Social Networking

The number of Americans using Twitter dropped 8% in October from September, marking the second monthly decline for the social-networking site this year, according to research firm ComScore Inc. Twitter Inc., the No. 3 social-networking site in the U.S., had 19.2 million users in October, ComScore said. The company had growth of less than 1% in September and declined in August. October's number was still up more than 13-fold from the year-earlier period. The month-to-month drop contrasted with a 2% increase for users of Facebook Inc., the most popular social network.

Maybe what Facebook really needs is a "buy" button. After a lifeless opening last week, Facebook shares tumbled on their second day of trading, losing about $10 billion in market value Monday as investors questioned the company's revenue prospects. Shares of the Menlo Park, Calif., social network fell to as low as $33 before closing down $4.20, or 11%, to $34.03. It was unclear if Facebook shares got help from traders at the company's lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley, who stepped in Friday to prop up shares just a hair above their $38 offering price.

A study on how people use social networking websites such as Facebook confirms what many of us suspected. Women who post loads of photos of themselves on their sites are conveying some strong personal characteristics, according to new research. These women are more likely to base their self-worth on appearance and use social networking to compete for attention. The study involved 311 men and women with an average age of 23. In order to better understand aspects of social networking behavior, the researchers looked at the amount of time subjects spent managing profiles, the number of photos they shared, the size of their online networks and how promiscuous they were in terms of “friending” behavior.

So, against all odds, you managed to get your hands on a few shares of Facebook stock via one of the most hyped initial public offerings of all time and managed to survive its messy first day of trading. Congratulations. You're now married to Mark Zuckerberg. The 28-year-old company founder is today one of the most deeply-entrenched chief executives in American business. Thanks to a two-class stock structure, Zuckerberg will own about 28% of Facebook but control 57% of all shareholder votes.

Facebook has filed papers for what's expected to be the largest initial public offering ever to come out of Silicon Valley and one of the largest in U.S. history. Ending months of breathless speculation, the 8-year-old social networking company has submitted registration documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that set a preliminary goal of raising $5 billion. Facebook is expected to be valued at $75 billion to $100 billion. Final pricing will not be set for months, and the size of the IPO probably will increase with investor demand.

Can MySpace become culturally relevant again? It's still too soon to tell, but Tim and Chris Vanderhook, the two young investors who bought the faded social networking site from News Corp. in June 2011 now have some semi-solid reason to hope. On Monday morning, MySpace announced that it had over 1 million new sign-ups in the last 30 days. The company also said MySpace.com is receiving an average of 40,000 new registrations daily. And more good news: Traffic to the site was up in January for the first time in a year, according to a report in the New York Times.

Has a mastery of social networking become a prerequisite for a successful working life? If "friending" and tweeting are now essential skills for the professional classes, where does that leave the chronically network-challenged? And how do you get into the networks where the power players hang out? Questions such as these spring inevitably — and uncomfortably — to mind as you read "The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself and Transform Your Career," a new book cowritten by Reid Hoffman, founder and chairman of Mountain View, Calif.-based LinkedIn Corp.

SAN FRANCISCO - In its biggest acquisition, Facebook is paying $1 billion for the hugely popular Instagram mobile photo-sharing app maker in a move that broadens its business and absorbs a potential rival. The tiny San Francisco startup has just 13 employees and no significant revenue. But its acquisition helps ensure that Facebook - on the verge of staging the most hotly anticipated initial public stock offering in years - will be on the forefront of how people share photos with friends on their smartphones.

In today's hyper-speed world of technology entrepreneurship, David C. Bohnett ranks as a grand old man. Bohnett, 55, founded GeoCities, the pioneering social networking company that made his fortune, back in 1994 — virtually Internet prehistory. He took GeoCities public in 1998 and it was sold the following year to Yahoo for more than $3 billion in Yahoo stock. After 10 years of indifferent and shortsighted management, Yahoo consigned GeoCities to the Internet's memory banks by shutting it down in 2009.

Social networking sites are great for maintaining and renewing relationships. But Facebook and other sites can also lead to shattered relationships. According to a new study, the three most-common negative experiences are: Ignoring or denying "friend" requests Deleting public messages or identification tags Seeing a Top Friends list on which one doesn't appear or is ranked lower than expected Robert S. Tokunaga of the University of Arizona studied 197 college students concerning their social networking experiences.

