Mashable is excited to announce MashBash BlogWorld, the opening party for this year’s BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas on October 15-16. To kick off the Expo, we’ll be hosting the first night’s official party at Haze at Aria Hotel.

We would love for you to join us, so we’re giving away passes to BlogWorld. To enter, answer the following question — “What is the future of blogging?” — in the comments below. Readers with the best answers will win one of five “full access” tickets to BlogWorld, which includes MashBash. Winners are invited to attend this industry celebration where the online world comes together to meet, relax and make important business networking connections.

Date: Friday, October 15
Time: 8:00 p.m.-10 p.m.
Location:Haze at Aria. 3730 Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV.
Tickets: Must have BlogWorld Badge to enter.

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How To Win Tickets

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• Simply click the “Like” button on our Facebook Page (below).
• Respond to the question: “What is the future of blogging?” by noon ET on Monday, September 6, in the comments section of this post.

Please use your real identity so that we may contact you via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook to let you know that you’ve won and how to redeem your prize.

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About the Blog World Expo

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BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas on October 15-16: “Join us at the World’s Largest New Media event and learn about Content Creation, Distribution and Monetization strategies, step-by-step techniques and bleeding-edge tools from the most successful Bloggers, Podcasters, Social Media Pro’s, Internet TV and Radio Content Generators and New Media Marketing Pro’s! From the premier educational sessions at the Social Media Business Summit and BlogWorld Conference, to the resource-rich New Media Expo, to Amazing Networking events…it’s One economical trip, One weekend, One Big Show you can’t afford to miss!”

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Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

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Alexander Hotz is a freelance multimedia journalist and public radio junkie based in New York City. Currently he teaches digital media at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Follow Alex on Twitter at @hotzington.

With another long hot American summer coming to a close, many students are scrambling to get back into “learning mode” before school starts. One of the simplest ways to ease that transition is with podcasts. Whether your passion is American History or Algebra, there’s probably an educational podcast out there for you.

While these programs probably won’t mirror your lesson plan, they will explore topics covered in class. Below is a sampling of some of the exceptional podcasts that both teach and entertain. Best of all – they’re free. Read on for your “2010 Downloading Curriculum.”

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Science

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Radiolab investigates some of world’s most intriguing scientific questions in a unique conversational format. Recent episodes have examined the importance of words in human development and time. First time listeners will probably notice that the show also just sounds different.

Before becoming a radio producer, Jab Abumrad, one of Radiolab’s creators, was as an experimental musician. Abumrad’s passion for ProTools is apparent in the show’s textured soundscape, which is layered with a variety of sound effects and quick edits. Perhaps the show’s only downside is its frequency. There are only a handful of episodes every season because one Radiolab episode requires months to produce.

Outlet: WNYC, New York City’s Public Radio Station
Time: An Hour
Frequency: 5-6 every season

Additional Listening: The Naked Scientists Podcast

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History

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In Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, Carlin, a veteran journalist turned podcaster, dissects the textbook version of events. In shows that often run over an hour, the host passionately retells some of history’s best stories.

Hardcore History has become one of the most downloaded podcasts on iTunes, and Carlin’s widespread appeal can also be attributed to his insight. One podcast asked, “Could widespread child abuse in earlier eras explain some of history’s brutality?” Another show was based off the question, “Does the toughness of peoples play any role in history?” Don’t let the name fool you; all material is appropriate for younger listeners.

Outlet: Dan Carlin
Time: 1 – 1 1/2 hours
Frequency: 5-6 every year

Additional Listening: Stuff You Missed in History Class

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Economics

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Planet Money is NPR’s podcast on global economics and business. Initially created by veteran public radio reporters Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson to explain the recent financial crisis, the show quickly became one of the most popular and praised podcasts available.

Planet Money’s success lies in how it tackles complex subjects with great storytelling. A financial instrument like a Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) may sound impossibly boring, but Planet Money routinely makes these types of things the heart of a thrilling narrative. The team continues to explore the financial collapse, but they’ve expanded their scope to include all aspects of the global economy.

