Social Media Digest: Facebook Frenzy, Twitter Blackout & G+ Android

Welcome back to our weekly instalment of all that’s hot in the world of social media. Speaking of hot, it looks like summer has finally arrived, so pour yourself an ice-cold drink, turn on the air-con and have a read of what made the cut this week:

1. Undoubtedly the biggest news in social media this week has been Facebook’s stock market entrance, significant drop in share price, subsequent law suit and Zuckerberg’s marriage. In fact, so much has happened in the space of a week that the world’s media is struggling to keep up. Hatches, matches and dispatches might be the best way to summarise it and only time will tell if the social media bubble will burst. One thing is for sure, though. Zuckerberg and the other share-holders at Facebook have made themselves rather a lot of money and in spite of the share price falling, they’re still amongst the richest people on the planet.

2. Pakistan blacked out Twitter for a few hours – and then reinstated the microblogging service. It all hinged on May 20th having been the global day for drawing Mohammed on Facebook two years ago (something which is highly offensive to muslims) and the trend catching on to the extent that Twitter traffic was awash this year with associated links and anti-islamic chatter. Cue the Pakistani government stepping in to pull the plug on the social networking site.

3. Apps like SocialCam and Viddy are exploding in popularity as the next “Instagram for video” among consumers for recording and sharing short videos and — like clockwork — big brands are following. SocialCam, in particular, has attracted a flurry of brands in recent weeks, like General Electric, the Brooklyn Nets basketball team and Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. PepsiCo brands Sierra Mist and Brisk iced tea launched their pages just days ago and have since amassed more than 50,000 followers apiece.

4. Google has released the Android version of an overhauled Google+ app, part of the company’s attempt to move to a “simpler, more beautiful Google,” in the words of Vic Gundotra, the company’s senior vice president of engineering. The new app catches up with the iOS Google+ app that Google released a couple of weeks ago with a new visually rich, photo-first interface. And in some ways it surpasses it, for example in its support for tablets.

5. Twitter has suspended the account of a group who are planning a series of protests against the Olympic Games when they begin in London this summer, following a complaint by the organisers of the event. The account, @spacehijackers, is run by a group of anti-capitalist activists who regularly protest in a variety of ways against big corporations. Their latest campaign is against the Olympic Games and within the last two weeks, the group has changed their Twitter biography to read: “the Official Protesters of the London 2012 Olympic Games”.