Major websites have stepped up to the plate in support against SOPA. Google, while not blacking out their site, has blacked out there homepage logo, though the search engine is still running. Assuming Google makes $36 billion dollars this year, shutting down their search engine for 24 hours would cost them $98,630,136.99 – that is almost 20 million cups of Starbucks. Sites like Reddit, Wikipedia, and The Oatmeal have blacked out completely. All of these sites have the potential to be shut down and sued if these bills pass. This will greatly affect our economy and put a lot of people out of work – all so actors and production companies can keep making millions, if not billions of dollars per film.

The idea, at first seems like it makes sense – block pirating sites, and ask search engines to remove any links to these sites. However, the user can still get to these websites by using the IP address, and now the government has the power to censor the Internet. This means if someone comments on your blog post, and they insert a link or image that you don’t own, you could be shut down. Say goodbye to personal blogs, sites that mainly focus on sharing, social networks, and educational sites, like Wikipedia that use many sources to help bring knowledge to the world.

We’ve collated a collection of SOPA/PIPA infographics that will help explain why this legislation must be stopped. You might ask, “what can I do?” Fight for your rights! Contact your congressional representative, sign a petittion, and share with everyone you know via Facebook, Twitter and G+. You can also blackout your site or blog. The freedom on the Internet has allowed us to protest bills like these, create jobs, and it has helped us to share the truth and stay connected. This is not another thing we want to give the government full power over – this is ours.

1. | Protect IP/SOPA Act Breaks the Internet

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

2. | Congress Cn You Hear Us?

3. | Contact Congressional Supporters of SOPA Today

4. | SOPA: The Internet Blacklist Bill

5. | Behind SOPA: What it Means for Business and Innovation

6. | A World Without Wikipedia

1. | Darwin Awards: The Stupidest Ways People Die

2. | The History of CES

3. | Apple to Apples

4. | Everything You Need to Know About Facebook’s IPO

5. | Mulittasking: This is Your Brain on Media

 1 – You’ve got a great reputation in the SEO world. For those readers that  don’t already know you, tell us a bit about your background?

Believe it or not, I was not introduced the “the computer” until 1996 when we purchased our first PC – an AST 133mhz machine running Windows 95. After a few months of “playing around” with this new toy, I thought that there has to be a way to make money with this thing.

After about 6 months, I signed up to be an affiliate of a company that designed websites after attending one of their seminars. It was pretty straight-forward: I’d land the customers, help them decide what they wanted to do and the company I represented would design and host the sites. That worked well for a few months until the web design company forgot what their purpose really was and rather focused on seminars to sign up more and more affiliates (they made a lot of money with affiliate sign-up fees). Long story short – they began to lapse badly in their design work so I bought a copy of Frontpage and learned how to design sites myself.

As far as being a marketer I actually stumbled into search marketing quite accidentally after first starting my “online” career in web design in 1997. We owned (still do in fact) an Arizona construction and home improvement portal that we were trying to market but with zero budget. Therefore I relied heavily on performing what optimization techniques were available to my knowledge base at the time, most likely derived from writings of folks like Danny Sullivan and Jill Whalen. As a result, we were successful in getting that site to rank well in the search engines that were around at that time (no Google at this point).

So, we began to offer these types of “SEO” related services to clients, at first for very nominal one-time fees, until a light bulb went on in my head and I discovered the “retainer” model. We went from a small local web design company whose clients pretty much resided in our own locale – Arizona, to an international company serving clients not only across the nation, but around the globe as well.

Almost 15 years later, my company continues to focus its energies on managing search and social media marketing campaigns for our clients. We also continue to run our own niche websites including that Arizona home improvement one I spoke of earlier. The two I am most excited to currently work with however are Disney-O-Rama, an “all things Disney blog, and Infographic Journal, an “infographics only” blog.

2 – Why another infographic site?

Prior to presenting in the most recent PubCon conference in Vegas, I was looking around for suitable places to submit infographic work. Because I was speaking on the topic of infographic marketing via social media, I thought I’d include a list of sites that accept submission of infographic work. The results I came up with were scarce so I thought, “Why not launch our own?” So we did.

Now, Infographic Journal is not another Visual.ly, that is a self-serving infographics site, but rather a blog where we select some of the best infographics and data visualizations to post on a daily basis. We also accept free submissions of infographic work to be considered for publishing. It’s been a lot of work thus far and the site is still pretty new, but I personally feel that Infographic Journal is the most active site, next to Visual.ly of course, in featuring infographics all in one place on a daily basis.

