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Facebook's Finch stickers put livelier face on messaging

Facebook is rolling out a new animated sticker pack created by illustrator Matt Jones as part of a much larger effort to make messaging more human.

Stickers, which are essentially a character-driven interpretation on emoticons, made their first appearance in Facebook's iOS application in mid April. The social network has since added its warm-and-fuzzy, and sometimes kooky, digital machinations to the Messenger application for Android. Facebook will eventually bring the characters to its other messaging apps as well.

Facebook announced Friday the release of a new sticker pack based on a character Jones created called Finch. The pack features … Read more

Zuckerberg's political action group adds Ballmer, Gates

Mark Zuckerberg's FWD.us political action group has added a few more tech heavy hitters to its membership roster.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith, and entrepreneur and investor Sean Parker have all signed on in support of the Facebook CEO's group aimed at reforming immigration. AllThingsD earlier reported the news, and CNET confirmed the report with FWD.us.

"We've been excited by the momentum we continue to see as more members of the tech community contribute to the national debate to improve our economic future, and support the … Read more

Facebook's latest mobile acquisition: It's all about your data

With the purchase of Parse, Facebook has instantly moved from consumer social network to business service provider, playing host to the back end of thousands of mobile applications. In so doing, the company has bought access to data it could otherwise not touch.

On Thursday, Facebook announced that it agreed to acquire 2-year-old Parse for an undisclosed sum, though multiple reports peg the value at $85 million in cash and stock.

Parse serves as host to "tens of thousands" of iOS, Android, Windows, and HTML5 apps. The company offers mobile developers a convenience by taking care of back-end … Read more

Facebook purchases Parse to promote mobile app development

Facebook has agreed to purchase Parse, a service that allows developers to build mobile applications for iOS, Android, Windows, and mobile web.

The social network announced Thursday that it picked up the mobile-focused company for an undisclosed sum and said it plans to continue offering Parse's products and services. The deal is reported to be worth $85 million, according to TechCrunch.

"By making Parse a part of Facebook Platform, we want to enable developers to rapidly build apps that span mobile platforms and devices," Doug Purdy, Facebook's director of product management, said. "Parse makes this … Read more

Facebook tests 'presence dots' in News Feed to push messaging

Facebook is reminding people that they can -- and should -- message their friends by inserting a chat status icon into News Feed.

The company is nudging some members to message their online friends by indicating chat availability with a green dot, officially called a "presence dot," alongside status updates in News Feed. The tiny addition lets people click the green dot to initiate a message thread.

"This is a limited test putting presence dots on News Feed posts to indicate when your friends are available to chat," a Facebook spokesperson confirmed to CNET. "We … Read more

Facebook confirms state-of-the-art data center in Iowa

Rumors have been confirmed that the new massive data center to be built in Altoona, Iowa, will be owned by none other than Facebook.

The social network announced Tuesday that the 194-acre site will be the home of its fourth wholly-owned and operated data center worldwide.

"For most people, Facebook is something pretty simple. It's a service you visit every day to connect with the people and things you care about," Facebook's vice president of infrastructure engineering Jay Parikh wrote in a blog post. "But behind the scenes, Facebook is a global service of immense … Read more

Nike updates FuelBand app and links fitness to Facebook

When completing a workout isn't accomplishment enough, Nike has fashioned features for its most social fitness enthusiasts to better bask in the aftermath of completed goals.

Tuesday, Nike released an update to its FuelBand application for iOS that lets band-wearers sum up a workout with a photo, tag their friends and location, and share the tagged shot with Facebook for additional recognition through "likes" and comments.

The FuelBand is an activity tracking wristband that encourages people to set goals and document their daily progress personally or on a leaderboard with friends. The latest addition to the companion … Read more

Facebook hires Web-based mobile-game developer team

Facebook has acquired the team behind Spaceport, a cross-platform development company specializing in Web-based games, the companies announced Tuesday.

The move shows a continued focus for Facebook on mobile development expertise.

"After looking at Facebook's mission of building best-in-class mobile experiences, as well as much internal discussion with my co-founder and mentor and YouWeb Incubator founder Peter Relan, our team saw a huge potential in working more closely with Facebook," Spaceport co-founder Ben Savage wrote on the company's site today. "With that said, today we're announcing that the Spaceport.io team will move as … Read more

Facebook spending millions to make friends in Washington

Facebook is spending fast and furious to advance a social-network-friendly agenda with U.S. lawmakers.

In its first quarter of this year, Facebook, according to its lobby disclosure form, shelled out $2.45 million on lobbying costs. The figure amounts to a 75 percent increase from the $1.4 million it spent in the previous quarter, and a 277 percent increase from the mere $650,000 it spent in the first quarter of 2012. In 2012, Facebook spent a total of $4 million on lobbying efforts.

The company's lobbying budget is now in the same ballpark as that of … Read more