Of all the private sector companies measured by The American Customer Satisfaction Index, Facebook ranked in the bottom 5% -- in the same category as the IRS tax e-filing system, airlines and cable companies. The top social network scored a 64 out of 100, according to the index, which is developed by the University of Michigan's Business School. Ironically, the findings are being released the same week that Facebook is expected to announce that it has surpassed 500 million members. So, what's bugging users? Larry Freed, president and CEO of survey sponsor ForeSee Results, says privacy isn't their biggest gripe. …

Not that Google isn't getting into the travel business, but GigaOm suggests an ulterior motive behind the search giant's planned acquisition of airfare info provider ITA Software. A few years ago, a research division of ITA started a build-your-own-database tool for web data dubbed Needlebase, according to GigaOm. "Needlebase, which started giving out free beta trials in January, uses machine learning to assemble scraped data from Web sites and other sources into a hosted database intended to power vertical search engines," the blog writes. GigaOm likens to Needlebase to Metaweb's Freebase -- the other semantic web/structured data acquisition Google …

What is UltraViolet? The brand name chosen by a consortium of 55 entertainment and technology titans planning to standardize digital formats for video playback, and prevent online piracy. The group -- known as The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, or DECE -- said Monday that it will begin beta testing in the fall, with the help of two new partners, LG Electronic and Marvell Technology Group. Mitch Singer, president of the DECE and chief technology officer for Sony Pictures, said they chose the brand name Ultraviolet in part because it is a natural extension of Hollywood's Blu-ray high-definition format. The group …

Streaming music service MOG has launched its mobile applications for Android and iPhone. The app gives subscribers unlimited access to a library of 8 million songs, which can be either streamed or downloaded over 3G and WiFi. "If you listen to a lot of music, or just like being able to listen to music on-demand without having to sync to your PC, this is definitely worth checking out," writes TechCrunch. Access to the mobile service will set consumers back $9.99 a month, but MOG is offering free 3-day trials when they download the apps. Late last year, MOG debuted …

Strained by stretched budgets, rampant competition, and an 'always on' mentality, the state of the media business is "frantic and fatigued," concludes to The New York Times. As a result, the industry's work horses -- writers, reporters, and editors -- are being pushed to their breaking point. "The pace has led to substantial turnover in staff at digital news organizations," reports The Times. For one, "Departures at Politico lately have been particularly high, with roughly a dozen reporters leaving in the first half of the year -- a big number for a newsroom that has only about …

Ushering in the broad adoption of location-based Web services, nearly 80% of cell phones shipped in the fourth quarter of 2011 will incorporate GPS functionality, predicts market research firm iSuppli. As DigiTimes.com reports, by the end of next year, some 318.3 million GPS-supported units will be sold -- up from 56.1% in the first quarter of 2009, or 187.8 million units. "The smartphone is the key product driving the technology industry today, and social networking services and applications spurred by GPS-related features are critical elements in the smart phone market today," said Jagdish Rebello, director and principal …

The national broadband plan presently being created by the federal government isn't aggressive enough about acceptable speeds and other key details, according to revered Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walt Mossberg. "I think it's interesting that we as a country are only now stumbling around trying to create a broadband policy," Mossberg tells The Hill's Hillicon Valley blog. In other words, Mossberg feels the FCC's National Broadband Plan is short on details and lacks teeth. "For the first time the FCC has come up with a broadband policy so yes, that's progress," Mossberg adds. Yet, "I don't …

Pixazza, which adds live product links to static online images, has raised $12 million in a second round of financing led by Shasta Ventures. Also participating were existing investors, including Google's new venture arm. "The funding will fuel a new self-serve product that will make easy for smaller publishers to enhance their sites with Pixazza's technology," writes VentureBeat. The Mountain View-based startup apparently uses human taggers to identify products and link them to shopping sites like Amazon or Zappos. "There are over three trillion images on the web and no one has done anything with them for …

Watch out Facebook and Twitter. Foursquare is presently exploring data-sharing partnerships with "everyone" in the search space, including Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, according to Dennis Crowley, co-founder of the location-based social network. "Our data generates hugely interesting trends which would enrich search," Crowley tells the UK's Telegraph. "Twitter helped the world and the search engines know what people are talking about. Foursquare would allow people to search for the types of place people are going to -- and where is trending -- not what." "There's no question that the Foursquare data are valuable, …

Across the pond, The Times (UK) and its sister paper The Sunday Times began testing a subscription service two weeks ago. Beehive City -- a blog founded by some former Times reporters earlier this year -- claims to have gotten its hands on some early user-registration data. At least 150,000 people registered for The Times and Sunday Times Web sites during the free trial period, while 15,000 have so far agreed to start paying for the papers' content. "This [latter] figure, apparently, is considered disappointing," writes the blog. "And if it's right it's certainly a slow start …