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This Day in Tech: Google opens social network; Facebook turning into cash cow

Too busy to keep up with the tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET for Tuesday, September 20.

• File this one under "think before you tweet." A Microsoft employee tweeted about an unreleased Nokia Windows device. In doing so, he violated Microsoft's social-media policy and is now out of a job.

• If you haven't joined Google+ yet, now you can. Today, Google opened its social network to everyone. It also added new features such as livestreaming to its video Hangouts.

• HTC executive Jason MacKenzie says Rhyme is a better upgrade phone … Read more

Glam Media acquires site builder Ning

Social media company Glam announced today that it has acquired social Web site builder Ning.

The two companies say the deal will create a network that serves 240 million users and 100,000 publishers.

"With the addition of Ning, Glam Media will truly become the first next-generation media company in the post-social world," said Samir Arora, chairman and CEO of Glam Media in a statement.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though AllThingsD pegs it at $200 million.

Ning was co-founded by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini and launched near the end of 2005 as … Read more

A to-do list for open-source robots

I didn't show too much enthusiasm for Microsoft's new Spindex project in Wednesday's episode of Loaded. But truth be told, I am cautiously optimistic about it.

Spindex is a social-networking aggregator designed to pull in your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, whatever accounts in one place. Big deal, right? It's when you mix in the ability to add RSS feeds that I get excited. Throw in the ability to bookmark like Evernote, which is a product that I love, and search with Bing, which I really like a lot, and my interest is sufficiently peaked.

I spend a … Read more

Andreessen-founded Ning cuts staff, free service

Uh-oh. Just a month after Gina Bianchini, co-founder of build-a-social-network service Ning, departed the company, it's cutting 40 percent of its staff and axing its free, ad-supported service.

Bianchini had co-founded Ning with Valley legend Marc Andreessen, and it had raised $119 million in venture capital, including a whopping $60 million round in early 2008 that Andreessen famously characterized as a stockpile for the "nuclear winter" that would help get it through the economic recession.

Jason Rosenthal, the Ning COO who took over as CEO from Bianchini, sent an e-mail memo to company staffers on Thursday that … Read more

Bloody chainsaws? Ning launches virtual gifts platform

Are Web users going to get tired of paying for kitschy virtual items to pimp out each others' profiles? Social-site creator Ning sure doesn't think so. On Tuesday, it announced the debut of its virtual goods platform, so that network owners can offer virtual profile items for sale (much like Facebook does) and pull in half the revenue generated.

"From giving each other bloody chainsaws to shock troop dog tags, our members are having a blast recognizing each other for their contributions to the Lost Zombies Ning Network," said Scot Leach, founder of the "Lost Zombies&… Read more

Andreessen joins HP board

Two years after selling his software company to Hewlett-Packard, Marc Andreessen has joined the PC giant's board of directors.

HP announced the appointment, effective immediately, on Thursday. In a statement, HP's chairman and CEO Mark Hurd described Andreessen as "a software pioneer whose leadership has helped shape the Internet...Marc's entrepreneurial background and industry expertise will be a welcome addition to the HP board of directors."

Andreessen and HP's relationship goes back several years, culminating with HP's purchase of Opsware for $1.6 billion in 2007. Since then, Andreessen, best known as the … Read more

Ning officially launches apps platform

Ning, the service that lets you build your own social network, on Thursday officially launched a platform that gives users access to more than 90 embeddable applications and widgets for things like collecting donations or selling tickets.

The public launch of Ning Apps has been a long time coming. It went into a private beta in May and Ning was one of the original launch partners for the OpenSocial platform, on which Ning Apps is based.

The platform gives the 32 million users of the 1.5 million Ning-built social networks even more customization options. For example, the company points … Read more

8 OpenSocial apps worth trying out

Since OpenSocial's release in 2007, a variety of applications have been developed through the program. While some of the applications are built for MySpace, and others are also available on Facebook--which has kept its distance from the Google-led platform--the majority of them unfortunately are designed for less popular social networks, such as Hi5, Orkut, and Ning.

Some OpenSocial apps, regardless, are worth trying out. From games to profile add-ons, I've found eight that I deem worth adding to a compatible social-network account.

8 OpenSocial apps

Centrl Centrl is a chat tool that enables you to communicate with friends across many social networks. It can be installed on MySpace, Orkut, Ning, Hi5, and elsewhere. Once installed, you can engage in a public chat with anyone or talk to individuals on a variety of social networks, including Facebook. The app also determines your location so you can find folks in your area.

I found Centrl chat to be simple and appealing. But considering that so many social networks have their own instant-messaging tool, don't expect Centrl to gain too much traction anytime soon.

MiniTweet MiniTweet is a simple OpenSocial app. The tool adds a small Twitter update box to your MySpace profile. You can pick a title and input your user name. MiniTweet then displays all your recent Twitter updates on your profile. At any time, you can view your Twitter page by clicking on your MiniTweet title. You can't update your status in the app, but it's still worth checking out.… Read more

A travel guide for geeks

"The Geek Atlas: 128 Places Where Science and Technology Come Alive" by John Graham-Cumming could be the answer to the yearly Father's Day gift dilemma.(Although I know a lot of women who would love this book, too.)

Graham-Cumming's book is not of the tacky so-and-so-slept-here variety, but a compendium of locations of true worth in the history of science and tech breakthroughs.

The book, which is organized by country, includes latitudes and longitudes for GPS devices, and info like whether a historical site is free or available for a price. It's heavy on U.… Read more