facebook

In an effort to appease its advertisers, Facebook plans to more aggressively remove ads from Pages and Groups that host content of a violent, graphic, or sexual nature, the social network said Friday.

The change, which will start as a manual review process and become automated over time, means the social network will actively restrict ads from appearing on the right-hand side of Groups and Pages, such as those selling adult products.

"While we already have rigorous review and removal policies for content against our terms, we recognize we need to do more to prevent situations where ads are … Read more

Facebook launched hashtags earlier this month, but now it's upping the anty. As of Thursday, hashtags will work on the social network's mobile site and the company is also debuting related hashtags, according to TechCrunch.

What this means is that Facebook hashtags could start to be a lot more abundant and easier to integrate.

Facebook describes hashtags as a way to "turn topics and phrases into clickable links in posts on your personal timeline or your Page, and help people find posts about topics they're interested in." For example, Facebook says, write a post along … Read more

I love animated GIFs. They're quick, there's an art to them, and as obnoxious as they might be visually -- they're silent.

My big problem with this whole Vine and Instagram video boom is that the end product is often unintentionally noisy -- sometimes even jarring. I used to browse my Instagram feed like I was walking through an endless art gallery made by my friends. But now it seems like every few posts there's a video sucking down my bandwidth and assaulting my ears with a cut-up of ambient noise.

Close your eyes and your … Read more

On Thursday Facebook announced its plans to begin letting Android users test unreleased builds of its app. The testing will allow Facebook to gain more insight on how its app behaves across a wide range of carriers, devices, and operating systems. The best part is that it's an opt-in program, so only users who want to deal with issues and bugs typically found in beta builds of an app will sign up.

Are you willing to deal with some issues in order to make the Facebook Android app better for everyone? If so, make sure you use the same … Read more

Facebook is slowly but surely improving its Home suite of software to better meet the needs of its Android audience. Thursday, the social network released a new beta version of Facebook for Android that finally includes the addition of application folders.

Facebook for Android 3.4, just released to the company's brand-new group of Android beta testers, includes the Home improvement and allows users of the package to organize applications into folders.

To create a folder, users just drag one app on top of another. Folders can be named and added to a person's application drawer for even … Read more

Facebook is currently testing a chat room product to stimulate viral discussions among friends, TechCrunch was first to report. The social network later confirmed the test to CNET.

Facebook chat rooms would allow members to click "Host Chat" from atop their home page, TechCrunch reported, citing a source familiar with the project. Once a person decides to host a chat, any of their Facebook friends could then join the chat without an invitation.

Chats would be promoted in News Feed, though the host would have the option to set privacy restrictions, TechCrunch said. The rooms, however, reportedly only … Read more

MENLO PARK, Calif. -- Facebook is lifting up its hood for Android users who are willing to help it test, and ultimately approve, its Android apps.

The social network launched a beta testing program at a press event on Thursday, using Google Play's new beta partnership program, a process where users sign up -- through Google+, of course -- to test for bugs and crashes.

"We're inviting this group of people to join the dog-fooding family," Mike Shaver, director of engineering for mobile, said, using the term that describes when a company requires its employees to … Read more

After three years guiding the social network's ad strategy, Facebook Product Director of Ads Gokul Rajaram is jumping ship.

Buzzy mobile payment company Square said Thursday that it has hired the social-networking executive to lead its product engineering efforts and oversee software development for Square Register, its point-of-sale system for businesses.

Rajaram joined Facebook when his startup Chai Labs was acquired by the company in August 2010. Since then, he has served as an instrumental moneymaker for Facebook, guiding the social network through a number of significant advertising initiatives, such as Facebook Exchange and mobile ad releases, that have … Read more