PinView is a new Fabook app that allows users to transform their newsfeeds into Pinterest-style photo boards.

"The actual design pattern that Pinterest is using isn't really new, but it’s solid and we thought it would be interesting to try and see how it would work with Facebook," Thomas Peterson, the app's creator, told Media Bistro.

While the functionality of the App doesn’t seem to offer much more than a different way to view Facebook, the rise in appeal of Pinterest in recent months might have Facebook thinking about yet another design change.

I sure hope not, I don’t think I deal with listening to another friend complain about “having to switch to Timeline.” (Just like they did with the introduction of the newsfeed, etc…)

There also doesn’t appear to be much of a method for how certain updates, photos or links are organized. I don’t see much problem with that, other than the fact that Facebook seems to be focused on providing timely updates to compete with Twitter.

President Obama recently signed into law a new bill, which grants small businesses the right to solicit funding from millions of investors (AKA crowdfunding). 

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act eases the requirement that small businesses and startups must meet in order to raise money. This is huge for businesses across the country, and especially huge for web-based startups since most of the crowdfunding, of the non-profit/charity variety, has been taking place online for years. (Source: New law lets small businesses use crowdfunding)

In the past, using crowdfunding to find investors has been illegal in the U.S. because of laws that were designed to protect the public from scams or bad investments. The JOBS Act, which allows companies to raise up to $1 million a year from individual investors, will most likely go into effect in 2013 as the SEC works to put together rules to govern how it will work.

A holographic version of deceased West Coast rapping icon, Tupac Shakur recently “performed” at the Coachella music festival. The video is creepy and fascinating.

Xbox users who are Xfinity subscribers can now access their favorite cable programming through their consoles. As an Xbox user (nerd) I’m elated to be able to have a Game of Thrones marathon from the privacy of my own gaming station (my bedroom). It’s just another step in the importance of having a gaming console for omnipresent entertainment. Will we eventually have one little box for everything? Apple TV has been working on this, but they don’t have the promise of a billion dollar media forced behind them: the video game industry.

A few years back, prior to the Social Media Revolution, marketers spent tens of thousands of dollars per annum on off-site and on-site search engine optimization with the development of keyword rich copy and inbound links to increase organic search visibility. Those marketers unable to achieve first page SERP on Google organic resulted to pay-per-click search marketing, sometimes paying upwards from $20 per click. But what is a click really? How does a click translate into a dollar in your register? 

The thing is, dumping thousands of dollars per month into SEO was hit or miss and had to be an ongoing effort if you wanted your placement results to stick. There’s only room for 10 first page players on Google organic, and if you’re not keeping up with your optimization, you can lose your placement at any time.

Dave Kerpen, CEO of Likeable Media talks about optimizing your website for social sharing in his book Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook. By making your website the ultimate sharing machine i.e. including social login to capture leads, share, like, an pin buttons along with room for social commentary, you are in fact optimizing your website for search.

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now Google’s personal search results show recommendations i.e. +1’s from people within your Google + network for products or services related to your search queries. Additionally , savvy marketers have enabled the “likeability” of products on their websites… If you come across a product that has been previously “liked” by someone in your network, their Facebook avatar will appear as a sort of recommendation. The cool thing about these social recommendations is, they never disappear unless someone unlikes your product/service/brand or deactivates their social profiles (how often does that really happen?).

By January 2012, the virtual pin board for consumer interests , cited more than 11.7 Million unique visitors as revealed in a hitwise study;  making it one of the top 10 social networking sites  and the fastest site in history to break the 10 Million UV mark. 

Addicting  arrangements of beautiful image collages will keep you glued to the site for hours on end, and while Pinterest’s strategy is to initially keep it “cool,” a site that users enjoy using over and over again, to marketers the “interest graph” is the next major focus for social media monetization. Pinning, re-pinning and liking pictures of products online will only increase marketing intelligence to hyper target consumers with products they’re truly interested in.