We soft-launched the site in September 2011, finished its look, feel and structure around the middle of November and really began to publish content on a daily basis in December. In December alone, we published 157 infographics and as of the time of this interview, we have over 220 published infographics. Not bad for only a couple months of hard work.

3 – What are your goals for the site?

To take over the world, what else? No, but in all seriousness, we simply want Infographic Journal to be one of the top sites in its niche. I know it will take some time but I firmly believe that it will eventually hold a top spot as far as “infographic-only” blogs/sites go.

I certainly realize that companies are creating and marketing infographics for their own sites and benefit, but I want Infographic Journal to be a place that combines the best of the best in infographic work, all in one place and then of course provides credit (and links) to the original source and/or designer.

Ultimately, once the site is established, we hope to attract advertisers and possibly even companies who need help in marketing their infographics via social media, link building and the like.

4 – What’s been your favorite infographic so far?

Anything your company has done! All kidding aside, I have enjoyed pretty much all of the infographics NowSourcing has created as they are of very high quality. But I would have to say one of my favorites thus so far has been the “Alternative Holidays: Festivus For the Rest of Us” not necessarily because it is the best one but rather because I am a huge Seinfeld fan. Other than that, I like the infographics that are either humorous in some way such as “Geek vs Nerd” or informative such as “Anatomy of a Killer Facebook Ad Campaign.”

5 – If you’re like us, you’ve probably seen a lot of tech infographics. What’s the most imaginative industry you’ve seen an infographic so far?

If we are referring to what is currently on Infographic Journal, I’d have to say that “Complete Guide to Energy Efficient Home Lighting” did a great job providing useful and entertaining data on a most boring subject – light bulbs. I mean, who wants to know anything about light bulbs? We turn them on when we go into a room and hopefully remember to turn them off when leaving. We hate having to change them and if most are like me, we put those tasks off until the weekend “honey-dos” or something. Whoever designed this infographic did a great job compiling what most would consider boring information into an format that made it interesting to read and visualize. I actually read through the whole thing as well as shared it all over the socialsphere.

Infographics like this prove that just about any industry, no matter how un-exciting or boring they think they might be, can take advantage of this new type of content marketing – visualizing data.

6 – Where’s the future of infographics going? Interactive? Mobile? Video? All of the above?

I think all of the above. We are already seeing this. The vast majority of them will most likely continue to be these large graphic representations of data simply because they are so effective. In our short attention span of a world, a well designed infographic enables people to easily digest data at a much faster rate than say, reading a blog post or even watching a video.

How about infographics that tease the user but then lead them to a more instructive video? Or an instructive video that then provides a checklist format infographic? I can see them all working together in the scope of content marketing.

7 – Anything else we should know?

Anyone who is reading this who would like to submit infographics for consideration to be published on Infographic Journal can visit http://infographicjournal.com/submit-infographics/ and follow the instructions to do so. I’d say that 99% of everything that has been submitted to date has been published so there’s a great opportunity there to gain more exposure for infographic work.

We’ve already received inquiries about advertising on the site but at this point, we are not offering anything. Personally, I’d like to see the site earn some Google PageRank first as well as graduate out of the “new site sandbox” Google won’t admit to, but still has in place. I won’t go into that now as it is an entirely different subject. It shouldn’t be too long though as I feel the site is growing at a good natural pace. We will probably do some more aggressive marketing of the site in the near future which at that time, I’d feel better about actually offering services to paying advertisers.

In the meantime, we will continue to collect and feature as much of the great infographic work that is taking place out there that we come across and continue to accept free submissions of infographic work as well. If you want to support us, please make sure to subscribe to our RSS feed and additionally follow us on Facebook and Twitter. And by all means, if you like anything you see while on the site, share it socially on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and any other social networks you frequent. ~

To follow last years best infographics of 2010, we have put together a few of our favorites from 2011.

1. | The Royal Wedding’s Social Impact

2. | Tech Germs

3. | What Does it Take to Get a Job at Google?

4. | Twacked: When Good Twitter Accounts Go Bad

5. | Inside 5 of America’s Largest Data Centers

6. | Global Internet Traffic

7. | Facebook vs. Google

8. | The Top 20 Most Expensive Keywords

10. | The Tale of the New Year’s Fail

Infographic by Veracode Application Security

1. The Passive Aggressive Call to Action

 ”I really hate it when you try to be a good friend and then people you  trust stab you in the back.”

