Mashable: Latest 26 News Updates - including “Evan Williams: “Twitter Will Get to a Billion Members””

Twitter’s co-founders participated in a lively fireside chat moderated by Businessweek’s Brad Stone at a sold-out event for the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. The conversation started with a discussion about whether Twitter has become mainstream. While Evan started by asking what “going mainstream” exactly meant, he did say that Twitter is getting more new user signups every week than the entire population of his home state of Nebraska. That’s 1.8 million users per week.

The conversation quickly moved into the rollout of the New Twitter. Both founders said that the reaction has been very positive. While VP of Product Jason Goldman was preparing the team for a backlash, it simply never occurred. The goal of the new design, Biz Stone said, was to keep Twitter’s inherent simplicity intact while adding the richness and the content people are linking to. Williams was the primary driver behind the new design.

The meat of the conversation really began when Brad Stone brought up a recent opinion piece in The New Yorker by best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell. In it, Gladwell argued that social media was essential when it came to serious activism. Biz Stone responded to the criticism first, stating that “some of it is right and some of it is wrong.” He agreed that tweeting doesn’t have the same impact as joining a physical protest where your life is at risk. However, he said it was “absurd” to not understand that Twitter and social media are complementary to that type of activism because of their ability to facilitate the fast exchange of information.

Williams followed up by saying that Twitter’s use in Iran was likely overstated, but it was an early sign of “what is possible and what wer’re trying to enable.” His next point was that the web and electronic networks are now a central point for organization of this type of activism, now that communities don’t all congregate in one place, such as the church, anymore.

Twitter, Advertising and New CEOs

Advertising was also a central focus of the fireside chat. Brad Stone asked the Twitter co-founders how they felt about the separation of advertising and editorial content and how they might be affecting that. Evan Williams immediately responded that Twitter clearly labels any tweets or trends that are advertisements. More importantly, he made clear that Twitter is a mix of advertisement and non-advertisement content. He cited brands such as Starbucks as examples of users voluntarily opting in for promotional tweets about a product because they asked for it. After all, Starbucks didn’t get more than 1 million followers without a lot of people expressing interest in their products.

At one point, Williams and Stone were asked whether they thought the commercialization of Twitter was “bittersweet.” Biz Stone responded that he believed the company was succeeding in balancing advertising and commercial content with Twitter’s content quite well. “I want to ask you to name another platform where you can send a message to 5 million people for free,” he told Brad Stone during the conversation. Yet if a company wanted to reach more people than their own followers, they had the opportunity to do so through Promoted Trends, Tweets or Accounts.

Of course, no Twitter interview this quarter would be complete without a discussion about Evan Williams stepping down as CEO of Twitter. There are plenty of product-oriented CEOs, and Brad Stone asked the Twitter co-founders why Williams didn’t choose to go that route instead. Williams responded that he chose roles at Twitter based on where he would be the most useful, and in fact, he was in his fourth role at Twitter.

Williams said he loved focusing on product the most, and he believed that the position of CEO of Twitter, due to is phenomenal growth, would require more attention on operational efficiency and personnel management than product strategy and direction, which is really what excited Williams more than other factors.

Twitter and a Billion Users

During the Q&A session, Biz Stone and Evan Williams were asked about their long-term vision for Twitter. Williams responded that they thought about Twitter in “broad strokes” and that they were focused on helping people find out what’s happening in the world and becoming an indispensable service for spreading and consuming information woldwide.

This led to another question: Do Twitter’s execs think the service could reach a billion users, something at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg famously claimed his company would reach after it surpassed the 500 million user mark. Williams affirmed his belief, saying, “Twitter will get to a billion members.” He quickly added it wouldn’t be the same billion individuals as Facebook, and he wouldn’t specify just how long it would take to reach that goal.

His comments likely refer to his team’s belief that Facebook and Twitter are fundamentally different services with fundamentally different goals. Tonight’s conversation was entirely about Twitter as an information network, something that Twitter likes to emphasize anytime they’re compared to Facebook. In the eyes of Twitter’s cofounders, they’ve built a tool that has changed how we consume news and information for the better.

There are a lot of people that would agree.

More About: biz stone, evan williams, INFORUM, twitter

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

The company is investing in the Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC), a plan to erect a 350-mile stretch of wind turbines 10 to 15 miles off the United States’ Atlantic coastline, where waters are relatively shallow. The AWC “backbone” will take advantage of strong, steady winds at sea and deliver energy via underwater cables.

If successful, the AWC will be the first operating offshore wind collection project in the United States.

Calling the AWC “a superhighway for clean energy,” Google’s Green Business Operations Director, Rick Needham, wrote on the company blog, “As those in the Northeast remember from the 2003 blackout, transmission is severely overstretched on the east coast. The AWC project relieves grid congestion in one of two National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors which were deemed to have significant network congestion and need speedy creation of transmission capacity.”

The AWC is estimated to be a $5 billion project by outside sources, and Google has invested 37.5% of the equity for the AWC’s initial development stage, “with the goal of obtaining all the necessary approvals to finance and begin constructing the line,” Needham continued. New York-based cleantech investment firm Good Energies also invested 37.5% of the equity.

Google has invested heavily in wind energy in the recent past. Earlier this year, the company bought 20 years’ worth of wind energy a couple months later under the newly created auspices of Google Energy.

Google’s commitment to clean energy is impressive, and we also note that their investment strategies make good business sense, as well.

What do you think of this investment and the idea of offshore wind farms?

More About: Atlantic Wind Connection, AWC, clean tech, cleantech, energy, Google, green, offshore wind, wind farm

For more Tech coverage:

• Follow Mashable Tech on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Tech channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Name: Instagram

Quick Pitch: Instagram is a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures.

Genius Idea: Instagram speaks to the secret photographer inside us all by providing a nearly foolproof way to snap remarkable photos and share them with the world.

The iPhone application is free to use and is deceivingly simple in purpose and function — snap a photo, select a photo-enhancing filter and upload. It sounds like an install-it-and-forget-it application, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth; Instagram nails the social aspect and engineers an ego-driven, must-revisit experience as compelling as Twitter’s.

Instagram is composed of four key application components: Feed, Popular, Share and News. The core of the service is built around the “Share” feature, a.k.a photo sharing. This is where you’ll go to snap your photos and choose from one of 11 filters that will make your otherwise mundane images pop with color, mood or personality.

But, Instagram does more than dress up photographs — there’s plenty of apps like Hipstamatic that have been providing that service for some time. So, after you select a filter, you can then add a description and a place (via Foursquare’s API), and optionally choose to share it with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Tumblr, or use the photo to check in to Foursquare.

The “Feed” is the in-app place where you can view the stream of photos your friends are sharing. This area isn’t extraordinary in feature set — only allowing comments and likes — and yet once you build up a small following and start following your friends (you can connect with your Twitter and Facebook friends), the feed comes alive and morphs in to an active social network around great-looking photographs.

The “News” section will alert you to new comments, likes and followers. There’s even a cute, orange pop-up bubble that notifies you of these actions as they happen, while you’re immersed in the feed.

You can click the “Popular” tab to check out the most popular photos (as voted by the community through comments and likes) across the service. If you’re anything like this user, you’ll soon become obsessed with attempting to find the perfect shot and filter in the hopes that your photo will become popular.

Passion Meets Casual Photography

It’s hard to pinpoint what makes Instagram such a compelling application to return to, but it does have the niche community essence of Tumblr, the did-my-post-get-noticed? draw of Twitter and the social networking ease of the Facebook “Like.”

“I think we’re reigniting passion for casual photography,” says cofounder Kevin Systrom on the application’s rapid-fire rise to the top of Apple’s App Store.

The story goes that Instagram went live in the App Store just after midnight PST on Wednesday morning (October 6), and not more then ten seconds later, the team noticed signups taking place overseas. By 6 A.M., Instagram was so overwhelmed with traffic — thanks in part to a barrage of coverage and tweets — that its servers buckled under the pressure. Six days later, Instagram is a bona fide hit and the team is now focused on building to scale.

There’s just something about the application that resonates with users (this one included) so much so that Systrom says “it has taken on a life of its own — it’s definitely no longer our product anymore. It belongs to the community.”

The community can expect the most immediate release to include bug fixes, address reliability and improve upload and app speed. The next big release, however, will include additional free filters, better discovery and even more integration with third-party social services. Eventually, Systrom will shift gears and focus on a business model, but for now, he seems content with giving users more of the features they want and not messing with a good thing.

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.

More About: bizspark, instagram, photo sharing, photography

For more Tech coverage:

• Follow Mashable Tech on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Tech channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

The new version of Yahoo Messenger enables users to make video calls and stream live video one-to-one over 3G or Wi-Fi. What makes the app really interesting is the ability to establish a video call between an iPhone and an Android device (provided it has a front-facing camera) or between an iPhone and a PC.

You can also make free voice calls to your Yahoo Messenger friends, as well as low-cost international calls with your Yahoo Voice Phone Out account. Unfortunately, this last bit is available only to users in the U.S., France, Germany, Spain and Singapore.

Finally, the new version now supports multitasking, meaning you can work on other tasks on your iPhone while the app happily runs in the background.

The app is available for free in the iTunes store.

More About: video chat, Yahoo Messenger

For more Mobile coverage:

• Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Mobile channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

In most mature markets — such as the U.S. — the trend is reversed on PCs; consumers spend more time on e-mail (5.1 hours per week) than social networking (3.8 hours).

The study, which tracked the online activities and behaviors of nearly nearly 50,000 subjects between 16 and 60 years of age in 46 countries, cited “the increased need for instant gratification” as well as “the ability to offer multiple messaging formats, including the instant message or update function,” for the popularity of social networking platforms on mobile devices. More consumers, both in the U.S. and abroad, expect to spend even more time accessing social media on their mobile devices in the future, rather than their PCs.

In addition to the mobile use patterns cited above, the survey found that those who had Internet access were more likely to use it daily (61% of those surveyed) than TV (54%), radio (36%) and newspapers (32%).

In general, consumers proved more engaged and comfortable with social media in rapid growth markets, particularly in Asia, than those in more mature markets. In areas of rapid development, social networking takes up more of users’ time (5.2 hours per week) than e-mail (4.2 hours) on PCs.

The heaviest users of social media live in Malaysia (9 hours per week), Russia (8.1 hours) and Turkey (7.7 hours). 88% of online users in China and 51% in Brazil said they have written their own blog or forum entry, compared to a little less than a third in the U.S.

More than 85% of online consumers living in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam have uploaded photos to social networks or photo-sharing sites, while only 28% and 48% have done so in Japan and Germany, respectively.

TNS Chief Development Officer Matthew Froggatt explains that social media is less popular in more developed countries because consumers have learned to take much of what the Internet has to offer for granted.

“However, in rapid growth markets that have seen recent, sustained investment in infrastructure, users are embracing these new channels in much more active ways.  The digital world is transforming how they live, develop and interact and online consumers in these markets are leaving those in the developed world behind in terms of being active online and engaging in new forms of communications,” he says.

More About: email, Mobile 2.0, social media, study

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Last week we asked you, the readers, to choose between Facebook Groups and Twitter Lists. Both are tools for organizing and communicating with groups of friends or associates. Lists have been around for about a year, while Facebook Groups launched last week to much fanfare.

While Facebook’s Groups feature is still in its infancy, we wanted to check the pulse of the Mashable readership to see whether you prefer the simpler, more open Twitter Lists feature or the more collaborative and friend-oriented features that make up Facebook Groups.

In the end, Facebook Groups came out on top. With 32.6% of all votes cast (439 votes, total), Groups was able to beat out the 23.8% (320 votes) that Twitter Lists garnered. A full 21.4% of you voted that both features were useful, while another 22.2% said you weren’t fans of either tools.

Many commenters pointed out that they use both Groups and Lists for different things but were divided on which tool was more useful. It’s a debate that won’t be fully answered until Groups has time to mature and its pros and cons become apparent. Meanwhile, we want to hear how you’ve been using (or why you’ve been ignoring) Lists and Groups in the comments.

More About: facebook, Facebook groups, poll, twitter, Twitter Lists, web faceoff

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

There’s no disputing that Facebook is the poster child for social networking. It is the platform for building social connections online and keeping up to date with what’s happening in your social circle. It is one of the two most important platforms in social media.

The other one is Twitter. However, if you try to describe Twitter as a “social network” to anyone who works at the company, they’ll quickly correct you. Internally and externally, Twitter describes itself as an “information network.”

What exactly is the difference? And is there one?

People have used the terms “social media” and “social network” almost interchangeably over the years. It’s inaccurate to say that they’re the same thing, though. In fact, I argue that social networking is a branch of social media, and can itself be further broken down into two distinct branches — the social network and the information network.

It’s with this distinction that I attempt to explain the relationship between Facebook and Twitter, and why I believe they are not destined for a clash of the titans. Instead, they represent two different sides of the same coin.

The Difference Between Facebook and Twitter

It’s easy to see why most people think Facebook and Twitter are essentially the same. The core of their experiences focuses around profiles, relationships and a newsfeed. But if you dig a bit deeper, you realize that people use each platform for different purposes.

On Facebook, you’re supposed to connect with close friends. Becoming friends with someone means he or she gets to see your content, but you also get to see his or her content in return. On Twitter, that’s not the case: you choose what information you want to receive, and you have no obligation to follow anybody. Facebook emphasizes profiles and people, while Twitter emphasizes the actual content (in its case, tweets).

The result is that the stream of information is simply different on both services. You’re more likely to talk about personal issues, happy birthday wishes, gossip about a changed Facebook relationship status, and postings about parties on your Facebook News Feed. On Twitter, you’re more likely to find links and news, and you’re more likely to follow brands, news sources and other entities outside of your social graph. In fact, Twitter tells me that one out of every four tweets includes a link to some form of content.

There’s also interesting data from a team of Korean researchers suggesting that information sharing is fundamentally different on Twitter when compared to social networks. Their conclusion was that Twitter has “characteristics of news media” rather than characteristics of a social network.

In other words, Facebook and Twitter are different once you look past their social media roots. Now it’s time to define the difference between a social network and an information network.

Social Networks vs. Information Networks

This may seem obvious, but social networks are about your social networks. Specifically, the focus is on your friends, colleagues and personal connections. They are about sharing personal or professional experiences together. They are about keeping in touch with friends rather than discovering news or content. Facebook, LinkedIn, Bebo, MySpace, hi5 and Orkut clearly fall under the “social networking” branch of social media.

The concept of an information network is a more recent phenomenon. Information networks are about leveraging different networks to distribute and consume information. While they may utilize an array social media tools in order to find, curate or deliver content, they focus less on what’s happening in your social graph and more on information you want. Twitter may be the best example of an information network, but YouTube (video), Flickr (photos) and Digg (news) are information networks as well.

Pretty much every social media platform has aspects of both types of networks, but they tend to fall into one category or the other. I contend that Foursquare is a social network because it utilizes Facebook’s friend model instead of Twitter’s follow model, but you might have a different opinion.

In fact, that may be the biggest differentiating point between social networks and information networks. For the most part, content on Flickr, YouTube or Twitter is public, while content on MySpace, Facebook or Bebo is private. A big reason for that is that the former services utilize the follow or subscription model, while the latter ones utilize the friend model.

