Internet, Social Networking | featured news

Maryland is poised to become the first state to ban employers from demanding applicants or workers hand over their log-in information for social media sites like Facebook....

The site, which allows users to pin images of products they like on online scrapbooks, has seen its traffic grow almost sevenfold in five months and is ranked by one research firm as the No. 3 social network behind Facebook and Twitter.

Proving that second place doesn't always equate to being the first loser, the world's number two social network for professionals, Viadeo, (LinkedIn is number one), is getting $32 million in fresh financing.

With all the talk about excessive compensation, ponzi schemes and the nasty side of Steve Jobs, it might be easy to assume that all successful CEOs are jerks.

Poor Instagram users. First, their beloved photo-sharing application moves from iPhone-only exclusivity to the Android phone masses. A week later, Facebook swallows up the tiny startup behind the app for $1 billion. The purchase sparked worries that Facebook might shutter Instagram or change it for the worse by harvesting their personal information or shoving ads into their carefully curated photo streams.

Facebook is spending $1 billion to buy the photo-sharing company Instagram in the social network's largest acquisition ever.

Over the past year or so, Beyonce has opened the door to her heavily guarded private life and invited her adoring public in.

Facebook’s attorneys squared off Wednesday with the legal team of Paul Ceglia, a New York man who says that a 2003 contract proves he should own at least half of Facebook. Ceglia, for whom Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg did some work while at Harvard University, says he has a contract granting him at least half the ownership of Facebook. Facebook has denied the claim, saying that the contract and several other documents Ceglia provided are faked. The company subsequently filed to dismiss the suit last month.

If you’re reading this, chances are you got here from some social media site. The growing industry has changed the way that people communicate on a daily basis. It’s changed how we consume our news, share with friends, and go about our lives in general. The biggest social media sites in the world are larger than many countries and have an infrastructure similar in many ways to an odd form of government.