Justin Timberlake pushes a new single over the new and improved MySpace

Bringing MySpace back… Maybe more Walking Dead than full resurrection for now…more Justin than substance?

Further reading:
TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez realizes that Justin Timberlake is all over the new MySpace

Facebook unveils Graph Search for answers

Facebook announces “Graph Search” which assumes that anyone outside of us social nerds truly understands the social graph concept.

“Web search is designed to take any open ended query and give you links that might have answers…Graph search is designed to take a precise query and give you an answer, not give you links that might provide the answer”

Is it a neat technical trick? Absolutely. But how practical is it? The majority of the examples Zuckerberg gave seemed like unusual questions for most people to casually wonder. EXCEPT for the potential impact on locations.

Here’s where it gets interesting… layer in the concept of “place” (which many of you know we love to think about here) and you start to see some cool spatial relationships that could be both powerful in influence (“man, everyone LOVES that restaurant”) and in practicality (planning for a vacation).

Further reading:
Facebook’s official news release on Graph Search
Gizmodo’s Kyle Wagner explains what Graph Search is
TechCrunch’s Colleen Taylor reports on Facebook’s Bing connection
Facebook’s Vadim Lavrusik suggests ways that journalists can use Graph Search
Wired’s Steven Levy tells the role that former Google stars played in Graph Search
Om Malik offers an explanation for how the new search engine works

Facebook launches free VOIP calling for all US iPhone users

Facebook in a way did make a phone – a software one. A powerful move for them that arguably will change things (sooner) than the Search announcement.

Meanwhile, Skype sends out a mass email reminding everyone what it does…

Further reading:
The Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Lynley thinks that the VOIP calling feature is the Facebook phone some have been waiting for

AboutFoursquare.com says the VisitPA Groundhog Day badge returns in 2013

Combining tourism, check-ins, partnerships and groundhogs…

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Don’t forget that you can get stories like these and more—just check out our regular posts on Facebook and Twitter!

The update itself is a welcome overhaul of the look of the basic profile, drawing the viewer into a more image-related experience (such as your favorite authors rendered as their Page icons rather than words – thankfully you can edit the priority of the images shown now, not just a random sample of “Liked” elements as before).

It also brings a few new tricks – or at least tricks new to Facebook that might remind you of a few other social sites. One such feature: “Highlighting” your top connections. As they say themselves:

Relationships with close friends can be just as important as family. Now you can highlight family members and the other key people in your life, like your best friends or coworkers — all right on your profile.

Sounds an awful lot like MySpace’s Top 8, eh? I can imagine the arguments already as we shuffle our best friends, kids, spouses and drinking buddies in a furious drive to avoid conflicts…

This “highlighting” comes from a tweak to the Friends List feature, allowing you to share your Friend Lists more like Twitter Lists. This makes your curated personal lists to potentially become a way for you to find similar interests, people, etc. (The new Facebook List features are well profiled at the blog Stayi N’ Alive.) Of course, you can never share your Lists and there’s a bevy of privacy controls to go with the new options.

There are lost of other smaller changes. My particular favorite is the “Projects” you can add under your employers – drawing attention to what you’ve worked on and who with, giving an interesting kind of due and credit to a particular idea or execution.

To see the new features and immediately update your own profile, visit: http://www.facebook.com/about/profile/

See the Facebook video on the changes here:

And to see the 60 Minutes Interview, see the two parts embedded here at Business Insider with some comentary on how Zuck came across.

-Dean (@dbrowell)

Log in to MySpace with Facebook:

MySpace and Facebook held a joint press conference on Thursday, where they announced that you can now log in to MySpace with Facebook. Being called “Mashup with Facebook,” your Facebook likes and interests will be automatically pulled into your MySpace account, making it easier to connect with entertainers. MySpace is also planning to integrate Facebook’s like button on their social network.

The Beatles Hit iTunes:

If you’re a Beatles fan, you may be excited to hear that Apple announced this week that you can finally purchase Beatles songs and albums on iTunes. Songs cost 1.29 a pop. Visit iTunes to purchase.

Twitter Analytics:

Twitter is testing an analytics tool, which is rumored to debut by the end of 2010. As Mashable reports,

“With Twitter Analytics, users will be able to see a plethora of data about their account; for example, information about which tweets are most successful, which tweets caused people to unfollow, and who the most influential users are that reply and retweet their messages.”

Cool!

Boutiques.com:

Google has introduced a new way to shop this week, debuting boutiques.com. This is a personalized shopping experience, which uses computer vision and machine learning technology to analyze your taste and match to clothing you can purchase. As of now, it is only available for women’s clothing, and is only available in the U.S. and in Canada.

Facebook’s Messaging System:

There are over 4 billion Facebook messages sent each day, which is one of the reasons that this week, Facebook announced a new messaging system. The new messaging system offers seamless messaging, cross-platform conversation history and the social inbox. This is not email according to Zuckerberg, who explained, “Messages is not email. There are no subject lines, no cc, no bcc, and you can send a message by hitting the Enter key.” The system will be rolled out slowly in the next few months.