Conclusion

I consider this article to be the start, not the end, of an exploration of how we define social media and the services that comprise it. We tend to group Facebook, Twitter and an array of other web tools into one giant pile, when in fact they’re vastly different tools with vastly different applications and uses.

Facebook, with its mutual friend connections and college-exclusive beginnings, is better suited for keeping in touch with friends. For most people, it is indeed a network of your social graph, all in one place. Twitter, on the other hand, is all about the stream of information coming from people and organizations all across the world. That’s why there’s room for both: they simply provide different functions.

If we are to take social media further and further change the world with social technologies, we need to better understand how we use these technologies. The first step is understanding how we as a society currently utilize social networks and information networks in our daily lives. There are many intricacies that underlie social and information networks, most of which we don’t yet understand.

More Social Media Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Fun and Safe Social Networks for Children
- New Facebook Groups Designed to Change the Way You Use Facebook [VIDEO]
- "SNL" Spoofs Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg [VIDEO]
- HOW TO: Customize Your Background for the New Twitter
- Top 10 Twitter Tips for Bands, By Bands

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ryasick

More About: Column, facebook, Information Network, Information Networking, social media, social network, social networking, The Social Analyst, twitter

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Last week, Gap unveiled a new logo, one it called “a more contemporary, modern expression.” The retailer’s customers were not so thrilled about the change, and Gap decided to ask users for their logo design ideas instead. However, that course of action has now been reversed, as well.

“Ok. We've heard loud and clear that you don't like the new logo. We've learned a lot from the feedback,” the company said on its Facebook page. “We only want what's best for the brand and our customers. So instead of crowdsourcing, we're bringing back the Blue Box tonight.”

According to Gap, the original logo will make its return “across all channels.”

The backlash against the Gap’s new (and now defunct) logo was intense. Beyond the thousands of tweets and Facebook status updates deriding its design, people found other creative ways to protest the new logo. A fake Twitter account has gathered thousands of followers, while Gap logo generators have quickly gone viral.

While social media wasn’t the only reason that Gap felt compelled to revert to the old logo, it definitely was a major factor. Social media mobilized and spread the word about the logo change. In this case, the company listened to its customers and avoided a consumer backlash of Tropicana proportions.

Hat tip: AdAge.

More About: branding, facebook, gap, logo, Social Media Backlash, trending

For more Business coverage:

• Follow Mashable Business on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Business channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

In an article published by The New York Times on Monday, recently promoted Twitter CEO Dick Costolo says the company, "would offer a self-serve tool for local businesses to buy Twitter ads, and is working on ways to deliver those ads based on location," starting next year.

While that's not much of a surprise -– a self-service model for smaller advertisers has long been assumed while the company tests its various ad formats with big brands –- the possibilities are considerably more interesting given the way Twitter has evolved in recent months.

For starters, the company now has its own mobile apps on most major platforms, giving it a much bigger footprint to serve location-based ads to users than when "Promoted Tweets" were first announced. It also has additional ad formats like “Promoted Accounts” that make a lot of sense when applied to the local market. Ads can also now be syndicated to third-party apps, meaning Twitter will soon be able to reach nearly 100% of its users with ads.

The New York Times indicates that local businesses would be able to use "clues like whether someone follows a bunch of restaurants in a particular city," to serve relevant small business ads – an algorithmic approach not dissimilar to what Twitter is already doing for the big brand Promoted Accounts ads.

Such a model also gives Twitter something it's lacked so far in its advertising business: scale. While the company is reportedly fetching upwards of $100,000 from some of its big brand advertisers for Promoted Tweets, a self-service model opens up the platform to tens of thousands of businesses already using Twitter. In turn, it evolves the company's business model into something far more robust that more closely resembles that of Google or Facebook.

More About: advertising, Promoted Tweets, small business, twitter

For more Business coverage:

• Follow Mashable Business on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Business channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

The follow-up to last year’s ambitious but not-quite successful Palm Pre, the Pre 2 will have a 1 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM. That’s a big boost over the 600 MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM of its predecessor, and it’s competitive with other top smartphones on the market today, including the iPhone 4 and the Droid 2. According to SFR, this boost in specs will increase loading times and allow for smooth multitasking.

That’s all we know about the hardware specs, but SFR also claims the Pre will push notifications of Facebook wall posts and other social media updates kind of like the Pre already does with e-mails. It’s a welcome feature for the connected consumer, but it’s nothing revolutionary.

Don’t worry, though; there’s still plenty more we don’t know about the Pre — including its pricing and availability.

Palm was once prominent in the mobile market, but after it suffered a bout of financial troubles it was acquired by HP, which has since promised more devices running webOS (the Pre’s operating system) next year. Apparently the Pre 2 will run webOS 2.0, but we’re not sure of all the features yet.

[Via Pre Central]

More About: gadgets, palm, Palm Pre, palm pre 2, phone, push, roadrunner, smartphone, specifications, specs, tech, webOS

For more Mobile coverage:

• Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Mobile channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

In the meantime, here are some tips on how to network, share your information and/or promote your event(s) using social media:

• The Future of Event Planning and Social Media
• HOW TO: Plan and Promote Events with Social Media
• 35+ Ways to Find and Plan Events Online
• 8 Ways to Create Paperless Business Cards
• 5 Useful iPhone Apps for Business Networking

Mashable’s Weekly Social Media and Marketing Event Guide is proudly supported by Eventbrite, the Web’s Event Marketplace.

October 10-13, 2010, Cincinnati, OH: The HighEdWeb Conference is nationally recognized as the conference designed by and for all higher education Web professionals — from programmers to marketers to designers to all team members in-between — who want to explore the unique Web issues facing colleges and universities. With more than 60 presentations; a robust poster session; daily general session addresses; pre-and post-conference intensive, hands-on workshops; and multiple high-quality networking opportunities, HighEdWeb attendees receive a high-quality professional development experience packed into just a few days. To register, please click here.

October 12-13, 2010, London, UK: a4uexpo is Europe’s largest Performance Marketing Conference with over 1,000 delegates, 48 diverse conference sessions, an all inclusive middle evening party, a pre and post event networking bash, and a buzzing expo hall all being shared with the leading entrepreneurs and players within the dynamic £10bn Affiliate & Performance Marketing industry. A4uexpo London focuses on quality, knowledge transfer and unparalleled networking opportunities with delegates from around the world, whether you’re a new or established affiliate, agency, entrepreneur, search specialist, merchant or network, a4uexpo is simply a must attend, educational and networking event for those serious about making an impact in Affiliate Marketing. Register online today with code MASHABLE25 and save £25 on a full conference pass for a4uexpo London.

October 12-13, 2010, San Francisco, CA: Produced by Mediabistro, Charles Hudson, and Social Times, the fourth annual Virtual Goods Summit explores key challenges and opportunites being experienced in this rapidly expanding market. Speakers include Facebook’s Deborah Liu, Microsoft Xbox’s Ben Smith, Zynga’s Mark Skaggs, and many more. Talks and panels will cover virtual goods beyond games, designing free-to-lay games for maximum engagement, the virutal goods markets in Europe and Asia, virtual goods and mobile apps, monetization infrastructure for virtual goods, and more. For full details and registration, visit the site. Register with promo code MASH and save 15%!

October 12, 2010, Orange County CA: Trust Agents: A Special Night of Networking with Chris Brogan. Well known author, A-list speaker and social media mogul Chris Brogan is in Orange County for 1 night only. With themes from his WSJ and NYT best-selling book Trust Agent and a stellar networking opportunity with some of the top marketers, social media influencers and biz talent in SoCal, we hope you’ll join us. Not in SoCal? Join us for the LIVE or On Demand recorded broadcast here.

October 13-14, 2010, New York, NY: The 2010 Social Media Strategies Conference will feature leading digital, client, and agency experts who will reveal how to use social media to increase business and explore the future of this extremely powerful marketing platform. Presented by YouTube and in Association with Buzz Media, this event will be held October 13-14 in New York City. For more information, visit socialmediastrategiesconference.com.

October 13-14, Princeton, NJ: Brought to you by the producer of the sold-out ePharma Summit, the Multi Channel Pharma Marketing Event brings together product managers and marketing operations under one roof to discuss cross-channel media plans for building brand value and elevating top line sales. Join us at the ONLY industry event focused on breaking down internal silos to achieve channel integration and maximize return on engagement. Visit www.multichannelevent.com for more information. Register with Priority Code XP1515MASH to save 15% off standard registration!

October 14-15, 2010, London, UK: Creating and distributing video online? Join us at Online Video Strategies this October in London and learn how to choose the online video solutions that meet your needs, increase audience engagement with interactivity, use video for marketing, promotion and branding, deliver video to the iPad, iPhone and other mobile devices, leverage video for internal and external corporate communications, make sure your video gets seen by viewers and search engines and measure the ROI of your video projects. In addition, Online Video Strategies is a featured event at Streaming Media Europe and all delegates enjoy unlimited access to the Streaming Media Expo as part of their registration. Register at streamingmediaglobal.com/ovs. Quote priority code MASHABLE20 for a 20% discount.

October 14-16, 2010, Las Vegas, NV: BlogWorld & New Media Expo is the first and only industry-wide tradeshow, conference and media event dedicated to promoting the dynamic industry of new media including all forms of blogging, podcasting, social media, social networking, online video, music, Internet TV and radio. The BlogWorld conference features more than 120 educational sessions, panel discussions and keynote presentations, while the New Media Expo features the only industry-wide new media marketplace where thousands converge to network and find all of their online business and marketing resources. Running concurrent with the BlogWorld conference, the Social Media Business Summit is the world's largest social media business conference where marketing executives, business owners and world-renowned companies send their teams to learn the strategies, tactics, tools and technologies they need to build their brands and grow their businesses with social media. Register today with the code MASH20 for 20% off!

October 15, 2010, New York, NY: The Feast Conference will bring together the world’s leading creative entrepreneurs, revolutionaries, radicals, doers and thinkers to inspire more action, share best practices, and create valuable connections that will change the world. Speakers range from Scott Belsky (Founder & CEO of Behance) and Rachel Botsman (Author of Collaborative Consumption) to John Forte (Musician formerly of The Fugues) and Naveen Selvadurai (Co-Founder of Foursquare). An actual Feast Dinner with guest chefs/innovators and a second day of workshops will turn inspiration into action. Register and use the promo code MASHABLE for 10% off.

October 17-19, 2010. New York, NY: Pivot Conference is the only industry conference to explore and evaluate the attitudes, technologies and preferences of the “always on” 18-34 year old consumer. Attend Pivot Conference and hear from those successfully engaging with today’s emerging consumer and create your own action plan for success. Register today with code MASH101 and save 20%.

October 17-20, 2010, Scottsdale, AZ: SuperGlad describes the prosperous life of agencies on the right side of the digital marketing divide. The “have’s” have it. The “have nots” do not. For an agency, in-house digital marketing expertise is now a must, not a nice-to-have. And does the knowledge permeate the agency or rest with just one person operating as a stand-alone department (who, by the way, could leave you high and dry if something better comes along)? Digital marketing is a core competency of the “have” agencies. You might not need to execute on all of it but you need to understand it and drive the strategy upon which decisions are made surrounding it. BOLO 2010 takes on the big task at hand: explaining why digital media leads the charge in SuperGlad agencies. It is not an afterthought. It is dealt with using creative, media, traffic and account service employees who think traditionally first, then translate that thinking to a digital environment. This event will show you how. $799/person (or $599 for agencyside members). Use discount code mashable to save $125 (more than 15%) off full-price registration at any time.

October 18-22, 2010, Chicago, IL: Discover the tools of engagement at SES Chicago Conference and Expo on October 18-22, 2010. No longer just lecturing your customers, learn to listen and converse in a more social world. Our experts will show you how integrating search, social media, and video in even basic ways will transform both your sites visibility and profitability. Our program features 60+ sessions covering everything from marketing attribution, the business value of social media, brand reputation management and more. Save 15% with promo code MHCH15. Register now!

October 18-20, 2010, Washington, D.C.: As Social Media quickly emerges as more than a communication tool, the U.S. Government must proactively leverage this new "environment" to achieve organizational goals. IDGA's 3rd Social Media for Defense and Government provides a forum for senior Government and Military officials, industry partners and academic communities to align shared goals, showcase new technology and define the way forward. This conference will present advanced social media strategies that not only improve communication but actually utilize the tools to improve effectiveness. Register with code MASH4GOV and receive 20% off the standard three-day event fee!

October 18-19, 2010, Dallas, TX: The Restaurant & Hospitality Social Media Marketing Bootcamp event provides the practical knowledge and insights required by restaurant and hotel operators to establish objectives and strategies for your market, properly select the social media platforms to engage guests and monitor and measure the results of these efforts for a greater ROI. This event is presented by RestaurantWorx Consulting and Inside Hospitality. Use the code MASHABLE when registering and receive VIP pricing on “Day 1″ or “Day 1 & 2 Attendance” tickets. See complete event details on the event website at www.restaurantsocialmedia.com.

October 18-19, 2010, Singapore: Build your company's reputation and profits at Online Reputation Management Asia 2010. It only takes a few blog posts or YouTube videos or Facebook threads to destroy reputation and image. Don’t miss this opportunity to benefit from industry leaders' extensive experience, practical insights, and proven business-building tactics that you need to know. Be sure to secure your spot now! For more information, please visit our website or download the brochure. Mashable members/subscribers are entitled to a 10% discount off the registration fee!

October 18, 2010, San Francisco, CA: Join us for the third annual i-stage startup competition, featuring debuts from game-changing apps, products and services. Presented by CEA, i-stage gives tech startups the opportunity to compete for a share of $50,000 in prize money and a free booth at the 2011 International CES. Audience members get the first look at the industry's newest visionaries and network with high profile investors, media and industry leaders. Past winners include Boxee and Regen Inc's ReNu solar charging system. There is no entry fee for competing start-ups. Mashable readers save 10% on attendee tickets. Register now and use discount code IMASH.

October 18, 2010, Washington DC: Digital East 2010 will feature over 75 leading speakers addressing best practices and trends in Social Media, Mobile, Online Advertising, Ecommerce, Cloud Computing, Web Analytics, Search, Online Video, Email, ORM and more! Hear from brands such as ESPN, Google, Intel, Salesforce.com, AOL, Rosetta Stone, National Geographic and the US Dept of Energy just to name a few. When registering, use the code MASH1 for 20% off.

October 19, 2010, New York, NY: Spend a day learning how to make social media an effective and repeatable part of an overall integrated marketing strategy. Established thought leaders and rising stars—including companies such as American Express, Arc Worldwide, Forrester, IMI International, Nokia, The Roger Smith Hotel and more — help you leverage social media to build your brands and businesses. Learn how social media impacts the path to purchase; the intersection of social and mobile; which social channels are most effective against which segments; and more! Non-members of PMA can register with promo code MASHABLE and save $65!

October 19, 2010, Dayton, OH: SummitUp is a one day conference dedicated to exploring the integration of creativity, communication, and technology. The event takes place on October 19, 2010, and it is being held at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. SummitUp features exceptional speakers, engaging breakout sessions, interesting panel discussions, and the opportunity to meet and make friends with some of the brightest, most influential minds in modern business. Speakers include John Moore, Pete Blackshaw, Steve Lance, Kevin Dugan, Artie Isaac, Michael Rubin, Brian Solis and many more. Ticket also includes parking, breakfast, and lunch at the event – all for well under $200. Event information can be found at www.summitup.org.

