The maker of "FarmVille" and other games said Monday that Pincus, who founded Zynga Inc. and named it after his American bulldog in 2007, will stay on as chairman and chief product officer.

Mattrick, 49, has served as the president of Microsoft's entertainment business, which includes the Xbox, since 2010. He's been with Microsoft for six years.

Mattrick faces a difficult task. Zynga's stock is down sharply since the company's 2011 initial public offering at $10 per share. Its games have waned in popularity and it announced in June that it was cutting 520 jobs, or about 18 percent of its workforce, to save money.

Pincus seems to think his successor is up to the task. In a statement, Pincus praised Mattrick as "one of the top executives in the overall entertainment business."

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Facebook Inc. said in a blog post Wednesday that users will be able to click a hashtag to see a feed of discussions about a particular topic. For example, typing a number sign in front of "ladygaga" or "sunset" will turn the words into a link that users can click on to find posts about Lady Gaga or sunsets.

Facebook said hashtags are a first step toward making it easier for users to find out what others are discussing. The company is not giving exact details about other tools it might introduce. If Twitter's use of hashtags is any indication, Facebook will likely incorporate them into its advertising business.

"We'll continue to roll out more features in the coming weeks and months, including trending hashtags and deeper insights, that help people discover more of the world's conversations," wrote Greg Lindley, product manager for hashtags, in the post.

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Zuckerberg announced the formation of Fwd.us (pronounced "forward us") in an op-ed article in The Washington Post late Wednesday. In it, he said the U.S. needs a new approach to these issues if it is to get ahead economically. This, he wrote, includes offering immigrants a path to citizenship.

"We have a strange immigration policy for a nation of immigrants," Zuckerberg wrote. "And it's a policy unfit for today's world."

The move comes as a bipartisan Senate group is expected to roll out a comprehensive immigration bill in the coming days. Zuckerberg's goal echoes the proposed legislation. Zuckerberg, whose great-grandparents were immigrants, said he wants "comprehensive immigration reform that begins with effective border security, allows a path to citizenship and lets us attract the most talented and hardest-working people, no matter where they were born."

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Advertisers are not far behind. Though mobile ads have been a big concern for Facebook's investors since before the company's initial public offering last May, some of that worry has subsided as Facebook began muscling its way into the market.

Last year, the company began showing ads to its mobile audience by splicing corporate sponsorships and content into users' news feeds, which also includes updates from friends and brands they follow. Among the challenges Facebook faces now is showing people mobile ads without annoying or alienating them.

The mobile advertisement market is growing quickly. That's thanks in large part to Facebook and Twitter, which also entered the space in 2012. Research firm eMarketer expects U.S. mobile ad spending to grow 77 percent this year to $7.29 billion, from $4.11 billion last year.

As for Thursday's event at the company's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, speculation has centered on a mobile phone, made by HTC Corp., that deeply integrates Facebook into the Android operating system. The move comes as Facebook works to evolve from its Web-based roots to a "mobile-first" company, as its mantra goes.

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Facebook Inc. is hosting an event at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters on Thursday to show off "a new look for News Feed." The company offered no other details on what the changes will be in an invitation sent to journalists and bloggers. It will be Facebook's second staged event at its headquarters since the company's May initial public offering. The company unveiled a search feature at the first one in January.

If past site changes are any indication, the News Feed tweaks may take some getting used to and will likely lead to user grumbles. Facebook users often complain about changes to the site, whether it's cosmetic tweaks or the overhaul of privacy settings.

Gartner analyst Brian Blau says one change he'd like to see from Facebook as a user is the ability to control how much he's seeing from the businesses and other non-friend accounts he follows. Currently users can only tweak how much they see from their friends, not from businesses they follow.

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Facebook Gifts launched Thursday to a subset of users in the U.S. and will roll out to more over the coming months as people begin to send gifts to each other.

Users will be able to click on a ‘‘gifts’’ icon on their Facebook friends’ pages on Facebook’s website or on Android mobile phones. (IPhone and iPad versions are coming soon.)

The icon will also show up on the right side of users’ Facebook pages with the notifications for friends’ birthdays, weddings and other life events. For example, if your friend’s birthday is coming up in two days, you'll now see a ‘‘give her a gift’’ link and the gift icon next to her name and photo.

