Amid all the throwaway lines and bullish spin, Rupert Murdoch and his executives always bury some truths in their comments about quarterly profits. Yesterday’s quarterly profit announcement was no exception.
Google’s next target: Facebook
Google is making moves into the social networking world with a bunch of improvements to its Friend Connect feature. It’s a blatant “declaration of war” on Facebook, says Douglas Rushkoff, and one Google will most likely win.
How I made millions spamming Facebook: an insider’s confession
You know those ads on social networking sites saying “Inbox (5). Nick, someone in Sydney has a crush on you!”, with your name, profile picture, and city in the ad? Dennis Yu made millions off them. He explains how.
MySpace and Facebook to team up?
Facebook has well and truly bested MySpace in the social networking game, but MySpace still has one ace up its sleeve: music and entertainment. Instead of competing, the two are apparently putting their differences aside to share content across the two networks.
Facebook: We see dead people
After a new feature on Facebook created a stir by inadvertently recommending users “reconnect” with dead friends, the site has decided to “memorialise” the profiles of users who have died as creepy online tributes to the deceased.
On the death of letter writing
Hand written letters may be dead, but that doesn’t mean the process of thinking, communicating and creating a sense of self has been abandoned, writes James Bradley. It’s just now tweets not post cards.
MySpace surrenders to Facebook
MySpace has officially given up in its battle for social media supremacy with Facebook, the the company’s CEO now claiming it is far more interested in becoming “an online hub for music and entertainment.”
Watch the blistering growth of social media in real time
Australian social media expert Gary Hayes has put together a neat flash app that shows the growing number of blog posts, tweets, YouTube videos and more being posted every second, in real time before your very eyes.
Take that, Google: Microsoft teams up with Facebook and Twitter
Microsoft has struck another blow to Google in the search engine wars, inking a deal with Facebook and Twitter to include their content in its Bing search results. You can already try out its Twitter search here.
How social media can score you your next job
Time was that your Facebook addiction could get you fired — these days, HR folk are all over social media sites, scouring for web-savvy employees. TechRadar explain how you can use services like Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube to score your next big break.
leaked 
The new-look Facebook
Mashable has gotten its geeky little mitts on leaked details of Facebook’s latest redesign. (Spoiler: it looks a whole lot like the current Facebook.)
Become a fan of Auschwitz
Because one’s social network can never be wide enough: Auschwitz is now on Facebook. Shock your friends with a newsfeed that says “[your name] is a fan of Auschwitz”. Then lock your doors.
Facebook stalk your way to your dream job
Stop stalking your ex, start stalking your potential employers. The more information you know about them — from Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc — the more you can use that info to your own advantage in an interview.
The end of email?
The WSJ has declared email’s reign “over”, with real-time services like Twitter and Facebook increasingly becoming the preferred method of communication. After all, who has time in this modern world to wait for email responses? It can take minutes!
Journos who ignore social media will fade into obscurity
A PSA from Margaret Simons: Reporters, do not allow your employer to prevent you from having access to Twitter, Facebook and the like. You risk irrelevance and invisibility.
VIDEO: Mark Zuckerberg: How I invented Facebook
He may still look a bit like a geeky teenager, but 25-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has transformed the little online project he started in his dorm room into a $6-billion company. He tells Business Insider how.
Political twits no win for democracy
Facebook grows users and profits
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has blogged that they’ve hit 300 million users, and become cash flow positive earlier than predicted. Photo storage cost cuts from the Haystack project must’ve helped, says TechCrunch.
Facebook makes you smarter, Twitter makes you dumber
Keeping up-to-date with the happenings in your social network on Facebook enhances your “working memory”, says psychologist Dr Tracy Alloway, but the endless stream of information on Twitter weakens it, reducing your attention span and potentially lowering your intelligence.
Websites: before they were famous
Before Facebook, Google, YouTube and others were the sleek, cutting-edge sites they are today, they went through the same awkward early years many online ventures do (The Drudge Report is arguably still there). Here’s how 20 top websites looked when they first launched.
Screams of panic as the earth moves in Jakarta
Journalist Ashlee Betteridge watches while Jakarta trembles with their latest earthquake, which hit 7.0 on the Richter scale.
Scoble: Twitter is worth $5-10 billion
Valuations of Twitter at several million are way underselling how big the company has become, says tech guru Robert Scoble: it’s probably worth something like $5 billion. Twitter has taken over the world, he says, and Facebook is just playing catch-up.
Wired’s new rules of etiquette for a New Media world
Navigating social mores was tough enough before we entered the Digital Age, but the internet has literally added a whole new dimension to the complex labyrinth of human interaction. Wired explain how polite society should behave in the 21st century, inexplicably including tips from Brad Pitt.
Faith and Facebook
In all the personal information flying around on social networking site Facebook, two little words pack a lot more meaning than may first appear: ‘Religious Views”. An interesting look at how users tackle the Big Question in 100 characters or fewer.
