Now, the company is looking to monetize this significant reach through advertising. In addition to full-page background ads on its own site, Meebo recently released an ad network across its partner sites, where they sell and serve ads and share revenue with the partner. In an interesting move, Meebo actually “guarantees” that users will engage for at least 30 seconds with the advertisements, or will make up the difference with additional ads.

So how’s it going? So far, the company’s COO Martin Green tells me that “dozens of partners are running our ads, and [they] are performing far higher than the 1 percent that our tests had indicated.” In other words, better than 1 percent of the 17.5 million people using Meebo on third-party sites like Playlist.com, Flixster, and MyYearbook are engaging with their ads for more than 30 seconds – not bad at all when you consider the click-thru rates for more traditional banner ads. Meebo also says that their ads actually generate 10x more click-thrus than typical ads on social sites.

The ads themselves, which you can see above and below, are essentially graphics integrated with Meebo’s chat bar (which is similar to Facebook Chat), which when rolled over, play a relevant video. This is where the engagement metric is measured – if the viewer watches the whole thing all the way through, it meets the 30 second guarantee that Meebo offers. Meebo lets advertisers either buy inventory on a traditional CPM basis or by “cost per engagement,” paying only when users interact with the ads.

Meebo’s approach is certainly interesting – a “we put our money where our mouth is” so to speak. And the company’s network is growingly quickly – they currently have 45 sites live with Community IM, and have deals in place for 85 total deployments. At that point, Meebo says, their total reach will exceed 100 million monthly users, putting them in the upper echelon of social sites.

Tags: advertising, meebo

Twitter is a valuable tool for actors and comedians because it allows them to connect directly with fans, promote their work, and receive feedback from the people who actually consume it. That means it’s also becoming a great resource for fans who want to connect with their favorite film stars, as a growing number of actors and actresses start to take advantage of Twitter. So we’ve compiled a list of 15 must-follow comedic film actors.

We focused only on actors and actresses who have regularly appeared in comedic roles. Though this is a list of film actors, many of the people mentioned in this post have had successful stints on television as well.

Please share other actors that you follow in the comments below, and let us know what has made you continue to follow them.

@rainnwilson

Name: Rainn Wilson
Who: Probably best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on TV’s “The Office,” Rainn Wilson has also appeared in a number of movies, including, Juno, The Last Mimzy, and The Rocker.
Why: Rainn is a Twitterholic, who often retweets and engages his followers, discussing everything from his favorite music, to the situation in Iran, and his recent project, soulpancake.com.

@aplusk

Name: Ashton Kutcher
Who: Oprah called Ashton the “King of Twitter” in April, and while he may not be the king, he’s certainly the most followed person on the service. Possibly best known for his role as Michael Kelso on “That 70’s Show,” Ashton Kutcher also has a successful film career, starring in movies like Guess Who and Dude, Where’s My Car?
Why: Ashton will likely be the first Twitter user to reach 3 million followers, and there’s a simple reason: he loves Twitter. He tweets often, posts a lot of links and pictures, and @replies to followers.

@stephenfry

Name: Stephen Fry
Who: Actor, writer, and comedian Stephen Fry shows his range in a mix of comedic and dramatic roles. You may recognize him from the drama V for Vendetta, or his voice as the narrator of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. According to IMDB, he’s in production for the upcoming comedy Jane Austen Handheld, which is scheduled for 2010. He’s also the host of UK TV comedy panel show “QI.”
Why: He is very active on Twitter, sharing his quirky personality, and often engages fans with @replies, sometimes carrying on conversations while he does things like ride in the cab.

@jimgaffigan

Name: Jim Gaffigan
Who: Well known for his role on TV’s “My Boys,” Gaffigan has also appeared in movies like 17 Again, The Love Guru, and 13 Going On 30.
Why: Jim’s tweets are often funny (he’s a comedian, you know), and he also regularly speaks directly with fans. Unfortunately for Jim, his recent quest to hit a million followers by his birthday fell about 910,000 fans short. Perhaps with your help, though, he could reach his goal by next year.

@alydenisof

Name: Alyson Hannigan
Who: You probably know Alyson Hannigan from her TV roles in “How I Met Your Mother” and “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” but this versatile actress has lit up the silver screen as well in movies like American Pie and Date Movie.
Why: She’s not the most active Twitter user (nor the least), but Alyson is very engaging. Her tweeting is very down-to-earth, matching the “girl next door” character she often plays in her films and TV roles.

@thatkevinsmith

Name: Kevin Smith
Who: Both a director and an actor, Kevin has appeared in a number of his own movies, including Clerks, Mallrats, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (he’s “Silent Bob”).
Why: A steady stream of hilarious vulgarities from the set of his new movie with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. Could you ask for anything more? Fans of Kevin Smith’s unique brand of humor won’t be disappointed.

@rustyrockets

Name: Russell Brand
Who: Russell Brand seems to be everywhere these days. That includes Twitter, but it also means movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Bedtime Stories, opposite Adam Sandler.
Why: His tweets are often funny, and even with over 400,000 followers, Russell still finds time to @reply to many of them. He even tweeted during a recent appearance on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.”

@officialkat

Name: Kat Dennings
Who: Dennings has been racking up the screen credits recently, appearing in films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and Charlie Bartlett.
Why: Kat’s tweets are very authentic and will be recognizable to anyone who has ever watched one of her videos on YouTube or her movies. If you’re expecting the indie-girl character she plays so well, you definitely won’t be disappointed in her Twitter steam.

@johncleese

Name: John Cleese
Who: The Monty Python legend should need no introduction, but just in case, he’s been in plenty of comedy classics, such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and The Out-of-Towners. He was even nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay he wrote for A Fish Called Wanda.
Why: While Cleese rarely engages followers, he also rarely lets up with the jokes. Everything about Mr. Cleese’s Twitter account screams Monty Python: from his avatar (in which he’s wearing a pink, fuzzy hat), to his odd background (a lemur, perhaps?), to the way he makes even mundane life tasks seem interesting and amusing.

@davidspade

Name: David Spade
Who: “Saturday Night Live” and “Just Shoot Me” made David Spade a star, which led to film roles like Lost & Found, Joe Dirt, and Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star.
Why: Spade isn’t very engaging with his followers, and he’s only following 8 people, but fans of his humor will want to follow him. He often provides a behind the scenes look at his work life and his tweets are like a free ticket to one of his standup shows.

@ethansuplee

Name: Ethan Suplee
Who: I remember him as Frankie the Enforcer on “Boy Meets World,” but more recently you’ve probably seen him on “My Name is Earl.” Ethan Suplee has also been in a number of films, such as, Mr. Woodcock, The Butterfly Effect, and Road Trip.
Why: Ethan fills his Twitter stream with jokes, Twitpics, and the occasional @reply. He shares his life on Twitter with plenty of color. His recent family vacation to Europe, for example, came to life for fans through a series of humorous observations about the people and places he visited.

@jeremypiven

Name: Jeremy Piven
Who: Jeremy Piven has been in movies like Serendipity and Scary Movie 3, but he is best known for his role as movie agent Ari Gold in the hit HBO series “Entourage.”
Why: While Piven doesn’t engage with fans very much, he offers plenty of fun nuggets of advice, such as this recent tweet: “Drinking coffee before doing yoga is like trying to head butt the wind, I made a bad decision…”

@kevin_nealon

Name: Kevin Nealon
Who: The former SNL and current “Weeds” star has appeared in movies like Coneheads, Happy Gilmore, Anger Management, and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.
Why: If you enjoy Nealon’s sarcastic wit, you might like his Twitter feed, which is full of jokes. Nealon usually only @replies with other celebs, but the Twitpics he shares make you feel like you’re right there with him. Such as this one of Kevin applying his makeup before work.

@kevinpollak

Name: Kevin Pollak
Who: From comedies like Grumpy Old Men and The Whole Nine Yards to dramas like Casino and Hostage, Pollak has done it all.
Why: Pollak very often retweets and @replies with his fans. Pollak also runs his own live streaming web chat show, and following him on Twitter is a great way to find out when it’s going live and who his guest is.

@shannonelizab

Name: Shannon Elizabeth
Who: You know her from the American Pie movies, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and numerous TV guest spots.
Why: Shannon is very active on Twitter, tweeting about her acting and poker playing, as well as often @replying to fans.

Other Actors

There are a large number of other actors who are active on Twitter, both from film and from television, comedic and dramatic. A good way to find them is to use a Twitter directory like WeFollow or Twellow, or you could also browse through a less focused celebrity directory like CelebrityTweet or VIP Tweets. However, the best place to start your search for actors on Twitter might be Slashfilm’s great list — often updated — of actors and actresses that tweet.

Of course, please feel welcome to share other comedic film actors and actresses you’re following on Twitter in the comments of this post.

This series is supported by CinemaTweets presented by Bruno, in theaters this Friday, July 10th. Tweet your movie chatter at CinemaTweets.com.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, kstimage

Tags: actors, comedy, Film, Lists, twitter

However, it’s unclear what the penalty will be for doing so, and if the past is any indicator, an attention seeking multi-millionaire of the Ochocinco variety will probably be happy to pay the fine for the thrill of pulling off an unprecedented touchdown celebration and tweeting from the end-zone (a rare occurrence last season, as my fantasy team would have you know).

In all seriousness, in-game tweeting is actually becoming an issue that pro sports leagues need to address, one way or another. Athletes have embraced social media tools perhaps even moreso than other entertainers, with the LPGA actually encouraging (to the dismay of some players) tweeting during tournaments, and NFL star Shawne Merriman recently paying a visit to our own Jennifer Van Grove’s tweetup in San Diego.

For now, the top tech-related touchdown celebration remains credited to Joe Horn, who made a cell phone call after scoring a touchdown back in 2003. If only Twitter had existed back then:

Tags: chad ochocinco, nfl, twitter

The research firm projects that MySpace revenue in the US will total $495 million this year, down 15 percent from last year but still significantly ahead of the $230 million in domestic revenue they expect Facebook to generate. Worldwide, eMarketer expects MySpace to pull in $520 million in total sales, with the internationally stronger Facebook seeing $300 million. The firm projects that Facebook will surpass MySpace in revenue by 2011.

