With former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez currently being held without bail on murder charges, the team is distancing itself even further from the disgraced athlete, offering a free jersey exchange for anyone wanting to get rid of their #81 jersey. "We know that children love wearing their Patriots jerseys, but may not understand why parents don't want them wearing their Hernandez jerseys anymore," says New England Patriots spokesperson Stacey James on the team website. "We hope this opportunity to exchange those jerseys at the Patriots ProShop for another player's jersey will be well received by parents." The exchange, good …

LinkedIn on Thursday announced hitting three million company pages on the professional networking site, with 500,000 added in just the last 12 months. “The companies on LinkedIn span all major industries around the globe, and are based in locations as remote as Tonga, as cold as Antarctica and as hot as the Western Sahara. Companies like Mashable and Virgin Media have built robust relationships with their followers, engaging them with posts about hot trends, behind the scenes look at their culture, industry best practices, and more,” stated a LinkedIn blog post. …

Facebook is launching a beta testing program for its Android apps that opens up the process to ordinary users of the dominant mobile platform. The social network will tap into a new Google Play testing service that lets people sign up through Facebook rival Google+ to test apps for bugs and crashes. After joining the Android Beta Testers Group, participants have to opt in to be a tester and then download the app immediately from Google Play or wait until the app’s next update. Facebook has typically kept the testing of new features in-house, but the step to expand the …

Gokul Rajaram, the former managing director of Google AdSense who has spent the last three years leading ad development at Facebook, has joined has joined fast-growing payments startup Square. In his new role as the company’s product engineering lead, Rajaram will lead software development for Square Register, it’s point-of-sale system for merchants. “I’ve been fortunate to work for two mission-driven, world-changing companies, and Square’s vision and passion for helping businesses grow is inspiring,” said Rajaram, in a statement today. “I’m thrilled to join the team and help build amazing products that drive economic growth and empower local businesses around …

More than half (51%) of Yelp users make local purchase decisions after visiting the online ratings and review site, according to a new Nielsen study. Further, more than nine in 10 said using Yelp at least occasionally results in making a purchase from a local business. People accessing the site on mobile devices were even more likely to either to a business’ physical location or make a purchase. Nielsen indicated input from consumers on Yelp has been a key to driving business for local businesses. “These user …

General Motors is shuffling its global design chiefs, with Ed Welburn staying at the helm The changes effect just about every GM brand in all global markets.

Facebook has seen success with the app install ads launched last year allowing developers to promote their wares on the social network. In the first quarter, 3,800 developers used the ads to drive nearly 25 million downloads, and 40% of the 100 top-grossing iOS and Android apps were using app install ads, according to the company. Now Facebook wants to make it easier to run app install ads by allowing advertisers to simply entering a link to their apps in the App Store or Google Play rather than having to first register their apps with Facebook. Users then choose the …

As part of its initiative to simplify advertising on Facebook, the company on Wednesday announced updates to analytic reports through the Ads Manager tool for managing and optimizing campaigns on the social network.   Facebook said changes include the following improvements:   -Better measurement of reach and other key metrics:

Few broadcast TV shows can be characterised as a “hit” these days, but CBS’ new summer series “Under the Dome” can be considered into this category. “Dome” has pulled in with some 13.1 million viewers -- the best for any new broadcast network series with its debut on Monday night.. The highly-touted “Dome”, from Stephen King and Steven Spielberg, also ties Fox’s start this past year of drama Under“The Following” with a 3.2 rating among 18-49ers. That show had around 10 million viewers in its debut. The best results this season -- at least among key 18-49 viewers …

Facebook and Twitter may enjoy high awareness among consumers, but they're not getting much love. A new survey by research firm E-Score suggests 85% of people know of Facebook, while three-quarters are aware of Twitter (76%), followed by Google+ (58%), eHarmony (56%) and Match.com (47%).   The 1,100-person survey, spanning a representative sampling of the U.S. population, also gauged attitudes toward social platforms by asking people how much they liked or disliked each. Facebook, for example, had an “appeal” rating of 50%, meaning half of those surveyed said they liked the social network at least …