If you have not yet graduated from middle school, I may let you off easy here – on  the other hand, if you are over the age of 14 please take the time to realize how  immature statuses such as these can appear. No one is going to look at this and  think that you are a good friend. (Image)

2. The Emotional Tirade

 ”I will never love anyone the way I loved you. Goodbye.”

You just broke up with your significant other, I assume, and this is a public  expression of your undying love and a big, disgusting “please take me back”. If you  attach sappy theme music to this, I hope your friends hack into your computer and  delete your sad rendition of “How Do I Live” by Celine Dion, or that somebody  reports you to Facebook. (Image)

3. The Song Lyrics

 ”Please, please, please let me get what I want this time…”

While it is a great song and every once in a while I see a cool song lyric update,  this is overdoing it. It is probably late and you’re drunk, sad, and alone – log out of  Facebook and go to bed. If you don’t, you will regret this in the morning, also  known as: Facebook hangover. (Image)

4. The Scary

 ”If any of you ladies are looking for a good man, inbox me!”

Just because Facebook gives you the option to be “looking for dating“, and makes  it really easy to stalk people, does not make it a dating site. There is also a sad  level of desperation that come with a status like this, so show yourself some  respect and have a little more dignity. What girl in her right mind would actually  respond to this? (Image)

5. The Rated-R

 ”My boobs look great in this dress! PARTY!”

While it may be the truth, no one needs to know. Any status that discusses body  parts or sexuality, please spare us all. You might as well have just stood in the  middle of a crowded room and yelled, “hey everyone, look at my boobs!” (Image)

Consider this a Public Service Announcement. All previous Facebook status discretions will be forgotten if you never do this again. If you have any completely ridiculous Facebook updates, please feel free to share so more people will know what not to do.

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I’ve noticed a rise in social media professionals pushing services for social media management.

While I’m not trying to pick on anyone individually, I just can’t seem to figure this one out.  In fact, if the only value that you’re trying to bring to a company is to Tweet and Facebook on their behalf, you may soon be needing to look for another job.  Over the course of the next five years, this will just become part of the computer literate office manager.

This is pretty much the same fate as the social media purists.  If you really want to be able to work in social media, you’d better be prepared to bring a multi-disciplinary approach to the table, including:

• data visualization/infographics
• SEO
• SEM
• User experience
• Conversion rate optimization
• Online reputation management
• Actual business experience!
• Sales

and many more.

You really have to know what you are doing to successfully execute a well-vetted social media strategy.  Facebook updates are important but they are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the way one must be pervasive in all these moving targets.

What else are you bringing to the table? Why should people hire you? Why should they keep you? Let us know in the comments.

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I have been using the new Google + (G+) for the last two weeks or so and while I enjoy it, it still has not taken the place of my true social network, Facebook. Granted, G+ is still in the works and I have not fully taken advantage of all the features – I still have not fallen head over heels, nor do I think I will. When I first heard through the grapevine that there was a new social network on the block I was intrigued, and when I took the G+ tour, I really believed that Facebook may go the way of Myspace – but now that I have it and have the features, I’m kind of wondering what I need this for. For instance: whenever I hear something cool through G+, my first thought is to run and share it with Facebook, that can’t be right.

Facebook gives me everything I want and more, and it continues to surprise me with amazing innovation and new ways to stay connected. With G+ I have to wait for all of my friends to get on board with it – my friends are used to Facebook. Also, the status updates are awkward and have a few flaws, it just doesn’t seem worth it.

Another thing that is funny to me, is how similar G+ is to Facebook. They have all the same bells and whistles they just call it something different. The difference is that Facebook really does seem to have more to offer me when it comes to features and I’m already really comfortable with it.  I have put together a chart of some of the similarities I’ve noticed between Facebook and G+.

G+ is great, and definitely looks better format wise than Facebook, and I am not just going to delete G+ out of my life. I still have a circle of friends through G+ and I plan to check in every now and again -  but all in all, I have a real connection with Facebook, and that is the social network for me.

1. The 20 Most Expensive Keywords in Google AdWords

Google continues to amaze us all and with the increasing popularity of G+, so we wanted to break down exactly where Google is getting it’s green.

