Protestors against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) went on an all-out internet strike last week to show senate and congress how much they oppose the bills.

Many large and small websites, including popular online destinations like Reddit and Wikipedia (check out these Tweets from angry students who couldn’t do their homework), shut down for 24 hours to protest SOPA and PIPA.

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Traditional TV as we know it has ceased its existence. It is still possible to catch a traditional sitcom every once in a while, but most sports programs, reality shows and commercials are filled with social media icons, QR codes and are becoming more and more interactive every day.

Our habits of watching TV are changing as well. Now that we have hi-tech gadgets like smartphones, tablets and laptops surrounding us 24/7, we are more used to technological multitasking (in other words, using multiple gadgets at once). In fact, according to Nielsen’s Consumer Usage Report, 70% of women and 60% of men are distracted multi-taskers, checking their email or surfing the Web while they watch TV.

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How much digital music did you download in 2011? How many songs did you stream on Pandora, Spotify or Rdio this past year? Do you remember the last time you bought a CD?

If your answer to the last question was “no,” you are not the only one.

In fact, the majority of the world bought digital music in 2011, making it the first year when digital music sales surpassed traditional physical sales. We bought a total of 1.27 billion digital tracks, which accounted for 50.3% of all music sales, according to The Nielsen Company and Billboard’s 2011 Music Industry Report.

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Facebook is currently testing out a new feature for brand pages. This feature will allow page admins to receive private messages from users. Any Facebook user will be able to send a private message to a fan page.

Facebook has just begun introducing this feature, making it only available in Asia for the time being.

If the feature proves its value, Facebook will hopefully make this new communication option available in other countries.

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iPhone’s Siri, which was named Google Killer when it first came out, might have to face fierce competition from Google soon.

The rumors started after Google acquired Clever Sense, the maker of Alfred, a restaurant recommendation app.

Some say that Alfred, if made more sophisticated (in other words, similar to Siri), may have a larger impact on search. Others dismiss Google’s shenanigans as nothing more than a slight attempt at building its own version of Siri. Read the rest of this entry »

New Facebook profile, the Timeline, is now available for all of Facebook’s 800 million users. In the next few weeks, Facebook will completely switch to Timeline.

This new Facebook redesign was the most major update since the launch of the social platform. Every user’s Facebook profile will now show a reversed chronological order of all Facebook activity, up to the day of birth. New design combined with new Facebook features (and more privacy concerns) provides a creepy nice look at the whole life of any Facebook user.

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Many companies are often afraid of getting into social media because it seems uncontrollable.

Social media gives your business an opportunity to increase interaction and be closer to your every-day consumer, but those conversations can be tough to control sometimes. The big challenge is crisis management: responding to negative feedback quickly and turn your customers into brand advocates.

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Great communities inspire great conversations. Online communities are no different.

Fred Wilson once said in his blog, “modern [online] community building isn’t easy, but if there is one thing the Internet has taught me over the past 15 years, large engaged communities are incredibly powerful things, both commercially and socially. Building them is important and ultimately very valuable work.”

One of the definitions of the word “community” is “body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a large society.”

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Twitter rolled out new platform redesign that lets you discover, connect and share more easily. Twitter is now “yours to discover” and is a “faster, simpler way to stay close to everything you care about,” according to the website.

The timing for the new redesign seems right, especially with the buzz about Google+ brand pages and the updated Facebook subscriptions feature. It looks like Twitter’s new interface and features will be stirring many discussions in the next few weeks.

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This is that time of year when we begin to stress out about getting our holiday shopping done. Because our family, friends, coworkers, extended family, and bosses all have different preferences and tastes, and it always takes a while to find that perfect gift for each one.

Thankfully, the age of technology, when much of our private information is widely available for the world to see (thanks, Facebook), makes it easier for us to do holiday shopping.

Some companies made a huge push this year to make their customers’ shopping process easier and a lot less stressful.

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