From disliking on Facebook, to the launch of the Motorola Droid, to the debut of Twitter Lists, it’s been an exciting week in the social media and tech space.Here’s our pick of the top 10 stories this week, from the serious to the bizarre.1. HOW TO: Use Twitter Lists– Twitter has launched Lists, a new way to organize people you follow on Twitter. Josh Catone tells us how to get the most of the new feature.2. 10 Ways You Can Use Twitter Lists– More Twitter List goodness, this time with real-world examples of Twitter list usage. 3. LEAKED: Microsoft Courier Tablet User Interface Details– Microsoft is working on a slick-looking tablet. Now interface details have emerged.4. Google Dashboard: Now You Know What Google Knows About You– Google this week launched a single location to find all the data the company is storing about you. 5. BREAKING: Rollout of Twitter Retweet Feature Has Begun [PICS]– Twitter is set to support retweets as a native feature. Some users already have access.6. Now You Can Dislike Stuff on Facebook (With a Firefox Plugin)– Facebook’s “Like” feature is a handy way to show props for a status update, photo or link … but what if you want to express dislike? Facebook has no such feature natively, but a Firefox plugin lets you do much the same thing. 7. The Top Internet Memes of 2009– What were the top Internet memes of the year? We look back at a year in Internet culture.8. T-Mobile Down Nationwide– T-Mobile suffered a major outage this week, affecting users across the country.9. Motorola Droid’s New “Stealthâ€� Commercial [Video]– The Motorola Droid is here, along with a new ad that includes stealth bombers and cowboys.10. Out of Control Forklift Driver Destroys Vodka Warehouse [VIDEO]– A video of a forklift crash went viral on YouTube this week, making for an amusing diversion.Image courtesy of iStockphoto, AndrewJohnsonReviews: Facebook, Firefox, Google, Twitter, YouTube, iStockphotoTags: social media

  The Open Web Awards: Social Media Edition, our annual contest highlighting the very best the web has to offer, is gaining momentum. We’ve had 300,000+ nominations made for 60,000+ individuals, companies, websites and applications. If you haven’t nominated yet – and you can nominate once per category per day – now’s the time to do so. Nominations close November 15th, after which we move to the final vote.A few high-level stats:- 300,000+ nominations made- 60,000+ nominees- Most categories have less than 50 votes separating the 1st- and 2nd-placed nomineeNominate in the Open Web Awards 2009>>Thanks to our Partner: MOTOBLURMOTOBLURfrom Motorola was built expressly for the way people communicate today. It’s the only service that automatically delivers and organizes your conversations, contacts and content from all your favorite sites and sources in easy-to-manage streams. Whether it’s Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, text messages, Gmail or work e-mail, MOTOBLUR keeps track of it all and serves it up on a customizable home screen and integrates it through the phone. Plus, with MOTOBLUR you have peace of mind, because all of your info is backed up and secure. Discover MOTOBLUR on Motorola CLIQ available at T-Mobile. It’s time to spend less time managing life and more time living it.Reviews: Facebook, Gmail, MySpace, TwitterTags: openwebawards.mashable, owa

  Each week we do a Lunchtime Pollto get a sense of what tools Mashable readers use and which of today’s services and apps are your favorites. Last week we asked you about your favorite Facebook apps, and we have the results below.As it turns out, like much of Team Mashable, many of you aren’t actually using too many Facebook applications these days. That’s probably what Facebook is hoping to turn aroundwith some upcoming changes to Applications.Still, from those of you who responded both here and on Facebook, there were some clear winners in the Facebook Apps department. Perhaps expectedly, social games figured prominently on the list. Take a look below to see the Top 10 as voted by you. Is your favorite Facebook App not represented here? Let us know in the comments.Top 10 Mashable Reader Facebook Apps10. Pet Society9. Status Shuffle8. Desktop Notifications7. Restaurant City6. Scrabble5. Bejeweled Blitz4. Twitter3. Static FBML2. Mafia Wars1. FarmVilleSee also: Top 10 Mashable Reader iPhone AppsImage courtesy of iStockphoto, ericsphotographyReviews: Facebook, Twitter, iStockphoto, pet societyTags: facebook, facebook apps, facebook platform, poll, social gaming