While the decline in MySpace revenue is to be expected – traffic at the site has been falling and they’ve been forced to make significant staffing cuts recently – the Facebook numbers seem to be an underestimate based on other reports we’ve been hearing. Most recently, Facebook board member Marc Andreessen told Reuters that he expects the social network to generate at least $500 million in revenue this year, and “billions” within the next few years.

Not to mention, with traffic now more than double that of MySpace in the US, it’s hard to imagine that Facebook is only making half the revenue. In any event, with neither company publicly sharing their sales numbers, it will remain a subject of much speculation for now. But it would certainly seem that the momentum is in Facebook’s favor.

Tags: advertising, facebook, myspace, social networking

We’ve included a few of the clips below, but please remember to submit yours by Friday July 10th at noon EST. Three random winners will receive a Kodak Zi6 pocket camera, courtesy of @KodakCB. Submissions should be posted to the contest page on 12seconds.tv.

Below is a sampling of the videos submitted so far:

Puppets for Good

JayThePal Supports Social Good

Cycling for Social Good

A Song for Social Good

Causecast Supports Social Good

Thanks to our Summer of Social Good Sponsors

Thanks to Zappos and MailChimp for sponsoring the Summer of Social Good. Their generous sponsorship covers the campaign and event costs, so that 100% of your donations and ticket sales go to the fund.

“Visit Zappos.com and outfit your life with a new head-to-toe wardrobe for men, women, and kids! Step into all the clothes, bags, shoes and more from all your favorite brand names! Plus, enjoy our 365-day return policy, fast & free shipping, free return shipping & 24-hour customer service!”

“MailChimp is a powerful, easy-to-use email marketing service. You design, me deliver.

We make it easy to send email newsletters to your customers, manage your subscriber lists, and track campaign performance. Unlike some of our competitors, we don’t ‘dumb things down.’ We take extremely powerful tools that sophisticated marketers use (like segmentation, a/b testing, and ROI tracking), and we make them accessible to anyone.”

Thanks to our Summer of Social Good Partners

Thanks to the following partners for lending their generous support to the Summer of Social Good.

Now you can. Today CoTweet, formerly open to just a select group of companies, is announcing its public beta launch, which means you can have immediate access to the same business-centric tools for Twitter account and tweet management as the big brands.

You may remember from our previous post that CoTweet’s web-based application is ideal for multiple account management for multiple users. Essentially it’s the always on application for brands and businesses that need to ensure their Twitter accounts are being managed at all times.

You can currently connect up to five different Twitter accounts, and manage both your professional and personal Twitter presence in one place. So as an admin user, you can invite other people to co-manage a Twitter account with you, but you can also add your own personal Twitter account and toggle between all linked accounts.

The dashboard, which is modeled after an email inbox, lets account managers mark themselves as on duty, assign tweets as tasks (with notes) to other users, receive batch email alerts for replies and direct message when on duty, set your own cotag for each account (it’s like a Twitter signature), and monitor the Twittersphere using the search pane. The search view also lets you select an individual Twitterer and view their profile information, Twitter stats, whether or not you follow them or vice versa, their replies and DMs to your account, and any CoTweet-specific notes that you or your team members have appended to that person’s Twitter account.

With today’s public launch news, CoTweet is also making bit.ly integration for each connected Twitter account available, and announcing that they’ve raised $1.1 million in venture funding.

Also of note is that even more big brands have signed up to use the service, so the list now includes more notable names like Starbucks, Microsoft, Sprint, Coca-Cola, and even Twitter itself. Plus, with social media marketing spend on the rise, more and more brands will continue to embrace Twitter, further increasing demand for co-management tools like CoTweet.

Tags: brand management, cotweet, crm, social media, social media marketing, twitter

Our own Ben Parr has already taken a look at Bing’s immense growth, noting that it has managed to outgrow some very big sites in the time frame of just one month. However, when it comes to Bing, it’s too early to draw conclusions. A large portion of its traffic comes from Live.com, which has been redirecting to Bing from day one; furthermore, Microsoft is spending vast amounts of money on Bing marketing. After the dust subsides – likely in a couple of months – we’ll see where Bing really stands compared to Google and other competitors in the search space.

A favorite of ours, Wolfram Alpha, is not doing so well. I still think it’s a great product; I still think it deserved all the attention it got. But it’s obviously a tool for a much narrower audience than, say, Google Search, and its traffic – as you can see in the graph below – reflects that.

As you can see, Compete shows Wolfram Alpha’s traffic has plummeted in June. But the worse news is: it never got very high in the first place. It’s hard to find a comparison for such n unique tool, but comparing it to Ask.com – a relatively minor player in the search game – reveals that it’s simply not in the same league.

Part of Wolfram Alpha’s problem could be its versatility. Before, when you needed to find out how much your daily calorie intake should be, you’d probably type “calorie calculator” into Google, and you’d get some specific tool that does that. Now, Wolfram Alpha does that and a zillion other things, but did you remember to use it, or did you just Google for whatever you needed like before?

In any case, Wolfram Alpha will remain useful, it’ll remain cool, and it’ll remain a great tool for geeks, scientists and students. But will it justify the immense buzz it got? I doubt it.

Moving on to our old friend Twitter, which stagnated in May, the numbers are once again looking good for the still-not-profitable-but-growing-fast startup. According to Compete, it is now at 23 million unique visitors, growing a solid 16.57% compared to May. I’m looking forward to next month’s numbers, but with all the buzz still surrounding the service, I’m positive that Twitter still has a lot of room for growth and that last month’s stagnation was just a temporary glitch.

Facebook has continued growing at its unrelenting pace, increasing 8.45% to 122,5 million uniques, and its biggest competitor, MySpace, has also grown a solid 7.19%, climbing back to nearly 61 million uniques. MySpace’s traffic has been falling since the beginning of the year, but the latest numbers show the old giant (how quickly things become “old” on the Internet) still may be capable of learning some new tricks.

To finish this month’s analysis, I’ve decided to look at three major social networks we hear less and less about: Google’s Orkut.com, Bebo.com and hi5.com.

Their numbers can be summed up with one word: disaster. Orkut is growing, but it’s way too small to make an impact; Bebo and hi5’s traffic is disappearing quickly, presumably as their users are moving on to Facebook. Save for a complete change in strategy from some of these, now comparably small competitors, I’m afraid that, when it comes to (mainstream) social networking, it’s all about Facebook (and, possibly, MySpace) now.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Dalaj; DNY59

Tags: bing, statistics, stats, twitter, web in numbers, wolfram alpha

Jennifer Preston, however, hasn’t tweeted at all in a month. She could be ill or on vacation, of course, but the NYTPicker has done some digging and it appears she is not.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not some Twitter-Nazi who thinks that everyone should tweet at all, let alone on a daily basis. But Twitter has been at the very core of various social media-related movements and occurrences, and a social media editor for a large media publication, with over 9000 Twitter followers, is expected to actually use the social media tools at her disposal.

More importantly, here at Mashable we believe that participating in social media is a way of life. You can’t fake it; you can’t write for a gadget blog if the thought of a new iPhone doesn’t send shivers down your spine, you can’t write about cars if you couldn’t care less what hunk of metal you’re driving, and you cannot be a social media editor if you’re not interested in sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

It seems to us that this is often the case with old school media publications such as the New York Times; they’d like to participate, they know they must embrace these new communication channels, but they can’t get themselves to care about them. We’ll give Jen the benefit of the doubt here; perhaps she has just been very busy lately and will return to tweeting soon.

Thanks to Seamus Condron for the tip.

Tags: new york times, social media, twitter

But none of that matters if Bing doesn’t grow and find a way to compete with Google. So after a month, where are we? We knew that Bing was growing, but the numbers being released tonight tell a tale of success, as Bing is now the 13th most visited site on the web.

According to Compete.com, Bing was able to amass 49.57 million unique visitors in its first month as Microsoft’s official search engine. Bing’s traffic trumps that of Digg (38.96 million) Twitter (23 million), and CNN (28.54 million). We want to note that this focuses on U.S. visitors, since Compete does not track international visits.

Bing is now only beaten by 12 other websites according to the Compete numbers. Interestingly enough, one of those websites is Live.com, its predecessor, which actually garnered 79.4 million visits in June. This can mostly be attributed to the fact that a lot of Microsoft services, most notably Hotmail, are on the Live domain.

Still, Bing is showing some solid numbers for its first month in existence. That said, it’s got a long way to go before it can begin to challenge Google’s top position in search.

Tags: bing, cnn, compete, digg, microsoft, twitter

Whether its operating systems, documents, search, communication, or mobile, the two behemoths have been increasingly butting heads in a war for tech supremacy. Now with Google Chrome OS making headlines, we thought it would be appropriate to perform a straight-up comparison of where the competition between Google and Microsoft stands. So who’s winning the war? And how will Google Chrome OS affect this longstanding battle? Here’s an overview:

1. Search

Google: What is there to say, really? Search is to Google as Windows is to Microsoft. They dominate the search market by a wide margin, despite Microsoft’s best efforts (including the company’s failed attempt to buy Yahoo).

Microsoft: They had to do something drastic to compete in search, and they did with their recent launch of Bing. It’s received a lot of press, a lot of positive reviews, and has clearly caught Google’s attention. But does anyone seriously think it will overtake Google’s dominance in search anytime soon?

Advantage: Google. By light years.

2. Documents

Microsoft: Microsoft Office, with Word, Powerpoint, and Excel have been the leading way to create and edit documents for years, and for good reason – they’re widely used, widely known, and feature-rich. There’s also now Microsoft Office Live, which while not as collaborative as Google Docs, isn’t a bad solution and has the benefit of being connected to the desktop apps.

Google: Google Docs have been growing in features and users. They provide a level of collaboration that Microsoft documents simply don’t offer. But they don’t provide as many options as Microsoft Office and they just don’t have nearly as many users. This is one area where the majority of users still prefer the desktop to the web.

Advantage: Microsoft

3. Communication, Email, and IM

Microsoft: While Google’s probably more revered for Gmail and its communication suite, Hotmail is still bigger, and Live Messenger is heavily used. Microsoft also produces the popular Outlook software and has software in a variety of arenas, such as Windows Live Meeting, giving the company an edge in the enterprise.

Google: The search giant has a suite of very popular communication products – Gmail and Gtalk being the best known. The X factor in this debate though, is the upcoming Google Wave communication platform, which has impressed us so far. There’s also the intriguing Google Voice offering to consider.

