Take a close look at Social Gaming Network’s story, and you will see how social games are evolving away from a focus on Facebook-only games. SGN is rising as a multiplatform social game developer, while Facebook-focused Zynga has been declining rapidly. SGN is even hiring the talent that was laid off by Zynga.
Vine has added sound and motion to the popular microblogging website, Twitter. Learn how to bring your information to life in our Vine webcast on Wednesday, June 19 from 4-5 pm ET. In this one-hour webcast, Gemma Craven (left), EVP, New York group director at Social@Ogilvy will discuss best practices for using the visual social platform and share some of her team's successful vine videos. Register here. 
Sponsored results became a casualty of both Facebook’s moves to simplify its advertising offerings and the rollout of its Graph Search feature, as the social network announced Thursday that advertisers will no longer be able to buy sponsored results starting in July, and that they will disappear from users’ search results around mid to late July.
Facebook continued the process of converting games from Facebook Credits to local currencies, which it initially announced in March, with Wednesday’s release of the local currency payments application-programming interface for developers, which now have 90 days to integrate the API.
Nearly twice as many attempts by kids to circumvent the parental controls of users of Kaspersky Lab’s products were aimed at Facebook and other social networks in May than at pornography sites, the Internet security firm reported.
Each year, Mediabistro hosts the AllFacebook Marketing Conference, which provides the world a deep look into Facebook innovations and issues impacting both social media and digital marketing. This year, it will take place at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square June 5. The event is filled with top-notch speakers and provides innovative information that will help you and your organization succeed in Facebook marketing. I attended last year, and I am very excited for this year’s conference. Below are seven reasons why you should book your ticket now to attend the AllFacebook Marketing Conference, while you still can — it’s not too late! I’ll be attending along with Firebelly Vice President and lead of our Dallas office Misty Sanford.
Draw Something developer OMGPOP, which was acquired by Zynga in March 2012 for $180 million, was wiped out as part of the layoffs announced by Zynga Monday.
Facebook Monday released its latest gaming statistics, showing that 250 million people are playing games on the social network each month. The first quarter of the year also represented the most successful three-month period in terms of revenue and people playing games to date.
The ax has begun to fall at troubled game developer Zynga again, as the company confirmed that it will lay off 18 percent of its workforce, lowering its pretax annualized cash expenses by $70 million to $80 million, and AllThingsD reported that Zynga is shuttering its offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas.
Application analytics provider AppData announced the launch of its proprietary iOS application and developer revenue estimates. Metrics are provided by week, month, and year-to-date for the top-grossing applications and developers on iOS.
Universal Studios’ Fast & Furious 6 opens in theaters Friday, and content related to the feature film also makes its debut on Cie Games’ social automotive title, Car Town, as part of a partnership between the game developer and Universal Partnerships & Licensing.
