Latitude, Foursquare. There’s no shortage of mobile social location candidates stepping up. Now GeoSentric’s GyPSii of Holland has raised a further $11 million funding for its effort - bringing its total to $40 million. The disclosure came in GyPSii’s announcement of a new Twitter app, Tweetsii, that puts tweets first,…

As traditional dating sites stagnate, investors appear to be sensing an opportunity in social dating startups. European venture fund 360 Capital Partners is investing $2.2 million in SmartDate.com, a social dating site which launched just three months ago. The site integrates with Facebook Connect so that users can link up…

BraveNewTalent, a British social recruiting site which has its sites on an overseas expansion, has raised £350,000 (roughly $560,000) in a funding round from nine angel investors. The site—which mixes social networking with job searching—promises to let students and graduates “find, follow and build a relationship with employers of choice.”…

ITV’s new guard will be happy with this - after a three-month inquiry, the Competition Commission has provisionally approved the £25 million sale of Friends Reunited to Scottish genealogy site operator Brightsolid. The sale was referred by the OFT in November but the commission has concluded “the tie-up poses no…

South Africa’s Naspers and Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies (DST) are in talks to pool their Polish social networks Gadu-Gadu and Nasza-klasa.pl, according to Russian business daily Kommersant, citing “a source close to the deal”. Naspers, which owns Gadu-Gadu outright, is reportedly doing due diligence on Forticom, the DST-owned social network…

Online genealogy firm MyHeritage.com has bought up rival OSN Group, in a move that it says will propel it into the “largest international site dedicated to families on the web.” That claim is somewhat questionable, since the 530 million profiles MyHeritage will now be able to claim is still swamped…

SocialGO, a startup which lets its users set up their own social networking sites, has raised $800,000 from Veddis Ventures; SocialGO’s parent company, Bright Things, has also bought up Get On With It, a company which has been providing SocialGO with unspecified “development and support services” for two years. Social…

If readers won’t pay for content, will they for community? That’s what Patrick suggested last week. And Pluck’s European chief Pluck‘s European chief Stephanie Himoff tells paidContent:UK: “I see it as an opportunity.” Pluck already powers story commenting for publishers like Times Online, Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI) and Guardian.co.uk; so…

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has purchased Plum, a platform used to create private social networks. In a brief statement, the mobile giant said little about its plans for the startup, noting only that the company would “complement Nokia’s Social Location services.” But Nokia said just last week that it was looking…

Italian mobile content company Buongiorno released earnings for the first six months of the year, saying that a majority of its operators still revolve around traditional content, but increasingly it’s focusing on new opportunities, such as social networking and mobile advertising. Earnings Release. The company said revenues fell compared to…

Marketers are still playing with social media to try and convey their brand values… —Smart car: Mercedes’ efficient little motor is trying to replicate the sense of online community exhibited by Toyota Prius owners, launching DestinationSmart, a community encouraging Smart drivers to share pics, videos, forum messages etc. Built by…

Updated: Facebook has purchased social sharing service FriendFeed—in a deal that should give it both additional technology and engineers to beef up its product. Financial terms of the deal were not released, although the WSJ puts the price at nearly $50 million, including $15 million in cash, with the remainder…

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has agreed to acquire certain assets of Hamburg, Germany-based cellity, a social networking software company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Nokia said it will acquire the company’s 14 employees to “strengthen its competencies in the area of social networking,” but will discontinue the service. Currently,…

A rash of new iPhone apps… —Dopplr: The business travel social net has taken its Social Atlas to the iPhone, price free, putting it up against the wealth of apps that find recommended nearby restaurants, bars and hotels. Nokia (NYSE: NOK), BlackBerry and Android roll-outs are planned. —ShopStyle.co.uk: The fashion…

—Glubble: Family-focused social network Glubble has raised $1 million (£607,000) in second round from (unidentified) European investors taking its total capital raised to date to $4 million (£2.42 million). The San Francisco-based site—founded in Amsterdam—provides with shared picture galleries and calendars and emphasises its safety benefits for young children. More…

MySpace’s cuts, announced for the U.S. last week, are spreading as expected. The company will slash its international staff by two thirds, from 450 to 150, and close at least four international offices as part of cuts that affect “all international divisions of the company.” It brings the total jobs…

Twitter management app Tweetdeck has ridden the wave of Twitter’s popularity to become one of the top Twitter clients, with one million downloads. The free iPhone app launched this week got more than 100,000 downloads in its first 30 hours. But its London-based founder, Iain Dodsworth, sees the company’s business…

San Francisco-based teen social network Piczo appears to have given up hope of challenging bigger rivals on its own. The five-year-old Piczo has decided to join with Stockholm-based teen-girl dress-up site Stardoll to make a joint run at the young-teen demographic. Piczo will remain an independent brand. But the two…

A few weeks after AOL (NYSE: TWX) denied it would hastily offload its $850 million Bebo acquisition, the social network is trumpeting a whole roster of new products offered not just through Bebo, but through AOL itself, AIM, ICQ and AOL’s mobile products, each of which is harmonizing user profiles.…