Clicking the icon will display presents users can buy, such as a Starbucks gift card, cupcakes or a teddy bear.

The recipient will be notified through Facebook to enter a shipping address for the presents. In some cases, they'll be able to select their own cupcake flavors or size and style of socks. They can also exchange gifts for other items if they don’t like chocolate or don’t wear socks.

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By most indications, tech companies in this hub of innovation are humming along, even as two of its rising stars endure steep declines in their stock prices that have wiped out more than $60 billion in wealth in the past six months.

Companies catering to mobile devices, business software and data management products are thriving, while longtime Silicon Valley stalwarts such as Apple Inc. and Google Inc. remain among the most revered brands in the world.

"Nothing has fundamentally changed about the opportunities that are possible," says Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, an online data-storage company based in Los Altos, Calif.

The optimism in Silicon Valley can be seen in a variety of ways in this area that covers roughly 40 miles from San Jose to San Francisco:

— Entrepreneurs are still pursuing big ideas and raising millions of dollars.

Silicon Valley startups raised $3.2 billion from venture capitalists during the April-June quarter, far more than in any other part of the U.S as tracked by the National Venture Capital Association. Venture capital flowing into Silicon Valley increased by 4 percent from the same time last year, while it dropped 12 percent nationwide.

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But also how much intimacy, excitement, global scope and, yes, general zaniness. For better and for worse, the 2012 Olympics are being shaped, shaken and indisputably changed by a social media revolution that four years ago in Beijing was in its toddlerhood.

Four days into the games, we've already seen (and this is but a partial list):

—an athletes' Twitter campaign objecting to sponsorship restrictions that went viral under the hashtag "WeDemandChange."

—a television viewers uprising over Olympic broadcaster NBC's decision not to live stream the opening ceremony.

—two athletes kicked out for racist tweets.

—a fan arrested Tuesday after a series of threatening posts, including one in which he vowed to drown a British diver, and another in which he told the athlete he had failed his dead father by not winning.

For Olympics organizers who pride themselves on putting on a carefully choreographed — obsessively controlled, some would say — 17-day show, the bursts of Twitter activity are like gamma rays escaping from a solar flare. They're impossible to stop and spellbinding to behold.

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But also how much intimacy, excitement, global scope and, yes, general zaniness. For better and for worse, the 2012 Olympics are being shaped, shaken and indisputably changed by a social media revolution that four years ago in Beijing was in its toddlerhood.

Four days into the games, we've already seen (and this is but a partial list):

—an athletes' Twitter campaign objecting to sponsorship restrictions that went viral under the hashtag "WeDemandChange."

—a television viewers uprising over Olympic broadcaster NBC's decision not to live stream the opening ceremony.

—two athletes kicked out for racist tweets.

—a fan arrested Tuesday after a series of threatening posts, including one in which he vowed to drown a British diver, and another in which he told the athlete he had failed his dead father by not winning.

For Olympics organizers who pride themselves on putting on a carefully choreographed — obsessively controlled, some would say — 17-day show, the bursts of Twitter activity are like gamma rays escaping from a solar flare. They're impossible to stop and spellbinding to behold.

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The mail order plan will be renamed "Qwikster." In a few weeks, Netflix subscribers who want to get DVDs by mail will go to a separate website to access Qwikster. The streaming business will continue to be called Netflix.

Members who subscribe to both services will have two entries on their credit card statements. Instead of Netflix, the distinctive red envelopes will now say Qwikster.

It's a risky bet. The amount of streaming content the company offers is still far less than the number of DVDs in its catalog. And competition, from Hulu, Amazon, Coinstar's Redbox kiosks and other services, is growing. Netflix could even alienate customers further by asking them to now deal with two separate websites and accounts instead of just one.

The changes come as the company faces increasing scrutiny from customers and shareholders over the decision announced in July to separate its mail order and Internet streaming services into two separate plans. The change raised the prices for users who want both services, by as much as 60 percent for some.

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About 200 of the cuts are from AOL's content and technology departments in the U.S. The remaining 700 are at AOL's offices in India, which mainly provide back-office support to the U.S. But AOL spokesman Graham James said 300 of those will move to other companies, which are taking over support functions.

