
When it comes to the issue of privacy, recent attention has been focused on social networking sites—particularly on Facebook and Google. But consumers often overlook one other potential source of privacy breach: mobile phone records. READ MORE


When it comes to the issue of privacy, recent attention has been focused on social networking sites—particularly on Facebook and Google. But consumers often overlook one other potential source of privacy breach: mobile phone records. READ MORE

The next big thing for the consumer web could come from something you might not guess. According to VentureBeat, services like RapGenius and TuneWiki are spearheading a new way of publishing and making money from song lyrics. Apparently, they’re one of the most popular things people search for on the Web. READ MORE

Facebook, Google and Apple use facial recognition to automatically recognize people in photos and the technology is increasingly being used in other ways, such as in billboards that target ads based on who’s walking by. But is this technology good, or bad? Is it an invasion of privacy, or is it something consumers can benefit from? READ MORE

The virtual goods market has given Facebook a boost in revenue. According the market research firm eMarketer, Facebook Credits, the social networks internal payment system for virtual goods, has raked in $470 million for the company. This puts Facebook on target to pass $4 billion in revenue this year. READ MORE

If you haven’t yet discovered it, Focus.com is a great (and free) place to find business experts. It’s similar to Q&A sites such as Formspring and Quora, but focuses on providing advice for business professionals from qualified and reviewed industry experts through roundtables and online Q&As. I use it all the time and am consistently impressed with the quality of responses I get when posting a question. This week the site is getting even better by launching its enhanced Live Event Platform. While Focus has already offered 1,000 live events to its 1 million members, in the past you could only dial in and listen to speakers. With the new platform, you can now interact with speakers and experts, give your opinions and ask questions in real-time. You can also rate how interesting or uninteresting a discussion is, and give up-to-the-second comments on how you feel speakers are doing. The social aspect is also different, since all your comments and feedback can be streamlined to your social networks—meaning your contacts from LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter can hear about an event as it’s happening. Learn more at Focus.com or check out its Events Schedule.

Facebook recently announced it will now let you adjust the amount and type of activity you see from friends such as photo posts and game and status updates. You can also now follow the public updates of people on Facebook who are not your friends and opt-in to share your public updates with people you don’t know but who might be interested in you. READ MORE
From Monday to Wednesday in San Francisco, TechCrunch’s latest Disrupt Start-up Battlefield competition is showcasing entrepreneurs from 30 start-ups, all vying for a $50,000 prize by making six-minute-long pitches to a rotating panel of venture capitalists, tech influencers, angel investors and Silicon Valley players. Tuesday featured three more sessions of Start-up Battlefield, titled Customer-Friendly Enterprise, Local Networks and Increasing Understanding; here are the start-ups presented in session six: Increasing Understanding. READ MORE
From Monday to Wednesday in San Francisco, TechCrunch’s latest Disrupt Start-up Battlefield competition is showcasing entrepreneurs from 30 start-ups, all vying for a $50,000 prize by making six-minute-long pitches to a rotating panel of venture capitalists, tech influencers, angel investors and Silicon Valley players. Tuesday featured three more sessions of Start-up Battlefield, titled Customer-Friendly Enterprise, Local Networks and Increasing Understanding; here are the start-ups presented in session five: Local Networks. READ MORE
From Monday to Wednesday in San Francisco, TechCrunch’s latest Disrupt Start-up Battlefield competition will showcase entrepreneurs from 30 start-ups vying for a $50,000 prize by making six-minute-long pitches to a rotating panel of venture capitalists, tech influencers, angel investors and Silicon Valley players. Monday featured three sessions of Start-up Battlefield, titled Disrupting Traditional Markets, Moving the Web Forward and Entertain Us; here are the start-ups presented in session three: Entertain Us. READ MORE