This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here . The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Name: Shidonni Quick Pitch: Shidonni is an online virtual world where kids draw their virtual pets and play with them as they pop to life. Genius Idea: While Shidonni may not reorganize your finances …See the whole story : Mashable

There are few events that knock an 800 lb. gorilla off its particular perch. Sometimes laziness, atrophy, the lack of ability to adapt will do the beast in. Sometimes a competing gorilla that is younger, more aggressive, has access to better technology will usurp the spot. On rare occasion two 800 lb. gorillas will meet and marriage will do the trick. Such is the case with Amazon’s purchase of Zappos. A Tale of Two Gorillas Amazon’s marketplace is a juggernaut.

Just a few months ago, social networking behemoth Facebook announced that it had reached 200 million users. Now, just over 3 months later, the site has reached 250 million users, acquiring up to 750,000 new users per day in recent weeks. And though much of this growth (approximately 70%) has come from outside the United States, the site is now the most visited in the United States where it is the undisputed #1 social networking site.

Add to Any is a service that helps publishers spread their stories across the social web and helps readers share the stories they find particularly noteworthy. Naturally, the service keeps track of where people are doing the most sharing, and their answer is Facebook. Mashable has more on the story, and Silicon Valley Insider points out that Twitter is already about half as popular as Facebook for sharing with only about one-tenth as many users.

According to AddToAny , a widget provider that allows sharing of content, Facebook, Email, and Twitter are the top sharing vehicles and mediums for content and links. That doesn’t surprise me. What is notable though is that Twitter only has 10% of the total number of users that Facebook has and yet it’s still a driving force of traffic. What does this mean for the Church? It means that (depending on your strategy of course) if sharing links and content is a core element in your strategy, Twitter and Facebook (and email) should definitely be considered.

Let’s face it, Google Maps ( ) is a lifesaver, but it certainly isn’t perfect. In fact, we’ve always found it challenging to not only get directions to our destinations, but to simultaneously search for additional destinations on our drives. It can get especially frustrating if we’re trying to plan ahead and find food, coffee, or gas along our route. Thankfully, today Google ( ) released a new Maps feature that lets you keep on searching, all the while saving your directions.

Case Study: How a small business more than doubled leads with local paid search (Econsultancy) How To Write A Blog Post (Quick Sprout) 32 Ways to Use Facebook for Business (Web Worker Daily) How Digital Marketing Can Help Reinvent Direct Marketing (Advertising Age) 10 Impressive New Implementations of Facebook Connect (Mashable) Three Steps to Building an Online Brand (ReadWriteWeb) Online Gaming Grows as Retail Gaming Wanes (GigaOM) Your Twitter Followers Are Smarter Than You Are (Fast Wonder Blog) Will Publishers Ever Make Money Off eBooks?

On Monday morning, Google has announced that 100,000 invitations to Google Wave will be sent on September 30th. Announced on May 28th at the Google I/O Conference, Google Wave will be a game-changer or that might replace email over time. But as Mashable reports : “While it looks and feels like email in many ways, its unique hybrid of realtime and message-based communication takes some getting used to.

By Joe | Published: July 23, 2009 Keyword: Clout RT @mashable Are Media and PR Pros Ready to Embrace the Twitter-Sized Press Release? – http://bit.ly/193Pkm @BrownBar23Popularity: 1% [?] Share and Enjoy:This entry was posted in Tweets. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.