Advantage: Push

4. Mobile

Google: Google’s has good traction with its Android mobile OS given it’s relatively new to the space. It runs on more than one million T Mobile phones and has a strong app platform. Many of Google’s apps also run well on mobile phones, especially Google Maps and YouTube.

Microsoft: Windows Mobile still shipped tens of millions of units last year, far outpacing Android. It also has apps to run Office, Outlook, and Windows Media Player. We think the long-term trend favors Google, but as of right now Microsoft is the leader.

Advantage: Microsoft, but perhaps not for long.

5. Operating System

Microsoft: This is Microsoft’s bread and butter. Windows is the reason Microsoft makes $60+ billion in revenue every year and has stayed on top for so long. Its stranglehold is legendary. Yet Windows Vista proved that it is not invincible.

Google: Let’s say this: we can’t wait to see what Google has in store for Google Chrome OS. We’re skeptical that it could ever kill Windows, but Google will be Microsoft’s most powerful challenger yet.

Conclusion: We look forward to the upcoming war.

Tags: Google, microsoft

Live streaming powerhouse Justin.tv knows that the masses want live video on their favorite social network as well. That’s why today the service is launching Live by Justin.tv, a Facebook app that not only lets you watch live streams, but broadcast as well.

The app is very straightforward: it provides a live stream, broadcast information, and integrates with the Facebook live stream box so that users can discuss what’s happening in a live video in real-time, with those messages also serving as status updates. It’s minimalist, which makes sense, since this app is all about the video.

The release of this app seems to have a lot to do with the launch of another live streaming app by rival Ustream, which has been in use for a while but only launched recently. Unlike the Ustream app, which requires an application to use, Justin.tv’s app is open to anybody.

Providing more options for users is always a good thing. Facebook is one of the best places to spread a live video virally, as we’ve seen with major live broadcasts in the past. Justin.tv and Ustream will almost certainly battle for Facebook dominance. Ustream’s early start gives it an advantage, but Live by Justin.tv’s accessibility could make for some fast growth (and perhaps some interesting live content on Facebook).

Tags: facebook, justin.tv, ustream, video

Name: Groupable

Quick Pitch: Groupable is an online community of groups and sponsors looking to match interests, goals, passions and needs.

Genius Idea: Whether you’re passionate about skiing, preventing animal cruelty, or little league baseball, there’s almost always a group nearby that organizes trips, holds social gatherings, and helps you develop your skills in an area that you love. But there’s always a catch. – it’s called money. Many times, sponsors are the best way to get it. But how do you find the sponsors?

Enter Groupable, a social connection website that aims to match groups with sponsors. Not only that, but the Groupable platform can track statistics on sponsorships, map out group locations, manage sponsorship levels, and even can take sponsorship donations via credit card. The Groupable dashboard is something to behold:

While its features are nice, can it really connect you with sponsors? The answer is absolutely … if they’re on Groupable already. The system works in three steps: sign up, find a sponsor, and connect. Groupable uses features like sponsorship videos and publicity to get your name out. And there is an equally impressive platform for sponsors that allows you to create a profile, add multimedia, and track groups.

Groupable definitely is a strong network for sponsors and groups. It’s well built and makes everything easily trackable. The issue, as with many other social media services, is critical mass – you’re probably not going to find a lot of local sponsors on Groupable yet. But even if you don’t find groups or sponsors through the service, you can add them yourself and use the platform to manage your sponsorships, making it a tool that groups that do a lot of fundraising should consider.

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).”

Tags: bizspark, Groupable

The Italian cartoonist, Federico Fieni, cleverly portrays how Google first pondered how to challenge Windows, put its heads together, and ultimately devised Chrome. Who knew this cartoon would be so much more relevant just a few months later? Check it out:

Tags: cartoons, Google, google chrome os, google os

As more diverse organizations dive into web marketing, for-profit organizations can learn well from their indie counterparts about experimentation and innovation online. A few notable community and arts groups have been inventive in their use of social media and truly collaborative in their outreach in ways that even the most seasoned corporate marketer can appreciate.

Among the arts and community organizations using social media thoughtfully and in big ways (which aren’t necessarily representative of their limited budgets) are independent artists and companies in photography, film, modern art, radio and craft. They’ve capitalized on the audiovisual nature of the Web to showcase the storytelling and community-building aspects of their work, and the results are worth a pass-along.

Photography

In part because of the costs associated with publishing glossy books and magazines, photography communities seem to have taken to online content sharing and promotion in greater volume than many performing arts and regionally-focused organizations. Not being limited by physical page size and printing timelines allows the creators of documentary photo sites to highlight contributor work in more timely and artistic ways, as both Vewd and Blueeyes Magazine demonstrate.

Compared to print collateral, gallery owners and crowdsourced photography publishers say they find that creating a cohesive public presence is simple when the images they present are complimentary across Flickr, their homepages, and the thumbnail versions of logos they use to identify themselves across communities. For users, being able to spend as much time as they like poring over work on sites like the still photography and multimedia showcase MediaStorm is a better professional and amateur photography viewing experience than having museum crowds push them along.

When it comes to fresh content being shared in myriad ways, contemporary online photo publisher Flak Photo has made a model of itself. Sure, it has a six day a week photo newsletter down pat, in addition to Twitter (@flakphoto) and Facebook integration, but the distinguishing factor of Andy Adams’ site is the number of opportunities it offers photographers to promote their work. Photography book reviews, sponsorships and ads, features that are co-promotional for the site and the photographers, and email submissions create a truly community-oriented site for curators, editors and photo fans.

Adams, who schedules, promotes, and publishes Flak Photo from his Wisconsin apartment, said the major benefit of forums and Facebook has been the international dialogue they inspire about the work he features. But they also make creating and distributing photography-related content more cost effective than ever before. “In trying to create something that is entirely in the form of the web, not tied to an event or a physical space, I’ve found that success has been influenced by larger monitor resolutions and high speed Internet connections as much an anything else,” Adams said.

Another photography-driven initiative, the non-profit Slideluck Potshow, has cast a similarly wide social net in their Ning network and offline event-based endeavors. In setting up community photography nights to encourage visual appreciation and arts education, they use blog content from organizers around the world, extensive photosharing, and myriad posts on local events sites to get the word out. The result is a global programming series that’s become the most well known group gathering since the Hungry for Obama dinners.

Film

One of the independent film initiatives that’s helped put crowdsourced content on the map, IndieGoGo has used myriad approaches to introduce their resources, including event-based word of mouth and a filmmaker-oriented Facebook app. In convincing producers and project coordinators to use the site as a catalyst for fundraising, the bi-coastal team of three founders created graphical navigation elements and an easily searchable film project index. The result is a set of customized tools that can be passed along across social networks to free directors and production teams up for filmmaking.

As for fine film lovers, those who expect their online hubs to be as carefully constructed as their favorite Kubrick do well by joining The Auteurs. The Palo Alto-based initiative encourages filmmakers and fans to wax poetic about their favorite techniques and themes, and the rotating web-based film festivals in the Cinematheque section serve as a great introduction to experimental work. The pay-per-view model has a broader selection base than many sites (including the internationally recognized Criterion Collection), but the portions that are most threatening from a time-suck perspective are the forums and critiques.

Beyond the startup set, The Museum of Modern Art’s film series’ diverse selections are accessible through trailers and interactive programming notes from curators on the MoMAMultimedia site. The Flash projects demonstrating printmaking and other artistic mediums are great, but the well-catalogued shorts and special exhibition videos are the most exemplary: their presentation in a clear, easy-to-use format has take-home value for e-retailers in particular.

Modern art

When Gray Area Foundation for the Arts opens its new gallery space for contemporary work in San Francisco’s Tenderloin (where it will be the first permanent space for art in the otherwise less-than-desirable neighborhood), it will already have gained awareness from hundreds of art lovers worldwide through its pre-launch messaging via Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, and partnerships with participating artists.

As part of what GAFFTA executive director Josette Melchor calls these “standard issue tactics” and virtual “cost of entry” for organizations looking to expand their visibility and networks, she will be using Vimeo and iTunes to syndicate video content that highlights exhibitions and participating artists. “As a new media arts organization, we’re excited about building collaborative and data-driven artworks that are directly informed and shaped by human data and activity,” she said. “By incorporating social media into our actual art projects, we will not only be telling a compelling real-time story, but we’re also working to make these projects pre-disposed to spread using the same platforms.”

Other upstart spaces can learn well from Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center, where the exhibits aren’t the only well-curated and organized offering available to the public. Visitors’ initial options upon visiting WalkerArt.org include “Connect,” “Join,” and “Blogs” (with content on design, education, new media initiatives, and visual and performing arts). They also publish art history and analysis podcasts on the museum’s iTunes U channel, and curators’ comments are available through the mobile system Art on Call.

While old and large organizations can be accused of not being the most innovative (you may be able to name a few), the Brooklyn Museum’s use of community-oriented tools is a great example for similarly large companies looking to provide a variety of multimedia options. Beyond engaging with photo and video content, users are encouraged to join the Brooklyn Museum Posse and explore the museum’s online collections. Comments read like college art theory class discussions, and aggregated blog posts about visits to the museum compliment podcasts and network options for friending and following the institution. The $20 annual “socially networked museum membership” 1stfans offers exclusive event invitations and access to artist-created content on the protected Twitter art feed (@1stfans). And the “Tag! You’re It!” introduction to applying keywords to images is a fun and useful introduction for first-time uploaders.

Radio

The culture show The Sound of Young America has gained traction and donations by finding low cost ways to promote “a radio show about things that are awesome” and secured a national syndication deal with Public Radio International in the process. What began with an interview show that Jesse Thorn produced in his college dorm room has grown into a set of MaximumFun.org forums, podcasts recorded at comedy festivals around the country, and a lighthearted blog. The burgeoning content network still maintains Thorn’s personality and authenticity (as evidenced by Tweets (@youngamerican) that were among the most introspective upon Michael Jackson’s death) in ways that many online self-promoters lose in building their brands.