October 19, 2010, New York, NY: Create business value — and discover insight — in enterprise, web, and social content. Smart Content is the profitable future for media & publishing, advertising & on-line commerce, marketing and PR… and for content consumers. Register now for an unmatched opportunity to learn how.

October 20–22, 2010, Washington, D.C.: Come join us for the largest nonprofit technology conference in the world. The 2010 Blackbaud Conference for Nonprofits is coming to D.C. this year and will feature more than 170 sessions and four featured presentations focused on nonprofit technology. This year's conference will feature leading experts on social media for social good including technology keynote Allison Fine with a virtual appearance by Beth Kanter, (authors of The Networked Nonprofit) and leading social media experts from Causes, TwitPic, Twitter, and YouTube. The conference will provide nonprofit professionals with three days of specialized educational content and opportunities to network and interact with peers and nonprofit experts. Register at http://conference.blackbaud.com.

October 20-22, 2010, Las Vegas, NV: Every year, Stamats Integrated Marketing: Technology Conference brings together digital thought leaders from higher education and corporate America to offer fresh, innovative thinking and hands-on, practical strategies and tactics to take back to campus. The conference will cover the crucial building blocks of integrated digital marketing, including Social Media, mROI, Content and UX. Register with the promo code MASHTECH for $50 off the registration fee and a free pre-conference session.

October 20-21, 2010, Baltimore, MD: The Power of eMarketing Conference provides the perfect forum for actionable and relevant best practices, processes and case studies that will transform and improve your marketing programs. 35+ speakers – four dynamic modules – 12 breakout roundtables – 15 presentations – two keynote sessions – four panel sessions and one great networking party! The conference has several tracks and will cover social, search, email and emerging marketing technology. Register with the promo code linkedin and receive a special 10% discount off your registration.

October 20, 2010, Mumbai, India: Social media marketing is about fostering relationships with your end users to continue product and service excellence. Social media websites are also growing by almost 100% year after year in India. This multi-faceted conference will equip you with a holistic approach to social media marketing, providing you with fresh ideas on brand presence, social media tools, current market risks and innovative strategies to improve your organisation's products & services. The Social Media Summit 2010 will examine how social media culture and social networking platforms are having a major impact on business communication, practices and processes. Social Media Marketing is undergoing a lot of structural changes and is poised to grow and contribute greater revenues to the industry in years to come. Please visit our website for more information.

October 21-22, 2010, Princeton, NJ: IIR's 2nd Annual Value-Driven Pharma is not just another managed market event – it delves deeper than ever before to give you the tools to reconcile government, payer and patient perspectives on drug valuation to bring you closer to the patients you serve. Visit www.valuedrivenpharma.com for full program information. Please use the promo code XP1580MASH when registering.

October 21–22, 2010, San Francisco, CA: Influence People is hosting a one-day social media monitoring conference in San Francisco on October 21st, followed by a half-day training bootcamp on October 22. Monitoring Social Media (San Francisco) will bring together leading brands, PR and marketing experts to discuss the latest ideas, trends and techniques in social media monitoring and measurement. Through a series of presentations, panels and expert-led discussions, we will explore the critical issues that marketers and PR professionals are facing in their efforts to monitor their social media interactions. Register with code mashable to get a 10% discount.

October 21, 2010, Mountain View, CA: See “Super Angel” pioneer Mike Maples Jr. speak at the The Founder Showcase – Silicon Valley’s premier startup pitch and networking event. This quarterly event brings together over 300 investors, founders, and members of the press to hear talks from leading CEOs, and pitches from 10 hot technology start-ups. Over $1.5mm has been raised by presenting companies at previous Founder Showcase events. Tickets start at just $40 – to register or enter the free Pitch Competition, go to www.FounderShowcase.com. Mashable readers get 15% off by using discount code mashable_15.

October 22, 2010, Sonoma County, CA: SocialBizWorld is a Social Media and Web 2.0 business conference for private and public-sector business executives, leaders, managers, employees and consultants looking for insightful speakers, hands-on workshops, in-depth discussions and real-world examples to move their business forward with new media. With Basic, Intermediate and Advanced tracks, attendees will have full access to multiple sessions, have numerous networking opportunities, attend the evening Social Media Awards and Business Networking reception (with Special Guest "The TwitchHiker") and have access to experts gathering in Northern California from all over the country. Join us for this fantastic event in beautiful Sonoma County, at the foot of wine country, minutes from Sonoma and Napa, and just 30 minutes north of San Francisco. Mashable readers receive 15% off conference registration with promo code MASHED. Please visit www.SocialBizWorld.com for more information.

October 22-23, 2010, Atlanta, GA: Social Media Experts will be in high demand as social media becomes an integral part of PR and marketing campaigns. Will you be one? Designed specifically for marketing and PR professionals of all backgrounds, non-profit organizations and small business owners, the Integrating Social Media Conference goes beyond the buzz words to real-world and proven methods for successfully incorporating social media into your current marketing and PR strategies. You'll hear firsthand from social media experts including Shiv Singh of Pepsi Co., The Brand Builder's Olivier Blanchard, WholeFoods's Marla Erwin, HubSpot's Mike Volpe, Kellye Crane of Crane Communications and more. Register with promo code MASH and save 20%.

October 22, 2010, Nashville, TN: Social Media Marketing Workshops 101 & 201 — a full day, hands-on training for businesses who want to create a social media marketing campaign from the ground up. Featuring top 10+ networking sites with step-by-step setup guides on each application with strategies on how they all work together. Sessions include blogging strategy, social CRM, social monitoring, email & mobile marketing, best of Google Analytics, SEO tactics and special focus on Wordpress websites for businesses. These are no-nonsense, intensive learning workshops you wont find anywhere else! Register with the promo code MASH and save $100!

October 23, 2010, Seattle, WA: Looking to meet interesting people, learn the latest techniques in bringing profitable products to market, share experiences, and get re-invigorated to build bigger, better products? Join us at ProductCamp Seattle on October 23, 2010! ProductCamp Seattle is a self-organizing unconference, where product managers, marketers, business executives, project managers, and engineers get together to discuss challenges and explore the latest techniques, tools and innovative practices in building and bringing to market profitable products.

October 25-29, 2010, Boulder, CO: Web Marketing and Social Media One-Week Certificate Program – In this one-of-a-kind program, you will be immersed into the world of web marketing from one of the smartest and most experienced experts in the industry! In one week, you’ll be introduced to proven strategies for growing your online audience with qualified traffic. You’ll learn the fundamental principals and insider tips for search engine optimization, pay-for-placement advertising, social media marketing and other more. Gain the knowledge and skills necessary to provide these immensely valuable and in-demand services for all organizations who need to grow their online audiences.

October 25-26, 2010, Northborough, MA: The Restaurant & Hospitality Social Media Marketing Bootcamp event provides the practical knowledge and insights required by restaurant and hotel operators to establish objectives and strategies for your market, properly select the social media platforms to engage guests and monitor and measure the results of these efforts for a greater ROI. This event is presented by RestaurantWorx Consulting and Inside Hospitality. Use the code MASHABLE when registering and receive VIP pricing on “Day 1″ or “Day 1 & 2 Attendance” tickets. See complete event details on the event website at www.restaurantsocialmedia.com.

October 25, 2010, San Francisco, CA: It is inevitable that every startup will encounter failures: in idea development, teamwork, hiring, design, scaling, and countless unpredictable ways. Yet most conferences only seem to feature speakers telling you what they did right – something that can be hard to learn from and near-impossible to emulate. At FailCon, join over 400 founders, investors, executives, developers, service provides, and press as we share tips to avoid, prepare for, and recover from the most common startup mistakes. Register and use the promo code 10mashable to receive 10% off the ticket price. For more information, please visit www.failcon2010.com.

October 25, 2010, Orlando, FL: IIR presents CUSTOMER WORLD, the co-location of three unique customer-centric events (NACCM, Linkage Strategies & Customer UNinterrupted) under one roof. Where the Voice of Your Industry comes together to champion and celebrate CUSTOMERS 1ST. Customer World's flagship event, NACCM, is an industry favorite. It attracts top customer-centric leaders in North America to share new and best practices for strengthening customer relationships. Content areas include customer-centric social media strategies, loyalty, customer experience, innovation, culture, engagement, leadership and more. Register with code CWORLD10MASH and save 15% off the standard rates.

October 25, 2010, New York, NY: Produced by Mediabistro, Charles Hudson, and Social Times, the Freemium Summit explores best practices for succeeding under the Freemium business model. Across all segments of the media landscape, entrepreneurs and executives are pioneering online business models that combine a free offering with a premium, paid offering. This hybrid business model is one of the most exciting areas of business model innovation affecting the world of media and business, and the Freemium Summit will explore the most important topics on the minds of leading practitioners. Speakers include Ning’s Anne Driscoll, HootSuite’s Ryan Holmes, SurveyMonkey’s Brent Chudoba, Slideshare’s Rashmi Sinha, and more. For full details and registration, visit the site. Register with the promo code MASH and save 15%!

October 26-28, 2010, Frankfurt, Germany: The Enterprise 2.0 wave has spilled over the corporations' boundaries and creates a good deal of discussion about the way businesses will be managed in the future. "Setting the path towards an open and agile E 2.0 driven organization" is therefore the topic of this year's Enterprise 2.0 Summit, the gathering of European experts and practitioners discussing technology trends and adoption topics on Enterprise 2.0. The English-language conference consists of interactive workshops, seminars, expert talks and best practices from all over Europe, e. g. BMW, Hewlett Packard, SONY, Swiss Reinsurance Company, etc. Go to www.e20summit.com and register with the promo code MASH10 and save 10%!

October 26-27, 2010, San Francisco, CA: Define the Future of Money at PayPal X Innovate 2010. There's only one conference dedicated to empowering developers and innovators as they redefine how people conduct commerce – PayPal X Innovate 2010 Developer Conference. Learn how to seamlessly integrate payments into mobile apps, ecommerce sites, gaming, and digital goods – almost anywhere you can think of. Use code INVMASH and receive 20% off. Be part of defining the future of money. Register now at https://www.x.com/innovate

October 26, 2010, San Jose, CA: Get real about social media at SocialTech 2010 — the only conference dedicated to teaching B2B high-tech marketers how to harness the power of social media. You’ll learn from B2B marketing leaders at companies like IBM, Intel, SAP, HP, Adobe and Cisco how to use social media to achieve real, measurable business results. Enjoy networking and keynotes from Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble and Jeremiah Owyang. Can't make it to San Jose? You can join us online. Register today and save 10% with coupon code MASH10!

October 27-28, 2010: The Caribbean Media Conference & Expo have become the Caribbean's premier regional conference on television, cable and satellite, broadband, wireless, radio, magazines, news and print media, advertising and marketing. The 2010 Caribbean New Media Expo and Conference is unique in that it seeks to strengthen the relationships with new media companies, marketers and advertisers to further capitalize on the benefits of digital, social and mobile media. Presentations and panel discussions will help marketers understand concepts such as online-display advertising, search and social networking and how the impact of new technologies has wrought consumer behavior changes.

October 27-29, 2010, Washington, DC: This event will showcase 15 federal perspectives on different strategies government agencies can implement to comply with the Obama Administration's Open Government Directive. The social media realm will be a prevailing topic of discussion as it has been the prime means federal agencies have taken to achieve compliance, but problems with its use still persist. This event will provide ADVANCED solutions and ideas to the policy, security, monitoring and measuring struggles that many agencies face on a daily-basis. Mashable subscribers will enjoy a 10% discount when they mention MASHABLE in their follow-up email to the event contact listed here: event.

October 27, 2010, New York, NY: With millions of people participating on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, brands can no longer avoid social media as an effective research and marketing channel. Social Media Bootcamp: Social Media for Research and Marketing explores best practices for using social media as a research and marketing tool. Hear case studies that identify the best tools for listening to the consumer and the best ways to use social networks to listen to and engage your consumers. Speakers include: Chris Boudreaux – Converseon, Frank Cotignola – Kraft Foods, Jeff Rosenblum – Questus, Peter Fasano and The ARF's Lynne d Johnson and Steve Rappaport. $200 discount for ARF Industry Leader Forum registrants.

October 28-30, 2010, Toronto, Canada: Today, companies recognize that Social Media is an important part of an integrated strategy that is woven into every fiber of Sales, Marketing, PR, Advertising, Customer Relations and Branding campaigns. The second unGeeked Elite three-day Retreat brings together 10 keynotes and 16 presenters who'll provide you with examples of best practices, solutions and case studies in a forum where keynotes and presenters ask you to engage, poke them in the eye with questions and get one-on-one responses in this intimate learning environment. RSVP with the promo code unGeekedMashable and save 30% off regular ticket price!

October 28-29, 2010, Chicago, IL: Your customers are more empowered than ever before with social and mobile connections. The only defense you have is to empower your own employees to solve those customers' problems. Forrester's Consumer Forum 2010 connects you with analysts, peers, and industry leaders whose expertise will help you unleash your employees and transform your company. Register with promo code CFXMSH to save 15%. Discount applies to new registrations only and cannot be combined with other offers.

October 28-29, 2010, Exeter, UK: The Like Minds Conference – Autumn 2010 is a 2 day event attended by participants from across Europe focusing upon the subject of “Creativity and Curation”. This year, we have a range of workshops, keynotes and lunch time talks from leaders in marketing, communications and media from around the world. Then, you can relax on Thursday and Friday night with the Like Movies and Like Music festivals. Details and registration at www.wearelikeminds.com.

October 28, 2010, New York, NY: At The ARF Industry Leader Forum: Discovering Consumer Insights, the ARF will unveil its new "Insights Value Creation Model", preliminary results from executive interviews with leading marketing and business executives about research's impact. Industry leaders will share their visions, successes and plans to address the transformation of the research profession, and attendees will learn the skills they need to translate insights into actionable organizational change and how to sustain it. Headline speakers include: Donna Goldfarb – Unilever, Beth LaPierre – Eastman Kodak, Charles Mohs – Pfizer, Drew Westen – author of The Political Brain and Susan Whiting – The Nielsen Company. Register by September 24 to save $100 with our Early Bird rate.

October 28, 2010, London, UK: The International Search Summit will focus once again on international and multilingual search marketing topics and offer delegates insight and advice on how to effectively develop and manage international online campaigns. Speakers at the event will include Eugene Lomize from Russian search engine Yandex, Omar Khaled from Arabic search Engine Ayna, as well as well-known search marketers Mikkel deMib Svendsen, Marty Weintraub, Massimo Burgio and Barry Lloyd. The Summit will be held at The British Library in London and is a must for any marketer targeting multiple markets and/or languages online. Register now with the coupon code MASH20 to receive 20% discount.

October 28, 2010, New York, NY: Join a select group of senior communications professionals in helping you build an integrated PR and marketing engagement strategy that maximizes your impact with your targeted audiences and key influencers. PR+MKTG Camp™ East limits talking head powerpoint presentations. Executives from top agencies and some of the world’s largest brands will lead HIGHLY INTERACTIVE discussions on such topics as assessing the current media landscape, building a integrated strategic engagement vision, executing an action plan, and measuring your results. Mashable readers get a 10% discount with promo code MASHABLECAMPEAST.

