San Francisco - Facebook has suspended third party developer Slide's "Top Friends" application, after an independent programmer found a way to exploit the application so that anyone could view the birthdays, gender and relationship status of any Facebook user, as well as who is in their list of Top Friends, CNET News.com reported. The "Super Wall" application, developed by RockYou, was also found to have a similar exploit, but has already been fixed by Facebook. Before the Top Friends application was suspended, CNET was able to use the exploit on profiles of several Facebook executives, the wife of Google co-founder Larry Page, and one seemingly belonging to Paris Hilton.

Cambridge, Mass. - Internet TV distribution platform Brightcove on Monday announced deals to power online video distribution for social media firms Bebo, Meebo, RockYou, Slide and Veoh. "To date, taking advantage of viral promotion and distribution through online communities has been tricky business for media companies who want to maintain control over the brand experience and advertising sales," said Brightcove chairman and CEO Jeremy Allaire. "Using our Internet TV platform to manage and monetize this distribution answers these dual requirements of reach and control."

San Francisco - The Turkish government has banned access to photo slideshow service Slide in the country, after a local court found that the site was "harboring pictures and articles that are considered to be insulting to Ataturk," in a country where insulting the founder of the republic is a crime, according to a Slide spokesperson.

DMW’s CEO & Publisher provides a wrap-up of the top stories of the week. Who’s hot, who’s not and what’s the industry buzz?

There was no shortage of news for the week of Jan. 21-25. The biggest story: The Federal Reserve lowered the benchmark federal funds rate by three-quarters of a percentage point to 3.5%, its lowest level since September 2005, but the Fed’s actions couldn’t stop an already shaky stock market from continuing its downward spiral. After a sharp mid-week increase on news of the rate cut, the DMW100 ended slightly lower on the week.

San Francisco - Slide, the provider of an online photo slideshow service, has raised $50 million in a new financing round that values the company at more than $500 million, BusinessWeek reported. Investors in the round included Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price.

San Francisco - Slide, an online personal media network that lets users create photo slideshows, announced on Tuesday that it has added the ability for users to add music to their slideshows, through deals with Snocap, Bebo Bands, Nettwerk, Pump Audio and Bradstreet Entertainment. Once users create a slideshow on Slide, it can be embedded on blogs or social networks like MySpace, Facebook and Bebo.