The FTC is reportedly investigating Google for anti-competitive actions in the $9.64-billion U.S. display advertising market. An inquiry in display advertising might look initially like more of a stretch than the FTC’s failed challenge to the company on search and search advertising. But Google is growing like a weed in the display advertising market, analysts say.
We're kicking off our upcoming Social Media Marketing Boot Camp with a special keynote presentation by Ella Chick (left), the digital producer at Anderson Cooper 360°. She'll discuss how the network uses social media for breaking news and leverages social media to draw attention to organizations and causes. Learn more about our program and register here. 
The Federal Trade Commission has warned ten data broker companies that their practices may violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act after a secret-shopping operation revealed that the companies were willing to sell consumer data without verifying consumer identities as required by law.
Google, BlackBerry, Earthlink and Red Hat today petitioned the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on companies whose chief business is enforcing patents held by individuals. The move came one day after cloud host Rackspace announced that it was suing one such patent assertion entity, IP Nav, for violating a previous agreement that both companies would provide 30 days notice before suing over a group of contested patents.
The Federal Trade Commission recently put out new rules for app developers whose apps may be used by children. Today, the commission also put out an infographic advising parents on how to ensure their kids are using apps safely and responsibly.
While the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s investigation into how Google serves up search results went out with a whimper last week, the European Union’s antitrust enforcer has issued an aggressive public challenge of the company’s practices.
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Facebook For iOS App is Now 2X Faster: Quicker Launch, Photos, Feed and Built-In Messenger (TechCrunch)
Version 5 of Facebook’s iOS app is two times faster and built on Objective-C, not HTML5. The navigation is mostly the same, but the new app launches, photos load and the feed shows new stories twice as quickly. The New York Times/Bits Blog The other changes are subtle but significant. The code from Facebook’s standalone Camera and Messenger apps has been tucked into the Facebook app, replacing the older photo and messaging tools. That makes these tools look and act a bit different, but most importantly, messaging and posting photos are much zippier. ars technica Facebook’s previous app — particularly the version just before this, 4.1.1 — did not have a good reputation. Ratings on the App Store hovered around the two-star mark, and on any given day, a search on either Facebook or Twitter would yield hundreds of complaints about the mobile app’s slowness or bugginess. PC Magazine The Facebook Android app also got an update Thursday, but with different features. According to Google Play, the Android app now lets users: easily create events, share photos faster with a new upload flow, and add photos and emoji to messages. The Washington Post Here are some key developments in the eight years since Facebook’s creation. Read more
Regulatory watchdog the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness is picking up the scent of Facebook, Twitter, and Google, filing a petition with the Federal Trade Commission urging the agency to impose trade regulations on the three Internet giants.
