"2010 is going to be a big year for social TV," ClipSync CEO Itzik Cohen believes, and he was exceptionally bullish about one of the enhancements his company hopes to debut by the end of the first quarter: Interactive ads that encourage users to participate, play games, and interact with friends and other users, rather than watching (and ignoring) a typical 30-second ad spot.

ClipSync, which describes itself as the only company with its type of technology for making TV viewing a social event, provides the back-end infrastructure for video content streamed by its partners -- CBS, EpixHD, MySpace, Showtime, and TV.com -- with the partners handling the design of the interface while ClipSync's technology powers social elements. Cohen said ClipSync's features are targeted toward the kinds of fans he refers to as "passionistas."

Features enabled by ClipSync include chat, but in the form of a bubble chat located at the bottom of the screen, just under the video, so users can view both without being distracted from the content. ClipSync also provides trivia contests and polls that appear on the side, and its technology offers what Cohen calls "a graduated mode of interaction," letting users interact as little or as much as they prefer -- they can do as little as simply watching the video content to as much as chatting, partaking in trivia contests (Cohen said each user answers an average of six trivia questions per show), throwing virtual tomatoes at the content or at other users, and creating private groups where they are only interacting with their friends.

Friends are invited in via Facebook Connect, Twitter, or AIM. As for the private rooms, Cohen said that the first time the feature was implemented -- for Showtime's Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful special -- 2,000 private rooms were created. On the subject of the Bon Jovi special, Cohen added that the premium cable network only promoted the ClipSync-powered social aspects to 20,000 people via email, yet when a countdown block started four hours before the special, 4,000 users were already watching, waiting, and interacting with each other. Viewers of Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful using ClipSync's technology were also able to add concert-like elements to their interactivity, such as lighters, devil horns, and kisses for the band members.

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Donut fanatics have until March 8 to create custom virtual donuts as part of Dunkin' Donuts' Create Dunkin's Next Donut online contest, which is tied in with the franchise's 60th anniversary, Mashable reported.

The 2009 contest resulted in more than 130,000 donut submissions and 174,000 votes, according to Mashable, and the winner was Toffee for Your Coffee, which combined sour cream cake, glaze and chopped Heath bar.

Entries will be judged on use of ingredients, donut name, and the story behind the donut, Mashable reported, and creations can be shared with social-media sites or downloaded to users' desktops.

According to Mashable, 12 finalists will each receive $1,200 cash prizes, one year's worth of donuts, Flip HD camcorders, and trips to Dunkin' Donuts University to bake their donuts and meet with chefs. The grand-prize winner will receive $12,000, and their donut will be sold in stores for a limited time.

Dunkin' Donuts manager of interactive and relationship marketing David Tryder told Mashable there was a "substantial commitment and investment involved with the building of the site, marketing, and media," adding that the 2009 contest "met expectations on the business side," and the company "saw a healthy response in donut sales during the promotion period."

The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards added some innovative use of social media to its awards gala. Now it's the 82nd Annual Academy Awards' turn.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences kicked things off by streaming its nominations live via Oscars.org and its Facebook Page, according to AdAge.com.

Oscar.com, a joint production from the Academy and ABC, is also hosting more video and exclusive content from nominees, as well as widgets for Oscar pools and predictions for the second year in a row, and an Oscars iPhone app, which will launch later in February, will allow fans to see how their Oscar predictions stacked up against others, according to AdAge.com.

The Academy, however, was not able to prepare an integration of Facebook and Twitter comments in time for this year's ceremony, which will air on ABC March 7, AdAge.com reported.

Co-executive producer Bill Mechanic told AdAge.com:

We won't get accomplished everything we want to this year. If you look at the site, it's really better than it's ever been, so hopefully next year we'll be able to execute 50 percent of what we wanted to. This year, we'll probably only accomplish 20 percent of what we wanted. We always wanted Twitter and Facebook to be used not just by (co-executive producer Adam Shankman), but by others to speak to an audience that has not traditionally viewed the Oscars as important as it certainly is.