2. Top Ten Scams

You may point and laugh when you see a few of these listed in our next infographic, only because you know exactly what we are talking about, but keep your eyes open for the ten common scams.

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3. Sony Versus GeoHot

No one likes to be hacked, but sometimes hackers can be funny, like George Hotz who was sued by Sony for jailbreaking the Playstation 3 – kinda sorta calls for an LOLZ. If it weren’t for people like him we wouldn’t have Facebook, which is probably why Facebook hired him. Hackers get to walk in the woods with Mark Zuckerberg.

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4. Evolution of the Household

This one is from Woman’s Day Magazine, it is well put together and cool to see how the times have changed.

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5. The Student Loan Scheme

This one makes me want to riot in the streets. If you are a college student or are currently paying off loans, be prepared to cringe.

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In a press conference this morning Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, was asked what he thought of the possibly revolutionary launching of Google+. Zuckerberg admitted that he had used it very little but that he believed it was part of the social networking evolution. However, Google+ is also his competition, it is offering Circles, which basically allows you to label your friends and groups and choose who sees what and which group you publish content to. It also offers Hangouts, which is the video group chat, Sparks, a feed that revolves around you and only videos, articles, and offers you would be interested in, and Huddle which allows you to text as a group. Since the two networks are so similar, but one comes with more features (so far), people will eventually make a choice. There will be resistance at first just as there was when Facebook blew Myspace out of the water, but as of right now, Google+ sounds like the next step and Facebook may not have the technology to catch up.

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Google+ began a beta release for the network last month, giving only a select few people access – this gave off the impression that the network was elite, leaving those who weren’t allowed dying to see what all the fuss was about. Another blow to Facebook’s ego was the group chat offered on Google+ that clearly overshadowed Facebook’s partnership with Skype, who was recently bought by Microsoft for $8.5 billion before they were aware of Google’s innovative software.

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The reason Google+ may not take over Facebook is because despite Google’s Vice President, Vic Gundotra’s belief that they are meeting the needs of the people and their desire to connect, they are really adding a bunch of bells and whistles to a system that was already meeting this need. Also many users may not be ready for the commitment that goes along with another social network.

If Zuckerberg does come out with something innovative or finds a way to at least make group chat available before Google+ is fully launched he may have a shot. However, Zuckerberg recently said they are not focusing on the number of users so much anymore but the features, this was a little unsettling. The fact that Facebook lost around 6 million users in May, may have provoked this comment, and since Google+ is ahead in the feature department it will make a come back even more difficult. The worst thing he could do is reformat the entire network like Myspace did when they saw that Facebook was taking them over – they ended up going beyond their site’s capacity and that helped in everyone’s decision to go full Facebook. Whether or not Facebook survives the war or falls as the social media empire, social networking is evolving right before our eyes and it should be a very interesting change.

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If you were born before 1994 you can probably remember a life without Facebook – what did we do all day? I did an experiment on myself last week to see how many times I actually check Facebook in a day. This was very difficult because I was conscious of it, but the desire to check your newsfeed or update your status does not lie. I became a little angry at myself when I reached close to 50 within the first 3 hours of my work day. That means I checked Facebook around 17 times in an hour and if I stayed on for one minute – I was on for just under an hour of the three hours. Of course my numbers are a bit higher because I work in social media, so Facebook really is a part of my job… but for the most part, I had the desire to see what was going on with my friends and to possibly update a status.

More than likely if there was no Facebook, I would have been more productive in that hour, found something else unproductive to do or been bored. Here’s the thing about this site, it is the epitome of entertainment. It offers: music, videos, funny images, disturbing images, all of your friends and enemies, and the chance to talk about yourself, and build whatever identity you want. It also is the new birthplace of drama and conflict.

It’s no secret that Facebook can make or break relationships,  however this is usually due to one’s own stupidity or sheer  jealousy, nonetheless, Facebook is a legal form of stalking, and  most of us are guilty of it. It’s just too easy. The blog,  AllFacebook published a post last year called The Utimate Guide To Facebook Breakups. It goes through the steps of how people conduct themselves on Facebook after a breakup – you are no longer friends, you need to start posting pics of yourself having fun with someone more attractive, and so on. Cyber Psychology and Behavior did a study in 2009 showing that certain information given on Facebook is given for a reason and there is a distinct connection with relationship status, religion, and status updates. It suggests that there is a psychological process to what people display and don’t display. When someone displays their religion they are seeking a mate who shares these same ideas, when someone displays that they are single, rather than opting to keep their relationship status private, they are looking for some connection through the network. They also looked at the differences in male and female profiles to see how each gender represented themselves. Males are less likely to mention their significant other on their profile page; a female’s page tends to revolve around her significant other. This explains why women tend to think it isn’t official until it’s on Facebook, and men simply do not understand this mentality.

