A group known as Control Your Info, invaded nearly 300 Facebook groups this week, demonstrating how users need to pay more attention to their accounts. Facebook groups are becoming an increasingly large target for hackers, primarily because if a group admin leaves, an option to take over the group is open to anyone. If someone was to take over a group, they could change everything, from the name, pictures, objectives, and just about anything you can think of, along with sending messages to the group as a whole.
Control Your Info, made Facebook users wary as they joined and took over 289 groups. “Once we were administrators we owned the groups and could have changed any setting,” the groups website stated. “We chose to change the picture, the name and the description of every group. Our intention was and is to restore these groups to their original form and find a suitable admin among the members. To be able to do this, we first backed up all the data we wanted to replace.” (more…)
It seems like only yesterday, that everyone in the neighborhood had a brand new gaming console called Nintendo. Playing a 2-D version of Mario was the most high tech game at the time, and a few years later, the release of the Super Nintendo blew America away. It was the Nintendo 64, where everyone first began to grasp the idea of 3D graphics in games and since then, the PlayStation, Xbox & Wii have become some of our favorite gaming systems. From being able to only play games, to being able to actually work out daily, video game systems have come a long way. So what will come next?
Luckily we won’t have to wait long. Next Tuseday, November 12, 2009, Microsoft plans to release the latest version of the Xbox360. The new software will be a step up from the current version, heading to the internet integrating the world of social media. In June, the company announced they’d release the console which would include Facebook, Twitter, last.fm, and Zune video. (more…)
Everyone is gearing up for the holiday season. While many businesses have said that they will be using social media sites this year to attract online shoppers and offering exclusive discounts to users, consumers are already scoping out discounts through social media networks.
The advertising agency Razorfish released the results of survey on Tuesday, suggesting that online businesses should start to see profits for the holiday season very soon, if not immediately. Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, falls on November 30 this year and has been the No. 1 online shopping day since its start in 2004, but online shoppers are looking to start their holiday shopping early this year. (more…)
If Facebook were a country, it would become the world’s third most populated — surpassing the United States by more than 18 million. While having more than 325 million users worldwide is impressive, it’s how fast Facebook is growing that is making headlines.
As we all know, Facebook is the most popular social networking site. The company, which was founded in 2004, has seen a study increase in users since its site launched. However, this year alone, the site’s user accounts have more than doubled. In January the site had a reported 150 million users. In September, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social-networking site had hit 300 million users. Since then AllFacebook.com is reporting that there are more than 325 million active users. (more…)
Early Wednesday morning, eBay, the largest online marketplace, announced they would launch a new online digital magazine called The Inside Source. The magazine is designed for shoppers and will feature the insights and stories based off of what the 89 million users are currently searching for, along with what they are buying and selling on eBay. Each day, The Inside Source will feature several sections which will provide snapshots of real-time most-watched merchandise and most searched terms, along with fresh articles, analysis, and opinions from eBay community contributors.
“Imagine that every day, every person in the United States tells eBay what they want,” said Alan Marks, Senior Vice President of Global Communications for eBay. “That’s the power of how many searches occur on eBay every day. Now add insights gleaned from almost 200 million live product listings, the stories of more than 25 million sellers and the several million purchases people make each day on eBay, and you get The Inside Source – a perspective on shopping trends, pop culture obsessions and the stuff people love, that only eBay can offer.”
Meredith Barnett, former Director of Digital Media for Lifetime Digital has agreed to take on the task of directing and managing the editorial content and staff. Barnett and the editorial team will not just focus on what’s happening on eBay but will also check in with a large range of other popular topics including fashion, technology, automotive, home and garden, and pop culture.
Barnett is best known for her success at managing myLifetime.com, Lifetime TV’s website focusing on women’s entertainment. Barnett is also co-founder of StoreAdore.com, an internet guide to the best boutique stores around the country and online. The site has been successful so far — probably because of frequently updated blog posts and a search database of boutique profiles of more than 3,000 stores.
“Meredith brings the perfect blend of consumer-focused ecommerce and editorial experience to The Inside Source,” Marks said. “Combining Meredith’s editorial vision with eBay’s insight, our aim is to make The Inside Source an engaging, useful read for people who want to know the latest trends happening in the world`s largest online marketplace.”
Readers of the online magazine will also be able to share their thoughts and opinions on topics by commenting and sharing content through social media platforms, such as Facebook.
Social media sites have become an important tool for breaking news, many times breaking a story before the mainstream media picks it up. Sites such as Twitter have also been important communication tools for those affected by the events as they unfold.
Yesterday, news about a shooting in Fort Hood, Texas, shocked the country and almost instantly became a trending topic on Twitter. The massacre, which killed 12 and left 31 wounded, sparked interest and supporters from around the world — many of whom ended up leaving comments on the Army’s social media sites. The Facebook group “Prayers for Fort Hood” was started soon after word spread, and currently it has just more than 20,000 supporters. The U.S. Army‘s Facebook page was also flooded with support and prayers from people around the world. As one person wrote, “My prayers go out to the family and friends of the fallen heroes. It’s time we remember to pray for all our soldiers regardless of where they are.” (more…)
Here’s a look at some of what happened this week in the world of social media and elsewhere on the Web.
-It should be no shock that MySpace is losing users, but now the company is in jeopardy of losing nearly $100 million. In 2006, MySpace made a $900 million deal with Google that would allow the search engine to be the exclusive search advertiser on MySpace, which at the time was the most used social networking site. The site is coming dangerously close to maintaining a minimum traffic level, which could break the deal with Google. In the past three months, MySpace’s page views have dropped 22.75 percent. (more…)
Late last week, a San Jose, California judge awarded Facebook $711 million. This comes after Sanford Wallace, a spammer who had hacked into users profile, posted phony wall post and messages to those users friends. In March of this year, Wallace along with Adam Arzoomanian and Scott Shaw had all been sued and had been put on a restraining order by Facebook. The restraining order was put into place, so that if any of three hacked into Facebook again, they will be thrown into jail immediately. (more…)
The first week of November is always a busy and important one in America. With elections happening across the country, it can be an overwhelming week. Although, this year we don’t have to make any important Presidential choices, Facebook is gearing to let users vote on a new set of policy’s.
Earlier this year, Facebook had established the System Of Governance, after users were outraged by the new set of privacy policy’s were put into place. Soon after, Facebook had allowed users to not only comment on how they would like the policy’s to be, but also vote on the proposed changes. (more…)
This week, several new virus’ have been making their rounds attacking the social networking sites Facebook & Twitter. Facebook has been hit the hardest. The virus known as Bredolab, hit Facebook earlier this week, which sends an e-mail to users, asking them to confirm a password reset and a file is attached which contains a Trojan horse, which could severely destroy a computer. Facebook is also reporting 2 more virus’ which are working their way through e-mails asking you to do some sort of activity to your account. Facebook has told users that Facebook would not send any attachment in an e-mail, and to check out the company’s Security Page for more tips. Twitter’s virus comes through a direct messages containing the phase, “Hi, this you on here?” followed by a link. Twitter warns users not to click links from users you don’t know and if you accidentally do, to change your password immediately. (more…)