Facebook: Google's Cutting Us!

By Lindsay Blakely

Will Facebook join forces with Google (GOOG) and embrace OpenSocial, it's open standard for creating the new "social web?"

It turns out the popular social network hasn't even been asked. "Despite reports, Facebook has still not been briefed on OpenSocial," Brandee Barker, Facebook spokesperson, said this afternoon. "When we have had a chance to understand the technology, then Facebook will evaluate participation relative to the benefits to its 50 MORE

MySpace teams up with Google

By Josh Quittner

Here we go again. Word on the street is that Myspace (NWS) is joining Google's (GOOG) Everybody-But-Facebook Coalition. That would mean the anti-Facebook alliance, known as OpenSocial, would grow to 170 million users. (Assuming that Myspace has 70 million active monthly users, as per its July press release.)

Google is holding a press conference later today, presumably to make the announcement. In typical Google fashion, it's asking journalists MORE

Google vs. Facebook: Why I'm Rooting for the Kid

By Josh Quittner

I'm rooting for the kid.

It's not an easy decision—it never makes sense to be on the other side of Google (GOOG), and I am all for open standards. But on this one, I can't help myself, I am rooting for the kid.

Imagine starting a business that, within 18 months, goes from nothing to 50 million members. You do everything right. You take a bit of seed capital MORE

Google takes on Facebook

By Josh Quittner

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. And if you can't join 'em, get all your friends to band together—and gang up on them!

In a move that some Silicon Valley pundits are deriding as desperate, Google (GOOG) has unveiled a plan to fight back against social network Facebook. A dozen companies, including social networks LinkedIn, Ning, hi5 and Google's own social network Orkut, have aligned together MORE

Wireless photo-sharing

By Josh Quittner

Apple is the king of simplicity. A huge amount of engineering and thought goes into making every aspect of every product -- from how the thing works, to how it's packaged -- simple. One could argue that's Steve Jobs's greatest gift: taking the enormous complexity out of technology, and making a tool work as it should.

Luckily, lots of companies are finally starting to get this. A smart, new MORE

How to get the Blackberry Facebook app to work

Blackberrys may be the most popular smartphone in corporations - which is presenting a problem for some business people trying to download and use the new Facebook application. For security reasons, some big companies tend to restrict employees' Web access on their Blackberry browsers. That appears to be what's thwarting many Blackberry users who have downloaded the new Facebook application, but can't use it.

The fix is easy - MORE

Facebook's Blackberry problem

By Josh Quittner

If this is Facebook Mobile, perhaps the company ought to go back to Facebook Static. Many users who downloaded a new application released yesterday for popular Blackberry smartphones have yet to get it running.

Clearly, some users have gotten it to work. But many others say the application simply doesn't connect to Facebook's social networking service. The rallying point for criticism, ironically, is on Facebook itself, where members have MORE

Is Facebook worth $15 billion?

By Josh Quittner

With Microsoft (MSFT) buying a minority share that values Facebook at $15 billion, hyperbole became reality. Or did it? The answer to that question turns on whether the social network is worth what Microsoft paid.

And that depends on whether you believe Facebook is just the latest online fad—or whether, as Facebookies believe, the social network is building the next, grand computing platform. (A platform is geek for a MORE

Microsoft wins the hand of Facebook

"There's a lot we're going to do together," said Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft's Platforms & Services division.

Is Mark Zuckerberg the next Bill Gates?

By Josh Quittner

The best silly-speculation I've heard so far this week...

While we all sit outside Facebook HQ in Palo Alto, waiting to see whether Microsoft (MSFT), or Google (GOOG), gets to be the social network's new beau, one apps guy I know had a great theory. Let's say Mister Softie wins, with a $1.5 billion buy in. Microsoft gets first dibs, not only on the nascent business, but on the MORE