Marketing Pilgrim

We reported a few weeks ago that there were rumblings about Twitter purchasing third party Twitter platform provider TweetDeck. Well those rumblings are now ‘confirmed’ as a deal and it could mean some changes for other third party Twitter platforms out there like Seesmic, HootSuite and Ubermedia.

TechCrunch reports

Twitter has acquired TweetDeck, we’ve heard from a source with knowledge of the deal, and the transaction will be announced in the next few days. The $40 million – $50 million purchase price includes both cash and Twitter stock, says our source.

In February we reported that an acquisition of TweetDeck by Bill Gross’ UberMedia was all but done, in the $25 – $30 million range. And that deal was in fact all but done. But Twitter quickly provided an unsolicited counter offer, and TweetDeck was in play again. TechCrunch EU has the full story on how that played out.

It’s time for the results of the 12th Annual Harris Interactive U.S. Reputation Quotient (RQ) Survey and the winner is (insert drum roll) . . . . Google!

Google got an 84.05, just squeaking past Johnson & Johnson and 3M.

Technology in general did very well on the reputation charts with an overall 75% positive rating. Apple, Intel, Amazon and Sony all made the top half of the chart. Facebook landed 31st on the list with an RQ score of 74.12.

Who got the bottom spots?

51.) Delta Airlines; 52) JP Morgan Chase; 53) Exxon Mobil; 54) General Motors; 55) Bank of America; 56) Chrysler; 57) Citigroup; 58) Goldman Sachs; 59) BP; 60) AIG.

Have you noticed a change in your Facebook news feed? It’s actually been happening for several months now but most people are just beginning to notice. The first sign is when you suddenly realize that you haven’t seen an update from a favorite brand in a while. Then you notice another missing person and another after that.

Those people haven’t stopped posting, but Facebook has decided you’re not interested enough in them, so they’ve been removed from your feed. The culprit is a drop down that branches off the “Most Recent” link which is now set to “Friends and Pages you interact with most.” In order to override this, you must go to Edit Options and choose “All of your friends and pages.”

While the words normal and Google are rarely used together considering the vast number of areas and projects the search engine monster is involved in it appears as if they are trying to promote the ‘normalcy’ of their Chinese operations.

For the past year nothing has been normal as it relates to Google and China. Google continues to lose market share to the Chinese search leader Baidu and has tried to give the impression that they are fighting the good fight in the face of Chinese government censorship.

Meanwhile, Facebook is taking the exact opposite approach and appears to be ready to whatever is needed to cash in on some Chinese social media traffic but that’s another story.

The Seattle Times reports

Well, after it was confirmed that a foursquare check-in at a small mountain coffee shop is what did in Osama bin Laden, everyone is fired up about location services. What? That’s not what happened? Hey, someone tweeted it so I figured it had to be true.

One thing for certain though is there is one company out there cares about everyone’s location and e-mails have been leaked to prove it. That’s none other than Google who along with Apple has recently come under fire about how they collect and handle user data from mobile devices.

The Wall Street Journal reports

Google Inc.’s collection of location information from millions of mobile devices and personal computers is “extremely valuable” to the company’s future business, according to an email written by a Google product manager last year.