plugin

Facebook plugs in WordPress for social sharing

WordPress bloggers rejoice, now there's one more way to get stories out into the public. Users who use the popular Web publishing platform can now add in Facebook features via a new plugin spreading news of stories, social publishing, and individual mentions.

Facebook engineers and open source partners built the "Facebook for WordPress" plugin. No coding is necessary and the plugin is mobile-friendly and supports internationalization.

"Once the plugin is installed, you can cross-post content published to WordPress to your Facebook Timeline and the Facebook Pages you manage," Facebook engineer Matt Kelly wrote in a … Read more

New plugin lets users fix Google's text translations

As anyone who has used Google's translation service knows, the offering can be quite useful, but somewhat spotty in its accuracy. Google is now trying to change that with a new, experimental feature.

Web site owners looking to have their pages translated must first add Google's Website Translator plugin to their site. Next up, they'll need to add the company's new customization meta tag to the site. After the site's text has been translated, that meta tag will display a new field, called "Contribute a better translation." Clicking that opens a text box … Read more

Hybrids can be less polluting than coal-powered EVs

A study has found that cars with very high gas mileage are less polluting than electric vehicles charged up in coal-heavy regions.

The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report today called "State of Charge" that finds that on average plug-in cars are less polluting than gasoline-powered vehicles in the U.S. But the greenhouse gases emitted from electric vehicles depends on the sources of electricity.

The study centers on a heated discussion in auto circles. Automakers have sometimes referred to electric vehicles as "zero emissions," which is misleading because most plug-in drivers charge their cars … Read more

LinkedIn officially acquires plugin Rapportive

Rapportive announced that it was tying the knot with LinkedIn today.

"In business, partnership is dating--and we went on a lot of dates with LinkedIn. Slowly, but surely, we fell in love," Rapportive CEO Rahul Vohra wrote in a blog post. "Today, we are simply thrilled to announce that Rapportive is now part of LinkedIn!"

Earlier this month, AllThingsD broke the news that LinkedIn acquired the browser plugin Rapportive and then TechCrunch reported that the deal was sealed for $15 million.

The two companies had already partnered, so an acquisition wasn't too farfetched. The way … Read more

LinkedIn rumored to buy browser plugin Rapportive

The browser plugin Rapportive, which lets users check their social networks within Gmail and Google Apps, is rumored to have been acquired by LinkedIn, according to AllThingsD.

"Sources familiar with the negotiations said LinkedIn offered Rapportive 'low teens' of millions of dollars worth of cash," writes AllThingsD. "The deal has not officially closed yet."

The way Rapportive works is it grabs data from social sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and lets users view what's going on in a sidebar next to their e-mail inbox. Rapportive also has its own social network based on users' … Read more

Facebook updates Comment Box for mobile

Facebook updated its Comments Box social plug-in for mobile to improve user functionality on mobile sites, the social-networking giant announced today on its Facebook + Media page.

The Comments Box, already in use on many media sites, uses social signals to highlight the most relevant comments from friends, friends of friends, and those that are most liked and active in discussion threads. Users can then share the comments on their Facebook friends' News feeds, including links to the original site.

The updated plug-in will automatically appear on the mobile versions of sites that have Facebook's Comment Box enabled. The mobile … Read more

Facebook adds Web site 'Subscribe' button

Facebook has launched a "Subscribe" button for Web sites, allowing site visitors to get updates from journalists and other site contributors in their News Feeds.

The feature, which can be installed on any Web site, is essentially a "Follow" button for Facebook. Previously, users could "Like" or "Recommend" a single posts on sites.

The social plugin, which is already appearing on author pages on the WashingtonPost.com, The Huffington Post, Forbes.com, and Newsweek, offers another way for Web sites to attract and connect with users.

"The Subscribe button for websites … Read more

BCC your snarky comments in Outlook e-mails for $1.99

UPDATE September 19, 2011: This offer has now ended.

It's just about 5:00 on a Friday afternoon and you can't wait to get your weekend started, but you have this one e-mail that keeps lingering over your head and whoever "they" may be, they keep responding. It's an e-mail with your high-level executives cc'ed on it, so you can't say anything to the big group, but you want to be able to vent to one of your colleagues without having to send it to everyone else on that email thread. Now, what … Read more

Options for reducing Flash usage when browsing in Safari

For the past couple of years, Adobe Flash has been attacked by Apple for being a clunky add-on that causes numerous crashes and other problems for Safari and other Web browsers on the Mac. Given the advancements in HTML5, Flash has been slated as unnecessary by Steve Jobs and others who have been promoting the new HTML5 standard's features as an alternative for rendering Web media and other rich content.

Despite these efforts, Adobe has managed to improve Flash and add a number of new features such as hardware acceleration to the handling of images and video, which have … Read more