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Facebook tries to get some love for Friendship Pages

Facebook today revamped its Friendship Pages, a little-known feature that's suppose to take you on a trip down memory lane with any of your Facebook friends.

The social network may be using the redesign to bring more attention to the feature. The idea, the fruit of a hackathon, was rolled out about a year ago. The pages exist for each relationship you have and shows any posts, photos, and events that you and another person have shared.

If you are "in a relationship with" someone, like the happy couple pictured above, you can go to www.facebook.com/us … Read more

Election 2012 on Facebook: Chatter reaches new heights

While there's no telling how much impact Facebook had on U.S voters, the social network says its users talked a lot, creating more election buzz than ever.

There were 71.7 million election-related mentions in posts and comments in the U.S. yesterday, and 88.7 million globally, Facebook said today.

The company's data team used its "Talk Meter" to measure the chatter -- posts and comments -- around the election and, ranking them on a scale of 1 to 10, Facebook said. Election 2012 buzz came in at a 9.27. That compares to … Read more

An Election Day Instagram is worth a thousand tweets

If there's been one sacred cow that's stood the test of time in America, it's the secrecy of a citizen's ballot. But in the age of Instagram, that cow has wandered straight off the farm.

Do a search for "Election2012" on Instagram today and there's no shortage of pictures of people's ballots. Or polling places, people's "I voted" stickers, and even Big Bird waiting to exercise his franchise. Whether they're excited that they voted -- maybe for the first time? -- or if they just want all the world to know who they picked, it's clear that a lot of people think Instagram is the obvious way to share their enthusiasm for the election.

Regardless of the fact that there seems to be a school of thought that Instagramming your ballot may be illegal, there's no doubt that the election, following immediately after Hurricane Sandy slammed the East Coast, is a big moment for the young photo-sharing service. … Read more

Young people talk about election on social media. Well, duh

This may come as a shock, but social media is a "significant" part of the voting process for young people.

A new report from Pew Research finds that 22 percent of voters have told others how they voted via social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter. For young people between the ages of 18 to 29, that percentage jumps to 29 percent.

And even more people -- about 30 percent of registered voters -- have been "encouraged to vote" for a certain candidate via posts on the sites. For the 18- to 29-year-olds, a whopping … Read more

Morgan Stanley tries to stop Facebook investor arbitration

Morgan Stanley, the lead banker on Facebook's messy IPO, is attempting to stop a Facebook investor from seeking securities arbitration related to the stock offering, according to a report from Reuters.

Because the investor isn't a Morgan Stanley customer, the firm has argued in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court that the arbitration shouldn't proceed. It argues the investor, Uma Swaminathan of East Brunswick, N.J., ordered shares through Vanguard Financial, according to the report.

Swaminathan, meanwhile, has said the botched IPO has cost the investor $1.9 million in damages.

Swaminathan filed a claim with … Read more

Regifted! Facebook resets Gifts event for post-Sandy NYC

Facebook has rescheduled its Gifts events for November 15, making its second attempt to hold the presser in New York following problems from Hurricane Sandy.

The event, originally scheduled for November 1, will now be held next week. It will still take place at the FAO Schwarz on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Sandy, which swept through New York early last week, caused widespread power outages and transportation issues, and that led many companies to cancel or postpone their events. That included a couple events scheduled by Facebook, as well as a device launch by Google.

Facebook again gave few details … Read more

Facebook shows off its musical app chops

Showing off its ability to draw music lovers to music apps on its Open Graph, Facebook revealed today that its users have played 62.6 million songs 22 billion times in the last 13 months.

Facebook posted the stats of six music apps on the platform's Open Graph, which lets third-party companies build applications for Facebook. Since the graph launched in September 2011, these apps have seen a lot of social referrals, according to Facebook. The company is reminding developers that it has the ability to put apps in front of users who then share them with their friends, … Read more

Facebook launches real-time visualization of voters

You may see a button on your Facebook news feed today that says "I'm a voter." The social network is sending a not-so-subtle message to its users to get to the polls on Election Day 2012.

Facebook launched the feature to remind Americans to get out and vote by sharing the update in users' news feeds. Once a you click on the button, Facebook redirects to a map of the United States that shows people across the country clicking on the button in real time.

Clicking a button on Facebook doesn't necessarily mean a person has … Read more

Mark 2012 as history's last 'social media' election

As soon as President Obama offered the phrase "horses and bayonets" during his final debate with Mitt Romney last month, the Twitterverse lit up. It wasn't long before we learned that the quip turned out to be the most tweeted remark of the final presidential debate, good for some 105,767 tweets per minute.

The media duly took note of the occasion. In fact, each time there's big news -- Hurricane Sandy or a presidential debate -- the media quickly inform us how the event is playing out on social media. Indeed, we've come to … Read more