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Facebook redoes privacy settlement, offers cash to users

Facebook is taking another shot at a "Sponsored Stories" settlement, agreeing to pay affected consumers and provide a simpler way to review all Sponsored Stories interactions.

The social-networking giant first tried to settle the case several months ago, but a judge rejected the settlement in August, saying he had "serious concerns" with the pact. In particular, the judge wondered how the parties determined the $20 million settlement amount to be paid out by the social network. The amount included $10 million in legal fees for the plaintiff attorneys.

Under the new agreement, filed Friday, Facebook has … Read more

Facebook amps up commerce with 'Collections'

Facebook is stepping further into e-commerce with a feature that looks a whole lot like Pinterest.

The company today is rolling out "Collections," a feature that lets brands and e-commerce sites push out images of products among Facebook users who can then click-through to make a purchase -- although the buying part isn't yet taking place on Facebook. The feature is a new type of Facebook Page post.

This test will begin with all U.S. Facebook members, although the company has for now teamed up with just seven retail partners. They include Pottery Barn, Wayfair, Victoria'… Read more

Facebook close to launch of native Android app -- report

Facebook is slowly but surely getting closer to launching a native Android application, a new report claims.

The company has finally hit the final stages of testing its Android application, Engadget reports today. Once that testing is complete, Facebook will waste little time in launching the application, according to the report.

Facebook currently offers a free application to Android users. However, that program is built with HTML5. In a recent discussion on Facebook's mobile efforts, the company's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the HTML5 app was a mistake and promised a native app for Android users.

Many … Read more

Analyst warns of Facebook-ad backlash, sets $16 stock price

Facebook's recent push to make money could backfire, warns an analyst who believes a user backlash may depress its shares to $16 over the next year.

BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield lowered his firm's target price for Facebook today, citing concern over Facebook's "aggressive" increase of monetization efforts, particularly mobile ads, according to his report. Facebook's stock opened at $20.40 a share this morning.

Since going public in May, Facebook has faced increasing pressure from investors to demonstrate that it can keep revenue and profits growing quickly. The social network has increased advertising efforts, … Read more

Hey, Web developers! Here's a one-stop shop for your app needs

Enough with having separate Web programming tutorials from Google, Apple, Opera, Mozilla, and Microsoft.

These five major browser makers, along with Facebook, Adobe Systems, Nokia, and Hewlett Packard, have become stewards of a new effort to centralize developer resources at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This Web Platform Docs project will include not just help on to use a bewildering array of new Web technologies, but also will detail which ones are accepted standards, how well the various tools work across multiple browsers, and how stable the standards are.

"A key part of this project is that it … Read more

Facebook's user numbers still growing, but how high can it go?

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

Facebook asks court to dismiss $15 billion privacy suit

Facebook has asked a federal court to dismiss a $15 billion privacy lawsuit because the Facebook users suing the social network didn't specify how they were injured by the company's actions, Bloomberg reported today.

The suit, filed in May, accuses Facebook of violating user privacy by tracking which Web sites the users visit even when they're logged out of Facebook.

Matthew Brown, a lawyer representing Facebook, told a U.S. district judge in court in San Jose, Calif., that the plaintiffs haven't said which sites they've visited, what kind of data was collected, or whether … Read more

New Myspace to be segregated from old Myspace

When the revamped Myspace launches over the coming months, new users of the once-high-flying social network will be kept separate from veteran users of "classic Myspace."

That was the word from CEO Tim Vanderhook during an interview published today on ABCnews.com about plans for what is being called "new Myspace."

"There will be a separate section for our consumer base using the classic Myspace," Vanderhook told ABC. "We are going to leave it up for quite awhile. We will make a decision at a later date if we will ever take down … Read more

Ex-Clinton press secretary to leave full-time gig at Facebook

Facebook Vice President of Global Communications Joe Lockhart is leaving his full-time position at the social network and will switch to a consulting role, according to reports.

The high-profile Washington, D.C., insider wants to spend more time on the East Coast, where he's been living during the last 15 months he's worked for Facebook, according to news reports.

Lockhart was making frequent trips to Facebook's headquarters in California, according to Politico.

A Facebook spokeswoman confirmed the news, saying Lockhart will continue to advise the company from afar.

"The company understands Joe's desire to remain … Read more

Facebook shutters The Cool Hunter for copyright issues

Facebook has cracked the whip on The Cool Hunter. After little warning the social network shuttered the design and pop-culture Web site's Facebook page eight weeks ago, leaving both the founder and its 788,000 fans wondering what went wrong.

In a blog post this week, founder Bill Tikos bemoaned the shutdown and said that it has severely hurt the site's business. According to Tikos, its Facebook fan base grew by 1,500 to 2,500 per day and also generated more than 10,000 click-throughs to the site per day. Overall, The Cool Hunter has 2.1 … Read more