Jul
19

Federal Trade Commission is asking questions about Twitter

From: Washington Post

By Jia Lynn Yang

The Federal Trade Commission is taking a closer look at Twitter, sending a query recently to another tech firm that has sparred with the social-networking site.

UberMedia, which makes products allowing users to access Twitter from mobile phones, confirmed Thursday that it was contacted by the FTC about Twitter. The company declined to give specifics about the inquiry, but UberMedia has fought with Twitter in recent months about whether it can continue offering Twitter-related apps.

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Jul
19

Consumer Watchdog Claims Facebook Changed Policy After FTC Complaint

From: National Journal

By Juliana Gruenwald and Josh Smith
 

Consumer Watchdog is claiming victory, at least to some extent, in its push to have the Federal Trade Commission investigate Facebook’s virtual money programs.

According to Consumer Watchdog, Facebook changed its terms for game developers to use its virtual money after the advocacy group asked the FTC on June 28 to look into the policies.

But Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said the policy update was “long planned” for July 1.

Consumer Watchdog argued that the social network’s policy controlled the game prices on other websites, a claim that Facebook disputes.

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Jul
19

Will rivals do to Google what Facebook did to MySpace?

From: Economic Times (India)

TORONTO: Will rival search engines do to Google what Facebook did to MySpace?

That’s possible after US antitrust regulators last month started investigations against the search engine for abusing its dominant market position, say experts. The US action is the second antitrust investigation against the search engine after the EU launched first such action against Google last year.

“Google’s position is more precarious than it first appears. If consumers and advertisers decide that Google’s methods are biased or it has dropped the ball, defection to (Microsoft’s) Bing or elsewhere could follow rapidly – witness the migration from MySpace to Facebook,” says Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington .

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