BrainYard News RoundupBrainYard News Roundup

HootSuite Turns TwitterBar FireFox Extension Into HootBar

HootSuite added a FireFox extension for rapid fire posting to social media from the browser address bar, based on the acquisition of TwitterBar announced Wednesday.

Now renamed HootBar, the tool allows FireFox users to type command line-style instructions directly into the browser address bar, such as "Tweet this now -- post" (post directly to Twitter) or "Broadcast this everywhere -- hoot" (open a HootSuite dialog box to select multiple social profiles).

Developed as open source software by Tony Farndon and Chris Finke under the GPL v2 open source license, TwitterBar already had 1.9 million downloads, according to a press release. The tool will now be maintained as a HootSuite extension, along with the Hootlet extensions for Firefox and Chrome

HootSuite is one of the leading social media dashboard tools, available in basic (free) and enterprise editions.

ShopSocially Unveils Social Commerce Suite For Retailers

ShopSocially today announced the general availability of its "Social Connect" suite for online retailers and unveiled partnerships with retailers including Sephora, CafePress, Zales, and Rawlings Gear. The product allows retailers to add a Facebook page tab like the one at CafePress World designed to invite shoppers to share their purchases and their appreciation of the retailer's deals with all their friends.

Elsewhere On The Web

Time Magazine: To Tweet or Not to Tweet. In his The Curious Capitalist column, Zachary Karabell tries to establish whether social media is doing anything to help the economy (outside of the economics of social media companies and their investors).

Mashable: Facebook To Help Users Burned By Profile-To-Page Migration. The week after announcing the ability for Facebook users to convert a personal profile to a business page, Facebook announces an "appeal" process for users who decide it's a mistake and want to go back.