While we’re waiting on monetization of the interest graph, affiliate marketers have been using the site to drive CPA sales and cash out with big bucks from advertiser products. Tricia Meyer, blogger, consultant, attorney and owner of Sunshine Deals presented a webinar at this year’s Affiliate Summit  West in Las Vegas about what affiliate marketers should know about the rules and regulations of Pinterest and the FTC with regard to copywright laws and Pinterest guidelines for self promotion of pins which you stand to gain a profit from.

We’re at a point in our lives that if something important is happening in the world, you’ll probably find out about it on Facebook or Twitter. The same is often true for when something not important is happening too (see: cat breading), but that doesn’t take away from the effectiveness of social media as a news gathering and sharing service 

During the month of March two very important and interesting events took place for the world of social media, the dissemination of the KONY2012 viral video campaign (Mashable - KONY 2012: How Social Media Fueled The Most Viral Video Of All-Time) and the shooting death of Trayvon Martin (International Business Time: Social media Continues To Fuel Trayvon Martin Movement). Neither of these two events have anything to do with business practices, but they each speak volumes to the effectiveness of social media to strike a chord on a personal level.

In the past week I’ve had more friends and followers change their profile pictures to either a stock photo of Joseph Kony or a portrait of themselves looking tough in a hooded sweatshirt (even my mom is currently rocking a grey hoodie pic).

People use the pinning site to share everything from recipes to the latest fashions to funny pictures or videos. The actual practice of scrolling through endless blog posts, photos, designers, homemade crafts, etc. Before long the pinners quest for more content starts to resembles that of a zombies never-ending quest for brains. And all that content means traffic, which eventually means dollars

In February, Pinterest made huge headlines for driving more traffic (and revenue) for websites than Facebook and Twitter combined. In fact, its doing so much business it’s becoming a leader in driving traffic back to other social sites as well: http://www.mediabistro.com

The interesting thing is, why? I think the success of about Pinterest actually speaks volumes about how we use social media sites and shows that is has the potential to break out like Facebook or Twitter. So, could Pinterest become a business super-tool (like some view Facebook to be) or is it just something pretty to look at? (Pinterest = Girl Porn)

I foresee a world where businesses will transform the way they use Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/pinterestbiz/). They will develop the capability to essentially corner the consumer in their own ‘world.’ They will set up their account to feature all of the same products they sell in their stores and on their sites, and they fast-track the purchasing process by allowing users to buy items directly from theirs and followers “pin boards.” Then we will start to see Pinterest become the business super-tool it’s designed to be.

Before I get yelled at by my girlfriend, I’d just like to point out that the term is not mine and I don’t think there is necessarily anything sexist about a website being more specifically tailored for a woman’s interest. I don’t think calling that site ‘girl porn’ suggests anything foul or derogatory

The way Pinterest is set up is genius; it takes everything we love about Facebook and smashes it all together on a never-ending scroll wall. PICTURES! I once read an article that tracked the path of a user’s eye when looking at a Facebook brand page. Guess what they looked at most? The pictures. (http://mashable.com/2011/12/14/eyetracking-facebook-brand-pages/) Now imagine you have a whole website that is catered specifically to your interests, filled with pictures of things you specifically chose to look at. You’d scroll on that website for hours.

That’s Pinterest.

It’s in our nature to look at things that are interesting to us. We also have an innate desire to help others and share what we know. Pinterest combines these human quality and makes them the main function of it’s website. You see something you like, you pin it. That action automatically shares it with your followers, who then pin and share to their followers too. It’s mindless really… and since the early ‘pinners’ were people focused on crafts, arts, clothes and recipe sharing; the site became a female Internet paradise. According to ignitesocialmedia.com, as of January 2012, the site was being visited by an astonishing 80% women (http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/social-networks/pinterest-demographic-data/) making my friends moniker of ‘girl porn’ all the more accurate.

On Sunday, April 1, 2012, Philadelphia became the first city in America to make special accommodations for texting pedestrians. Or did they?