Internet-based applications and services - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Suspicious Facebook app attracts nearly 300,000 fans

  A suspicious application circulating on Facebook has attracted nearly 300,000 fans whose profiles could be used as launching pads for spam, according to a security analyst.

• Mystery iPhone book apps disappear from store

  A group of iPhone apps that had received top rankings on the iTunes Store have disappeared from the top 50 book applications following complaints from developers.

• YouTube hack targets Justin Bieber fans

  Early Sunday morning has seen a non-stop crackle of reports from individuals on social media sites that YouTube has been hacked to apparently target videos of singer and teen sensation Justin Bieber.

• Facebook targets face-tagging in photos

  Facebook, whose members upload more than 100 million photos every day, is testing a feature designed to streamline and increase the tagging of people in pictures.

• Google adds native usage tracker to Blogger

  Google's Blogger blog publishing and hosting service now has its own analytics feature that monitors a blog's usage, logs stats and displays reports and graphs.

• Facebook adds new controls for third-party apps

  Facebook has revamped the way its users share information with third-party applications and Web sites in an effort to make the process easier, the company said Wednesday.

• Building a Facebook killer won't be easy for Google

  Hearsay in recent days that Google is working hard on a project to better compete against Facebook has captured the attention of industry observers, who wonder what shape this initiative might take and what is its likelihood of success.

• Sony begins chasing PlayStation subscription revenue

  Sony released an update to its PlayStation 3 on Tuesday that brings several new features and launches the PlayStation's first subscription gaming service.

• German regulators welcome street panorama privacy law draft

  German privacy regulators have welcomed a proposal to extend laws protecting Germans' right to privacy to cover use of their own image and that of their homes in online street panoramas, the Hamburg privacy regulator said Monday.

• Is Google gunning for Facebook with 'Google Me'?

  Rumors have it that Google is building its own social networking site named "Google Me" that may be the company's attempt to unseat Facebook. Is it possible for the world's most popular search engine to wage war against the world's most popular social networking site? If speculations are true, there's a chance.

• SharePoint 2010: Four Big-Name Social Networking Rivals

  Microsoft became decidedly more social with SharePoint 2010, adding social networking tools like improved wiki and blog integration, tagging and microblogging into its SharePoint MySites feature.

• Salesforce.com sues Microsoft for patent infringement

  Salesforce.com has sued Microsoft for patent infringement, making a move in response to an intellectual property suit Redmond filed against the on-demand CRM (customer relationship management) vendor last month.

• Google Gmail to harness HTML5

  In keeping with Google's enthusiasm for the emerging HTML5 standard, many upcoming features of the company's Gmail Web-based e-mail service will be rendered in HTML5, said Adam de Boor, a staff software engineer working on the service.

• Facebook stands by its homegrown infrastructure

  Facebook regularly reviews whether to continue using its own data centers or hand off its processing to a cloud service provider, and its operations remain on homegrown infrastructure.

• Business school swaps Google Apps for Microsoft Live@edu

  A French business school plans to trade Google Apps, used by around half its staff and students, for Microsoft's rival Live@edu service.