Facebook rolled out a new way for users to read and understand its privacy policy. Although none of the terms of the privacy policy have changed, the new site and policy outlines has been rewritten, reformatted and reorganized in a way that makes it easy for non-lawyers to understand.

This trial format comes a day after Facebook responded to an inquiry from the the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. In its response, Facebook said that it agreed with the FTC’s finding “that any privacy framework must be implemented in a way that both honors consumers’ expectations in the contexts in which they use online services and promotes the innovation that has fueled the growth of the Internet of the past two decades.”

Facebook explained the rationale behind the new human-friendly draft of its privacy on the Site Governance page, stating it had settled upon a few basic principles when trying to figure out what users want from a privacy policy.

These principles are:

1. First, it should be easy to understand, even when the concept is complicated or is of no use to anyone.
2. Second, it should be visual and interactive, because that’s the way people use the web today.
3. Third, it should focus on the questions Facebook users are most likely to ask, because that makes it relevant.

Looking at the draft policy and at Facebook’s official privacy policy, we know which one we prefer.

It’s really amazing what kind of difference larger fonts and well organized information can have on the readability of a document.

Make no mistake: Even in this early draft, the Facebook’s privacy policy is still a dense document. That said, information is much more understandable and the navigational aspects are a huge improvement.

Frankly, our hats are off to Facebook for putting this type of document together. We wish other companies (read: Google) would be so willing to better present this type of information.

More About: facebook, facebook privacy, facebook privacy policy, privacy

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Most of us who watched Knight Rider as a kid expected that by 2011 we would be driving sleek, self-aware cars like KITT — cars that would take us seamlessly from A to B while cracking witty one-liners.

Though that future has not yet come to pass, things are starting to get exciting in the in-car technology space. Connected cars are hitting the consumer market in a price bracket that makes them a realistic option for many. One prediction sees “near saturation” in the U.S. market in as little as four years’ time.

“In terms of connected cars, we see the growth to be significant,” says Mark C. Boyadjis, a senior automotive analyst for IHS iSuppli. “Our forecasts for OEM Monitored, Telematics-enabled vehicles in 2010 sit at 4.5 million sales, with a heavy part of that coming from the U.S. and Western Europe, whereas this industry grows to 22.7 million by 2015.

“In 2015, however, there will be a much larger portion coming from China, Brazil, and Russia, as well as near saturation in developed markets like the U.S., Western Europe, and Japan.”

So what can we expect from these connected cars? We’ve spoken to a major motoring manufacturer, a futurist, an automotive analyst and other industry experts to find out.

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1. Your Car as Your Credit Card

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You may currently enjoy contactless payment at tolls via a smart card, but in the future we will see such cashless transactions extended to other areas of motoring, such as parking charges and fuel payments via embedded tech in your car.

Skymeter is one company developing products in this area. Its Financial GPS solution could offer wide-ranging changes to the way we pay for our driving.

“With Financial GPS, consumers can get one bill at the end of the month for every car-related cost: their parking, their insurance, their lease, their roads, even full repairs coverage,” says Kamal Hassan, CEO of Skymeter Corp.

“Everything would be paid automatically per minute or per mile, based on your actual driving and parking. Drivers could then control their costs. Not driving for a week would save you money on your lease, your insurance and even your municipal tax bill.”

We asked Hassan how far off such solutions are for the average consumer. “I believe we are two to three years away from seeing consumer cars with embedded Financial GPS units. GPS navigation units like Garmin started as aftermarket devices then moved into the car. Financial GPS will follow the same path.”

BMW meanwhile is working on a smart car key that, as well as controlling some in-car electronic functions, could be used for contactless payment. Just a prototype at this stage, BMW envisions your car key as your credit card as early as next year.

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2. Your Garage as a Docking Station

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Wi-Fi technology is the breakthrough addition to the connected car platform that’s going to make all the difference. While Bluetooth is great for in-car communications and streaming music, it’s cellular and Internet connectivity that truly puts the “connected” in connected car.

Ford has recently enhanced its Microsoft SYNC-based MyTouch system with Wi-Fi, meaning cars with the tech, such as the 2012 Ford Focus, can be turned into mobile Wi-Fi hotspots.

We spoke to Jason Johnson, product development engineer at Ford, about why this is such a major development and what we can look forward to in the future. “We’re envisioning, for example, a web browser in the car for when you’re parked,” Johnson revealed, as well as the potential for easier platform updates.

“With Wi-Fi, imagine your parking garage is a docking station for your car, so overnight your car wakes up, SYNC wakes up and it grabs the latest software update via the Wi-Fi,” says Johnson. “So that’s the beauty of the connected car. Just like all your other mobile devices can get updated on the fly, why shouldn’t your car also be able to be updated that way?”

Although this OTA update concept is exciting for the entertainment and navigational aspects of cars, looking further into the future, just imagine how much more convenient it would be to fix software-based technical issues remotely via an update, rather than the current logistical nightmare a recall brings.

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3. Voice Controls for Your Car

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The connected car, typically with a touchscreen console, has one major flaw — it’s potentially dangerous to interact with while driving. The answer to this is voice control, in which you speak commands to the system.

Ford has employed voice recognition into its connected car platform and we asked Johnson about it.

“Voice control is now starting to become the primary interface in the car because it allows you to keep your hands on the wheel, your eyes on the road and focus on the task of driving. Instead of picking up your iPhone and browsing through the music, you can just say ‘play artist,’ ‘play genre,’ ” Johnson explains.

But how capable is the voice recognition technology? Do you have to memorize a ton of unnatural commands? Ford’s system can currently understand 10,000 words — an impressive vocabulary for a car.

“What you’ll see from Ford is that we want to make device integration easier to use with voice control, and over time you’ll be able to have more of a natural conversation with the system,” says Johnson. “Over time you’ll be able to say ‘Hey SYNC I wanna listen to some jazz.’ ”

We also spoke to Nuance, the company that powers the voice recognition in Ford’s systems about what the future holds in this area.

“The connected car is the present and future. In the near future, drivers will be able to dictate messages or web searches from the convenience of their car — and the system will respond accurately,” Fátima Vital, senior marketing manager of automotive speech for Nuance told us.

“This functionality isn’t just for a select few either. More and more car manufacturers regard speech recognition is an indispensable feature. A J.D. Powers report shows that drivers with a speech-enabled navigation system record the most satisfaction with their cars. Hence the reason it is now available across a whole range of vehicle segments, from luxury cars to the smallest mass market vehicles. By 2020, expect the majority of the vehicles to have in-build speech recognition.”

And voice control is going to be important for convincing consumers about the safety of driving cars with such advanced dashboards. Garry Golden, lead futurist with NYC-based FutureThink predicts this is one hurdle manufacturers could face.

“We will certainly be more social inside our cars and services such as OnStar and SYNC might serve as a buffer between friends, family and businesses. But as move towards a future where cars can command our attention as much as our cell phones, I expect to see a growing cultural backlash around this notion of distracted driving and inattentive drivers.”

