Does Every Facebook User Spend 15 Hours a Month on the Site?

Facebook's metrics claim that people spend 700B minutes a month on the site -- if "people" means "active users," that's more than 15 hours a month for each of Facebook's 750M such users [ Nielsen found Americans spent 53B minutes on Facebook in May -- see our story ].

Facebook has defined an "active user" as someone who has logged on to the service within the past 30 days. By that definition a person who logs on to Facebook once a month is considered "active." Hmm...

Click to read more ...

Have You Seen This? Facebook + foursquare

It seems Facebook has integrated with foursquare -- as web strategist Josh Harcus first posted and Robert Scoble reshared on his Google+ page.

We have contacted both Facebook and foursquare about the relationship. We will update this story if we receive a response.

One commenter to Scoble's post noted that...

Click to read more ...

Google Plus API Launches

Everyone's been waiting for the Google+ API, and an API that's limited to public data is now out according to the Google+ Platform blog.

The post notes that developers need to register their app before they can make requests for public data.

LAUNCH has asked Google when the API will include all data and what kinds of applications it will not allow.

Right now, these are the guidelines Google has given: "Included in our policies are three simple guidelines that we aspire to in our own products, and that we’d like all applications built on the Google+ platform to follow also: put the user first, be transparent, and respect user data. The goal behind these guidelines, as with all of the features and fine print, is to work together to build products that our users will love."

Yahoo! Finance Gets a Face-Lift with Cleaner UI

Yahoo recently launched a beta version of a freshly designed Yahoo! Finance site that features a blue-themed background with smaller tabs, stock summaries across the top, and large images with top stories [ see the current look below ].

In August, Yahoo! Finance released an iPad app [ see our story here ] and in February, a new design for stock portfolios that also made it easier to create and modify them.  

But Yahoo! Finance's last significant homepage update in the U.S. came in 2006 when it added...

Click to read more ...

Groupon Aims to Go Public by November; Facebook Delaying IPO to 2012

[ CEO Andrew Mason. Photo courtesy of Max Whittaker via creative commons license. ]

Groupon is reportedly back on track for its initial public offering after cancelling its IPO road show earlier this month [ see our story here ]. 

The daily deals site aims to go public in late October or early November, according to a NY Times DealBook report.  

Stock market volatility, along with the leaked internal memo from CEO Andrew Mason about the company's growth, contributed to the postponement. The leaked memo raised questions about whether the company had violated...

Click to read more ...