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Facebook has allowed us to share our lives, beliefs, and problems with everyone we know and more. We create an identity online that may or may not be true but it is how we want to be seen. We also follow lives on Facebook, people we haven’t seen for years, we know everything about them and we keep saying “we need to get together”. A life without Facebook would never speak to this person or they would actually get together. I challenge everyone to make a list of people they keep up with on a regular basis solely through Facebook – would you ever speak to these people again if you did not have this outlet?

Without Facebook, people would actually have to have conversations with each other about interests, family, hobbies, what they did that day… instead they can just login to your life. A life without Facebook would be a life that actually takes effort to know anything about, and you would actually have to play tennis, not just put it as one of your activities/interests.

Facebook being in the news isn’t necessarily anything surprising.  Every time the social media giant rolls out a new product, feature, or statistic, the world’s news sites make sure you know about it within minutes.  But there have been two recent Facebook related news stories that are a little more intriguing than the usual report of a new design or functionality change.  These reports have more to do with Facebook’s success and future, or perhaps lack there of.

The first piece of news, released by Inside Facebook, was that Facebook’s use is declining in the United States and Canada.  In the month of May, Facebook lost nearly 6 million users in the United States alone.  The drop was significantly less in Canada, with Facebook seeing a user drop of around 1.5 million.  The cause for the user drop is unknown, but it’s more likely than not a mixture of things.  Summer months are typically a slower for social media sites as college students cram for finals and change into their summer routines.  It could also be that Facebook has finally hit its saturation point.  With a total of 150 million users in the United States, nearly half of the entire country’s population is now a Facebook user.  Could this be the end for Facebook’s growth?  Probably not, these numbers are only for two of Facebook’s many countries around the world.  While they are large, important countries that adopted the social network early on, Facebook is incredibly popular all around the world.  The social network’s overall growth is still increasing, with approximately 687 million active users every month.  These numbers could mean a lot of things for Facebook, but we won’t be able to tell exactly what until we see if the decline in the US and Canada continues or levels out.

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With Facebook approaching 700 million users, there are now reports that Facebook is preparing itself for an IPO that could easily top $100 billion.  Yes, you read that right, $100 BILLION.  This would make Facebook’s IPO one of the largest in history.  Much larger than LinkedIn’s recent IPO of $4.3 billion, and quadruple Google’s 2004 IPO of $23 billion.  CNBC reports that the first quarter of 2012 is the likely time for Facebook to go public.  This timing seems very possible, as Facebook will be mandated to report their quarterly financial statements beginning in April 2012.  This will be required of them due to a 1934 Securities and Exchange Act that requires companies with more than 500 investors to publicly release their financial information.  Facebook expects to have more than 500 investors sometime this year, so an IPO early next year would make sense.

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With a valuable future and decline of users, Facebook’s fate is hard to tell.  Some people believe Facebook will someday go the way of MySpace, while others think Facebook is different and will remain a constant part of our lives.  Only time will tell what truly happens, but these are definitely some interesting figures to think about.  Tell us what you think Facebook’s future looks like in the comments below.  Is a drop in users the beginning of the end, or just a bump in the road to a successful IPO?

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When Facebook launched in February of 2004, it was not the first attempt at social networking. It did however, give social media a healthy pulse rather than a fleeting heartbeat that most referred to as a “trend.” It would appear that social media is alive and well and the outlook is good that it will see us into the future. Now that most of us have accepted this, another movement is trying to bust through the the trend barriers and take up residence in the land of the norm.

When social media meets gaming, or rather, meets a specific, interactive element of gaming – we call this virtual reality. When I was younger I always thought virtual reality was putting a boxy contraption over your head with a screen over your eyes and your physical movements controlled your movements within the virtual world. Turns out, now that the future is here, virtual reality is not physical at all, but rather, psychological and emotional. (Image Two Credit)

I recently heard about the game Second Life, well I had heard of it before but just figured it was The Sims online or something, I had no idea that for some people, it truly was a ‘second life’. The game is being used not only for social purposes but for business and even education. Jay Vasse, a recent graduate from Bradley University in Illinois and a writer for NowSourcing, actually had a class through Second Life. “I had to meet my partner in a virtual classroom, that was really just a beach shack,” says Vasse, “we would critique each other’s papers and we had to take snapshots of ourselves to prove we were really there.”