Outlet: NPR
Time: 15-30 minutes
Frequency: Twice a week

Additional Listening: Freakanomics Radio

Disclosure: The author interned at NPR.

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English

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For those of us who couldn’t make it through Wuthering Heights, Cliff Notes Cramcast would have been a lifesaver. This free podcast reviews some of the stuff you need to know for the big test and does it in three to four minutes. Of course, these podcasts can’t cover every detail. To do that, you would — you know — need to read the book.

Outlet: Cliff Notes
Time: 15-30 minutes
Frequency: Twice a week

Additional Listening: Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips

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Foreign Language

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The Internet is full of podcasts that cater to students learning foreign languages. For those interested in the major European languages, Radio Lingua is a good bet. Another reliable hub is Open University, which in addition to the European languages also has a set of Mandarin podcasts. These outlets are mainly for beginners or students who need a quick review. Both are rated highly on iTunes by users.

Outlets: Radio Lingua and Open University
Time: 15-30 minutes
Frequency: Lesson plan

Additional Listening: Other reliable podcasts include Discover Spanish and Learn French.

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Math

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For those of us who struggle to calculate a 15% tip, The Math Dude’s podcast is a must-listen. Every week, affable nerd Jason Marshall explains basic concepts like how to calculate the area of an object or how to add faster. When Marshall isn’t podcasting, he researches “infrared light emitted by starburst galaxies and quasars” at Caltech, which just means his left-brain knows what’s up.

Outlet: Quick and Dirty Tips
Time: About 7 minutes
Frequency: Weekly

Additional Listening: Mathgrad.

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Current Events

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Every Sunday, comedians Andy Zaltzman and John Oliver recap the week’s events in The Bugle, a satirical podcast that is easily one of the funniest listens on the Internet. Think an audio version of The Daily Show, where Oliver is also a regular. The Bugle’s focus tends to be on the biggest international news, but the duo’s separate locations – Zaltzman in London and Oliver in New York City – ensure a focus on the English-speaking world’s antics. Although the pair has a leftward slant, there are no sacred cows. The Bugle even takes aim at itself in its tagline: “An audio newspaper for a visual world.”

Outlet: The Times (UK)
Time: 30 minutes
Frequency: Weekly

Additional Listening: NPR News, BBC World Service

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More Educational Resources from Mashable:

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- 10 iPhone Apps to Get You Back to School
- Why Online Education Needs to Get Social
- 5 Innovative Tech Camps for Kids and Teens
- 5 Organizations Helping Women Get Ahead in Tech
- 5 Fun Ways to Help Your Kids Learn Math Online

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock

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Reviews: Internet, iStockphoto, iTunes

More About: back to school, cliff notes cramcast, current events, dan carlin, economics, education, english, foreign language, history, itunes, math, planet money, podcast, podcasts, radio lingua, radiolab, Science, the bugle, the math dude

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It may not be the most socially acceptable way to check in, but Vlingo has created a way for Android app users to check in on Foursquare with their voices. It’s a speech-to-checkin feature that will save time, even if it does raise a few eyebrows.

With the new app, Android users can speak a simple “check in to [insert place name]” command after tapping the home screen button. The command will prompt Vlingo to automatically pull up the location in question, and other nearby venues, on Foursquare, providing users with a fast alternative to touch-based Foursquare checkins.

Vlingo’s voice-activated Foursquare integration not only includes support for checkins, but also lets users post voice shouts and ask Vlingo, “Where are my friends?,” or “Who’s nearby?” to pull up a list of Foursquare friends who have checked in recently.

Vlingo for Android also supports voice-activated, speech-to-text status updates for Facebook and Twitter.

Unfortunately for those of us with iPhone and BlackBerry devices, our Android-toting friends have the advantage here, but hopefully not for long. Vlingo promises voice checkins for these devices in future releases.