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4. Apps to Control Your Car

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Currently a fledgling market, controlling certain functionality of your car via your cell phone will soon be commonplace for new car owners.

BMW, Ford, GM and Volvo have already dipped their toes into the water as far as companion apps for your car go, with some more advanced options offering the ability to remotely unlock the car, start the car and sound the horn, all from a distance. The number of such apps is expected to grow significantly over the next few years.

“From the consumer’s point of view, the connected vehicle will be largely accessible via the computer and smartphone. Application integration is growing vastly as OEMs put their daily relevance in the pocket of their buyers. OEMs are making apps for owners manuals, telematics remote controls, new location-based information, plus integrating those existing entertainment apps like iheartradio, radiotime, Slacker, and Pandora,” says IHS iSuppli automotive analyst Boyadji.

While the current crop of apps work on the driver activating the controls, Golden sees the future of this area in proximity-based sensors and related automation.

“Most operations inside the vehicle are being brought onto the web and will be controllable by secured devices. But the real innovations will be those automated systems based on machine-to-machine interfaces that eliminate the need for human commands,” Golden explains.

“As you walk towards the car, your phone will adjust temperature, turn on the music and unlock the door as you step closer.”

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Conclusion

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As the engineering specifications of rival car models get more and more in line with each other, we’re sure that consumers will be increasingly likely to take into account the car’s connected platforms before making purchasing decisions.

Each manufacturer needs to push to make its platform the leading option for the connected consumer, because as Johnson demonstrates, each manufacturer’s system will be exclusive to the brand, and in competition with its rivals.

“The unique thing about SYNC is that it’s a Ford creation, what makes SYNC is SYNC,” says Johnson. “It’s just not something you could go to another parts supplier and say ‘Hey, give me SYNC.’ ”

In the same way that consumers develop preferences for computer or cell phone operating systems, always sticking to iOS or Android, for example, we think as consumers get used to in-car connectivity platforms, they will want to stick to the same platform with future purchases.

This means that the car company that gets it right at this early stage is set to benefit greatly. As Golden says, “If the battle of the 20th century was Ford versus General Motors, the next century might be Ford SYNC vs. GM OnStar.”

Disclosure: Ford is a Mashable sponsor.

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More Tech Resources from Mashable:

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- 5 Futuristic Concept Phone Designs
- 5 Great Gadgets for Reinventing Your Road Trips
- 10 Incredible Inventions from The World Maker Faire [PICS]
- How the Auto Industry Is Embracing Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]
- 10 Intriguing Apple Patents to Get Excited About

Images courtesy of Flickr, Ford, vxla and Charles Hutchins

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This post is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark as a new part of the Spark of Genius series that focuses on a new and innovative startup each day. Once a week, the program focuses on startups within the BizSpark program and what they’re doing to grow.

Facebook’s news feed, Twitter’s update stream, and a barrage of RSS feeds can be a lot to manage, and My6Sense has built a business around helping its users sort out the most important information from the rest of the hairball.

In 2008, the company launched an iPhone app that pulls feeds into one app, learns what kind of content the user likes, and then prioritizes that kind of content. In the last three years, the company has used $3 million of seed funding to build an Android app that doubled its user base and a strategy for taking its product to the web.

My6Sense accomplished the first move in this transition with a Twitter extension for Chrome that adds a tab to Twitter to prioritize tweets based on user behavior.

Mashable recently chatted with Louis Gray, the company’s marketing vice president, about how My6Sense plans to takes its intuitive prioritization powers to the web.

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Beginning the Transition to Web

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“I think we all suffer from this feeling of missing out on our feeds while we’re in a meeting for a couple of hours,” Gray says. “In my view, we launched on mobile first because that where the feeling is most acute.”

The real-time web has gained momentum since the company launched in 2008, and the need to organize it has intensified. It’s not just on the tiny screens of mobile phones where items that appear on streams seem to disappear immediately. According to Gray, My6Sense is working on an aggressive roadmap to take its service to more mobile devices, more browsers and more platforms. The Chrome extension for Twitter is just the tip of the iceberg.

“Any site that delivers content via stream should be prioritized,” Gray says.

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Joining the Effort to Organize Content Streams

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My6Sense isn’t the only company with this opinion on prioritization. The Facebook news feed now has prioritization elements, and in August, Google launched its Priority Inbox for Gmail to sort important mail.

A startup called Sanebox had launched the priority mail concept long before Google did, joining a long list of startups with similar foci.

Major sites will never aggregate themselves for prioritization in the same way that My6Sense aggregates them with its apps, but what if the sites that the company wants to help prioritize decide to prioritize themselves? Even if more sites do add this feature, My6Sense isn’t worried that this will close the need for its product.

“Prioritization is not a feature,” Gray says.

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Monetization Possibilities

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In fact, the desire that other sites have expressed in prioritizing their content is a key part of one potential revenue stream that My6Sense has been exploring. They could use an SaaS model and create co-branded products for other companies to use on their sites.

Another option they have is to use information gathered about people’s preferences for advertising purposes. The company hasn’t committed to any of these strategies, instead focusing on acquiring users.

“The company is just getting started,” Gray says.

Photos courtesy of Flickr, Violinha, Perspicacious, aresauburn

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Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

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The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, 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: louis gray, my6sense, prioritization, startup

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Apple has just applied for a new patent indicating the company’s possible interest in the location-based social networking space.

The gadgets giant applied to trademark the word “Places” in both Europe and China. The trademark application is, according to its numeric classifications, related to a wide range of hardware, online social networking, entertainment, media and GPS systems; it’s not related to photos or geotagging.

This particular patent application was first unearthed by Patenty Apple, which noted that the application may or may not have anything to do with Ping, Apple’s social music service linked to iTunes.

Given the plethora of location-aware Apple devices, it’s almost silly to think that Apple wouldn’t be working on products and features in the location space — which, as you’re probably aware, becomes hotter by the day, both in terms of startup innovation and user adoption.

Of course, not every Apple patent application ends up leading to a bona fide Apple product or feature; nevertheless, these documents can be telling when it comes to the company’s ambitions.

Here’s a look at the trademark application itself; let us know in the comments where you think this might be headed:

More About: apple, gps, location, patent, places

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In case you’re wondering precisely how likable those Angry Birds are, here’s the scoop from The Oatmeal, one of our favorite sources of infographics.

For Angry Birds aficionados, here are a couple of things left out: You’ve got to like that red bird a little more because of the useless call it bleats out if you tap the screen during its flight. Although it’s not exactly an effective pig crusher, look out for its big brother.

And of course, the white bird that drops the exploding eggs seems rather helpless; but a finer point of the game is if you can drop an egg when the bird’s almost hit the ground, it will fly upward with extreme velocity, perhaps knocking over something important. That ought to be good enough to move it up at least one place on this totem pole of shame.

Editor’s Note: While we appreciate the in-depth knowledge of the game that this post represents, perhaps our writers are devoting a bit too much time to Angry Birds “research.” What do you folks think?

