social

Facebook may be aiming to spend anywhere from $800 million to $1 billion to acquire Waze, an Israel-based company that offers a socially informed GPS app for drivers.

Talks reportedly kicked off six months ago, according to Israeli business-news site Calcalist, which says that due diligence is currently under way. This would mean that the two companies are checking each other out before signing on the dotted line. The two also have signed a term sheet, or an agreement in principle on the sale, according to Calcalist.

An agreement sounds like it could be close. However, sources close to Waze … Read more

Even though Hipstamatic and Instagram are photo-sharing partners, it seems like Hipstamatic is looking to add a little more social networking to its world.

The company announced Wednesday that it's launching a Hipstamatic spin-off app called Oggl for iOS. The idea is for people to take Hipstamatic-like photos and then share them with friends and family.

According to a Hipstamatic blog post by co-founders Lucas Buick and Ryan Dorshorst, Oggl is "a community for creative people to capture and curate their lives through photography." The company is clear that it doesn't want Oggl to be full … Read more

If you've been relying on TweetDeck as a front-end for your Facebook account, it's time to look elsewhere.

Starting today, Twitter-owned TweetDeck no longer supports Facebook. That move, which Twitter announced in March, was part of the social-networking giant's effort to "focus our development efforts on our modern, Web-based versions of TweetDeck."

As expected, as part of the move Twitter also has removed support for TweetDeck for Air and versions of the client for iPhone and Android.

For now, TweetDeck for Mac is still available, but one has to wonder how long that will be … Read more

"My agent just sent my book to publishers! Fingers crossed!" That's the status message I just stopped myself from writing on Facebook.

It took all the willpower I've ever had.

In fact, I'm now eating a block of cheese because focusing so hard on not updating Facebook with that status has depleted my willpower reserves. My diet is left defenseless.

I'm 29, and I'm working hard to make a living, to produce something I am proud of, to pay the rent, to scrape some savings together, to make time for love, to eat … Read more

Cinemagram cannot help but get comparisons to Vine. It offers very similar functionality in a very similar interface, but there are a few added features that make it at least worth trying out if you are eager to experiment with as many video creation apps as possible on your iPhone.

Cinemagram looks very similar to most photo/video sharing social networks on iPhone. Open the app and you'll find an option to create your own shared item and menus to navigate the items shared by friends and other users. The home menu by default includes recent and popular shares … Read more

Social-gaming company Zynga staked its claim with FarmVille. And now -- when Zynga has been reaping more than sowing -- the company will rely on that same title to restore its ailing operation.

In a Reuters interview published Monday, Pincus said his company is relying on FarmVille 2 to rebuild. The company's revenue jumped to $1.2 billion in 2012, but losses continue to pile up.

A key component to the turnaround plan is to give FarmVille players the same experience on mobile as on desktop.

"The ideal is to make that one seamless experience between Web and … Read more

Twitter said Thursday it has hired a new head of corporate development who happens to have years of experience with, among other things, IPOs.

Last week, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey said that the company "isn't even thinking about" an IPO, despite months of speculation in the media and elsewhere that the social networking giant is preparing to go public.

And while Cynthia Gaylor, Twitter's new head of corporate development, has plenty of experience with other things, including mergers and acquisitions, it's notable that IPOs were an important part of her portfolio during her time as … Read more

Developers got a little more control today over how embedded Twitter timelines appear.

In a blog post Thursday, Twitter said it has made some minor modifications to the way its embedded timeline tool works.

For one, the post said, developers can now choose how many tweets appear, so long as they're happy with a number from one to 20.

Second, Twitter now lets developers decide whether they want a scrollbar to appear on an embedded timeline. Apparently, this is something that people have been asking about. But while Twitter is now enabling those who want to get rid of … Read more

In this week's episode of Hooked Up, Kevin Frazier hangs out on the set of "NCIS" with actress Pauley Perrette, who plays Abby Sciuto, the show's fan-favorite quirky forensic scientist. She talks about her role as the social media ambassador for CBS during "Tweet Week" and how she used Twitter to help keep the Hope Gardens shelter for families open.

Pauley bring hers own tech on set, including the dirtiest Macbook you've probably ever seen, and she shows us some of the fun set pieces in Abby's lab. She also talks about … Read more