The New Orleans Saints were the winners of Super Bowl XLIV, toppling the favored Indianapolis Colts 31-17, but Google software engineer Jeffrey Oldham shared the search-engine giant's winners in terms of game-day searches in a post on the Google Blog.

The top five players searched Sunday were Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, Hank Baskett, and Scott Fujita. And Oldham added:

Many fans of Reggie Bush also expressed interest in his girlfriend, Kim Kardashian; searches for her name, both on its own and linked with Reggie Bush's, spiked significantly during the game. Additionally, search volume for football great Walter Payton -- after whom the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award was named -- was as high as that for some of the game's top-five most-searched-for players.

Saints head coach Sean Payton was the most-searched-for coach, topping Colts head man Jim Caldwell both on the search engine and the field.

Fast-rising recipe searches on Super Sunday included Buffalo chicken dip, guacamole, seven-layer dip, and pigs in a blanket.

Oldham also pointed out that searches involving kickoff time and how to watch the game online were very popular.

Among advertisers, Dockers and Denny's were strong performers, and Betty White (Snickers) and Megan Fox (Motorola) saw searches spike as a result of appearing in Super Bowl ads.

TweetDeck v0.33 is now available, and the latest version of the third-party Twitter client adds features including: taking advantage of Twitter's increased application-program-interface rate limit via OAuth; Column Navigator, which allows users to navigate around columns by clicking and offers information about each column to users who hover over them; the ability to view more videos and photos directly via TweetDeck; and easier editing of search columns.

Community manager Richard Barley said in a post on the TweetDeck Blog:

We are delighted to announce that TweetDeck v0.33 accesses the API using OAuth in the background and can thus take advantage of this increased API limit. At the time of writing this post, the new limit is 350 calls per hour, but this is expected to increase further soon.

Enter the Column Navigator. This handy new feature, nestled in the previously empty space at the bottom of the screen, shows a representation of all your columns and allows you to navigate around them quickly by simply clicking.

Hovering over a bar in the navigator also shows some key information such as the time remaining before this column refreshes and the current level of API calls remaining.

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Google's Gmail is apparently going to become a lot more social, as numerous reports, following the initial one by The Wall Street Journal, said the Webmail service will launch a new service allowing users to share status updates, photos, and videos with friends, with the announcement likely to come Tuesday.

The questions raised in many reports center on how the new Gmail features will work with Facebook and Twitter. According to CNET, Gmail users already have the ability to update their statuses, but only within the Gmail service. And the Journal reported that Google-owned YouTube and Picasa would be part of the new features.

Mashable urged caution, pointing out:

Your Gmail contacts aren't necessarily the same people you want to share status updates, photos, and videos with. This is an issue that shouldn't be overlooked in evaluating the new features Google is soon to unveil.

Yahoo! Mail already offers access to information from Twitter and Flickr within its service, CNET added.

CNBC.com wants to wish its users a Happy Valentine's Day with the release of its annual special report, Love & Money, which it says is aimed at dispensing "information and advice on handling finances with family and loved ones in a challenging economy, as well as insights into what companies might benefit from the upcoming day of romance."

Features included in this year's edition of Love & Money: Five Ways to Save Your Marriage; How to Cope When Two Incomes Become One; How to Lend Money to Friends and Family; Same-Sex Couples Face Different Pitfalls; Stocks You May Love on Valentine's; and All In the Family -- Making Money Talk Easier.

Marketing Shindig posted a comprehensive list of 30 Top Objections to Social Media and How to Respond, by Nick Shin, aimed at helping to convert non-believers at companies.

WebNewser recommends the entire article, but here are some highlights:

Why should I? I don't need to. Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't mean I have to: Getting involved in social media allows you to be more engaged with your current and potential clients. The word "transparency" was probably 2009's most clichéd word used to describe social media, but it's true. Social media allows companies to have a voice and to show the public that your company is willing to listen and garner unsolicited feedback. Social media also allows your company to provide that extra customer-service option outside of the traditional email and phone outlets.

