Next time you’re flying from Houston to Amsterdam, KLM will have an extra incentive for you. Starting next year, the airline will give passengers the option to use Facebook and LinkedIn to choose seatmates. Combined with complimentary wine at each meal and digestifs after each meal, this could be an easy ticket into that exclusive mile high club. Obvious perks such as choosing a seat next to that Ryan Gosling or Adriana Lima lookalike aside, we can think of other ways this can work advantageously. more ›

Though Facebook isn't yet commenting on the matter, CNN is reporting that Austin's Gowalla has been acquired by the social media giant. According to CNN, most of the local team, including CEO Josh Williams, will move to Palo Alto to help Facebook develop their new Timeline feature. Despite raising millions in recent years, Gowalla wasn't able to knock rival FourSquare out of the ring, and has recently redressed itself as more of a discovery tool rather than a simple check-in service. An unidentified Gowalla insider reported, "It's a perfect match. As far as the big picture, Gowalla's vision is about people telling stories, and Facebook's vision for Timeline is about stories about important moments in life." Maybe so, but by connecting with Facebook, it feels like the purchase is more of a bid to re-ignite competition with FourSquare. Especially considering Facebook's seeming impotence in the check-in world. By combining check-ins with a more robust day-in-the-life timeline application, Facebook positions itself as a more powerful option for users willing to set aside a certain amount of privacy in order to document their lives. Does any of this mean something special for Gowalla? It remains to be seen, but the purchase -- whatever the amount -- might be a cause for celebration tonight for the fledgling business. Regardless of how anyone dresses it as a win for the young start-up, it's always a shame to see talented minds and best-in-class developers leave Austin for supposed greener pastures. more ›

Back in September, the annual Facebook f8 conference gathered internet gods and tech geeks alike to discuss the latest products that will transform the online social life of Facebook users. One of this year’s hot topics was the Open Graph scheme, which has changed the way Facebook user’s share and discover new content. more ›

Monday marked the whimpering death of the heavy-handed lawsuit of Facebook against local comedy blog Lamebook. The two companies have settled out of court with the stipulation that Lamebook add a disclaimer that there is no affiliation between the two. The site is just one of a handful targeted by Facebook in the past year including the educational Teachbook and the pornographic Facebook of Sex and Shagbook. And has even tried to trademark words like "face" and "book" (both of which were terribly unpopular before the company), and Apple has been of a like mind with the attempted trademark of the prefix "i." more ›

The Lamebook.com boys have two reasons to celebrate. First off, they recently had a breakthrough in their legal battle against Facebook (who sued the parody site last year for “trademark infringement”) when Travis County Judge Sam Sparks straight-up denied Facebook's motion to dismiss. Lamebook is still fighting the good fight, though it hasn’t been cheap for the upstart humor site. The second reason? They just launched a hilarious, new blog called UHpinions.com. The site features hilarious reviews from sites like Amazon, Yelp and Epinions and seems to be just as addictive as the owner’s original. more ›

Everyone’s favorite space visiting, dungeon lake house living, local gaming legend (Ultima) has been busy of late. After meeting with m8 Capital at this year’s South By Interactive, his new gaming company, Portalarium, secured a cool million for their twelve man team. But this past week, Garriott and partners went on a second fundraising tour and more than doubled their prior funds. more ›

Widespread Panic will perform on ACL Live June 14 and 15, and they have a surprise for you: both shows will be streaming live online at Facebook in HD for pay-per-view of $5 or $50 in Facebook credits. Using Milyoni's Social Theater, fans will be able to send questions to Widespread singer/guitarist John Bell interact with each other during the performance. This event is the official launch of ACL Live's in house production company, Stageside Productions, which will continue to bring select performances to the world online. Not satisfied with watching online and chatting with Bell? Enter to win the Weekday Getaway Sweepstakes contest, which includes two tickets to both Widespread shows, two nights at the W, dinner at Trace, and a gift basket from Tito's Vodka. more ›

• OBL notes, hard-drives reveal terror strategies
• Post-Osama: U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan continue amid strained relationship
• Sen. Cornyn passes on Bin Laden death photos

• U.S. revises story on bin Laden's raid, offers more details
• Inside Osama bin Laden's Pakistan hide-out
• Wanted, dead or... dead

If you're a completely normal, well-adjusted person with a busy day job and plenty to do, you've already checked Facebook dozens of times today. You've noticed, then, that Facebook has launched its so-called "Groupon-killer" -- a localized deals subscription that offers coupons for Austin area businesses. Austin is one of five pilot cities testing out the new offering along with Atlanta, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco. You can buy services using your credit card (cue the whining about giving Facebook your credit card information) or Facebook points, then print out your voucher. The old Facebook Deals program is now a part of Checkin Deals. According to PC World, "Besides appearing in your News Feed, you will be able to find a link to deals in the left hand navigation column of the Facebook pages for individual local businesses. You will also have access to a comprehensive deals page for your area via a deals link in the left hand navigation column of your Facebook dashboard. If that's not enough deal access for you then you can also sign up for email updates." more ›