Image courtesy of The Oatmeal

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“One Day On Earth,” an online project designed to capture video footage of life around the world on a single day — October 10, 2010 — is now turning into a host for videos and photos documenting current events in Libya. The country, which has become a hotbed of violence amidst a revolt against leader Muammar Gaddafi, is largely closed off from foreign media outlets, meaning submissions from Libyan members of the “One Day On Earth” community provide unique perspectives of what’s taking place within the country’s borders.

Executive producer Brandon Litman says those behind “One Day On Earth” reached out a couple of weeks ago to community members in areas of conflict, asking them to report back with any information they could provide.

“Literally within 30 minutes of engaging the community, we heard back,” Litman says. “And we started getting information in within a couple of hours.”

Litman has blogged some of the footage that has come out of Libya so far. This includes a conversation between those organizing the Libyan uprising, images and video (embedded below) of a mass burial in the nation’s capital, Tripoli, and additional images of violence. The “One Day On Earth” team has used its media connections to its advantage, feeding some of the videos and images it receives to various outlets.

“We were in touch with a number of news sources as we were producing the 10-10-10 event,” Litman says, adding that the crew had contacts at the likes of Reuters, the BBC, CNN and more. “I actually saw the [Tripoli mass burial] clip on CNN’s [Anderson Cooper 360°].”

In fact, Litman says the burial footage has received the most traction out of the photos and clips “One Day On Earth” has sent to the media — based on the number of hits the blog post received, it seems that people in at least 93 countries have viewed the clip. And now, more people are signing up to join the site. In a February 24 e-mail, Litman said, “In the past 24 hours, we have had people from over 30 countries sign up to the ‘One Day On Earth’ community.” He feels this is a sign that the platform is going to evolve into a community where people share perspectives and stories on a more regular basis — not just stories that take place within the same 24-hour period.

Litman and his team are staying in touch with Libyan contributors through a variety of means, including via telephone and the Internet. They’re also trying to get satellite connections.

“I would say that the success ratio is about 50 to 1 for every attempt to actually get through. But we’re staying vigilant in making sure we’re in touch every single day in getting information about what’s happening,” Litman says, adding that they’re expecting more uploads and encouraging Libyan community members to continue feeding information and videos as long as they can do so safely. He also says it’s interesting that social media is usually first to knock down the walls placed in front of traditional media outlets.

“Social media, local filmmakers and citizens armed with cameras are a key source of information in today’s media, especially in situations like what is happening in Libya and the Middle East,” Litman says. “With filmmakers and video enthusiasts in every country in the world, we are uniquely positioned to help break that wall down when it comes up.”

Image courtesy of One Day On Earth

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At Mashable, we love geeks, all types of geeks, and we know that geeks have many different skills — nunchuku skills, bow-hunting skills and computer skills. But do they have what it takes to compete in the Geek Games at the Mashable SXSWi House in Austin, Texas?

We want all geeks to bring their A-game to compete in the Mashable Geek Games, a two-day, single-elimination tournament Sunday, March 13, and Monday, March 14, when they will have the chance to test their skills at skeeball, Twister, shuffleboard and trivia. Register now!

This is how it will work:

• 64 teams will compete in a single-elimination tournament to earn bragging rights as well as a sweet prize package from our sponsors.
• Sign-ups are limited so make sure you’re ready to commit to bringing your A-game. Sign up now!.
• Each round of the tournament will require at least 2 participants from each team to compete. Each team will consist of 2 to 5 players, allowing for alternates for a team.
• There is a $25 participation fee. All fees collected will be donated to a local charity, which we’ll choose in the coming week.

To register your team for the Geek Games, click on this link: http://geekgames.eventbrite.com/

Comedian Chris Hardwick of Nerdist.com and Web Soup will interview participants for .TV throughout the tournament.

Geek Games Schedule
Sunday, March 13, 2011 (Invite-only for registered teams)
2:45 – 3:45 p.m. — Geek Games check-in
3:45 – 4:00 p.m. — Welcome & Rules
4:00 – 5:20 p.m. — Round 1: Shuffleboard
4:20 – 5:00 p.m. — Round 2: Skeeball
4:40 – 5:30 p.m. — Round 3: Pepsi MAX Pong

Monday, March 14, 2011 (Open to the public)
2:45 – 3:45 p.m. — Geek Games check-in
3:45 – 4:00 p.m. — Welcome & Rules
4:00 – 4:30 p.m. — Round 4: Skifta Twister
4:20 – 5:00 p.m. — Round 5: Geek Trivia on Sony PS3
4:50 – 5:30 p.m. — FINALS: SingStar Dance on Sony PS3

Located at Buffalo Billiards, the Mashable SXSWi House is hosting a variety of public and private events ranging from VIP dinners to open networking opportunities and parties, including the third annual MashBash SXSWi party on Sunday, March 13, with music from DJ Chicken George, and the official Mashable Night 2 SXSWi 2011 Party with music from Eclectic Method.

Register for public events at the SXSWi Mashable House on Eventbrite. The event is open to all SXSWi badge holders who are older than 21.

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Thanks to our sponsors

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Come check out the Pepsi MAX truck experience at 3rd Street and San Jacinto Boulevard. Follow @PepsiMAX on Twitter for the daily schedule, which includes locations for exclusive film screenings, huge concerts, happy hours, barbecues, giveaways and, of course, lots of free soda.

Sony Electronics is a leading provider of audio and video electronics and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Sony is noted for a wide range of consumer audio-visual products, such as the BRAVIA® LCD and 3D high-definition televisions, Cyber-shot® and α (alpha) digital cameras, Handycam® camcorder and Walkman® personal stereo. Sony is also an innovator in the IT arena with its VAIO® personal computers; and in high-definition professional broadcast and production equipment, highlighted by the XDCAM® HD and CineAlta™ lines of cameras and camcorders, and the SXRD™ 4K digital projector. Join the Sony Conversation at Sony.com/Blog.

Skifta is an app-based media shifting service that turns your Android phone into a global remote control. Easily access your digital media from virtually any source and stream to connected electronics in the home. With the DLNA Certified® Skifta app on your phone, you can easily access music, photos and videos from your phone, the cloud, or remotely from your home and stream that media to connected DLNA and UPnP consumer electronics including TVs, IP-stereos like Sonos systems, PlayStation® 3 consoles, Windows 7 PCs, and thousands more. No wires, downloading or side loading. Check it out at skifta.com.

If your website has a play button, it belongs on .TV. Stand out from the crowd with a .TV domain name; tell people you create and share great video content on your site even before they visit. Come visit us in the Mashable House at Buffalo Billiards on March 13-14 for a chance to register a FREE .TV domain name. And, mark your calendars: the .TV AUCTION starts March 9. Bid on desirable, sought-after domain names including air.tv, stocks.tv, who.tv, and more at moniker.com/tv or register the .TV of your choice for while you're there.

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Our weekly YouTube roundup is usually a reprieve from your mentally stimulating (yeah, right) work day. Not today, folks. Today, you must think, as this week’s theme is: TEDTalks.

