Katherine Evans, no longer branded as cyber bully. (Photo: Wired)

Yes, sometimes posts may not be pretty, but a court ruling said even rants on Facebook are protected by rights of free speech.

In a major victory for the online community, US Magistrate Barry Garber said in a decision favoring a suspended former high school student that free speech covers all media, including social networking sites.

As cited by CNN, Garber’s ruling on Katherine Evans’ case read: “Evans’ speech falls under the wide umbrella of protected speech.”

It added: “It was an opinion of a student about a teacher, that was published off-campus …was not lewd, vulgar, threatening, or advocating illegal or dangerous behavior.”

Evans, a former honor student at Pembroke Pines Charter High School in Florida, was slapped by a three-day suspension for criticizing her teacher through a Facebook page entitled Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I’ve ever met. continue reading…

We are straddled, in the desire to know more than we should, by this new opportunity to spy on others — Google Buzz is a click away. Could we be looking at the new frontier of social networking?

That leads to the question: is there any white space for Google to invade? Google has given no signs of Facebook connectivity, and no plans have been announced. This matters because there are almost 400 million Facebook users.

If Google refuses to integrate any Facebook interoperability features, they’re making a pretty stiff argument. They want you to log out of your Facebook account and miss all your friends’ status updates, some of which were made through Twitter, to use the Buzz to access another set of status updates. continue reading…

The online community might be buzzing about Google Buzz these days but how long will the hype last without teaming up with the largest social networking site today?

Earlier this week, the search engine giant launched Buzz, an integrated social network embedded on Gmail, which allows users to post status and share multimedia files from photos to videos without switching to different tools.

If you are getting your multiple account names and passwords confused, then you are probably ecstatic about Google Buzz, which also connects users to other sites like Picasa, Flickr, Blogger and Twitter. continue reading…

Is Twitter going down? And is Blogging on the comeback? According to Erich Schonfeld of TechCrunch, Twitter—via their website Twitter.com—isn’t doing so well in the US and this is spreading across the world.

According to Schonfeld, comScore had estimated that Twitter had 58.3 million unique visitors worldwide for October but this was down from 58.4 million from the month before. The number of people from the US who visited Twitter had gone down for the first time in October by eight percent month-over-month to 19.2 million from 20.9 million in September.  continue reading…

How would you feel if you could own a piece of online real estate called Facebook?

Crazy? Well, you should start thinking about it as reports revealed that the fastest-growing social networking company is now a step closer to offer its shares to the public.

According to reports, Facebook adopted a dual-class stock structure, a setup that gives more weight on the voting powers of certain shareholders in case the Palo Alto, California-based company decides to go public.
continue reading…

Toys “R” Us has just played a smarty pants move on Facebook.

The world’s leading dedicated toy and baby products retailer ‘leaked’ their Black Friday deals on the social networking site, attracting more users to become fans of their Facebook page.

Toys “R” Us fans can now access a special sneak peek at the Toys “R” Us Black Friday deals and discounts that will be available on November 27, 2009 starting at midnight. In addition to the 120 advertised Black Friday doorbusters, they can also access a preview of more than 100 additional “Mystery Deals”. continue reading…

Finally, all that planting and sowing has paid off. Zynga, the parent company of popular Facebook game FarmVille, was recently valued at $1 billion by Pacific Crest Securities, a technology-focused investment bank.

This could be the result of 63.7 million active virtual farmers in FarmVille, the most popular game application on Facebook to date. The California-based game developer also created Mafia Wars and the recently-launched Fishville, an underwater version of the popular crop-themed game. continue reading…

If you think bullies only lurk in dimly-lighted hallways of your high school, think again. They’ve also invaded online social networks, too.

Social networking sites are generally perceived to have positive impact on their users, allowing people to maintain their social circles, but data now show that sites are being used for cyber-bullying.

UK-based law enforcement watchdog Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center (CEOP) has voiced its concerns on the rise of cyber-bullying incidents and criticized the rather soft stance taken by social networking websites. continue reading…

If you’ve been glued to your computers long enough, you would have witnessed some of the major moments in the history of the World Wide Web – for the past ten years that is.

The leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, Webby Awards has already released what it considers the 10 most influential Internet moments of the 2000s. Drum roll please! continue reading…

If you’ve been removed as a friend in a social networking site such as Facebook, then you have just been ‘unfriended.’ And, you’ve also helped contribute to making the word as the top word for 2009.

“In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for word of the year,” says Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for Oxford’s US dictionary program. continue reading…