There’s no end of cool and quirky cover examples that have gone viral, with some sites offering Photoshop templates to allow users to create something truly unique, so it was inevitable that ad agencies would leap on the opportunity to use Facebook in a more creative way in order to have their message heard.

DimensionsMall.com, Inc. is in the process of developing a photo-realistic shopping center that will allow users to create avatars of themselves and then stroll around the mall, entering their favourite stores and making real purchases – a retail equivalent of Second Life, if you will.

Electronics and personal care giant Philips is giving men a reason to embrace the monotonous morning shave with a new campaign under its ‘Philips Self-Expression’ arm, aiming to alter traditional conventions that have dictated a clean-shaven look for the last few decades.

Count Me In provides a platform for users to come together and jointly purchase larger items, without the hassle of group emails, cross-country phone calls or awkward money matters. It’s also designed to keep wish lists and registries organized and in one place

The Welsh are good at a lot of things. Cakes for example. And rugby. Also not getting too irate when their entire country is ‘edited out’ of a prestigious EU reference book. But what this relatively small country is really good at is bandying together in the spirit of patriotism, for a common good

Last month we told you about the launch of n0tice, a hyperlocal online community “noticeboard” incubated by The Guardian. Yesterday, they flipped the switch on a new advertising platform. Yes, the “SoMoLo” revolution will be ad-supported.

The big news in this announcement, though, is really what’s going on with brand pages. A bit late to the party (Google+ has recently announced brand pages and Facebook, well…), Twitter now promises new features to marketers that will offer the potential to interact and engage with followers even more so than previously

Do you feel stressed, overworked, unable to manage your time and priorities amid a daily deluge of messages, tweets, updates and Inmails?
No, this isn’t some corny infomercial for a new gadget solution. Instead …

By no means are the algorithms perfect yet, though. Suggestions of hair care products for bald relatives and exercise equipment for overweight, chair-dwelling gamers have been reported in reviews of the app, but generally speaking the gift suggestions are relevant and even in some cases creepily accurate

Telecomms giant Sony Ericsson has teamed up with marketing agency Iris to offer Australian Facebookers the chance to bag themselves an Xperia arc smartphone. To do so, they must try to ‘unlock’ the arc featured on the brand’s new Facebook application, ‘Unlock Xperia’ – very much like sitting in the pub with a friend’s phone, trying to guess their phone password.