Twitter Acquisitions, Facebook Makes You Smarter and More – The Week in Social

Wowzers (Yeah I started a post with the word “wowzers” – big whoop wanna fight about it?) it has been a crazy busy week in the world of social media that’s for sure.

Twitter has announced another acquisition, and it will be interesting to see what they do with this service, with talk already turning to it being shut down and likely relaunched as being heavily integrated with the Twitter experience. Time will tell.

Not to be outdone – Facebook could be set to expand it’s Dublin offices in the near future, which is the HQ for all Facebook related queries for the UK, proving further that Facebook is still continuing to grow, not just physically, but in terms of members too as it establishes itself as the number one social networking site in yet another country.

Let’s see what else we have in store for the week in social!

January 16th

REPORT: Advertising On Facebook Is Getting More Costly
The costs of advertising on Facebook are rising, but marketers who keep their traffic within the social network’s environment are seeing their costs per click drop by as much as 45 percent, according to fourth-quarter research …

Facebook Finding New Ways To Increase Ad Sales
It looks like Facebook is really trying to ramp up revenue ahead of its IPO (which is now expected in May). Apparently the company is cold calling, or cold…

January 17th

Yahoo And VEVO Outrank Facebook In Video Watching
More than 42 million unique users viewed videos on Facebook in December, totaling more than 238 million videos and averaging 23.9 minutes per viewer. But Yahoo, VEVO and Google outpaced the leading social network…

Google+ Gets Hashtag Autocomplete
It’s a simple, but useful feature. Google just announced the addition of hashtag autocomplete to Google+. It’s pretty self-explanatory. When you start typing a…

Study: Facebook favors advertisers that stay on-site
Advertisers running campaigns that keep traffic within Facebook are likely to pay less than those driving to an external site, according to a study by TBG Digital. The agency, which specializes in Facebook advertising, found 45 …

January 18th

Facebook Plugins Keep People On Websites 50% Longer
Web surfers who log into third-party sites with Facebook Connect spend an average of 50 percent more time on those sites, and view twice as many pages…

Facebook News Feed Posts Move Thumbnails Around
Some news feed posts today display the poster’s thumbnail image above the posting text, while other items continue to include the thumbnails in the regular position…

Facebook updates app install dialog for user clarity
When developers ask for extended permissions, these will show in a second dialog with the option for users to deny individual requests. Facebook is providing a section of this window to explain why the app is requesting the …

Facebook Becomes #1 In Brazil, Bumping Google’s Orkut
Facebook scored another victory in the battle against Google, by usurping Orkut’s former dominance of social media in Brazil. According to comScore, Facebook’s presence in Latin America’s…

January 19th

USA Today Debuts Facebook Open Graph Application
Extra! Extra! Gannett’s national newspaper jumped aboard the Facebook open graph applications bandwagon with the launch of USA Today + Me…

Pinterest Fans Rejoice, Facebook Adds Pinterest Plus 59 New Apps
Facebook’s announcement on Tuesday was the unveiling of 60 new apps that will function with the site so users share more of their lives.

Google: 90 Million Google+ Users, 11 BILLION Android Market …
In the midst of Google’s announcement about their results for the 2011 fiscal year, they nonchalantly dropped a pretty juicy piece of info concerning their social networking site..

Twitter Snatches Up Summify
Wanna know the best way to announce you’ve been acquired by Twitter? You tweet it! Nothing like using the new boss’ wares to show that you’re a team player. For those not in the know, Summify generates a “daily summary of the most relevant news…

David Beckham Does First Google+ Hangout at Googleplex [VIDEO]
Fresh from signing a new two-year contract with the LA Galaxy, global soccer star and underwear model David Beckham flew to Silicon Valley early Thursday…

Gary Glitter Is Back
Infamous glam rocker Gary Glitter has announced a comeback tour – via Twitter. Gary Glitter took to Twitter using the handle @OfficialGlitter to announce his…

January 20th

Facebook contest to award ad credit to small businesses for bulking …
Iowans who are trying to establish full-time small businesses. DesMoinesRegister.com Facebook contest to award ad credit to small businesses for bulking up fan bases Facebook quietly launched a contest Tuesday called…

The Facebook Bed: Slumbering for Social Networking Fanatics
For those so obsessed with social networking, behold the Facebook bed…

Facebook Reportedly Doubling Its European Headquarters
Irish realtors’ eyes may be smiling on Facebook, as the social network is reportedly looking to more than double the size of its European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland…

The White House Joins Google+, Wants To Hangout With You …
You now have one more way to follow the Obama administration’s day-to-day activities as The White House has officially joined Google+. According to their…

Facebook ‘Bug‘ Turns Random Codes into Profile Names
If you post random numbers as a comment or status update, a name will appear when you press enter…

‘Timelinemoviemaker‘ URLs Registered: Facebook?
Today’s domain-name mystery involves a series of URLs based on “timelinemoviemaker” — a movie service for Facebook’s timeline; a new effort by the social network’s legal adversary, Timelines.com; or something completely …

Is VEVO Heading To Facebook?
Facebook is in talks to take a very important partner away from Google. According to CNET’s sources, Facebook is looking to take music video service VEVO…

January 21st

Google’s Social Q&A Search: Ask Google+ Friends From Google …
Some Google users are now seeing a feature in Google search results that let them ask their Google+ friends questions about the query they just searched for. Specifically, at the bottom of the search results page, it says:…

Google Sign-Up Means Google+ Sign-Up
Google announced this week that Google+ now has over 90 million users. That’s pretty impressive, considering it’s only been out about half a year. It may…

In Closing…

So do you think Google+ still has potential? Do you feel that the growth reported is irrelevant, considering usage may be pretty low? Integrating Google+ into the Google account signup is likely to boost the user base further, but still may not see the level of engagement that Facebook sees. Are you a regular Google+ user?

What do you think about the swathe of new Facebook Apps being made available after their announcement? Is Facebook about to become noisy or more useful?

Get chatting in the comments below!

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