United Online, owner of Classmates.com and a number of similar sites, has reportedly acquired schoolFeed. If you’re not familiar, schoolFeed is a Facebook app “that’s been growing like a weed over the past several months,” according to VentureBeat. “SchoolFeed acts as a connection-finding tool for current and former high school students.” The app reportedly has about 19 million members, with 100,000 new registrations added daily. As such, VB says it’s very likely that schoolFeed is already cramping Classmates.com. “For United Online, it was easier to buy and integrate the company than continue trying to fight the app and contend with …

Back in May, Web watchers were buzzing about reports that Apple was planning to drop Google Maps as its default mapping service. At the time, word was that the next version of Apple’s iOS operating system would run an in-house map application. TomTom, however, has now confirmed that it has “signed a global agreement with Apple for maps and related information,” Engadget reports. The deal represents a coup for TomTom, which sells digital direction devices, and was once seen as a likely casualty of Google’s free and increasingly popular mapping services. Already well acquainted with iOS, the company’s navigation app …

Are search engines, including Google and Bing, ignoring FTC guidelines for the discloser of paid placement and paid inclusion listings? Respected search expert Danny Sullivan thinks so, and has laid out his related argument in a posted letter to the government agency. In his letter, Sullivan also accuses the FTC of failing to properly enforce the guidelines, which it first set back in 2002. “I’m asking for the FTC to conduct a review of the current state of compliance, so that I might report on your official findings,” Sullivan writes. “I’d also like to understand if the agency, after conducting …

Facebook may rule the roost in most global markets, but the rate at which the company is growing is another matter. In the United States, for one, the social network’s user growth rate is slowing sharply, according to new comScore data. In April, U.S. unique visitors to the Web site increased to 158 million -- up just 5% year-over-year. “That was Facebook's lowest U.S. user growth rate since comScore began tracking the data in 2008 and was down from 24% growth in April 2011 and 89% in April 2010,” The Wall Street Journal writes, citing comScore. The trend is all …

Facebook is now the top social network in 126 out of 137 countries analyzed by social media strategist Vincenzo Cosenza. Cosenza publishes a semiannual report of social network standing, which he bases on a combination of Alexa and Google Trends for Websites traffic data. “Europe is the largest continent on Facebook with 232 million users, while North America has 222 million and the whole of Asia boasts 219 million users,” notes The Next Web, citing Facebook Ads Platform data. Perhaps more interesting, however, are the regions where Facebook has yet to take over. In Russian-speaking countries, for example, VKontakte and …

Thomson Reuters on Friday announced the acquisition Apsmart -- a London-based startup that builds and designs iOS and Android applications. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded by Rahul Powar -- who created the first Shazam iPhone app -- the company’s clients include The Daily Beast, Johnson & Johnson, and Just Giving. “The acquisition will help Thomson Reuters create and design better mobile products focused on news and content,” The Next Web writes. “More specifically, the Apsmart team will work on improving Thomson Reuters’ mobile offerings, which include Thomson Reuters WestlawNext and Thomson Reuters ProView eReader.” Backed by …

Bolstering its breadth of knowledge, Bing has entered into a new partnership with Encyclopedia Britannica. The result is a new service, “Britannica Online Encyclopedia Answers,” which incorporates additional information about search results directly into search result pages. At first glance, “It looks quite a bit like Google’s recently-launched Knowledge Graph feature,” remarks Search Engine Land. Differences exist, however, like the way the two search engines present their data. “Bing links out to several third-party sites for further information, such as Wikipedia, Freebase, Qwiki and Britannica (the source of the encyclopedic information),” it notes. “In Google’s Knowledge Graph presentation, the links …

It’s a wee early for holiday shopping, but here’s something sure to be on every marketer’s wish list: "DIY streetview" -- a kit with which anyone can create their own version of Google's popular panoramic mapping feature, Street View. Just imagine the possibilities! With the kit, agencies and clients can map out any terrain -- from retail stores to target neighborhoods to event spaces -- and then fill them with marketing messages, signage, Web links, and all manner of relevant content. Designed by German company Streetview Technology, the kit includes a camera that shoots “look-all-around-you,” domelike photos every …

In the wake of a similar security breach at LinkedIn, eHarmony is the latest victim of a password hacking attack, which has so far resulted in 1.5 million stolen passwords -- most of which have already been “cracked.” Reports suggest that the lists only contain passwords and not actual logins, which would make the passwords useless even if cracked. “But in all likelihood, the hacker also has the logins,” writes the Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile, the attack is believed to be by the same hacker who just stole 6.5 million passwords from LinkedIn. The bigger question, however, is the degree …

Released Wednesday, the latest proposed draft of the Do Not Track specification requires that users must choose to turn on the anti-behavioral tracking feature in their browsers and software. “That means that Microsoft IE 10, which the company announced last week will have Do Not Track turned on by default, won’t be compliant with the official spec,” Wired reports. “Which means that tech and ad companies who say they comply with Do Not Track could simply ignore the flag set by IE 10 and track those who use that browser. Which means Microsoft has no choice but to change the …