The Web has had many important players over the past 25 years. Attempting to form a list is hard, but somebody had to do it. That someone was 25yearsof.com. They’ve selected 75 honorees, of which 25 will be selected as the “.com 25” to be honored at a 25yearsof.com award ceremony in May. Voting has begun, and requires users to sign up. No surprise the list is stacked with many big names. So far the honorees with the most user votes include:

During the Interactive portion of South By Southwest (SXSW) eDoorways has done all that it can to successfully showcase its platform and gain attendee interest.  So far the company has shown an exciting display booth, exhibited a new iPhone application, and given a sneak peak into its new version, v2.5. 

What a great way to start the weekend. We’ve announced our three Google Voice Invite Giveaway winners on both Twitter and Facebook, but felt it right to include it in the blog. The three winners are:

Yesterday I asked around the web to see if anyone in the Amvona community would like an invite to Google Voice, as I have three lying around collecting dust. I was surprised at how many people were interested, so thought to create this mini contest to make it fair for everyone. Don’t worry it's fast and easy; you won’t be waiting around a week or fill out a bunch of junk.

CURB, a sustainable media company that provides green advertising, has announced on their Facebook  page that they can now offer “Clean Art” as a media.  How is this different than any of their other advertising?  Green=clean, right?  Well, this new type of media is exactly what it says… CLEAN.  Rather than being clean or green because they use natural elements and create little impact on the environment, the new “Clean” media is produced by cleaning grime and dirt off of surfaces to create a logo or ad.  

 <

Sponsors were using social media (Facebook, twitter, websites) to push their advertising even before the games began.  NBC was creating buzz on their social media sites to push the Olympics long before it began (obviously they would, they're the station holding it) and like I mentioned previously, Visa allowed viewers to watch their commercials on youtube before they were set to air. 

Advertising during the Olympics is definitely up there in cost and visibility with the Super Bowl.  Each 30 second ad costs hundreds of thousand dollars, and an advertising package can cost in the hundreds of millions.  This year, it is thought that more eyes will see the the Olympic Games on their computer than their TV, and sponsors need to take this into account.  The Olympics this year is being nicknamed the "social games" by sponsors and they will be taking advantage of that by making social media a significant part of their advertising. 

The Winter Olympics began last night and this year they are utilizing all options of social media for both marketing and event information.  The official Olympics web page welcomes visitors to follow them on Twitter and Facebook.  On the NBC Olympic website there are tabs for your typical Olympic information; TV listings, results, medals won, etc.  There is also a "Tweets and Blogs" tab that brings you to a plethera of social media. 

If you hadn’t guessed it with the title, Amvona is now on Google Buzz. By this point, anyone who uses Gmail should have seen the info page for Buzz on the way to their inbox. Buzz is Google’s contribution to the ever growing pool of Web based social networking outlets.

As if it wasn’t enough that you could use AIM to update your Facebook, now AOL has added Lifestream to the Mail AIM plug-in. The ongoing trend to let Web socialites get an assortment of their social Web updates in one place is continuing. With Lifestream, you can now receive updates from your AOL buddy list as well as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook announced earlier this week that mobile usage had topped 100 million users, but thats not all the news Facebook has this week. noFacebook Chat now ill be accessible via a variety of desktop instant messaging programs. The feature will let users stay connected even when they aren’t actually on Facebook. To make it all possible, Facebook will be utilizing Jabber’s Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). XMPP is an open messaging protocol supported by many of the most popular instant messaging programs.

&

Social networking sites are being found in more and more pockets across the globe. Facebook announced that it exceeded 100 million users who actively use Facebook on their mobile device. Facebook mobile began as a basic mobile Web site that was only available in English and offered only a handful of Facebook’s Web based features. Today, Facebook Mobile has three main points of access:

Last month, astronaut T.J. Creamer made history by sending the first live tweet from space, boasting "We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station -- the 1st live tweet from Space!"  Previously, NASA astronauts have sent tweets from space, but they first needed to be sent to mission control who would then post them for followers.  This month, as NASA prepares for the February 7th launch of Endeavour, they are asking the public to get involved.  NASA is planning a live question/answer session with the astronauts of Endeavour on February 11th via Twitter.

Yesterday was Facebook's 6th birthday. Yes, it has been 6 whole years since Facebook came into existence and it continues to dominate our lives by introducing newer functionality, lesser privacy and constant redesign.