Facebook

News broke on Monday that Facebook had acquired the popular photo-sharing service Instagram for the princely sum of $1 billion in cash and stock. It’s the biggest purchase in the history of the world’s largest social network, and it made new multimillionaires of Instagram’s chief executive and the company’s handful of employees.

When you’re tweeting or posting on Facebook, you’re probably not thinking about the  Department of Homeland Security. But as it turns out, it may very well be thinking about you.

You “check in” on Facebook or FourSquare to let the world know when you’re at a concert, work, hanging out with friends or even going to bed. So why not when you’re having protected sex? The Planned Parenthood recently launched a web-based campaign where people can share details of their protected sexual experience.

It’s pretty common for companies to scout out the social media accounts of prospective hires — and now a new study from Northern Illinois University says Facebook profiles are actually a pretty good predictor of job performance.

MOUNTAIN CITY, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities say a father who was upset after a Tennessee couple deleted his adult daughter as a friend on Facebook has been charged with killing the couple. Johnson County Sheriff Mike Reece said Wednesday the victims had complained to police that Marvin’s Potter’s daughter was harassing them after they deleted her as a friend on the social networking site...

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1789 – George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College (More info) 1941 – The United Service Organization, or USO, is created to entertain American troops (More info)

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook made a much-anticipated status update Wednesday: The Internet social network is going public eight years after its computer-hacking CEO Mark Zuckerberg started the service at Harvard University. That means anyone with the right amount of cash will be able to own part of a Silicon Valley icon that quickly transformed from dorm-room startup to cultural touchstone... Read Mor

Facebook, Twitter and all the other social media sites have changed the way young people interact with each other, but according to a survey from Poll Position, the majority of Americans don’t think this has been a change for the better.