Social networking

It is entirely commendable that Silicon Valley's largest brains take time out from deciding which shade the color of money should be in order to become talk show hosts.

We had already enjoyed Google's Marissa Mayer boring into Lady Gaga's darkest depths.

Now I am delirious to learn to Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg will be stepping into the limelight to interview another large brain, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

I am pulsatingly grateful to TechCrunch for revealing this news, on receipt of an e-mail from Christie's office.

It is inevitable that many will wonder what … Read more

Facebook is bringing back the chronological setting for News Feed.

Users can now once again see the "most recent" stories first atop their News Feeds, Facebook noted in a blog post this afternoon.

As of late September, the chronological option was removed as Facebook moved to fully automate the News Feed with stories the company's algorithms deemed "most important." Facebook said the tweaks were designed to "help you see more of what you care about, and less of what you don't."

Clearly, Facebook's loyal user base wasn't thrilled by Facebook'… Read more

Posting on your own Facebook wall that you're headed to Anchorage, Alaska and need travel tips might not result in answers. Posting direct questions on friends' walls who have been to Anchorage does.

Uptake, an online travel planner, today announced a social travel service that sifts through Facebook to find the friends that can help answer your travel questions.

"Friends don't leave friends hanging," says CEO Yen Lee, who says customers of trip advice companies like TripAdvisor don't get their travel questions personally answered.

"Just because you have the same destination and travel budget … Read more

Companies looking to socialize through a Google+ Page may want to check out an online guide that explains how to take advantage of Google's new business feature.

Rolled out on Monday, Google+ Pages finally bring the social network to the business world, allowing companies of all sizes to post updates about themselves and their products or services. People who follow a Google+ Page can comment on or share the company's posts, creating running conversation threads. Businesses can also set up hangouts where they can chat directly with potential customers.

To help companies get started, Google has created its … Read more

Facebook has acquired Strobe, a startup focused on the open-source SproutCore software--but CNET has learned that a new startup called Tilde looks to be picking up where Strobe is leaving off.

SproutCore is a package of prebuilt JavaScript code designed to ease the creation of Web sites and Web apps, including those that work on mobile devices. Charles Jolley has worked on SproutCore for years, including for a period of time at Apple where SproutCore was used in MobileMe services, before striking off on his own to form Strobe.

Several programmers left Strobe in October to begin a new start-up … Read more

When Twitter tweaks itself, most users don't see much.

That's because when the social-networking and microblogging service tests or rolls out new features, it often does so incrementally and with a limited number of users.

That seems to be the case with Twitter's new activity and username streams that the company announced back on August 10 and that TechCrunch started to see cropping up over the past day or so.

So while Sean Parker, the digital impresario behind Facebook, Spotify, Plaxo, and Causes, was one of the lucky Twitterati (@sparker) to see the latest changes today, user … Read more

You might be one of those fortunate people who spend their days in a corporate environment.

The office is the sort of place where you are reasonably aware that you are supposed to behave a certain way, so you spend at least half of your time trying to hide your true behavior.

In a remarkable fit of understanding, AT&T has decided to stand by your side and tell it like it truly is. In this ad for the BlackBerry Torch 4G, AT&T decides that it's pointless to fight those normal tendencies.

So here we have … Read more

PunchTab, a startup creating loyalty programs for bloggers and businesses, today announced it raised $4.4 million from Mohr Davidow Ventures. PunchTab essentially helps people with loyal readers or frequent shoppers reward those folks for sharing their love.

"It's like an airline loyalty program, without the airline," laughs PunchTab co-founder Ranjith Kumaran. He is also the founder of YouSendIt, a company that helps you collaborate on and share large files online.

"We start by asking our clients 'What are the top five actions you want your users to take and what types of rewards would make … Read more

Mark Zuckerberg's appearance on Charlie Rose's talk show, together with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, went on for a long time.

So I have confined the first part here to the short version of what was said. It continues later on with a little more, well, philosophical detail. And the full transcript is right at the bottom.

The Short Version

They talked about how no one company would dominate the Valley -- and presumably, the world. They talked about how Google, Yahoo and Microsoft were far more heinous when it came to taking liberties with your privacy than was … Read more