In case you haven’t turned on a television or browsed the Internet recently, I will inform you now what all of those little @,#, and other weird symbols you may see belong to the realm of Twitter. You will find the jargon of the social media website not only within its own server’s confines. Twitter-speak appears in Facebook statuses, next to pundit names on CNN, and even at the end of a paragraph for shameless self-promotion (follow us on Twitter @techjaws).

A service that once struggled to find a source of income and relied on corporate sponsorship is now becoming one of the largest ways to make money and promote on the Internet. Here are some of the ways that businesses, celebrities, and large organizations are using Twitter in order to make profits:

Paid Tweets

It is no secret that influential Twitter users can get information out to a massive amount of people in a short period of time. What started off as a messenger service for bicycle couriers has turned into a forum for us to get the latest celebrity gossip and trivialities. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Rainn Wilson have been caught using advertising agencies in order to secure product placement deals using their Tweets. Kardashian is reported to make over $10,000 every time she promotes a product.

Buzz Words/ Trending Topics

If you look to the Twitter sidebar, you will notice a list of topics that are trending throughout the Twitter-verse. You can adjust the location of these topics to the world, US, or any individual city with a dedicated Twitter user base. While you change the location of your trending topic feed, notice the very first entry is a promoted Tweet. This is an excellent way for brands to promote events in real time to a very captive and segmented audience.

Organic PR Outreach

NASA is one of the major organizations taking to Twitter in order to generate buzz about their most recent news and events. The space exploration agency has been holding Tweet-ups from their space stations for about a year now. Astronauts use mobile devices from space in order to answer questions from the terrestrial sphere. They probably get great 4G reception due to the satellites being located only several miles away.

Cross Promotional Outreach

While some government organizations and businesses use Twitter on their own to promote, other organizations have set deals in place with the social media site. The WWE’s flagship program, Monday Night Raw, has become loaded with more Tweets than chair shots to the head over the last year. The wrestling organization has come to a deal with Twitter to cross-promote each others’ brands. Twitter gains new followers every Monday, while WWE stay relevant.

Twitter FAIL!

Netflix recent debacle with their services, pricing, and customer retention also fell into the social media universe. When they renamed their DVD-to-Mail service Qwikster, they failed to check on the availability of a Twitter handle. It was quickly discovered that a teenager by the name of Jason Castillo, a marijuana smoking, foul mouthed student, owned the used that registered name. Netflix was deeper in their PR fiasco than they originally planned.

Twitter has made it easier to become caught up in a world that solely revolves around celebrities and self-interests. It is almost vital for any brand to be in on the Twitter action, not by necessity, but by peer pressure. Companies will continue to find interesting ways to use the social network and promote their products in unique and innovative ways.

Jonathan Jaxon is a social media guru writing for websites across the Internet. He also specializes in writing about free phones, Android apps, and other mobile device developments.

Google+ is still in beta and only a small user base has the privilege of giving it a long test drive, but it made a huge splash amongst iPhone users – more on that in a bit. According to one analyst, Google+ user base is just under 18 million.

During a Thursday earnings call, Google said its service now has more than 10 million users, who share about 1 billion items each day, including 2.3 million uses of the “+1″ feature.

Yesterday, Apple added the Google+ iPhone app to the App Store, and it became the most popular free app. It is a small milestone for Google, if you want to call it one, but it’s a clear message that Google has the potential to become a major player in the social arena. The only win here is to compete with Facebook and if Google says anything otherwise, they are kidding themselves.

While people are still signing on for Google’s social experiment, sign-ups have slowed in recent days according to Paul Allen (not the same Microsoft Paul Allen), but the Ancestry.com founder Paul Allen.

Prior to this app, iPhone and iPad owners have been forced to use an HTML5 version that Google offers online. Although it allows for basic Google+ access, it lacked the Huddle IM system and other components.

What if Facebook were to turn off or abbreviate certain features of its popular social network, would you be willing to pay for full access? Let’s say that 10% of the 700 million users were willing to pay a reoccurring monthly fee of $2.99 to enable all features in full. This would equate to almost 240 million dollars per month in revenue for Facebook. It is not farfetched for Facebook to impose such a fee to use their network. They created an addiction and it is evident by the average time users spend on Facebook every day.

Would you be willing to pay? I know free is best and many people probably wouldn’t like it if they can only see a certain amount of wall posts, upload so many photos or even play with some of the most popular games like Farmville. But can you live without the full feature set you have become accustom to since joining Facebook?

You may be wondering why I am even writing about such nonsense, but in reality, like every company, Facebook has expenses. Paid advertising on its social network is not going to make the company richer nor will it help the company grow. They need to come up with other revenue streams in order to invest money in new technologies to improve social engagement and time spent on its site.

