Investors Punish Online Scam Trafficker with $15 Million

Just as the public was learning that a huge chunk of Zynga's social gaming revenue came from scammy "quizzes" and "special offers," Silicon Valley's most prestigious venture capitalists rewarded the company with $15 million. Hey, that's just how VC's roll. More »

Scam-Brokering CEO Dissed His 'Bullshit' Ethics Class

Mark Pincus recently cut off the scamsters who supply his company with revenue. But before he bowed to controversy, the Facebook games merchant was more cavalier about corporate morality, even griping about his "bullshit" Harvard ethics class and idiot classmates. More »

Class Action Suit in the Works for Victims of Social Gaming Scams

Facebook and MySpace might finally pay the price for the big social gaming scandal: At least one law firm is investigating whether to launch a class action suit on behalf of duped users. More »

MySpace's Future: Online Slum for Depression Refugees

It's hard to imagine much of a future for MySpace. Which is probably why it took a science fiction author to do so: Bruce Sterling says the flagging social network is an ideal shantytown for the nihilistic unemployed. Compelling! More »

The Secret Shame of Social Networking: How Silicon Valley Got Hooked on Scammers

Silicon Valley pundits like to talk about social media as a potential geyser of cash. What they leave out is that one of the only ways social networks like Facebook, MySpace have done that is joining league with online scammers. More »

Pretty Boy MySpace CEO Has Dumb Surrender Plan

MySpace now says it is no longer competing with Facebook, the rival social network with far more users. No, now MySpace will focus on the niche of music and digital entertainment. And compete with Apple and Google. More »

MySpace Is For 'Stalking,' Says Owner of MySpace

Media mogul and grumpy old man Rupert Murdoch has developed a "personal antipathy to the Internet," biographer Michael Wolff writes. Murdoch even thinks MySpace, which he himself paid $580 million for, is kind of a criminal piece of garbage: More »

Legal Briefs Are Courtney Love's Method of Choice for Defamation

The grunge princess has long terrorized the world and the English language with her ramblings on MySpace and Twitter. She's the first celeb sued saying something on Twitter, but now the fight is getting personal—and ugly! More »

How a 'Made' Startup Was Clipped

Two years ago, music service iLike appeared to be set: Its CEO said it was "made," its investor mused it could be a "billion-dollar winner," and the press was enthralled. Now the poster child is a cautionary tale. More »

Twitter's 'Cyber Ghetto'

Without a clear reason for being, Twitter is about to flail its way into a "cyber-ghetto" for the aimless, alongside second-tier social network MySpace. At least that's the argument of a provocative post from Cody Brown, NYU's new-media wunderkind. More »

Facebook Does Not Want to Get You Laid

Facebook has long been the wet blanket of social networks. Its latest bucket of cold water: No more searching for people by relationship status. Because then you might conceivably get laid, and we can't have that. More »

Why MySpace Is Happy to Be Insulted by Adam Sandler

Social networking is for lonely, psychotic shut-ins. Or at least that's the upshot of the jokes in the attached clip from Adam Sandler vehicle Funny People. And still MySpace apparently cooperated with the filmmakers; its co-founder and logo appear. More »

How MySpace Humiliates Fired Workers

MySpace's CEO purportedly keeps his body pretty tight. But he should lay off the weight obsession at work. Owen Van Natta said MySpace was "bloated" when he laid off 400 workers; now they're reportedly called "fat" to their faces. More »

MySpace Exec Gets $500K to Sit at Home While 300 Laid Off

MySpace today confirmed the rumors it will lay off 300 international staff, on top of 400 U.S. layoffs last week. The social network also shoved aside purported co-founder Tom Anderson, who has a new gig: NOT going to the office. More »

MySpace Lays Off 400

Two months after taking over as CEO, Owen Van Natta is laying off 30 percent of MySpace employees. His outlook remains bleak; when was the last time you heard a CEO call his company "bloated" in a press release? More »

New MySpace Regime Lowers Expectations

MySpace chief Own Van Natta is a consummate dealmaker; at Facebook he helped sweet talk Microsoft into a critical ad buy. MySpace is a trickier case: insiders at the social network are spreading word it faces "horrendous" user disengagement. More »

Valleywag: An Instruction Manual

Dear Ryan:

As I head to NBC to run its Bay Area site, I'm leaving you one Silicon Valley gossip blog, used but in good condition. A few thoughts on how to keep it that way. More »

How Valleywag Got MySpace to Drop Its Sony Ban

Sony Pictures employees can now waste their time on MySpace again, thanks to Valleywag. (You're welcome.) Here's the tale, from inside Sony's Internet operations, of how our story got the ban lifted. More »

Sony Moviemakers Banned from MySpace

A tipster tells us that when Sony employees in L.A. try to log onto MySpace, "it directs you to google.com." Bizarrely, Sony's IT staff is saying it's MySpace's fault. More »