Yahoo! and Twitter embark on a new venture

Yahoo! has signed a deal with the popular micro-blogging site Twitter which will see Yahoo! users able to access Twitter via a whole host of Yahoo! products.

It’s not unusual for search engines to partner up with social networking sites such as Twitter. Only last year Google and Microsoft’s Bing signed a deal with Twitter to start indexing their updates on their search pages.

However the Yahoo! deal will go beyond simply indexing Twitter updates. Users of Yahoo! will be able to access their Twitter accounts from the company’s homepage, and from their Yahoo! email account, bridging the gap between social networking and other technology packages more than ever before.

Bosses at Yahoo! say the new venture will enable their customers to access their social networking pages more quickly and effectively by integrating Twitter services into several areas of the Yahoo! brand. Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president, consumer products group, Yahoo! described the new partnership as “simplifying people’s lives by bringing their social worlds — and the world —- together for easy access.”

How the service will work has not yet been revealed, neither is it known how much the deal between Yahoo! and Twitter has cost.

Twitter updates are now searchable through Microsoft's Bing and will soon appear through Google

Just after the news broke that Microsoft would start indexing Twitter updates through their newly launched search engine Bing, Google also revealed that they have plans to follow suit and will also begin delivering status updates from Twitter in the near future.

The real-time Twitter search feature was announced by Microsoft at a web summit in Australia this week. The organisation said they also have plans in the pipeline to start delivering status updates from the other giant in social networking, Facebook.

Microsoft’s Bing is already displaying the Twitter updates. The service brings the user tweets related to a topic typed into a search box taking into account, the author, content, and how many times the tweet has received comments or been re-tweeted. It is not yet known when they will begin delivering the Facebook updates as well.

One of the biggest players from the world of search engines, Google who currently command an estimated 65% of the US market, confirmed that they too have come to an agreement with Twitter and their update service will swing into action in the coming weeks.

Not ones to be left out in the dark, Yahoo! are also believed to be in the process of negotiating a deal with the micro-blogging site Twitter.

Facebook becomes the world's most popular social networking site

Facebook has become the world’s most popular social networking site after it was announced that it currently holds 300 members worldwide.

The news was broken by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in a news blog post. In the announcement he wrote: “Facebook now serves 300 million people across the world. It’s a large number, but the way we think about this is that we’re just getting started on our goal of connecting everyone.” The announcement suggests that Facebook bosses are unlikely to rest on their laurels having reached the milestone, but instead, intend to use it as launching pad to further the company’s development.

The last two months have seen Facebook member numbers multiply dramatically with the site gaining 50 million extra users between July and September. One area where Facebook is gaining ground is in attracting members from countries where online resources are internet usage is not as prevalent as it is in the West.

Since the launch of Facebook Lite, which is designed for users with slow internet connections, the organization has been making headway in attracting members from countries such as South America and India, whilst still retaining a healthy sign-up rate from tech-savvy markets such as the UK and the States.

Zuckerberg plans to invest in developing software systems which will further boost Facebook’s prowess and enable the company to deliver a high speed service with innovative features.

Facebook will step up security setting to protect minors using the site

Facebook have announced that they will be tightening their security controls to safeguard the personal information of their users. The move comes weeks after Facebook confirmed their plans to simplify their privacy settings.

The social networking site has come under fire from the authorities in recent months over concerns about the safety of minors on the site. There have been calls for enhanced security in order to protect younger Facebook users from potential abusers. Facebook’s chief privacy officer, Chris Kelly, promised that security settings would be beefed up to ensure the safety of minors on Facebook.

However there have been police reports in the US in the past few weeks of sex abusers using Facebook as a tool to groom young girls, so privacy standards still remains an issue.

Canada’s Privacy Commissioner led a report recently to investigate the effectiveness of security controls on Facebook. The report concluded that “over-sharing of user’s personal information with third party developers who create popular Facebook applications such as games and quizzes” were one of the biggest threats to security.

The Commissioner confirmed that Facebook have agreed to bar application developers from accessing personal information, unless they receive direct consent from the user. The site will also inform members of the difference between deactivation of an account, and account deletion and how this affects information. Plus Facebook will also make clear that the profiles of users who have passed away may be kept active in order to serve as a memorial for friends of the deceased member.