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Reviews: Android, Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter

More About: andriod, checkins, foursquare, vlingo

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One of the challenges of running a social commerce site these days is that there is just too much demand, from both local merchants wanting to give out deals and consumers who want to try them. There are only 365 days in a year, and the daily deal format limits each city to 365 deals a year.

Sites like GroupOn and LivingSocial are hitting those limits. GroupOn is expanding its inventory by “personalizing” deals, essentially showing different deals to different people. LivingSocial is handling the issue by going hyperlocal. It will now start offering deals by neighborhood and city districts.

LivingSocial will start bringing daily deals to the hood out in Washington, D.C. and New York City. In Washington, D.C., there will be deals for The District, Montgomery County and Northern Virginia (not exactly neighborhoods, but why get bogged down in details). In New York City, you can sign up for deals Uptown (soul food), Midtown (cupcakes), Downtown (facials) and in Brooklyn (dance lessons). Again, these aren’t really neighborhoods—Brooklyn on its own is bigger than most cities in America—but they do break up the city into more manageable zones and open up the site to more deals.

This is something, in fact, that Groupon does as well in a couple cities like Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. In fact, it breaks down Washington, D.C. the exact same way: the District, Montgomery County and Northern Virginia.

A picture is worth a thousand words. But if you include an entire database, make it interactive, and add filtering options, the word-to-picture exchange rate is even better.

Infographics at their best are more than just pictures — they can provide new understandings, succinct summaries, or just plain old fun.

In that respect, reading newspaper archives isn’t the only way to get a deeper understanding of current events. Infographics can help us get a better grasp on what’s going on.

Check out these 10 visualizations to learn more about the news with a quick look.

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1. Google’s Appetite for Acquisition

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Last month alone, Google acquired social-search service Angstro, visual shopping search engine like.com, and social currency company Jambool. Google has been on an acquisition binge for some time, and it’s getting tricky to keep track of its appetite.

This graphic shows a timeline of Google’s activity in three categories: “Building Revenue Streams,” “Cutting Competition,” or “A Little of Both.”

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2. Gay Marriage Chronology

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The campaign for gay marriage has passed a multitude of milestones over the last decade. Unfortunately for those trying to keep track of them, the victories and setbacks vary drastically by state. Decisions are reversed and in some cases overturned by higher courts, which makes progress hard to track.

This map from the LA Times shows the status of gay marriage in each state by month. Click on a state for its most recent ruling or watch the country change from being legally similar in its treatment of same-sex couples in 2000 to sharply divided in 2010.

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3. IED Attacks from Wikileaks’ Afghanistan War Logs

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The frequency and fatality of IEDs (homemade bombs) in Afghanistan was highlighted when WikiLeaks published more than 90,000 secret documents about the Afghan war. Anti-war activists published this illustrative video that includes all of the incidents reported in these leaked documents.

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4. Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

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On April 20, an explosion on a BP drilling rig started what has become the largest accidental oil spill in history. Despite numerous strategies that were deployed to plug the leak, it wasn’t capped until July 15.

This video graphic by New Orleans online newspaper NOLA wraps timeline, graphic, and cumulative damage data into one easy-to-digest piece of media.

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5. CIA World Factbook Dashboard

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The CIA World Factbook has always been a great resource for putting news stories into the context of their geographic location. But now it’s also easy to get the information at a glance.

The World Factbook Dashboard allows you to color code the countries of the world by population, population growth, infant mortality, agricultural GDP, industry GDP, services GDP, total GDP, GDP/inhabitant, or inflation. Clicking on a country zooms in for more information.

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6. Geography of a Recession

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This map from The New York Times illustrates not only which areas suffered the highest unemployment rate after the recession, but also offers the option to filter data by metropolitan areas, areas with housing bubbles, rural areas, and manufacturing centers.

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7. Afghanistan and Pakistan Regional Violence Map

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The Wall Street Journal updates this map constantly with violent conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. If you want to learn about the day-to-day details of the war or understand its scope, there’s no better visual resource.

