to trademark "Dia de los Muertos," the name of the traditional "Day of the Dead" celebrated by millions in Mexico and the U.S., the cartoonist had an idea.

How Facebook could save Nokia’s skin in emerging markets

Thu, 09 May 2013 16:50:48 -0400

With Nokia’s share of handset sales in emerging markets under assault, the company may have an unlikely white knight come to its rescue: Facebook. No, Facebook isn’t planning to release a version of Facebook Home for Lumia models anytime soon but Quartz’s Leo Mirani explains that Facebook is bringing some features to Nokia’s $99 line of new Asha phones that could make them very attractive to first-time handset buyers. In particular, Mirani says that the new Asha 501 comes with “free data for Facebook if consumers use one of the wireless carriers that have agreed” to provide it. This is crucial because Facebook has really taken off in important emerging markets India and Brazil, and Nokia is hoping that customers