There have been a number of studies that look at the social smarts of today’s most tech-savvy companies. For example, last month we took a look at the phenomenon of the great stall happening on the corporate side with blogging and the subsequent surge in Tweeting. This is only one side of the story, of course. A far more telling picture is to look at uptake of social tools. And we have that for you here.

A billion dollars for a 13-person app-making startup that’s never made a dime? That’s the headline head-scratcher coming out of yesterday’s blockbuster acquisition of the super-popular photo-sharing app Instagram by Facebook. But take a closer look at the numbers and you see what Facebook gets out of it: a global, mobile powerhouse.

Ramping up this Orwellian reality is a proposed 2012 ‘trend’ set to completely revolutionise (for better or worse) the F-commerce landscape: behavioural pricing, the idea that through analysis of your on (and off-) line shopping habits, brands and companies can determine exactly how much they can get away with charging you for a product.

Matt McAlister, Director of Digital Strategy at Guardian Media Group, spoke at the SMI11 conference about the future of social, mobile and local targeting – or “SoMoLo” for short – and its impact on communities a few months back. We caught up with McAlister again this week to discuss the beta launch of n0tice

For some, their local barista is a lifeline into a busy day, and when a big tip and a beaming ‘thank you’ just isn’t enough, there’s new iPhone app We&Co.

As London descended into chaos last night, social media became the focus for following the riots’ latest developments.

Despite the recent sale of Myspace for a relatively meager $35 million and LinkedIn’s rocky ride so far on the stock market, search engine giant Google has decided it wants a piece of the lucrative social networking pie, and last week launched Google+. Oh, it’s also made a big green announcement that’s gotten lost in all the geeky plus-buzz.

Venture capitalists are back, funding privately-held firms in the United States alone to a tune of $5.9 billion in first quarter of 2011.
That’s the highest Q1 rate of investment in start-ups in the past three …

Google launched +1 [on March 30], basically its answer to Facebook’s Like button. When you click on a ‘+1′ icon displayed on a URL, it shows up in Google search results when you are signed in. And if you have social connections within the Google empire (e.g., Gmail contacts) you will see which of your connections has +1?d the URL. While I am digesting the possibilities I thought it might be helpful to summarize some initial reads on the +1:

The evolution of online video, you could say, took a step backwards last week with Warner Bros. stepping up as the first Hollywood studio to cut a Facebook distribution deal, streaming rentals of “The Dark Knight” for three bucks a pop. To some online video experts, it’s not the price tag, but the experience that has them grumbling. Batman fans are confined to viewing the entire film off-site, on Facebook.