Given the financial bind that public broadcasting currently finds itself in with corporate sponsorships drying up, Chicago Public Radio hosted a social networking challenge where 20 people completed five web-based tasks, including uploading photos of themselves in WBEZ gear and tagging them “Fivetofive” on Flickr and creating station-themed haikus for Twitter, ending in a $5,000 donation from an anonymous donor. One of the participatory challenges included having podcast and radio listeners download the same dance song and show up en masse for a dance-off in the Chicago loop. Not your traditional pledge drive, no doubt.

Craft

In addition to hosting the annual craft conference “Summit of Awesome,” the DIY network Hello Craft makes educational and promotional resources available to independent makers. It invites handmade aficionados to contribute stories about inspiration and first sewing machine purchases to its weekly podcast. When it isn’t broadcasting, Hello Craft tweets about notable work in the crafting community along with the likes of embroidery guru @SublimeStitchn and handmade hub @Etsy.

The current economic situation has brought little in the way of positive news for non-profit and arts organizations, but the resourcefulness that several groups and sites have shown in spite of increasingly smaller marketing budgets provides a great example of creative resiliency. Some artists and executive directors say using social tools to promote their efforts is “second nature,” but their willingness to sample and invest time in such a variety of tools is promising for application developers and companies who can learn from them alike.

Tags: Arts, community, nonprofit, social media

News Corp and its Fox Interactive division would be one of those big corporations. It has the scale and a desperate need to provide a boost to its declining flagship social network MySpace, which it bought back in 2005. So could News Corp make a run for Twitter? And could the rumor that News Corp is selling MySpace be true? Rupert Murdoch just provided the answers.

The legendary media tycoon and CEO of News Corp made some very direct and intriguing comments today at the Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference, of which Twitter co-founder Evan Willams is also attending. Specifically, Murdoch made his thoughts on Twitter and MySpace clear. According to Reuters, he gave a one word answer to the question of whether there was interest in buying twitter:

“No.”

And he gave a two word answer to the question of whether there was a chance News Corp would sell MySpace:

“Hell no.”

He went on after that to criticize Facebook as “a directory” that is going to have trouble making money. And of Twitter? Murdoch said it’s not a smart investment because it has not proven it can create a sustainable revenue stream.

I guess we’re not going to see TwitSpace or MyTwit anytime soon (thankfully), but Murdoch probably has bigger concerns, as MySpace just cut 30% of its staff and changed CEOs in an attempt to become relevant again.

Tags: myspace, rupert murdoch, twitter

Page admins will now see an “Add Fan Box to your site” link under the logo of their page. From there, they can cut and paste the code into their website, which will then display a widget containing that page’s latest updates, and optionally, pictures of fans. Additionally, Facebook users can become a fan of a Page right from the website the Box is embedded on.

For example, here’s what Mashable’s Fan Box looks like:

Considering gaining fans means gaining access to a user’s homepage on Facebook, expect to see lots of these boxes popping up around the Web. Much like Facebook’s recently launched Live Stream Box, which lets anyone create a CNN/Facebook-like integration, it’s yet another tool for blogs and website owners to capitalize on the massive reach of the social network.

In a post to its developer blog, Facebook notes that the Fan Box has already been implemented by Coca-Cola, Newsweek, and Threadless.

Tags: facebook, facebook pages, widgets

The video shows a Metro train operator text messaging during operation, a clear violation of policy and incredibly eerie considering the fatal crash that occurred on the Metro last month. Although that incident hasn’t been blamed on texting, a crash last year in Los Angeles involved the train operator texting just moments before a deadly collision.

According to Fox News, the DC train operator caught in the act (who also admitted to it) was suspended for five days without pay when the video surfaced.

The video was captured on June 5th – before the DC train crash – but nonetheless, surfaces at a time when assuring public safety is top priority for the organization. Like the infamous shooting on the BART train by a police officer in Oakland back on New Year’s, it’s yet another example of how the public is increasingly keeping public employees (and frankly, anyone acting inappropriately) accountable by utilizing technology and social media.

Tags: camera phones, dc metro, youtube

Planning an event on Facebook is already fairly easy – you just click on “Events” from the applications menu bar and create one. But the social network has decided to make it even easier, letting you create an event directly from the publisher (aka, the “what’s on your mind” box).

To do so, Facebook explains, ”after clicking on the “Events” icon, you can enter information about what the event is and where and when you want to meet. You can invite friends directly from the Feed story that’s created either on your Profile or your News Feed. Just select the “Invite guests” link to share the event with friends.”

Like other Facebook updates, this is presumably being rolled out gradually, so you might not see it yet (I don’t), but Facebook shows what it looks like:

Moving events to the publisher makes sense, and it seems Facebook hopes users start using the app more casually – you’ll notice the example they offer is “lunch,” as opposed to the more formal invites you might be used to receiving.

Keep in mind, however, that the publisher is set to become increasingly complicated, as Facebook is currently testing its new per-update privacy options that will be rolled out to all users in coming weeks. Too much clutter could lead to users simply ignoring the features and continuing to just post status updates – user behavior that Facebook is clearly hoping to change.

Tags: event planning, Events, facebook

If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable’s Job Lists section gathers together all our resource lists, how-tos and expert guides to help you get hired. In particular, you might want to see our articles on How to Leverage Social Media for Career Success and How to Find a Job on Twitter.

But we’d like to help in a more direct way, too. Mashable’s job boards are a place for socially-savvy companies to find people like you. This week and every week, Mashable features its coveted job board listings for a variety of positions in the web, social media space, and beyond. Have a look at what’s good and new on our job boards:

Mashable Job Board Listings

The most necessary requirement of this position – is an ability to create in-depth Social Media proposals with an eye towards driving a PR campaign, then helping those proposals to be executed – either through your own technical expertise, or by appropriately functioning as a Project Manager. Examples of your writing and previous proposals are required.

Read more about this opportunity here.

This position will provide digital counsel to clients, support the agency’s digital platform in the Midwest Region, infuse digital thinking into all media programs, driving/managing client relationships, activate online media programs, advance digital thinking among account teams, and provide digital direction for new business opportunities

Read more about this opportunity here.

Roles include developing electronic communications strategy to drive the development of compelling user experiences, providing thought leadership and drive a strong point of view on web, social media and e-communications content strategy within the organization, and coordinating and working with Web projects across multiple divisions to maintain a consistent look and feel to various Web pages contained within a public website, an internal website, and a secure website for all Web pages.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Luminosity Marketing is seeking a sales/marketing director to lead our new business program. If you are an up-and-coming ambitious new business manager, with experience in the marketing communications space, who would like to turbo-charge your career with a move to a boutique firm, we’d love to hear from you.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Tell us what you want your job to be! We may be small, but our goals are big. We pride ourselves on our ability to grow our clients’ revenues; clients seem to like that. The good news is, we’re growing, and what that means is that we need to bring in new people to join our team. We might just be looking for Y-O-U.

Read more about this opportunity here.

The Marketing Programs Manager will manage a wide variety of marketing communications programs with a special focus on social media and campaigns to LogMeIn’s existing user base. This includes product announcements, newsletters, online events, social media programs, programs designed to encourage usage, and online community development. The primary goal is to drive a valued and positive experience for users, customers, prospects and other relevant audiences.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Write and edit copy for online marketing communications including but not limited to business letters, web site content, sales letters, email and direct marketing campaigns. Develop and update content of marketing materials and collateral. Establish strong relationships across departments with an understanding of marketing strategy and operational capabilities. Able to consistently deliver high quality work with attention to detail and correct form.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Bazaarvoice is hiring a full time developer for its Proof of Concept Engineering group here in Austin. This group is responsible for launching customer driven product pilots. In addition to launching pilots, Proof of Concept Engineers are responsible for exploring new social technologies and will be involved in advanced data mining and web analytics projects.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Vanguard is looking for a full-time Senior Account Executive with a strong background in digital strategies and social media who can weave their work into public education and social marketing campaigns for our clients.

Read more about this opportunity here.

This is an outward-facing position covering partner community outreach, community support, product integration, and plug-in and application development. This individual will be expected to represent Gigya at in-person meetings, conferences, product demonstrations, meet-ups, and other events. Also, he or she will promote Gigya through forums, articles, tutorials, and online communities.

Read more about this opportunity here.

You will be responsible to design, build and support mobile client application on a variety of mobile platforms, develop new mobile products and features for existing products using Java, port Loopt J2ME mobile client to a wide variety of handsets, work closely with QA to ensure quality of the J2ME client, and work with UI designers to deliver the best possible user experience

Read more about this opportunity here.

You must understand how computers, algorithms, memory, concurrency and data structures work, be willing and able to learn new things every day, have opinions, be confident enough to ask questions and challenge false assumptions, be creative, and have a degree in Computer Science or related field.

Read more about this opportunity here.

We’re looking for a Digital Strategist to join our ranks, an individual deeply ingrained in media culture, “pull-not-push” marketing and the dynamics of on- and off-line community-building. This individual will play a critical role at Ketchum, helping clients monitor and interact with enthusiast communities; playing an active role in business development; helping develop and evangelize a company-wide perspective on the use of emerging media; and building new products and services for the agency.

Read more about this opportunity here.

To be considered, you must understand how computers, algorithms, memory, concurrency, and data structures work and be able to debug them; have experience with Cocoa and Objective-C; be a Loopt user and tell us your ideas and complaints; and have a degree in Computer Science or a related field.

Read more about this opportunity here.

DDC.com, a leader in domain development and monetization is seeking a strong, full-time web designer with a high-end aesthetic to help build out our prime website properties of top-level domain names such as Divorce.com and SkiResorts.com, among others. Ideal candidates will be independent creative thinkers who possess both strong technical abilities as well as a keen eye for polished, compelling web design and UI. This is a great opportunity to work on all aspects of web development from design to launch. Be part of a fun and fast-paced development environment with quick feedback and turn-around.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Metierlink is looking for a strategic and results-driven Director of Online Marketing for our client, located in Northern New Jersey. You must have several years of Online Marketing experience including heavy expertise in Site Analytics/Conversion, SEM, SEO, Email Marketing and Affiliate Marketing. Previous experience with a subscriber modeled site and social media a huge plus.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Please pass this on to anyone who might be looking for an interesting, challenging job overseas (specifically in Armenia). They’re looking for someone who can help some very talented (especially TV and documentary production) traditional media folks use new tools, including finding creative ways to reach folks in low-bandwidth environments. Also, to help them reach out to citizen media communities. An amazing opportunity for the right tech-savvy but also journalistically rigorous person.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Meebo is seeking top-notch JavaScript Engineers with strong CS fundamentals who feel at home developing high-quality web products that reach millions of users.