I'm in no hurry: Fair enough, but maybe your competitors are. It's about missed opportunities. Look at all the Fortune 500 companies (Wal-Mart, Dell, Bank of America, General Motors, to name a few) that lost out on their name on Twitter before it exploded into a phenomenon.

It's too risky; we're better off doing nothing: The only risk that I see is the risk of doing nothing. Do you really want to risk letting your competitors take over the opportunities you are missing? Do you not care what customers (and competitors) are saying about you online? Monitor and engage to offset that risk.

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Mashable.com is a force both in the Web journalism and social media worlds. By leveraging the Web's social capabilities, Mashable has built a reputation as a go-to source for all things social — using the same techniques they write about to achieve staggering growth. Adam Ostrow has orchestrated much of that success, and as editor-in-chief is tasked with ensuring the site continues to burgeon.

In this first portion of our three-part interview, Ostrow lays out the more technical aspects of his newsroom. What once was a post-it-as-you-get-it site is today a pragmatic entity looking to branch into investigative journalism. "As we've grown it's become a much more professional structure," explains Orstow. It may seem funny to say that every post is now seen by an editor, but anyone with a hint of blogging experience understands how difficult it is to be "first" with news.

Covering the social media sphere is an instant win for the publication. "It's almost a perfect storm," said Ostrow. "When you cover the social media space people are inclined to share articles. It's this whole...snow ball effect." With 2 million Twitter followers and a couple hundred thousand Facebook fans, it's safe to say Mashable has stuck its flag firmly in the social media sand.

Part 2: Tomorrow when we'll discuss transparency and social media.
Part 3: Wednesday we'll discuss rumors of Mashable's sale.

Demand Studios executive vice president Steven Kydd told Beet.TV executive producer Andy Plesser Demand Media, its creator of instructional online text and video content, has about 150,000 assignments on backlog for its network of 7,000 free-lance writers, adding that free-lancers being paid twice weekly and some qualifying for health insurance offsets the relatively low return per assignment -- as little as $30 for an original video clip.

To say it's been a rough week for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. president and chief operating officer Jim Lentz would be an understatement, but now, he has a way to Digg his way out of it.

Digg is holding a Digg Dialogg with Lentz, and users have until Monday at 8 a.m. PT to submit questions for the embattled automaker executive, who has been dealing with the fallout from Toyota's recalls of 5.3 million vehicles for floor-mat issues that may lead to unintended acceleration and 2.3 million vehicles for sticking gas pedals.

Chief strategy officer Mike Maser posted on the Digg Blog:

In light of the recent controversy around the Toyota vehicle recall, Digg is hosting an exclusive Digg Dialogg LIVE event just days before the car maker testifies before Congress. We know there are a lot of open questions about how Toyota is dealing with this situation, and we're giving Toyota's top U.S. executive, Jim Lentz, the opportunity to address them.

Digg is the only place you'll have the chance to pose questions directly to Toyota's top management and get the answers you're looking for. So, submit and Digg questions from now until Monday, Feb. 8 at 8 a.m. PT. Then come back later that afternoon, at 2 p.m. PT, to watch the live event.

Athletes competing in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Feb. 12-28 can tweet to their hearts' content, according to a tweet from the International Olympic Committee, sent Friday, CNET reported.

The tweet contained a link to the IOC's four pages of rules covering bloggers, but was much more light-handed toward Twitterers, reading:

Athletes go ahead and Tweet as long as it is about your own personal experience at the Games. http://bit.ly/bc6PlO #olympics #twitter

U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Bob Condron told CNET in an email interview:

(The move should let) both the athletes and the readers enjoy the Olympics at a new level. This might be the Twitter Olympics. It'll be interesting to see where it all goes. Our brain waves are now operating in a 140-character mode.

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