Facebook

You may not know Mark Zuckerberg, but if you have children between the ages of 14 and 24, there is pretty good chance that they do. Three years ago, while a sophomore at Harvard, Zuckerberg cooked up the idea for Facebook.com, a social-networking site on the Internet that allows users to join groups based on their school affiliations and post information about themselves and their activities. You can "poke" a stranger and become his or her "friend," thereby expanding your circle of acquaintances beyond your dorm room, to the campus as a whole, even to campuses across America.

TATTLE IS often a column featuring cautionary tales, usually involving celebrities. But occasionally we come across a story in which there is such an important lesson to be learned, for the good of our readers we feel compelled to bring it to you even if it does not involve someone from "The Hills" or a curvy Kardashian. According to News of the World, Brit Dominic Baronet, 26, is a Facebook menace. Do not "friend" Dominic, ladies, although it's unlikely he could scrape together the cash to cross the pond.

NEW YORK - Investors are dumping Facebook Inc.'s stock, spooked by slowing revenue growth, the lack of a financial outlook, and plans to spend more money in coming months. Are they right? Only if they are thinking in the short term. Investors can expect Facebook's stock to be volatile for a few years. But analysts say that those willing to wait will likely be rewarded - someday. "I view it as a tomorrow stock," said Christian Bertelsen, chief investment officer at the wealth-management firm Global Financial Private Capital.

In country after country, Facebook is toppling the incumbent local social network in what seems like an unstoppable march to global dominance. After overtaking Microsoft's Windows Live Profile in Portugal and Mexico in early 2010, Facebook eclipsed StudiVZ in Germany and Google's Orkut in India later that year, and soon unseated Hyves in the Netherlands, according to the metrics firm comScore. Now Facebook is poised to triumph in what has been viewed as its ultimate popularity contest, with comScore indicating the network is likely to dethrone Orkut in social-media-mad Brazil when its December data are released.

The world's most popular website started in a college dorm room, and for some users it stops there, too. Though Facebook currently claims a tenth of the world's population in monthly users, many in its original demographic - young adults - have attempted, sometimes successfully, to go against the grain. Call it Facebook fatigue, social network sickness, sensory overload: It's not unusual for college-age users to call it quits. At least for a little while. Colleen Andrews, 24, a graphic designer from Far Hills, N.J., was spurred by a breakup: "I didn't want to be tempted to look at his profile," she said.

Facebook Inc. chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, in his first interview since the company's initial public offering, said he's taking steps to address the missteps that have weighed on shares and made it hard to make money from mobile advertising. "Now, we are a mobile company," Zuckerberg said in an onstage interview at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. "Over the next three to five years, I think the biggest question that is on everyone's minds, that will determine our performance over that period, is really how well we do with mobile," Zuckerberg said.

Facebook, the world's second-largest social-networking Web site, has reached an agreement with state law enforcement authorities across the country aimed at protecting children from sexual predators. The agreement with attorneys general in 49 states and the District of Columbia would ban convicted sex offenders from the site and limit older users' ability to search for underage subscribers. "Pennsylvania continues to be one of the leading states concerning Internet safety for children," said Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett, who announced the agreement with his counterparts.

A recent survey found that Facebook is mentioned in one out of five new divorce filings, and some experts are labeling it as the top website for facilitating affairs. As the president of AshleyMadison.com - the world's largest service expressly dedicated to infidelity - I could not help but take notice. If Facebook affairs are being cited in divorce proceedings, then the people involved in them are getting caught - which means the network probably isn't the best place to stray.

Here's a status update on Facebook's vaunted initial public offering: not as hot as your brother-in-law might have told you. But it remains to be seen whether the Wall Street banks orchestrating the $16 billion stock sale did anything wrong, or whether last week's investors have only themselves to blame if they feel burned. Facebook shares closed Wednesday at $32 apiece, up a dollar for the day but down nearly 16 percent from the $38-a-share initial price set last Thursday. Lawsuits are already alleging that investors were somehow duped by the high-flying social media company or its underwriters, led by Wall Street's Morgan Stanley.

Lane Goodwin, 13, a small-town boy who won a huge Facebook following for his thumbs-up attitude about his cancer, has lost his battle with the disease. He died Wednesday night, eliciting an outpouring from his heartbroken followers. The announcement of Lane's death came on his Facebook page, which had 369,000 followers as of Thursday. The announcement said the boy from Beech Grove, Ky., who loved fishing and soccer had "gained his angel wings. " Lane was an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan, and some Cardinals fans held up signs in support of Lane during the baseball playoffs.