Category: Other

As you read this, the inboxes of 14 Facebook developers may be reaching the breaking point.  You see, Facebook’s decided to launch something it calls the Preferred Developer Consultant Program, and these lucky developers are the first to receive the social network’s official endorsements.

Experian Hitwise announced that it has found Facebook to be the top search term overall for the year 2009 after analyzing the top 300 search terms for the year. This is the first year Facebook has been the top search term, and it accounted for 0.67% of all searches, according to the research firm.

Variations of the term Facebook actually accounted for four of the top twenty-five terms, the firm says. "Facebook" itself moved up from the 10th spot in 2008 to the top spot in 2009.

Without getting into whether they’re right or wrong, it’s safe to state that some of Yahoo’s critics might say the company needs all the help it can get.  Those same critics might be interested to hear, then, that Yahoo has hired someone whose primary job will be to connect Yahoo with other organizations.

PayPal has launched a new "Send Money" app for BlackBerry. It is now available for free via the BlackBerry App World.

"Have you ever gone to lunch with friends and forgotten your wallet, but remembered your BlackBerry? Well you longer have to be the friend who is constantly borrowing cash," says Eric Duprat from the PayPal Mobile team.

The app lets users quickly send money to people around the world – anyone in their contact list.

Google has added a feature to Gmail, which allows users to merge all of their duplicate contacts into one. Until now, users have had to go through contacts one-by-one in order to clean up their list.

"Managing a big address book can be a challenge, so it’s no surprise that the top request for Google contacts is a fast, easy way to merge duplicate contacts," says software engineer for Gmail, Dominik Marcinski.

The Federal Trade Commission has sued Intel, saying it has "abused its market dominance" according to the LA Times. Richard A. Feinstein, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition is quoted as saying:

"Intel has engaged in a deliberate campaign to hamstring competitive threats to its monopoly. It’s been running roughshod over the principles of fair play and the laws protecting competition on the merits."

Well, it’s official: Facebook is freaking huge.  Today, comScore released some statistics regarding November, and during that month, the social network managed to hit (and pass) a very significant milestone.

New research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that 4 percent of cell phone owners ages 12 to 17 have sent sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images of themselves to someone else on a cell phone.

Pew found 15 percent of teens that age have received this kind of image of someone they know personally on their cell phone. Sexting was most common among older teens with 8 percent of 17-year-old cell-owners saying they have sent suggestive images of themselves by text while only 4 percent of 12-year-olds have.

Ask’s Dictionary.com has appointed a new President – Shravan Goli. He replaces Doug Leeds, who was named President of Ask.com-U.S., in October.  Goli will report to Scott Garell, President of Ask Networks, and will be responsible for leading the strategy and overall business for Dictionary.com.