As we tap, click, call, share, swipe and purchase products and services, our actions are generating record-breaking amounts of data. Now that everything is measurable, everything is measured. We create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data — so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone.  Big Data represents a digital treasure trove that can help companies create new products and services—and even spawn entirely new businesses—through analytics. Customer experience and design pros like Matter glean customer insights and truths from social media, financial systems, emails, mobile apps, surveys, call centers, and digital and analog sensors.

Over the last year, the term Big Data has become a buzzword tossed around by many. There is a lot more behind those two words, and we thought we’d help demystify the complexity of how Big Data can drive the growth that CEOs demand.

Read more about the The Big Data Movement in the Matter Worldwide Lab.

YouTube has released the top trending videos worldwide in 2012.

The page is complimented with a mashup video produced to feature the YouTube  stars of the last year.

Check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/user/theyearinreview

Facebook has released their review of 2012 - Facebook Stories focuses on the most important trends of the past year.

Check it out at http://www.facebookstories.com/2012

SoundGap is a really cool personal notification service that notifies you when new music from your favorite artists and bands are added to Spotify and Rdio. based on your personal taste profile. If you a music love, this app will keep you from missing a music release again.

Sign up for the Beta at http://soundgap.fm/

Pinterest is still the world’s fourth largest driver of web traffic, standing above Yahoo, Bing and even Twitter. But how often do those visits mean sales? The jury is still out on that question, but eCommerce company Shopify says that Pinterest users are 10% more likely to make a purchase.

On the other hand, Zappos discovered that Pinterest users spent less than visitors coming from Facebook or Twitter, even though they shared more from the site.

Just in time for the year’s biggest buying season, Pinterest has launched ‘secret boards’ as new method for people to privately pin holiday gift ideas. Right now users are limited to just three private boards at the moment.

Will this holiday season push Pinterest to the forefront of eCommerce?

Instagram has introduced web profiles for users. This is one of the first moves away from a mobile only platform. Similar to the Facebook profile design it uses a timeline-esque cover photo and small square profile image. While it makes sense for Instagram to visual cues from its parent company,  does it makes sense to launch a web platform? Will anyone bother to visit brands’ pages on the web?

With the launch of facebook gifts and the holidays right around the corner. FedEx has created a Facebook app that allows users to create address labels for parcels based on their friends’ profiles, and it notifies friends when they’re about to receive a package.

While this service isn’t much different than what FedEx’s website already offers, - placing it in FB is sure to get even more users this holiday season.

Comodo has launched a campaign encouraging diners to take photos of their food inorder to create a visual menu. Once you snap your Instagram pic with a #comodomenu hashtag - it appears in the resturants Instgram menu.

The Instagram Menu from Raul Mandru on Vimeo.

The Romney campaign has been buying Facebook and Twitter social advertising, designed to divert clicks from users who search for “Obama.”

Some brands take offense to competitors buying ads on their name keywords and consider it squatting.  What do we expect from our presidential candidates?  The  Facebook “Obama” search ads are well executed. Even start to type “Barack” and the sponsored listing appears. A click leads to the official Romney Facebook page.

Buying ads for competitors’ brand search keywords is nothing new to online marketers. Would you consider this smart politics or dirty tactics?

Facebook has just released a new feature for global brands that enables brands to provide a more localized experiences for the user. This feature has been saught after by the likes of global brands like Ford, Nokia and Starbucks.  It also gave way to third party Facebook content mangement solutions and strategy questions about how local should a brand get. Facebook has ruled.  Glocal works.

A user will be directed to the most appropriate page depending on their location and could view an entirely different visual experience (ie. cover photo, ‘about me’, Page apps and milestones) to someone in another location. Page managers will also be able to set a default page for other all regions without a localized view. 

This feature will only be available to those brands who can spend enough on Facebook advertising to justify a named account manager. 

Get more info at : http://www.facebook-studio.com/news/item/announcing-a-new-pages-structure-for-global-brands

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