After months of pressure to improve its online safety features, Facebook has reached an agreement to provide an application not dissimilar to the "panic button" critics have called for, which users can add to their homepage and links to the UK's online child protection watchdog. Facebook has been put on the back foot in recent months and forced at first to defend its safety measures and then announce a raft of new initiatives as criticism mounted. Founder Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged late last month that the global expansion of Facebook meant privacy controls had become too complex and that "very legitimate questions" had been raised about its failings in this area.

The Guardian 

Google has invested $100-200 million in web-based games developer Zynga, to help launch Google Games, TechCrunch reports. Citing unnamed sources, TechCrunch says that the investment is a part of a month-old deal between Google and Zynga, under which, the game developer will be working with Google to develop the Google Games platform. Zynga, the developer behind popular Facebook games including Farmville, Mafia Wars and FrontierVille, has already raised around half a billion dollars in capital funding, including $150 million from Softbank Capital.TechCrunch states that the investment, made by Google itself rather than by its investment arm Google Ventures, will allow Zynga to develop the base for the Google Games social gaming platform.

ITProPortal 

A company can stop other companies using its trademarks to trigger search engine adverts if those adverts do not allow a web user to tell which company is behind the ads, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said. Europe's top court has confirmed a previous ruling and has said that the use of someone else's trade marks as 'keywords' in search advertising systems will violate their trade mark rights if the ads themselves create confusion about their origin. The ad will breach the trademark owner's rights if it "does not enable average internet users, or enables them only with difficulty, to ascertain whether the goods or services referred to by the ad originate from the proprietor of the trade mark or from an undertaking economically linked to it," the ruling said.

The Register 

Liberator of information Google has had its operating licence in mainland China renewed, according to the country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The licence renewal was granted not to Google itself but rather Guxiang, the company that runs Google's websites in China. Apparently MIIT approved Guxiang after it saw that the firm was "making improvements", though it declined to detail what those improvements were. China's official news service Xinhua reported that Google, by proxy of Guxiang, committed to "abide by Chinese law" and not provide any content that breaches the country's telecoms regulations. Those regulations are designed to stop the rank and file Chinese from getting any ideas contrary to the government's vision of social harmony.

The Inquirer 

Orange has launched its Telepresence Community solution in collaboration with Cisco, as the companies look to bring the benefits of video conferencing to a wider audience. The deal will enable Orange Business Service customers to access Cisco’s 800 private and public Telepresence rooms across the world. They will also be able to enjoy the solution free of charge until 1 April 2011 without having to commit to a contract.

IT PRO 

Taiwanese mobile handset maker HTC has ruled out producing a tablet form-factor device for the time being. With the Apple iPad proving a runaway success with consumers since its launch earlier in the year, a number of other traditional mobile phone makers are believed to have larger-screened devices of their own in the pipelines, many of them running Android. However, HTC has now removed its name from that list – for now, anyway – saying it would rather keep a watching brief over the tablet market's development than jump in with a rushed product. “We are always looking at it, but, right now, the whole idea is that in order to be successful with a tablet, you need to have something compelling. And not just a compelling form factor,” HTC global PR and online community manager Eric Lin told Pocket-Lint.

IT PRO 

Fabless chip firm Mediatek said it has joined the Open Handset Alliance and so like 71 other companies said that Android rocks. Who is in there with Mediatek? A lot of ig names including China Mobile, Acer, Alcatel, Asustek, NTT Docomo, Dell, Foxconn, HTC, Huawei, T-Mobile, Kyocera, Vodafone, ARM, Samsung, Broadcom, ZTE, Toshiba, Atheros and Google. Mediatek's general manager of its wireless division said that his company was blissed out at joining in the advance of Android devices into the world. 

Tech Eye  

Signs which warn of the dangers of using a mobile phone at a petrol station are based on an urban myth and are not based on any facts. For years, petrol station owners have placed signs warning mobile phone owners to switch off their phones when refuelling.  The fear is that the mobile phone will somehow cause petrol vapour to ignite. The chief executive of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association, Chris Althaus said that it is an urban myth that won't go away. However, for some reason Althaus said his association still backed the ban on using a mobile phone at petrol stations.  

Tech Eye 

Confirmit, which supplies blue-chip companies and market research agencies worldwide with software for customer and employee feedback and market research applications, has launched an SMS Survey extension, allowing Confirmit users to engage with people for ‘in the moment’ feedback via SMS. The company says the tool is particularly suited to short feedback surveys, such as point-of-sale or customer service experience. It adds that by integrating SMS into multi-mode research projects, users can create engaging surveys and gather more representative feedback.

Mobile Marketing Magazine 

Russian telecoms regulator Roskomnadzor has permitted Yota and Rostelecom to use existing frequency allocations to deploy LTE networks. They had previous stipulated that the allotted frequencies were to be used for WiMax build out and could not be used for other technologies. In May, Yota had said it will deploy LTE over the frequencies previously intended for WiMax beginning in 15 cities, with five networks going live before the end of 2010. The two telecom operators are preparing LTE testing areas using Russian equipment.

Global Telecoms Business