Ok, we have turned a corner. We are on the other side of a holiday weekend. The unofficial start of summer has come and gone. Many people have walked away from their computers for a few days and have actually continued to breathe. Many are coming back refreshed. And, in the case of Gene Marks over at BusinessWeek, coming off the weekend with a contrarian’s view to social media especially as it relates to small business.

What, you say? Someone who doesn’t think that social media will solve our communication issues, global warming and provide world peace? How dare he speak up and say something against the 140 character world makeover that is revolutionizing how we communicate? Here’s his points and, as always, your response, pro or con, is welcome.

An article over at CNN Money ran the headline “Oprah’s Skypefest draws backlash” while the page title included Twitter as well so I decided to take a look. Now honestly, outside of my mom, I don’t know anyone that is part of “Oprah Nation” and I like it that way. It’s the numbers attached to her every move that are at once intriguing and disturbing. Now with her supposed love affair with social media, marketers have to at least keep an eye out to see what happens through this highly influential channel.

Well, according to the article, if you are Twitter, the initial press was pretty cool but as Oprah’s first tweet of

“HI TWITTERS . THANK YOU FOR A WARM WELCOME. FEELING REALLY 21st CENTURY.”

For Yahoo it appears as if the good ship “Search Business” has left the dock and Yahoo is just waving as it goes merrily off into the horizon. In other words, they missed the boat. We all pretty much know and accept that. Well, according to The Business Insider there is talk at Yahoo that they better get on the USS Social Networking vessel before it sets sail for good as well.

Is all the water and ship imagery making you a little nauseous? Imagine how the people at Yahoo have felt considering the rough ride they have had for quite some time now. In an effort to settle down and actually put together a strategy it appears as if social networking will be the focus moving forward. Yahoo’s CTO Ari Balogh stated yesterday that it could happen in a number of ways and untying the purse strings is one of them.

With all the Facebook investment and valuation talk swirling about, I stated yesterday that if Facebook was going to do an IPO then that would be news. Well, that ‘announcement’ is not imminent according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as he addressed the Reuters Global Technology Summit.

Zuckerberg’s comments really didn’t add any fuel to the fire or speculation about investment in the company. In fact, he made sure that it was clear that all of the talk right now is just that; talk. Reuters reports:

The 25-year-old co-founder of Facebook said he is always open to partnerships and investments, but stressed that Facebook can achieve its business goals with its current financial base — despite numerous media reports that it has had talks on a new round of funding with various investors.