November 1-2, 2010, New York, NY: Are you a health marketing and communications professional? Please join us at unNiched 2010, a unique collaborative boot camp where you will actively learn and use collaboration, strategic marketing and communications skills. Using our unNiched Innovation Model, gain the tools to create and drive marketing communications success within (and without) your organization. In addition, you’ll have access to a private online group and learn from a range of experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, AIDS.gov, Edelman, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and the Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab. Use the discount code Mashable and get 10% off.

November 1-2, 2010, Dubai, UAE: Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Summit at Total Marketing Discuss and debate the opportunities and challenges faced by marketers in leveraging social media as a marketing tool. Hear from leading organizations on how they managed to turn Twitter and LinkedIn amongst others into powerful communication channels! Getting in at the top of any search remains a key focus for many organizations today. Hear from leading practitioners on how best practice strategies and innovative methods to get the most out of the internet. Register and save 15% when using code MASHABLE-TM. For more information, visit www.totalmarketing2010.com.

November 2-3, 2010, Ft. Lauderdale, FL: BlueGlass FL is an online marketing conference featuring today's leaders in the Social Media, Search Marketing & Venture Capital industries. BlueGlass combines cutting edge educational seminars where high profile industry experts discuss the latest trends and strategies along with impactful networking events where attendees will build contacts, gain resources and leave with a wealth of knowledge. Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino provides the perfect setting for this next generation conference where attendees will be treated to innovative seminars, networking events and forums optimal for building business relationships and exchanging new ideas and technologies that enable longevity in the marketplace. For more information, click here. Registration information can be found here.

November 3-5, 2010, San Francisco, CA: DevLearn|10 is the super-charged conference and expo for those involved in the design, development, or management of e-Learning. DevLearn|10 offers the industry's largest expo, over a hundred sessions covering the latest e-Learning tools, technologies, and strategies, plus exciting content stages like the Social Learning Camp, Mobile Learning Jam, Serious Games Zone, and Learning Media Studio . If you want to know what’s coming next in the world of e-Learning and what the top people in the field are thinking, this popular, cutting-edge conference is the place to be.

November 3-4, 2010, Scottsdale, AZ: If you’re a leading executive at your organization with questions about how social media can better optimize your customer response efforts and thus generate a higher ROI, then this year’s Social Media Customer Response Summit is a must attend. During this two-day seminar, attendees will be able to listen, learn and collaborate with prominent industry leaders such as John Belanger of Yahoo!, Steve Kaay of US Auto Parts, John Hernandez of Cisco, Craig Palmer of Cable & Wireless (UK), and Robert Lamb of AT&T,on the challenges/benefits with using a “social media customer response strategy,” and what Key Performance Indicators are being used to review effective social media customer response, plus much more. Senior VPs interested in attending can find more information about the summit’s agenda & registration at www.customerresponsesummit.com.

November 3, 2010, Frankfurt, Germany: The viscom tec.10 conference focuses upon how to create a customer focused experience with technology. Thanks to modern technologies, consumers are now more networked and better informed than ever before. Used to finding the ideal product by making comparisons and consulting with others on a wide range of webservices. In the future the challenge for marketing and technology providers will be to reach this “always on” generation in real life. The conference will highlight the perspectives and visions of the different sectors: from traditional advertising and out-of-home possibilities to web and mobile-based communication and digital signage. Use the early bird pricing and save 200 EUR.

November 4-6, 2010, New York, NY: IMM is the leading residential training course for the brightest executives working with international brands or within the international departments of agencies, media owners and client companies. Created in the UK in 1990, the course has now trained over 2,000 executives – many now working at senior levels within US-based organizations and across the world. The two and a half day course combines presentations from leading thinkers with practical group work and mentoring. Send your most promising people to the first IMM New York, designed to help train the next generation of American advertising talent.

November 4-6, 2010, Savannah, GA: Geekend is the interactive conference phenomenon you have been waiting your whole life for. Geekend is your chance to interact with people taking the tech and creative industries by storm. Join us this November as the brightest geeks, designers, developers, artists, and social media mavericks flock to Savannah for a weekend filled with cutting edge speakers, fun-filled after parties, and amazing networking opportunities. Speakers include Noah Everett of Twitpic, Scott Stratten of Unmarketing, Margaret Francis of Lithium, and many more.

November 4-5, 2010, New York, NY: Influence People is hosting a one-day social media monitoring conference in New York on November 4, followed by a half-day training bootcamp on November 5. Monitoring Social Media (New York) will bring together leading brands, PR and marketing experts to discuss the latest ideas, trends and techniques in social media monitoring and measurement. Though a series of presentations, panels and expert-led discussions, we will explore the critical issues that marketers and PR professionals are facing in their efforts to monitor their social media interactions. Register with code mashable to get a 10% discount. Limited tickets still available at www.socialmediamarketing.co.uk.

November 5-6, 2010, San Francisco, CA: The NNew Media Film Festival brings you the Best of New Media: What’s New & What’s Next…and honors stories worth telling. Join the Producers Guild of America-Northwest (PGA-NW), NATPE, Content First, National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, WGA New Media, SAG New Media, International Academy of Web TV, Motorola, IndieGoGo and more as we bring together thought leaders and content creators from across film, TV, games, publishing, web, mobile & technology for forums, screenings and networking. Register and use the promo code GOLDENGATE30 to save 30%. More information can be found at www.newmediafilmfestival.com.

November 5, 2010, New York, NY: L2 is a think tank for digital innovation. On November 5th, L2 will host its second-annual Innovation Forum at The Morgan Library. The full-day event will address innovation in digital marketing and implications for prestige brands. Described as "TED for brand marketing," the Forum is the largest gathering of prestige executives in North America. The Forum is meant to inspire, educate and entertain. Speakers this year include CEOs of Bonobos, Polyvore, MINI, Rent the Runway, Foodspotting and the Business of Fashion. Register and use the promo code Mashable_friends for 25% off.

November 5, 2010, St. Petersburg, FL: During Poynter’s Social Media Day: Finding the Future of Journalism, we will tap into the broader creativity of influential thought leaders in social media and explore its future possibilities within journalism. Scheduled speakers include Lisa Stone, co-founder and CEO, BlogHer; Charlene Li, partner, Altimeter Group; Vadim Lavrusik, community manager, Mashable; Matt Thompson, editorial product manager, Project Argo/National Public Radio; Betsy Morgan, former CEO, Huffington Post, and many more. Purchase tickets to attend the in-person event, or RSVP to our Facebook event and watch a video stream of the event on Poynter.org.

November 6, 2010, Topeka, KS: PodCamp Topeka is Topeka’s annual low-cost “unconference” focused on social media, podcasting & videoblogging, blogging, Twitter, Facebook, photography, and web design, for starters. Our keynote speaker is Patrick O’Keefe, author of Managing Online Forums. Register now!

November 8-10, 2010, San Francisco, CA: The Open Mobile Summit & Appcelerate — The most anticipated mobile conference of the year. Meet the CEOs of Sprint, LightSquared, HTC USA, Loopt, Smule, Booyah, Shopkick and more. Explore the key mobile battlegrounds – OS wars, PC vs Phone, video, advertising, cloud – and see who is set to lead in the next phase of the open mobile revolution. Register now with VIP code MASHABLE and save $100

November 8-11, 2010, Las Vegas, NV: PubCon, the premier search and social media conference, features the industry’s biggest names and key players shaping the future of the Web. PubCon holds cutting edge panel sessions exploring tracks dedicated to search, social media and affiliate marketing, an intensive professional search and social media training program and some of the world's top keynote speakers. PubCon Las Vegas will also hold a one day two-track slate of intensive educational training programs led by some of the industry’s most respected search professionals. PubCon makes all of this available at some of the most affordable registration rates in the industry. Please use the code ma-8201210 for 10% off the registration price.

November 8-11, 2010, Santa Clara, CA: See the latest collaboration tools and technologies at Enterprise 2.0 Santa Clara’s comprehensive conference and expo. Gain thought leadership — from strategy to execution and performance monitoring — to bring the power of collaboration to your organization, accelerate information flow, drive revenue and increase productivity. Register with the promo code CNUJES04 to save $100 off the onsite price for passes or for a free expo pass.

November 8-9, Boston, MA: The eCommunications & Online Marketing Summit is a two day conference for the pharmaceutical industry. We will be showing how to revamp your eCommunications strategy to know, reach and interact with your customer. The event will feature 20+ pharmaceutical speakers and a key note from Citi Bank . The event’s agenda will feature 14 case studies that will give you knowledge on only the most critical business issues. For our event brochure, click here. Register and use the promo code MSH200 to save £200.

November 9-10, 2010, Toronto, Canada: Take back practical strategies for integrating social media tools and measure their ROI at your company – all in just 2 days! The Canadian Institute's 4th Annual Conference on Social Media will provide you with the right tools to integrate and measure the impact of social media in your organization. Learn how to increase the number of your followers, handle negative publicity and attacks in social media, strategically leverage social media as a key tool in crisis communications and much more. Enter Mashable discount code 207AX03 to get 15% off the conference.

November 9, 2010, Atlanta, GA: Small Biz Tech Tour – Want to learn how to leverage technology as a tool to GROW your business? Want to attend the Small Business Technology Tour? target=”_blank”>http://www.smallbiztechtour.com The tour is for business owners, entrepreneurs and business professionals who want to have fun, network and learn. Whether you know nothing about technology or know a lot, the Small Business Technology Tour is for you. Bring a friend! The first 10 attendees who register with the discount code MASHABLE will receive a complimentary ticket. Use the promo code MASHABLEDISCOUNT to get 50% off!

November 9, 2010, Philadelphia, PA: BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media features 8 great case studies on the best social media programs at large corporations. SAP, American Express, Johnson & Johnson, Scholastic, SunGard, The Hershey Company, Pfizer, and BlackRock share case studies in corporate social media. You’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal. From GasPedal and the Social Media Business Council. Save $39 off registration by using the promo code ILoveMashable.

November 9, 2010, San Francisco, CA: Agencies and advertising brands are invited to The Bees Awards – 1st international social media competition for marketing professionals. 20 judges from 13 different countries will gather at the Legion of Honor to grant recognition to the best industry practices. Honor will be granted in 16 different categories including: best use of social media platform, best conversation with consumers, best campaign, agency of the year, client of the year, and others. You are invited to submit your work before October 1st and join the celebrations on November 9 at www.beesawards.com.

November 11, 2010, San Francisco, CA: Social Media Prom, presented by @FunnyOrDie, is for anyone and everyone who didn’t have a chance to go to prom. Or maybe you did, but you were the wallflower, someone poured punch down your dress, or gave you a wedgy and hung you from a locker. This is your chance to shine, and relive what you may not have been able to experience from the backseat of the car or behind the bleachers. Visit www.socialmediaprom.com to get your tickets! Don’t have a date? No big deal, go stag! Tickets are $20 for couples and $15 for singles.

November 11, 2010, London, UK: The first London Social Gaming Summit is a one day event focused on the intersection of games and the social web. The event focuses on helping social games developers build, monetize, and grow their social games. We’re bringing together the leaders in free-to-play games, social networking, and payments infrastructure for a full day of panels and talks.

November 11, 2010, Buenos Aires, Argentina: ElggCamp is an event that gathers people from the developing environment with social media entrepreneurs, marketing specialists, designers and anyone who is interested on knowing how developing a social network can help them achieving their goals. The main objective of this event is to discover new possibilities and solutions this platform has to bring to everyone, and to create an environment where ideas are able to became real. This is the second time this event take place in Buenos Aires, and it promises to be a success! Register now here, or visit ElggCampBA.com.

November 12, 2010, Mountain View, CA: The Under the Radar Conference is a one-day showcase of carefully selected innovative startups presenting to an audience of early-adopter customers. Key audience members are responsible for leveraging innovation to help their company compete in the fast-evolving digital landscape. Join 350 decision-makers from global carriers, brands, agencies, technology companies, startups, and investors to hear from the next wave of innovators. This year’s Under the Radar conference will hear from brands, agencies retailers and media companies who are looking to improve customer engagement. Key challenges are improving their decision process, making it easier for them to get what they want, at the best price, in real-time and closest to them. The Under the Radar conference will showcase the latest startups that are addressing these challenges and influencing this behavior. Areas of focus will be on Social Commerce, Loyalty/Rewards, Social Scanning and Payment. To register, go to www.undertheradarblog.com/register.

November 12, 2010, London, UK: The first London Virtual Goods Summit is a one day event focused on the emerging market opportunity for virtual goods and economies. Once restricted to the world of online gaming, virtual goods and currencies are beginning to influence the development of social networks, community sites, and many other new and exciting markets. The market for virtual goods continues to grow – join us for engaging talks and panels designed to highlight important trends in this fast growing market. This is a must-attend event for those in the games, social media, and entertainment markets. Register now with the promo code MASHABLE010 for 15% off!

November 15–18, 2010, London, UK: Europe's definitive customer strategy experience. Focusing on the strategy behind the concept of loyalty, Loyalty World will provide you with the insight and tools to develop the ultimate loyalty initiative to support your business goals and add measurable value to your bottom line. Loyalty World will examine the relationship between your brand and your customers, look at what drives consumer behaviour, and help you understand how you can identify and harness new trends and tools to really drive engagement. Loyalty World attracts participants from some of the world's most reputable brands. With speakers from retail, financial services, travel, leisure, utilities and telecoms, you will gain cross-transferable loyalty insights and experiences that will help rejuvenate your loyalty strategy, attract, engage and retain customers, and strengthen your market. Register here and SAVE 10%.

November 15, 2010, London, UK: The Social Technology Not for Profit Summit '10 caters specifically for those that work in or on behalf of charities and not-for-profit organizations. We're bringing you answers to the big questions across the industry, discussing how to make the most of little or no budget, and how to utilize social media to turn supporters into advocates. This event will bring you practical advice with a human perspective and tangible takeaways that you can implement seamlessly into your not for profit organization. Register and use the promo code mash80 for an additional 20% off the ticket price.

November 15, 2010, London, UK: The virtual goods model is the revenue-generating sensation that is taking the world by storm, from games publishers to media companies, from social-networking sites to consumer brands. The Virtual Goods World Europe 2010 promises to be the next step for your business! Major brands will come together to discuss the opportunities presented by the rise of virtual goods. Social networking sites will participate, to learn more from the brands and create business models for the future. Games publishers and developers will learn best practice customer acquisition strategies. All participants will learn new opportunities presented by advances in alternative payment systems. Register now with the promo code VGWMASH and save 10%!

November 17-19, 2010, Loudoun County, VA: Social Media Tourism Symposium. The symposium will be a combination of destination marketing organizations, hotels, resorts, attractions and any other tourism related entities sharing ideas and learning more about how social media is effecting promotion within the travel industry. What makes this conference unique is the involvement of attendees throughout the entire process. Attendees will have a voice in everything from the location to the session topics and presenters. Register now and become a Facebook fan.

