In recent months, many of Facebook's apps have gone through a dramatic facelift -- some were culled while others became powerful tools for business. Used properly, these apps and plugins can create interactive environments for users to engage with brands on different levels.Apps that allow you to create polls, quizzes and surveys have become valuable for gathering user data, conducting market research and fine-tuning products and services.If you're getting started as the manager of a Facebook Page, then ...

When someone unfollows you on Twitter, it either goes unnoticed or leaves you asking, “Why? I really liked him and thought he liked me”. It feels like that time in school when a friend stopped talking to you for no apparent reason. You wonder what you did wrong, and it takes a while to realise that sometimes it’s not you, it’s them. Here are 10 likely reasons you lost that follower, and suggestions on how to not feel so bad ...

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. put MySpace on notice on Wednesday, saying the losses at the ailing social network were unsustainable and there needs to be improvement in the next few quarters."We've been clear that Myspace is a problem," News Corp. president and chief operating officer Chase Carey said during a conference call with analysts after the media and entertainment giant released its quarterly earnings."The current losses are not acceptable or sustainable," Carey said. "Our current management did not create these ...

During a Microsoft event held in Johannesburg yesterday, Mobility Business Group Lead, Nkosi Kumalo and Business Development Manager for Windows Phone, John Press, announced details of the imminent launch of Windows Phone 7 in South Africa.Despite presenting a demo of Windows Phone 7 on a prototype LG GW910 or “Panther”, it was revealed that only two HTC phones with WP7 will be initially available to South Africans. The two phones are the HTC Mozart and HTC Trophy. While the Mozart ...

On October 26, Qwiki, a new "information experience" platform, opened its doors to pre-invited users as an Alpha web product. As this year’s winning startup of TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, a lot of expectation is riding on co-founder and CEO, Doug Imbruce, who is promising to do nothing less than change the way we receive information.In its current form, Qwiki trawls the API’s of the web (including Wikipedia, Google Maps, LinkedIn, Yelp and others) to assemble (mostly) coherent, interactive ...

Facebook on Wednesday moved to become the heart of smartphone lifestyles by making it easy for people to find deals at nearby shops and connect with mobile software applications.The world's top online social networking service updated its mobile platform to let people check into third-party applications with a click of a Facebook sign-in icon and also let them see bargains available at local businesses."There is obviously a lot of change in the mobile space," Facebook founder and chief executive Mark ...

DreamWorks Animation and social game maker Zynga are teaming up to promote the upcoming movie "Megamind" inside FarmVille, one of the most popular games on Facebook.DreamWorks, maker of "Shrek," "Kung Fu Panda" and other hit movies, and Zynga said the promotion is the first of a feature film inside FarmVille, which claims 17 million daily players.They said that on Thursday the Megamind character from the movie, which opens in the United States on Friday, will launch his own "Mega-Farm" within ...

It seems the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) has finally had enough of all the fake Twitter accounts that have sprung up in the name of Julius Malema, hilariously calling on the authorities to "closer (sic.) Twitter if its administrators are not able to administer reports for violation of basic human rights and integrity".Youth League spokesman Floyd Shivambu frothed that the "impersonators" and "hackers" (Twitter was hacked again? This time by Malema impostors?) would feel the full force of the law, ...

Microsoft today launched its much-anticipated Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system in South Africa, hailing it as a “fresh start for the smartphone” and promising a new user experience that will shake up the marketplace.The new phone is critical to Microsoft’s efforts to make new gains in the huge smartphone market, which despite the success of the iPhone and Android, is still relatively untapped globally. It also represents a new approach towards integrating products and services from across the company ...

HTML5: It’s fast becoming one of those industry buzzwords -- like "Web 2.0" was in 2005 and "Social Media" is at the moment. And just like those two phrases, many people talk about HTML5 but few of them have a clear idea of what it means. Buzzword or not, it’s important to understand the ins and outs of the new standard.But don't just take my word for it. Bob Muglia, the head of Microsoft's Server and Tools division, recently said ...