Technology, Internet | featured news

Google’s +1 buttons have only been out for about a month, but they’re already more common than the tweet button on major web destinations.

LivingSocial has picked Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank to lead-underwrite an IPO that could value the daily deals site at $10 billion to $15 billion, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Morgan Stanley analysts downgraded Google Inc shares to "equal-weight" from "overweight" on Friday, citing an expected decline in margins in this year and the next.

As Groupon clones have proliferated, the loyalty to Groupon of both consumers and merchants offering online deals has eroded.

EBay paying $240 million to buy closely held Zong, a provider of mobile payments, as the e-commerce giant seeks to strengthen its PayPal business.

The number of illegally downloaded films in the UK goes up nearly 30% in five years, new figures seen by Newsbeat suggest.

US President Barack Obama is to face question from Twitter users at a White House "town hall" session to be streamed live online.

Could social networking company Facebook Inc.’s big news on Wednesday be a partnership with Internet video calling firm Skype Limited? That’s the word on the street, according to reports. The partnership would allow friends to chat with each other, and potentially give it an edge over Mountain View-based Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), which has launched its own Google+ social networking service.

Skype and Facebook have both declined to comment. But an announcement is expected at 10 a.m.

The International Cyber Security Protection Alliance has been set up to fight cybercrime on a global scale.

So, based on the buzz, Google+ is the geek-chic social-networking upstart that's going to challenge Facebook, right?