Moreover, recently MySpace laid off 50 % of its employees. People have been wondering about what’s next for MySpace. Well, it seems like the parent company of MySpace, News Corp, is pondering over a few options.

While announcing the recent earnings of the News Corp group, Chase Carey, the COO, said that they had some very encouraging figures of the new MySpace being warmly welcomed by its users. He however added that their revamped operations and online service of MySpace can only be best used by another owner.

Carey was talking to ‘Paid Content’ when he further elaborated that they are considering all sorts of options; they could sell it, there could be an investor subscribing for a part of the equity of the company, or they could stay in the business by coming up with a restructured management and ownership of the company.

These new features allow the users to effectively get benefitted with the enormous amounts of data shared by the 90 million subscriber base of LinkedIn.

A few days ago, LinkedIn had come up with a new feature which gave the ability to “create visual maps”. This allowed the users to create mind maps of their connections on LinkedIn. Today, again, a new feature has been launched by this exponentially spreading professional networking platform.

The new feature allows the users to explore the ‘skills data’ available on LinkedIn. Users can use this new service to search people with a certain skill or to reach out to important persons who represent a specific skill community.

This skill-based data search can be used to ascertain which locations having people with a certain skill are on the top. The feature can allow the users to find groups, jobs and companies on the basis of a specific skill selected. It can even indicate which skill is currently trending on the LinkedIn network.

The first feature is a secure HTTPS connection. This will be used throughout the website instead of only on the password page.

The second feature is social Captcha system that is designed for authentication of users who have lost their password.

The announcement regarding the changes came simultaneously with that of the hacking of Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s fan page.

HTTPS is a secure connection used by banks and other highly secured websites. Previously this feature was enabled only on the login page where users are requested to enter their password. Once users log-in the site is not as secure as it can be.

The incorporation of HTTPS throughout the site will make users secure from people looking for passwords over Wi-Fi.

However the use of HTTPS makes the downloading of webpage slower and some third party applications may not be able to work with this connection.

Facebook is working on providing a solution to this problem.

The second security feature will provide users with pictures of their friends to identify their name. This feature is for the users who have forgotten their password and require authentication.

The message was asking for the Site to become a social business by way of asking its members to invest in the company. The message itself read as though it came from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Image via Wikipedia

Initially, speculation ran rife that a hacker had found his way into Mr. Zuckerberg’s account. Facebook has recently issued statements.

“A bug enabled status postings by unauthorised people on a handful of pages, The bug has been fixed,” the statement read.

The message, left in the name of Mr Zuckerberg, read: “Let the hacking begin: If Facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn’t Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way?

The message itself generated around 2000 comments on the site before administrators removed the posting. Almost 3,000,000 people are fans of the site, it is not known how many people viewed the post, but the message itself has gone viral with many blogs posting  the comment.

Further speculation is that the site may not have been hacked, but the post was made by a disgruntled employee.

Image via CrunchBase

The awards have made the film a top runner for the Oscars since it’s also been highly appreciated by critics and within the industry in the last month.

The film also brought David Fincher the award for the best director, whereas Aaron Sorkin got the best screenplay prize. Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails’ frontman, together with Atticus Ross received the best musical score for the same film.

The movie’s story is about how the website Facebook was established, a true social networking phenomenon which now has 500 million users. However, Facebook was created in Mark Zuckerber’s dorm from college, creator who now is a billionaire.

Even though the creator of the website did not work with the creators of the movie to give them true facts about how the site was made, ‘The Social Network’ is still a great success as a ork of fiction.

The producer of the movie, Scott Rudin and Sorkin, said that the creation of Facebook has changed the world’s way of communication.

“I want to thank everyone at Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg for his willingness to use his life and work as a metaphor for communication and the way we relate to each other,” said the film’s producer.

Cover of John Lennon

His killer is still serving a prison sentence for the crime. Those who visited Imagine mosaic to honor the music star remembered memories of reacting to the news of his death.

The popularity of John Lennon despite his death and despite three decades having passed is ironic considering his last interview saw him emphasize on the importance of being something more than a dead hero.

The family of John Lennon thanked the fans for their support and appreciated their contributions in Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks. His wife put up a more personal and domestic photograph of John Lennon on her Facebook profile.