Thursday's cuts leave AOL with 3,500 employees in the U.S. and about 500 overseas. The total work force is a fifth of what the company had at its peak in 2004, when its staff numbered more than 20,000. The company pared thousands of workers in the years leading up to its separation from Time Warner Inc. in late 2009. After the companies broke up, AOL cut about 2,300 of its then-6,900 employees -- or about a third of its work force -- through layoffs and buyouts.

In the '90s, AOL was the king of dial-up Internet access, known for its ubiquitous CD-ROMs and "You've got mail" greeting in its inboxes. The company even managed to buy Time Warner at the height of the dot-com boom in 2001. But the companies never successfully melded, and as consumers moved to faster Internet services from cable and phone companies, AOL's main source of revenue dwindled.

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Both MasterCard and Visa said that cardholders' accounts were not at risk and that people could continue using their credit cards throughout the day.

Supporters of the WikiLeaks, which has released thousands of classified government documents in recent weeks, said they would attack companies and groups hostile to site and its founder. An Internet group operating under the label "Operation Payback" claimed responsibility for the MasterCard and Visa problems in messages on Twitter and elsewhere.

MasterCard's troubles began in early morning Eastern time and by mid-afternoon, its website was once again operational. But the hacker group appeared to be preparing for its next target, Visa Inc., and by about 4 p.m. EDT the company's corporate website was inaccessible. Spokesman Ted Carr said Visa's processing network, which handles cardholder transactions, was working normally.

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Facebook said in a blog post Sunday the changes are meant to make it easier for users to tell their story -- who they are, where they work, their life philosophy and the most important people in their lives. The changes place a bigger emphasis on visuals, from photos to images of users' interests.

A new biography section includes not just who you are and where you live but a set of the most recent photos that your friends have "tagged" you in. Previously users had to click on a tab to see the latest photos on a profile. Users can also feature important friends in their profile, while previously only random selection appeared. And in addition to listing their job, users can now add the projects they worked on. It's all a move toward curating a more complete picture of a person, something that will likely appeal to Facebook's advertisers. The company did not make any changes to its privacy policy as part of the redesign.

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Path, as it's called, comes from Dave Morin, who played a crucial role in developing Facebook before he left the company in January. Unlike Facebook, which encourages people to expand their circles of contacts, Path is focused on sharing with just your closest friends -- and, for now, just photos.

Launched Monday, Path is a free iPhone app that lets you share photos taken with the phone with up to 50 people. Versions for other phones are coming.

Though there are other sites that let you share photos, Path sets itself apart by keeping things simple and only between friends. To start, Path will ask you to set up an account using your e-mail address and phone number, the latter so that people who have it can find you on the service.

Once you're set, tapping a green camera icon on the bottom of your iPhone screen will bring up the gadget's camera function, so you can snap your picture. Rather than adding a caption, you can add three types of tags -- people, places or things. If you tag a person, Path will give you the option of sharing the photo with just that person. Otherwise, you're sharing it with all the people you've preselected.

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In simplifying its user home page, MySpace is making users' stream wider and more prominent. The stream is the constantly updated flow of status updates and shared content, much like the news feed that is front and center in Facebook.

MySpace also is consolidating recommendations, such as games, events and "people you may know," into one section instead of scattering them around the page. And users' photos, videos, music and events will be combined under a "My Stuff" section on their home page.

The redesign is part of a broader overhaul of MySpace, as the site works to stay relevant to its current audience and draw in new users, including those who haven't visited in years.

In setting itself apart from Facebook -- which in just a couple of years dethroned MySpace as a media darling and Internet favorite -- MySpace is focusing on attracting younger users and helping them discover new things.

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Currently, users can list their activities, interests, favorite music and TV shows as part of their profiles. But links to Facebook "pages" for wine, your local library or the Lakers basketball team would appear in a separate section lower down.

Beginning Monday, Facebook will start prompting users to essentially combine the two. So if you listed Johnny Cash in the "favorite music" section of your profile, Facebook will now ask you to join his page, if you haven't become a fan of it already.

You'll be able to hide this connection on your profile, but your name will still be listed on the Johnny Cash page as one of the 1.2 million "people who like this" -- what Facebook used to term "fans." The same goes for users' home towns, education and work places.

But there are more to Facebook pages than brands and bands.

People like pickles, they like sleeping in and 641,653 people even like the Norwegian Olympic curling team's pants. So for such things, Facebook is rolling out "community pages."

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