Facebook's f8: Privacy and the Open Graph

Facebook's annual developer conference is going down as we speak in California. It started this Wednesday, and right from the get-go, Zuck was making some big announcements during the opening keynote. Here are some of the takeaways from the information that has come out of the conference so far, in no particular order. Facebook Connect is dead in favor of OAuth 2.0. Facebook Credits are still on the way. Facebook's Social Bar goes up against the Meebo bar and Wibya. And, Facebook has taken over the web in the form of their new Open Graph.

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Microsoft's New Sidekick Is The Kin

When is a dumbphone smart? Not often, but I think the Kin might be pretty damn close. The Kin is Microsoft's project Pink we've been hearing about for months now. The little Kins One and Two are the spiritual successors to the Sidekick. The Kins are both manufactured by Sharp who manufactured every iteration of the Sidekick (except the Slide which was Motorola), not to mention that not long ago, Microsoft picked up Danger, the company behind all the Sidekicks. 

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Kevin Rose Takes The Reigns Back At Digg, Kills The DiggBar

On Monday, Digg's then-CEO Jay Adelson announced he'd be stepping down and relinquishing the title of CEO to Digg's founder Kevin Rose. Kevin founded Digg over 5 years ago now, but since then he's become estranged from the social news site. When Jay Adelson was brought on as CEO, it was to fill a need that Kevin couldn't. Kevin was young and wanted to focus on the product, as opposed to the business side of things.

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Yelp Extortion Claims Force Changes to Review Service

Yelp is a popular service that allows people to pick which businesses they frequent based on reviews by other people.  Better reviews means better business for those “good” companies.  Sounds pretty straight forward right?  Recently there have been extortion complaints from multiple business owners over this simple service.  Renaissance Furniture Restoration of San Francisco and D’ames Day Spa of San Diego County are the latest to join in the fight.  Them along with at least 9 other companies are part of lawsuits against the popular review service citing unfair business practices.

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