internet news

Over the last five years, Facebook employees have met with members of Congress and walked them through ways to best to use the Web site.

While disappointing new investors who were betting on fast gains, Facebook had a wide winner's circle, creating huge paper gains for scores of early insiders, hundreds of employees and some stragglers who bought stakes recently.

The Internet was supposed to make us smarter shoppers. So why should we still listen to the signals that brands send us?

At Facebook, ground zero for the nouveau tech riche in Silicon Valley, peer pressure dictates that consumption be kept on the down low.

After initially rising 11 percent on its first day, the stock closed at $38.23, just above its offering price, in heavy trading.

DealBook’s live blog will be tracking all of the reactions to the third-largest initial public offering in United States history.

The initial public offering, priced at $38 a share, values Facebook at $104 billion, putting the social networking company on par with McDonald's, Citigroup and Amazon.com.

If history offers any lesson, average investors may find they face steep odds if they hope to make big money in a much-hyped stock like Facebook.

Eduardo Saverin, who left the company after two years, is assessing how best to manage the extraordinary wealth that will come his way in Facebook’s initial public offering.

Facebook’s founder and 28-year-old C.E.O. will soon face the unfamiliar landscape of running a public company, monitored by a merciless stock market.

Nextdoor.com provides social networks for neighborhoods, offering members a chance to exchange ideas and recommendations with those who live nearby.

Facebook will offer 421 million shares, 25 percent more than it had planned to offer, in response to high demand.

The loss of $10 million in ad dollars does not represent a financial disaster for Facebook, but it is a public relations headache so close to the company’s initial stock offering this week.

Alisher B. Usmanov’s investments in the social media giant could be worth at least $6 billion when the company goes public.

As the company goes public, it has to figure out how to use its vault of information to enrich its shareholders.

The company’s audit committee said Richard Schulze, also the chain’s founder, failed to report an inappropriate relationship between the former chief executive and an employee.

The company’s revenue surpassed Wall Street’s expectations and Groupon’s stock rose nearly 18 percent in after-hours trading.

Facebook is more tapped into the pulse of people online than any company on the planet; as a result, it has the inside track to what is becoming popular in a way that its competitors do not.

Because Facebook tends to be tight-lipped about its plans, the company’s string of acquisitions may reveal a lot about the course it is charting.

A computer program developed at I.B.M. uses game techniques and psychology to influence dieting: eat a salad, for example, and you could win 50 cents.