Zynga is confirming this evening that it has indeed raised $150 million in funding from Japanese internet and telecom firm Softbank. Reports that the social gaming giant had raised the cash first surfaced several months ago, although Zynga would not comment then.

Facebook, which has been testing a new feature that lets users pose questions to the entire Facebook community and answer others, is finally launching the product, which it is calling Facebook Questions. The company says it will be including “ask question” as an option in the status box at the…

IGN, the News Corp.-owned video game site, is launching a gamer-focused social network called My IGN. On the social network, which launched in beta today, users can “follow” games in order to see the latest news about them in a Facebook-like news feed. They can also communicate with other My…

Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) is making a big move into social games, with the purchase of fast-growing social game developer Playdom for up to $763.2 million. The deal includes a “total consideration” of $563.2 million, in addition to a performance-linked earn-out of up to $200 million. In a release, which…

Triangulate, a startup trying to build an online dating business on Facebook, has raised $750,000 from Trinity Ventures and Playdom Chairman Rick Thompson. Triangulate is the latest so-called “social dating” site to attract interest from investors; Zoosk, the most established player in the market, has raised more than $40 million,…

Facebook has gotten another top app developer to agree to use its Facebook Credits payment system. The latest to do so is RockYou, the sixth biggest app developer on the social network, which says in a statement that Credits will be the “exclusive virtual currency” in its games and apps…

Facebook says it officially now has 500 million users, a milestone that the company had been expected to hit for months. The timing of the announcement seems to indicate that Facebook’s growth has not slowed globally, even as its growth has tapered off in more established markets like the U.S.

Fast-growing Jive Software, which provides social networking tools that companies use to communicate internally and to build online communities for their customers, has raised $30 million in a funding round from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins. CEO Tony Zingale says it’s the biggest joint investment for those two venture capital…

NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) and GE Capital joint venture Peacock Equity is the latest investor to back Vivox, which powers voice chat in online worlds including Linden Lab’s Second Life and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Online Entertainment’s Everquest. Peacock Equity is putting $2 million into the company and hints that NBC…

More than a year after reportedly being forced to lay off half of its staff because it was unable to raise new cash, social network Hi5 has raised $14 million in a new round of funding. The cash comes as Hi5, which has more than 50 million registered users, has…

Facebook, which had been oh-so-very slowly rolling out its Facebook Credits payment system, now seems intent on speeding that process up. Two new signs that Facebook is putting more emphasis on Credits: The social network said that Friendster-parent MOL Global would distribute gift cards in several Asian countries that people…

Facebook is buying Nextstop, a travel review site launched a year ago by two high-profile Google (NSDQ: GOOG) alums. When we profiled the startup last June, co-founder Adrian Graham told us he thought there was a market in the crowded online reviews space for his site, which features short, Tweet-like…

Personal finance site Wesabe is shutting down, after months of operating on a “shoestring budget.” In a blog post, CEO Marc Hedlund says that financial constraints meant the company could no longer provide an acceptable level of security for the personal finance information that users were uploading (via TechCrunch). It…

CrowdStar, the big social game developer, says it will use Facebook’s virtual currency system in all of its games under a “five-year strategic relationship.” The startup is the second major social games maker to commit to using Facebook Credits, which the social network has been slowly rolling out. Last month,…

The latest guess in what has become a favorite Silicon Valley parlor game: Reuters cites sources who say Facebook’s 2009 revenue was between $700 million and $800 million and that the company turned a profit in “the tens of millions.” Facebook has always been tight-lipped about its financial state—but the…

Expect even more deal activity in the social gaming sector. DeNa, one of Japan’s biggest social gaming players, is launching a new $27.5 million fund which it says it will use to invest in social game startups. The move comes as Zynga—which has been busily buying up social game startups—is…

ReachLocal, which went public just a month ago, is introducing a new site called Bizzy, which local businesses can use to communicate with their customers. On the site—which launched today in New York, San Francisco and Dallas—businesses create profiles, where they can post special offers and events. Visitors who create…

Gannett (NYSE: GCI) is continuing to build local community sites, but now, it’s concentrating on its broadcast side in addition to its newspapers. The McLean, VA.-based company is working with hyperlocal tech firm DataSphere to create social nets in 10 markets grounded by Gannett’s TV stations. It’s not clear why…

Twitter is zeroing in with its location plans. The company says in a blog post that users will now be able to tag their tweets as coming from a specific location—like a soccer stadium or restaurant—instead of just a general neighborhood or city. The feature will also tie-in to check-in…