Read more about this opportunity here.

We have openings for entry level software engineers for our Content Engineering Team to play a key role in making Simply Hired the best job search engine on the planet.

Read more about this opportunity here.

ADF is seeking a full-time and highly professional Sr. Web Specialist responsible for developing and executing creative concepts for all online marketing communication initiatives and the construction of all emails and landing page. The Sr. Web Specialist is responsible for increasing the quality, quantity and turnaround time of all ADF online marketing communications. As a result, there will be an increase in team capacity-allowing ADF to respond to a greater number of requests and opportunities for growth. Other responsibilities include managing and updating all content on the ADF websites.

Read more about this opportunity here.

ADF seeks a full-time Social Media Director responsible for developing and executing plans in social networking, video sharing, web communities and on other social media sites. Responsibilities include developing and executing quality web content and messaging that will drive appropriate traffic to specific ADF websites. You must love being personally/professionally active in social platforms and blogging and be an early adopter who is always the first to discover the latest on-line buzz.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Some duties entail leading enterprise-wise social direction, via creation & execution of vision and mission statements, for areas such as: Social (general), Social Technology & Communities, Social Media, enabling and enacts social media strategies, campaigns, and ensures the optimal use of in-house technical and community platforms, and maintaining awareness of social technology & related trends, and communication of this aspect throughout the enterprise.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Want to be a part of a growing Web 2.0 company that is gaining market share and media attention? Are you a marketer who enjoys using creative guerilla tactics to gain awareness? Help us get the word out! Join us in promoting pay-per-click advertising in the recruitment vertical. You can make a direct impact to the bottom line.

Read more about this opportunity here.

A Strategy Intern will work closely with our Creative Director, Art Director and Executive producer to help research background data for business pitches and internal initiatives and will play a supporting role on research and development. He/She will also assist Producers with active projects – sometimes this may involve QAing a new site, other times it might involve working with the team to add Social Networking value to existing projects.

Read more about this opportunity here.

You’d collaborate in the development and implementation of online marketing plans for all titles, create and execute social networking strategy for HarperOne, our imprint, authors and product lines, possess the ability to regularly build new networks and groups to facilitate community around key authors, brands and books, keep on top of and test new applications, websites and online tools for promoting authors and book (stay on the lookout for Web 3.0), and more!

Read more about this opportunity here.

Currently seeking Director to lead the growing social media arm of our business. This person will manage all parts of the social media department, including sales, execution, reporting, training, and departmental growth.

Read more about this opportunity here.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory seeks a highly gifted, creative individual with strong leadership skills and organizational abilities to manage JPL’s online publishing, including JPL’s World Wide Web home page site.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Marketwire is looking for an ambitious online direct marketer to be responsible for developing and executing demand generation campaigns to drive new leads to our products as well as programs to nurture existing prospects and retain our customers. The online marketing and lead generation manager will develop integrated online marketing programs designed to drive traffic, leads, high response rates and quality opportunity conversions.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Lolapps is seeking engineers to work on a full spectrum of web development from front end through back end. You should be entrepreneurial, proactive, and love software development.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Mashable has a variety of web 2.0, application development, business development, and social networking job opportunities available. Check them out at Mashable’s Job Board.

Got a job posting to share with our readers? Post a job to Mashable today ($50 for a 30 day listing) and get it highlighted every week on Mashable.com (in addition to exposure all day every day in the Mashable marketplace).

Tags: careers, jobs, mashable

According to Reuters, The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a statement that it’s possible that North Korea orchestrated the attacks, with the same allegations appearing in the South Korean media. Since Internet access is strictly controlled in North Korea, it’s hard to imagine a mere group of government sympathizers conducting such an attack, which, according to NIS, requires “meticulous preparations.”

If a North Korean government-approved cyber attack squad was really behind the attack, it’s an interesting case of cyber warfare on a state level, something we’ve never seen before. Having hackers secretly attacking a site is one thing; having such an organization with considerable means at their disposal is another.

In this weekend’s attack, government sites, banks, and shopping sites were targeted. Shares of South Korean cyber security firms skyrocketed. It’s not hard to imagine an attack that would have serious economic consequences, and the US Army has recently been working on enhanced cyber security to defend from such attacks. However, what seems like a geek’s dream come true – a cyber war – might end up in tighter government control over the Internet, which can have serious privacy implications for all of us.

Tags: cyber war, North Korea

Of course, social media is starting from a smaller base. Forrester estimates that $716 million will be spent on the medium this year, growing to $3.1 billion in 2014. At that point, social media will be a bigger marketing channel than both email and mobile, but still just a fraction of the size of search or display advertising ($31.6B and $16.9B, respectively).

Not surprisingly, some of this growth comes at the expense of offline advertising. Forrester estimates that online advertising will grow from 12 percent of total marketing spend this year to 21 percent by 2014, meaning that offline ad spend will fall. In fact, Forrester concludes that “overall advertising budgets will decline,” meaning efficiencies are being had by shifting money to the Web.

In any event, it’s hard to argue that the numbers don’t paint a fairly rosy picture for the future of social media marketing. At Mashable, we’ve been covering an influx of innovative social media campaigns lately – check out a few of them:

Social Media Goo: Cadbury Campaign Going Viral

Dead Grasshoppers Give Life to Social Media Marketing Campaign

SeaWorld’s Whale of a Social Media Campaign

Social Media Giving: Target’s Smart Facebook Campaign

Why Ford is Winning on the Social Web

Is Social Media Making Corporate Websites Irrelevant?

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alexsl

Tags: MARKETING, online marketing, social media, social media marketing

As the industry changes, so have the methods by which music is promoted. Traditional marketing is being replaced by artists and bands using social media sites like Twitter to engage fans, promote their work, and connect with others. The modern web and the future of the music industry seem almost inextricably intertwined in terms of marketing, listening, communicating, and purchasing. Twitter is one of the many ways for people to instantly and quickly communicate, and artists are taking advantage of its vast potential.

Is your favorite artist tweeting? Here are over 100 musicians who tweet to keep fans and friends informed. Tell us about additional musicians you’re following in the comments.

A – C

50 Cent – Rapper 50 Cent posts tons of links, retweets content (mostly about himself) and updates very regularly. He hardly follows anyone, so don’t expect a return follow.

Adam Goldstein – Adam Goldstein, better known as DJ AM, tweets mostly about his music. He also @replies and retweets plenty of content. He doesn’t follow many people, though.

Al Yankovic – Comedic singer Al Yankovic’s tweets are usually funny, often giving some insight into his day-to-day life. He posts TwitPics pretty regularly, too.

Alicia Keys – Keys tweets almost every day (sometimes multiple times), giving fans some insight into her daily life and what she’s up to. She also tweets back and forth with friends and family members.

Amanda Palmer – Amanda Palmer, lead singer, composer, and pianist with The Dresden Dolls, tweets constantly (sometimes with more than 20 updates a day) about her music and life. She posts TwitPics and links regularly, too.

Amy Grant – Contemporary Christian singer-songwriter Amy Grant tweets regularly, sometimes @replying to other Twitterers, but mostly offering updates about her daily life.

Ashlee Simpson Wentz – While she doesn’t tweet as often as her husband (Pete Wentz, below), Ashlee still tweets multiple times each day, often conversing with other Twitterers. She posts photos occasionally, though most of her tweets are parts of conversations.

Ashley Tisdale – Actress and singer-songwriter Ashley Tisdale tweets daily, with updates about her music and life, including regularly posting TwitPics of herself and her activities.

Ben Folds – Ben Folds of the Ben Folds Five tweets regularly and often posts TwitPics to show what he’s up to. He doesn’t follow many people, but it looks like he does pay attention to those who @reply to him and sometimes replies back.

Ben Kweller – Indie rock star Ben Kweller tweets often, talking to friends and giving fans an inside look into his personal life and adventures on tour, many times including photos and music clips.

Billy Corgan – Billy Corgan, frontman for the Smashing Pumpkins (and the only remaining original member) and former leader of Zwan, tweets a few times a week. His tweets have little to do with his music on most occasions and tend to revolve around religion and personal improvement-type advice.

Blitzen Trapper – Straight out of Portland, Oregon, country-come-rock band Blitzen Trapper tweets about upcoming shows and interviews, letting you know where you can hear more about the band and their music.

Bloc Party – British indie rock band Bloc Party often updates with links to images. The band sometimes challenges Twitterers to be the first to @reply to win free tickets to upcoming shows. Bloc Party donated music to Twitter’s global charity, Twestival, raising money for charity: water. If you’re a visual person, their tweets may hit the spot for you.

Britney Spears – No introduction is needed for Britney. A victim of the recent Twitter hacks, Britney’s Twitter is somewhat personal. The account is updated by her team with occasional tweets from the singer herself, signed “-Britney” and “-Brit”.

Calvin Harris – British singer-songwriter, electronic musician, and record producer Calvin Harris tweets about his music and appearances, as well as replying to many other Twitterers.

Cary Brothers – American singer-songwriter and indie rocker Cary Brothers tweets about his music, his friends’ music, and a bit about life in general. He generally doesn’t return follows, but he does reply to other Twitterers.

Cassettes Won’t Listen – Jason Drake’s one man, Brooklyn-based project, Cassettes Won’t Listen, tweets about his music, pop culture, and music in general. It looks like he return-follows most of his followers, too.

Chris Cornell – Former Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell tweets about his daily life, his kids, and his music and posts TwitPics pretty regularly. He also tweets about upcoming shows and sometimes even runs informal contests to give away tickets to his shows.

Coldplay – The British rock band posts updates about their music and performances. Some of their tweets are likely from assistants, but there are plenty signed by individual members of the band.

Colin Meloy – A member of The Decemberists, Meloy tweets several times a day about music, food, life, and even some official Decemberists news and updates. If you enjoy perks such as Twitter-only presales, a follow might just be worth it.

Collective Soul – This is the band’s official Twitter page, but it looks like band members do the updates most of the time. They also return-follow all of their followers and often @reply and retweet content.

