This week’s edition focuses on some newspaper and media sites seeing a big traffic boost from implementing Facebook comments, Activision being skeptical of the numbers being put forth for competitors like Zynga and Rovio, an interview with one of Silicon Valley’s best known entrepreneurs and investors Reid Hoffman, and Facebook trying to create some sort of Android-based “Facebook phone.”

 

 

What You Need to Read This Week

Handing comments over to Facebook is a double-edged sword
By Mathew Ingram, GigaOM

Facebook’s continued push against the anonymous web.

Activision: Social Game Company Valuations “Out Of Whack”
By Devin Coldewey, TechCrunch

One major game company is not into the social/mobile hype…

Reid Hoffman Talks About LinkedIn and VC Life and Gives Five Tips to Start-Ups (Video)
By Kara Swisher, AllThingsD

Reid Hoffman knows a thing or two about startups.

Time For Facebook To Buy WebOS From HP For A Couple Bucks
By Nicholas Carlson, Business Insider

Google’s acquisition of Motoralla this week has given Facebook another great reason to launch their own mobile OS.

 

 

This week’s edition focuses on bringing games to Google+, Facebook announcing its own game enhancements, the reality that most startups don’t succeed, and the British government saying it’s considering shutting down access to social networks in the wake of the riots.

 

 

What You Need to Read This Week

Google Wastes No Time Putting Games On Google+: Angry Birds, Bejeweled, Zynga On Board
By MG Siegler, TechCrunch

Google makes the first strike in the platform wars.

Facebook strikes back at Google with its own game enhancements
By Dean Takahashi, TechCrunch

Facebook comes back swinging!

What Kinds Of Silicon Valley Companies Are Dying Right Now?
By Matt Rosoff, Business Insider

Interesting opinion piece on the other side of the current social web boom.

Blaming the tools: Britain proposes a social-media ban
By Mathew Ingram, GigaOM

UK government takes extreme measures to quell riots.

 

This week’s edition focuses on Twitter users starting to see ads in their timeline over the next few weeks, Facebook’s secret plan to bring applications to the mobile web via HTML5, a blog post from web designer Andy Rutledge that tore apart the New York Times website for being ugly and cluttered, and LinkedIn launching a new plugin that makes the process of applying for a job as easy as clicking a button. 

 

 

What You Need to Read This Week

Promoted Tweets Set To Appear in Your Twitter Timeline

By Adam Ostrow, Mashable

Bring on the ads, says Twitter HQ.

Facebook Will Bring Credits To Mobile Browsers

By MG Siegler, TechCrunch

More details on Facebook’s long term mobile strategy and how credits might fit in.

If your news site isn’t social, great design won’t matter

By Mathew Ingram, GigaOM

How social is becoming the central point of design in terms of news and information websites.

LinkedIn launches plugin for one-click job applications

By Sean Ludwig, VentureBeat

No more cover letters!

This week’s edition focuses on Electronic Arts purchasing PopCap, daily deals, Linkedin surpassing Myspace in terms of traffic to become the No. 2 most visited social networking site in the U.S. in June, and branded advertisements appearing in a Twitter user’s real-time stream.

 

 

What You Need to Read This Week

Why Didn’t Zynga’s Billion-Dollar Offer for PopCap Win?
By Tricia Duryee, AllThingsD

Why did Popcap go with EA and not Zynga?

How the Web & Daily Deals Have Changed Coupons [INFOGRAPHIC]
By Jolie O’Dell, Mashable

Remember coupons? Me neither :) But apparently it used to be a huge thing before Groupon socialized it.

LinkedIn Surpasses Myspace For U.S. Visitors To Become No. 2 Social Network; Twitter Not Far Behind
By Leena Rao, TechCrunch

LinkedIn is the social network that keeps on giving.

What will users do when ads hit their Twitter stream?
By Mathew Ingram, GigaOM

Great rundown of what to expect from Twitter’s upcoming self serve ad platform.

 

 

 

 

What You Need to Read This Week

Google Launches Google+ To Battle Facebook [PICS]
By Ben Parr, Mashable

Google’s most ambitious social attempt to date launches this week; the $700-million question is, will regular people notice?

The Web Is Shrinking. Now What?
By Ben Elowitz, All Things D

Super interesting analysis of the shrinking amount of time people spend on the “regular” internet vs. the exponentially growing amount of time people spend on Facebook.

Myspace Acquired, CEO Out: Email From Mike Jones To Employees
By Alexia Tsotsis, TechCrunch

Myspace, this is no time to take your chips down, cause a million dollars isn’t cool… and neither is $35 million. :)

Flipboard wants to be the newsstand of the future
By Mathew Ingram, GigaOM

Social mobile darling Flipboard’s newest update makes the e-news app that much more social.