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News

• Twitter wipes out followers to kill bug

  For all the Twitterers who were fretting about where their followers went earlier today, fear not. They're back.

• Twitter to start pushing advertising to users

  Twitter on Tuesday introduced a new service called Promoted Tweets, which will let companies send ads in the form of ordinary messages, according to a blog posted by co-founder Biz Stone.

• Twitter says growth surging internationally

  More people outside of the U.S. have registered for Twitter accounts than people in the U.S., the company said on Thursday.

• Social networking to dispace email? Not likely

  Given the growth of social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter, and the increasing use of collaboration tools such as Microsoft SharePoint, you may begin to wonder whether email's day in the sun is coming to an end.

• Microsoft researchers test microblogging service

  Microsoft plans to start a small-scale pilot of a microblogging service aimed at business users that it has been experimenting with in Office Labs.

• Apple files mobile social networking patent request

  A recently disclosed patent request suggests Apple may be working on a mobile social networking application that would presumably let iPhone users form ad-hoc groups based on their locations.

• Trouble saving? Call Uncle Percy

  Social networking is coming to the aid of anyone who has trouble saving if the founders of a new savings website have their way.
  Called Uncle Percy, the site lets people load images and share their goals with their social networks via a link to Facebook. Sharing the goals with their networks means people will contribute to something they actually want, the company says.
  The site, an alternative to a traditional savings account, allows users to invite family and friends to make a contribution to a savings goal. There is no interest rate, but there is a higher level of interaction and engagement.
  A charge of $7.95 is levied when the goal is achieved and the account, which is controlled by the Public Trust, is closed, says company chairman Garth Biggs.
  "Young people have a lot of difficulty saving money in an unsegmented way," Biggs says.
  Uncle Percy allows them to separate and focus on their financial goals and to share that with family and friends.
  The company behind Uncle Percy, founded by former ad man Leon Parore, has had a soft launch among friends but is now ready for prime time. Development began in the middle of last year.
  Biggs, formerly CEO of Gen-i and CIO at Air New Zealand, says he was approached by some investors and joined the company, in September or October last year, after the site was fully formed. His role is to test and challenge ideas and to provide governance for shareholders, he says.
  Biggs concedes the name Uncle Percy may have other connotations for some, but in testing that was only evident among older people and people of an English background.

• MS Outlook equipped for social networking

  Microsoft is adding social networking services, including LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace, to its Outlook email client.

• 10 of the world's strangest social networks

  If you crave advice on sculpting the perfect mustache, revel in the dark and mysterious world of vampires or seek a divorce from your partner, yes, there's a social network for that. Here are 10 weird and truly niche social networking sites that strive to bring together some unusual birds of a feather.

• After outcry, Google revamps Buzz networking application

  Google apologized on Saturday, saying it has made several changes to its new social-networking application Buzz to allay privacy concerns.

• 'Sudden failure' brings Twitter down

  Twitter addicts had to entertain themselves with something other than the social network and microblogging site for more than an hour Wednesday morning.

• Microsoft offers Twitter-style service in China

  Microsoft has launched a microblog-style service in China based on Windows Live Messenger, expanding the social-networking functions linked to the chat software in a country where it is a hit.

• Facebook deals with missing accounts, 150,000 angry users

  After a database problem knocked out the accounts of about 150,000 Facebook users for more than a week, the social networking site said today that most are now back up and running.

• Employees await Facebook verdict in landmark case

  The case of six prison officer from New South Wales who were threatened with the sack after making disparaging comments about their boss on Facebook, will have their case reinvestigated following a decision made by the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC).

• Social networkers see future in Flash Storage

  Cloud computing and flash-based storage are pushing each other forward as users of internet-based services such as social networks demand near-real-time access to the growing mountain of data those services access.