UK-based home furnishings retailer Habitat is getting pounded pretty heavily for its recent behavior on Twitter -- and rightfully so. It's bad enough to spam the Twitter timeline with heavy-handed advertising messages, but using trending topics hashtags to do it is just plain wrong. The question I have is...

Professionally, I see people struggle to understand the unfamiliar etiquette of social networking. Personally, I see people question if my homeschooled children are learning "social skills." The irony, it burns.

I've long since given up trying to understand things like who thought up Pet Rocks or why people eat sweetbreads. I'm pretty sure, though, something I read today will have me scratching my head for a long time to come.

The team behind the blogging platform WordPress has introduced a new widget from SocialVibe that lets you collect money for charity right on your blog. Simply pair yourself up with a brand or product you like. Every time a reader interacts with that brand while visiting your Web site, the sponsoring company will donate money to the charitable organization of your choice. Donations travel from the company directly to the charity, no blogger or reader money ever changes hands.

With the proliferation of microblogging sites like Twitter and Tumblr, it's easy to assume that traditional blogging is on its way out, but that's simply not true. Since it's impossible to consistently and effectively encapsulate your marketing or consumer education messages in only 140-character soundbites, blogging will always have its place somewhere on the vast plains of the Internet.

Although it seems like everyone and their cat already has a blog, there are still some companies dipping their toes in the Weblog water for the first time. If you're overhauling your entire approach to blogging or just getting started, there are plenty of books on the market to help you find your way around. After you've skimmed the obvious choice, "Blogging for Dummies," be sure to check out these four great reads for in-depth information from experts in the blogging industry.

Every time you turn a corner these days, someone is dispensing advice on "how to connect with your customers on Twitter." There are usually plenty of fancy words like "dialogue" and "communication" thrown in to make corporate Tweeting sound less onerous but let's face facts: it's still PR. Done correctly, however, marketing your product or service on Twitter can gain you new customers and make loyal fans out of the ones you already have. Here are three companies on Twitter that get it right.

Here's an idea I want to like, but that I can see going downhill in a hurry. Celebrity iGoogle homepages. It's an intriguing concept but since the definition of "celebrity" is such a moving target, I'm afraid we'll see less Sir Anthony Hopkins and more Octo-mom.

Gmail users have been getting pretty riled up about seeing more spam in their inbox recently than they're used to. Google says it has fixed a small filter configuration glitch on their end, but many users say are still getting more than their fair share of unwanted mail.

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Google has taken the best features of all its most notable online apps and rolled them all into one new collaboration and communication tool called Wave. It's under a spotlight -- and microscope -- this week at Google's I/O developer conference but the rest of us will have to cool our heels for a few months before it's released into the wild to be poked and prodded by the public.

If you've spent the morning searching for a flight to L.A. so you can be first in line to audition for Twitter's new TV show, I have good news and bad news for you.

Vatican City launched a new Web site today, along with iPhone and Facebook apps designed to help believers connect with His Holiness. This isn't the Pope's first foray into the world of social media -- he's had his own YouTube channel for months.

The United Kingdom's House of Lords plans to question Parliament this week about whether social media and Web 2.0 technology will help the government improve its public image in the wake of a recent expense claim scandal. Popular opinion seems to be that although Parliament already has a Web presence, it's not particularly compelling or engaging.

Since Internet terminology has the lifespan of a housefly, I figured it wouldn't take long to see what form the term "Web 3.0" would take and what it would define. Here's a clue: Soylent Green is people.

Many businesses using social media are discovering the charms and benefits of Facebook fan pages. It's a nifty little value-added service that allows businesses and organizations to build an interactive page inside the Facebook ecosystem to engage existing or potential customers. It's an intriguing idea, but does your company really need one?

Open source business intelligence software vendor Jaspersoft rolled out a new set of social features this week on JasperForge, its community project development Web site. The newly-added options give developers additional ways to network, exchange ideas, and create projects more quickly. Companies that rely on community involvement should take note because the current trend of using social tools to enhance collaboration won't be going away anytime soon.