Pinterest is a fast-growing social network described as a “virtual pinboard” enabling users to “organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web.” Pinterest recently increased their Facebook integration, but as Dave Taylor explains it is not straight foward to simply get a “pin” to display on your wall. Read Dave’s article to get the inside scoop, with step-by-step illustrated instructions.

Have you noticed news headlines showing up on your Facebook wall indicating that your friends are reading specific news articles? When you click on any of these shares, you are prompted to allow a Facebook app (such as the Washington Post’s Social Reader or The Guardian) access to your wall. If you click agree, every news article you read via the app will be shared with your Facebook friends. Is this just annoying or is this flood of shares killing the sharing cow? CNET editor Molly Wood suggests that this hyper-sharing is worse than annoying, it might just be the straw that will break sharing completely! Read her comments here

Recent rumors of Facebook’s new price grid for membership are a hoax. Several of these untruths have been making the rounds lately. One says “THIS IS OFFICIAL… IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS… FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES…” The other states “FACEBOOK JUST RELEASED THEIR PRICE GRID FOR MEMBERSHIP. $9.99 PER MONTH FOR GOLD MEMBER SERVICES, $6.99 PER MONTH FOR SILVER MEMBER SERVICES, $3.99 PER MONTH FOR BRONZE MEMBER SERVICES, FREE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT.” For one of many articles on why this is simply not true, read Ask Leo: Is Facebook Going to Start Charging?

It's free and always will be.

Have you seen this viral Facebook post recently? Click the thumbnail below to see it in full size.

Facebook Changed the News Feed Again

Despite recent viral Facebook posts suggesting that the way to see posts from “All Your Friends” is to go to your Facebook Account/ Edit Friends page, this advice is WRONG. The algorithmic changes to the Facebook News Feed started two years ago, and now you have “Top News” (which is filtered by an algorithm) and “Most Recent” which not filtered. To change the friend news filter from “recently interacted” to “all” you do NOT do it under Account/Edit Friends. Go to the bottom of your News Feed and click on “Edit Options”. You will find the two choices there: recently interacted or all friends. Here is a screenshot of the popup box you’ll get when you click on “Edit Options.”

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Did you know that without unfriending them completely, you can keep certain annoying Facebook friends from cluttering up your wall by hiding them? To hide a friend named Tom (for example), simply move your cursor to the X in the upper right-hand corner of one of his updates, and then click “Hide all by Tom.” To unhide them, go to Edit Options (under Most Recent) and click the X next to their name under “Hide posts from.” For details and screenshots, read Ask Dave Taylor.

In a move designed to make Google more social, the search giant recently added a voting widget to both its search results and third-party websites. Called Google Plus One, it allows those signed into their Google accounts to vote their approval of web pages. Pages you vote for will display in your Google account profile, unless you choose to make them private. For pictures and a more detailed explanation, read Leo Notenboom’s What’s that “+1″ Thing?.

Now that Facebook offers a secure connection to keep your data away from prying eyes when you are on a shared connection, such as the WiFi at your local favorite coffee stop, Twitter has one too. To turn it on, log into your Twitter.com account, and click on your name in the upper-right hand corner. Choose settings, then scroll down the page to the checkbox labeled “Always use HTTPS.” Check the box and click save. To see screenshots of the process, read Ask Dave Taylor.

Facebook introduced a new profile page layout as a user option a few weeks ago. This new layout includes a horizontal grid of five photo thumbnails, flanked, on the left, by a profile picture. Inspired by French artist Alexandre Oudin, more and more Facebook users are experimenting with clever juxtapositions of these thumbnails. Check out Mashable for a gallery of ten creative profile pic hacks.

Microsoft researcher Danah Boyd explores some unusual ways to reduce risk on Facebook at her blog Apophenia. For example, some Facebook users deactivate their account whenever they log out. This doesn’t delete any friends or settings, and when you login and reactive, everything is just as you left it. But it does eliminate “pesky” wall postings and inappropriate photos that might be left while you are not online to moderate them.

With a recent change in how Twitter authorizes login credentials, even if you change your Twitter password, all your existing apps will still have access to your account. To view the apps that you have authorized, first login into your Twitter account, then go to Settings, and Connections. From this screen you will see all apps you have authorized, and have the opportunity to revoke access for any of them.