More than 13,000 Facebook users have signed a petition against the new advertising practices laid out by the company a few weeks ago. An opt-out recommendation system that sends notices to users' friends about the products and services they buy is among the ad "innovations" that have been identified by the group as compromising user privacy. Blogger/Web entrepreneur Jason Calacanis calls the new advertising tools "extremely innovative, extremely rude, extremely helpful, and extremely disconcerting." For one thing, he says, Facebook is now collecting and republishing user data "on a level not before seen by users." Worse, the company is giving …

Small gains have been made recently, but the mobile Web still has a long, long way to go, says The New York Times' Michael Fitzgerald. Apple's iPhone is encouraging, and so is Google's Open Handset Alliance--which allows developers to make programs for Google's operating software, Android--but for the most part, companies are offering mobile services that people just don't use. According to Fitzgerald, "disaster" is "lurking like your next dropped call." Ominously, the 3G network, a high-speed cellular data network, was recently branded "a failure" at a recent mobile industry conference. That's bad news, since 3G represents a collective and …

The social network Facebook may be turning itself into something of a media hub--having struck a partnership with ABC News that allows Facebook users to electronically follow political news through a new "U.S. politics" category that allows users to follow ABC reporters, view reports and video and participate in polls and debates. The two companies also announced that they would be jointly sponsoring the upcoming Democratic and Republican presidential debates in New Hampshire. The New York Times says the partnership is yet another attempt by media companies to take advantage of Facebook's user base, which is now 56 million and …

Targeted advertising is once again under the microscope after the European Union's regulators vowed to review recent developments in the industry. "This is a very hot topic that can be expected to be part of our work program next year," Gabriele Loewnau, a senior legal adviser for the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection, told Reuters. Recommendations from the so-called Article 29 Working Party, the EU's advisory arm on data protection, have spurred the European Commission to formally review issues like Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick, an antitrust investigation that is still ongoing. It seems that every couple of years …

BusinessWeek profiles a trio of would-be wholesale wireless network providers that aim to compete with the likes of Google, Apple and the giant telecoms in the upcoming wireless spectrum auction this January. TerreStar, Frontline and Mobile Satellite Ventures have all been in talks with the Federal Communications Commission about their intention to bid in the upcoming auction, which could fetch as much as $15 billion, according to BusinessWeek. The auction will be one of the most closely scrutinized in FCC history, because of the rules requiring that one portion of the spectrum be free to be leased wholesale and the …

Over the weekend, TechCrunch UK started spreading the rumor that Rupert Murdoch is now after LinkedIn, the Silicon Valley-based social network for professionals. No valuation is discussed, but report author Mike Butcher says his source is "very well-placed." News Corp.'s social network MySpace still has a long lead over No. 2 Facebook, but the latter has managed to gain far more traction among professionals, the bread-and-butter of 16 million-strong LinkedIn. The social network with a purpose (which is to connect business professionals with others in immediate or related fields) boasts 189 percent year-over-year traffic growth, according to Nielsen Online--and a …

Facebook is coming under fire for "Beacon," the advertising program that turns users into product-pushers by automatically recommending the products and services they buy. According to reports last week, Facebook users joined the consumer activist group MoveOn.org in criticizing the marketing tactic for compromising user privacy. Despite the criticism, a new study from the UK-based Royal Mail and Future Foundation indicates that the social networking startup might be onto something with the recommendation program. It finds that, just as Mark Zuckerberg intended, social network users are more likely to buy a product or service following a recommendation from another user--which …

Late last week, media mogul Barry Diller announced that his Internet conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp--which is splitting up into five separate companies--is putting $100 million into expanding into China. Among other things, Diller told reporters that he plans to launch Ask.com, the company's search engine, into the country within the next two years. IAC is also looking to acquire new assets with local services geared toward Chinese users, hoping to avoid the pitfall of bringing U.S.-based products and services into a country that has its own rules about censorship--which has caused trouble for the likes of MSN and Yahoo. "I think what …

The early verdict is in: Facebook's "social ads" are a bust. Two weeks after Facebook's "groundbreaking" announcement about "a new way of advertising online," more than 2,000 of its own users have joined activist group MoveOn.org in complaining that the new system compromises user privacy. They want the social network to immediately suspend or reform "Beacon," the program that recommends products and services people buy to their friends. The trade pub says it's "infuriating" that Facebook users have to opt-out of the ad "bombardment" on a case-by-case basis, adding that the company "should immediately make Beacon 100 percent …

U.S. Senators Herb Kohl and Orrin Hatch sent a public letter to the Federal Trade Commission urging the organization to carefully review the Google-DoubleClick merger. Nobody would disagree that the matter deserves careful review, but it's troubling that the letter "gets a lot of things wrong," illustrating once again that some (or many) Congressman just don't get this tech stuff. Lost amidst the hype that Google is a "search company" looking to move into the display market is the fact that Google isn't merely a search or contextual company. Google sells display ads. It also sells contextual and …