social networking

Foggy Bottom's future social-media approach? Hold that tweet

There's deliberative. There's slow. And then there's the U.S. State Department, which is reportedly considering a policy that would hold up employee tweets from going live for a couple of days as they went through official review and approval.

The State Department indirectly responded to leaks about the draft proposal, which was first reported by the blog Diplopundit, in an e-mail comment to CNET from spokesman Mark Toner.

Provisions in the Department's Foreign Affairs Manual are constantly under review. We are in the process of updating the regulations governing publication -- both traditional and digital … Read more

Social media grows out of its infancy stage

Social networking is no longer a passing trend as we entered the fully-fledged social media age this year, according to the Nielsen and NM Incite's 2012 Social Media Report.

The core finding of the report is that American consumers continue to spend more time on social networks than on any other category of sites.

But what might be more notable is what devices they are using to access the Internet, and by extension, social networks. Nielsen found that most consumers spent 30 percent of total time online via mobile mobile devices this past year -- compared with approximately 20 … Read more

Holy tweet! The pope comes to Twitter with @pontifex

Pope Benedict XVI will make his way to Twitter on December 12, the Vatican announced today.

The pope will start tweeting on December 12 under the username, "@pontifex," the Vatican has confirmed. Speaking to Reuters in an interview posted today, Greg Burke, senior media advisor to the Vatican, said that the name means "pope," as well as "bridge builder."

When the Pope takes over his account next week, it won't be the very, very first time he'll have shared his thoughts in 140 characters. Last year, when the Vatican portal launched, the … Read more

The crazy truth: Google+ can thrive alongside Facebook

It's easy to call Facebook the social network of the past. It's harder to build the social network of the future.

To hear Bradley Horowitz tell it, though, Google is well on its way. Google+, he says, lets people share with others in a more natural way than its competitors. Easy privacy controls, an environment free from obtrusive advertising, and highly polished mobile apps combine on Google+ to deliver a next-generation social network, as Horowitz tells it.

"It's not attempting to chase the social networks of the past," he said this week at a Business Insider conference in New York, … Read more

Firefox and Facebook Messenger can now be BFFs

Firefox and Facebook Messenger now can be besties, if you want them to.

Firefox 17 debuted yesterday ( download for Windows | Mac | Linux) with a new social API that lets social-networking services hook deeply into the browser.

With Facebook, that means that your Messenger sidebar -- the status updates and friends online -- will be persistent across any site you visit. It's easy to set up and if you know how to use Facebook, you practically know how to use the sidebar, too.

First, make sure you're running at least Firefox 17, log in to Facebook, then go to … Read more

Indian police arrest student for a political Facebook post

Shaheen Dhada wasn't sure what to expect when police called her house Sunday night. The 21-year-old medical student who lives in Mumbai, India, had just posted a political statement on Facebook and her friend Renu Srinivasan "liked" the post.

Within hours, the two young women were arrested and charged with using speech that was offensive and hateful, according to the New York Times.

Now, just days later, Dhada and Srinivasan have come to symbolize India's intolerance of free speech. Tens of thousands of people have taken to social networks criticizing the government's arrests of the … Read more

Like? New Firefox adds Facebook integration

Facebook has accepted a friend request from Firefox and Mozilla's new Social API today, as the browser updates with several security and feature updates after yesterday's Firefox for Android update.

The biggest feature debut in Firefox 17 (download for Windows | Mac | Linux) is the Social API, launching with Facebook Messenger, which allows participating social-networking sites to create persistent sidebar access to their site. Although most new browser technologies depend on entirely on how many developers integrate it, the Social API likely will be different.

To activate it, go to the Facebook Messenger for Firefox site and click "… Read more

YouTube makes it easier to link to Google+

YouTube began gently prodding all users operating under nicknames like cutepuppies99 and origamiboys1981 to start using their real names last July. It did this by urging them to hook their Google Plus profiles up with their YouTube channel and therefore, by default, they'd have to use their real names.

Now, the video service is letting users keep their anonymous name but is still giving them the option of linking to their Google+ page. It's even giving people the option of changing their Google+ name to match their YouTube channel identity.

"While using a full name from a … Read more

Use Nextdoor to prepare your neighborhood for disaster

We don't know where, we don't know when, but we do know for sure that disaster will strike. The only thing we can do is prepare for a day we hope never arrives: the day something turns our world upside-down, as Sandy has done for so many people in New York, New Jersey, and other parts of the East Coast.

You can help your neighborhood get ready for whatever calamity fate may have in store by creating a neighbor social network that links to emergency-preparedness information customized to your locality. The free Nextdoor private social network launched recently … Read more