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After doing some research on the game I found that as a “resident” of Second Life, you can buy land, go shopping, go on dates, orb to other parts of town if you don’t feel like flying, and the areas are marked with a maturity rating: G (general), M (moderate), and A (adult). Now, let’s be honest, you are probably most interested in what falls under the adult rating – of course you are, this is the 21st century after all. It is pretty simple, it works just like it would in your “first life” except you don’t need a rating to know it’s a strip club. The general and moderate ratings are pretty much light fun, for instance: coffee shop would fall under G and dance club would fall under M. Another fascinating characteristic is that Second Life actually has it’s own currency, the Linden dollar (L$). You can buy L$ with your real money or you can start your own business and make a linden profit and go out and buy your avatar clothes, furniture, weapons, instruments, and anything else you can think of.

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So what would life as an avatar be like? Truly, meeting your boyfriend or girlfriend’s avatar before ever seeing their “first life” face, is that ok? Personally, I don’t think I have quite formed an opinion yet due to my state shock, but though I feel I would never want to meet someone that way, how is it different from Facebook? I have met a few friends through Facebook, and there are some whom I know only through Facebook. My job’s main form of communication is through Skype chat. So I don’t have an avatar chatting for me, and I am not going to meetings in a virtual conference room, but the virtual part is the only difference. The social interaction is pretty much the same.

According to Arnold Brown, writer for The Furturist, “Once humans begin to perceive virtual social interactions as actually having occurred, it will greatly impact individuals, relationships, communities, and society as a whole.” Brown believes that people may actually form an attachment to their avatar identity, and when one feels such a connection, brain research shows that our multisensory perception could cause even sexual interaction to be obtained through this form of media.

Many questions arise when new waves of technology threaten social interaction to the point of almost never making physical contact: Should there be restrictions on sites like these? Will people become bored with it before it becomes a serious issue? Is it a threat at all? Or is it simply a new way of meeting people and socializing? Virtual reality may be throwing the social networking generation off of it’s balance and into a whole new world of possibility and conflict.

RockMelt CEO Eric Vishria and CTO Tim Howes think that the web browsing experience is moving away from page navigation and toward social integration, consuming information, and searching. So, it’s on these three pillars that they’ve built their social browser. Those fortunate enough to get one of the limited beta copies of the Chromium-based RockMelt are getting used to something like this: A left rail for Facebook friends, right rail for sites, and top rail for searching. It’s nothing too mind boggling; instead, it should make it easier to do all the things we’re already accustomed to doing.

The friends rail gives you constant access to status updates, and the option to click to see their Facebook streams. RockMelt also serves as a chat client by integrating Facebook chat into the friends rail. A “share” button is ever-present to distribute any web page among your friends. The “bookmark” bar provides notification of new content added to your sites, and the option to click to see an RSS feed. And rather than using the search bar to go to Google, searches in the top rail are met with instant results pre-leaded into the browser for preview.

It’s clear right away that Vishria and Howes have recognized some major themes in how we use the web. But do these habits require a redesign of Internet browsing? We’ll find out shortly . . . Mark Zuckerberg recently disappointed many when he shut down the rumors of a Facebook phone. But hey, at least addicts will now have a dedicated browser.

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What a year it has been for StumbleUpon.

First, having it break away from eBay (who’s been on a divestiture streak as it is, also recently spinning off Skype) and be repurchased by the original founders seems to be paying off.  Since then, we’ve seen:

• A new UI (in beta for a while and rolled out fully as of yesterday)
• Su.pr,  a url shortner that also allows you to schedule posts as well as excellent analytics

The latest SU innovation is the addition of new topics.  While this may not sound like much, it actually makes all the difference.  Let me explain.

Let’s say you were at your local library and you wanted to find books about cooking.  But wait … there is no cooking section! So, you have to go to a more generalized/unrelated section of the library (dining out? hobbies? food?) to find what you’re looking for.

And that’s exactly what has plagued Stumbleupon for so long.