  Last week we reported on Google’s new music discoveryfeatures. The Google music search endeavor is partnership between Google, MySpace, Lala, and several others to make music search and discovery a primary feature of the Google experience.In fact, Google music search does more than just return a few track listings; it offers up audio streaming, one-click purchase options from iLike and Lala, and now even exclusive contentfrom artists.Google music search has broad implications for the music space, and in this post we’ll explore three of the most significant implications around a music search service powered by Google, and dissect how some of the industry’s current heavy hitters could be in for a wake up call.1. iTunes: Market Share Will DeclineIt’s been a process years in the making, but Apple’s iTunes store, with the help of the ubiquitous iPod and the hot iPhone, has become the destination for not only buying music but also for measuring the success of songs, albums, and artists.Don’t believe me? Let’s look at some of the staggering statistics. Earlier this summer, the NPD Group found that songs purchased from the iTunes marketplace now account for 25% of the total US music market, which includes both hard and soft copies. CNETalso reported that “for the first half of 2009, iTunes itself snagged a 69 percent share of the overall digital music arena, trailed far behind by Amazon.com with 8 percent.”With a 69% hold over the digital music market, iTunes is sitting pretty, but Apple’s music business is far from secure in being the undisputed victor in future years. The new music search features in Google aren’t some separate product that searchers have to track down, but instead offer instantaneous music discovery that works without extra thought or calculation. The reality is that music discovery is built into the search experience for each and every search, and those results are featured prominently at the top of the page, instead of buried at the bottom like Social Search.Googlers already search for songs, artists, and lyrics en masse, but the immediate click-to-listen and buy options that Google now provides could very well make them less likely to take the extra step back over to iTunes. Here’s why: music search results include streaming audio tracks, powered by MySpace, who don’t forget, owns iLike, and by Lala. You’ll also notice that that Lala and iLike’s download stores, and not iTunes, are the two click-to-buy options. Essentially what’s happening is that Google, the primary online starting point for the masses, is now directing you to purchase your music from iLike or Lala (and taking a cut of the purchase price). The iLike and Lala download stores both just got some major Google juice, and that’s a problem for Apple’s iTunes, who simply can’t compete with Google on search as it pertains to music discovery. iTunes won’t falter immediately, but Google, MySpace, and Lala have the opportunity to put a dent into iTunes’ once impenetrable stronghold over digital music downloads.2. Google: This Generation’s BillboardBillboard’s top 100 music charts are still important indicators of what’s hot in the music space, but having an album or song on iTunes’ top charts is becoming even more important for artists who want to remain relevant and popular in the eyes of younger audiences.Google’s new play in the music space puts them in a prime position to not only sell music, but to also dissect music trends, which could make them this generation’s Billboard.Think of all the data that Google already has around music search, combine that with their growing knowledge of what searchers are streaming on Google, and what they then go on to buy, and you have a data set that could be leveraged for insightful music industry analysis.We could easily see Google launching a music trends product that would match the style of Google Trends, and indicate the highest frequency music searches, highlight related searches, and attempt to identify news and blog posts influencing the trends. They could also potentially tie in music sales and online streams, for a full perspective of what’s happening in the music milieu.3. Myspace: Relevant Once AgainMyspace is on a fast track to becoming the web’s biggest joke. Once at the height of social media glory, they’re now Facebook’s ugly sister and everyone knows it, especially now that their US traffic has fallen off a cliff.As tempting as it may be to push MySpace off into the waters of obscurity, we think this cruise ship-sized social network may have avoided becoming the online Titanic with their recent moves in the music space.Let’s start by granting Facebook the social network gold medal. They’ve won that competition. But, MySpace is slowly repositioning themselves as the music destination, and the strategy just might pay off with their significant role in Google’s music service. Already a great resource for bands, MySpace now has a very excellent music video product, and their own music download store, courtesy of the iLike buy, with Google as their sales force.MySpace, with Google’s blessing, is well on their way to becoming the site that mainstream web audiences associate with online music. Given that Facebook is nowhere to be found in Google’s music picture, MySpace could be headed towards victory in a new genre.Image courtesy of iStockphoto, njmcc.Reviews: Facebook, Google, MySpace, iStockphotoTags: google music search, ilike, itunes, Lala, myspace

