Google and Verizon to Launch Tablet Computer

Add a big new twist to the tablet computing wars. The Wall Street Journal is confirming that Google plans to bring a tablet computer to market with Verizon Wireless.

Although details –- including a name, manufacturer, launch date and operating system (Android () or Chrome OS?) are not yet known — Verizon’s CEO told WSJ,”We’re looking at all the things Google () has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience.”

The news doesn’t come as a total shocker –- last month Google’s CEO reportedly told friends that his company was building a tablet device.

via mashable.com

Twitter as 105 million users.

In kicking off Twitter’s Chirp developer conference, the company finally revealed its long mysterious registered user number, and it’s surprisingly large (based on some prior outside estimates): 105 million, or to be exact, 105,779,710, according to a slide showing behind Co-founder Biz Stone during his opening remarks.

The growth’s not over either — Twitter says its still adding 300,000 users per day. Moreover, as many have speculated, most of Twitter’s traffic — 75% of it in fact — comes from third-party clients and applications.

Google Helps You Find Followers

If you’ve already had your fill of Twitter news today — too bad — Google is out with yet another Twitter-related feature, this time releasing Google Follow Finder to help you discover new people to follow.

The new Google Twitter app is a product of the just released @anyhwere developer tools and is a Google Labs experiment with a singular purpose — to recommend Twitter users. Plug in your Twitter name and Google Follow Finder will return a set of Twitter users you might like.

Many URL Shorteners Are Slow and Unreliable

Dutch web monitoring company WatchMouse has done a thorough analysis of uptime and performance of 14 major URL shortening services, with quite disheartening results.

As it turns out, only two of these (goo.gl and twt.tl) have had a perfect uptime record between 02/14/2010 and 03/16/2010; the rest of the pack mostly had minor uptime issues, while snurl.com and tr.im had uptime below 99%.

via mashable.com

Apple Patents Reveal Plans for Mobile Social Networking App

The smart folks at Patently Apple have uncovered some documents published to the USPTO today detailing a social application Apple is building for the iPhone.

The application, known as iGroups, is designed to let people meet up and exchange information in a way that is focused on ensuring privacy.

via mashable.com

The Social Media Marketing Blog: How Ford Uses Social Media [VIDEO]

At the risk of giving away too much of what we do (not really - everything we do in social media is in the public, so you just need to pay attention or search around to find out), I'd like to share with you a little bit about Ford Motor Company's approach to social media.

Here's a great video that WebPro News did when we were at Blog World Expo last October. It captures a lot of what Ford is doing in the space.

via www.scottmonty.com

How Much Are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn Worth? [REPORT]

For the moment, the valuations we have for private companies like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are based mostly on what we know from venture capital investments.

SharesPost, however, is a company that lets owners of shares in private companies sell them to prospective buyers, and they’ve just released an index detailing valuations of some of the most prominent companies in the social media space.

via mashable.com

Global Smartphone App Download Market Could Reach $15 Billion By 2013: Report

Research reports forecasting future market sizes should always be taken with a grain of salt, but it occasionally helps to see the estimates of research organizations in order to gain some perspective on the current and upcoming trends for those markets.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at what research2guidance has to say about the worldwide smartphone application market, which it estimates will grow from $1.94 billion in 2009 to $15.65 billion by 2013.

via techcrunch.com

Driving Traffic with MapQuest and its New Search Engine | WebProNews

Local business search is becoming more of an area of great focus by search providers as time goes on. Google, especially, has been working overtime on providing new features that can help users find local businesses of interest. AOL's MapQuest has been working on improving its own business search functionality, which we talked to the company a little about.

via www.webpronews.com

Some Ways to Enjoy the 2010 Winter Olympics Online | WebProNews

As the Olympics get underway, fans have a lot of options to engage online. Many popular sites on the web are involved in a variety of ways.

Google

Google allows you to take a virtual tour of the Olympics in 3D. They recently released updates in Google Earth's 3D Buildings layer, which showcase Olympic venues (54 buildings). Models range from downtown event centers to ski lifts and spectator bleachers. The Official site for the Olympics uses the models itself.

Vectoral Elevation has "an interactive artwork" that allows users to direct light beams and transform Vancouver's skyline until the end of the month using a custom interface built on Google Earth and Map APIs. It lets users design big light sculptures by directing 20 robotic searchlights located around English Bay.

via www.webpronews.com