She also spoke about arguments that she and John shared about the proper way of making tea.

Fans said that John was a person who wanted peace and love and failed to enjoy it fully in his life. His son, also a musician, expressed gratitude as people congregated on the Imagine mosaic built as a memorial for John Lennon. Those who visited included those individuals who were born after his death.

Although it is commonly thought that spending a lot of time on sites, such as Facebook, weakens people’s social skills, researchers at the University of Texas have reached a conclusion that is contrary to this belief.

Image by philipbouchard via Flickr

Rather, S. Craig Watkins, associate professor of radio, TV and film and head of the research team, reported that “… there is sufficient evidence that social media afford opportunities for new expressions of friendship, intimacy and community.”

The research involved the participation of 900 college students and recent graduates, who were questioned about how and whom they interact with on Facebook; which has more than 500 million users around the world.

The majority of participating Facebook users, more than 60 per cent, said they mostly posted status updates on the site. Some 60 per cent also posted comments on their profile, and 49 per cent posted messages and comments on their friends’ profiles.

The findings also suggested that men and women who use Facebook use the site to the same extent; but the way they use it is quite different. Women are mostly using the site for connection purposes, whereas men use it more as a functional tool.

Watkins also added that Facebook brings a new set of challenges to today’s youth, as they need to adapt their “Facebook behaviour” to an increasing social circle. “Facebook engagement is not uniform. It’s constantly evolving and in a state of flux, and that presents a challenge,” he said.

The report about the talks rushed through media reports on Friday as anonymous sources cited by a technology blog said that the two were discussing in-depth about a possible purchase.

The same anonymous sources quoted by All Things Digital, a technology blog, said that the acquisition would amount more than $3bn; earlier this year, Yahoo Group offered Groupon between $2bn and $3bn in order to acquire it.

Yahoo did not close the deal with Groupon and AllThingsD.com, the tech blog, wrote about sources saying that Google might not close the deal either.

Contacted by the blog, Google and Groupon had similar responses. Grouppon said ‘thanks for the heads-up”, while a Google spokes person stated that they don’t respond to speculations: “Per usual, we don’t comment on rumor or speculation. If we did we’d be busy 24/7!”

Up until now, Groupon has expressed its intention of staying independent, but as its revenue rose over $50m per month, many companies in the retail business could be interested in acquiring it.

However, the same sources stated that a price over $3bn, the amount supposedly offered by Google Inc, could be paid only by big players in the market such as eBay, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon.

Image by The Economist via CrunchBase

The co-founder addressed the issue during his statement at a San Francisco industry gathering, the Web 2.0 conference, which took place on Wednesday.

Williams, however, did not provide clarifications about the other side of the reports which wrote that Twitter considered getting funding.

Twitter’s co-founder stated that the company had “a lot of money in the bank”, after which he declined to comment about whether funding-talks with investment funds were or were not true.

At the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, Evan Williams stated that revenue from advertising had exceeded expectations.

Also, the co-founder stated that talks between Twitter and Facebook are ongoing. The two social networking services are trying to find a way to interoperate.

Currently, Facebook did not allow Twitter to integrate its service within it, and Williams stated that this issue was frustrating.

“We’re talking to them often to see if there is a way to work together, but so far neither side has found out a way to do that”, stated Evan Williams, the co-founder of Twitter.

The micro-blogging company based in San Francisco is estimated to have 175m users, numbers that make it one of the most popular online platforms for social networking.

The two internet giants which had a symbiotic relationship have started competing with each other. Facebook has announced a new version of its messaging services. This could pose a direct challenge to Google star product- Gmail.

Chief executive officers of both organizations along with many other internet industry giants are expected to grace Web 2.0 conference that is about to commence on Monday.

Another internet giant, Yahoo Inc, is the target of a takeover by numerous private equity firms combined with AOL Inc or News Cops. Investors are looking at the conference very keenly because they are hoping for a spate of public offerings which will help kick start the investment industry.

Other firms that shall be under the spotlight include Twitter, LinkedIn and Zynga  . However, there is no denying that Google and Facebook, internet behemoths, will be the center of attraction with potential impact of competition and the enormous implications of cooperative approach on the industry. It may also set off a price war for talented employees.