Google has branched out into other technologies, though, some didn’t stick. If Google didn’t have the multiple revenue streams they would not be able to make the investments to improve the company’s position in search and other technologies (Chrome, Android).

Facebook has the whole world in its hands, but they need to capitalize on its popularity now, before someone (Google) moves in on its market share.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

First it was Google Buzz, and last August it was Google Wave and now Google+ (Plus). Google the leader in search holds two-thirds of the U.S. market in search and now it is trying once again to compete with the largest social network – Facebook. Will Google strikeout or is three the charm?

What makes this new social experiment Google+ different than its predecessors?

• It lets users share things with smaller groups of people through a feature called “Circles.” You can allow specific groups such as co-workers, childhood friends see your photos, links or updates that you post.
• Another feature called “Sparks” finds content you care about the most. This content can be about gadgets, tech news or whatever you find most interesting. You can then share this with you social groups who also have the same interest.
• Want to share photos? There’s a group messaging service called “Huddle” and it lets users instantly upload photos from their smart phones. The photos are stored in a private photo album on Google’s servers, and it allows users to access them and share them whenever they want.

How does Google gain market share that Facebook is dominating with more than 700 million users?

There are millions of people who use Google for search, email, and sharing and if Google can come out with a product just as rich as Facebook, it could gain popularity they need to compete in social networking. Unfortunately some skeptics see if differently.

Lou Kerner, a social media analyst with Wedbush Securities, believes the game is over in the competition to become the world’s global social network. With 700 million users, Facebook has won, he said.

Google+ is only accessible by invitation only and not yet available to the public. The only thing now is to wait for Google+ to go public.

It has been said and dragged through the mud that Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea of Facebook from his college buddies; even the movie “The Social Network” depicted such. Many think it’s true that he should split the value among those who created Facebook, but Mark has denied and dismissed these claims.

Paul Ceglia

On Monday, Mark Zuckerberg won a major legal victory against Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, but a new battle is brewing as a new ownership steps forward. Convicted felon Paul Ceglia is claiming a 50 percent stake in Zuckerberg’s Facebook. This all started in 2003 when Paul signed an agreement with Mark Zuckerberg for 50% stake, but the claims didn’t hold enough weight until yesterday.

The evidence looks pretty strong against Zuckerberg and it comes in the form of emails. Ceglia provided emails that supports his claim of a 50 percent stake in Facebook. You can read the entire email history of the Facebook deal here.

If this proves to be factual, Mark’s reputation could be severely damaged over this. The emails look legitimate at first glance, but will leave it to the legal beagles to decide the faith of Facebook and Mark’s reputation.

The movie “The Social Network” may have hit the bullseye!

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Even the Mighty Casey struck out and Google may be the next to fall from being the most visited site on the internet. Since March 2010, Facebook has gained a ton of ground on the King and is currently less than 10% less in unique visitors daily according to Compete.com.

Facebook is currently the second most popular website behind Google and considering Google made its debut in 1997 whereas Facebook launched in 2004, it’s remarkable how much popularity Facebook has gained in such a short time.

The other factor to weigh in is that most Facebook users spend more time on site (Approx. 30 minutes) than those users who visit Google (Approx. 10 minutes). The biggest concern for Google is that Facebook seems to be moving into the search arena or at least it looks that way after making a deal with Microsoft last fall to add results from its network to the Bing search engine. The new startup Blekko also has a search that includes social results based on Facebook “likes” and other activity.

Google could fall from #1 by the end of 2011 and that didn’t seem possible a few years ago. Though Google has expanded its business into other technology areas, I don’t think that Facebook will have a negative effect on Google’s earnings or continued growth.

Web analytics are based on unique visitors and were obtained from Compete.com and Alexa.com. Both services provide approximate statistics and shouldn’t be considered as 100 percent accurate.

About Blekko: Blekko is a search engine that serves up relevant search queries from trusted web sites and excluding material from such sites as content farms from its index.

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Last week I published an article called – “Who’s Searching for You Scam.” It’s about how you can find out who’s searching for you for free? The company behind this is also running TV commercials. What concerns me is that Facebook should do a little research to ensure what people are stating is accurate before publishing their ads.

MyLife.com states that you can find out who’s searching you for free, but nothing about it is free. If you give them any information such as your email, you will be bombarded with spam and trust me, it is hard to opt out and get rid of this parasite.

The site is unethical in how they’re misleading people and sharing personal information to send spam from multiple partner web sites as stated in their Privacy Policy below.

This Privacy Policy applies to information MyLife.com collects online through its websites and other domains owned by MyLife.com, Inc. (“MyLife.com”) including MyLife.com and other domains owned and operated by us. We refer to these websites as www.MyLife.com and to the other domains as the “MyLife.com Sites.” Other domains include www.addressbook.com, www.myaddressbook.com, www.reunion.com, www.highschoolalumni.com, www.MyLife.com, www.whoislookingforyou.com, www.whoissearchingforyou.com, www.whosesearchingforyou.com, www.whossearchingforyou.com, and www.goodcontacts.com

That’s a lot of sites they’re sharing your information with and this is why you will get non-stop spam.