Counting Crows – Lead singer Adam Duritz updates from the road while the band is on tour. He tweets a few times each day, offering up information on their performances and his take on the cities they’re visiting.

D – H

D.A. Wallach – One of the members of the band Chester French. He tweets about their music, tour dates, and random information about daily life. Updates come on a pretty consistent basis with a half-dozen or more tweets each day.

Dananananaykroyd – This indie rock band from Glasgow, Scotland updates often, with some information on their shows and lots of idle chitchat. They reply to followers sometimes, though they don’t generally return follows.

Dandy Warhols – The group’s manager updates regularly, discussing the group’s music and what they’re up to.

Dave Matthews – Yep, this is the official Dave Matthews. Not the band, not commercialized updates, but the musician himself. Although he doesn’t follow anyone sans Obama, CNN, and Brett Radin, Matthews still makes himself unbelievably social, with most of his tweets being replies to others. Sure, there are the occasional band updates, but Matthews’ Twitter tends to be strictly social.

David Usher – Former lead singer of Moist and now a solo artist, David Usher is a social Twitter user. Usher also has a reputation for talking to other musicians and replying to them on the site. So if you’re into being a fly on the wall for conversations between celebrities, Usher’s page might just be your thing.

Demi Lovato – Actress and singer-songwriter Demetria “Demi” Lovato tweets constantly with updates on her daily life, including regularly posting TwitPics. She frequently has conversations with other Twitterers but doesn’t return-follow.

Diddy – Rapper, actor, and entrepreneur (among other titles) Sean “Diddy” Combs tweets multiple times each day, offering fans a glimpse into his daily activities and personal life.

The Donnas – LA-based all-girls band The Donnas tweet announcements of new merch, studio updates, reports and more. It should be noted that they do tweet themselves, and that their account isn’t strictly promotional — all the better!

Diplo – Philadelphia-based DJ Diplo, infamous for his work with M.I.A., introduces a different breed of celebrity Twitter users. His absolutely random, satirical, and just nonsensical tweets are the perfect brain teaser or picker-upper for those days that simply seem dull. Give him a follow if you enjoy Twitter arguments between DJs and musicians.

Edward Droste – Grizzly Bear member Edward Droste also tweets one or two times a day, responding to users and keeping the world up to date on what he’s doing. At a recent show, Twitter was called out from the crowd and mentioned on stage. Droste tweeted afterward, admitting his Twitter addiction.

Eminem – Eminem often posts TwitPics of himself and his surroundings. He also posts updates on shows, appearances, and his professional activities. He doesn’t follow anyone, but he does seem to occasionally reply to followers.

The Faint – Omaha punk rock quintet The Faint tweet almost every day, often with either updates on their music or replies to their followers. They follow almost everyone who follows them and reply quite often to their fans.

Flosstradamus – Flosstradamus update with TwitPics, links, and random conversation. They tweet daily and sometimes reply to their followers and others. They don’t return follows, though.

Fred Durst – Musician-turned-director Fred Durst, well known for his band Limp Bizkit in the late 90s, tweets replies and comments, as well as the occasional link.

Hadouken! – UK-based grime band Hadouken also uses Twitter, constantly updating with news, replies, small talk, questions, and comments. The bio says “we update this ourselves” — this isn’t a major label marketing scheme; it’s the band members themselves attempting to reach out to users and fans.

HotHotHeat – The Canadian rock band (currently touring with Bloc Party) definitely doesn’t update too frequently. However, photo updates are posted every few days when active, and news regarding their upcoming album also gets tweeted often.

Hypnogaja – Los Angeles-based rock band Hypnogaja regularly tweet about daily life and their music, post TwitPics, and engage with other Twitterers.

I – K

Imogen Heap – Imogen Heap updates unbelievably frequently, usually every few hours. She’s very active within the Twitter community and constantly responds to users. Heap posts general news and musings, a must follow for sure. Imogen Heap also donated songs to Twestival.

Jamie Cullum – London-based Jamie Cullum often tweets about personal things like his favorite music or what he’s thinking about while on tour.

Japanther – Brooklyn indie noise rockers Japanther always update, though not always about news. The band posts about recent and upcoming gigs, and their social lives. If you like the band, or can identify locally with Brooklyn, check it out.

Jason Mraz – Singer-songwriter Jason Mraz tweets a few times every day, sometimes posting links or TwitPics in addition to updates on his work and personal life.

Jessica Simpson – Simpson’s Twitter account is updated sporadically, sometimes with multiple tweets a day, other times with a few days passing between them. Her tweets often include TwitPics of herself and her day-to-day activities.

Jewel – Singer/songwriter Jewel tweets mostly about her music, including updates on her upcoming album. It looks like she replies to some fans, even though she doesn’t follow back.

John Mayer – Mayer uses Twitter to communicate with his fans, as well as occasionally share and promote new music. Few music related updates will be found on Mayer’s account, however, he likes to keep it strictly personal. You may even remember Twitter being implicated in Mayer’s breakup with Jennifer Aniston. Be advised: long tweets in caps, links to TwitPic and profanity make regular appearances in his stream.

John Roderick – Currently the lead singer of The Long Winter, Roderick has also been involved (either as a touring member or a guest musician) with Harvey Danger, Death Cab for Cutie, Nada Surf, and The Decemberists. A lot of his tweets are replies to others. He also updates about his music.

John Vanderslice – John Vanderslice, who made a splash in the 90s with his song about Bill Gates, tweets about his shows and being on tour, his music, and his life. He hardly follows anyone, so don’t expect a return follow or much conversation.

Jonas Brothers – The Jonas Brothers seem to update collectively, with tweets about their music, shows, and appearances. They sometimes post TwitPics of themselves, both candid and at performances.

Justin Timberlake – Timberlake’s daily tweets often give links to his blog posts, though he also engages with his followers on occasion. Just don’t expect him to follow you back.

Katy Perry – Katy Perry tweets regularly, including updates about her tour dates and life on tour, and replies to others. Don’t expect a follow back, though, as she hardly follows anyone.

Keri Hilson – Recording artist Keri Hilson tweets nearly every day about her work and life, including TwitPics and occasional conversations with other Twitterers.

Kid Sister – Hip-hop artist Kid Sister is both a Twitter and BlackBerry addict. The Chicago-based musician is entirely social, with nearly all of her updates being replies. If you’re into communicating with your favorite musicians, click the follow button.

Kimberly Cole – Singer-songwriter Kimberly Cole tweets daily about her personal life and her music. She doesn’t return follow but it does look like she sometimes responds to fans.

L – P

Lady Gaga – Singer and songwriter Lady Gaga (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) doesn’t tweet often, but when she does she updates about her work and personal life. She rarely interacts with other Twitterers and doesn’t appear to post photos or links. She is following more than 10% of her followers, though.

Lenny Kravitz – Lenny Kravitz updates regularly, often tweeting multiple times each day. He posts links, TwitPics, concert information, and often tweets about touring, including some glimpses backstage.

Lil Wayne – Rapper Lil Wayne tweets about his music and work, along with posting TwitPics and links on a regular basis. He tweets most days, though sometimes takes a break for a day or two.

Lily Allen – Pop and (former) TV star Lily Allen loves to procrastinate on Twitter. Follow this rising musician if you love pastries, rants, and ramblings on television and the weather — Allen tweets literally whatever is on her mind.

Lisa Loeb – Singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb tweets about her music and daily life, updating often. She has almost two-thirds as many follows as she does followers but doesn’t do @replies or otherwise engage with her fans very often.

Little Boots – Electropop musician Little Boots (Victoria Hesketh) tweets about her life, music, and shows. She doesn’t return-follow, but she does often @reply to followers and other Twitterers.

Ludacris – Actor and rapper Ludacris tweets about his life and work. He posts photos, links, and occasionally retweets.

Mandy Moore – Mandy Moore’s tweets run the gamut from updates on shows she’s been to recently to what she’s up to personally and professionally. She’s relatively new to Twitter but updates regularly (at least once every day or two).

Matisyahu – Hassidic reggae/pop/rock star Matisyahu is a fan of two things: Twitter and his BlackBerry. When used in conjunction, the two create a steady stream of updates about his music, video, and other media directly from the man himself. If you want to be the first to know about new tracks and quick last minute ticket opportunities, give a quick follow. Plus, he follows nearly everyone back.

MC Hammer – Avid social media user MC Hammer is on Twitter, and his tweets are unexpectedly personal. From updates about his family to religion, Hammer covers all the bases for his fans.

Mike Doughty – Indie-rock singer/songwriter Mike Doughty tweets about music — both his own and others’ — and often replies to his followers and retweets content.

Miley Cyrus – Singer and actress Miley Cyrus tweets constantly about her day-to-day activities, including photos and announcements of when she’ll be doing live chats and appearances. She converses a bit with other Twitterers, but don’t expect a return follow—she only follows a few dozen people.

Moby – Musician, DJ and singer/songwriter Moby (Richard Melville Hall) tweets a few times a day, offering updates on his music and performances. He sometimes posts links to interviews and other articles, too.

Muse – Unlike many other (popular) and well known bands, Muse actually runs their own Twitter account, frequently updating with photos and other little snippets of news that might not be found anywhere else as quickly. The band enjoys integrating photos with news, so for those out there who are purely visual people and love Muse, a follow may be necessary.

Neil Diamond – Pop legend Neil Diamond tweets somewhat irregularly, but his tweets are generally worth reading. He often posts TwitPics and @replies to other Twitterers. He doesn’t follow anyone, so don’t expect a return-follow.

Nick Cannon – Actor, television personality and rapper Nick Cannon tweets pretty much every day, giving updates on his work and personal life and providing commentary on various topics.

Passion Pit – Electronic band Passion Pit updates often about their shows and music, along with posting TwitPics pretty regularly. They don’t return follow but they do occasionally @reply.

Pete Wentz – Wentz is the bassist of Fall Out Boy and is married to Ashlee Simpson. He’s incredibly active on Twitter, often engaging in long conversations with other (mostly famous) Twitterers. He doesn’t follow many people, though, so don’t expect a follow back.

Pete Yorn – Like John Mayer, Pete Yorn posts and tweets himself, and constantly asks his followers questions. Interaction and bits of news are the pros of following Yorn, as well as a closer view of his life outside of recording and performing.

