Do you have time to search the web everyday to find the newest and coolest social media tools? If the answer is no, then you have come to the right place. I have searched the World Wide Web for social media information all week, and stumbled upon a few favorites along the way. Here are my picks of the week:
Foursquare & Zagat:
Last week, Foursquare teamed up with Bravo! TV. This week, they’ve partnered with Zagat (a restaurant review and rating website). Users can now follow Zagat on Foursquare, and get insider tips and reviews on restaurants located in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston. There’s also a Zagat foodie badge that can be earned by dining at Zagat rated restaurants.
Tweet Growth:
A month ago, we saw stats that Twitter wasn’t growing. This week, there’s new stats out saying it is. The newest study, done by Pingdom, looked at the amount of Tweets being generated, and took into account all Tweets, including those form third-party Twitter applications. There was the key findings of the study (via Pingdom):
- December 2009 was the first month Twitter processed more than one billion tweets (with 1.036 billion tweets)
- January 2010 had 16 times as many tweets as January 2009
- The activity on Twitter has doubled since August 2009
- January 2010 saw more tweets per day (39.5 million) than the whole of September 2008
Google Buzz:
Most of you have probably heard some buzz around the web about Google Buzz. This week, Google introduced Google Buzz, a new social tool that allows you to share updates, photos, videos, and more…all via Gmail. You can share items publicly with the world, or privately with friends, and you can also connect Buzz with other sites such as Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader, and Twitter. Watch this video to learn more about Google Buzz.
Google Buzz Kill?:
Not all the buzz surrounding Google Buzz is positive. Articles such as What’s Wrong and How to Fix it, Google Buzz Privacy, and Google Buzz? More Like Buzz Kill, shed light on some of the issues with Google Buzz. A major concern was that privacy settings were too complicated to change, so on Thursday, Google fixed that issue. As for Google Buzz in general? The verdict is still out on whether it will catch on.
Bonnaroo:
If you know Dean Browell (@dbrowell) or follow him on Twitter or Facebook, you probably know the entire Bonnaroo line-up. Why? A.) because well…he loves Bonnaroo B.) Because Bonnaroo was very savvy about how they spread the word about their line-up. Bonnaroo used MySpace to slowly trickle out the news of whose performing at Bonnaroo. Announcements began and 12pm on Tuesday, and didn’t end till 9 pm, which meant people were abuzz all day about specific bands that had been confirmed. This kept Bonnaroo in Twitter trending throughout the day, kept people talking about Bonnaroo, and got everyone even more excited about the upcoming festival.
