Don’t expect big layoffs at MySpace parent company Fox Interactive Media any time soon. In an email to all staff on Friday, Fox Interactive chief Peter Levinsohn says that 2009 will be an “even rockier economic climate” and takes steps to reduce costs. Chief among the changes –...

The guest post below is written by Ryan Hupfer at HubPages. A couple of weeks ago HubPages ads were blocked from MySpace’s new self serve ad platform, MyAds, as being competitive to MySpace. That problem was fixed, but we asked Ryan, who advertises on both MySpace and Facebook, to write a guest...

Earlier this afternoon MySpace scrubbed all traces of Project Playlist music widgets from the site, and users are unable to embed any further playlists. The scrub was the result of infringement notices from the major labels, all of which are in litigation with Project Playlist. The labels, sources...

It looks like embattled music service Project Playlist has someone other than Facebook in their corner. This morning, after remaining silent all weekend over the MySpace ban, they are announcing a much-needed agreement with Sony BMG to give users direct (and legal) access to that library. Sony was...

Microsoft announced the hire of former ten-year Yahoo exec Dr. Qi Lu today as President of their Online Services Group. He’ll report directly to CEO Steve Ballmer. Here’s the email Ballmer sent to all Microsoft staff forty minutes ago:     From: Steve Ballmer    ...

Not an hour after Google announced the general availability of Friend Connect, Facebook is doing the same for its competing Facebook Connect service. Now any third party website that wants to pull personal data about visitors from Facebook – and send back activity reports to their news feeds –...

Smibs Inc, the Candian startup behind SmibsNet has launched the service to the public. The site offers a set of tools that resemble LinkedIn, but are supposed to be more focused on project and task management than personal connections and resumes. The public beta will also open the network’s directory...

When UserVoice launched its hosted solution for companies looking to harness user feedback a little over 7 months ago, we wrote it could well be a replacement for e-mail when it comes to aggregating opinions, ideas and suggestions from user / customer bases. Now, UserVoice says its offering is solid...