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8. What Does the Health Care Bill Mean to Me?

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Even if you read through every health care bill article, it could be hard to exactly pick out what the law would change about your insurance coverage and taxes. The Washington Post made it easy by providing this nifty tool. Input whether you have insurance coverage, your family size, your income, and your marital status, and it will tell you how health care reform will impact your life.

For the broader picture on healthcare reform, see this subway-style map from GOOD Magazine.

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9. Obama’s $787 Billion Economic Stimulus Plan

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The government is still busy spending much of the $787 billion it allotted for the economic stimulus in February of last year. This infographic effectively illustrates how that huge chunk of change is being distributed.

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10. American Casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Beyond

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This chilling interactive graphic from USA Today simply illustrates the deaths in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Information seekers can search deaths by personal factors like name, age, gender, race, or home town as well as by military service details, date, cause, or place.

CNN has a more elaborate version here.

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More Graphics Resources from Mashable:

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- 5 Fab Twitter Follower Visualization Tools
- 10 Beautiful Social Media Infographics
- 5 Amazing Infographics for the Health Conscious
- 10 Essential Free E-Books for Web Designers
- 12 Beginner Tutorials for Getting Started With Photoshop

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Reviews: Google

More About: afghanistan, bp, current events, gay rights, graphics, healthcare reform, infographics, iraq, News, oil-spill, stimulus, visualizations, wikileaks

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For some in Silicon Valley, Asia remains an alluring black box. A promising world with pockets of hyper growth, obscured by a tangled web of unfamiliar languages, customs, regulations and native ecosystems. Although the walls are coming down fast, the road to Asia’s markets remains an intimidating one for many.

Enter Dave McClure, founder of 500 Startups (a recently launched $30M super angel fund) and Geeks On A Plane, a program that takes tech entrepreneurs and investors to emerging markets. In its own small way, Geeks On A Plane is attempting to bridge that gap between the Valley and the rest of the world. Earlier this year, roughly 55 “Geeks” traveled to several key hot spots in Asia, including Shanghai, Singapore, Seoul and Beijing, to connect with the region’s top entrepreneurs, to mingle with Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and to sample local tech conferences like Shanghai World Expo and CHINICT.

“Asia is easily a third, possibly close to half of the world’s population, I think there’s a lot of innovation and a lot of growth that is happening in China, India, and Southeast Asia,” McClure says. “Some of the internet models that we’ve seen are starting to be transferred over there, and actually a lot of the internet business models are being copied over here…There’s actually an explosion of social networks happening in all those countries.”

Although McClure doesn’t consider himself an expert in doing business in Asia, through his trips and his new relationships, he says he now has a better understanding of the internal dynamics of Asia’s disparate markets and is acutely aware of common Western misconceptions. In particular, he says it was very eye opening to learn how advanced China actually is and how many have underestimated the region’s technological and economic progress.

“Well I think people tend to look at China as being a pretty big opportunity but they also tend to think about China as being a little bit behind and I think that’s just really the wrong impression. China has actually got more internet users than the US, they certainly have more mobile devices than the US…You know the top 10% of the Chinese population probably has more average spending power than the average US citizen…and they’re buying a lot of cars, they’re buying a lot of houses, they’re buying a lot of consumer products online.”

While not everyone can join a Geeks On A Plane Tour, Dave McClure is sharing a collection of mini-documentaries from his latest trip with TechCrunch TV. The videos were shot and produced by Ben Henretig, founder of Micro-Documentaries, a new startup that creates highly polished, short (hence micro) videos for clients. The first of four episodes is on their trip to Shanghai (second video from the top). You can also watch McClure’s interview with TechCrunch TV, where he discusses his new fund and expounds on his trip to Asia (first video).

[Updated at 1:05 p.m.] Mariner Energy, owner of the production platform, said in a press release that no hydrocarbon spill has been reported after an initial flyover of the incident.

