On Friday, Google announced its purchase of PostRank, a start-up company that collects and monitors interaction with online content created from real-time events; gathering information on when and where published content generates interaction, such as tweets, shares, bookmarks, or comments.</p> <p>According to social reporting site ReadWriteWeb, one of PostRank?s customers, the service?s users are able to plug in their RSS feed(s) and have them scored according to number of inbound links, Twitter mentions, comments, Delicious saves, and other related social networking activity. Users can then create a filtered feed of the content that draws the most attention.</p> <p>"Conversations online are an important signal for advertisers, publishers, developers and consumers?but today's tools only skim the surface of what we think is possible," blogs PostRank CEO Carol Leaman and CTO Ilya Grigorik, both whom will be joining Google at their offices in Mountain View, California.</p> <p>When technology reporting site eWeek asked Google how they plan to leverage the new site, the spokesperson for Google replied, ?We're always looking for new ways to measure and analyse data, and as social analytics become increasingly important for online businesses, we're excited to work with the PostRank team to make this data more actionable and accountable?. The spokesperson went on to say that, PostRank?s methodologies for measuring content engagement will help Google improve its other products.</p> <p>When teamed with Google Analytics, the addition of PostRank should provide a much more complete and rounded measurement service for Google?s users and advertising customers. The acquisition, along with other recent social media purchases Google has made, should also put the company in a stronger position to rival Facebook.<br />

When the social networking, microblogging site Twitter made its debut, for many users, the idea was to get as many followers as possible. In 2009, Ashton Kutcher raced against CNN to see who could reach one million followers first and even today users are encouraged to help out newbies with the ?please check him out and follow him? tweet by influencers. However, is having many followers really a good idea for the average Twitter user? According to Robin Dunbar and others, the answer is no; because once you go past 150 followers, the social experience begins to deteriorate.</p> <p>Robin Dunbar, the creator of ?Dubar?s Number? is a British anthropologist who has done extensive research into the maximum number of people with which an individual can maintain a strong social relationship. According to Dunbar, ?this limit is a direct function of relative neocortex size, and that this in turn limits group size [?] the limit imposed by neocortical processing capacity is simply on the number of individuals with whom a stable inter-personal relationship can be maintained?.</p> <p>Recently, experts and analysts have been applying Dunbar?s Number and his studies to social networking and have determined that for Twitter and Facebook, 150 is ideal. Included in this endeavour is Indiana University who took the test to Twitter, looking at over 380 million tweets and analysing user behaviours. The results were in support of Dunbar?s Number, with findings showing that the average user can follow 100 ? 200 others before becoming overwhelmed.<br />

Twitter has introduced a new button that will allow users to follow the Twitter accounts related to the content they read from any website. </p> <p>Twitter users often like to follow the people and sites they discover whilst perusing the internet for content, but until now, that generally involved clicking through to Twitter and selecting ?Follow? on the person?s account. But no more; now Twitter has made it simple to follow accounts of the people and content providers that interest you the most.</p> <p>Included in the launch was popular UK-based newspaper The Telegraph (telegraph.co.uk), who was the only UK newspaper to adopt the Follow button on its first day. Other popular sites joining in from day one include Sports Illustrated, MTV, and CNN and it is expected that more sites will be adding the new feature in the coming weeks and months.</p> <p>Of the new buttons launch, Twitter?s Brian Ellin wrote in a blog, "More than 50 sites have added the Follow Button today, making it easy for you to discover the Twitter accounts of your favourite reporters, athletes, celebrities, and other personalities. Using the Follow Button is as simple as a single click. You can also see the profile and latest Tweets of the account you want to follow by clicking the username next to the Button."</p> <p>The new Follow button is the latest in a series of new improvements Twitter has made to its web-related experience, making it easier for users to favourite, forward, and reply to tweets embedded on content pages.<br />

While a blog can serve as an important part of an online marketing strategy by providing interesting content that can go beyond that of a news feed or informational pages, in order for a blog to be most effective, it needs to incorporate certain elements.  Just having a few keywords related to your industry is not enough – you also need to recognise the importance of the human element as well as other things.  To that end, here are four features of good blog content:

