Lots of chatter online about Google launching its new Buzz product and what it might mean for Facebook and Twitter. Mashable says Buzz needs Facebook integration to succeed. ReadWriteWeb points out that Google already has the user base and a strong integration with Google Maps, and suggests it could be the mainstream’s “geo-social network.”

“Google Buzz could quickly become the most popular location-based service on the Internet. Not only does Buzz integrate itself into Gmail, which will give it a large mainstream user base, but Buzz also puts geolocation front and center on its mobile sites. In addition, the new Buzz layer in the Google Maps mobile interface makes it incredibly easy to find geotagged Buzz messages around you….

“By connecting Buzz to Google Maps Place Pages and by having a huge built-in user base, Google will be able to deliver a better location-aware social networking experience than any of its competitors.”

As Tiger Woods recovers from a car accident and contends with reports of philandering, Slate V imagines what the golfing great might be typing into that familiar white search bar.

BrandBowl2010 — a new Super Bowl advertiser tracking site from Mullen and Radian 6 — offers near real-time analysis for an immediate look at pre-, post- and in-game Twitter reactions to the Super Bowl spots everyone will be watching, Mashable reports.

The NFL has created a hashtag, #SB44, for the Super Bowl and a cool site that let’s you easily explore photos and tweets from fans from Twitter and Flickr.

Facebook was the #4 source of visits to News and Media sites last week, after Google, Yahoo! and msn, according to Hitwise. Google News accounted for 1.39% of visits to News and Media websites, and Facebook accounted for 3.52%. That’s a big shift since last April, when they were about equal.

Since 2006, blogging has dropped among teens and young adults while simultaneously rising among older adults, according to a new report on Social Media and Young Adults from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

Some other highlights:

• Both teen and adult use of social networking sites has risen significantly: 73% of wired American teens now use social networking websites, 72% of online 18-29 year olds use them, and 47% of online adults use them. Among adult profile owners 73% have a profile on Facebook, 48% have a profile on MySpace and 14% have a LinkedIn profile.
• Teens are not using Twitter in large numbers. Young adults lead the way when it comes to using Twitter or status updating. One-third of online 18-29 year olds post or read status updates, and 19% of adult internet users use Twitter or similar services to post short status updates and view the updates of others online.

The New York Times, The Austin American-Statesman and The Huffington Post are all experimenting with ways to generate ad dollars using Twitter and Facebook, Poynter’s Mallary Jean Tenore reports.

Everyone seems to have an opinion on whether the iPad will transform the news business or do nothing of the sort. Here’s a roundup of some of the thinking.

What the iPad could mean for the news business (Seeking Alpha)

Will Apple’s iPad save the news industry? (OJR)

Can the iPad save media? Skeptics weigh in (Reflections of a Newsosaur)

Can Apple’s iPad save the media after all? (Wired)

Does Apple’s iPad take a bite out of web advertising?

Will the iPad help media? Possibly. Save media? No. (GigaOm)

Five thoughts on how it will (and won’t) change the game for news organizations (Nieman Journalism Lab)

Regarding the iPad, I am Dr. Buzzkill (Yelvington.com)

Has the Apple iPad saved journalism from extinction? We’ll see (The Guardian)

Why the IPad is no secret weapon that will save print (TheDrum.com)

Five ways the iPad will change magazine design (Pentagram.com)

Comdedian Charlie Brooker has produced this hysterical and accurate video on how to produce the news, which is quickly becoming a viral hit.

IAB’s Randall Rothenberg argues that the iPad could be bad for publishers because the proliferation of device-based walled gardens risks fragmenting audiences and “a company’s opportunity to create, sell and use advertising effectively and profitably will depend on its ability to deliver it seamlessly across multiple devices.”

“Without continuing, concerted, cross-industry commitment to managing transactional complexity in the marketing-media supply chain, the iPad and its ilk might only make publishers’ problems worse,” he says.

He offers two suggestions if ad-supported media are to survive:

1. Device manufacturers and the proprietors of other walled gardens should work collaboratively to adopt consistent standards to allow the advertising and marketing economies to flourish.
2. To the degree that the walled gardens create impediments to scale, publishers need to find other sources of revenue. Media companies must redouble their efforts to add marketing services to their sets of offerings.