Before the end of the year, domestic social gaming will be a $1 billion business, according to a new report from eMarketer. This year, 62 million US Internet users -- or 27% of the online audience -- will play at least one game on a social network monthly this year, which up from 53 million in 2010. "While advertising and lead-generation offers will fuel major chunks of revenue for social gaming companies, sales of virtual goods will continue to be responsible for over 50 percent of revenue," notes Vator News, citing the eMarketer report. "Even though …

The forthcoming Yahoo Connected TV service represents nothing less than a "paradigm shift" for Internet TV, according to ReadWriteWeb. How so? "As a user passively watches TV, they can be presented with the opportunity to interact according to the content they are watching and their personal profile." Yahoo says it is using a "sensing" technology to determine what content a user is watching, meaning that the content does not need to be live to be interactive. According to ReadWriteWeb, Yahoo's new service will be "the first Internet TV device to bring passive and personalized Internet content to …

Facebook users will soon be able to receive AMBER (America's Missing Broadcast Emergency Response) Alerts on the site about children abducted in their area. The deal is made possible through a partnership between the company and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, according to Inside Facebook, which notes: "It's another sign that web services like Facebook and Twitter are becoming the fastest ways to disseminate information to the largest number of people." Given its increasing prominence in consumers lives, it's easy to imagine Facebook soon disseminating other types of emergency information regarding everything from natural disasters and …

Demand Media is one step closer to going public, reports AllThingsD's Kara Swisher, citing an amended filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With shares priced from $14 to $16 each, the online publisher could sell up to 8.625 million shares, be worth about $1.3 billion, and raise $138 million. "That includes 4.5 million shares from the company, three million shares from existing shareholders and another 1.125 shares that its underwriters have an option to sell," according to Swisher. If the IPO price is $15.00 per share, Demand will net $58.1 million, which it plans to use …

Question-and-answer service Formspring has raised $11.5 million in a Series A venture round. The startup has also launched a "Respond" button, which lets site owners use Formspring to solicit input or answers from their audiences as a more distributed sort of take on Internet commenting. As CNet reports, "It's been a volatile year for Formspring, a question-and-answer service that saw lightning-fast growth in the wake of its November 2009 launch but also controversy and scorn as it was criticized for harboring high levels of spam and nasty anonymous bullying." The new Respond button lets anyone with Web …

Because children (and their scientific and engineering talents) are our future -- and Google's future remains an open question -- the search giant has organized the first ever online global science fair. Students ages 13-to-18 are being encouraged to take part in The Google Science Fair, in order to stoke their interest in science and technology. "Google's origins are in scientific experimentation," Google's Tom Oliveri tells ReadWriteWeb." Participants can build and submit projects online, using Google properties from Google Docs to YouTube. Students from all over the world -- from Paris, Texas to Paris, France, from Venice, …

By now, everyone and their mother knows about the Brothers Winklevoss, who, along with Divya Narendra, have spent the past 5-odd years litigating against Facebook and its young founder Mark Zuckerberg. In 2008, Facebook settled with the trio for millions of dollars. Now, three years later, the twins and Narendra want the case heard again. "On Tuesday, they will ask the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to undo the original settlement so they can legally pursue Facebook for more money and once again try to wrest an admission from Mr Zuckerberg that he stole their idea," reports …

Bump Technologies just raised $16.5 million in venture capital, led by Andreessen Horowitz, along with existing investors, including Sequoia Capital and Ron Conway. What the heck is Bump? Simply put, it's an app that lets people literally bump their smartphones together to exchange everything from business cards to photos and even money. "The company is changing direction because people started using Bump more for social interactions than business ones," writes The New York Times. For instance, users now share nearly a million photos daily, compared to just 40,000 contacts. "Bump just opens up a whole new landscape …

Following months of rumors and speculation, MySpace CEO Mike Jones on Tuesday announced: "significant organizational restructuring that will result in a 47 percent staff reduction across all divisions globally and impact about 500 employees." As many predicted -- and as CNet notes -- the once high-flying social network is couching the layoffs as part of a strategy to reposition itself for growth. "Today's tough but necessary changes were taken in order to provide the company with a clear path for sustained growth and profitability," Jones said. Regarding the company's recent redesign, Jones added: "These changes were purely …

With Google clear in its rearview mirror, Groupon just completed a $950 million round of financing and is already using the cash to expand. Indeed, the hot social buying startup is buying India's SoSasta, Israel's Grouper, and South Africa's Twangoo for undisclosed sums. Each "will transition to the Groupon brand name and site design in coming months," the company says. "The company is trying to maintain its lead over rivals such as LivingSocial, which received $183 million in an investment round led by Amazon.com Inc. last month," reports Bloomberg. …