Technology has reached a point where I am no longer looking for the news. The news finds me. (continue reading)

Undercurrent's Julia Roy joins us this week to discuss Yammer, the new collaborative microblogging service; the mega-collider and Internet rumors vs. authority; and the Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft marketing push. (continue reading)

In a webcast press conference this week, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced the replacement for its current system of data storage and report filing. The new system, called IDEA, brings the SEC into the future of online, interactive data management. And that's not all they have planned for online interaction--Jen Zingsheim and Sarah Wurrey report on the webcast, and the possible future of transparency in government and business. (continue reading)

The illustrious Christopher Penn joins us on the Media Bullseye Roundtable this week to discuss small businesses using social networks to band together online, the decline of print journalism (is there anything left to save?) and the tricky economics of Twitter, which received plenty of mainstream media attention this week at the same time it suffered another major malfunction. (continue reading)

FriendFeed is the most-mentioned potential replacement for Twitter, which continues to be plagued with technical issues. I spent some time today trying to figure out how that might work. I am unconvinced. (continue reading)

At Edelman's recent Academic Summit, Karen Russell was especially interested in the session on monitoring and measurement. As a monitoring company, so are we! She posts a great roundup of the session. Also: A terrific case study from Jeff Glasson, and more Twitter complaints. (continue reading)

I asked Nathan Burke o join the Roundtable this week in part because his work for matchmine, which offers a recommendation tool to users to suggest content they might like across all forms of media, makes him an excellent guest to discuss one of the stories coming out of the 2.0 world this week--Digg.com's recommendation engine. Also: Echo chamber danger, and Stride Gum and the dancing guy. (continue reading)

I wrote about it last week and have blogged about it as well, but now that the hype has faded and the dust has settled regarding last week's Twebinar conducted by Radian6, Cross Tech Media and Chris Brogan, I have some additional thoughts to add. With distance comes perspective, so I am adding two more cents to my commentary, making my total four cents. (continue reading)

We've all seen tag clouds before, and tools to produce them are pretty ubiquitous. You can even make a cloud or your Twitter posts, your del.icio.us tags, just about anything, really. So I wasn't all that interested in hearing about another one; but then I realized Wordle makes tag clouds pretty! (continue reading)

Last week, MySpace announced Data Availability, their contribution to the data portability movement. Back in May, MySpace made the announcement that they were making user data available to Yahoo, ebay and Twitter. Now they've opened up to developers. Nathan Burke gives you the rundown on what it all means to Data Portability. (continue reading)

Recently released from beta, Twingly is a blog search engine that eliminates spam from search results, streamlining the process for users. Based in Europe, the site functions much like other blog search engines like Technorati, giving users results with several filter options like date, ranking, etc. (continue reading)

Amanda Gravel, who has the benefit of being both a PR pro and a blogger, decided to just ring up the person behind a recent bad pitch, and the experience ended up being positive for them both. A better solution than just complaining, perhaps? Also: How to stay on topic in your blogging, and will Twitter be felled by spammers? (continue reading)

Welcome to another edition of Media Bullseye's weekly Radio Roundtable. Joining me as always this week is Jennifer Zingsheim, a vice president here at CustomScoop. Our special guest this week is Kami Huyse. (continue reading)

One of my areas of passion (and simultaneous astonishment) is the degree to which companies, associations and other organizations that depend upon the general public for their societal license to operate pay so little attention to what is said about them in the online environment. The seeds of discontent - for brands or issues - are sown online - and harvested in the online environment. Ask Proctor and Gamble. (continue reading)

While social media engagement is a significant portion of many PR pro's jobs, Tom Murphy makes the excellent point that many have plenty of other responsibilities to keep them busy. So is it really the quantity of their engagement (or the number of people they "follow back" on Twitter), or the quality? Also: raise your Twitter profile, communications plan advice, and the evolution of pitching. (continue reading)

We all love Twitter, but how often do we consider its usefulness for business purposes? Colin Carmichael of Social Media Group has a great post with four ways that Twitter can help your business. Also: Make your conference rock more, and some thoughts on the echo chamber. (continue reading)

While Second Life itself may have hit the "trough of disillusionment" on its hype cycle, it's on the way to the enlightenment phase; and virtual worlds beyond Second Life are still something to which you ought to be paying attention, because they're on the cusp of a major expansion. (continue reading)

Online shoe retailer Zappos and CEO Tony Hsieh have developed a dedicated following online, particularly on popular microblogging platform Twitter. Soren Jacobsen delves into the company's culture, ideas on transparency, and customer service to discover how they became an online force to be reckoned with. (continue reading)

Executives at eBay have a new headache today, thanks to new competition called Wigix, or the "Want it, Got it Exchange." The new service, just launched into public beta, aims to simplify the process of listing and searching for online auction items. (continue reading)

Slowly but surely, companies and brands are understanding there is something profound happening in this new media world, and increasingly it's something they want to be a part of. But how can they know to whom to turn for advice on engagement? Is it their PR or marketing agency? Their technical group? Or is it someone else entirely? (continue reading)

TV is going digital, and a major topic of discussion at AdTech San Francisco revolved around whether "programming is dead." Sean Howard writes about his experiences at AdTech, and how TV advertisers are going to have to work to stay relevant as viewers' commercial tolerance drops. (continue reading)

Is there no such thing as a "bad" viral? As long as people are talking about your video and your brand, should you not concern yourself if the talk is somewhat negative? Nike doesn't think so, following its new Kobe Bryant YouTube offering. Also: Panic in the Twitterverse, and social Earth Day. (continue reading)

Actor and rap music artist Will Smith has partnered with his entertainment company Overbrook Productions to launch an online music video site, with some videos in high definition. Started with $2 million in venture capital, the site features thousands of music videos from popular artists from BMG, Sony, Universal and others. (continue reading)

America Online announced this week that it has acquired Sphere Source, a leading provider of contextual search tools that offers related content to publishers. Sphere will be a subsidiary of the Web company's programming division. (continue reading)

Maybe Twitter wont be around to see 2010, yet many major brands have moved in to communicate with consumers and the world via Twitter: H&R Block (Finance), 10 Downing Street (The UK equivalent of US "White House"), Zappos (Online Retailer) and countless others like BBC News to Yahoo's Marketing Team and Amazon.com to the New York LaGuardia airport. Is this wasted energy by the PR/Marketing offices of H&R Block or even US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's social media team? (continue reading)