Internet

Facebook may begin snooping on smartphone users in order to target them with more relevant advertisements. The strategy could prove a huge money-maker, but may be a step too far for some of the social network's users. The massive social network ... currently makes most of its revenue from advertising. However, it has struggled to cash in when people visit the site using a smartphone. In recent financial filings, Facebook admitted this could become a serious handicap as more and more people choose to access the social media site from their phones instead of their computers. Facebook had already ... (view more)

Twitter has released new figures showing government requests for information about its users. It's a report similar to the one produced by Google, though with some notable differences. For the past three years, Google has produced these kinds of ... statistics every six months. The idea is to show changes in government demands for specific user information. Twitter openly acknowledges it has copied Google's idea. It says releasing the figures will force governments to be more accountable about the information they demand. (Source: twitter.com ) Twitter's newly-published data covers all government ... (view more)

Several major websites were briefly knocked offline this past weekend by a quirk in the calendar: a 'leap second' -- the rare additional tick added worldwide to clocks that fixes a natural flaw in our time-keeping systems. The 'leap second' is used ... around the world on computerized time systems because a year on our clocks is slightly shorter than the actual the time it takes the Earth to go once around the sun. Nowadays, we take most of our time signals from an atomic clock, which measures the vibrations of atoms in a metal called cesium so accurately that a one second error is nearly as ... (view more)

After quietly changing the default email addresses of all its users to @facebook.com, on their profile pages, Facebook is now being blamed for causing multiple unwanted (and unwarranted) address book changes. The end result: an even fiercer backlash ... from Facebook's member base than we saw just a few days ago. It was bad enough when Facebook decided to overstep its boundaries and force an email change on all its users, whether or not they had agreed to sign on for the new email service. But further tensions arose when the company also decided to splash those new email addresses across each ... (view more)

Online travel agency Orbitz is reportedly offering more expensive hotels to Mac users than to people using a PC. The agency has made this adjustment intentionally, based on research showing that Mac users regularly pay more for Internet hotels ... bookings. According to reports, Orbitz examined data from past bookings and found that the average price PC users pay through the site for a night in a hotel is about $100. However, Mac users pay an average of $20 to $30 extra for the same bookings. Mac Users More Likely to Spend Big The data showed a consistent pattern: Mac users are 40 per cent more ... (view more)

That sneaky Facebook. For years, the social networking site tracked its users' online activity and sold the information to third-party advertisers. Now the company has decided to force a new @facebook.com email address on all its users, even those ... who have not signed on for the service. Worst yet, the social media company has plonked its new email address right onto its users' main Facebook page. According to reports, the email address now appears on everyone's main Facebook page and cannot be deleted. However, users can choose to hide the @facebook.com email address from public visitors, as ... (view more)

Business-oriented social networking site LinkedIn has been hacked. According to new reports, hackers infiltrated the site's systems and stole an estimated 6.5 million passwords. LinkedIn is a social media platform designed with business users in ... mind. It allows members to find past and present colleagues, to search for new jobs, and exchange advice and expertise with workers in their field. It's estimated that approximately 161 million people have LinkedIn accounts, which means that it's no surprise this most recent security breach has caught the attention of many social media users. Stolen ... (view more)

Two weeks ago, social networking site Facebook made headline news by taking its stock public . Immediately afterwards, analysts began debating whether the stock was a winner or a loser. Now, one analyst says people should stay away from Facebook ... stock; in fact, he has gone so far as to suggest that the entire Facebook enterprise could disappear by the year 2020. According to Ironfire Capital founder Eric Jackson, Facebook's difficulties in making the transition into the mobile market will prove to be its undoing. In Facebook's place will arise entirely new companies that will succeed by more ... (view more)

Verizon has announced that it will double the download speed of its top-tier broadband service. Observers regard this as a somewhat startling announcement, given that this service is already considered the fastest in the United States. According to ... reports, Verizon subscribers who sign up for its top service will soon have access to download speeds ranging up to 300 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of 65 Mbps. Download Movies in Two Minutes To put these data transfer speeds into context, reports the LA Times, subscribers to this faster broadband service will be able to download a ... (view more)

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Julius Genachowski says he's happy Comcast may begin offering Internet service on a pay-per-use basis. It would be a change from the more common model of charging a flat rate. Comcast recently ... announced it is dropping its 250 GB monthly download limit . Instead, it will now allow users to go above its new 300 GB "soft" limit, but only upon paying an additional fee. The company is also looking at offering several different service packages, with monthly data allowances that depend on the price paid, much like today's mobile broadband ... (view more)