The 2011 Technology Entertainment Design conference will be kicking off next week in Long Beach, California, bringing the leading minds of many fields together to talk about innovation, change and the future.

What we dig most about the TED conference are the talks that it yields, videos of which are all archived on the organization’s website.

Keep an eye on Mashable in the coming week for our TED coverage, but, in the meantime, get some learnin’ below.

Dan Ariely Asks: Are We in Control of Our Decisions?

Zachary Sniderman: Making absurdity both hilarious and brilliant.

Thomas Thwaites: How I Built a Toaster -- From Scratch

Josh Catone: Thomas Thwaites's attempt to build a toaster from scratch -- including collecting and refining all the raw materials -- is an interesting commentary on our globalized society.

Brian Cox: What Really Goes on at the Large Hadron Collider

Amy-Mae Elliott: Here Brian Cox explains what happens at the LHC (and more importantly why it's such a fascinating experiment) in his typically accessible and engaging style.

Madeleine Albright: On Being a Woman and a Diplomat

Stacy Green: Because everything that Madam Secretary says is awesome and hilarious.

Amber Case: We Are All Cyborgs Now

Emily Banks: Amber Case provides a fascinating anthropological perspective on our modern tools and tech.

David Blaine: How I Held My Breath For 17 Minutes

Christina Warren's pick

Jacek Utko: Can design Save the Newspaper?

Meghan Peters: Can it?

Jake Shimabukuro Plays "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Brenna Ehrlich: I dig the uke.

Alexis Ohanian: How To Make a Splash in Social Media

Matt Silverman: Funny + Social + Good Cause + Reddit = YEAH

More About: favorite-youtube-videos, TED-2011

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Officially, Facebook has remained mum on its role in the protests in Egypt and Tunisia, which grew into full-on revolutions. But this week, reports have surfaced that reveal a somewhat active involvement in the events and outline Facebook’s support of democracy and civic engagement.

Facebook reportedly worked to protect the identity of Egyptian activists, according to The Daily Beast. The news site claims to have obtained e-mail correspondence from Facebook executives and the administrators of the Facebook Page that was the revolution’s digital epicenter — the We Are All Khaled Said Page, which was created in memory of an Egyptian man murdered last summer by police.

The Page mysteriously disappeared as activists prepared to substantiate what would likely be rigged elections in November of last year. It turned out someone had likely notified Facebook that the Page administrator was using a pseudonym, a violation of Facebook’s terms of service.

Facebook stuck to its policy, but Richard Allan, Facebook's director of policy for Europe, offered a loophole.

"There is no discretion here as the creation of fake accounts threatens the integrity of our whole system," he wrote. "People must use the profile of a real person to admin the page or risk it being taken down at any time. It is not important to us who that real person is as long as their account appears genuine. So if they can offer a real person as admin then the page can be restored."

An Egyptian immigrant and activist in Washington, D.C., lent her account password to Wael Ghonim in Egypt, who continued to run the page.

The Daily Beast‘s e-mails reveal that the social network put the key Facebook Pages under protection, the night the protests in Egypt began in late January.

"We have put all the key pages into special protection," Allan wrote. A team, he said, "is monitoring activity from Egypt now on a 24/7 basis."

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Promoting Democracy & Civic Engagement

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In a document filed January 28 with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission — in response to the FTC’s privacy report for consumers, businesses and policymaker — Facebook expounded its role and the greater role of social media in promoting democracy and civic engagement.

“The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University cited Facebook and Twitter as playing key roles in spreading dissent-and up-to-the-minute news-in Tunisia, leading to the removal of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who gained control of the country in a 1987 coup d’etat,” the 26-page document states.

A footnote to that statement also provides an interesting perspective. Referencing the Atlantic article in which that fact appeared, the footnote says the article “…describ[es] Facebook’s rapid response to attempts by the Tunisian Internet censor to compromise dissenters’ Facebook accounts.”

Twitter executives, on the other hand, have spoken publicly about the micro-blogging site’s role in Egypt, mostly downplaying its role in the revolution. And when the Egyptian government blocked the site, its creators declared that the government must let the tweets flow.

Until now, Facebook’s role and perspective on the events in Egypt and Africa were unknown, and although the company has still not openly commented — neither to Mashable nor The Daily Beast — we now have a little greater understanding of the role it played and its stance on the events in the Middle East and Africa.

More About: Egypt, facebook, FTC

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If all the commuters zombie-walking their way to work every morning aren’t enough proof that your hood is infested with the undead, check out Streetview Zombie Apocalypse.

Yes, this Google Street View-integrated game is a little on the buggy side, but it’s still fun to see Salad Fingers-esque zombies prancing through the streets. But if you frequently have nightmares about zombies (totally not referring to myself here), then it’s kind of unsettling.

Check it out if Organ Trail did not succeed in sating your hunger.

Also, click here for some mood music (relevant lyrics: “I was afraid I’d eat your brains/’Cause I’m evil”).

[via Gizmodo, Wonder-Tonic]

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Ralph Lauren has launched a heavily interactive iPad app to promote its RLX (Ralph Lauren Extreme) sportswear line.

The photo and animation-rich app [iTunes link], the first the publicly-traded fashion company has created for the iPad, invites users to perform different actions that underline the apparel line’s various properties.

Users can use their fingers to paint in color on a black-and-white photograph (highlighting the collection’s colorful palette), tap to freeze model-athletes in various acrobatic poses (conveying agility) and blow into their iPad’s microphone to demonstrate the “light-as-air” fabrics (this appears to function without the blowing, I found), among other things.

It utilizes much of what the device has to offer: its built-in accelerometer, digital compass, assisted GPS and multi-touch capabilities. Users can shop the collection within the app, share images via Facebook and e-mail, and save images to their photo library.

Like most fashion apps, the vast majority of users will open it once and never again — but that appears to serve Ralph Lauren’s purposes well enough, given that the app promotes a single collection.

For a more comprehensive look, check out our screenshot gallery below or download it for yourself in the App Store [iTunes link].

Tilt the iPad forward and backward to navigate between models.

Tilt the iPad forward and backward to navigate between models.

Blow on the iPad microphone to spin figure.

Blow on the iPad microphone to spin figure.

Hold the iPad and turn your body for a 3D view.

Hold the iPad and turn your body for a 3D view.

Tap the screen to capture freeze frames.

Use a finger to color in the figure.

Use a finger to color in the figure.

Tilt iPad side to side to view two different looks.

Tilt iPad side to side to view two different looks.

Tap the screen to capture freeze frames.

Tap the screen to capture freeze frames.

Slide different layers to reveal different models.

Slide different layers to reveal different models.

Tilt your iPad side to side to move figure.

Tilt for broader view.

More About: fashion, ipad app, Ralph Lauren

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Facebook Friday absorbed Pursuit, a site that attempted to incentivize employees to refer people in their networks for jobs.

The company, which was founded in August 2010, relayed the news on its website Friday, which bears the following message: “Update: we’ve found a new home at Facebook! Although we’ll be working on stuff unrelated to Pursuit, keep an eye out for great new features from us there and thanks to everyone who helped along the way.”