Facebook needs to moderate their advertisers!

If you haven’t notice the new functionality of the Facebook “Like” Button, it now does the same thing the Share did. It’s about time and I think many users will like this new function a lot better, I know I will. In the past you had two options on Facebook – like it or share it, but now if you like something it will post a blurb and thumbnail to your wall. I think this makes it a lot easier and also better for the social junkies in us.

In other words, the Like button will now be function the same way as the Facebook Share button. This will definitely get more people’s attention over the old way. Hitting the Like button before the change usually would go unnoticed.

Facebook Spokeswoman Malorie Lucich told Mashable that the Like button is the “recommended solution moving forward,” but called the new changes a “test” to gauge reaction from users and developers. Unlike some of Facebook’s prior experiments, we don’t see foresee this one causing any major revolts.

Lucich told Mashable that the latest change is only a test, but the site was quick to point out that test features on the social network are normally rolled out to a few users before going site-wide. That’s not the case with this tweak.

One of our authors – Nikola Ranguelov pointed out an excellent observation or at least a concern. How will the Like button determine what thumbnail to use? The Share feature provides the user with a choice of what thumbnail they would like to use with the content they’re sharing. If there’s no way of doing this, than there will be many irrelevant thumbnails associated with the new Like button functionality.

Check out this article – http://www.techi.com/2011/02/why-the-facebook-like-button-change-is-a-bait-and-switch/

I like it and I will use it a lot more often!

If you are not a StumbleUpon user, you should consider signing up. You never know what web site you may stumble upon to see some of the most amazing things that you can find on the internet.

Here are some cool stumbles I came across the last few days

Logo Design Gone Wrong: 10 Offbeat Examples – Logo designs that should of put the marketing team in hot water. I found these to be hilarious and I am sure you will to.

Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks – Using the Google search operator commands in the search box can lead to some useful and not so useful information.

Seven super scary landing strips – If you have a fear for flying, these landing strips may have you white knuckled in your seat.

11,760 Years to Restore a Mac Hard Drive – I know, I didn’t stumble this, but I still think it’s funny to poke at Apple once in a while.

Oldest Duck Dies – I didn’t know we were keeping records on the oldest duck, but this guy did live for 22 years.

How to Build a Luxury Bomb Shelter – For the rich who need to be pampered during a crisis or invasion, here’s what you can do to keep yourself in luxury while hidden away from bombs.

30 Photos of Cute Baby Animals That Can Change Your Mood – I am sure if you’re in a bad mood, these cuddly animals can change the way you feel.

9 Ways iPhone Apps Can Save You Money – If I can save a few pennies using any of these iPhone apps, I am all for it and most are free.

Unusual Computer Mice You Probably Haven’t Seen Before – I am sure you never seen these before and once you do, you will be amazed.

Top 10: Weird Exam Answers – Who makes up this stuff?

30 Hilarious and Entertaining Caricatures of Famous Celebrities – These exaggerated or distorted portrait are unbelievable. I can only wish I could get beyond the stick figures.

10 Strange Company Names – What were they smoking that made them come up with these strange names?

Top 10 How Dirty is Your Mind? – These weren’t done on purpose; they just naturally ended up this way.

What is your Date really thinking? – This is very interesting and surprising, but could prove to be a great guide for those who are actively dating.

That’s the short list and I am sure I could have found more gems this week. You should consider signing up at StumbleUpon.com and if you do, follow me (SocialBeaver).

Happy Stumbling!

This is absolutely ludicrous! Facebook doesn’t want anyone to register a domain name that uses ‘generic plus book’. There are many domains that have generic plus book such as;

Macbook.com
SEObook.com (Excellent resource for SEO)
lookatbook.com
eBook.com
Techbook.com (Parked domain)
Teachbook (Currently being sued)
iownbook.com (Newly registered)

According to Facebook: “If others could freely use ‘generic plus book’ marks for online networking services targeted to that particular generic category of individuals, the suffix ‘book’ could become a generic term for ‘online community/networking services’ or ‘social-networking services,’” it says. “That would dilute the distinctiveness of the Facebook marks, impairing their ability to function as unique and distinctive identifiers of Facebook’s goods and services.”

Facebook is suing Teachbook, claiming the startup’s use of the word “book” in its name trespasses on its trademark.

Facebook is sending a clear message to the marketplace: If you use the word “book” in your name, it’s going to be a fight.

iownbook.com for sale at a great price!

Original news story by Jennifer LeClaire, newsfactor.com