If 2007 was a breakout year for Facebook, then 2008 will be a testing one. After drawing praise and publicity for opening its doors to third-party software developers in May, the company and its 23-year-old founder Michael Zuckerberg ended 2007 on a low, as the media questioned the impact a new advertising system would have on the privacy of its 60 million-plus users. Forced to relent after Beacon, one of the new advertising technologies, prompted a user privacy backlash, Zuckerberg issued a public apology and gave users a way to opt out of the service. However, the …

After years of delays, the Wikia search engine is set to go live next week, and tech blog Boing Boing uses the pending launch as an opportunity to slam Google and Yahoo, whose algorithms "are treated as trade secrets and high-risk tactics that have to be guarded from spammers." First, the idea behind Wikia is openness--the kind espoused by Google's recent OpenSocial and Open Handset Alliances. Wikia hopes the open approach will help fight spam by promoting the most relevant search results to the top. To make money, Wikia will adopt a similar keyword advertising system to …

Plaxo, a social-networking site of sorts (but really more of a browser plug-in for maintaining contacts), is going on the auction block for as much as $100 million. Founded in 2001, Plaxo operates one of the Web's original social media sites, though its influence has dwindled. The company hired specialty investment bank Revolution Partners to handle the auction. In a bid to win back lost market share, Plaxo in October unveiled Plaxo Pulse, a service that collects information from sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg and feeds it directly to its users while they browse the …

Is Yahoo acquisition material? The Web giant has seen its market capitalization tumble from $52 billion in 2005 to roughly $33.5 billion today, still few companies could afford Yahoo at the reduced price. Despite being dwarfed by Google in just about every category in which the two companies compete, Yahoo's revenues are still growing, and its co-founders, Jerry Yang and David Filo, are determined to turn around the company's fortunes. But that hasn't stopped Web industry watchers, citing its languishing stock and revolving door at the top, from buzzing about Yahoo as a prime acquisition target. Major …

Amid the hubbub over Beacon, the privacy implications of Facebook's other advertising platform, Social Ads have been almost overlooked. The Palo Alto-based social network has reserved the right to let businesses use your image in their ad campaigns. That's right, your name and profile picture could become part of a brand's pitch once you opt to take a "social action" involving a brand. According to a Facebook spokesperson, a "social action" could be just about anything, from the downloading of an application to accepting a simple friend request--from a brand, that is. For example, sign up for Blockbuster's …