CNET If you’re reading this, congratulations! You’ve somehow managed to pull yourself away from a video playing on social media. Facebook and Twitter junkies already know that in 2015 video reached new heights on social platforms. There were millions of “Did you see this?” moments, from tragedies like the Paris attacks to lighter events like …

Think you see enough ads on Twitter already? Well, get ready to see a whole lot more of ’em. Attempting to cash in on a bigger audience, Twitter said Thursday it will begin showing ads to people who don’t log in. That’s a half billion people a month, according to company estimates. The struggling social network is testing a program …

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — Nathan Hammond radiates fatigue. The bearded and tousle-haired engineer has clocked an average of 60 hours a week for four months working on the most important mobile app in LinkedIn’s history. Though he moved to San Francisco from North Carolina earlier this year, Hammond hasn’t had time to explore his new digs. Instead, the user interface …

SAN FRANCISCO — Lynette Shaw, the self-proclaimed “godmother of marijuana dispensaries,” is thrilled that tech is helping bring cannabis into the mainstream. “It’s fabulous,” the 61-year-old said here Friday at the inaugural New West Summit, a two-day conference on the budding billion-dollar convergence of pot with technology, business and media. “I’m honored to see my godchildren creating all of this.” …

Facebook is helping users in Paris quickly post safety status messages after a series of shootings and explosions around the city killed more than 100 people Friday. The social network has activated its Safety Check tool, which is automatically sending users in the affected area a note asking if they’re safe. When a user clicks “Yes, let my friends know,” …

Will Twitter users ❤ the heart? The social network said Tuesday that the familiar star icon on tweets used to express approval has morphed into a heart icon. Now known as a “like,” Twitter’s new icon will also let people favorite the six-second videos on Twitter-owned Vine — similar to what they can already do on Twitter’s live-streaming Periscope. Twitter’s …

Mark Zuckerberg is determined to expand Internet access in India, and the rest of the world for that matter. The Facebook CEO repeated that ambition during a town hall meeting Wednesday at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi. Zuckerberg told the audience of students and professionals that the social network’s mission is to make the Internet accessible to …

Do you use Twitter? If you answered “no” or “sometimes,” you’re in the great majority. In fact, more people around the world spend time on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram than they do on the microblogging service. Worse, relatively few consumers feel the need to sign up. That’s bad news for Twitter, which has seen its growth of monthly active users …

Tuesdays will be a real drag for some Facebook employees. Facebook has launched an internal program called 2G Tuesdays to give its employees a sense of the glacial Internet connections in developing countries. Facebook The social network has launched an internal program called “2G Tuesdays” to give its workers a sense of the very slow Internet connections in developing countries …

Many of us use Facebook at work during our lunch hour or take a peek during breaks. But for some companies, it’s all a part of the job. Facebook said Sunday that employees at the Royal Bank of Scotland will use Facebook At Work, the largest company to date to use the separate version of the popular social network for …