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Gambit, a virtual currency and payment-processing provider, is accusing the social-networking giant of breaking antitrust laws, according to a Bloomberg report.

The company, operating as virtual currency and payment-processing provider Gambit, said Facebook's decision in 2009 to offer its own similar services to developers killed a "vibrant and competitive market," according to federal court papers examined by Bloomberg.

Such a service allows gaming providers to issue currency to players in exchange for real money or advertising offers.

Kickflip wants a judge to bar Facebook from enforcing its policy, and it also is requesting unspecified damages.

A Facebook spokesman, meanwhile, said that "we believe the lawsuit is without merit and will defend ourselves vigorously."

The idea of Facebook credits first debuted in 2008 when the social network changed the monetary units for its "gifts" into "credits," rather than U.S. dollars. Then, throughout 2009 and 2010, the company rolled out a way for developers to work credits into their apps on Facebook's platform.

These credits can be used on hundreds of games and apps available on Facebook, such as Farmville, and be spent at select retailers, like Target. Facebook takes 30 percent of sales.

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Facebook sued over social-gaming currency

From the biggest media moguls to the most humble convenience stores, businesses are establishing their presence online to reach their customers in the fastest and most cost-effective way. This is the social networking phenomenon and it is here to stay. But did you know that social networking can be risky to businesses, regardless of size?

Large enterprises are not the only ones getting their own slices of the social media pie; small businesses are, too. A 2010 U.S. National Small Business Association (NSBA) study reported that 47% of their small business respondents used social media for networking purposes.

LinkedIn ranked first in their list of most utilized social networking sites, closely followed by Facebook. Its not hard to see why, as all they need to engage in what is essentially free advertising is a computer and Internet access.

An audience to capture exists as well, as according to a 2010 Nielsen study, close to three-quarters of the worlds Internet population (74%) visit social networking sites or blogs and spend an average of almost six hours per month on social media sites.2 As a very cost-effective means to bring public attention to a product or to a service, social media are no doubt very powerful and popular business networking tools and will continue to be so in the years to come.

http://www.nsba.biz/docs/nsba_2010_technology_survey.pdf http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/social-media-dominates-asia-pacific-internet-usage/

The Ponemon Institute, in a recent global survey on social media risks, found that most IT security professionals agree that the use of social media in the workplace is important to achieving business objectives.3 This is not exactly alarming news, as the social networking phenomenon is affecting the entire world. In fact, a Trend Micro corporate end-user survey of 1,600 respondents from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan found that 24% of employees indulged in social networking at work in 2010, up from 19% in 2008.

The same Ponemon Institute study also found that users engaged in social networking at work for both business and nonbusiness reasons. In fact, 60% of the employees surveyed used social media for at least 30 minutes per day for personal reasons. Users from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Mexico posted the highest social media usage rates for non-business reasons. Organizations in Germany, on the other hand, posted the highest social media usage rate for business purposes.

http://www.connectitnews.com/usa/story.cfm?item=4940

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/trend-micro-reports-global-rise-in-workplace-social-networking-98245354.html

Small businesses should realize that despite their size, they are not immune to social media threats. In fact, being taken advantage of by cybercriminals is an all-too-real possibility.

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Five things small businesses should know about social networking

The company rebuilt its iPhone app, which lets users build private social networks with friends and family, from the ground up for tablet use.

A look at Path for the iPad.

Path, the social-networking app that helps family members and close friends stay in touch, is now making its way to the iPad.

According to Path, the app was built from the ground up and supports both landscape and portrait orientations. Path is especially excited about the landscape orientation, saying that it will provide a full collage of the day's events in a single pane, thanks to the iPad's larger screen screen size. Upon clicking on a photo in the collage of images and videos, users will get a full-screen view and see comments associated with it.

The iPad's 9.7-inch screen size has given Path more room to display user data on the home screen, including their feed, recent activity, and friends list.

Other than a few enhancements with screen size, Path on the iPad delivers the same experience users have had on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Path was founded by CEO Dave Morin, who left Facebook in 2010 to start the company. Napster creator Shawn Fanning was also involved in Path's development. The company has been growing rapidly, which has helped it attract investors. In April, Path announced a $30 million funding round led by Richard Branson, Facebook backer Yuri Milner, and Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus.

Path for iPad should be available any minute as a free download in Apple's App Store.

Originally posted here:
Social-networking app Path finally forges its way to the iPad

OKLAHOMA CITY -

A social networking site has police looking into what they call a disturbing coincidence.

Carina Saunders and Jaray Wilson, who both went missing and may have links to human trafficking, both had profiles on meetme.com this week. Both profiles claimed they were older than their actual age.

Meetme.com is a social networking site with virtual games. News 9 searched around the site and found you can find and flirt with friends by sex and age. There are sexually suggestive messages and pleas for help from minors.

You can buy people and be sold. You can play games, reconnect with friends or hook up by accepting money and dates. Carina Saunders' troubled life and scary death have plagued Oklahomans for a year now; her 19-year-old body found dismembered last fall.

10/20/2012 Related Story: Search For Missing Weatherford Teen Expands To OKC

Investigator say she may have been connected to drugs and human trafficking. Saunders died last year and her is case still unsolved, but until Tuesday she had an active profile on meetme.com, and so did missing 16-year-old Jaray Wilson.

"I'm concerned that these young girls are on the internet and sites without any oversight," said Debra Forshee with Oklahoma Youth Services. "A human trafficker can groom his prey online for several months."

The site was founded as myyearbook.com in 2005. Six months ago it was rebranded and renamed.

"These types of sites these social networking sites crop up they leave the internet they crop again," Forshee said.

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Social Networking Site Had Profiles Of Missing Weatherford Teen, Carina Saunders

The first time you launch the app, you'll be asked to "fill out your card" by typing your name, phone number, and e-mail address. Attach a photo, if you wish, to this virtual card.

Now, you can transfer that information and get the same in return at a "light fist bump," as instructed, with anyone else running the Bump app.

You can also pass along information from others in your phone's contact list, or with photos stored on your phone.

The app has a novel way, too, of bumping photos to a laptop or desktop computer. With a bump of the phone against your space bar, the app sends pictures to a website, http://bu.mp, from which you can drag and drop them to any PC folder. The caveat here is that the process works over the Firefox, Chrome and Safari browsers, but not via Internet Explorer.

When you can't escape the material world, ScanBizCards Lite, free from ScanBiz Mobile Solutions L.P., lets you take photos of old-fashioned cardboard business cards and send the information on them into your address book.

The app, for Android and Apple devices, detects a slew of printed languages, including in the Greek and Russian alphabets.

The Lite version of ScanBizCards allows you to save only five cards a week to your address book, but unlimited card-scanning is possible. A "premium" edition of the app, which allows unlimited card-saving, costs $6.99.

A free app called ooVoo Video Chat can, among other things, make an iPod Touch work like a video telephone among users of the app. It also works on other Apple and Android mobile devices.

For networking, the software, by ooVoo L.L.C., can conference up to 12 video callers, although 12 Chiclet-size faces, all with squinting eyes, on a smartphone screen could be a bit tedious to watch. (With Skype and a similar video-chat plug in for Google+Hangouts, you can conference up to 10 users).

For desktop use, ooVoo has PC and Mac versions.

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Apptitude: Enhanced social networking, via app