November 17-19, 2010, Las Vegas, NV: The WOMMA Summit 2010 is the pinnacle of all we’ve learned this year as well as trends to watch in 2011 and beyond. WOMMA Summit 2010 showcases the NEXT and BEST practices from some of the innovative and forward thinking brands in word of mouth and social media marketing today. Register before October 1 and save $200 off the full ticket price. Use code WOMMASummitMASH.

November 17-18, 2010, Raleigh, NC: The Internet Summit 2010 will feature over 100 speakers and an audience of over 1,500 internet execs, entrepreneurs and senior marketers. Join dozens of industry leaders and innovators in the conversation on topics such as Social Media, Mobile, Cloud Computing, Geolocation, Online Advertising, Analytics, Video, Ecommerce and more. This years, keynotes are Go Daddy’s CEO Bob Parsons and Ancestry.com’s CEO Tim Sullivan, and then hear thought leaders from Foursquare, Google, Salesforce.com, Yelp, eBay, StumbleUpon, Playboy, Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, Autotrader.com, Playdom, Travelocity and many more! Register and use the promotion code MASH for 20% off.

November 17-18, 2010, London, UK: The Corporate Social Media Summit is a two-day conference focused exclusively on how big businesses can use social media to enhance their marketing/comms strategy. The conference is tailored exclusively to a corporate – not a social media – audience. It features 20+ senior executives from European corporations speaking – including Vodafone, Honda, Nokia, Cadbury, PepsiCo and more. 14 in-depth, interactive workshops deliver best practice examples and practical next steps from companies that have already experienced marketing/comms success using social media. For our brochure, click here. Register and use the promo code MSH200 to save £200 off the ticket price .

November 17, 2010, Phoenix, AZ: Fifth Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference – In the current environment, some companies will still come out stronger than before. Has your business suffered? Have you been laid off? Are you trying to grow in difficult circumstances? Here at AZEC10, we’ve got your back. Local investors, local entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley veterans will spend the day discussing the realities of business today. You MUST meet these people and learn from them during the Great Re-Set of 2010. This is the premier entrepreneurship conference in Arizona, benefitting the Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation.

November 18-19, 2010, New York, NY: Get your tickets now to attend NextGen:Charity, a conference on non-profit innovation being held in New York City. Learn and network with 500+ executive-level professionals of non-profits and foundations. Featured speakers include Seth Godin, Scott Harrison, Arianna Huffington, Nancy Lublin, Randi Zuckerberg. Visit our website for more information, to learn about all our presenters and get your tickets. Click here to register now!

November 18, 2010, New York, NY: Financial Services Social Communications: Case Studies and Roundtables — Our Keynote Presenter will be Craig Pfeiffer, Chief Marketing Officer, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Case studies by MasterCard Worldwide, AllianceBernstein, and others will showcase how leading financial institutions are embracing social media and marketing to achieve business goals despite the regulated environment. The case studies will be followed by moderated interactive roundtables. Register and use the promo code MASH for a discounted rate of $155.

November 18, 2010, Madrid, Spain: Stepping out of the comfort zone: Innovation & Social Media in Healthcare. Advertising in the new markets of conversations is the big challenge, and realizing that you no longer have the control of the brand is difficult to assume and scary. But wanted or not, the conversation is out there. HCPs are right now storytelling their opinions, experiences, unmet needs, therapeutic strategies and ideas via the Social Web. They are looking for connectivity and knowledge in these new ecosystems which are "common and global grounds". The word of mouth surpasses, in credibility, the traditional communication tools.

November 18, 2010, San Francisco, CA: Join the Real-Time Revolution with code MASHABLE and save 20%! Register today at http://twtrcon.com/sf10. Real-time tools are transforming business, government and non-profits. At TWTRCON SF 2010, you'll see case studies and learn best practices from leading organizations that are using the real-time web to deliver bottom-line results. Speakers from Ford, H&R Block, Wells Fargo, SAP, Southwest, Twitter, Google, stickybits, Roxy Theatre, StatusNet, OneRiot and more. New at TWTRCON SF: Hands-on workshops designed to let you learn the how-tos of real-time applications, tools and platforms. Register at http://twtrcon.com/sf10 use the promo code MASHABLE for 20% off.

November 18, 2010, San Francisco, CA: Calling all women in technology! Vator, a leading platform for innovators and entrepreneurs to connect and learn from one another, and Girls in Tech, a social network for women in technology, are holding their first event, Amplify, to recognize women-led startups. Silicon Valley legend Esther Dyson will be the keynote speaker, sharing advice on what it takes to build a company. Amplify is a day-long event and will be held on November 18 in San Francisco. To be among the 15 women-led startup presenters, be sure to enter the competition here. Register and use the promo code MashableAmplify for a 20% discount.

November 18, 2010, Kiev, Ukraine: Digital Communications of Ukraine International Conference is one of the main Ukrainian events that will feature the top professionals in the industry of Internet marketing. The main goal of the DCU is to exchange ideas and learn how to handle changes in media and marketing in day-to-day business using the latest knowledge, new technologies, best practice, and trends. Our speakers will share their experience and cases in digital communications. Companies represented by our speakers: Ukrainian Association of Internet Advertising, Yandex, Gemius, Digitas, Oxygen, Ukr.net, Brainberry and many more. Register with the promo code DCUMAS to save 15%!

November 20, 2010, Los Angeles, CA: At the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart) Social Media Training Seminars, we will clear the confusion surrounding social media marketing and give you all the information, coaching and hands-on tutoring you need to carry out an effective marketing campaign on social media – we cover Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Myspace, Blogging, scheduling and time-management, effective postings, linking, photo uploads, marketing and branding, growing your following and more! Register here: http://e-2productions.com/eventsseminar.html.

November 25, 2010, London, UK: BrightLemon Drupal Training – Introducing Drupal (London): This Drupal course quickly gets you up to speed with building dynamic database-driven websites with Drupal. It begins with a basic introduction into the main concepts behind Content Management Systems (CMS) and the types of websites they are meant to help create. We then map these concepts onto Drupal as a CMS and take you through installation to creations of a series of websites – each one adding an additional layer of functionality. Buy tickets here.

November 25, 2010, London, UK: The media and marketing industry's Global GREEN Awards 2010 recognise and reward creative work that communicates the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility, sustainable development and ethical best practice in any sector and across any marketing discipline. Now in its fifth year the GREEN AWARDS™ are going Global, this year for the first time, all the categories are opened for entry from all over the world. The Awards illustrate the crucial role that needs to be played by green marketing and sustainability communications in informing people about green issues, products and lifestyle choices, and showcase examples of excellence and best practice in communicating sustainability and green issues. The Awards are now open for entry. For more information about the 16 categories and entry process, please visit http://www.greenawards.co.uk.

November 25, 2010, London, UK: The Digital Brand Strategy Summit is designed to create a unique showcase from leading brands and industry experts on how to create, launch and implement an effective Digital Marketing Strategy for your brand. During this one day event delegates will be presented with strategic information, case studies and hot tips enabling delegates to walk away with a clear understanding of the digital concept and the knowledge and tools necessary to deliver an effective strategy.

November 30, 2010 – Dec. 2, 2010, London, UK: Online Information is the largest UK event dedicated to the information industry. Taking place in the Grand Hall at London's Olympia, the exhibition attracts more than 9,000 visitors each year from around the world. This unique, free to attend event consists of an exhibition with more than 200 international exhibitors alongside an extensive seminar programme. Online Information covers 6 core segments: Content Resources, ePublishing Solutions, Library Management, Content Management, Search Solutions and Social Media, providing an annual meeting place for this global industry. Mashable readers may register to attend here.

November 30-December 1, 2010, London, UK: Apps World aims to address the entire app ecosystem and the challenge of delivery, development and design of apps across multiple platforms. The event will bring together leading operators and app stores worldwide, and draw in parallels between the mobile & TV app platforms. Register now to receive the early-bird discount.

November 30, 2010, London, UK: Social Recruiting Conference will gather together leading employers and recruitment industry professionals, to passionately discuss and practically demonstrate the power of Social Recruiting. The conference will be unlike any other Social Media Recruiting conferences you have attended. Our aim is to take the talk from theory to practice; and shift conversations from hype and hope to reality and results. #SRCONF will focus on Social Recruiting case studies, with measurable ROIs. Save 10% when you register with the code MASH10 at http://www.srconf.com.

November 30, 2010, London, UK: Hear how 21 heavyweight brands, including Facebook, Sainsbury’s, Google-YouTube, COI, King of Shaves, Motorola, JustGiving, BBC, Volvo, M&S, FT, Jaguar, Eurostar and Santander are demonstrating real results from social media at the Social Media Results For PR & Comms Conference. Tried and tested strategies to genuinely engage audiences, fully embed and integrate social media practices and clearly demonstrate real results. Mashable readers receive a £150 discount with the promo code MASHABLE if you book before August 19. Click here to download the conference brochure.

December 1-2, 2010, Berlin, Germany: Lead generation, lead nurturing, inbound marketing, B2B social media marketing, SEO, storytelling, mobile marketing and blogging, B2B marketers are facing new challenges in building profitable marketing strategies. The first BB2B Marketing Europe event features a keynote presentation by Chris Brogan and will bring together European B2B marketers to share knowledge through real-world case studies, best practices, lessons learned and offer networking opportunities with some of the biggest brands and businesses today – Forrester Research, Google, Philips, Dassault Systemes, Accenture, HP, Honeywell, Canon, Kodak, Symantec, HubSpot, iTive and more. Register by September 30th to receive an early bird discount.

December 1, 2010, London, UK: The Mobile Cloud Computing Forum will provide a full perspective of mobile cloud computing and SaaS from business value through integration and implementation and to the emergent trends in the industry. Meet some of the best known mobile cloud computing and SaaS professionals in person and exchange your experiences. Register with promo code MCMASH20 and save 20%!

December 1, 2010, Toronto, Canada: The Canadian New Media Awards recognize the highest standards of excellence in all areas of Canadian digital media and seek to honour individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievements over the past year. The CNMA gala will take place during nextMEDIA Toronto at the Design Exchange. Visit www.nextmediaevents.com/cnma for more information.

December 1, 2010, San Francisco, CA: The 3rd Annual Silicon Valley Rocks will take place on Weds., December 1, 2010 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. A fundraiser for Music in Schools Today, SVRocks will feature performances from the Valley's top tech talent from VCs and entrepreneurs to bloggers and software developers.

December 2-6, 2010, Departing from New Orleans, LA: When you attend Social Media Conferences do you get the most value out of the conversation in-between sessions? Check out the 2nd Annual Social Fresh Cruise, the best parts of a social media conference at sea. Cruise the Caribbean for four days with 90 other social media leaders and influencers. For about the same price as just the ticket to many conferences, the Social Fresh Cruise includes all meals, private cocktail parties, eight hours of high-level interactive social media sessions, unbeatable networking, and entertainment.

December 2-4, 2010, San Francisco, CA: unGeeked is a unique three-day Social Media, Marketing and Branding Retreat. During the retreat, attendees will engage in discussions involving every aspect of your internal and external branding efforts. The goal is to learn how to align the personal and corporate brands by involving, Sales, Marketing, PR, Advertising, Customer Relations, Human Resource and Legal into your SoMe integration efforts. unGeeked San Francisco includes Social Media authors, mavens and practitioners such as Brian Solis, Scott Stratten, Jason Falls, Amanda Hite Jeff Power and more. Keynotes and presenters are here to get you involved in the discussions by asking you to bring your challenges, obstacles or questions to this intimate (we limit attendance to 150 people) learning environment. Register with the promo code unGeekedMashable to save 10% off three-day ticket cost.

December 2-3, 2010, Berlin, Germany: Gone are the days of paper surveys or email questionnaires where you often get poor response rates. With the advancement of mobile technology, surveys can be seamlessly integrated into mobile apps, making it more fun for consumers to respond than traditional methods. The international conference on Market Research in the Mobile World: The Next Frontier will be held on the 2 & 3 December 2010 in Berlin. The aim of this conference is to bring together top researchers and practitioners to discuss the key challenges and opportunities of using mobile research applications for generating actionable insights. Mashable subscribers will enjoy a 20% discount off the full registration fee when they use the promo code mashable20 before November 15.

December 6-7, 2010, Los Angeles, CA: The LA Mobile Entertainment Summit is brought to you by the producers of the widely acclaimed 3D Entertainment Summit, this high level strategy and networking event will explore all facets of the mobile entertainment industry. This event will be presented in association with Variety and in partnership with the Mobile Excellence Awards, the industry's most prestigious awards program for the mobile industry. Located in the heart of the Entertainment industry, the Summit will attract the brightest minds in the mobile ecosystem. Delivering two days of packed in-depth discussions, the summit will deliver strategies to capitalize on this rapidly changing landscape, attracting senior level decision makers, leading press and market analysts.

December 6, 2010, San Francisco, CA: The SF MusicTech Summit brings together 700+ visionaries in the music and technology space, along with the brightest developers, entrepreneurs, investors, musicians, service providers, and journalists who work with them at the convergence of culture and commerce. We meet to discuss the evolving music/business/technology ecosystem in a proactive environment. Register and use the promo code Mashable to receive a 10% discount off the ticket price. For more information, please visit www.sfmusictech.com.

December 6, 2010, Los Angeles, CA: The Mobile Excellence Awards offers invaluable exposure, PR, branding and networking with the who’s who in mobile entertainment, media, & technology. The event has become one of the most influential and prestigious in the industry, honoring the best in mobile entertainment, technology, marketing & media. Attendees represent the entire mobile ecosystem, including execs from all major studios, entertainment companies, brands, content providers, industry influencers & press. Deadline for submissions is September 20th!

December 7-9, 2010, Santa Clara, CA: Taking place in the heart of Silicon Valley, BIA/Kelsey's Interactive Local Media 2010 (ILM:10) is a unique, three-day mega-conference featuring the true innovators of local media, local directories, local search, local mobile, local social and local direct marketing. One highlight is a special Mobile Local SuperForum offering the deepest and most strategic dive ever presented in the mobile local space. Head's up: Local is hot, and this year's conference should be BIA/Kelsey's largest ever. Register with promo code ILMMASH and save $200!

December 8-10, Reno, NV: Join professionals from marketing, tourism, gaming, service industries and nonprofits in Reno-Tahoe's amazing ski country for Social Media at Reno Tahoe (SM@RT), one of the best values of any similar national conference in 2010. Speakers, along with specialized breakout session presenters, include top authors, practitioners and strategist from media giant, Gannett, winter travel destinations, Vail Resorts, and many other experts in building business for professional service firms. Anchored by the University of Nevada, and its business and journalism schools, attendees get specialized instruction to return home with ways to immediately improve their social media marketing. Register now and save and an additional $100 online for the main conference with the discount code MASH.

December 9-10, 2010, Sydney, Australia: Crime and Legal Issues in Social Media II will advise and assist professionals on the utilisation of social networking without fear of the risks. Some organisations are still hesitant to maximise their use of online networking. Risks such as breach of privacy, fear of legal action, developing a negative reputation and lack of control have given way to avoidance of this important medium. The event will explore the legal implications of using social media and the policies that manage the risks. Register and use the promo code CrimeSocialMash to save 15%!