Granted, part of the issue is that users aren’t typically librarians and really don’t know how to categorize things for the betterment of others.  Now, we as SU users have more options:

• Arts/History: Design, Photoshop, Quotes, Woodworking
• Commerce: Home Business, Luxury
• Computers: Facebook
• Hobbies: Crochet, Quilting, Scrapbooking
• Sci/Tech: Gadgets, Technology
• Society: Christmas

As far as social media goes, the noteworthy update in there is that you now can have an interest called Facebook.

Keep up the good work, StumbleUpon!  We appreciate it.

Fan page country and language choice

While this may seem like not that big a deal, think of the possibilities.  Users targeting multiple countries and languages can now have multi-purpose brand pages that can reach all, rather than making smaller, localized one-off versions of the brand page.

It will be interesting to see what direction Facebook goes with this functionality – imagine what you could do if it was brought to a city/state/region/mile radius level.  Would this challenge the Facebook Ad network too much? We shall see.

I’ve been closely watching the frequency of social interactions that Zynga, the makers of Mafia Wars and several other popular titles put into the game.

It’s really incredible when you see all of the different ways that they have users interact.  Consider this:

In a world where social media gets chastised all the time about the same things the early web did (Will it make money?) – it’s incredible that we don’t read more about Zynga.

In FaceReviews’ interview with Mark Pincus, Mark makes a great point in utilization of Facebook as a platform for social gaming.  You may wish to reconnect with old friends or acquaintances, but where do you take it from there? Once you’ve caught up on each other’s lives, will you just go your separate ways? Perhaps, but that’s part of where social gaming fits in.  You can communicate with them by playing games together.

Businessweek reports Zynga brings in close to $100 million in annual revenue.

David Berkowitz, friend and fellow Mafia Wars addict (I hear he is also Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy for 360i when he’s not playing) can attest to Zynga’s success with Mafia Wars:

“I think what’s great with Zynga here is that you either buy your way to the top – like getting godfather points to have a huge mafia and buy lots of weapons – or you have to play your butt off and thus rack up ad impressions.  Either way Zynga wins bigtime.”

Related posts:

• Zynga leaves Yahoo Games in the dust, becomes No. 1 in online games (games.venturebeat.com)
• Zynga is the #1 App Developer on Facebook (sociableblog.com)
• Social Game Developers Spending Millions on Facebook Advertising (insidefacebook.com)
• Inside Zynga (feld.com)
• How the Mafia conquered social networks (news.cnet.com)
• Mafia Wars Marriage Proposal (thegongshow.tumblr.com)

Ideally, your username will make it easier for friends and family to distinguish you from a crowd of other “John Smiths.” It will also likely affect the ranking of your Facebook profile in a search, which is especially important for companies that utilize Facebook Pages. The positive is you will now have yet another method to shape your online identity. Negatives include possible exposure of private information if you’re not careful with how you do so. There are services on the web that provide overall online reputation management, and if this is a concern of yours (as it well should be), do check it out.

Facebook is, however, taking measures to prevent online squatting and a sort of online identity theft. The measures include being able to choose only one username per account and page, plus a mandatory wait period for member profiles and pages that have been created after a certain date (May 31st for Facebook Pages and June 9th for Facebook profiles). Will this stop imposters and squatters from doing their misdeeds? Likely not, but at least it seems that Facebook is starting to care about their users’ needs, for now.

Already Facebook is starting to receive lots of inquiries into issues relating to the upcoming added feature. Apparently for every step forward in user interface development, they’re taking about ten steps backwards, mostly in dealing with all of the issues they either didn’t think about beforehand, or just don’t care enough to handle. For example:

The time when usernames will become available is likely one of the most ridiculous times they could have chosen. Forget that it goes against founder Mark Zuckerberg‘s religious laws, but it is also extremely inconvenient for real companies and their representitives to secure their name. The other two questions really show a great amount of inconsideration from Facebook towards their users. They’re not allowing for human error, on a user’s part or their’s.

Despite all of this, are you excited for this long-awaited feature? Check out Facebook’s username countdown page (try it in Pirate English for some fun).

P.S. Doesn’t this remind you of an older social network we all used to use during high school? …

Be sure to make a motivational poster of your own with the parody motivator generator.

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The Internet (says it all)

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• 10 Rules of Social Media (nowsourcing.com)
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• SEO Motivators (wiep.net)