Facebook unleashed its Daily Deal feature Tuesday, taking on Groupon and LivingSocial with offers intended to get people to do more things with their friends.

The social networking giant has already dabbled in deals by offering discounts to those who “check-in” at locations, but Facebook Deals are geared more towards activities that people might like to do with friends — from white-water rafting to wine tasting — with fewer deals that are solitary, such as nail salons.

Users can discuss deals and “like” them on Facebook without buying. Facebook is sourcing deals both directly from merchants and...

Google has announced the new WebM Community Cross License (CCL) initiative. The new group is designed to create a patent safe haven around Google’s WebM video codec for HTML5 video. Members of the new CCL initiative agree to license any WebM-related patents to each other under royalty-free terms.

The WebM codec is one of several ways web developers can deliver native HTML5 video on the web, without requiring the Flash Player plugin or other proprietary, non-standard tools. The other major codec, H.264, is older and more widespread, but carries expensive licensing fees for broadcasting sites...