By Kelly Faircloth 2/04 8:14am

Linkages

There are lots of other things you could do instead.

Booting Up: When the Lights Go Out, Twitter Goes Nuts

Things could be going better for flash sale sites: “It’s a classic case of investors and entrepreneurs not really understanding how an industry operates.” [The Verge]

How are we supposed to know if Netflix’s expensive original TV show, “House of Cards,” is a hit or a miss? Good question. [Vulture]

Twitter was mentioned in 50 percent of Super Bowl commercials. That’s a lot of free advertising. [Marketing Land]

Speaking of: Did Oreo have some poor designer on call last night? Because when the lights went out halfway through the game, the company’s Twitter team was ready with an appropriate ad. [BuzzFeed]

Generally speaking, Twitter users went bonkers during the blackout. That’s when tweets for the event peaked, at 231,500 per minute, most of them terrible jokes about Bane. [CNET]

Former CNET staffer Greg Sandoval, who left out of concern over interference from corporate overlord CBS, has landed at the Verge, the site that broke the news of Mr. Sandoval’s departure. [New York]

By The Editors 2/01 5:30pm

shameless rumormongering

Screen Shot 2013-02-01 at 5.11.34 PM

Rumor Roundup: Softbank Gets a Panty Dropoff and Fred Durst Did It All for the Diggs

Airbnb Is a Belieber Early this week, CEO Brian Chesky tweeted out a photo of Justin Bieber, whose startup cred apparently extends to Airbnb renter. The Instagram shot was taken by Mazy Kazerooni, cofounder of #DominateFund, Ben Parr’s still hush-hush, celebrity-focused micro-VC. Gee, wonder who their LPs are?

Friday flashback This week the revamped Digg got an unexpected celebrity thumbs-up: Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit fame (infamy?) tweeted at developer Robert Tolar Haining, “I love Digg. Great job and beautiful interface.” “Why thank you sir!” Mr. Haining replied, because what else are you going to say when Fred Durst compliments your UI? Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 1/30/12 9:00am

Social Networking

The commercial Groupon would rather you forget.

Super Bowl Ads Now Come With Their Own Twitter Hashtags

The average cost of a 30-second Super Bowl spot is up this year from $3 million in 2011 to $3.5 million, which means advertisers are even more desperate to make those millions count. Even though 100 million people are expected to tune in live to the game, there are other eyeballs to grab. According to Reuters, for example, “Consumer research forecasts that 60 percent of fans watching the Super Bowl will also be tied into a second screen such as a smartphone or tablet.”

Thus, in what sounds like an Alex Blagg sketch waiting to happen, advertisers are rolling out the social media strat. Read More