"Mariner has notified and is working with regulatory authorities in response to this incident," the statement said. "The cause is not known, and an investigation will be undertaken. During the last week of August 2010, production from this facility averaged approximately 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate."

The company also said no injuries have been reported.

[Updated at 12:48 p.m.] David Reed, a paramedic on board the Rowan Gorilla II oil rig located 14 miles from the platform that exploded told submitted an iReport saying he saw all thirteen workers rescued from the water.

“We were up here in the radio room and all of sudden we saw a whole bunch of smoke coming from the platform," Reed said. "Shortly after all the radios started lighting up like a Christmas tree. They called any helicopters in the area, any boats in the area to respond, they were saying there were people in the water. There were multiple people in the water.”

See Reed's iReport of what he witnessed

WWL: Coast Guard reporting production platform incident

WDSU: Production platform explodes in Gulf

iReport: Did you see the explosion? Share images

[Updated at 12:32 p.m.] White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that the federal government has "assets ready" to respond to any environmental problems resulting from the explosion of an oil platform off the coast of Louisiana.

[Updated at 12:31 p.m.] All thirteen people aboard a production platform that exploded in the Gulf are accounted for and safely on a commercial vessel according to initial information, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement.

"We continue to gather information as we respond with full force, and have oil spill response assets ready for immediate deployment should we receive any reports of pollution," the statement said.

[Updated at 11:53 a.m.] U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough tells CNN that 12 people from the production platform are in water immersion suits as they await rescue.

Colclough told CNN there are reports the production platform, which is for both oil and natural gas, is still on fire.

"We don't know what caused the rig to catch on fire," he told CNN, noting the incident is under investigation.

Asked about concerns regarding oil leaks or pollution, Colclough said "there are reports the rig was not actively producing any product, so we don't know if there's any risk of pollution."

Mariner Energy is a leading independent oil and gas exploration and production company in the Gulf of Mexico. About 85 percent of the company's production comes from offshore assets, with a growing share of that coming from deepwater developments.

The explosion comes nearly five months after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 people and causing oil to gush into
the Gulf of Mexico, leading to one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.

[Updated at 11:43 a.m.] U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough tells CNN that all 13 workers involved in the production platform explosion are accounted for, but one person is injured.

Coast Guard Choppers are on the way to the site 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay.

[Posted at 11:33 a.m.] An oil production platform has exploded 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana, with 12 people overboard and one missing, the Coast Guard said Thursday morning.

Rescue attempts are under way for at least 12 people, Coast Guard spokesman John Edwards told CNN. 13 people were on board the production platform total, Edwards said, noting 12 have been accounted for, but one person was missing.

The accident took place 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana on the Vermilion Oil production platform 380, which is owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy.

The Coast Guard has multiple helicopters, an airplane and several Coast Guard cutters en route. It's unknown if there are any injuries.

Two years ago, Google launched Google Chrome – a browser based around the open-source program Chromium. Today, the latest version of the browser was released making it the sixth version to date. Google reports that today Chrome is now three times faster than when it was released in 2008 when it comes to JavaScript performance.

Among the new features introduced in version 6 are: auto-fill and auto-fill synchronization and more than 6,000 extensions; all of this change is meant to enhance the way users browse and make for a more lightweight feel. The new color scheme is meant to be easier on the eyes and the merging of the two menus into one makes the browser’s appearance more streamlined.

Over the next few months, Google reports, there will be even more advancements made to Chrome – including the launch of the Chrome Web Store, which will make finding web applications much easier.

The new stable version is available for download now and Google has stated that versions 7 and 8 will be out this year; they have decided to release a new version every 6 weeks. Chrome OS is also due out by the years’ end.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Google Chrome!

Is the current debate over online privacy more media hype than true consumer concern?

Yes, according to a new study released jointly by Upshot, a Chicago-based marketing agency, and BrainJuicer®, a consumer-driven consultancy firm.  Their research found that, when presented with providing personal information in order to receive a useful service, consumers cared more about receiving a highly personalized, high quality and relevant service than protecting their privacy online.

