With big name social platforms like Facebook & Twitter hogging the online spotlight, blogs seem to have wrongfully slipped by the buzz radar. According to a recent Neilsen report, the number of blogs has increased from 35 million to 181 million over the past 5 years with a 22% increase from 2010 to 2011. Neilson attributes the number of growing blogs to the increase in bloggers.

As March Madness is upon us and the NBA playoffs approach, many people take to the Internet to find information about their favorite team.  Twitter is known to be a great source of breaking news, particularly for sports fans.  However, it can be a little overwhelming to filter and synthesize the available news out there on your favorite team(s).  Fortunately, one startup has simplified this lengthy process.

Beginning in January, Facebook rolled out a new form of ad called “Sponsored Stories” which places company posts in users’ news feeds. These ads are labeled “sponsored” or “featured” within users’ news feeds to clearly identify them as advertisements.  Previously, Facebook had these sponsored ads on the ticker portion of its pages (in the upper left-hand corner), but these new ads now appear in the main news feed. Furthermore, Sponsored Stories will only appear on a user’s news feed if they or someone they are connected to has already interacted with the company page in some way, including liking the page or checking in to a place page.

Facebook has made some pretty drastic changes to its user interface over the last few months, and users are giving it mixed reviews. By now, we are all aware that Facebook Timeline rolled out to the general public starting on December 15th, but some users aren’t taking this “upgrade” very well. In fact, some users have even defected in recent weeks to get away from Facebook’s ever-changing customer experience. A new social media outlet, Friend.io, has emerged as a Facebook alternative which boasts a much more traditional look and feel to counter Facebook Timeline.

On February 1, 2012 Facebook filed for its initial public offering. In the aftermath, people have questioned what the IPO will mean for Facebook users and advertisers, with the most significant issue concerning how Facebook will capitalize on its mobile market. Facebook recently reported that 425 million (more than half) of its monthly users are accessing the site from mobile devices. However, they have not yet begun monetizing their mobile market.  Industry experts have expressed concern over this lack of utilization of mobile possibilities, as it is a significant risk factor for the Facebook IPO.  As mobile usage continues to grow, it will become essential for Facebook to develop a way to monetize its mobile platform.