Digital business strategist David Dalka has a serious beef with Facebook, and it's got everything to with font size. Okay, not everything, but the social net recently shrinking its font to make room for more ads, says Dalka, proves that consumer welfare is not a top priority for the company. "Do they actually disrespect your personal space that much?" he asks. "Is this how little ... Facebook thinks of you, their userbase? Unfortunately, the answer seems to be yes." Valid point or not, Facebook should be happy to know that it's not the only social net …

Google has poached Malik Ducard from Paramount, where he most recently served as SVP of digital distribution, sources tell paidContent. "What exactly Ducard is doing at Google is unclear," writes paidContent. "But it is certain he will play a role in Google's mysterious programming strategy, which seems to be escalating its ambitions judging from recent moves that have fueled speculation likely only to continue with Ducard's hire." Ducard will most likely be expected to tap studios for content for YouTube and Google TV. At Paramount, he oversaw distribution of films to digital platforms including iTunes, XBox, Netflix, …

Capping off a huge year for social ecommerce -- even without a Google/Groupon deal -- eBay has agreed to buy Berlin-based daily-deal site brands4friends for $200 million. "The acquisition," reports CNet, "is designed to build up the auction site's reputation as a source for clothing, shoes, and accessories among European buyers." Thanks to the deal, said eBay Europe SVP Doug McCallum, "We will enter the online shopping club market with an established and dynamic partner who has the expertise, relationships and passion to match our own ambition." While it already accounts for about $4.5 billion in clothing, …

Albeit of a virtual variety, Facebook has always factored commerce into its business equation. But, seeing a huge opportunity beyond online gaming goods, the social network is aggressively pursuing "real" commerce. Indeed, David Fisch, who runs a newly formed commerce partnerships group at Facebook, tells Businessweek that he just met with more than 20 companies to discuss ecommerce partnerships. "The aim is to help retailers set up shop on its pages and build tools that let Web users interact while buying," writes Businessweek. The effort may turn the company into an online shopping alternative to retailers such …

According to multiple reports and pictures posted online, Mark Zuckerberg is spending part of his holiday vacation in China. But, as one might expect from the precocious mogul, Zuck appears to be mixing business with pleasure. According to the Associated Press, Zuckerberg's first stop was a tour of the offices of the country's top search engine Baidu. "Obviously I'm not going to deny what's in the pictures," Kaiser Kuo, Baidu's director of international communications, tells The AP. Zuckerberg had lunch with Baidu CEO Robin Li, Kuo said, adding that he didn't know what they talked about. As …

The good news for Research In Motion? It just reported strong smartphone sales, shipping 14.2 million BlackBerry devices in the quarter. The bad news? According to the sales figures, RIM continued to lose ground in the U.S. market as consumers and enterprise customers continued to adopt phones running Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms. "The overall sales numbers are certainly positive for RIM," reports GigaOm, noting that that company sold 40% more handsets year-over-year. "But RIM's growth isn't keeping pace of some rivals, which are capitalizing on the smartphone craze at the expense of the Canadian company." …

Meanwhile, in Brussels, European Union authorities have expanded their investigation of Google, reports The New York Times. E.U. authorities have apparently accepted two complaints from a group of newspaper and magazine publishers in Germany, and a German mapping company. As The Times notes, Joaquin Almunia, the E.U. competition commissioner, announced the opening of a sweeping case against Google late last month, "saying his investigators would focus on whether Google gave preferential treatment to its own services when ranking search results, and whether it discriminated against competitors." With the additional cases, Almunia is expected to get access to …

"The Daily," News Corp.'s iPad newspaper, is now expected to debut on January 17, sources tell MediaMemo. "The caveat here is that launch plans have moved around a couple of times in the past few months; until recently, lots of folks expected to see this thing in December." According to "blabby journalists" -- those both interviewed and hired by the newspaper -- it will come out daily; sell for 99 cents a week; use lots of video; and have what MediaMemo calls "cool multimedia bells and whistles, including some kind of 3-D effect that lots of people are very …

The headline says it all: "Amazon Can't Dent iTunes." Though, as The Wall Street Journal story explains, that hasn't kept the ecommerce king from trying with aggressive discounts and price undercutting. "Offering aggressive discounts is a strategy that Amazon ... has used across its businesses, and helps it win new customers," The Journal reports. The big losers, however, might be the music labels, which reportedly worry that such discounts risk undermining the value of their products. Unlike iTunes price changes -- which generally move in step with prices Apple pays suppliers -- when Amazon promotes a high-profile …

Having just announced more layoffs, Yahoo now plans to phase out a slew of once-promising products, including Delicious, MyBlogLog, Yahoo Bookmarks, Yahoo Buzz, and AltaVista. "Of course they are!" seems like the general industry reaction. Even those properties that Yahoo acquired, including Delicious and MyBlogLog, have been "somewhat neglected," writes TechCrunch. "While the layoffs and shutdowns obviously indicate a de-emphasis of technology products by Yahoo, they aren't necessarily unwarranted," writes AllThingsD's NetworkEffect blog. "Some of these products were the same as those mentioned on then-SVP Brad Garlinghouse's infamous Peanut Butter Memo …