The results come in stark contrast to the debate over online privacy blared across the media in recent months, from the blogosphere to traditional media.  That drumbeat of coverage has seen Facebook to address its privacy settings, led MySpace and AOL to simplify privacy settings and introduce parental controls and pushed legislators on Capitol Hill to introduce online privacy legislation.

The study’s authors say they undertook the study for the benefit of marketers, who they feared were being scared away from offering more enhanced personalized online services by all the negative publicity.

Branded by the firms as a “Social Experiment,” the study presented more than 600 consumers with three service concepts – personalized deal finding alerts, cash rewards for using green transit and a virtual, personal shopping experience.  The first, ‘experimental cell,’ was presented the services in the context of the privacy issue, while the second, ‘control cell,’ was asked to give their opinions about the services in terms of the personalized experience they offered.

Consumers had ‘very few’ concerns over giving up control of their personal information, as long as they received something useful in return.  Those who declined the services did so because they didn’t see the product as useful, not because of privacy.  Even the few who did cite privacy concerns cared more about financial security than sharing their general personal information online.

What’s the result for the marketers the study’s authors sought to allay?  Upshot gives them four takeaways for offering better online services:

1)    Free your creativity.

2)    Market the benefits.

3)    Be transparent, but not apologetic.

4)    Don’t abuse their trust.

As for consumers?  Looks like we’ll have to wait and see.

It looks like the bidding war for 3PAR could be over. Dell has just issued a release indicating that it will not increase its most recent $2 billion proposal to acquire 3PAR, and the company's has ended acquisition talks for the data storage company. Dell is entitled to receive a $72 million break-up fee from 3PAR upon the termination of its merger agreement. This morning, HP upped the ante today with an offer worth $33 per share or $2.4 billion. 3PAR has accepted HP's bid. Dell also said that its improved offer included a proposed commercial relationship and an increased break-up fee.

Facebook’s performance advertising system lets buyers target users based on identity, location, interests, and Facebook connections, but it doesn’t provide the control to utilize these targeting parameters on a large scale. To allow companies to build more powerful tools for designing and managing ads, Facebook released an Ads API last fall. One company offering a tool which make it easy to create segment-targeted ads and optimize for specific metrics is Marin Software.

The company comes from having developed search marketing software, and does a notable job providing flexible options for businesses on Facebook who also rely on search traffic. Here’s a closer look.

Marin Software’s product is designed to save time and maximize returns for enterprise class marketers. Those who license the browser-based tool can create, manage, and track Facebook ads alongside paid search campaigns on a large scale. Users can integrate the tool with other analytics programs, utilize algorithmic bidding, monitor the paths consumers take to conversion, and use advanced segmenting options to target very specific audiences.

Company Profile

Marin Software was founded in 2006 as a paid search management application developer, building tools for advertisers and agencies spending over $100,000 a month on marketing. While offering some planned services and best practices to help its 200 current clients maximize the value of the tool, it doesn’t actually manage any campaigns itself. Upon the release of the ads API, Marin Software assigned some its 130 employees to develop competencies around Facebook ads.

This summer, Marin Software entered the social network advertising arena by adding Facebook ad management capabilities to its tool. A dozen clients,including advertisers Education Connection and Macy’s, and agencies Red Bricks Media and Razorfish, are on track to purchase $3 million a year in Facebook ads and track 15 billion impressions through the tool. Clients are charged a percentage based on their total spend volume: 4.5% on $100,000 to $250,000 per month down to 2% on anything over $2 million per month plus prior tier percentages.

Marin maintains its headquarters in San Francisco and offices in New York, Chicago, London, and Singapore. The company has raised a total of $33.5 million in rounds led by Benchmark Capital, and DAG Ventures, with its most recent Series D round also joined by Focus Ventures, Amicus Capital, and Triangle Peak Partners.

