social networking

Highlight 1.2: Is it less creepy or are we just getting used to this?

"What are the odds," Highlight CEO Paul Davison asks, "that you'll have a connection with some random person sitting next to you in a coffee shop?"

He says that he's done the math and knows the answer: "The odds are pretty good." Especially with his app.

Highlight, which had its big coming-out party at SxSW this year, is all about helping people make connections based on common interests, activities, or social proximity. Pegged as the big deal app of SxSW before the show kicked off, it ended up not having … Read more

LinkedIn spreads redesign effort to home page

LinkedIn continues to revamp its image with plans to roll out a new home-page design, the site revealed in a blog post today.

The new home page will feature more emphasis on shared news articles and posts, with what looks like enlarged photos and a more prominent display of comments, judging by the image in the blog post.

The post touts a "simpler and more modern design," with "more relevant updates" prominently showcased and a "cleaner, richer update stream."

The changes may make the site look more and more like a grown-up version of … Read more

How Google is becoming an extension of your mind

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's time to think of Google as much more than just a search engine, and that should both excite and spook you.

Search remains critical to the company's financial and technological future, but Google also is using the search business' cash to transform itself into something much broader than just a place to point your browser when asking for directions on the Internet.

What it's now becoming is an extension of your mind, an omnipresent digital assistant that figures out what you need and supplies it before you even realize you need it.

Think … Read more

Is Facebook advertising worth the investment?

While brands and advertisers have flocked to Facebook to promote their wares and connect with consumers, the jury's still out on the true value of the site for marketing.

The BBC recently completed an investigation into the effectiveness of the social network as a promotional tool. Running a campaign for a fictitious business called VirtualBagel, BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones spent $10 advertising the company's Facebook page.

At the time of writing, the company's page -- which contains only an image of a bagel and the address Ealing, London -- has amassed 3,113 "likes" … Read more

Google+ gives users a tool to merge multiple accounts

Google has come up with a way to merge users' Google Plus accounts, so that all circles and circle information can now be in just one account. The Web giant announced today the launch of the "Google+ circles transfer tool" via Google Takeout.

The tool works by moving users' Google+ circles and connections from what it calls a "source" account to a "destination" account. Once users' accounts are merged with this tool, people in their circles will only see the "destination" profiles.

This is most likely welcome news to those users that … Read more

Facebook highlights weddings with new feature

Sometimes it can be easy to miss a friend's engagement or wedding announcement on Facebook's News Feed. So the social network has decided to do something about this.

Facebook announced today a new feature called "Weddings and Celebrations." Similar to the birthday feature, the weddings and celebrations feature shows friends' status on the top right-hand side of the page once they change it to "married" or "engaged."

Here's what a Facebook spokesperson told CNET in an e-mail:

Facebook has become a unique way people share and congratulate friends around exciting life … Read more

Twitter for iOS soars

As a whole, Twitter's official mobile app is solid. The interface is sleek, and it brings with it most of the features you'd expect from a Twitter client produced in-house.

All of Twitter's features are housed in four different navigation tabs. Home is your primary Twitter feed, just as you would expect. Each time you boot up the app, it opens to your Home screen and lands on the last tweet that you read. You can tap the Home tab to quickly jump to the top. The Connect tab charts your interactions with your Twitter friends, showing … Read more

Teens love texting and social networks but ignore e-mail

Most teenagers use social-media sites and parents are wise to it, "friending" their kids and monitoring which sites they visit at an increased rate, according to a study presented at an educators conference today.

Seventy-six percent of teens are on social-media sites, with most -- 93 percent -- of them on Facebook, according to the Pew Internet study that examined the behavior of teens online.

And the usage increases with age -- a sign that parents are sticking tight to a rule that only teens 13-years-old and up can go on social-media sites, something such sites have been dinged for failing to police in the past. … Read more

Google+ for iOS

Google+ for iOS is a clean and intuitive mobile app that has all of the powers of its desktop counterpart, save for the games and a few other minor features. The latest version brings Events and Hangouts to the iPhone, while the iPad gets Hangouts as well as a stunning, tiled Home screen that's optimized for the larger screen.

Home What used to be called Stream is now simply your Google+ Home screen. This is the lifeblood of Google+. With the little drop-down at the top, you can choose to show feeds from All Circles, Nearby, What's Hot (… Read more