The site gave no further information. A Facebook rep confirmed the hiring, but declined to elaborate.

According to a report from Inside Facebook last November, Pursuit’s purpose was to streamline searches for corporate executives. The idea was that a company seeking a new executive likely had lots of existing employees with qualified candidates in their own networks. If such employees got financial and other types of incentives for identifying such candidates, then they’d be more apt to do so.

Though the deal wasn’t a purchase per se, but rather an absorption of Pursuit, the action comes after a few strategic buys from Facebook last year including Hot Potato, Octazen and Chai Labs, among others.

More About: facebook, Pursuit

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There’s been a lot of controversy in Britain over how the dairy industry can increase its output while simultaneously cutting costs. The government, non-profits, lobbyists and the general public have all weighed in even as the debate carries on. Should the government help subsidize dairy farms? Should Britain adopt the mass dairy farms seen in parts of North America? Is any change needed at all?

Given the seriousness of the debate and the complexity of the issues, you might not think that a singing cow puppet and her YouTube video would become a major voice against factory farming. “Molly” and her send-up video, “Our Love Is In Your Cornflakes,” is part of a campaign launched by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) UK. The campaign is called “Not In My Cuppa” with the goal of saying “not in my cuppa to factory milk from battery cows.”

Not In My Cuppa raises some hard questions about how to use social media to create change, and how to measure the impact of viral elements like YouTube videos. We spoke to Katharine Mansell, the media relations manager for WSPA UK, about how they tried to set up and track a viral, non-profit campaign.

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The Campaign

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From the get-go, Not In My Cuppa knew it needed social media to complete its mission. As opposed to other organizations aimed directly at lobbying politicians, Not In My Cuppa had the double mission of reaching out to the public as well. This aspect included embedding live information streams from various social networks. The campaign is on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, all of which funnel into a live feed complete with tags for celebrity and parliament member support.

Supporters can use automated forms to send out “Not In My Cuppa” messages across Facebook and Twitter, or tag photos and videos with the catch phrase to be added to the campaign.

While the WSPA was able to generate interest and motivate their base, a viral video would (hopefully) be able to reach a larger and more diverse group of the public. Enter “Molly.”

Take Aways: Social outreach is important but it’s not particularly “social” if you don’t listen or let your audience decide how they want to participate. The WSPA established basic forms and suggested tags as a way for their audience to include content in the campaign across platforms.

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Problems With Relying on Viral

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Not In My Cuppa decided to create a viral video to reach a wider audience and counter-act some of the straightforward, lobby-type videos they had already created. Knowing that humor was instantly shareable, they teamed up with Adam Miller, the mind behind Mongrels, a BBC3 puppet show for adults. They built Molly, and helped put together the video crew and the song (written by Banks and Wag). “Really they all turned up for free,” Katharine Mansell said.

Miller said in a press release that one of the reasons for the humorous approach was to help the video go viral and to avoid “spreading depression and charity fatigue.” The same reasoning led the WSPA to create a separate Twitter account for Molly (@MollytheCowWSPA). That account, unlike the main campaign account, was a way for the team to add some light-heartedness and fun to the initiative.

There are, however, inherent risks in creating a campaign that relies on viral elements like a music video. What happens if it isn’t shared out? What if the humor is seen as too glib? How do you actually track the impact of a video on YouTube? “When something really goes viral and people start copying it, it really becomes something else and you have to let it go on some level,” Mansell said. “We’ve been looking for some of our key terms and phrases to pop up, like, ‘I won’t drink factory milk from battery cows.’ ”

The emphasis on distinct, replicated key terms has helped the team keep track of the video (and Molly’s) life beyond the campaign. Mansell estimates the team spends a quarter to a third of their time tracking key terms and phrases.

Perhaps more complicated is measuring whether those shares and views have actually made a meaningful impact. Earlier this month, Nocton Dairies withdrew plans to build a 3,500+ cow dairy farm in Lincolnshire. Not In My Cuppa claimed success, but why?

Take Aways: If you’re launching any campaign — viral or otherwise — set up alerts for keywords and phrases to help measure where your message is being shared off-site.

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Measuring Impact

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“The sole reason for this decision is the response of the Environment Agency, which has maintained its objection to the proposal,” wrote Nocton Dairies in its official press release regarding the withdrawal. The Environment Agency, a UK organization concerned with pollution, registered official complaints regarding aquifer contamination and potential land damage.

Yet Not In My Cuppa sees it as a personal victory and partial validation for their campaign. Did the viral video (launched just two days before Nocton withdrew) contribute? How powerful a role did Twitter and Facebook play in galvanizing the public? Even if the video does go viral, can we link it to real-world impact?

The Molly video has more than 11,000 YouTube views after a week of being online. It’s clear that people are watching the video, but how do you measure the subsequent actions taken by those viewers? Was the video responsible for driving them to action? Would they have written letters or protested without it? Molly’s Twitter account is perhaps more worrisome, with just 212 followers (at time of writing) compared to the main account’s 1,532 followers.

It’s possible that each of those people saw the viral campaign and took immediate action. It’s also possible that none of them did. While the answer is clearly somewhere in the middle, it’s hard to get an exact number and consequently hard to gauge its impact on Nocton’s withdrawal.

One of the key problems with any awareness campaign is the lack of hard targets to measure success. This is especially true when viral elements are introduced. “We definitely can’t say that we stopped it singlehandedly,” said Mansell. “That would be misleading. But we did have a huge role.”

Take Aways: It’s difficult to attach direct action to viral campaigns. Understand your targets and find other ways to measure your reach, such as mentions in the press. This is especially useful around major updates: “Whether people think you’re part of the news story or not, that’s one way to measure your impact,” Mansell said.

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Conclusion

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Not In My Cuppa is doing a lot of things right when it comes to managing a viral campaign. It’s much easier for brands that can measure product sales or subscriptions, but non-profits gunning for social or political change are faced with more complex challenges like whether reach equals impact. Viral videos and awareness campaigns rarely run on direct cause/effect relationships, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have a huge impact. The answer, however, may depend on who you ask.

What’s the value of viral? What did the WSPA do well? What could it have done better? Let us know in the comments below.

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More Social Good Resources from Mashable:

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- HOW TO: Run a Global Charity Event From Your Laptop
- Why the Web Is Useless in Developing Countries – And How to Fix It
- 5 Facebook Giving Campaign Success Stories
- 4 Innovative Social Good Campaigns for Education
- How Online Classrooms Are Helping Haiti Rebuild Its Education System

More About: charity, farming, non-profit, social good, video, viral video, wspa

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Remember Antennagate? It’s back — this time on Verizon. Stalwart reviews magazine Consumer Reports just announced it will not list the Verizon iPhone 4 among its recommended smartphones because holding it in a “specific but quite natural way can cause dropped calls.”

Shortly after the launch of the iPhone 4 on AT&T, reports began to emerge that the phone would lose signal and drop calls if held in a certain way — the so-called “death grip.” Apple called a press conference, gave its iPhone 4 customers free bumpers that helped solve the issue and announced it was largely AT&T’s fault.