January 6-9, 2011, Lake Tahoe, NV: The worlds of digital storytelling, snowsports and technology will converge on Heavenly Mountain Resort January 6 – 9, 2011 for the Tahoe Snowcial, a winter festival celebrating the global community of enthusiasts who live their passion in the snow and tell their stories online. Snowcial ties these worlds together in a participative, collaborative intermingling of industry leaders that sparks new ideas for the future, linking networks, passions and turns. Speakers include CEOs of Gowalla, Path and Vail Resorts with performances by OK Go and MC Hammer. Register with the promo code founderfriend and get 10% off!

January 20-22, 2011, Mumbai, India: Click Asia Summit 2011 is designed to be Asia's largest digital & mobile marketing conference and expo where industry thought leaders congregate to discuss online marketing, challenges faced by agencies, and the changing face of social media. Click Asia Summit 2011 is going to change the way you look at Digital and Mobile marketing. Please register by clicking here.

January 20-21, 2011, San Francisco, CA: The First Annual Gamification Summit brings together top thought leaders in game mechanics and engagement science for the first time. Hear what works and what doesn’t in this dynamic and fast-moving field through case studies, workshops, keynotes and panels delivered by experts such as Gabe Zichermann (author, Game-Based Marketing), Amy Jo Kim (gamification guru) and Jane McGonigal (TED fellow, debuting her new book) and network with other leaders in the space. Attend the Gamification Summit 2011 and learn how game mechanics and the new science of engagement are rewriting the rules of brand marketing, product design and customer acquisition. Know the score: Register now with the Mashable promo code GSMASH11 and save 10%.

February 7-10, 2011, Orlando, FL: ARC's 2011 World Industry Forum: Driving Innovation, Sustainability and Performance will take place at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld! This forum will focus on challenges that will help you develop winning strategies. It provides an ideal environment for industry executives to collaborate, share ideas, and find new ways to attack their most pressing problems. The event includes sessions on the major issues facing our industry, with multiple tracks that enable executives to explore these topics from different perspectives. Owner/operators, solution providers, & technical experts will all benefit while contributing to the community's body of knowledge.

February 7-9, 2011, New York, NY: Now in its 10th year, the ePharma Summit is going to be bigger than ever. We are looking ahead to new trends and opportunities in digital marketing with unparalleled insight from leading industry innovators. Join us for more novel mobile strategies, more regulatory insights, more customer perspectives, and more examples of what is really working now from the organizations you admire most. Join us February 7-9 in New York City at the most respected digital marketing event for the life sciences industry as we explore innovative e-strategies and proven techniques to drive business. Register with promo code XP1606MASH and save 10%.

February 28-March 1, 2011, Sydney, Australia: Social media marketing has rapidly evolved to the extent that it is no longer enough to just get on board the “social media marketing train.” Marketers are bombarded with tools and technologies without a real understanding of integrating social media effectively. Social Media Marketing – The Way Forward enables marketers develop and manage a sound strategy for your ongoing and future social media marketing projects, with practical and valuable insights shared by some of the most successful brands and campaign creators in both B2C & B2B social media marketing. Register with the promo code MPMASH and save 10%!

March 8-9, 2011, Brussels, Belgium: Are you looking to unleash the power of social media for CRM? As new channels and strategies emerge it is increasingly important to meet face-to-face to share knowledge, challenges and experiences. Enterprise Social 2.0: CRM will bring social media marketers and CRM experts together to share knowledge through real-world case studies, best practices, lessons learned and offering networking opportunities with some of the biggest brands and businesses today. Past speakers include: Google, Kodak, L'Oreal, Philips, Nokia, Lego, Siemens, Vodafone, SWIFT, SAP, Roger Smith Hotel, Dominos Pizza, Airbus and more. To receive a special discount, register now!

March 28-29, 2011, Paris, France: The Marketing 2.0 Conference features leading social media experts who will discuss and learn about the social media initiatives from brands, advertisers, researchers and analysts. Hear from leading people in social media about their strategies, revenue models and how they are approaching upcoming trends in the field. The event will also examine the current market conditions, future forecasts and predictions from leading researchers. Use the promo code mash2011 to receive a discount off the registration price.

April 13-15, 2011, Singapore: The Internet Show Asia 2011 is a series of seminars and a large end-to-end showcase of the latest internet technologies and solutions. More than 10,000 attendees will be at the exhibition and conference to find new ways of doing internet business and enhancing product offerings through the internet – through case study presentations and speaking directly with solution partners. The show will aim to increase your ROI, it's all about business, not a technology show. For more details and registrations, please visit www.theinternetshows.com/2010/Singapore.

The Mashable Weekly Social Media and Marketing Event Guide is proudly supported by Eventbrite, the Web’s Event Marketplace.

Eventbrite is an online events marketplace where tens of thousands of individuals, businesses and organizations of all sizes manage, promote and sell tickets to their events. Make your event a success on Eventbrite.

More About: Social Media Event Guide

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Last week, we profiled ScrollMotion, a company that brings books and magazines to mobile devices in innovative and compelling ways.

ScrollMotion is responsible for the new Esquire app for the iPad — an app that offers a new take on translating print content for digital consumption for an additive and not reductive experience. For many users who access the Esquire app or any of ScrollMotion’s other 11,000 iOS mobile offerings, the experience is something wholly new and unique.

For Josh Koppel, however, it’s just the latest evolution of technology he has been developing for more than five years. While many of us point to the iPhone as the first device that really showcased the potential for reinventing media, Koppel had those visions after using the iPod and iPod Photo. More than five years ago, Koppel was creating flipbook-style interactive liner notes for major record companies. These notes let users manipulate images and get more information about an album by using the iPod’s scroll wheel.

It was amazing to look back and play with prototypes and concepts for interactive media that Koppel created back in 2005 and 2006. This was before the iPhone was officially announced, before there was ever an SDK or an App Store, and before the phrase “there’s an app for that” was recognizable enough to be trademarked.

As much as technology and culture have changed in the past five years — especially in the area of media and publishing — you can still get a glimpse at some of Koppel’s early vision in apps we use today. For instance, many of the rotation animations and time-lapse slideshows in the Esquire app utilize the same basic technique that interactive album art was using half a decade ago.

More Mobile Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Fun Products to Personalize Your iPhone
- 5 Marvelous Mobile Apps for Music Discovery
- 5 Futuristic Concept Phone Designs
- 7 Ways Mobile Apps are Enriching Historical Tourism
- 5 Ways HTML5 Is Changing Mobile Advertising

More About: app development, app store, apple, apps, esquire, interview, iOS, ipad, ipad apps, iphone, iphone apps, ipod, Mobile 2.0, scrollmotion, video, web video

For more Mobile coverage:

• Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Mobile channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

The first titles EA Mobile has announced include The Sims 3, Tetris, Monopoly and Need for Speed Undercover.

All of these franchises appear on existing mobile platforms so the content isn’t exclusive, but Windows Phone 7 owners will have the advantage of the Xbox Live online gaming network. Though Apple has begun offering something similar with Game Center, it’s arguably the most unique feature about Windows Phone 7 and it will make the platform more appealing to game developers and gamers.

All of EA’s games will support Xbox Live Achievements — special badges and goals awarded for accomplishing in-game tasks. The Achievements will add to your gamerscore, which is shared between Windows Phone 7, Games for Windows and Xbox 360 games.

Windows Phone 7 is a slick mobile operating system, but even as it was launched today, the perceived wild card was developer support. To compete with the iPhone and Android, Windows Phone 7 will need a strong library of third-party apps and games.

This weekend, Microsoft was caught using graphics from Rovio’s Angry Birds to promote Windows phones. Angry Birds is one of the most popular mobile games in the world right now, but Rovio was quick to tweet that it has not committed to supporting the platform — a potential blow to developer perceptions.

Rovio went on to say that it will support “all relevant platforms” moving forward, so if Microsoft plays its cards right, Rovio games on Windows Phone 7 aren’t of the question.

More About: apps, developers, EA, electronic arts, game center, games, gaming, microsoft, Mobile 2.0, mobile games, monopoly, need for speed, need for speed undercover, Tetris, the sims, the sims 3, video games, windows phone 7, wp7, Xbox 360

For more Mobile coverage:

• Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Mobile channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

The new service (which is currently only available to users in the U.S.) will provide users with SMS alerts for things like new users joining or leaving a blog, a change in theme and an update in privacy settings.

Users that pay $20 a year can also get access to additional features, including:

• The ability to protect your blog with a two-step login process. You’ll get a text message on your phone when you log in to your dashboard that contains a passcode that must be entered before you gain access to your blog.
• Text notifications when you receive a new comment, plus the ability to approve or delete comments and the ability to send in your own comment replies.
• Get notified when a new post is published to your blog.
• The ability to publish quick updates to your blog instantly.

If you have an iPhone, Android or BlackBerry device, you can probably comfortably avoid the need to spend $20 per year, since the various official WordPress mobile apps offer the same features as the new text messaging options, plus the ability to post photos and videos and edit existing posts or draft new ones.

We think it’s pretty cool that you can manage your comments via SMS but we’re not really sure that such a feature is worth $20 per year. If you just want to be able to post to your WordPress.com blog via SMS and don’t care about the extra security options or the ability to approve/delete comments, you can use a free service like Ping.fm to post short quips or remarks to your blog.

Does controlling your blog via SMS appeal to you or have you moved on to bigger, better options?

More About: blogging, BLOGS, SMS, text messaging, Wordpress, wordpress.com

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

The just-launched accessories are designed by a gaming gear company called dreamGEAR, and almost all of them are available from Best Buy and Toys ‘R Us right now. They include control styluses modeled after Elmo and the Cookie Monster, stick-on decals featuring characters from the show, and kids’ backpacks designed to carry any Nintendo DS model, including the plus-sized DS XL.

DreamGEAR says it plans to release some cute Elmo headphones too. These are all pretty silly, but they could be good gift ideas for the gaming munchkins in your family. The styluses and decals are $12.99 each; the backpacks (“Mini Game Packs”) are priced at $16.99; and, when they become available, the headphones will cost $24.99.

More About: accessories, Backpack, case, cookie monster, gaming, Mobile 2.0, mobile gaming, Nintendo, nintendo ds, nintendo ds xl, nintendo dsi, peripherals, sesame street, stylus, video games

For more Tech coverage:

• Follow Mashable Tech on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Tech channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

The Gates Foundation is seeking to get entrepreneurs involved in tackling the issues surrounding America’s struggling education system. The foundation has already put billions toward education-related grants, and Bill Gates was a prominent character in Waiting for Superman, a new documentary that analyzes the failures of the American education system.

The Next Generation Learning Challenges fund will be divided into grants ranging from $250,000 to $750,000, focused on technologies that emphasize blended learning models, deepen student engagement and learning through interactive application, high-quality open courseware and learning analytics for monitoring student progress.

The deadline for the program is November 17; grants will be announced in March 2011. While the Gates Foundation will provide funds for the project, the nonprofit organization EDUCAUSE will run the program. It will award grants every six to 12 months.

According to Gates, it isn’t limiting the grants to any specific type of organization. He believes that non-profits will primarily apply for grants related to blended learning models, but that he hopes there will be a mix of private companies and startups for grants related to deepening student engagement and learning.

More About: bill and melinda gates foundation, bill gates, microsoft, social good

For more Social Good coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Good on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Good channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Death is a fact of life. When someone dies, they’re no longer physically here, but their digital self lives on. There are more than 5 million accounts on Facebook that are inactive due to death, according to the calculations of BlackBook Media’s Executive Editor Chris Mohney. And that’s just Facebook. Think about all of the other social sites and online services out there – the number of abandoned accounts due to death must be enormous.

After someone passes away, their digital assets live on in the form of computer files and data online. For some, that’s not a big deal. But for others, the thought of leaving digital assets unattended for eternity after death is unthinkable. Luckily, there are a number of services that allow you to delete, update, or transfer account information after you — or someone you care about — is gone.

Here are seven services that help manage a digital life after death. If you’ve heard of other services that also handle these services, add your thoughts in the comments below.

1. Entrustet

Entrustet is a free service that enables an account holder to pass on digital assets to up to 10 designated heirs and one executor, who is in charge of executing a person’s digital wishes after they pass away. Digital assets include social networks, financial accounts, blogs, e-mails and other Internet properties or files.

Check out the video above where Rocketboom Tech’s Ellie Rountree interviews Jesse Davis, co-founder of Entrustet about how the service works and why it is important.

2. Legacy Locker

Legacy Locker was one of the first services to be offered in this arena and is a trusted service for transferring access to digital assets, including e-mail, social media and blogging accounts, to trusted sources.

Legacy Locker offers three pricing plans, starting with a free account that includes storage of information for three digital assets, one beneficiary and one legacy letter, which acts as a digital goodbye note sent after death. If the basic, free service isn’t enough, there’s also the $29.99 per year plan or the $299.99 one-time fee plan, which both allow for unlimited assets, beneficiaries and legacy letters, as well as document backup and video upload.

3. My Webwill

My Webwill ensures that a trusted person can change or transfer someone’s online accounts, including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Tumblr, YouTube, and more, after a death. Choose the desired settings for each account and choose two “trusted verifiers” to confirm the death, and upon notification of that person’s passing, My Webwill performs the deceased person’s wishes.

4. Futuris.tk

Future.tk is a social network with an online messaging service that lets anyone schedule messages up to 50 years in advance. Using the free post-mortem feature, it can also schedule messages to be sent to recipients after a death. To use this feature, the sender must select trusted sources to notify Futuris.tk of their passing, after which your messages can be sent.

Because it offers unlimited messages for free, Futuris.tk is ideal for people who might have a lot of unfinished business to tie up with friends and family after death – or for someone who wants to send many personalized messages.

5. Deathswitch

Deathswitch is a service that periodically prompts the account holder to provide a pre-determined password to ensure they’re still alive. If that person doesn’t enter a password on multiple occasions for a period of time, it deduces that the person is either dead or critically injured and begins sending out personalized pre-written messages to chosen contacts.

The service can be used in many ways, but according to the site, some of the more common uses include sending passwords, financial information, final wishes, last words, love notes, and funeral instructions.

With a free subscription, you can create one message to be e-mailed to one recipient. Or for $19.95 per year, you can prepare up to 30 messages with file attachments for up to 10 recipients per message. Like Futuris.tk, this is a great option for sending out bulk messages, except in this case you have to shell out for the service. You do, however, get the extra benefit of adding file attachments, such as photos and videos.

6. GreatGoodbye

GreatGoodbye is a service that enables an account holder to schedule e-mails to loved ones, which can only be triggered once an activation code is entered by a trusted source. Once you prepare your e-mails, which can include videos, photos and MP3s for a price, your activation code is sent and should be passed along to a trusted friend.

The service offers three pricing plans – a free plan that only includes one e-mail, or the $20 per year plan, or $119 one-time fee plans that include unlimited messages with unlimited videos, photos and MP3s. All of the plans come with unlimited memory space that lasts for 20 years, data encryption, secure login, 21 days to block the sending of messages after a death notification and multiple levels of security.

7. AssetLock

AssetLock is a service that focuses on mass storage of important information that may be crucial for others to know after a death, including information on financials, estate planning, insurance policies account passwords, e-mails and final wishes and directives. It has the capacity to store letters to be sent after a death, as well.

