Hasta La Gadget!

You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 7 days — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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Back in the earlier days of Facebook, a UI update was a mind-blowing concept. An unprecendeted change. An Earth-shattering upheveal. If you’re not some sort of total newbie, you must remember the “how to keep the old Facebook!” groups and “Bring back X” petitions, the screams of heresy and the unshackled hope that maybe just maybe enough whining could keep things from changing. More »

Facebook has announced that it’s teaming up with four of the world’s largest corporate data brokers to “enhance” the ad experience for users. Datalogix, Epsilon, Acxiom, and BlueKai obtain information gathered about users through online means (such as through cookies when users surf the web) as well as through offline means (such as through loyalty cards at supermarkets and product warranty cards). Through the new relationship with Facebook, companies will be able to display advertisements to Facebook users based on data that these data brokers have on individuals. More »

This week the folks at Facebook have both revealed a brand new set of features for their News Feed – for you and I – and have acquired a platform for social blogging by the name of Storylane. The acquisition of this group has been announced by Facebook as a key acquisition that’ll bring their ability to showcase “real identity through sincere and meaningful content” up to the forefront, per the previous work done by the acquired group. This acquisition moves the team of five employees that make up Storylane into the fold – the Facebook fold.

Storylane takes what you’ve always been sharing to Facebook and makes it bigger – not just in a literal pixel-size sense, but in a way that’s personable and professional at the same time. Those of you that’ve been using Storylane for the past several weeks or months – you’ll be given tools to migrate your work over to new services in the near future. Of course Facebook will be on that list, but from what we’re seeing from Storylane’s announcement, you’ll be running forward with services of all types as well.

As it has been with a large collection of acquisitions over the past several years in the technology universe, we’re seeing Storylane give a message that appears both sincerely written and ready to be more than excited about the purchase. With Facebook owning Storylane, we can expect the work they’ve done over their relatively short past to be integrated into the Facebook user interface quickly. Of course in this case that means Facebook quick – which could mean anything when it comes to actual real-world show for everyday users.

Have a peek at the timeline below for additional recent acquisitions done by various companies in high power and see if you can detect any recent patterns. It’s time to pick up your favorite group and make them your own! Have at it!

[via Storylane]

Facebook acquires Social-Blogging group Storylane is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week the Facebook developer team revealed a series of changes (read: feature additions) to their News Feed that’ll allow you to see a much more simplistic and aesthetically beautiful vision of what your friends, associates, and likeables are sharing. The immediate reaction from many will be that this, like so many Facebook updates before, will once again adversely affect what the easily startled call their “online privacy.” In fact this newest change only changes one thing for those of you that want to remain as “private” as you were before – the location of the Privacy Settings button.

If you clicked that Privacy Settings button a whole lot in the past, you’ll know that it appeared in the upper right-hand corner of your Facebook user interface up until now. After the change-over to the newest update to your News Feed, the same access to said controls will be appearing on the left of your layout. The left of your layout is now similar to what we’ve seen in the past on mobile versions of Facebook, complete with a collection of inside-Facebook apps.

Up top of this list on the right (still inside the left-side panel), you’ll find a tiny padlock icon. This icon links you to your Privacy Settings the same as the link did before today. The new features this week – outlined in our handy guide: SlashGear 101: this week’s Facebook News Feed redesign – does not open up any new doors to terrifying changes the likes of which would rip your eyes out and tear your body asunder. The only thing you should still be watching for is the wider update to Graph Search for all.

If you’d like to see how Graph Search in Facebook is affecting how you are able to be searched in the largest Social Network of all, head back to our Graph Search update guide as well as the Facebook Privacy Guarantee posted immediately after Graph Search was revealed. There you’ll find out why if you’ve liked both “Vegitarianism” and “Cheeseburgers”, you’re going to be coming up as a weird friend to your friends rather soon. Seeya then!

Facebook News Feed update’s privacy changes: the one is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.