Popular social networking site Twitter has handed over personal information concerning some of its Twitter users in the wake of a local UK authority?s successful appeal for disclosure to a California court.</p> <p>South Tyneside is in pursuit of Mr Monkey, a blogger who is accused of defaming several council officials. To that end, the local council has spent </p>

The White House has launched a new Twitter feed with the goal of using social interaction as a way to find and deflect negative opinions and online content and commentary. The account is listed under Jesse Lee, the new Director of Progressive Media and Online Response?s name (@jesseeclee44). The hope is that, through this account, the White House will able to improve relationships with the online community as well as coordinate a fast response to negative stories as they are discovered.</p> <p>Mr Lee?s role is a newly created position inside the Obama administration communications department, but Mr Lee is a somewhat familiar face to many who follow White House communications, having penned a now quasi-infamous blog post regarding Fox News and Glenn Beck.</p> <p>In regards to Mr Lee?s new roll and that of the new Twitter feed, Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in an inside memo provided to the Huffington Post,<br /> ?This week, Jesse Lee will move from the new media department into a role in the communications department as Director of Progressive Media & Online Response. For the last two years, Jesse has often worn two hats working in new media and serving as the White House's liaison with the progressive media and online community. Starting this week, Jesse will take on the second role full time working on outreach, strategy, and response.?</p> <p>The new White House Twitter account is one more example of the growing importance social media is playing in politics ?in the USA and elsewhere.<br />

nline community. Starting this week, Jesse will take on the second role full time working on outreach, strategy, and response.?

</p> <p>You might think that Apple CEO Steve Jobs would spend his evenings kicking back and relaxing after a hard days work at Apple HQ.</p> <p>And perhaps he does ? usually. But Friday night was different. Friday night was a night that Steve simply couldn?t switch off. His mind was still on the Job.</p> <p>Apple had claimed in a television ad that the iPad was ?a revolution? ? and Mr Jobs genuinely believed that his company was justified in such a statement.</p> <p>How could anybody not think that the iPad was a revolution? I mean, it?s a bigger version of the Touch for heaven?s sake! Of course it?s a revolution!</p> <p>But not everybody would agree with him ? and there lies the problem. The Apple CEO came home to an email from Gawker.com employee Ryan Tate, who questioned just how much of ?a revolution? the iPad really is.</p> <p>One thing led to another and before he knew it, Mr Jobs had been dragged into a heated email debate that covered everything from native publication to porn.</p> <p>The contents of the emails are available to view by visiting</p>

</p> <p>While one cannot debate the importance that real-time information plays in today?s online experience, companies that use news and socially relevant content as a way to attract people to their sites should not be tempted to forget about RSS feeds as a method of delivery.<br /> RSS Still Popular<br /> According to a few different articles I have read recently, while social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter do their bit in providing links to content-sharing sites, there are still many users out there who prefer their information delivered through RSS feeds.</p> <p>Of course, one of the best ways to stay on top of content of specific interest is through Google Reader, which provides a few handy features to help you organise the incoming information.</p>

On Tuesday, a number of internet bosses, experts, and analysts came together in Paris for a two-day G8 forum, a prequel and preparation meeting for the upcoming G8 summit. The purpose was to prepare for internet-related discussions at this year?s G8, a summit involving leaders from the USA, the UK, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Japan.</p> <p>The G8 event, which is being held today and tomorrow in the French Resort of Deauville, will be covering a series of online issues: the future of internet regulation, personal privacy, child trafficking and criminal activity, and the protection and handling of online content in regards to intellectual property rights.</p> <p>Speaking at a news briefing in Moscow, Arkady Dvorkovich, Russian presidential aide, said, "We must work together to develop new approaches to intellectual property rights on the Internet so that the interests and rights of the content providers and users are balanced."</p> <p>While currently, matters of opinion regarding content provision and other internet issues vary amongst the different G8 leaders, Dvorkovich says that he feels confident that all parties will be able to reach an agreement by the end of sessions on Friday.</p> <p>Notable attendees on behalf on internet issues include Facebook?s Mark Zuckerberg and Google?s Eric Schmidt. It is expected that they will be urging governments to avoid over-regulation.<br /> Other issues to be covered include climate change and the global economy. It is also worthy to note that neither China nor India are among the powers gathered; something which has some experts questioning the 2011 G8?s relevance.