Rails Rumble 2009 will be kicking off in a little more than a week: August 22nd and 23rd. The Rails Rumble is a 48 hour web application development competition. Contestants and teams get one weekend …

A great screenshot from Twitter (via Tweetdeck’s iPhone app) that shows the virality of Foursquare. I’ve spoken a lot about the power of conversation in the real-time web – but this is notable because it …

Facebook today announced an acquisition of Friendfeed – getting an innovative, growing service (still small by Facebook standards: 1m users vs. Facebook’s 250m) and, by all accounts, an exceptional team (comprised of ex-Googlers).

The twitter …

It’s no surprise that social recommendations work – they are based on connections, shared interests, references, etc. I’ve written many times that I believe conversation – enabling it, aggregating it, filtering it and applying authority …

Last week, I wrote about Starbuck’s using Facebook Polls and Facebook’s Top Pages (both all-time and daily growth). Here is another example of a rich, interactive campaign through Facebook: Travel Channel’s Man vs. Food.
The new …

I am excited to announce that, starting Monday, I will be joining Polaris Venture Partners and will work out of the Dog Patch Lab on Pier 38. Over the last few years, I have had …

InsideFacebook’s PageData tool is useful in understanding trends in Facebook usage, marketing and pop-culture. It is also a powerful way to track a brand’s success on Facebook – and if they are engaging in marketing …

My sister Randi Spoon is a very talented fashion designer. She just graduated from Syracuse University and their College of Visual and Performing Arts. Her portfolio is now available on her new website, RandiSpoon.com. Enjoy:

This week, as world records crumble at swimming’s World Championships in Rome, Gemma Spofforth took home a gold medal and a world record in the 100 meter backstroke (today she is competing in the 200 …

Great blog post from Flurry about the ecosystem of iPhone Application developers and how it differs from other mobile storefronts: “Rise of the New Middle Class – Indie iPhone App Developers, Part I“. If you …

In less than a week, Youtube’s hit video “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” has been viewed over seven million times (and nearly 1.5m times in the last 24 hours).
So what does that look like on …

Much has been made of YouTube’s ability to monetize… but the most viewed video of the week (the JK Wedding Entrance Dance) clearly drove sales – boosting Chris Brown’s ‘Forever’ into the seventh most purchased …