Pink – Pink’s tweets give a ton of insight into what her daily life is really like, offering up information on what she’s reading, doing, seeing, and listening to. She tweets prolifically, often updating a dozen times a day.

Q – S

Q-Tip – Queens-based rapper and producer Q-Tip, formerly of the group A Tribe Called Quest, keeps his Twitter strictly personal, and updates almost non-stop some days. For a committed user and talented musician, give him a follow.

Questo – The Twitter feed of Ahmir Thompson, better known as Questo of The Roots. He tweets consistently, with a dozen or more tweets on most days. Updates include information about The Roots’ nightly performances as the house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and personal, day-to-day bits.

Rancid – While they don’t update terribly often (every day or two), the Rancid Twitter feed gives great, personalized updates on their shows and events. They don’t follow any of their fans back, and it doesn’t look like they do much in the way of replies, but it’s still a great place to get some insider info on this legendary punk band.

Rev Run – Rev Run (also known as DJ Run or Joey Simmons), one of the founding members of Run-D.M.C., tweets a few times each day, offering up primarily inspirational tweets to his followers.

Rise Against – American punk-rockers Rise Against often post TwitPics of themselves and their shows, along with updates on their music, shows, and touring. They don’t follow anyone, though, and rarely engage with other Twitterers.

Rob Thomas – Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas tweets constantly, updating fans on his daily life, his music, and often conversing with his followers and other Twitter users. He also usually tweets a “song of the day,” covering a wide spectrum of different artists.

Roger McGuinn – Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Roger McGuinn tweets about his music, upcoming shows, and some videos and links. It looks like he follows back some of his followers, but not many. He does do @replies, though.

Samantha Ronson – DJ and singer-songwriter Samantha Ronson carries on tons of conversations with other Twitterers in addition to posting about her daily activities and personal life, as well as occasional TwitPics.

Sara Bareilles – Sara doesn’t update very often, but her tweets are more conversational than many artists’. Her tweets sometimes include links or TwitPics of herself, lending some authenticity.

Sebastian Bach – Sebastian Bach, the former frontman for Skid Row, tweets about his music and his shows. He also tweets updates from his blog and engages with a lot of his followers.

Silversun Pickups – Los Angeles-based indie-rock band Silversun Pickups tweet tons of TwitPics from backstage at their concerts, along with updates on their shows and appearances.

Slash – Former lead guitarist for Guns N Roses and current lead guitarist for Velvet Revolver, Slash’s tweets mostly focus on his music and what the band is up to. He sometimes posts TwitPics of himself and others, too.

Sneaky Sound System – Sydney-based Sneaky Sound System are using Twitter to share their love of music and playing gigs. The dance group posts news, @replies to fans, and provides some commentary about their music. If you’re a fan, the account is worth a follow.

Snoop Dogg – This account appears to be updated at least some of the time by Snoop Dogg himself. Tweets about concert dates, when he’s appearing live on Ustream and just general conversation are all included.

Solange Knowles – Singer-songwriter Solange Knowles, sister to Beyonce, tweets about music, movies, and her blog. She also replies to tons of other Twitterers, though she doesn’t follow very many.

Sonic Youth – A mix of promotional and personal tweets, posted by multiple people (with individual tweets being specified by initials), the band’s Twitter is great for those who want to be up to date (in all ways) on the band’s goings on.

Soulja Boy – Rapper and record producer Soulja Boy (DeAndre Ramone Way) tweets about his music and life, including links to his live Ustream broadcasts. He doesn’t return follows and doesn’t seem to converse with his followers (or many other Twitterers) very often, though.

Soulwax – This Dutch DJ’s Twitter page is full of quick updates and up-to-the-minute music and video releases. The music master also gives advice on what new music to check out and listen to, and his favorite new videos and songs.

Stereophonics – Run by the guys themselves, Stereophonics’ Twitter page is full of both useful and useless information. Although it contains some news regarding the band, many updates concern the members’ personal lives and answers to the eternal Twitter question: “what are they doing?”

The Streets – UK garage star Mike Skinner is constantly updating from his iPhone. If you’re a fan of personal, self-run Twitter accounts that aren’t used for self promotion, and love to find out what’s going on in stars’ personal lives, following Skinner might just be the answer.

The Subways – English alt-rock band The Subways tweet about their music and shows, and often @reply to other Twitterers, though don’t follow many in return.

T – Z

Taylor Swift – Country singer Taylor Swift tweets sporadically, sometimes updating multiple times in a single day and other times skipping a couple of days completely. But her updates give a glimpse into her daily life, including what’s going on backstage, her music, and her personal life. She doesn’t return follow but she does seem to engage with other Twitterers.

The Teenagers – French band The Teenagers, one of the most prominent emerging bands of 2007 and 2008, combine both personal and promotional elements for their Twitter account.

Tokyo Police Club – Canadian indie-rockers Tokyo Police Club tweet about their music, shows and appearances, and life in general. They reply to followers pretty regularly and also post TwitPics often.

Trent Reznor – The guy behind Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor uses Twitter to communicate with his fans. Almost like a fan forum, Reznor takes hold of the large Twitter population and asks questions and receives advice from fans. This is unsurprising, considering Reznor’s open support of electronic communities.

Trey Songz – Recording artist, producer and actor Trey Songz tweets a few times a day, offering updates on his work and conversing with tons of other Twitterers. He also posts TwitPics and links.

Usher Raymond – Recording artist and actor Usher Raymond is relatively new to Twitter. He updates often, though not every day, and his tweets cover his life and his music. He often converses with other Twitterers.

Weezer – Whether you’re a devoted fan or just looking to catch up with one of the hottest bands of the 90s (who are still going strong), give Weezer a follow. The account, which was once purely news and nothing personal, has changed. The band now replies to users and talks about subjects other than music.

Wyclef Jean – Former Fugees member and multi-platinum-selling musician Wyclef Jean tweets often, conversing with other Twitter users, posting links, and otherwise updating about his daily activities and work. He recently spoke at the 140 Character Conference, a conference in New York City entirely devoted to Twitter, about how technology is changing people’s lives and the music industry.

Zoe Keating – Cellist and composer Zoe Keating tweets about her music and often engages in conversations with other Twitterers. She also posts links and retweets content.

Other Musicians

There are thousands of musicians on Twitter, from major label stars to small indie bands. We’ve focused this list on some of the essential follows for music fans, but there are many more that music aficionados should consider following. MuseBin has a great Twitter music aggregator that brings together tweets from a large number of bands, while the Twellow directory lists tens of thousands of bands and artists. Also check out the huge list of musicians on Twitter, actively maintained by music fan Gabriel Nijmeh.

More music resources from Mashable:

- Social Music: Top 5 Music Recommendation Services
- Social Music: Top 5 Sites to Build a Playlist
- 18 of the Best Music Tumblelogs
- HOW TO: Use Social Media for Sharing Music
- 16 Great Music Add-Ons for Firefox

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Jan_Kowalski

Tags: celebrities, Lists, music, musicians, twitter

Not so fast. Someone has to play the devil’s advocate here, and since the devil has a lot going in its favor this time, I’ll gladly lay out the case.

Before we start, let’s get something out of the way: I’m a fan of both Google and Microsoft – I don’t adore everything these two companies have done, but both have had many great moments. I’ve been using Windows since 1.0 (yes, you read that right), I’ve enjoyed my ride with Windows XP, but I’ve also been criticizing Vista for lack of innovation and not taking the huge upcoming netbook market into consideration.

On the other hand, I’ve expected Google to create an OS at some point and I definitely think that it’s a good idea. If it manages to be what Google promises – fast, secure, and simple – it’ll be a great addition to the somewhat stale OS market.

The bumpy road ahead

With that out of the way, let’s look at some problems Google will inevitably face. Details aside, Microsoft’s domination of the OS market is due to two reasons:

1. It’s very hard to get all the hardware makers to create drivers (or create them yourself) for your OS.

2. It’s very hard to get all the software makers to create versions of their software that’ll work on your OS.

Say what you want about Windows, but between the previous version (Windows XP) and the current version (Vista), you can get all of your hardware to run. Eight year old plotters, pro sound cards, ancient el cheapo WiFi USB adapters – there’s a way to get them all to work on Windows. Now, I can hear the angry wail of a thousand Linux users coming this way (for the record: I occasionally use Linux myself for specific purposes), but there’s no denying it: you can’t do that on Linux. No matter what distribution you use, in many cases you will encounter hardware problems. And often, you won’t be able to solve them. I’ve seen many of my friends switching to Linux, sticking with it for as long as a year, and then simply switching back to Windows because some piece of hardware won’t work.

When it comes to software, there’s the ancient “Photoshop argument,” which can be summed up in this way: if you’re a long time Windows user, chances are you’ve got a favorite piece of software that won’t run on Linux. It can be a game, or it can be Photoshop (and no, GIMP is not that good), it can be something else, but there will always be something missing. I can live with that. I’ve always got at least three working computers at home; I can run many different OSs if necessary; many users don’t have the time or the will to do that. They want to have one computer that runs all of their stuff, period. Yes, I know Chrome OS is all about web apps. But not all apps can be web apps just yet; between the apps already supported on Linux, and all the wonderful web apps available out there, will it be enough for the average user? We’ll have to wait and see.

Can it be done?

So where does that leave Google Chrome OS? It’s a tough spot, but it’s not hopeless. First, Google has the advantage of being, well, Google. If they set their mind to do something, if the initial betas get good reception, the hardware and the software makers will want to work with them. It takes time to port software to other OSs, and it takes time to create drivers for hardware. When it comes to old hardware, it also takes too much money for most companies to bother, and with this regard, Google will always be at a disadvantage.

But Google can afford to look forward and wait it out. They’ve got the resources and the people to do it. What they need is the support of the open source community, and they’ve already got a big problem with that: Chrome isn’t available for Linux yet. That’s right, the browser that’ll be the center of the upcoming Chrome OS, which will be based on Linux, doesn’t work on Linux right now (well, if you don’t count the early developer beta.) Google needs to do better, because no amount of money and resources can replicate what a huge international community of volunteers can do.