If anything, this news is worse than the first Antennagate. Apple has had time to solve the problem and avoid another PR nightmare. This comes straight from a highly trusted source; the flaw was discovered through rigorous lab tests, rather than anecdotal evidence. There have been few complaints so far on the part of users, so Apple — which is trying to focus on next week’s highly anticipated iPad 2 launch — may not have been expecting this distraction. And one of the top reasons AT&T iPhone owners have given for switching to Verizon is the relative quality of voice calls.

“The phone performs superbly in most other respects, and using the iPhone 4 with a case can alleviate the problem,” Consumer Reports wrote in a blog post. But it couldn’t ignore the death grip problem, which is caused by a gap in the casing and is not found on any other smartphone the magazine tested:

“As with our tests of the AT&T iPhone 4, putting a finger across one particular gap — the one on the lower left side — caused performance to decline. Bridging this gap is easy to do inadvertently, especially when the phone is in your palm, which might readily and continuously cover the gap during a call,” the publication says.

The problem only appears to occur if the cell signal strength isn’t at its strongest, but that is a problem you’re going to run into, even on a relatively reliable network like Verizon.

Are you a Verizon iPhone 4 user? Have you experienced mysterious dropped calls? Let us know in the comments.

More About: Antennagate, apple, iphone 4, verizon

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Daily deals platform Groupon generated $760 million in sales in 2010, 23 times the $33 million it generated in 2009, an internal memo sent out by Groupon CEO Andrew Mason in early January reveals.

According to the memo, which was allegedly obtained by The Wall Street Journal, one third of last year’s revenue came from outside of the U.S. Mason hopes Groupon will pull in “billions” in 2011.

The startup raised $950 million in a Series D round of funding in early January, a little more than a month after it rejected a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google. A trusted source told us in early December that Groupon generated about $800 million in sales in 2010.

More About: groupon, trending

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Skype just made it easier to save money on international calls. Users can now directly call any phone in the world from a cellphone or landline, and that phone will ring immediately, with no pesky voice-prompt hoops to jump through.

The Skype to Go service — which allows users to call other users via any phone — has been around since 2007, but this new capability makes it easier to use. Now, you can assign Skype’s local phone numbers for up to nine of your far-flung friends, thereby making foreign phone numbers local for you. Then, according to Skype, you simply call that number as you would any other; no Internet connection required. As Skype puts it, “No more waiting around with voice prompts — the call just goes straight through.”

The result? Low-priced, extreme long-distance calling that feels like a conventional phone call. And Skype prices are indeed low, with a subscription getting you per-minute rates for less than a penny.

Now if Skype could just reduce that distracting voice delay in its calls, occasional outages and sound quality issues, this would be a painless way to save lots of money on your overseas gabfests.

More About: International calls, Rates, Skype, Skype to Go

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Web video superstardom can be a cruel mistress. One day your kazoo-based cover of an NKOTB classic is totally crushing it in the blogosphere, the next you’re kicked to the curb by an adorable three-legged cat who is surprisingly good at roulette.

But what becomes of those in the greater pantheon of viral video elite — the YouTube icons whose grainy masterpieces have even graced your mom’s Facebook wall?

This comic was illustrated by Kiersten Essenpreis, a New York-based artist who draws and blogs at YouFail.com.

For more laughs, check out our previous Mashable Comics.

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More Mashable Comics:

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- HOW TO: Pick the Right Super Power for a Modern World
- Watson vs. Jeopardy: The Early Years
- Great Moments in Text Messaging
- The World Before the Internet
- The 5 Biggest Video Game Flops of All Time

More About: comics, humor, mashable comics, social media, video, web video, youtube

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Thanks to this week's advertisers and partners for enabling us to bring you the latest social media news and resources. Mashable’s sponsors are as social media savvy as our readers!

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This week, our valued sponsors are: Level 3 Communications, Qualcomm's Snapdragon, LogMeIn Ignition, PrimeSense, StrataScale, CUNY School of Professional Studies, Sprout Social, Sourcebits, Oneupweb, SoftLayer, Atlantic.Net, SRDS, Webtrends Apps, Buddy Media, Gillette, Clickatell, Microsoft BizSpark, MaxCDN, and Eventbrite.

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Level 3 supports Mashable’s The Social Gaming Development Series. Check it out here.

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Qualcomm’s Snapdragon supports Mashable’s Mobile World Congress Series. Check it out here and follow Qualcomm on Twitter and Facebook.

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Follow Sprout Social on Twitter and Facebook.

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Sourcebits supports Mashable’s Mobile App Trends Series. Check it out here and follow Sourcebits on Twitter and Facebook for recent news and updates.

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Oneupweb is an agency specializing in search marketing, social media and design for mid-to-enterprise level brands. Keep up with Oneupweb through its blog and monthly newsletter.

Oneupweb supports Mashable’s Behind the Social Media Campaign Series. Check it out here and follow Oneupweb on Twitter and Facebook.

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Established in 1994, Atlantic.Net is a global hosting solutions provider. Atlantic.Net assists organizations around the globe with their advanced IT needs including business e-mail, web, database, cloud, and dedicated hosting solutions. For more information, please visit www.atlantic.net.

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Commercial WordPress theme shop WooThemes launched Thursday a new exporter that makes it easy for Tumblr users to transfer their blog content and media to a self-hosted WordPress.org website.

Thanks to the new Post Formats feature in WordPress 3.1, it’s easier than ever to create a Tumblr-like experience in WordPress. That means post types such as images, links or quotes can be styled and organized in the way that makes Tumblr such a popular tool for bloggers and businesses.

Tumblr is a great service, but downtime issues can be a cause for concern — especially for users who rely on the service to power multiple parts of their website or blog.

It’s true that Tumblr offers a good backup utility for Mac users, but migrating that content to another blog platform — like WordPress — takes a lot more work. Or, at least, it did.

Tumblr2WP.com is a new free service that will quickly generate an XML file that contains all of your Tumblr posts, post types and other important meta data. That content can then be imported to WordPress using the import function on the site.

c to help complement their existing collection of Tumblr-like themes, the WooTumblog plugin and the special (and nifty) iPhone app, Express.

Tumblr2WP works out of the box with the latest versions of the tumblog themes from WooThemes. Users can also add tumblog functionality to their own themes with the WooTumblog plugin.

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Getting Set Up

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Using the tool is an uncomplicated affair. Just enter the address to your Tumblr domain and choose your export options. Most users can just leave the default options as they are, but Woo also includes the ability to customize permalinks and to determine if comments are enabled or disabled, or if posts should be imported as published posts or as drafts.

The draft option might be a good choice for users who are importing content to a website that already has a significant amount of web content, or for users who want to test how things look before hitting the publish button.

After completing the wizard, the XML file is downloaded from the web browser.

In WordPress 3.1, users just need to go to Tools, then Import and then select “WordPress.” Select the XML file that was downloaded in the web browser. You can choose to assign the posts to an existing post author or assign a new author for Tumblr posts.

