Social Media

If you're someone who thinks online dating is a constant slog to find suitable matches, and to avoid feeling like an item in a catalog, The Game could be for you.

Designed to make online dating a little more fun -- and a little less like perusing a catalog -- The Game is an iPhone app built to make meeting potential matches a little less formal and a little more conversational.

The app gets its name from its use of game mechanics. Users download the app and start playing immediately by signing in with their Facebook account, avoiding what … Read more

Adding to a growing number of Zynga executives who have left the social gaming company this year, Zynga Poker General Manager Laurence "Lo" Toney has moved on from the struggling company, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Zynga Poker is the company's first social game and the largest free-to-play online poker game, according to Zynga's site. CNET has contacted a Zynga spokesperson for comment and will update when we hear back.

Toney's departure, first noticed by All Things D, comes as the company faces slowed growth and slumping stock. Its stock closed at $2.43 a … Read more

Zynga is now testing a sequel for "CityVille," the company wrote on its blog today.

The social games creator promises are more "visually rich game" with "CityVille 2," which was released today to specific players for testing.

"It has all the features in CityVille that players love -- from neighbor visits and crews to buildables -- blended with some of the innovations we introduced in CastleVille and FarmVille 2 such a crafting and 3D graphics," according to the post.

The company has said -- and Wall Street seems to agree -- that … Read more

Facebook, a company that has so often seemed as if it flies by the seat of its pants, last week released an ad in which it compared itself to chairs.

Which became quite quickly the butt of humor.

Chairs are rather solitary things. It's hard to see how they bring people together.

It's inevitable, then, that someone has made a parody video, elevating this absurdity by sending it down the toilet.

I am grateful to AllThingsD for being seated when it spotted this homage to Facebook's catatonia.

It seems to have been made by a company called … Read more

Many people believe Facebook's growth is slowing down, but the raw numbers seem to tell a different story.

The world's largest social network recently celebrated a major milestone: 1 billion monthly active users. It took the company eight years -- or more specifically 105 months -- to reach the historic mark.

The milestone made me curious: is Facebook's growth stalling, or does it still have some fight in it left? Could Facebook reach 1.1 billion users early next year? What about 1.5 billion users in four? Two billion users in eight?

In order to better … Read more

One of the things I try to do on this blog is share what I learn about the fast-changing, confusing world of Twitter. In the past, I've posted about the downside of using text alerts for Twitter; the right way and the wrong way to use hashtags on TV; and how to be generous on Twitter.

Today, I want to share some lessons I learned from a single tweet I sent two days ago. While it doesn't unlock all the secrets of successful tweeting, it highlights some of the things that makes some tweets successful and some not … Read more

So you've got your cat ears, your cat suit, and everything else you need to transition to another species. What's missing? A thought-controlled robot tail, of course.

From Neurowear, the makers of Necomimi robot cat ears, comes this concept for a mechanical tail that moves according to the user's emotional state. There's a brainwave-reading sensor, also used in Necomimi, that can be hidden under your hat.

As seen in the ridiculous vid below, your tail will wag when you see a bunch of pretty flowers, or an attractive Frisbee player in the park.

And, no doubt, fresh kitty litter. … Read more

Sarah Silverman, the comic actress whose 2008 video "The Great Schlep" helped focus attention on the young Jewish-American vote, is back with a new political project.

"Let My People Vote" is a website and social-media project that looks at voter ID laws. It showcases a video starring Silverman ranting -- in her trademark expletive-filled way -- about the laws that are part of this year's election story. An actress playing her grandmother and some guns make an appearance, too.

Paid for by the Jewish Council for Education and Research, this the latest project of Schlep Labs, … Read more

Technology and everyday tools that millions use are being blamed, in part, for the recent spate of attacks against U.S. embassies in the Middle East.

Social media and a YouTube video of an obscure, crudely-made trailer of an anti-Islam film have helped fan the flames of anti-American hatred that's always looking for an excuse to bubble up in some parts of the world.

It's these same tools, of course, that played such a critical role in helping the anti-dictator forces in countries like Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya over the last 20 months or so. Now we are … Read more