The Firefox lesson

If they manage to do that, it’ll be entirely possible to pull it off. Want to know how I can be so sure? Firefox. When Firefox came to be, it faced a very steep uphill battle. Internet Explorer was the browser of choice – yes, it kinda sucked, but Vista also kinda sucks, too. Still, most IE users didn’t even think about switching to a new browser; just like most Windows users don’t even consider the possibility of switching to another OS – for now. But Firefox developers worked diligently, adding feature after feature, and gaining enormous support from the open source community and developers, which created thousands of great add-ons. The momentum was building fast, and now, although IE still has the biggest market share, Firefox has already won.

The same thing can happen with Chrome OS. The circumstances and the timing are a bit different, though; Windows 7 will come out before Google Chrome OS will; if it performs up to users’ expectations, it’ll be harder for Google to push through. By the time Chrome OS supports enough hardware and software to be deemed really usable by a significant portion of users, Microsoft will have a lot of time to fix things. On the other hand, Microsoft changes slowly; it took them years to bring IE up to speed.

It’ll be a long, excruciating battle, but I can already tell you who’s going to win. You. Us. Whatever happens, we – the users – will have a better, faster, simpler, more web-oriented operating system. Will it have a Microsoft or a Google tag on it? Ultimately, it’s not even that important.

Tags: Chrome OS, Google, microsoft, Windows

The image was quoted, linked to, used and reused so much that it became almost iconic. To capture how this motif – a huge, sleeping animal lifted by a flock of tiny birds – has been used in pop culture in the last year, Lu created a site with all of the Fail Whale related images she could find. It’s a fascinating (and huge) collection: from tributes, to statues, to cakes, to beer labels: it’s everywhere. Check out a couple of our favorites below, and see the entire collection on Lu’s website.

Tags: fail whale, twitter

While we’re still trying to catch our breath over the announcement, we can’t say we’re particularly surprised – the rumors have been bubbling for a long time now and projects like Android show Google has had an interest in this arena. But the Google OS leaves a lot of questions to be answered. How will it differ from Windows? How will it work? And most of all, can Google actually do what many consider impossible: beat Microsoft on its home turf?

Google’s Strengths

This paragraph from Google’s announcement helps clarify what Google is building into this operating system:

“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”

Essentially, Google Chrome OS aims to solve problems associated with Windows, primarily that it’s a bloated operating system that isn’t built for a computing world based on the web. To do this, Google Chrome will run within a windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. This means that web applications will work immediately on this operating system.

Google has always been known for its minimalist interfaces, its lightweight products, its web savvy, and the sheer speed of its products. It intends to take its vast knowledge and strengths and port them over into the OS market.

Questions to Answer

The reality is this: we know almost nothing about Google Chrome OS. The announcement is hot out of the oven, which leaves us with a lot of questions. Here’s what we hope to answer in the next few days or weeks:

Is it free? – Microsoft Windows can cost hundreds of dollars for the premier versions, which brings up the cost of new PCs. Since Google OS is open-source, it’s almost certain to be free, although Google has not explicitly stated anything of the sort. Could Google charge for specific features or extensions? Nobody really knows.

Will Google OS have advertising? – If they decide to provide this OS for free, they will almost certainly monetize it with ads. With Google’s expertise in web advertising, they may be able to utilize non-intrusive advertising to create a new revenue stream. Imagine browsing your music files and having ads for John Mayer downloads on the side.

What kind of support will it offer to desktop apps? – It’s based on Google Chrome, a browser. But can it run Microsoft Word and Photoshop?

Will it be extendable by 3rd party developers? – Will there be a developer platform for Chrome OS, not unlike the ones offered for many other Google products? The fact that it’s open source makes us think this is a possibility.

How will it interact with current hardware? – Could I wipe my current computer’s hard drive and run it on Chrome OS? What kind of driver support will it have?

There are lots of other issues to address too, but clearly this is only the beginning of a long story that poses a lot of questions.

Can Google Beat Microsoft?

While there are a lot of questions we want answers to, one matters the most: Can Google OS take on Windows? Any OS that wants to manage desktop computers clearly competes with Windows. So far, nobody has been able to make major inroads (although Apple recently achieved 10 percent market share) in a space that Microsoft has dominated for years.

Yet Google has been the one company to present a serious challenge to Microsoft to-date, especially on the Web. Microsoft’s attempts to compete with Google in search have been fruitless overall. And while we don’t know how Bing will do, few people believe it will ultimately change the fact that Google is synonymous to search, just as Windows is synonymous to the OS.

We’ve said time and time again that competition is a good thing, and Microsoft hasn’t faced serious competition in the OS market in a long, long time. The question is whether or not Google Chrome OS will squash or be squashed by Windows.

Tags: Chrome OS, Google, google chrome, google chrome os

Google announced on their blog tonight that they’re releasing an operating system: Google Chrome OS. While the company already has a mobile operating system in Android, this new one will be based off of Chrome, Google’s web browser.

According to Google, the open source OS will be available later next year and is primarily targeted at netbooks to start. From the Google blog:

“Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.”

It is designed to be a lightweight system, just like the Chrome browser. Unfortunately, Google didn’t divulge many other details, and it will be a while until anyone gets their hands on it. Clearly though, Google’s setting the stage for a major battle with Microsoft. Just as Microsoft is trying to break Google’s stranglehold on the search engine market, Google may be trying to do the same with the Windows-controlled market.

Tags: Google, microsoft

Tweet Reel, as Jenn said, is meant to be the TwitPic of video, allowing you to record videos from the iPhone 3G S and post them to Twitter. Problem was, it wasn’t released yet. However, that all changed today, as the “TwitPic of video” launched its iPhone app [iTunes link] and website. And from what we’ve seen so far, it’s one solid application.

Built by Colin Tulloch, the same developer behind the Retweet iPhone App and ThreadedTweets, Tweet Reel lets you utilize the iPhone 3GS’s video capabilities to record, upload, and tweet out videos.

On top of the upload and tweeting capabilities, the service sports a simple but useful video interface that allows you to embed and share videos, like we’ve done below. In a lot of ways, it works like a simple version of YouTube, but YouTube doesn’t currently allow you to send custom tweets with your own commentary, while Tweet Reel lets you send whatever text you want with your video.

The applications of Tweet Reel are up to your imagination, but one that caught our eye – it was actually in action for the Michael Jackson memorial. Check out what @vanesbez recorded from inside the Staples Center via Tweet Reel:

This is why we need a TwitPic for video, and in that regard, Tweet Reel performs admirably. One other interesting note: Colin has told us that he’d love to make his service available to 3rd party services like Tweetie, Seesmic Desktop, and TweetDeck. The cost of video, though, complicates the matter, but we are really hoping to see Tweet Reel in our favorite Twitter apps soon.

Tags: iphone, iphone 3g s, Tweet Reel, twitter, video

How could we not pick the mind of one of Twitter’s most popular users? That’s what we thought too, so we pulled out our webcams, our iPhones, and for about 30 minutes discussed how the Heroes star utilizes Twitter (@greggrunberg), mobile phones, and social media for himself and his projects. The video is embedded below:

The Interview

In our interview, we discussed his use of Twitter, his social media projects, and of course, we talked about Heroes. Some of the highlights:

- How he came up with Yowza and where it’s headed in the next few months
- His very “eye-popping” website (the eyes follow your mouse, it’s creepy I tell you!)
- Why he uses Twitter, but doesn’t use Facebook at all (i.e. how social media, Perez Hilton, and Twitter might have helped get another season of Heroes)
- What is going to happen to his Heroes character Matt Parkman next season (hint: Sylar)
- His family, and dealing with Epilepsy
- What he believes is in social media’s future
- His biggest piece of advice for using social media: “Open Yourself Up” and “Don’t be afraid of social media, because it works.”

This is one of the most fun interviews I’ve ever done, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Be sure to give us your thoughts in the interview in the comments!

Tags: Greg Grunberg, heroes, interview, iphone, social media, twitter, video, Yowza

While that falls short of the 27 million total and 1.3 million concurrent live streams that President Obama’s inauguration saw on CNN.com, it would appear that users were more engaged in the company’s Facebook Connect integration for Jackson, with upwards of 6,000 status updates being posted per minute earlier today. CNN also reports that their website has received 11.8 million unique visitors and 81 million page views so far today.

Elsewhere around the Web, Twitter is seeing massive volume of Jackson-related tweets. In addition to occupying all 10 of Twitter’s trending topics, we now know that the term “Michael Jackson” alone was generating 80,000 tweets per hour. Taking into account all of the other associated terms being used, the event likely rivals some of the most discussed events we’ve ever seen on Twitter, with the most recent example being the #iranelection.

Among other services live streaming the event, UStream (who was broadcasting CBS News coverage) reported 4.6 million streams of the event, a record for the company. Rival Justin.tv, (broadcasting content from E!) did not have streaming numbers available, but reports 150,000 impressions of the page hosting their video feed. MSNBC’s website, which included a Twitter integration very similar to CNN/Facebook, drew 3 million streams according to the company.

Tags: cnn, cnn live, michael jackson, michael jackson memorial

Today, however, a new deal has been reached with the record labels that at least adds some clarity to the situation, albeit it may require some users to pay up for what was previously free. It calls for services like Pandora to pay either 25 percent of revenue, or a given amount per song, starting at $.08, whichever is higher. Smaller services (those with less than $1.25M in sales) will pay 12-14 percent of revenue in royalties.

While that represents a significant compromise from the $0.19 per song that rates were set to increase to next year, it will still require some changes on Pandora’s part. The company writes on their blog:

“The revised royalties are quite high – higher in fact than any other form of radio. As a consequence, we will have to make an adjustment that will affect about 10% of our users who are our heaviest listeners. Specifically, we are going to begin limiting listening to 40 hours per month on the free version of Pandora. In any given month, a listener who hits this limit can then opt for unlimited listening for the remainder of that month for just $0.99. In essence, we’re asking our heaviest users to put a dollar (well, almost a dollar) in the tip jar in any month in which they listen over 40 hours.”

This actually sounds incredibly reasonable. While Pandora founder Tim Westergren told The New York Times that “I don’t think anyone’s going to look at this and say, ‘I’m really happy, I got everything I want,’ ” the deal certainly gives Pandora and others a lot more breathing room.

And, it positions the music rights holders for the long-term. As online radio grows – which it has been, especially on mobile devices – and advertising revenue follows suit, the revenue share option could eventually catch up with the per song fees that the labels have been so insistent upon.

Tags: internet radio, pandora