The great thing about AssetLock is that it is very customizable. For example, you can choose the number of “recipients” necessary to unlock an account. So, it you want at least five people to verify a death with the service before they unlock information, you can do that. Furthermore, you can also specify the time delay between an account being unlocked and the information being disseminated.

Pricing plans range from $9.95 per year to $239.95 for lifetime membership, depending on the amount of entries and storage space you require. Compare plans here and check out the demo for more information.

More Social Media Resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Help Your Child Set Up a Blog
- The Next 5 Years in Social Media
- HOW TO: Win the Search Rank Race for Your Name
- The Future of Public Relations and Social Media
- The Case For Social Media in Schools

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, RichardForeman

More About: AssetLock, death, Deathswitch, Entrustet, Futuris.tk, GreatGoodbye, legacy locker, List, Lists, My Webwill, social media

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

At this morning’s Windows Phone 7 launch, Microsoft didn’t just unveil new phones — it also unveiled its new ad campaign.

The company has uploaded two ad spots to its WindowsPhone YouTube account, titled “Really” (embedded above) and “Season of the Witch.”

Both ads serve to showcase the degree to which many of us are sucked into our smartphones and mobile devices. Though I’m loathe to admit it, a number of scenes from the ad, “Really,” could have been taken directly from my own life. Both ads employ the new tag line, “It’s time for a phone to save us from our phones.” It’s catchy, it’s timely and it’s true.

As others have noted, you see very little of Windows Phone 7, or any other specific phone, in the advertisements themselves. The Windows Phone branding is only introduced at the very end of the 60-second spots. That’s precisely the point.

Microsoft’s marketing angle for Windows Phone 7 is almost a complete 180 from its last mobile device, the ill-fated Microsoft Kin. With the Kin spots (no pun intended, I swear), Microsoft was all about trying to overly embrace just how connected and wired and sucked into our mobile devices we have all become. It was all about making the phone the center of your life.

With Windows Phone 7, the message is totally different. Rather than the phone being the center of your life, your life is the center of the phone. The phone is able to be there when it is needed, but it also lets you live your life and focus on actual connections in the meantime. The tone and the focus of the campaign is coming from a very different direction of Verizon’s ads for the Droid, the HTC ads or even from Apple’s vision of iUtopia.

As cellphone netiquette continues to evolve (or devolve, depending on your point of view), it’s refreshing to see a campaign that isn’t focused on keeping us sucked into the awesome and magic of the smartphone.

I firmly believe that the best strategy for Windows Phone 7 is for Microsoft to highlight what makes the phone different and unique. The ad campaign, done in collaboration with ad agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, is a solid start.

“Season of the Witch” Ad

More About: ads, MARKETING, microsoft, windows phone 7

For more Mobile coverage:

• Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Mobile channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

However, just because the web allows individuals and businesses to reach out to the rest of the world doesn’t mean that the rest of the world is always able to understand the message presented by the individual or business. When designing and developing websites, it’s easy to fall into the trap of designing with a Eurocentric gaze.

We’ve compiled some tips for making your website globally friendly. Add your own pointers in the comments below.

1. Optimize for Speed

Making sure your website loads quickly and efficiently is important regardless of your audience, but speed optimizations are incredibly important when trying to reach to a global market.

If a website takes more than a few seconds to start to load or to show content, most users are going to give up and go someplace else. When targeting an international audience, you need to not only keep in mind the potential Internet connectivity options, but also how you are serving your content.

The Yahoo Developer Network goes over some best practices and tips for speeding up your website.

The entire document is worth a read, but if you are cultivating a global audience, one tip to keep in mind is to use a content delivery network. A content delivery network, or CDN, is basically a collection of web servers located at various locations all over the world. So instead of just having all of your content served from your web host in Los Angeles — even if your visitors are in France — you can speed up site performance by allowing content to be served from Paris.

CDNs can be expensive, but even if you choose to only use them when serving certain types of media (like videos or photographs), it can greatly improve performance for your global visitors.

2. Reduce the Use of Text in Images

The web is becoming a more accessible place on a global level, in large part because of machine translation systems like Google Translate. These systems are getting better and better at making it easier for users to translate websites written in other languages. However, machine translation doesn’t work on graphical images.

That means that if you frequently use static images for headings, aspects of a logo or for call-out information, you can be cutting off some of your audience.

It’s not realistic to expect that all websites get rid of all images with text, but thanks to the rise of web fonts, there are more options at a designer or developer’s disposal for creating real text that is styled the way you want it to look, preventing the need for lots of text-based images.

3. Allow Your Text to Grow

Optimizing your website’s text for global access goes beyond limiting the number of graphics that utilize text — you also want to make sure your layout can survive machine translations.

By this, we mean you want to make sure that when your text is written in English and converted to another Latin language, Cyrillic or an Asian language, the flow will be supported by your layout.

Most modern websites that use dynamically generated content will flow correctly when converted to another language, but certain elements may have display problems, and it is important to test your site using a machine translation service to get an idea of how elements are displayed.

4. The Cultural Meaning of Color

Color is one of the areas where designing a global-friendly site can become most difficult, because what a color connotes can vary greatly depending on culture. Green, for example, can represent serenity or eco-friendliness in the United States, but in some countries, it is associated with greed or naivete. We’ve heard that green can even indicate an unfaithful husband in China, so keep that in mind when picking out stock photos.

Color is something you should be aware of with your website, but don’t feel compelled to obsess over its subtle meanings too much. Focus in on your target or expected markets and find out what colors or color combinations work in those areas.

5. Make Your Shopping Cart Internationally Friendly

If you sell something on your website and offer international shipping, be sure to offer a way for users to convert payment into their own currency. It just doesn’t make sense to accept payment from international users, to process international shipping, yet only offer the payment amount in one currency.

There are a number of different API tools for completing exchange rate and currency conversions on your site, without the need for a lot of hassle.

One of our favorites is the Exchange Rate API, which is free for up to 1,500 queries a month.

If you want to see a currency conversion system done in a nice, unobtrusive way, check out Etsy.

Your Tips

We’ve only just scratched the service on what can be done to make a website more global-friendly. What are some of your tips for designing sites that can cross languages and cultures while still getting across the same message? Let us know!

The International Business Series is brought to you by UPS. Discover the new logistics. It levels playing fields and lets you act locally or globally. It’s for the individual entrepreneur, the small business, or the large company. Put the new logistics to work for you.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Build Your International Business Network Online
- 5 Lightweight CMS Alternatives for Small Businesses
- HOW TO: Optimize Your Mobile Site Across Multiple Platforms
- 8 Funding Contests to Kick Start Your Big Idea
- 4 Tips for Writing SEO-Friendly Blog Posts
- How CEOs Will Use Social Media in the Future

Image courtesy of nerissa’s ring

More About: accessibility, cdn, currency, design, global website, International Business Series, internationalization, machine translation, web design, Web Development

For more Dev & Design coverage:

• Follow Mashable Dev & Design on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Dev & Design channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

When Windows Phone 7 was first announced, one major feature omission was the ability to copy and paste. Instead, Microsoft said that it would offer some context-aware options for easily transferring numbers, names and addresses, without the need for a full copy/paste system. That’s changed.

During today’s launch, Microsoft announced that it plans to bring true copy and paste support to Windows Phone 7 in early 2011. This is good news for users who want to take advantage of Windows Phone 7 integration with Microsoft Office and SharePoint.

Copy and paste is a subject familiar to many iOS users’ hearts. Before the release of the iPhone OS 3.0, the iPhone famously lacked support for copy and paste. Like Microsoft, Apple tried to play off the feature’s importance, but I think we can all agree that the iOS experience was made much, much better after the copy and paste option was finally introduced.

Does Microsoft’s plans for copy and paste change your opinion of Windows Phone 7?

More About: copy paste, microsoft, windows phone 7

For more Mobile coverage:

• Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Mobile channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Back in the day, companies posted jobs in the newspaper, on job boards and spread them by word of mouth. All of those methods still exist today and continue to have a certain level of success.

But in today's fast paced and competitive business market, companies are learning that using social media allows them to cast a wide net. And recruiting is no exception. So, if job seekers want new opportunities, they will eventually have to learn where companies are posting positions. Then follow.

If the future of recruiting is social, then job seekers need to get social. Read below for a look at some social media success strategies for conquering your next job search.

Add your own thoughts on how job seekers will use social media in the future in the comments below.

Going Where the Recruiters Are

To stay in the job search game, job seekers should make an effort to learn how companies in their desired industries are posting job openings, and then peruse those areas often. Ever more often, social media is playing a part in the recruiting process. So, job seekers, keep your eyes on your dream employer’s tweets, posts and updates.

Jason Mitchell, owner of Movement Strategy, a digital marketing agency that helps brands such as the New York Knicks and Whole Foods with their social media strategies, explains how social media is his first stop when trying to recruit:

"We have everyone in the company post on their Facebook and Twitter accounts that we are hiring. Pretty much every time we do this there are multiple friends or a friend of a friend who sees the post and is very interested in the position, or who knows someone that would be a great fit.

“We always prefer to hire people that are somehow connected to our personal networks, because they tend to be more reliably good employees than people who we find on job posting websites. Often this is because they had one of our friends vouch for them or they are one of their friends and so they want to prove themselves or not make their friend look bad."

Another company that agrees with getting out on social media is the accounting firm, Grant Thornton. Paul Peterson, national talent resource manager, shares the company’s tactic. "One of our key strategies is simply to engage more. Our people are playing an active role in using social media for recruiting, which I think is fantastic. When everyone gets involved, it seems like we have hundreds of part-time recruiters working across the country," he says.

Getting Better at Search

There are more than 200 active social networking sites, according to Wikipedia. That number might not seem very high, but from a job search perspective, that's 200 places a company could share a job opening. Gina Kleinworth, social media coordinator at HireBetter, a talent assessment solutions company, says her firm "currently utilizes LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Skype along with the usual job boards and groups, like Yahoo Groups, to post jobs and network with potential candidates. Since we work with clients in a variety of areas, it is incredibly beneficial to have a network that reaches well beyond our immediate circle." She adds that as the firm grows, it might begin to leverage Foursquare, Habbo, Bebo and Ning.

This means there's a vast amount of information available. Job seekers will have to learn how to find the data they are looking for… and fast. While Boolean search (using phrases that limit search results, such as AND, OR, NOW and NEAR) is a very good technique to know, it might not be practical for everyone. If you need some help refining searches, check out the Search on the Go iPhone app and About.com’s series of articles on web search, which can be of assistance. While the Search on the Go app is marketed to recruiters, anyone needing help with search can benefit from using it.

Use of Non-Traditional Resumes

Once a job opening is identified, having a ready-to-go resume will be key. It only seems logical, if more and more organizations are going online with their job openings, that having a digital resume will be equally important for job seekers. Not only does it make sending an online resume easier, a digital profile allows companies to find job seekers. So, optimizing online profiles for search will need to be part of the development.

Cathy Nemser, a recruiter with Blue Fountain Media, a website design and online marketing company, shares how recruiters are taking advantage of the various ways candidates can present themselves to employers. "We are able to get fuller pictures of candidates by searching not only for a candidate's LinkedIn profile and online portfolios to learn about work history and accomplishments, but also by viewing Facebook accounts, personal blogs, and — if they even have them — YouTube accounts, to get a feel for a candidate's personality. It has become much easier to get a broader sense of an applicant and cross reference any information that they highlight on their resume."

Enhancing a job seeker's online presence with a VisualCV or social resume has its advantages but can also be a double-edged sword. Nemser cautions, "While you can create an in-depth portrait of yourself, you have to be very careful about the type of information you are sharing. Off-color comments and drunken party pictures of yourself may just be raising eyes out there instead of thumbs ups."

Constant Engagement

Pamela Slim, author of the blog Escape from Cubicle Nation, talks about the concept of the side hustle. These are secondary jobs used to try new business ideas, or they're the backup plan if a person loses their job. If the world becomes a place where everyone will be looking for multiple opportunities (a.k.a. their side hustle), this changes how individuals approach the job search. Traditionally, there used to be two kinds of job seekers: active ("I'm looking for a job.") and passive ("If someone calls me, I'll listen."). In this opportunity economy, we all become active job seekers.

Mitchell's company is focusing more on interacting with potential hires even before it’s actively hiring. "That way we can get a great sense of a person and build a relationship with them and then when we want to hire we will know exactly who to go after," he says.

Carolyn Goodwin, president of Cake Communications, an online branding and communications agency, offers advice on how any of us can start building those relationships:

"Position yourself as an expert. Be really proactive about what you want and reach out to the decision makers at those companies with helpful suggestions and constructive information. Support their work, and if you impress them, they'll find a spot for you. Use things like blogs, websites, and social media campaigns to show that you are someone who believes in a cause, and utilize the skills and traits that make you an attractive candidate. Don't be afraid to send results and proof of your accomplishments to top executives, and work to develop a relationship with them, both online and offline."

Going Mobile

We all know that we can use our phones to connect via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Kleinworth mentioned that some of HireBetter's clients are creating YouTube videos for their job descriptions. "I love this idea because it gives a good sense of the culture of the company before you even get your foot in the door for the face-to-face interview," she says.

There's a variety of job board apps available including Monster, CareerBuilder and Adecco Jobs. Companies like AT&T are developing their own mobile careers apps, as well. Organizations are using Skype to conduct interviews. And this week, Starbucks made its first hire via its iPhone app.

When the statistics show mobile use is on the rise and smartphone use is increasing, it's only a matter of time before apps will allow us to take more of the hiring process online. Kleinworth points out, "It allows for real-time updates on positions and increased capabilities like scheduling interviews. As more people turn to social sites for the latest job postings, I expect to see an increase in referral candidates. The likelihood of someone seeing a posting that fits with a connection they already have is high. Already I see the decrease in the length of time it takes from the time we post jobs to the time we are scheduling interviews with candidates. Social media is certainly streamlining the processes and cutting lag time out."

The future of work is very fluid. As such, companies and job seekers alike need to rise to the changes in recruiting, or they’ll drown in the sea of competition. New tools and updated strategies will help organizations fill positions quickly and with new employees who are a good fit for their corporate culture. Job seekers need to identify these new strategies and adapt their approach to take advantage of good opportunities.

The Future of Social Media Series is supported by Gist. Gist keeps you better informed with less effort by giving you a full view of your professional network in one place bringing together information from across the web for all your contacts giving you the right information at the right moment to get a meeting, deliver an amazing pitch, or just find a better way to make a connection.

More Social Media Resources from Mashable:

-The Future of Social Media in Journalism
- How CEOs are Using Social Media for Real Results
- How Small Businesses Will Use Social Media in the Future
- How PR Pros Are Using Social Media for Real Results
- How Freelancers Might Use Social Media in the Future

Image courtesy of Flickr, Pawel Niewladomski

Reviews: Bebo, Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Habbo, LinkedIn, Skype, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube

More About: facebook, future of social media series, job search, job seekers, jobs, linkedin, social media, twitter

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

The trademark was filed in the Advertising, Business and Retail Services, Computer and Software Services and Scientific Services categories.

The trademark applies to “retail store services featuring computer software provided via the Internet and other computer and electronic communication networks; retail store services featuring computer software for use on handheld mobile digital electronic devices and other consumer electronics.”

