It’s bad news enough when your mother discreetly sends you a friend request via your favorite social media site. This means every unsavory picture or comment you have needs to be addressed, blocked, or deleted lest your mother goes into a tailspin. Yet it could be worse, you could find yourself staring at a friend request from your dear old grandmother or grandfather. Good news though! A brand new social media site is making your Pop Pop their next target audience. If your grandparent has their own Facebook profile you may experience some of the most cringe worthy posts and comments. Your page…

In Aladdin, when Jafar was pulled into the lamp after making a monumental mistake of going for too much power, he grabbed his untrusty sidekick on his way down to be stuck in lamp limbo together. The same things seems to be happening with Facebook and Zynga; as Facebook’s IPO crumbles, Zynga’s shares continue to sag. In this Chart of the Day by Statista, it’s easy to see how the fate of the larger company is dramatically affecting the future of the smaller, dependent company. Click to enlarge. Related articles An Inside Look at Zynga’s Bribable Approach to Customer Loyalty (dailyfinance.com) Zynga,…

Someone should have seen this coming. Someone should have said something. After forking over $200 million to buy OMGPOP for the singular purpose of getting control over Draw Something, Zynga is wondering why 5 million daily active users (around 1/3rd of the total) abandoned the game last month. It’s a lesson in size and scope. People did see this coming. Zynga was told. They didn’t heed the warnings and saw something that they thought would have staying power. They thought of a clever advertising model that would have users drawing brands for a price to the brand. They had to do something because…

A few of my friends like to call themselves gamers. That is to say, a few of my friends who are not already (real) gamers like to label themselves as such. Perhaps you know folk like these. These folk play Farmville, and believe it qualifies as a videogame in more than name only. These people annoy gamers, non-gamers, friends and enemies alike with unrelenting Facebook notifications inviting one and all to partake in… whatever it is Farmville players do? Arrange flowers, or something? Anyway, I’m kind of letting my Farmville hate get away on me, here. That’s not the point. The point is that intelligent,…

Hey, I don’t suppose you’re the type to buy people gift cards for special occasions, are you? Cuz, like, not to peg you as a lazy douche or anything, but you might be interested to know that Facebook Credits giftcards are soon gonna start showing up at the checkout at your local Target. The cards will allow your thoughtless self to say ‘I have no idea what you like’ in amounts of $15, $25 and $50, and absolve you completely of any mind or effort required to provide a loved one a truly unique gift. Besides, of course, the effort required to visit your local Target – overlooking the fact that you could just visit…

Pygmies in the Amazonian rain forest are all well aware of the addictive and widespread Facebook game Farmville, so I won’t insult your intelligence by explaining what it is. However, if you thought you were Farmville’s biggest fan, think again. Google has been been quietly investing in Zynga, the developers behind Farmville, to the tune of around $150m. Zynga has also been building venture capital from a number of other firms, including $150m from Softbank Capital and $180m from Digital Sky Technologies. What does Zynga plan to do with all this capital? How could they possibly become more pervasive…

Seems everybody’s just about had it up to here with Facebook, and it looks like this is the case with developers as much as it is with users. Zynga, the developer of Farmville, has warned its employees to brace themselves for a possible imminent break from the social networking giant. That’s kind of cool. Sounds like a spaceship about to break away from an asteroid, or something. Anyway, tensions between the two companies have been rising, and, due to Facebook’s apparent bullying of Zynga to sign a contract which would bind Farmville almost exclusively to Facebook, Zynga threatening to leave,…

I feel as if I am the only person on the planet who has never played Farmville. But after this story, I am more than happy with that decision.. A pre-teen boy living in the UK somehow managed to blow $1,400 on Farmville, one of Facebook’s most addictive games (and  you thought the few hundred extra for the phone bill was bad, hah). We spend money on food, groceries, gas, rent, and gadgets, right? But what value can a kid get from spending $1,400 in a virtual game? We have no clue here at Techi. But, seriously, what could this kid have gained? What did $1,400 buy him? Gosh, what does a $5 investment in this game…

First off, there really is no end to the tide of Internet startups with names that sound like cartoon sound effects, is there? Just sayin’. Anyway, Zynga (see?) is laughing all the way to the bank; according to equity analysts, the company would be worth $5,000,000,000 if it went public. Yes. That’s five billion dollars.

 Jeezus. If you’re not familiar with the name, Zynga is to blame for the Facebook plagues games timewasters Farmville and Mafia Wars. With over 237 million active users a month, each one shamefully spending real-world money on fake-world goods, Zynga is beating even…