Facebook to Turn Into a Dating Site?

On Thursday, Facebook will be announcing the launch of Little Black Book, a new way for Facebook users to connect with Match.com daters.

According to The New York Times, once people are signed up to this new service, the users of Little Black Book will receive potential matches from Facebook users and non-Facebook users who are signed up with Match.com—try saying that ten times!

Considering the fact that I'm still peeved about Beacon, I'm going to keep my distance from Facebook for awhile. Although it's not too shabby of an idea. . .Stay connected with friends while meeting prospective mates online—badabingbadaboom!

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Facebook Makes Changes to Beacon!

After a week of Facebook tracking our online purchases with an advertising program called Beacon, a petition was sparked by MoveOn.org which stated: "Sites like Facebook must respect my privacy. They should not tell my friends what I buy on other sites--or let companies use my name to endorse their products--without my explicit permission."

Over 50,000 Facebook users signed the petition and on Thursday, Facebook released a statement outlining changes to Beacon, although it still manages to lack an easy way to avoid participating. You may not be able to opt out of Beacon completely, but your purchases won't be published without your "proactive consent," says Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. It will be interesting to see these changes in action and if Facebook follows through with their promises.

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Free Wi-Fi Access Coming to Midtown Manhattan

As the free WiFi issue hits voter ballots in San Francisco, other cities are already jumping on board. According to The Boy Genius Report, CBS has just announced its plans to offer free WiFi access in midtown Manhattan. The "CBS Mobile Zone" will cover a rectangular space from Times Square to Central Park and between 6th and 8th Avenues.

CBS will be installing its own routers to blanket Manhattan with internet coverage—something both residents and visitors will greatly benefit from. Sound too good to be true? CBS will be showing ads to go along with the free WiFi. In my opinion, a small price to pay for free net access in the busiest part of NYC.

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Cell Phone Software Threatens Gropers

"Excuse me, did you just grope me?" "Groping is a crime," "Shall we head to the police?" These are just a few of the messages included in the Anti-Groping program by games developer Takahashi, according to ABC News. In Japan this free download ranks as number seven in a top 10 cell phone applications list, as many women are flashing these messages to warn subway gropers to back off. They can also press an anger icon which plays a warning chime with the message.

First off, I had no idea that there were alot of dirties on congested subway trains in Japan. Secondly, since when does a message on your cell phone scare off perverts?! I'd love to try it out here and see how effective it is!

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Offices to Go Email Free on Fridays?

Wouldn't it be great if you could take an email holiday and not worry about checking 500 new messages when you return to your inbox? According to USA Today, some professionals are declaring email free Fridays by taking a complete break from email.

At chipmaker Intel, 150 engineers have started an anti-email campaign called "Zero Email Fridays." Basically the company is encouraging employees to meet face-to-face, rather than sending IM's or emails to someone five feet away from you. This TGIEFF (thank god it's email free Friday) has already been implemented in U.S. Cellular and Worldwide Fulfillment Services in Alpharetta, Ga. Some people are even going as far as declaring "email bankruptcy" — where they entirely wipe out their inbox! How would you feel about this? I couldn't imagine not taking a break from my email for an entire day, let alone deleting my new messages!