A new Facebook privacy encroachment, which may shock even the most carefree social media Netizen, was revealed by Reg “Raganwald” Braithwaite on Friday – apps which have been authorized by a Facebook user may take with it and use a myriad of personal information about that user’s “friends” including birthday, education and work history, location, hometown, status updates, and videos.
 
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into Facebook’s social sharing party, the …

Facebook recently began rolling out its Smart Lists feature to some users, which automatically groups friends into pre-packaged groups based on the user’s profile.  For now the lists appear to be limited to three different categories – people you work with, people you went to school with, and people that live within 50 miles of you.
 

Facebook launching automatic friend grouping

For those with a steadily increasing number of friends, the list should be helpful in aiming your …

A MySpace spokesman confirmed that MySpace Karaoke, a service that was introduced in 2008, has been discontinued, in line with a message that now appears on the feature’s home page: “Karaoke has been discontinued….If you have any questions, please contact us by clicking the “Contact MySpace” link on MySpace Help at http://www.myspace.com/help.

MySpace members who prepaid for the feature for service after June 15th will get a  refund.  The Karaoke feature, which let MySpace members …

Facebook members that log on twice a day have “9% more close, core ties in their overall social network compared with other internet users” according to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The findings contradict what has become a nugget of conventional wisdom regarding Facebook use and “real” friendships – that those who frequently use Facebook have fewer real life friends and contacts than do non-Facebook users. Other figures from the Pew study support the …

Twitter users have been tweeting about a significant new privacy problem with Facebook’s new “Happening Now” feature, which it has been rolling out to a small number of users. The new feature displays in the right hand a list of real time updates from friends, that shows members interacting with each other. The updates include wall posts, check-in information, and comments.

Three Twitter users explained to ZDNet’s Zack Whittaker that it is sometimes possible for one Facebook user to …

Yahoo!Mail, which is available in 43 markets and 26 languages around the world, introduced a beta upgrade to its email service in October, and has now launched the final version today. Yahoo!Mail boasts 284 million users.

Blake Irving, chief product officer for Yahoo, summarized the Yahoo!Mail upgrade this way: “Yahoo’s vision for online communications brings together all the tools that people use to connect – email, chat, SMS, and social updates – and makes it easier for them to …

Facebook has released a new version of its Question service as a public, limited beta, currently available only in English, after testing it for more than year.  Quora and Yahoo Question and Answers already leads the multitude of websites that provide public answers to public questions but Facebook’s service lets members get answers directly from friends.  Current testers will be the first to get access to the new Questions feature, and this will automatically be given to their friends as …

Paul Adams has joined the growing number of former Google employees who left to join Facebook, but he did it after writing a lengthy report criticizing the social networking giant over the summer.  Facebook’s Group product accelerated its work after Adam’s critique, and the product was launched in the Fall.

“After 4 years in the awesome Google UX team, it’s time for a change and I’m excited to be joining Facebook in the New Year”, Adams tweeted yesterday.  Adam’s decision …

Facebook said today it will enable its facial recognition technology soon which will allow members to choose from a list of suggestions when they upload and tag pictures.   The move takes Facebook another step forward in its on-going efforts to improve its photo-sharing offerings.

Facebook has a massive database of tagged photos and profile profiles that help it determine who is in any given picture. Facebook’s photo product was very basic, far behind its competitors and difficult to use …