Social media start-up Pinterest has raised $100 million in a recent financing round led by a Japanese online retailer, increasing the estimated value of the virtual scrapbooking company to $1.5 billion. Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten Inc. led the fundraising for the Palo Alto company, which is now ranked by Experian as the third-most-popular social network behind Twitter and Facebook. Pinterest users check out thousands of images collected by fellow users and "pinned up" on their online scrapbooks.

General Motors Co.plans to pull its paid advertising from Facebook Inc. after the nation's largest automaker determined its ads on the social network had little effect on consumers. The move represents an ill-timed setback for Facebook, which is gearing up for what is expected to be the largest ever initial public stock offering of an Internet company. In the run-up to its IPO, expected Friday, investors have been weighing Facebook's revenue prospects and have questioned the effectiveness of advertising on the social networking site.

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook has a star, and it's not Mark Zuckerberg. Chris Cox, the lesser-known 29-year-old Facebook executive, has been stealing the roadshow from the social network's gawky chief executive since his breakout role in a slick video shown to investors and posted on the Web this week. The video exalting Facebook ahead of its initial public stock offering didn't get rave reviews from buttoned-up financiers who had to cool their heels for half an hour before they could meet top executives.

SAN FRANCISCO - California is one step closer to becoming one of the first states to ban companies from asking job seekers and workers for their user names and passwords on Facebook and other social networking websites. The state Assembly on Thursday passed a bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Nora Campos (D-San Jose) that would make anything workers designate as private on social networks off-limits to employers. The bill, which passed the Assembly without a dissenting vote, now goes to the California Senate.

SAN FRANCISCO — Dressed in his trademark hoodie and jeans, Facebook Inc. co-founder Mark Zuckerberg kicked off a cross-country roadshow to pitch his company's initial public stock offering. Hundreds of institutional investors stood in long lines Monday to pile into a ballroom at New York's Sheraton Hotel to hear the billion-dollar pitch from the 27-year-old chief executive before his company's hotly anticipated IPO. The meeting was closed to the media. Facebook is trying to build excitement for the IPO that in a few weeks could value the company at more than $96 billion.

SAN FRANCISCO — The rapid growth of Facebook Inc. showed signs of slowing in the first quarter, potentially cooling investors' fervor just weeks before the company's hotly anticipated initial public stock offering. Facebook generated $1.06 billion in sales, the second quarter in a row sales topped $1 billion. That represented a 45% jump from a year earlier but a 6% decline compared with the fourth quarter. The financial performance, the company's most anemic since at least 2010, fell below analysts' expectations.

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook has a star, and it's not Mark Zuckerberg. Chris Cox, the lesser-known 29-year-old Facebook executive, has been stealing the roadshow from the social network's gawky chief executive since his breakout role in a slick video shown to investors and posted on the Web this week. The video exalting Facebook ahead of its initial public stock offering didn't get rave reviews from buttoned-up financiers who had to cool their heels for half an hour before they could meet top executives.

Social networking mobile app maker Path said Monday that it raised about $30 million from venture capital firms such as Greylock Partners and Redpoint Ventures and individual investors such as Virgin Group's Richard Branson and DST Global's Yuri Milner. The investment values the San Francisco company at $250 million. Path, which had previously raised $11.2 million, is the brainchild of former senior Facebook executive Dave Morin and Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning. It's riding the new wave of tech companies that are building for mobile, not the Web. Path has been compared to Instagram, which Facebook said last week it would buy for $1 billion.

Social networking mobile app maker Path said Monday that it raised about $30 million from venture capital firms such as Greylock Partners and Redpoint Ventures and individual investors such as Virgin Group's Richard Branson and DST Global's Yuri Milner. The investment values the San Francisco company at $250 million. Path, which had previously raised $11.2 million, is the brainchild of former senior Facebook executive Dave Morin and Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning. It's riding the new wave of tech companies that are building for mobile, not the Web. Path has been compared to Instagram, which Facebook said last week it would buy for $1 billion.

To orchestrate her wedding next month, Dara Weiner's biggest helper isn't her party planner or her devoted fiance - it's the Pinterest website that now dominates the time she spends online. Weiner browses the site checking out thousands of photos collected by users and "pinned up" on their online scrapbooks. When she likes an image of a table setting, a dress or a bouquet, Weiner will earmark the photo to pin up on her own Pinterest page to keep for inspiration. "I've planned 70% of my wedding around pictures I've seen on Pinterest," said Weiner, 40, of Newport Beach.