Social Media Hot Coverage in the News – November 9-16, 2009

Welcome to my weekly analysis of the news coverage of social media. I use Northern Light‘s free NLSearch.com business news site to find the stories that cover social media and Web 2.0 for the last week (full disclosure – I head up marketing for Northern Light). I list the 10 most mentioned mainstream companies, venture funded companies, technologies, and market mentioned in these stories and highlight interesting articles I find. The lists are in order of the number of mentions in the news articles, starting the the most mentioned.

Here are my seach terms – (“social media” or “social networking” or bookmarking or “social networks” or blog or facebook or twitter or linkedin or wikis or podcast or “photo sharing” or “video sharing” or “social news” or “web 2.0″ or “enterprise 2.0″ or “user generated content” or “virtual community” or “social web”). Am I missing anything?

Hot Companies

• Google Inc – mostly coverage of the Motorola/Android smart phone.
• Microsoft Corp – mostly coverage of the Windows 7 release as well as converage of Windows Media vis a vis Andriod, plus these tidbits:
  • Windows 8 is on its way - A recent job posting by Microsoft revealed the successor to the recently launched Windows 7 is already at its embryonic stage.
  • Office 2010 Beta Exposed -The 32- and 64-bit versions of the Office 2010 Beta have appeared on several peer-to-peer BitTorrent tracking sites.
• Apple Computer Inc – more smartphone coverage
  • iTunes music library makes its way to the browser – Apple quietly launched a new preview service this week that makes it easier for users to view its iTunes music library from the browser.

• Oracle
• Yahoo
• Intel Corp
• Verizon Communications
  • Verizon Business Identifies Top Technology Trends That Will Support Business Expansion as Economy Recovers
  • AT&T Escalates Verizon Ad Battle, But Why?
• Hewlett-Packard Company
• Motorola Inc – see Google, above.
• Nokia Corp

Hot Venture Funded Companies

• Twitter – Evan Williams on the Past, Present, and Future of Twitter
• Facebook - Social Networking Growth Steady, As Facebook Inches Closer to Yahoo
• LinkedIn – Employers sidestep recruiters to tap social media
• LifeSize Communications
• AdMob – made-for-mobile advertising formats (and analytics) purchased by Google.
• Digg
• Palo Alto Networks
• Sophos
• Redfin – raised $10 million in venture capital
• BitTorrent

Hot Technologies

• Multimedia Mobile Phones
• Linux
• Smart Phones
• MPEG Audio Layer 3 (MP3)
• Mobile Computing
• Open Source Software
• Cloud Computing
• Third Generation Wireless (3G)
• Web Hosting
• Social Bookmarking

Hot Markets

• Home Entertainment Multimedia Market
• Enterprise Networking and Security Market
• Wireless Telecommunications Market
• Smartphone Market
• Small and Medium-sized Business (SMB) Market
• Mobile Advertising and Search Market
• IT Outsourcing Market
• Enterprise Procurement Software Market
• Data Protection and Recovery Market
• IT Services and Support Market