Reviews

Many brands are trying to harness the power of social media for monetization purposes. Traditional marketing, by itself can no longer achieve the levels of success it reached in the past. However when combining both old and new school, one could benefit from the synergies that are created, and Foursquare is positioning itself to do just that.

Endorsed with a foreword by Biz Stone, Twitter Wit is the new Harper Collins collection of "the funniest tweets of all time."  Satiric humor in 140 characters or less includes one-liners from some of the Twitterati's most famous wordsmiths including Stephen Colbert, Sarah Silverman, Stephen Fry in addition to many more unknown would-be humorists.

If you happen to see a crazy, naked guy running around in public swinging one of these things, it'll probably be me...

Many people have been talking about the next Google (including myself) for the last ten years. Yet they still remain king of the hill. Similarly isn't it daunting to think that in a little over 3 years the microblogging darling of the investment world recently valued at one billion dollars could possibly be supplanted by a location-based game, the likes of Foursquare? Yet, there are those that have jumped on that band wagon.

When even Hitler disses Kanye West, its fairly obvious that his rabid outburst at MTV's Video Music Awards was as low rank as one could get. Getting chastised by the entire World Wide Web is not an easy task, but apparently a challenge Mr. West thought he was up for!

While the widely popular Mafia Wars is chewing up the digital landscape by trying to recruit everyone on Twitter one tweet at a time, there are two other nefarious families making the social networking scene. These families, just as ruthless and similar in style to the mafioso have the makings for a great new Mafia Wars game.

Worlds Collide with the introduction of Augmented Reality. Now the latest craze for smartphones, PCs, camera, GPS systems and even eye-wear, AR merges our virtual and real worlds. Its initiated by technology that takes your existing environment and provides an overlay of extra data and information about the things you are viewing. Now us mere mortals can have some of the superpowers we thought were exclusive to the Bionic Man and the Terminator!

Something is afoot when people begin to distinguish something that is familiar as 'good.' Not inferring that everything that went before it was 'bad,' "The Good Web" looks at the Internet and Social Media with new eyes and places value on using the tools of the Digital Age to create a groundswell of activation for causes.

Before Schwarzenegger became the governor of California, he was known to don a Terminator costume every now and then and assume super robotic powers in a few movies of the same name. What if humans today could virtually see what Arnold's fictional character saw? 

Social media is not a phenomenon exclusive to our current Digital Age. It has a long tradition and distinct parallels with events in the past that seem to run in 100 years cycles. Editorial cartoons, postcards and even the Industrial Revolution were all forebearers to how we communicate today through social media. 

Can online journalism become a social network? With legacy newspapers continuing to look for new ways to reinvent themselves, transforming into online blogs was just the first step. As a result of the Huffington Post's collaboration with Facebook, the next phase in the morphing process appears to be news blog sites melding into social media networks.

How many times do you research online content, and wish you could do a Twitter search to check out what the 'wisdom of crowds' is saying about that same topic? Well, searching by Kutano, with its browser add-on virtually brings those tweets to you without you even leaving those Web pages (sort of like having your digital pie and eating it too!)

Do you hear those 'Sound of Music' lyrics emanating from  the hallowed halls of Socialgraphica sending out our early good-byes to Facebook? The NY Times might be right when it talks about its imminent demise. In an article titled "Facebook Exodus" they refer to things falling apart when the center cannot hold the weight. Is Facebook about to implode at the hands of its own critical mass?

Fox TV is the first major network to strike a deal with Twitter to follow tweets while viewing two of their popular dramas. This is an innovative tactic by Fox to attract an audience to watch repeats, programming that tends to draw in low numbers on the Nielsen ratings! Hence the birth of tweet-peats!

Joining the likes of the Dalai Lama, Barack Obama, the Pope, and the five million pageviews of Dave Carroll's "United Breaks Guitars", Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has launched his own channel on YouTube to grab the attention of the youthful Digerati in his country.

Twitsnaps is the leading photo-sharing app on Twitter. Its advanced search, ratings program and 'Hall of Fame' are just a few of the unique features that attracts users to Twitsnaps, over Twitpic and some of the other competitive APIs in this field. Now with its Happy Hour Contest promo rolling out, it will once again distinguish itself from the pack by rewarding users for sharing their photos online via Twitter.

Twitter, like death and taxes is sort like the "great leveler." Sport figures, celebs and the average Joe's of this world can all co-exist in an environment as equals and communicate with each other in a non-threatening and open way. Well, maybe not at the US Open?

Its important to be aware of your surroundings and suspicious activity at all times,whether you are crossing a highly trafficked street in Manhattan or posting your profile to a social network. All the same rules apply and then some. Letting our guard down online creates greater risks as an alarmingly high proportion of users are prepared to be 'friends' on social networks with people they don't really know.

What if Santa Claus' identity was revealed when his cookie trail exposed his exact whereabouts on Christmas Eve? This would not only take all the fun and wonderment out of Christmas, it would be providing too much information for too many inquiring minds.

As was witnessed recently with the Iranian Twitter Revolution and the protesters making their voices heard on Twitter and Facebook this past June, the Arab World is embracing social media in an impacting way. Now more important than ever, the Middle East is involved in open dialogue, no matter what risks may be incurred as a result.