Wednesday, October 31, 2007
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Microsoft beat out Google for Facebook
 According to CNET News, Microsoft will take a $240-million equity stake in Facebook, good for 1.6 percent of the social network. Microsoft had attempted to buy a 5-percent stake in the site, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. The software company reportedly bested Google in a bidding war, so Microsoft officials likely view the deal as a significant victory in the ir battle for IT supremacy. But the big winner might be Facebook itself: Whether Microsoft overpaid or not, the transaction sets the social network's value at a whopping $15-billion. --Brock Read
Students Use Facebook to Maintain Friendships

A survey of people's online communication habits reveals that college students use social-networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, primarily to keep up with their friends. The Online Computer Library Center Inc., in Dublin, Ohio, recently released a report on the survey. The nonprofit library group joined with Harris Interactive to poll 6,100 people, including 511 college students, between December 7, 2006 and February 7, 2007. Among their findings:
  • Eighty percent of college students favor a particular social-networking site because their friends use the same site.
  • One quarter of students said their personal information on the Internet is kept more private than it was two years ago. But another 22 percent said such data is less secure.
  • Only about 37 percent of students said it was important to them that items they borrowed from a library be kept private.
  • Only 13 percent of students said libraries should build social-networking sites.
Respondents lived in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, and the United States.--Andrea L. Foster

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Wednesday, October 31, 2007 3:43:51 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  |  Related posts:
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