  We’ve had a number of close calls here during our Web Faceoffseries, but this wasn’t one of them. This week we pitted TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktopagainst each other in a bar room brawl for favorite Twitter client. Now, the results are in.Whereas last week’s Windows 7 versus OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard battle was a close one, with Windows 7 going the distance to outlast the current Mac OS, this week’s showdown had a big winner.…and TweetDeckwas it, with a full 71% of the vote (3294 votes) as compared to Seesmic Desktop’s 23% (1055 votes). Six percent or 260 of you just couldn’t decide and went for the Tie option.What did you think of the results? Did the best Twitter client win? Let us know in the comments! And of course, don’t forget to tune in again on Monday for the next round of our Web Faceoff series (and check out all the past winners below).Web Faceoff: Overall ResultsWeek 1:- Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome- WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)Week 2:- Tumblr vs. Posterous- WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)Week 3:- Pandora vs. Last.fm- WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)Week 4:- Twitter vs. Facebook- WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)Week 5:- WordPress vs. Typepad- WINNER: WordPress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)Week 6:- Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard- WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)Week 7:- TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop- WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 votes (Seesmic Desktop, 1055 votes, Tie: 260 votes)Reviews: Chrome, Facebook, Firefox, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Pandora, Posterous, Seesmic Desktop, Tumblr, TweetDeck, Twitter, TypePad, WordPressTags: poll, seesmic desktop, tweetdeck, twitter, twitter clients, web faceoff

  Many signs point to the Apple and AT&T agreement that makes the latter the exclusive carrier of the iPhone within the US coming to an end within the next year. For starters, non-exclusivity has been profitable for Applein other parts of the world. Moreover, even AT&T’s CEO acknowledgesthe deal won’t last forever.And while Verizon might be all about showing off what Droid doesright now, a new report suggests it could become the first carrier other than AT&T to offer iPhone on American soil, starting in the second half of 2010.According to a report obtained by Apple Insider, “Apple has contracted to produce a UMTS/CDMA hybrid iPhone due in the third quarter of next year that will enable the company to sell a single global handset to all carriers, and specifically to Verizon Wireless in the USâ€� – the significance of CDMA being that it’s the standard that Verizon’s network uses, versus AT&T’s GSM. As you might suspect, there’s currently no comment from Apple or Verizon, but it’s not the first time the two companies have been linked. Just last month, a report surfaced suggesting that Verizon and Apple were already testing a 4G versionof the iPhone. While we await more details, we can’t help but be amused by how we might end up looking back at the current attack ad battle taking place between Verizon, AT&T, and Appleif a Verizon iPhone comes to fruition. Tags: apple, att, iphone, verizon

