Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are among the thousands of sites monitored for suspicious activity by the Department of Homeland Security, and the government agency was recently forced to tip its hand. As part of a freedom of information request made by watchdog group Electronic Privacy Information Center, DOHS recently published a list of hundreds of words and terms it watches for on social media sites. Some are obvious, such as Al Qaeda, terrorism and domestic nuclear detection, while others are ...

Google’s emerging social network Google+ may boast big user numbers, but a new study suggests that social activity and user engagement are anything but impressive. Intended to give Google a stronger grip on the massive amount of data shared by users on social networks, Google’s answer to Facebook opened its doors to the public last September. After using some user acquisition methods that seemed a bit desperate, Google revealed in December that Google+ was then home to 62 million users. Google+ bo...

Social networking giant Facebook is reportedly set to make its initial public offering on May 18th, a day later than earlier reports had claimed. Company co-founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and chief financial officer David Ebersman will take part in a roadshow beginning on Monday that will see the company host a number of meetings to pitch its stock to investors, The Wall Street Journal reports. An offering will then be made on May 18th, the report...

Google on Thursday reported its results for the first quarter, topping Wall Street’s estimates. The Internet giant managed earnings of $10.08 per share on $10.65 billion in revenue, beating analysts EPS estimates of $9.64 and $8.1 billion in sales. Net revenue came in at $8.14 billion after $2.51 billion in traffic acquisition costs, in line with estimates. In the same quarter a year earlier, Google posted an adjusted profit of $8.08 per share $6.5 billion in sales. The company also plans to create a n...

Google on Wednesday announced a major redesign for its Google+ social networking site that will introduce a more functional and flexible user experience. The new interface focuses on customization, Google’s Hangout video chatting service and features that will make it easier to discover new conversations and profile pages. One of the first improvements users will notice is a revamped navigation bar located on the left-hand side of the screen. The “ribbon of applications” can be dragged, dro...

Instagram is a hugely popular social network centered around sharing retro images with friends, and while it continues to add users by the millions, it will likely soon see a somewhat sizable defection in light of recent events. Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday announced that Facebook will acquire Instagram for $1 billion. The deal will make Instagram’s small team rich and give the app exposure to millions of new users, but it will also bring a fresh round of privacy concerns that...

Adding yet another positive note to Instagram’s biggest week ever — Facebook on Monday announced that it will acquire Instagram for $1 billion — the company’s new Android application has been downloaded more than 5 million times after less than one week of availability. Instagram launched for Android-powered devices on April 3rd, and it took less than one day for the highly anticipated app to reach the one million download mark. As of Monday, April 9th, the application had been downloaded from...

One of the most popular photography applications ever to hit Apple’s iOS platform is now available for Android. Instagram allows users to capture photos and edit them using a number of filters that give images a unique retro look. Pictures can then be shared with other Instagram users, and also shared on Twitter, Facebook or via email. Filters can be applied to images imported from a handset’s camera roll as well, and the app supports devices running Android 2.2 or later. Instagram announced duri...

After being greeted with mixed reactions, millions of users have warmed up to Facebook’s new layout, dubbed Timeline. The new face of Facebook places all of a user’s interactions with the social network on the profile page in reverse chronological order, giving friends a single destination with infinite scrolling on which they can observe all status updates, photos, wall posts and more. While Facebook tried its best to make the transition an easy one, the company said in January that the slow marc...

A proposed amendment to FCC legislation that would have prevented current or potential employers from seeking access to employee Facebook accounts was shot down by the House of Representatives on Wednesday. The amendment was put forth by Democratic Congressman Ed Perlmutter, and it was defeated 236 to 184 with only one republican voting in favor of the change. “Nothing in this Act or any amendment made by this Act shall be construed to limit or restrict the ability of the Federal Communications Comm...

Exactly six years ago Wednesday, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey published the first post on his new service Twttr. “Just setting up my twttr,” Dorsey wrote in his brief note. No one knew at the time, but his tweet was the first of trillions of messages that would be posted to the social networking service over the coming six years. Twitter has seen more than 532 million accounts registered in its six years, and the service is used around the world by people in all walks of life. While some still...

In a recent feature about Windows 8 and an earlier piece covering some of the problems facing iPad competitors, we mentioned the lack of multi-user login support as one area where media tablet vendors were missing the mark. The iPad also lacks multi-user support of course, but some features associated with multiple login functionality will become available to iPad users beginning Thursday. Skyfire, maker of the popular like-named mobile Web browser, released an updated version of its iPad browser on Thursday...

Former Engineering Director at Google and current Partner Development Manager at Microsoft James Whittaker on Tuesday published a lengthy piece explaining why he chose to leave the Mountain View-based company after having been such a vocal Google evangelist for nearly three years. His post on Microsoft’s MSDN blogs reiterates a number of opinions that have been hot topics in the media of late, but he also offers several insights from a unique point of view that only an insider can offer. In short, Whit...

Yesterday it was revealed that the popular social networking app Path was uploading entire iPhone address books to the company’s server. The data uploaded included full names, phone numbers and email addresses, and the app uploaded all this data without ever asking for permission. Dave Morin, Path’s co-founder and CEO, admitted fault on Wednesday through the company’s website and announced an update to allow users to either opt in or out of the contact collection feature. “We believe y...