Facebook and Yahoo team up for integration project

Yahoo!

Yahoo and Facebook have joined forces so that users can link their accounts and share information across both services.

Those who opt to join their accounts will be able to see Facebook updates on Yahoo services, such as the search company's email.

Users will also be able to share information from their Yahoo activities, including those on the company's news and entertainment sites, on Facebook.

Further integrations are set to be announced in the future and the move forms part of Yahoo's ramping up of its social media efforts.

The firm recently formed a partnership with Twitter to integrate the micro-blogging service's experience across the Yahoo platform.

Yahoo has also made a number of acquisitions in this area this year, including the purchase of Indonesian organisation Koprol, another social networking site that allows users to share information in real-time using their mobile phone browser.

"More and more, people rely on social sites to share and discover information that matters to them, making Yahoo uniquely positioned to provide people with all of the mainstream methods of content discovery social, search, communications and editorial," Cody Simms, senior director of social platforms and Yahoo's developer network, said in a statement.

"Starting with Facebook, we are bringing all of these elements together to give people one simple, trusted place to share information and connect," Simms added.

The search firm has decided to update privacy settings on Yahoo Profiles, which has now had its name switched to Yahoo Pulse. The changes are designed to make the privacy controls simpler to use, while a central dashboard will help users manage what they share on Yahoo from the social services that they have linked with.

This could be in response to concerns surrounding Facebook's privacy settings, which were also recently refreshed following widespread criticism.

Tom Brewster

Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.

He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.