  This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.Name: DocVerseQuick Pitch: DocVerse brings the collaboration functionality of products like Google Docs to the 600 million users of Word, PowerPoint and Excel.Genius Idea: Collaboration is a key to success in any business, especially when you have a scattered team that needs to work on documents constantly. There are already a lot of options, including Google Docs, Adobe Acrobat, and even Microsoft Office 2010to some extent. But having full, Google Docs-like collaboration in Microsoft Office would be nice.This is the gap that DocVerse is trying to fill. It’s a plug-in for Microsoft Office that adds this type of functionality to a new sidebar within Microsoft Excel, Powerpoint, and Word.This sidebar is where all of DocVerse’s magic happens. You can invite friends and colleagues to collaborate on any documents. As you and others make edits, those changes are synced to the cloud. In addition to a hard copy, the plug-in automatically saves a web-based version of the doc that others can see to make collaboration easy. It’s not just the instant collaboration though – there are also some great discussion and tracking features via the DocVerse sidebar. One allows you to IM anybody collaborating on the document in question. Another lets you track the most recent changes and by whom they were made. Finally, the version history tab lets you see a larger overview of the history of the document.All in all, DocVerse is slick, easy to understand, and perfect for small and large businesses where the employees are used to using Microsoft Office to get things done. DocVerse’s collaboration suite isn’t free, though. It’s $49/month for 10 users and 500 documents and $99 per month for 25 users and 1500 documents. If you just can’t get your team on board with Google Docs though, DocVerse may be the answer you’re looking for.Sponsored by Microsoft BizSparkBizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platformfor their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest– use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).â€�Reviews: Adobe Acrobat.com, Google Docs, PHPTags: bizspark

  We were sort of surprised to discover how many of you proclaim your love for FarmVille, the social farming sim game from Zynga. We reported that the company had trademarked the name FishVillelast month, and speculated that an aquatic derivative of the wildly popular social game might be in the works.And indeed it was, with FishVille launching in betatoday. It’s a bit of a late contender to the aquarium games space, with Happy Aquarium, Fish World and My Fishbowl all getting a head start. Nevertheless, Zynga has enough clout in the social games space to make FishVillea quick winner in all likelihood. With an estimated $200 million in revenuethis year, it’s arguably the most successful of the companies in the space along with Playfish, Playdom, and others.The game itself is fairly simple, like many of the Zynga’s other titles including YoVille and Cafe World along with FarmVille. You’re given a virtual aquarium with a few starter fish, that you feed and then harvest and sell to invest in new fish eggs. In a similar revenue mechanic to other Zynga games, you can either pony up real money to get credits to buy more eggs, or complete ad-related surveys and offers in exchange for credits — a practice that has recently come under some scrutinyas a host of less than reputable ads have been finding their way into social games from several companies.Have you played FishVille yet, or tried out any other social games on Facebookor elsewhere? Let us know your impressions and your favorites in the comments.Reviews: Facebook, YovilleTags: facebook, fishville, games, offer ads, social games, virtual goods, Zynga

