If we learned anything from the Internet Blackout that united Wikipedia, Google, and other social media luminaries against the anti-piracy measures SOPA and PIPA, it’s that Internet companies can win any battle that’s fought on the Internet. To keep the flame alive, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian has created an Internet Defense League to fire off a bat signal (in the shape of a lolcat) to quickly assemble a force against any new legislation that threatens Internet freedom.
On today’s Morning Media Menu (MP3 link), GalleyCat editor Jason Boog and I talked about the Flaming Lips’ lead singer on Twitter, Syfy’s upcoming series and massively multiplayer online game, and how to share books and eBooks with our troops for Memorial Day.
The Internet is starting to look like that drawer full of family photos that we’ve been meaning to put into an album for years. That’s why we’re excited to announce the launch of our new conference, Social Curation Summit! Join us in New York City on July 31 for the first ever full-day conference exploring the business of social content curation and visual communities like Pinterest and Tumblr. We’re offering a special early bird rate of only $199 when you register by Thursday, June 7.
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The Flaming Lips are known for pushing the boundaries of time and space with their music. Lead singer Wayne Coyne stopped in New York on his way to a 24-hour bus tour from Memphis to New Orleans for MTV’s O Music Awards, the band’s most epic performance since the 24-hour song it released in October 2011. “I can talk all day,” the singer announced upon arrival. But he has no trouble staying within 140 characters on Twitter. In our interview with Wayne Coyne, the singer shares his Twitter philosophy and a few of the unexpected connections he’s made through social media.
VEVO is really liking Facebook this quarter. The video-sharing platform saw tremendous growth between February 2012 and March 2012, and the company has the larger social network to thank for at least some of the increase in membership, traffic, and impressions. VEVO’s Matt Marquess shared the details in the company’s quarterly metrics report.
Yahoo!’s got a brand new search tool that will follow you from your desktop all the way home. Launched Wednesday night, Yahoo! Axis is socially connected, spatially redesigned, and has some unusual features that definitely make it worth a test drive. See a demo and screenshots here.
Pinterest has the potential to topple not only Facebook and Twitter for sales referrals, but also Amazon and Google. On the e-commerce platform Shopify, pin-driven sales have quadrupled in the last six months. This infographic shows how Shopify‘s retailers have benefited from the visual bookmarking site.
Synthesizer creator Robert Moog, who would have been 78 years old today, is having the best birthday ever. Not long after Google’s artists created an interactive Moog synthesizer doodle for the homepage, a fan responded with a crazy cover of Daft Punk’s “Aerodynamic” using Google’s tool, which he posted on YouTube.
Part sci-fi drama, part massively multiplayer online game, Defiance gives the phrase “social TV” a whole new meaning. Premiering in Spring 2013, the the entertainment hybrid is a collaboration between game publisher Trion Worlds and the Syfy cable network. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Defiance.
Enterprise service provider Oracle has just purchased Vitrue, a cloud-based social marketing platform that integrates brands with major networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, as well as emerging platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Klout. Social media marketing is definitely hitting the main stream with this one.