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Configuring Images

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When testing the exporter tool, I ran into a problem with image posts. The fine folks at WooThemes were able to help me sort out the trouble, and here is the next step that most users will need to take in order for images to properly display in posts.

The key is to disable dynamic image resizing.

If you are using the WooTumblog plugin, uncheck the “Enable Dynamic Image Resizer” box in the WooTumblog option panel.

For WooThemes users, uncheck the “Enable Dynamic Image Resizer” box from the “Dynamic Images” menu in the WooThemes option panel.

WooThemes users can also select whether they want to use Post Formats or a simple taxonomy declaration for their tumbled content. The default is to use Post Formats.

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The Results

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I tested Tumblr2WP on a few WordPress instances on my local server and at http://www.filmgirl.tv, a website I previously configured for use with the WooTumblog plugin and Express app.

The results, after turning off the dynamic image resizer, are stellar. Posts are displayed correctly and in the right format, and elements have carried over correctly from one service to the next.

Tumblr doesn’t have a built-in commenting system, which means that transferring comments from Disqus or another tool will take additional work. For most users, preserving comments from those posts may be more trouble than it is worth. Posts created using WordPress moving forward can use comments in the normal way.

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What Tumblr Users Will Lose

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For users who are considering moving from Tumblr to WordPress (or any other publishing platform), there are some very cool Tumblr features that just can’t be replicated elsewhere.

This includes:

• The re-blog button — The ability to easily and seamlessly re-blog content. Tumblr’s “re-blog” button is good enough that other hosted publishing tools (including WordPress.com) have tried to replicate the feature.
• The bookmarklet — WordPress has a “Press This” bookmarklet but it still doesn’t work as well or as cleanly as the famed Tumblr bookmarklet.
• The Dashboard — Tumblr’s dashboard is a great way to see posts from users you follow and to get notified when someone hearts or re-blogs your own content.
• The community — The Tumblr community is special and moving to a self-hosted blog platform, to a certain extent, means giving up that community.

At the end of the day, users need to weigh the pros and cons of controlling their own data and having more backend configuration options with the ease of use and communal spirit of Tumblr. This is a problem I personally still struggle with — which is why I maintain a WordPress blog and a Tumblr account.

Have you contemplated moving from Tumblr to WordPress? What platform do you prefer? Let us know.

More About: blogging, tumblr, tumblr2wp, woo tumblog, woothemes, WordPress

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It’s now possible for you to create chromakey effects just like the ones seen on your TV weather forecast. The Kromath 3 iPhone Chroma Keyer is an iOS app that lets you replace any green or blue background with the photo of your choice, opening up a universe of graphic-related possibilities.

Basically, you can place yourself in front of a blue or green wall, and using your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, mix in a photo of, say, a volcano behind you. Then, all your Facebook friends will think you’re some sort of world adventurer.

But there’s a couple of catches: Kromath 3 only works on still photos so far, although the company says it’s working on a video version. Also, you’d better be pretty serious about your chromakeying, because this little app will set you back $35 at the App Store [iTunes link].

That price places this app directly in the crosshairs of professional photographers and directors who would like to visualize their fancy chromakey effects while in the field. The software gives them real-time tweaking tools for experimentation, such as a “garbage matte” that lets them select certain areas that will be (or will not be) enhanced by the chromakey effect.

In the picture below, you can see that the area immediately around the model is selected for the chromakey effect. Everything outside that selected area will be replaced by the background photo:

Sure, the pros get this tech first, but it won’t be long before this kind of sophisticated trickery will trickle down to reasonably-priced apps.

More About: apps, chromakey, iOS, ipad, iphone, iPod Touch, Kromath 3 iPhone Chroma Keyer

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With a range of hot 7-inch tablets available, we thought a round-up of some of the best cases, sleeves and covers currently on sale was in order.

Whether you’re toting a Samsung Galaxy Tab, a Dell Streak 7, or hoping to get your hands on one of the 7-inch tablets announced at CES, we’ve got a case for you.

If you’re in the market, take a look through the gallery and let us know in the comments below which covering would best suit your precious mobile screen.

1. Belkin Merge

Designed to fit all 7-inch tablets, Belkin's two-tone woven case looks a little different from your standard neoprene fare.

Cost: $24.99

2. PDAir Brown Leather Case

Especially for the Samsung Galaxy Tab, this leather covering will add a touch of real swank.

Cost: $58

3. Case Crown Suede Sleeve

This faux suede effort comes in pink, black, gray, navy blue and red and boasts a handy additional exterior pocket for accessories.

Cost: $18.95

4. M-Edge Touring Sleeve

This neoprene sleeve has a polar fleece interior so your tablet will be safe and snug inside. It also boasts a pocket and a hidden handle.

Cost: $29.99

5. Belkin Transfer

Perfect for anyone who wants a minimalist sleeve, this is designed to fit all 7-inch tablets and won't draw any unecessary attention to itself as it protects your precious screen.

Cost: $24.99

6. Case Logic Cotton eBook Reader Sleeve

Made of seersucker plaid and originally created to fit e-book readers, this case will easily envelop your tablet with roomy dimensions of eight+ inches.

Cost: $11.99

7. OtterBox Defender Series for Samsung Galaxy Tab

If you want max protection for your tablet, OtterBox's option will give you three layers of protection and a clip-on touchscreen cover with a fold-out stand. This model is specific to the Samsung Galaxy Tab, but the Dell Streak 7 version is due soon.

Cost: $69.95

8. Belkin Grip Groove for Samsung Galaxy Tab

For Samsung Galaxy Tab owners, this snug silicone sleeve has a textured finish for improved "grippability" when surfing or gaming.

Cost: $39.99

9. M-Edge Slip Sleeve

This lightweight sleeve is made of colorful canvas with a leather trim and features an elastic strap that holds the sleeve tightly closed, but allows for quick access to your gadget.

Cost: $19.99

10. Custom-Made Sleeve Cover

Finally, if you'd like a case that's a little bit different, head on over to Etsy. Just one of many great sellers offering such crafty solutions, Etsy shop "linascorner" will hand-make you a case to fit your specific gadget from a choice of fabrics.

Cost: From $21

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Ever wonder what the wholesome kids of Riverdale High would be like if they lived in this modern, messed-up world of ours? Well, wonder no longer, as Cross Eyed Bear Comedy has created a parody trailer that tears the lid off of Archie comics and shows us all the sordid stories seething within.

The above video was made in response to the film industry’s tendency to remake TV and comic book classics.

According to the YouTube summary, “Riverdale was produced with the help of almost 100 Craigslist volunteers from the Vancouver film industry. We produced this and the 10 other comedic videos on a budget of $3,500 over a weekend. The Craigslist and random nature of this production brought the director and his girlfriend together. It also united the executive producer’s wife with her long-lost friend/boyfriend when she recognized him playing the character of Moose.”

See, I told you that our new YouTube Video of the Day series would not be solely composed of vids featuring adorable children.

Happy Friday!

