It's Friday! And it's the weekend before Halloween, which means you have today and tomorrow to get your pumpkin entry in on our Facebook wall. I saw some of the prizes yesterday and I may have to enter myself! They're goooood! We'll be announcing the winners on Monday. So do that sometime before midnight on [...]

Read More: Gin and Topics: Lollipops, Donkeys, and Misrepresentations

While I was in Florida this week, winter arrived in Chicago. In October. Global warming, my butt. It gets earlier and earlier every year…and stays later and later. It's all good, though. I love the colder temperatures. It means hats, scarves, sweaters, and boots. It also means riding my bike on the trainer so if [...]

Read More: Gin and Topics: Kevin Bacon and Men In Heels

It's almost time for PRSA! I'm going to Orlando just in time for Chicago's sub-40 degree temps. I actually love sub-40 degree temps, but I guess I can do with sitting by the pool on Sunday afternoon with Abbie Fink (right, Abbie?!?). Don't forget, if you're going to be there, look me up! I'll be the [...]

Read More: Gin and Topics: Cycling and Social Media

There are so many things happening in the news this week, I don't really know where to begin. First, did you hear the Kardashian clan is going to co-host the fourth hour of The Today Show next week? I'm pretty sure that means the show has jumped the shark. As Mr. D would say…Kim is [...]

Read More: Gin and Topics: Two-Faced Cat and Weekend at Bernie’s

So Facebook made some big changes this week, huh? It's been pretty funny to watch the stream. People do NOT like change. I think it's pretty freaking cool, especially the new timeline. If you don't yet have the new timeline enabled, this Mashable article (sorry Howie, it's the only one I could find) tells you [...]

Read More: Gin and Topics: Mayhem at Walmart and Facebook

It’s been a crazy travel week. Now I’m in Phoenix doing media training with a client. The one really great thing about all this west coast travel is I have a TON of uninterrupted plane time to write. I hope Geoff Livingston can keep up! I probably just jinxed myself and will be way too [...]

Read More: Gin and Topics: Eels, Bites, and Beef Fat Hurt People

The 9/11 10 year anniversary is this weekend and, I don't know about you, but it's really hard to watch the images of the World Trade Center crumbling over and over and over again. It's understandable to want to make a big deal about this milestone, but watching the footage puts me right back in [...]

Read More: Gin and Topics: The Muppets, Grad School, and Groupon

Of the many features Twitter employs, the Trending Topics section seems to be one of its more mystifying elements. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many Twitter users don't even use Trending Topics, citing several understandable rationales, including being downright oblivious to what Trending Topics actually are and how to use them.Buried within the Twitter help and support pages, I dug up this official definition:

"Twitter's Trending Topics algorithm identifies topics that are immediately pop [...]

Read More: What do Twitter users actually think of Trending Topics?

What a crazy week! First there is an earthquake on the East Coast (I know it's not a big deal to you West Coasters, but those buildings can't withstand that kind of shaking). Then Steve Jobs resigned (which makes me really sad because I think we'll soon hear of his death). What's going to be [...]

Read More: Gin and Topics: Mourning, Whining, and Rolling

Well, Google bought Motorola Mobility this week, in an attempt to even further their Global Domination. I know. I know. *I* am supposed to achieve Global Domination (it is, after all, my initials). But I do much better when I have someone in my front view that I need to catch. So don't you worry. [...]

Read More: Gin and Topics: Latkes, Drugs, and Swear Words

HAHAHA! I almost forgot all about Gin and Topics today. I did a radio interview with Barry Moltz (you can listen here). Then spent some time chatting with Marcus Sheridan about the webinar he's doing for us on August 25 (info coming on Monday!). Then made sure Pete the Tapeworm had enough to eat so [...]

Read More: Gin and Topics: Gaming, the Economy, and Riots

Facebook has been trying to figure out its News Feed since it launched in 2006, and of course because it's Facebook every time it changes absolutely anything it seems to through users into of tumult. Earlier today the company launched the latest incremental step in its quest to try to make sense of the sheer amount of realtime data it processes: Aggregated topic clusters in the Facebook News Feed.

Read More: Facebook Clusters Topics In News Feed, Opens Can Of Worms

Running out of things to talk about? Facebook is starting to roll out a feature that will show you when more than one of your friends is discussing the same topic. While Google's Circles make it easy to define people in the ways that you see them, this move from Facebook is more of an automated curation tool that should be based off of its search algorithm.As spotted by Tipdesk, you can see here that Facebook is placing similar topics into a single, informational post that is generated by the si [...]

Read More: Facebook begins aggregating trending topics discussed by your friends

Is it a holiday in the U.S. and someone forgot to tell me? There was NO traffic this morning. What is going on? Anyone? Bueller? No? Maybe they're all staying home so they can finish The Hunger Games series. Not that, uh, I want to do that. I can't help it! They are sooooo good! [...]

Read More: Gin and Topics: Gangs, Tanks, and Naughty Dogs

Well, for the second time EVER, Spin Sucks has beat Danny Brown in the AdAge rankings. Today we are #35 and he is #36. Because the universe will have righted itself by Monday and he'll jump back ahead of us, I have to take advantage and brag today! My mom would say, "You're going to [...]

Read More: Gin and Topics: Righting Yourself In This Crazy World

I'm super excited about the launch of Spotify in the U.S. I got my invite yesterday and I've already told it I'm in love with it. In fact, I may have to marry it and have it join my iPhone, iPad, Trek Madone, and Westone earphones family. If you're interested in streaming music, sharing it [...]

Read More: Gin and Topics: The Shiny, New Penny

Happy Friday! For those of us in the U.S. it really should be Thursday. I love short weeks! So it's been a week since Google+ launched and it's starting to grow on me. I still have NO idea how I'm going to organize my Circles, but I've been using the stream and I like how [...]

Read More: Gin and Topics: History-Making Events