Social site Facebook buys Parakey
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Social networking site Facebook has bought internet start-up Parakey.
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Online retailer Buy.com is inviting itself into the expanding social networking scene, acquiring a Web site that rewards members with checks or gift certificates if they persuade others to buy their favorite products.
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Belatedly recognizing the importance of social networking as an online service and advertising vehicle, Google this week will unleash its strongest response yet to the rising threat and skyrocketing popularity of MySpace and Facebook.On Thursday, Google will announce OpenSocial, an initiative with a set of APIs (application programming interfaces) at its core that is designed &quot;to spread social applications across the Web,&quot; the company said.These common APIs have been designed to let developers create social networking applications that will run on multiple Web sites, simplifying the making and distribution of these programs.Partners supporting OpenSocial include various well-known software developers and social networking sites: Oracle, Salesforce.com, Hi5, iLike, LinkedIn, Slide, Ning, Friendster, and Plaxo. Neither Facebook nor MySpace is on the list of partners at press time.The move is also no doubt intended to dilute the massive&#160;success Facebook has had in attracting external developers&#160;since it opened up its Web site platform to third-party applications in May.About 7,000 such applications have been built for Facebook so far, helping to make the social networking site more attractive to people and thus boosting its usage.&#160;MySpace recently announced it would follow Facebook&#39;s example.By allowing developers to write an application once and have it work in multiple social networking sites, the OpenSocial initiative could, in theory, water down the appeal of Facebook&#39;s ballooning applications catalogue.Once considered a fad of interest mostly to teens and young adults, social networks have significantly broadened their demographic appeal, attracting many people in their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond.Along the way, social networking sites have been created for other purposes beyond entertainment and staying in touch with friends. For example, there are social networks tailored for specific occupations, such as doctors, and interests, such as sports.Google has had a social networking site named Orkut for several years, but it doesn&#39;t seem to have merited much attention from the company until recently, and only after the popularity and potential of this type of site became evident.Google was reportedly locked in a battle with Microsoft&#160;over which one would be chosen by Facebook to buy a stake in the social networking company and earn a deal to provide advertising to it.Microsoft eventually won, buying a 1.6 percent stake that values Facebook at an eye-popping $15 billion, although the social networking company reportedly will have revenue of just $150 million this year.With about 300 employees now, Facebook expects to have about 700 a year from now, its CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg recently said. About 250,000 new users register every day at Facebook, which was founded in 2004.In June, MySpace had 114.1 million unique visitors worldwide, ranking first among social networking sites, followed by Facebook with 52.2 million, according to comScore. Hi5 ranked third with 28.2 million, while Friendster was fourth with 24.7 million. Orkut rounded out the top 5 with 24.1 million.More information about OpenSocial and resources for developers will be available in this Web site later this week. There will also be a developer sandbox.
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Facebook, a social-networking site that has become an open development platform, announced Thursday that it purchased startup Parakey for an undisclosed amount. The company, started by Mozilla Firefox cofounders Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, has been creating products to unify and integrate desktop applications and the Web.
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Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook have been boons for teenagers looking for new friends and people trying to find dates. Now the technology, which lets liked-minded people find each other online, is trickling into investing.
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Microsoft Corp is talking to Facebook about buying a minority stake in the fast-growing online social network that could value the company at $10 billion or more, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Monday.
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Yahoo has apparently offered $900 million for social networking site Facebook, media reports indicate. The offer is still being considered and negotiations said to be ongoing.
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Facebook Inc., the fast growing  Silicon Valley social networking site, said on Thursday it has  acquired Internet start-up, Parakey, run by two of the  co-creators of the popular Web browser, Mozilla Firefox.
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The firm is poised to buy a 5% share in the popular social networking website, according to reports.
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Software dinosaur Microsoft paid millions for a tiny piece of trendy internet property Facebook. But the company needs something to make it hot again
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The company's new software might let private information go public. Also: A new website pays you to help your friends buy products  & hellip;. LAN operators start to gear up  & hellip;. and more.
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Like watching your dad dance at the prom The Wall Street Journal says Microsoft is looking to acquire a stake in famed Web 2.0 social networking operation Facebook. Referencing unnamed sources "familiar with the matter", the finance writers suggested Redmond might take five per cent of Facebook for "roughly $300m to $500m".â¦
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Blog: Popular social-networking site makes its first buy: Parakey, a Web start-up created by Firefox's co-founders.
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InfoWorld - Cisco Systems is continuing to buy its way into social networking, acquiring some assets of the company that operates Tribe.net while letting the site remain independent.
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES  - Social  networking Web sites have fired up industry deal headlines the  past couple of years -- from News Corp.'s ground-breaking  acquisition of MySpace to the recent purchases by the Walt  Disney Co. and Viacom Inc.'s Logo network of Club Penguin and  DowneLink.com, respectively.
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The company will license its tags and APIs to other social networking sites, so they can run apps designed for Facebook.
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Social networking site purchases tiny startup that had been developing software it bills as a Web-based operating system.