Segmentation, Optimization and the Road to Conversion

Marin Software’s browser-based tool opens to a dashboard in which users can see individual and aggregated graphs and charts of performance statistics from Facebook ads and paid search channels like Google, Yahoo! and Bing. The ability to see which channel is providing the lowest cost per click helps users determine where to allocate their spend.

Different ad variations from across channels can be assembled into groups to allow users to collectively track all their ads linking to a certain product, targeted at a specific region or interest group, or that use a certain creative. For busy managers who don’t want to constantly monitor all their ads, users can manage by exception. Filters allow users to focus on ads and campaigns that need attention, such as only showing those with negative click-through-rate changes. Universal search quickly locates specific ads or campaigns, and a find and replace feature facilitates making edits to multiple ad creatives simultaneously.

One-time and recurring reports in categories like traffic/cost or gross profit can be easily generated, customized, and formatted. Specialized conversion/revenue reports can be made to track different business types like hotels, lead generation, phone or email marketing, reservations, and commerce. They can be branded with a company logo, exported to PDF or Excel, or hosted at a URL to allow users to import updates to their analytics whenever they want. The tool can also be integrated with analytics systems like Omniture, Coremetrics, Dart, and Atlas.

One of the most innovative features of Marin Software is the ability to optimize bidding based on your business model. Performance marketers can optimize for margin, those looking to generate leads can minimize cost per lead, and e-commerce businesses can optimize for net margin. Users can even optimize for custom conversion types such as capturing an email address. Soon, users will be able to optimize for Facebook-specific conversion types such as visiting a Page or viewing a Facebook video.

To keep each ad fresh, users can enable dynamic creative rotation based on time intervals, or decreases in CTR or impressions. For example, a new image or headline could be rotated into your existing targeting parameters every five days or when CTR slips more that 20%.

Marin Software’s audience segmentation feature allows users to take an ad or ad group’s audience and divide it into many targets. For instance, an ad aimed at males who like “Hiking” could be segmented into five age buckets and five different states, instantly creating 25 different targets for a single headline, body, image and destination URL. Multivariate testing can be performed and monitored in this way, and spend can be allocated to the targets with the highest conversion rate or revenue.

One of the biggest advantages of managing paid search and social network marketing in the same system is the ability to accurately divide spend for the highest ROI. Since Facebook is rarely the last click before a purchase, you can use Marin Software to find out where Facebook is in the funnel. The Paths tab shows the sequence of channels a customer took to make their purchase, such as visiting a company’s Facebook Page, then performing a Google search and clicking on that company’s ad, leading them to convert on the website. Without this feature, despite the Facebook Page swaying  the customer’s opinion, you wouldn’t know Facebook had anything to do with the conversion. The Paths tab also reveals insights such as users who visit Facebook then click a search ad spend more per conversion than those who only click an ad.

Marin Software is strong where many other ads API tools aren’t. Its audience segmentation, conversion-based bidding, dynamic ad rotation, and analytics are all high quality. While it isn’t as good at producing thousands of ad creative variations as Techlightenment’s Alchemy, the ability to see Facebook ad spend in the context of search marketing campaigns gives users the big picture necessary to optimize returns efficiently.

Ads API Spend Will Grow Alongside The Tools

Marin Software’s VP of Marketing & Partnerships Matt Lawson believes the ads API industry will grow swiftly over the next few years. As Facebook enhances the functionality of the ads platform, “advertisers will get better ROI and they will shift more dollars to the Facebook channel.” Similar to how spend increased on Google search ads as optimization and analytics tools were released, Lawson sees the same thing happening as Facebook ads API tools develop. Once the allocations between social network and paid search marketing level out, advertisers will need to optimize across channels. “People are interacting with more ads in different mediums and channels – and [Marin Software is] finding what the key levers are to pull.”

One pain point for Marin Software’s clients has been around Facebook’s ad creative approval process. Creative rotation is delayed and the edited ad is pulled as Facebook approves an ad’s new image. This is especially frustrating since image approval takes much longer than text approval in paid search. “Hopefully in the future Facebook will allow us to keep an old ad up and running until the new one is approved.”