The “There’s an app for that,” tagline plays a large role in Apple’s marketing and advertising initiatives around the iPhone and all other iOS devices. The phrase has become so popular that it has permeated pop culture and become repurposed and parodied in a number of fashions. It makes sense, then, that Apple would want to trademark the phrase and prevent other businesses from profiting by the commercial use of the phrase without its consent.

[via TUAW]

Image courtesy of destinyuk*, Flickr

More About: apple, trademark

For more Tech coverage:

• Follow Mashable Tech on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Tech channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Many children bypass this law, even on sites that enforce it, by simply adjusting their birthday. In a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 75% of seventh through 12th graders surveyed said they had a profile on a social media site.

Clearly children want to use social media, and the evidence suggests that they will do so despite COPPA or the many justified parental fears that helped create it. Parents can, however, make the experience safer by directing their children to one of these five age-appropriate social networks.

1. Togetherville

Parents can sign up their children by using their own Facebook accounts to create a profile for their kids on this Facebook-like site. Once parents have selected friends for their children by searching other students at their child’s schools, adding family friends from their own Facebook profiles, and sending e-mail invites, children have access to selected YouTube videos, games, and creative projects. The site has other features that mirror Facebook, like the ability to “heart it,” buy and send gifts using a virtual currency (the twist is that parents give the currency to their children free of cost as “allowance”), and share videos and other parts of the site with their friends.

Where the site departs from Facebook puts many parents’ minds at rest: no outside links, no unapproved friends, and no private conversations. In order to post original comments instead of pre-set options, children must agree to this code of conduct: “I agree to not say anything mean or hurtful, not say embarrassing things about myself, my friends, or my family, and take responsibility for what I say on Togetherville.”

Togetherville’s target age group is under 10, which makes pre-set comment options like “Hampsters are so CUTE!” understandable. The site also facilitates parents’ participation in their children’s introduction to social media by encouraging parent-child interaction. Not only can parents view their child’s social network activity, but they can also post messages to his or her wall, allocate “virtual allowances,” and send virtual gifts.

2. What’s What

This site is probably the most secure social network for kids on this list. In order to sign their children up, parents need to submit their credit card information to verify their identity and they must submit three mug shots (taken with a webcam) of their child for the site’s records. As with every site on this list, I was still able to create a profile as an adult and therefore browse friends in “my grade,” which I selected as seventh. Unlike the other sites, however, the What’s What team had discovered my adult presence (via those mug shots) within about six hours and blocked my profile.

While children are free to interact with people they don’t know, they can’t make friends with people who are out of their age group (in their grade or one grade below or above theirs) without parental permission. Beyond this, the network functions much like the others: users can exchange messages, make friends, join and create groups, and view their friends’ profiles. Parents can edit or delete their children’s profiles at any time, and everything posted on the site is monitored.

The intended age group for the site is between 8 and 14, which seems realistic given that two big draws of social networking — the ability to “make friends” with new people and share your thoughts with others — are retained.

3. ScuttlePad

To sign up for ScuttlePad, kids provide their birthday, favorite color, first name, and parent’s e-mail address, and they’re not allowed on the site until their parents approve it. Once logged in, they’re free to post messages, make friends, upload photos, and make comments — but with a catch. All comments on the site need to follow a given format and use a given set of words. Messages are composed within the framework, “I’m click, click, click,” with each click leading to a choice of words. Photos are manually approved by ScuttlePad, and only first names are used on the site.

The comment outline feature makes the site more secure. Realistically, anyone of any age, with any malicious intention, could sign up, but it’s hard to do much damage with the pre-set communication options. Similarly, it’s impossible to cyber bully or even really hurt anyone’s feelings using the preset options.

On the other hand, this feature can be restricting to the point of making the online experience dull to older kids. The site is intended to teach children ages 6 to 11 about how to use a social media site, and it definitely accomplishes that goal. It might be most engaging, however, for kids on the younger end of that age group.

4. giantHello

Parents can verify their identities and sign their children up for giantHello by either providing the last four digits of their social security number or by charging one cent to a credit card. Beyond that, the site provides the social networking experience that comes closest to mainstream social media networks, making it more appealing to older children who want more autonomy than is allowed on some of the other sites.

Profile pages function much like a Facebook wall: friends can leave comments, children can update their status, and activity on the site — like joining groups — is reported on their page. Children also have options to send private message, upload photos, and join the fan pages of celebrities like the Jonas Brothers and Ryan Seacrest, which are updated via the celebrities’ Twitter feeds.

As far as the social media experience goes, giantHello parts from its mainstream counterpart by removing the “search for friends” function. Children need to either invite friends via an e-mail or print out as page with an invitation code to give them. Therefore, they can’t make friends with people who they don’t know.

5. Skid-e Kids

Skid-e kids relies on staff moderators for most of its security features: if a comment is flagged by a filter for inappropriate language or disclosure of personally identifiable information, it is sent to human moderation; all photos are checked by a moderators; users submit articles and stories for a “written by you” section that are edited for inappropriate language and personal information before they’re posted; and interest group pages are moderated.

Unlike most sites, parents and children both are encouraged to create profiles on the same network. Users can exchange messages, update their statuses, upload video (which needs to be approved before it is posted), and compete against each other for high scores on any of the free games on the site. Unfortunately most of these games are prefaced by ads, and although they are advertised as educational, it’s hard to see how something like “Powerpuff coloring” fits this description.

The advantage of this site, especially for older children, is that much of the moderation is provided by the site itself. Parents aren’t required to constantly check in or approve decisions, but can instead focus on interacting with their children on the same network.

More Parenting Resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Help Your Child Set Up a Blog
- The Case For Social Media in Schools
- Social Media Parenting: Raising the Digital Generation
- 20 Fantastic Free iPhone Apps for Parents
- Top 7 Sites for Parenting How-To Videos

Image courtesy of Flickr, Scott & Elaine van der Chijs

More About: Children, Gianthello, Kids, List, Lists, parenting, ScuttlePad, sites for kids, skid-e kids, social media, social media for kids, social network for kids, togetherville, What's What

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

We’ve already seen the prematurely leaked specifications of Samsung Omnia 7 and LG Optimus 7. These two handset makers have launched two more Windows Phone 7 devices: Samsung Focus and LG Quantum.

Dell has joined them with Dell Venue Pro, and HTC has launched four completely new devices: HTC 7 Surround, HTC HD7, HTC 7 Trophy, and HTC 7 Mozart.

The announced devices will be available “in the holiday 2010 timeframe.”

Check out a gallery with some of the new handsets, as well as a list of the new devices and the mobile operators that will sell them, below.

Samsung Focus

The Samsung Focus has a 480x800 4-inch screen, a 1 GHz Qualcomm processors, 5-megapixel camera capable of 720p video and a battery life of up to three hours of talk time and 10 days of standby time.

LG Optimus

The LG Optimus 7 (or LG E900) sports a 3.8-inch 480x800 resolution screen, a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus (capable of 720p video) and a 1 Ghz processor. It will be available in many countries around the world.

Samsung Omnia

HTC Surround

The HTC Surround features a slide out Yamaha speaker with surround sound and 16GB or internal storage. It also has a 1 Ghz Qualcomm processor, a 480x800 3.8-inch screen and a 5-megapixel (with flash and autofocus) camera capable of 720p video. It features four hours of talk time and up to 11 days of standby time.

LG Quantum

The LG Quantum has a horizontal QWERTY keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera, 720p video and a 480x800 3.5-inch screen. It also has a 1 Ghz Snapdragon processor. The phone features seven hours of talk time and up to 19 days of standby time.

Dell Venue Pro

The Dell Venue Pro has a vertical QWERTY keyboard, a 480x800 4.1-inch screen, a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with 720p video, up to seven hours of talk time and 14 days of standby time.

HTC HD7

The HTC HD7 features a 480x800 4.3-inch screen, a 1 Ghz Qualcomm processor, a 5-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, capable of 720p video. It features six hours of talk time and up to 13 days of standby time.

HTC 7 Trophy

HTC 7 Mozart

LG Optimus 7Q

The LG Optimus 7Q looks like it is the world version of the LG Quantum. Like the Quantum, the Optimus 7Q has a 3.5-inch 480x800 resolution screen, a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash (capable of 720p video) and a 1 Ghz processor.

Windows Phone 7 Devices and Mobile Operators

In North America:

AT&T
HTC Surround, United States
Samsung Focus, United States
LG Quantum, United States

T-Mobile USA
HTC HD7, United States
Dell Venue Pro, United States

TELUS
HTC 7 Surround, Canada
LG Optimus 7, Canada

América Móvil
LG Optimus 7, Mexico

In Europe:

O2
HTC HD7, United Kingdom, Germany

Orange
HTC 7 Mozart, including France, United Kingdom
Samsung OMNIA 7, including France, United Kingdom

SFR
HTC 7 Trophy, France
Samsung OMNIA 7, France

Movistar
LG Optimus 7, Spain
HTC HD7, Spain
Samsung OMNIA 7, Spain

Deutsche Telekom AG
HTC 7 Mozart, Germany
Samsung OMNIA 7, Germany

Vodafone
HTC 7 Trophy, including Germany, Spain, United Kingdom
LG Optimus 7, including Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom

In Asia Pacific:

SingTel
HTC HD 7, Singapore
LG Optimus 7, Singapore

Telstra
HTC 7 Mozart, Australia
LG Optimus 7Q, Australia

Vodafone
HTC 7 Trophy, including Australia

More About: microsoft, windows phone 7

For more Mobile coverage:

• Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Mobile channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Did you know you can use Google Maps to promote your business? Many of the features that you might normally associate with Yelp are actually included in what Google calls Place Pages. And since they’re integrated tightly with the hugely popular Google Maps, you won’t want to ignore them.

Even if Google already lists you, you’ll want to claim your page and make sure all the information is accurate. Either creating a Place Page for your business or acquiring its existing one is easy if you know how to do it.

Below is an introduction to using Google’s provided tools to incentivize would-be customers or clients to stop by. It will get you started with managing your presence on Google Maps, but for the deeper cuts you might eventually want to refer to Google’s vast guide to Google Places.

Claim Your Listing

The first step is to check whether your business is already listed on Google Maps. Simply go to the Google Maps website and search for your business. If it comes up, click on its placemark or listing in the left panel. In the pop-up that appears, you’ll see an option to “Edit” the business details (it might be hidden behind a “More” link). Click it.

If the business is unclaimed, anyone can edit the details. Think of it like Wikipedia. Since you’re planning on curating your presence on Google Maps, click the “Claim your business” link. You’ll be prompted with three options: “Edit my business information,” “Suspend this listing,” or “This isn’t my listing.” Suspending the listing will remove your business from Google Maps. Choosing “This isn’t my listing” will start the process for adding a completely new listing for your business. “Edit my business information” will claim the current listing.

If your company doesn’t already appear on the map, go to the Google Places home page and click “Add a new business.” You can manage up to 100 listings on your account.

In any of those cases, Google will have to verify that the business is actually yours; the company will send you a unique PIN number via snail mail or telephone.

Add Information About Your Business

This is the most important part — and the easiest! You’ll want to start with name, address, phone number, website, hours of operation and which payment options you accept. Then you can upload photos directly or videos through YouTube.

It’s also important to choose categories to describe your business, as they’ll help people find you with keyword searches. You can create your own fields under “Additional details” if you want. You can even specify your delivery range if delivery is a service that you offer.

Go the Extra Mile: Offer Coupons and Advertise

You can give Google Maps users coupons as an incentive to actually stop by your business. You can put whatever you want on the coupon, and Google provides the tools to format and distribute it.

To create one, log in to Google Places and click on the “Coupon” tab. The creation tools are easy to use and self-explanatory for the most part. Just save your coupon to make it appear on Google’s website. Would-be customers can print it off and bring it when they visit.

It’s also possible to make your business stand out from the crowd on Google Maps using advertising. You can either use Google’s AdWords program or a relatively new tool called “Tags.” The latter makes your business stand out on the map by marking it with a very noticeable yellow tag.

Users who investigate the Tag will see coupons, photos or other special content you want to highlight. You can sign up at Google’s Tags web page for $25 per month; the first month is free.

Measure Your Success

It’s important to make sure that all this actually works for you and to tweak your strategy to see what’s most effective. Google hosts a Dashboard for business owners (you’ll see it when you log in) that displays data about how often your business is appearing in users’ searches (“impressions”) and how frequently those users are actually clicking through for more info (“actions”).

This information can be very helpful, particularly in finding out whether the categories you selected are actually getting your business info in front of more eyeballs. With some tweaking, and trial and error, you can optimize your search presence.

There’s just one thing to remember: These search analytics reflect a period of 30 days ending about 48 hours ago. That is to say, you won’t see any changes right away. So be sure and give Google time to collect the necessary data before making judgments!

If you’ve already begun managing your business’s presence on Google Maps, add your own tips in the comments below.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- 3 Social Sites for Demonstrating Your Business Acumen
- 15 Twitter Lists for C-Suite Execs to Follow
- How 12 CEOs & Founders are Leveraging Web Video
- How Small Businesses Will Use Social Media in the Future
- HOW TO: Add Multimedia to Your Blog

More About: business, entrepreneurs, google local business center, Google Maps, google place pages, google places, google store views, how to, listings, local business, smb, tips

For more Business coverage:

• Follow Mashable Business on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Business channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Google announced that it has developed cars that drive themselves, and that it’s been testing them on the streets of California. The New York Times reported that the iPhone is headed for Verizon, Saturday Night Live took on Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, and Microsoft experienced a mishap regarding a popular mobile app developer.

As always, we’ve also included some useful resources and a bit of weekend leisure. Thanks for reading!

News Essentials

• Google Is Testing Cars That Drive Themselves
• Rumors of a Verizon iPhone Gain Credibility
• The iPad Is Coming to Wal-Mart [RUMOR]
• “SNL” Spoofs Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg
• Microsoft Mistakenly Claims “Angry Birds” for Windows Phone 7

Helpful Resources

• Why Social Media Is Reinventing Activism
• What Companies Want in a Social Media Intern
• 10 Useful iPad Tips and Tricks
• Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week [CHART]

Weekend Leisure

• 10 Amazing Real Life Robots
• 5 Fun Products to Personalize Your iPhone
• Weekend Gaming [OPEN THREAD]
• 5 Groundbreaking Mobile Games That Debuted This Year [Mashable Awards]

More About: angry birds, apple, apps, Google, google cars, ipad, iphone, mashable weekend recap, microsoft, verizon, Wal-Mart, windows phone 7

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Update (4:32 p.m. ET): The Banksy intro has been pulled from YouTube. We have replaced it with a clip from Hulu, which is viewable to U.S. users only.

British graffiti artist and political activist Banksy was invited to direct the opening sequence of the latest episode of The Simpsons. The result is one of the funniest — but at the same time the most depressing — intros to the popular cartoon series we’ve seen.

We won’t reveal what happens in the intro, which is spreading like wildfire across the web; you can see it for yourself in the video embedded below. Know this, though: All those Bart Simpson dolls you see at every corner, well, they’re made of broken hearts and shattered dreams.

More About: Banksy, Bart Simpson, the simpsons

For more Entertainment coverage:

• Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Entertainment channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad