Dating

Sports and Social Media: Our Favorite Stories of 2011
Op-Ed Contributor: Sri Lanka’s Ghosts of War
Op-Ed Contributor: Egypt’s Real Revolution
Will the world end on December 21st 2012?
Is it normal to be 16 years old and never have a boyfriend?
Who is shawn michael robbins dating?
Which wrestlers are dating in the WWE?
Should you still ask the parents permission before asking your girlfriend to wear a promise ring?
The Very Best of YouTube in 2011 [VIDEOS]
Gray Matter: Scientific Answers to the Mysteries of Children’s Literature
What was the air date of the episode where Chef died on South Park?
When did Selena Gomez and Taylor Lautner date?
Top 10 iOS Apps of 2011
8 Hilarious Internet Jokes, Memes and Parody Accounts of 2011
It's a Girl for Rebecca Gayheart and Eric Dane!
How One Author Found Success With Digital Books
It's a Girl for Rebecca Gayheart and Eric Dane!
Facebook Photo of Stolen Ring Leads to Man’s Arrest [VIDEO]
Is Logan and Victoria Justice dating?
5 Steps for Finding New Customers

Sports and Social Media: Our Favorite Stories of 2011

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 07:17 PM PST

The past year was a wild one in the sports world, full of salacious scandals, poignant moments, new records, the passing of old legends and the forging of new ones.

But digital and social media also shaped — and were shaped by — some of the year's biggest moments in the NBA, NFL, international soccer, college football and nearly every other sport humans play. Sometimes the stories were inspiring. Sometimes they were sad, or repugnant. Sometimes they were funny. But they were almost always interesting.

Here, we look back at 15 of our most memorable sports moments from the year that was. Scroll through the slideshow below, and let us know what you think in the comments.

What are your favorite stories from this list? What would you have added? What do you predict for 2012?

Jay Cutler's Twitter Evisceration

While pro athletes are used to criticism from fans via social media, digital hate doesn't usually come from fellow players. But that's what happened when Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler missed more than half of a crucial NFL playoff game with an injured knee in January.

As the Bears lost with Culter watching from the sideline, current and former NFL players including Maurice Jones-Drew (left) sounded off on Twitter, eviscerating Cutler for a perceived lack of heart.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Social Media, sports, technology

Op-Ed Contributor: Sri Lanka’s Ghosts of War

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:51 PM PST

If Sri Lanka wants true reconciliation, the government must take responsibility for civilian deaths during the civil war.

Op-Ed Contributor: Egypt’s Real Revolution

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:51 PM PST

Egypt's military and Islamist politicians are competing for power. America should ensure that neither side is left empty-handed.

Will the world end on December 21st 2012?

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:37 PM PST

It is said that since the Mayan calendar ends on that dat...

Is it normal to be 16 years old and never have a boyfriend?

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:29 PM PST

Yes, that is completely normal. There is no age that is t...

Who is shawn michael robbins dating?

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:24 PM PST

There are a lot of Micheal Robbins listed. Do you have a ...

Which wrestlers are dating in the WWE?

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:19 PM PST

The following wrestlers are dating in the WWE: HHH & Step...

Should you still ask the parents permission before asking your girlfriend to wear a promise ring?

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:02 PM PST

It's not in the rules of dating that you need parents per...

The Very Best of YouTube in 2011 [VIDEOS]

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:33 PM PST

Nicki Minaj - Super Bass By Sophia Grace Brownlee

Christina Warren: 8-year-old Sophia Grace doing the most amazing cover of "Super Bass" that the world has ever seen. A half-pint rapping powerhouse who is not only cute, but is GOOD.

Click here to view this gallery.

Here at Mashable, we love YouTube videos. We love YouTube videos so much that we bring you one every day in our YouTube Video of the Day series. Instead of just bringing you one video today, we decided to look back on a wild year of widely viewed uploads.

In honor of the end of the year of Rebecca Black, our staff rounded up some of our favorite viral videos of this year. Although none of us selected the auto-tune viral hit, you will find two cameos by Sophia Grace Brownlee, some cute babies and, of course, a cat.

What was your favorite YouTube video of 2011? Let us know in the comments.

Each day, Mashable highlights one noteworthy YouTube video. Check out all our viral video picks.

More About: viral-video-of-day, Year End 2011, YouTube

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Gray Matter: Scientific Answers to the Mysteries of Children’s Literature

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:07 PM PST

What does Brown Bear really see? Applying scientific research to some of the classic mysteries of children's literature.

What was the air date of the episode where Chef died on South Park?

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 05:46 PM PST

On the South Park episode "The Return of Chef" which aire...

When did Selena Gomez and Taylor Lautner date?

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 05:42 PM PST

Rumors about Taylor Lautner & Selena Gomez dating started...

Top 10 iOS Apps of 2011

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:02 PM PST

1. Tweetbot

After Twitter acquired Tweetie, it was easy to think that the need for a third-party iPhone Twitter client largely disappeared.

When Tweetbot came out in April, it proved that even the most crowded markets can still find room for a great app. Tweetbot quickly started to rival the official app in terms of beauty, ease of use and features. With a customizable shortcut bar as well as advanced gesture support, Tweetbot is an all-around great Twitter client.

Twitter revamped its official app earlier this month and Tweetbot became a saving grace for users who hate the new app and want faster access to the features they like most.

Click here to view this gallery.

2011 was a great year for iOS apps. The App Store officially passed the 500,000 app mark, and with iOS 5, developers are continuing to push the boundaries of what it means to make a mobile app.

We've already highlighted 15 of the best mobile apps, but with so many great apps available for the iPad and iPhone, we had to pick ten more.

The only rule with this list was that an app needed to be released in 2011.

What was your favorite iOS app of 2011? Let us know.

More About: airport utility, features, Grand Theft Auto 3, HBO GO, Infinity Blade 2, instacast, iOS apps, iphone apps, mixel, songza, Super 8, tweetbot, welder, Year End 2011

8 Hilarious Internet Jokes, Memes and Parody Accounts of 2011

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 05:38 PM PST

Photoshop Looter

After a wave of riots hit Britain over the summer, this Tumblr started featuring photoshopped images of looters stealing ridiculous items, like pandas.

photoshoplooter.tumblr.com

Click here to view this gallery.

Whenever one of us here at Mashable finds a new joke, meme or parody account, it quickly makes its way around the office.

We really get a kick out of hilarious Tumblrs, fake Twitter accounts and memes. They're a type of humor that brings digital geeks like us together for a laugh whether we're Apple fans or Windows users, Android owners or iPhone addicts. Internet humor bridges these gaps and unites all of us for a smirk, giggle or full-on laugh.

In the past year, we've seen so many great jokes pop up online. They're often a response to something happening in the news, like the Pepper Spraying Cop, or in pop culture, like the Ryan Gosling Hey Girl meme. They can also be a way for the digitally-savvy among us to have fun at the expense of others less familiar with technology, like @oldmansearch. Sometimes they're completely out of the blue, like the Sexy Sax Man.

We thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite web funnies we've come across this year. Here's to a great 2012 in web humor!

What were your favorite Internet memes or parodies this past year? Share them in the comments below.

More About: funny, internet memes, jokes, Meme, trending, Year End 2011, YouTube

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It's a Girl for Rebecca Gayheart and Eric Dane!

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 04:35 PM PST

The couple welcomed their second child, Georgia Geraldine, on Wednesday

How One Author Found Success With Digital Books

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 05:19 PM PST

It's said that print is dead — and not just newspapers or magazines, but maybe short stories too. After 20 years working in print, former Chicago magazine editor Dick Babcock found the perfect platform for his short story: Kindle Singles.

Babcock's short story tops the best sellers list on Kindle Singles.

The 5,000-word piece titled, "My Wife's Story," has sold 24,000 digital copies. It sells for $0.99 a copy — not much money for most writers — but it provides a place to publish works and the opportunity to build a brand.
Kindle Singles publishes short stories and journalism pieces with a minimum length of 5,000 words and a maximum of around 25,000 words. So far the platform has published 138 titles covering a variety of genres.

Kindle Singles' appeal: the stories are much less expensive than regular-sized ebooks. When the program was announced, writers and bloggers speculated that it could help new and unknown authors gain notoriety. Instead of many small works ending up in an anthology, Kindle Singles could give authors their own spotlight.

Although small, the Singles store so far has shown to be a place for unknown, as well as famous, authors to publish short stories.

Writers can work with editors, or self publish their stories. Such stories often have a quick turn-around time from publishing to selling.

Babcock sat on his story for 20 years while he edited the magazine.

"I would wake up at 5 a.m. and write before going to work," he explained. He made a limited attempt to get the short story published and then forgot about it. That is, until he retired from the magazine earlier this year.

Kindle Singles have been able to showcase fiction and provide exposure and sales for authors, says Kindle Singles Editor David Blum.

"We've had great short stories from well-known novelists like Stephen King, Lee Child and Tom Rachman, as well as emerging authors like Matthew Ducker, a young MFA graduate from the University of Virginia — and now Dick Babcock, in his return to fiction after a distinguished career in magazines. All have been among Kindle Singles' top-selling authors," Blum said in an email. "Most of our authors have been published before, but Kindle Singles has allowed many writers — both in fiction and nonfiction — to reach a wider audience of readers than ever before."

Babcock enjoyed a successful career as a publisher and writer. He retired in April. Early in his career, he said, there were many more literary magazines with long stories, but not so much anymore. He said he saw major potential in online publishing of short stories, like the ones on Kindle Singles.

Babcock has published two novels and is working on a third, which he said, he would love to have published for the Kindle.

What do you think of Kindle Singles — as either a reader or writer? Please tell us in the comments.

More About: amazon, authors, ebooks, Kindle Singles

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It's a Girl for Rebecca Gayheart and Eric Dane!

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 04:35 PM PST

The couple welcomed their second child, Georgia Geraldine, on Wednesday

Facebook Photo of Stolen Ring Leads to Man’s Arrest [VIDEO]

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 05:02 PM PST

Police in Vermont recently arrested a man for stealing a $3,200 engagement ring. They were tipped off after the man's fiancee posted a picture of the ring on Facebook.

Social media has become a legitimate tool for crime-solving. Earlier this year, the NYPD used Twitter to shut down a gang meeting, and the FBI used social media to track down a wanted fugitive.

Check out the video above to learn more about the stolen engagement ring.

More About: crime, Facebook, mashable video

Is Logan and Victoria Justice dating?

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 04:38 PM PST

Sorry, it is unknown who Victoria Justice is dating. Ther...

5 Steps for Finding New Customers

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 04:36 PM PST

Ronald Brown is a successful startup CEO with an extensive background in technology and consumer marketing. His new book, Anticipate. The Architecture of Small Team Innovation and Product Success is available via iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.

The subject of finding customers is one of the most mysterious in business development. I'm often asked how the most successful companies do it, maybe in the hope that there's a secret or shortcut to success. Sorry to say, no silver bullet exists.

Even with large budgets, customer discovery is more art than science. Below are the five basic steps. The most important aspect of this process is to be very methodical in your approach. Knowing where you've been is the only way to improve and repeat successes. Pay close attention to the details and record everything in a consistent format.

1. Classification Structure

The first step is to decide on a classification structure, better known as segmentation. You might have a product in mind, or a general concept, but sometimes, you might just be fishing — looking for a problem to solve in a market that seems attractive. That's OK. Market segmenters are detectives.

What makes a market attractive? Maybe you see alignment with your idea or product. Or, maybe something about a segment strikes a chord and gets your creative juices flowing, knowing what you know about your company's capabilities. Also, segment size is important: Why waste time if long-term financial gains aren't possible?

The segment selection process can be intuitive, based on personal experience, or it can be driven by highly sophisticated segmentation tools that carve up the total market into standardized groups. (Lots of companies start with Standard Industrial Classification codes (SIC codes), a system for tracking the entire economy, managed by the U.S. Census Bureau.) Either way, at this point, you are simply making educated guesses about which ones might be a fit. You have no idea if the fit will materialize.

In emerging industries, segmentation can evolve quickly. When the iPad was first introduced, tablets were tablets. Then ereaders became a distinct category vs. general purpose. Then pricing tiers emerged. Now, industry analysts are breaking the market up into broad stroke vertical applications — education, health care, etc. — which will get subdivided further very soon.

2. Hypothesis Testing

With your evaluation structure in place, you now need to determine, one segment at a time, if there is really an opportunity you can address. You dig deeper from a research standpoint, paying particular attention to competitive offerings. Again, there's a range of tools you can use. A consumer products company might do a formal, quantitative study, and a company selling to enterprises might set up personal meetings with senior executives. Major consulting firms, like McKinsey & Co. or the Boston Consulting Group, rely heavily on in-depth, one-on-one interviews in all of their projects. I'm working on a project in the tablet business right now, and you'd be amazed at how much you can learn from resellers.

What are you looking for? You're identifying customer problems. They should be big ones — "pain points." If a problem isn't urgent and important, it'll be difficult to create a meaningful competitive advantage. At the same time, you're looking to see how your solution solves the problem. Is it dramatically better? Is it "demonstrable" (a very helpful ingredient when it comes to being socialized)?

If you've found a pain point in a large market you can address and there are no competitors (yes, it happens), you've stumbled upon an "unmet need," one of the holy grails of new product development.

Segment by segment, you are testing a hypothesis related to fit or alignment: that you have something of value to offer a customer group. You are not just collecting information.

You'll discover all kinds of things at this point, from a particular segment being a complete miss, to essential product features that must be added. Hypothesis testing never stops, even after you introduce your product. In fact, the best is yet to come. Once a product is in the market, learning based on actual usage will flow in. That's why many in the new products field go to market with a "minimally viable product."

3. Nuance Testing

Here's the step that's easy to overlook. All problems have context. In other words, when customers solve problems, they are affected by circumstances associated with timing and physical surroundings, and by the nature of the task itself. As a marketer, you won't understand context by doing a survey, conducting a focus group, or talking to senior executives.

You understand context by experiencing customer problem solving yourself. To do that, you turn to customer immersion techniques. Did you know dairy farmers use tablets? To elegantly solve their problems, you better be willing to get up at 3 a.m. on a freezing morning. Some consumer goods companies even live with customers in their homes for a short period of time. Procter & Gamble, considered one of the best marketers in the world, uses such an immersion program called "Living It."

4. Customer Stories

Hypothesis and nuance testing findings get captured as stories. They're much more descriptive than use cases in that they focus heavily on problem/solution decision making.

5. Solution Iteration

Tight product alignment with a customer is a matter of iteration. You put something out there (an idea, a prototype, an actual product), and you get feedback, and you go away and improve and refine. Your customer stories get more refined as well.

It's highly unlikely that you'll identify a pain point and address it perfectly in one fell swoop. In fact, to even try is highly risky, especially if you're building hardware.

Most of the time and money wasted in new product development is related to late-stage rework, but you can avoid it by developing in small steps, ever tightening the alignment. This is what agile development is all about, and why it's gaining so much in popularity in and outside Silicon Valley.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, pixdeluxe

More About: Business, contributor, customers, features, Small Business

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