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SEC: Social Networks are Safe Place to Make Corporate Disclosures (SocialTimes)
The Securities and Exchange Commission has given the green light for companies to use social networks instead of press releases to disclose business information as long as investors have been notified which network will be used. The ruling clarifies confusion about how communications over social media were affected by Regulation FD, which requires companies to make disclosures about their performance in a publicly available format. The Wall Street Journal The move was sparked by an investigation into a July Facebook posting from Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings, who boasted on the social media site that the streaming-video company had exceeded 1 billion hours in a month for the first time, sending the firm’s shares higher. The SEC opened the investigation in December to determine if the post had violated rules that bar companies from selectively disclosing information. The Huffington Post An SEC rule requires that all investors receive significant company information at the same time. By allowing businesses to use more informal channels to share news with investors, the SEC is acknowledging the shift in technology that has made social media indispensable for the largest and most powerful corporations. USA Today The report Tuesday confirmed that the agency did not allege wrongdoing or recommend an enforcement action against Hasting. Netflix is just one of several companies that has advocated that social media be a recognized form of communicating with investors. Forbes Expect the SEC to struggle with the deeper issues of the Netflix situation for many years to come. Expect diligent investors to be able to tap into more information than their lazier or less well-trained peers.
Google+ Login Button Launches Across Hundreds of Partner Sites (VentureBeat)
If you ever wanted proof that Google+ is, in fact, not a social network but rather an all-in bid for your identity, here’s your pudding: mere weeks after the announcement of the Google+ login button, hundreds of major media outlets are using the Google+ button for their web and mobile user logins. Tuesday, Google announced that American Idol, Universal Music Group, Fox Broadcasting company and hundreds of other partners are doing Google+-flavored sign-ins. PC Magazine Google has partnered with social infrastructure platforms Janrain and Gigya to bring the new Google+ Sign-In feature to popular brands. When users log into one of the company’s product sites with their Google+ credentials, they can bypass registration forms and avoid having to create a new username or password. TechCrunch As Google product management director Seth Sternberg told me, developers obviously like the fact that they can use this service to easily enable two-factor authentication on their sites. In his view, however, there are two breakout features that so far have been more successful than Google expects: over-the-air Android installs – which check if a website user also own an Android phone and lets you install a site’s mobile app with just a click – and the interactive posts to Google+ that are made possible through the new sign-in infrastructure.
Is the HTC First Android’s Facebook Phone? (AllFacebook)
The worst-kept secret in the tech world this week has been the so-called “Facebook Phone” that the social network is allegedly building on Android. According to The Verge, the Facebook-heavy smartphone will be called the HTC First, and it has a body style similar to an iPhone.
Zynga Starts Real Money Gambling Games (CNET)
Here goes Zynga’s first try at Lady Luck. The struggling gaming company is officially launching its UK gaming sites, the company announced in a blog post.
SMBs Spend Twice as Much on Email Marketing Than On Social Media [Study] (AllTwitter)
A new study of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) has revealed that these firms are spending the largest portion of their budgets on email marketing, committing significantly less of their financial resources to marketing on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Edge Research surveyed more than 600 email marketing decision makers at companies with annual revenues between $1-50 million and less than 1,000 employees, and discovered that 15 percent of the marketing budget of these businesses is spent on email marketing, ahead of events and trade shows (14 percent), person-to-person contact (13 percent) and print ads (11 percent).
Facebook Photo Phenom Instagram Gets a Business Lead to Scale its Operations (and Presumably Revenue) (AllThingsD)
According to sources, Facebook has moved well-regarded exec Emily White to a new job as director of business operations at its Instagram mobile photo-sharing unit. In this capacity, she will work with Instagram head and co-founder Kevin Systrom to scale nascent efforts to expand partnerships, improve user operations and, presumably, come up with ways to make some money.
‘Real Housewives,’ ‘Top Chef Masters’ Getting Transmedia Treatment This Year by Bravo (LostRemote)
Bravo plans to step up its interactive and transmedia game in 2013. At the network’s upfront presentation at 30 Rockefeller Plaza on Tuesday, the channel teased some of the initiatives coming this year.
Facebook Isn’t Adding a Dislike Button, Even if Your Friend Gets Dumped (BetaBeat)
During a Reddit AMA Tuesday, Facebook product engineer Bob Baldwin faced a barrage of questions about everyone’s favorite website to hate. He confirmed there was a secret, creepy sounding room at the bottom of its Palo Alto headquarters, he admitted that the much beleaguered “Questions” feature sucked, and he repeated Mark Zuckerberg’s mobile mantra to prospective web developers.
Rather Than Re-Create Google Drive, Yahoo Integrates Dropbox into Mail (ars technica)
Instead of creating its own cloud storage service, Yahoo decided on an approach that may end up being better for its users — a partnership with Dropbox. Yahoo Mail customers will be able to use Dropbox within webmail.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Google has launched a widget that will allow users to save files they find on the web directly to their Drive cloud storage accounts.
Google Apps for Business users can now edit Microsoft Office files using Quickoffice on 