[via The Daily What, The Cross Eyed Bear]

More About: archie, humor, parody, viral video, viral-video-of-day, youtube

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On February 11, Egyptians celebrated in Tahrir Square after Hosni Mubarak stepped down from his role as president. Jigar Mehta was watching the celebration on television, and he noticed many people in the crowd filming the celebration with their mobile phones.

“I thought, crap, if they’re recording this, they’ve probably been recording for the last 18 days,” he says about the demonstrators who began protesting January 25.

This was a particularly interesting to Mehta, who is a Knight Fellow at Stanford University and former New York Times video journalist currently working on ways to develop what he calls “participatory reporting.” After the initial celebration, he developed a project that he hopes will result in a crowdsourced interactive documentary about the 18 days of protests that led up to the revolution.

The project, #18DaysInEgypt, asks people who witnessed the protests to label what they recorded of them on Twitter, Flickr and YouTube with specific tags. Eventually, Mehta will put the entries together to create an interactive narrative. He hasn’t decided whether that narrative will involve a timeline, place the viewer at a specific location to observe what is going on, create a customized video depending on what the user wants to experience (Arcade Fire-style) or something else. For now, the biggest hurdle is collecting the content, a project for which he is soliciting help from partners in Egypt.

Throughout the protests in Egypt, social media played a role in conveying information to the rest of the world — even during the period when Twitter, Facebook and much of the Internet were shut down. YouTube paired with curation startup Storyful to highlight important footage. Twitter teemed with updates from Egypt, and Google launched a speak-to-tweet service that enabled users to send tweets using a voice connection. Projects such as IamJan25.com and HyperCities Egypt helped gather images and tweets surrounding the events.

“We all know what happened at the end, but there are a lot of interesting turns that this story took,” Mehta says. “I think we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg of what was shot during those 18 days.”

Image courtesy of Flickr, Maggie Osama

More About: Crowdsource, documentary, Egypt, flickr, protests, trending, twitter

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LCD Soundsystem may be heading into that shining, rose-hued horizon we call retirement (or so they say), but its music will undoubtedly live on. Perhaps incarnated in the furry bodies of loose-limbed, manic Muppets.

This video doesn’t appear to be an official Muppets nor LCD Soundsystem creation, but that doesn’t make it any less worthy of an early-to-mid-morning Friday viewing.

In fact, the Muppets have been unofficially popping up in fan-made videos a lot of late — Kanye West’s “Monster” springs to mind.

We know a lot of you out there suffered the torture of trying to score tix to LCD’s final show (prompting the addition of more dates) — well, take some solace in laughter, my friends, even though this vid is a little bit TLDW.

[via Brooklyn Vegan]

More About: LCD-soundsystem, muppets, music, viral video, youtube

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LivingSocial will break its newest ad campaign Sunday, during this year’s Academy Awards telecast. The campaign outlines the site’s possibilities with quick setting and costume changes reminiscent of Old Spice’s hugely popular “Smell Like a Man, Man” campaign of 2010.

LivingSocial’s campaign, from the Martin Agency, features two ads. One shows a couple move from a romantic dinner to a hair salon and then to a dance floor. The other ad features a couple switching go from a seaside dinner to a spa and then to a skydiving session. If the ads seem familiar, it might be because Old Spice used a similar technique with Isaiah Mustafa moving from the shower to a boat and then to a horse, while making a pitch for the brand.

The LivingSocial campaign is a creative departure from the brand’s ad that ran during the Super Bowl pregame show — though both spots are during major televised events. The Super Bowl ad featured a man who was addicted to bargains.

Meanwhile, LivingSocial’s push comes after rival Groupon pulled its controversial Super Bowl ad campaign, which featured celebrities earnestly pitching their causes and then abruptly shifting gears to plug Groupon.

More About: academy awards, advertising, groupon, LivingSocial

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For three days this week, victims of unrequited love were able to effortlessly track their crushes’ Facebook relationship statuses using the Breakup Notifier Facebook app that launched Monday. On Wednesday, however, the social network shut down the app — but not before it had acquired about 3 million users.

Now Facebook app WaitingRoom wants to offer those former Breakup Notifier users an upgrade in stalking efficiency. Not only will the Facebook app notify you when the person you’re pining after relieves himself or herself from a relationship, but it will also help you anonymously encourage that breakup.

Here’s how it works: When you indicate interest in an unavailable Facebook friend, that person gets an e-mail notification that there is someone in his or her “WaitingRoom” (this person need not have the app installed at this point). The identity of the admirer isn’t revealed until the recipient has changed his or her Facebook status to single.

“If you’re already in a relationship,” the app’s site says, “WaitingRoom will give you the confidence to become single again — if that’s what you really want.”

In order to avoid getting people in the waiting room beat up by significant others, nothing regarding the app gets posted publicly. Because they must publicly switch their statuses to single for 48 hours before identities are revealed, recipients theoretically can’t cheat by changing their status just to see who is waiting for them.

Is this a healthy, mature way to deal with wishing a friend were single? Probably not. Is it a good idea to pursue someone who needs a potential fling waiting before they have “the confidence to become single again”? Not particularly. Is this most likely to be leveraged by creeps? You get where this is going …

But unlike the Breakup Notifier in its current state, WaitingRoom does work — at least in the operational sense.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, MarsBars

More About: breakup app, breakup notifier, facebook, WaitingRoom

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Welcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world. We're keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today.

Google Declares War on Content Farms

Google has announced an algorithmic change to its search engine that should dramatically improve the quality of Google's search results by eliminating content farm properties from top results.

Google Adds New Filtering Options to Mobile Places Search

Google has introduced several new features to its mobile search for iPhone and Android, including the ability to surface results by star rating, distance and business that are open.

PayPal Lifts Ban on Fundraising Account for WikiLeaks Source Bradley Manning

PayPal has lifted its ban on the account of Courage to Resist, an organization that has raised a substantial portion of the funds needed for the legal defense of Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old former U.S. army private accused of leaking classified U.S. information to WikiLeaks in 2010.

Further News

• Google has rolled out a new search feature that makes finding recipes on the web a little easier to users in the U.S. and Japan.
• Verizon Wireless has released its first ad for Motorola's Xoom tablet, a futuristic spot that highlights the device's ability to play Vendetta.
• Lumosity, a startup with more than 40 science-inspired web and mobile games for exercising the brain, has surpassed 11 million members in 190 countries.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59

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Google has introduced several new features to its mobile search for iPhone and Android, including the ability to filter results by star rating, distance and businesses that are open.

For example, you might only look for restaurants that are open right now, within a two-mile radius of your current location, that have a rating of four or more stars.

As I’ve recently learned, searching for nearby restaurants or other points of interests on your mobile phone can be a slow and painful experience, and this feature could speed it up considerably.

Other new features include review images in search results and small design changes such as bigger buttons for viewing a map and the ability to call a business.

To try out Google’s mobile Places search, open www.google.com on your mobile browser and click on the Places link at the top of the page. The new features also work when you do a search for businesses on Google Maps on an Android device.

More About: filtering, Google, mobile search

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