Ping:

Apple had a big event on Wednesday, where they introduced Ping, a social network for music lovers. Ping allows you to follow friends and artists, have custom music recommendations based on your followers, and share concert details. You can access Ping by downloading iTunes 10, going into the iTunes store, and activating Ping. Read our blog ‘Social Network, Meet iTunes‘ to find out more.

Twitter Usage Up:

Twitter usage went up 33% from May to August. In August, Twitter processed over 2.64 billion Tweets. Twitter now has over 145 million registered users, and activity has more than doubled this year.

Chrome 6:

For Chrome’s two-year anniversary, they are introducing Google Chrome Version Six. Mashable describes it as “The Modern Browser,” Chrome 6 does indeed boast a number of improvements, but as with previous updates, the focus remains on speed and simplicity.” Download it here: http://www.google.com/chrome

If You Can’t Beat ‘em, Join ‘em?:

Once the leading social network, MySpace is now syncing up with Facebook. This week, MySpace announced that users can now sync status updates with Facebook. You can also sync status updates with Twitter. Even with this new development, with the introduction of Ping, Myspace has to wonder whether their last niche, music, will be compromised.

Spot Trot:

I am including a local social media pick this week  – this one derives from Richmond, Virginia. There are plenty of social media apps and tools being developed in Richmond, one of which is Spot Trot.  Created by Joel Erb, Spot Trot has a big music twist to it. The app offers a customized mobile platform to artists, which they build for their fans. Clients include Dave Matthews Band and Tim McGraw. Partners include Live Nation and Apple. You can follow them on Twitter at @spottrot.

-Anna (@alucas9)

The Official Twitter iPhone App:

Last month, Twitter acquired Tweetie, and this week, they launched The Official Twitter iPhone App. The iPhone app, (called “Twitter” but essentially Tweetie 3.0), is now available, and it’s free. It allows users who aren’t on Twitter to easily browse content and sign up, and makes it easier for users to search and Retweet.

Pakistan Bans YouTube & Facebook:

In world social media news, Pakistan banned Facebook and YouTube. On Wednesday, Pakistan banned the use of Facebook due to an offensive group gaining popularity called “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” On Thursday, Pakistan also banned YouTube, due to growing sacrilegious content.

Google TV:

On Thursday, Google unveiled Google TV. Google is partnering with Sony and Logitech for Google TV. Google does not want to replace your TV, but work alongside it. They want you to be able to search the web for content and be able to watch it on your TV. YouTube has also announced a customizable version of their site, called YouTube Leanback, which you will be able to access of Google TV.

Google Wave Updates:

Google has also updated Google Wave and released it to the public. This announcement came about on Google’s I/O Conference. The public version of Wave is said to be “much faster and much more stable than when we began the preview, and we have worked hard to make Wave easier to use.”

Facebook & Privacy:
Facebook has been taking a lot of heat for their lowered privacy settings lately, and today, another issue has unfolded. The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook, MySpace, and several other social networking sites have been sending data to advertisers despite promises that they don’t share information without consent. After The Wall Street Journal contacted them, Facebook and MySpace moved to make changes.

-Anna (@alucas9)

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.

-Anna (@alucas9)

‘Tis the Season for Apps:

There are tons of holiday apps to choose from this season.

• iPhone users: Apple has created a commercial to help us choose the best apps for the holidays. The “12 apps of Christmas” include “My Christmas Gift List”, “Holiday Bells”, and “Snow Reports”. View the commercial and information on all of the apps here.
• Android users: Here are 10 free droid apps to get you into the holiday spirit.
• If you don’t have a smart phone, here is a list of 10 Facebook apps you can use.

Connect with Santa Claus:

Mashable compiled a great list of 5 ways you can connect with Santa on the web. They are as follows:

1.) Get an email from Santa
2.) Ask Virtual Santa a Question
3.) Get a Phone Call from Santa
4.) See Santa Live on a Webcam
5.) Track Santa’s Journey on Christmas Eve

Fa la la la la la… Pandora:

Whether you have Pandora radio on your computer or Pandora mobile (it’s free to join if you don’t have either), you can listen to loads of great, free holiday music. With genre’s that include Classical Christmas, Rockin’ Holidays, and Country Christmas, you’re bound to find something to hum along to while unwrapping presents.

Have a Hulu Holiday:

Watch holiday movies and TV shows online with Hulu. TV shows available on Hulu include 30 Rock’s “Secret Santa” & Modern Family’s “Undeck the Halls.” You can also watch some full movies (such as “A Charlie Brown Christmas“), or clips of your favorite holiday classics. Find one you love? Share videos or clips via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or Digg.

Dance Your Way Into the Holidays:

Seems like everyone is putting his or her face on a dancing holiday character this year. Want to join in? Turn yourself into a Dancing Santa on Facebook or turn yourself into a Dancing Elf and share it on Facebook and Twitter.

Feedback wishes you a very Happy Holiday & a Happy New Year (be sure to pop some virtual bubbly for us!)

-Anna (@alucas9)