Lawson expects that  improved day-parting, a feature requested by many ads API tool clients, will be integrated into the platform in the near future. While Marin Software has some ways around the current lack of functionality, he thinks a platform side solution would result in more consistency in ad inventory and a more uniform experience for Facebook users.

While considerably newer than others in the emerging Facebook Ads API industry, like TBG Digital, Marin Software will continue to provide a tool enabling a holistic approach to search and social network advertising.

By Elizabeth Chuck, msnbc.com

The mood on Twitter matches the weather today: Stormy.

A quick search for some keywords we're not allowed to print here (read: "Hurricane Earl" and any curse word you can think of) returns a plethora of tweets as the Category 4 storm heads toward the Eastern Seaboard. Earl's ruining weddings. Earl's ruining birthdays. Earl's even ruining one woman's news-reading experience: "Got to love all those hurricane verbs the MSM [mainstream media] throws out: 'churning' 'barreling' 'bearing down' 'roars' 'swirling' 'rolls'," tweets @Laracchapman.

But as Earl roared – er, made its way – toward North Carolina's Outer Banks, twitterers also expressed concern for loved ones in the area, urging them to follow evacuation orders. As for the people who have to evacuate themselves: Well, let's just say many of them fall under the curse-laden tweets category.

Then there are the TV jokes. With all the twitterers who have decided to refer to the storm as "Hurricane My Name Is Earl," TBS must be appreciative for the publicity bump for the show's reruns: "If I was still in N.C. I'd be the idiot on the beaches of the Outer Banks with the boom box blaring the theme to 'My Name Is Earl,'" tweets @redneck_trash. And @unclekilroy makes this point, playing off the Southern, less-than-favorable attributes of the TV show's title character: "'My name is Earl. And I'm fixin to put a hurt on you!' Figures the hurricane striking the south has a redneck-esque name!"

"The Earl Cometh," tweets @whatman75 in this Twitpic.

Still others have fears unrelated to the hurricane: "OhMyGosh! I was watching 'My Name Is Earl' and a fly hit my eyebrow and I started freaking out," tweeted @HellosPerson last night. No follow-ups on the fly-eyebrow situation were tweeted, so we're still waiting with bated breath for an update.

As for news-you-can-use tweets, federal emergency administrator @CraigatFEMA is tweeting all things hurricane preparedness, from how to protect your boat to how to communicate vital information with friends and family ahead of the storm. Food safety specialist @benjaminchapman is sharing how to keep your kitchen stocked in the event of a power outage, and @RedCross is encouraging evacuees to register on their "safe and well website" and tweeting information about shelters, traffic information and feeding trucks.

Keep checking msnbc.com and our hurricane tracker for the latest on Hurricane Earl as it churns, barrels, bears down, rolls and swirls through the Atlantic.

Whew. Thanks for letting us get all of those hurricane verbs out of our mainstream-media system, @Laracchapman.

It’s not an understatement to say the once this whole social networking business got booming, every company, big or small, has gotten a much busier schedule to maintain. Keeping up with what goes on has almost become a full time job, and finding the right tools to keep track of the fast changing trends can sometimes be hard, if not impossible. There are; however, a few tools in development to keep us more at ease and more structured.

It’s a concept project that is looking into the possibilities of creating a gadget that will alert you to the subjects and trends you are interested in. This project, designed by Pedro Gomes, is a truly brilliant solution to a big problem. Not only will it be the mega delivery of online information, but it will also track heart rate, calorie intake, who’s calling you and a lot more.

It will be somewhat like an information funnel in which you decide what’s coming through. It will come in the form of a headset or a bracelet, and it will utilize the bluetooth technology to make it seamless and easy to use and carry around. Also, when inactive, it will work as a storage device which securely keeps your data close at hand. It’s one of the coolest gadgets this week for sure. When will it be available? Well, at this point, it’s only a concept design, but I will follow this development closely and will deliver any new information I might gather.