Considering the popularity of President Obama's Facebook page (almost 19 million "likes"), it's no surprise to see his campaign for 2012 kicking off with the re-engagement of that core support base. The Facebook campaign leads with the very savvy Are You In? app, which enables users to quickly spread the word by posting your support to your wall. The application's functionality on Obama's official site also enables users to scroll through their list of friends to see who isn't 'in', and gives them the opportunity to invite those folks to join. From the campaign: "The first step of all this is an unprecedented program to hold one-on-one conversations with millions of supporters about where they want this campaign to go—look for lots of news about that over the next several weeks as the process unfolds." TechCrunch astutely notes that Twitter doesn't seem to be a part of the equation yet, but that YouTube is once again playing a big role in the online campaign efforts. Follow the jump to see the "It Starts With Us" video featured on the Obama homepage. more ›

• Deaths reported in Iran's protests.
• Egyptian military sets constitution deadline.
• Facebook on its role in Middle East protests: no comment.

• State of the Union reax roundup
• Fact checking the SOTU address
• What were those lapel ribbons about, anyway?

• If you haven’t seen the story about the two dudes arrested in downtown Austin for a DWI -- on a horse and a mule -- it has to be seen to be believed.
• The State Theatre will soon be more than a vacant husk on Congress Avenue.
• Maybe this way you can claim you went to Dallas and saw the Super Bowl?

• Navy launches investigation into officer's raunchy videos
• Why did thousands of birds drop dead in the Arkansas sky?
• Australia's "biblical" floods to worsen as waters cut off Queensland City

• Friend of the Year
• Senate passes $858 billion tax-cut bill
• Intelligence reports offer dim view of Afghan war

• Metrodome roof collapse video is the best sports highlight you'll see all year
• "I'm not a witch" picked as the year's top quote
• Madoff son's death in NYC apartment ruled suicide

• French court finds Continental Airlines and mechanic guilty in deadly Concorde crash
• Obama pushing for a deal on tax cuts and employment benefits
• WikiLeaks founder threatens to release entire cache of unfiltered files

• As South Korean death toll rises, U.S. scrambles to limit hostilities
• Airports bracing for TSA go-ahead-touch-my-junk protests
• Drug war in Juarez Valley leaves town with only one police officer

• Obama team plans transfer of security to Afghanistan by 2014
• TSA patdowns meet "The Resistance"
• Good news for GM, but will Americans care?

The problem with a David vs. Goliath battle today is that you can't take the big guy out with a single shot. More often than not, you'll just piss him off. That's the situation in which Austin-based Lamebook finds itself. more ›

• New film continues the story of the rebirth of New Orleans
• New York Rep. Rangel requests a delay in his corruption trial
• Obama to GOP: How do you pay for tax cut extensions?

• Slideshow for ways that people remember Day of the Dead.
• The World Series came to Texas!
• Great Halloween costumes, via the Dallas Observer.

• People will do anything to drive in the HOV lanes.
• Fox News is a respectable group. Just ask Juan Williams.
• So the fact that there are racist people in the Tea Party movement is a surprise?

• Spark from shooting range ignites massive wildfire in Utah
• Five months later, blown-out BP oil well in Gulf is officially dead
• Religious group found safe after 22-hour search in California

I defriended someone this week. The experience was odd, and caused me more contemplation than I anticipated when I logged on to do the deed. Though I had only the dogs for audience, I performed the act with some flourish, my finger melodramatically hovering over the keyboard as I decided whether or not to really hit the button that would effectively obliterate this particular person from my virtual life (and, hopefully, my real life, too). The argument I entertained before going through with this regarded potential fallout. On the one hand, I understood that this person, a rampant narcissist, likely wouldn’t even notice my choice to exile It. (I shall use “It” here, because I don’t even want to hint at the person’s identity, not even gender.) On the other hand, if It did notice— well, we happen to have a number of mutual friends. So if It did discover my action, would It then raise a stink among the overlap in our Venn diagram of comrades? And if so, would that cause more aggravation than keeping the “friendship” and thus subjecting myself to seeing It’s updates on a regular basis? more ›

Like 99% of what is on Facebook, a majority of the book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A tale of sex, money, genius and betrayal is expendable and clearly designed to attract attention. more ›

• National Tea Party Federation bags Tea Party Express following racist satire
• At least 60 dead, 92 injured in India train crash
• Clinton unveils an array of projects during visit to Pakistan

• 'Weeds' this ain't: $6 million pot bust in Travis County.
• France's President Sarkozy vows to lift veil.
• North Korea: "Have fun, or else."

• Rove 'proud' of US waterboarding terror suspects.
• Obama delays Asia trip to focus on health care.
• Austin hosting Facebook welcome event this morning.