Facebook on Thursday began letting social network members in the United States send friends gift cards for purchases at participating shops or restaurants.

The move came as the world's leading social network seeks ways to expand how it makes money from its 1.06 billion monthly users, the majority of whom access the social network from smartphones or tablet computers.

Twitter's unmatched platform for public opinion is emboldening Gulf Arabs to exchange views on delicate issues in the deeply conservative region, despite strict censorship that controls old media.

The authorities have been attempting to limit the damage by handing out jail terms to some whose tweets have been deemed offensive in the Muslim states, including in Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

YouTube confirmed on Wednesday that its evolution as an Internet stage for video may include subscriptions to content that creators believe people will pay to see.

"We have long maintained that different content requires different types of payment models," a YouTube spokesman told Agence France Presse.

Internet companies will soon have to find a way to protect user privacy to avert a "clash" which could lead to increased government regulation, eBay chief executive John Donahoe said Wednesday.

"There's going to be, at some point in the next few years, a trigger point," Donahoe told a New York breakfast meeting organized by The Wall Street Journal, noting the need for "a national dialogue about what is acceptable or not."

Facebook is increasing its revenue from mobile with more users now accessing the social network via smartphones and tablets than from personal computers, but Wall Street remains unimpressed.

The company on Wednesday reported a $64 million profit in the fourth quarter of last year, a steep drop compared with $302 million 12 months earlier, while revenue grew 40 percent to $1.585 billion.

The New York Times said Wednesday it had fallen victim to hackers possibly connected to China's military, linking the attacks to its expose of the vast wealth amassed by a top leader's family.

The hackers have over the past four months infiltrated computer systems and snatched staff passwords, and their probing has been particularly focused on the emails of Shanghai bureau chief David Barboza, the newspaper said.

BlackBerry launched its comeback effort Wednesday with a revamped platform and a pair of sleek new handsets, along with a company name change as part of a move to reinvent the smartphone maker.

Canadian-based Research in Motion said it had changed its name to BlackBerry as it launched the BlackBerry 10, the new platform aimed at helping the firm regain traction in a market now dominated by rivals.

Fresh from unveiling detailed online maps of North Korea, Google on Wednesday touted studies showing that Internet Age navigation tools boost the economic engines of nations.

The global "geospatial industry" brings in $270 billion in annual revenue and companies in the sector pay more than $90 billion in wages each year, according to a report by economic consulting firm Oxera.

As much as I like Google Docs for word processing and spreadsheets, I find the online software clunky at times. So I was skeptical when I heard Microsoft is trying to sell its new version of Office as an online subscription.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the subscription gets you the same software you'd get buying it at a retail store. In fact, I'm using the new Office 2013 to write this review, and it feels as smooth as the customized version of Office 2010 I regularly use.

It's the moment of truth for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion.

The Canadian company Wednesday will officially launch the BlackBerry 10, an effort that some see as the company's last, best chance to remain a player in a smartphone market it once dominated.