How much are your friends worth? That is the question behind the big debate going on around social networks and data portability. In the last ten days, Facebook, Google, and MySpace have all announced ways to let people access their data (including friends lists) from other sites, except that what they are really [...]

Fifth Generation Systems, the company behind social homepage creator Zude has taken $5.3 million Series B in a round that includes Irwin Lieber and Barry Rubenstein of Wheatley Partners, Persistency Capital, and Gund Investment. Zude offers a “social webpage network” that allows users to create their own personalized webpage from modules that hold personal content or [...]