On the heels of President Obama's town hall meeting at Facebook, TechCrunch reports that the social media behemoth is ramping up its lobbying efforts. Facebook spent $230,000 in the first quarter of 2011, 400 percent more than the $41,390 it spent in Q1 2010. Last year, Facebook spent over $350,000 on lobbying in four policy areas. This year the company intends to focus its lobbying efforts on seven areas, including cyber security, patent reform, natural resources in Oregon (the site of its new data center) and restrictions foreign governments place on Internet access.

The New York Times Co. today released its first quarter results, and an update on how its digital subscription plan is coming along. First quarter earnings for the company fell 58 percent, from $12.8 million in Q1 2010 to $5.4 million in Q1 2011, due in part to a decline in print advertising revenues. But, the company said it's optimistic: online advertising revenue grew 4.5 percent and the NYT has netted over 100,000 subscribers to its digital subscription service.

Zillow.com announced a syndication agreement with Move Inc., parent company of ListHub, which provides real estate listings, performance reports and and Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) to real estate sites. Under the terms, ListHub will send listings to Zillow (about 2 million a day) and Zillow will provide web site and mobile metrics and listing performance data for ListHub's performance reports.