Facebook has received a patent for its news feed, a status update that could have consequences for its social-networking competitors—though analysts disagree on how wide-reaching, if indeed Facebook chooses to go after the likes of MySpace, Twitter et al. “Indeed,” Caroline McCarthy writes for CNET, “technologies that now may be technically encompassed by Facebook’s patent are so widespread on the Web that they're more or less inextricable from the basic tenets of social media.”