  Megan Berry is an evangelist for Mobclix, the industry’s largest mobile ad exchange, working on social media and marketing. She also blogs at The Huffington Post and the Mobclix blog. You can follow her on Twitter as @meganberry, or through the @Mobclixhandle.Unsure about mixing your iPhone with wine? Well, if you’re a true vinophile, the iPhone is an amazing device to keep you more connected to your wine. The following list of top wine apps on the iPhone will convince you that mixing the two is worth the risk of spilling some pinot noir on your phone. Like wine itself, these apps vary in price and quality, and many still have a ways to go in terms of functionality. But the five awesome apps on this list will help you find, choose, taste, pair, and collect wines. Think I missed an important one? Nominate it in the comments!1. Hello VinoFor those who aren’t quite wine snobs, but wish they were, this app will help you fake it ’til you make it (stealthy use of iPhone required). If you don’t know which wine goes with which types of food, what wines are best for what occasion, or how to pronounce Sauvignon Blanc then this is the right app for you. Perfect for every wannabe wino out there, Hello Vino will make choosing the right wine easy. Pick the type of food you’re having or the occasion and then choose whether you’d like a red, white, rose, sparkling, or sweet wine. Sophisticated wine connoisseurs will find this app beneath them, but those with less experience with the vines will find its lack of complexity just right. Hello Vino can help you pick whether you should get a chardonnay or a malbec, but look further if you want an app to help you determine which specific wine to buy. The best part? It’s free, a rarity for wine apps.Cost: Free2. Pair It!The ultimate wine snob must have not only drink the best wine, but pair those wines perfectly with the food they’re eating. Pair It!, created by a wine pairing expert from Sonoma county, encourages users to shake their iPhones to find a random pairing, or figure out the perfect pairing for the food or wine they already have by entering into the app. In case you doubt the true wine snobbery of this application, you should be aware it takes into account relative weights, flavor bridges, and elements of taste to find the perfect match. In other words, this app knows wine.Cost: $2.993. FromageNo good wine tasting would be complete without cheese. Fromage is your pocket guide to over 650 types of cheeses. You can rate cheeses and mark your favorites. Each cheese comes with descriptions of flavor and suggested wine pairings. A fairly simple app, but a must for any wine (and cheese) lover.Cost: $2.994. Drync WineMuch like the name implies this app will help in almost every step of the process of drinking wine. With a database of well over a million wines, you should be able to find the one you’re looking for. Drync Wine was born out of the developer’s own desire to track the wines he was drinking. Once you’ve found your wine, you can take tasting notes, rate it, and add a photo of the label so you remember it. This will get saved to your virtual cellar so you can keep track of the wines you’ve tasted. Drync Wines replaces those cheesy wine tasting journals and does it cleanly and simply. Furthermore, they recently released a free version that lets you try before you buy (you can only keep up to 10 wines in the free version).Cost: Free / $4.99 (the link above is to the Pro version)5. DrinkFitDrinkFit provides nutritional information for different varieties of wine so you can get an idea of how many calories you’re drinking with your dinner. A fairly simple interface make it pretty easy to find the wine you’re drinking and get a calories count. Note, however, that this app does not measure the calories of specific vintages just the difference between, for instance, the average calorie count of a pinot noir versus a pinot gris. It also contains calorie counts for other types of alcoholic beverages such as, beer and cocktails, but I’m sure you always drink wine, right?Cost: $1.99Honorable Mentions:Wine Snob: ($3.99) A solid wine tasting log and wine database.Cellar: ($0.99) It allows you to visually keep track of your wine collection.Wine Ph.D.: ($4.99) The wine ratings are helpful, although the database is less than complete.Cor.kz Wine Info: ($3.99) This is a fairly complete app with a wine database, wine tasting notes, cellar management, and wish lists.More iPhone resources from Mashable:- iPhone TV: Top iPhone Apps for Live Streaming Television- Top 10 iPhone Apps as Judged by Mashable Readers- 7 iPhone Apps That Can Save Lives- 15 iPhone Apps to Tame the Kids- 20 Creative Apps For Your iPhone

  In addition to celebrating Muppetstoday, Google appears to be loudly and proudly celebrating something else on its home page.With the Verizon Droidlaunch hot and heavily underway today, the search giant is according the highly-regarded Android phone a place of honor on Google.com today. Although it’s not unprecedented — they’ve done a homepage ad for both the first Android handset’s G1 launch and for the Chrome browser — it’s still a relatively rare occurrence to be up in lights on the Google homepage.Clicking the link takes you to a splash page with more information and purchasing links — we took a screencap you can see below.Of course it makes sense for Google to give a nice promotional push to what is shaping up to be the handset that finally pushes its Android mobile operating system project into the mainstream. Not only is it the first Android phone on the U.S.’s largest carrier, but it’s being widely hailed as the phone that comes closest to catching the iPhonein terms of sheer awesomeness.Did you pick up a Droid today? Are you contemplating doing so? Let us know your impressions or vacillations in the comments.Reviews: Android, Chrome, GoogleTags: ads, android, droid, Google, Mobile 2.0, Motorola, verizon droid

  As you can probably tell from our extensive coverage this week, we’re extremely excited about the possibilities of Twitter Lists: from how news organizationsare leveraging the feature, to a full Twitter Lists FAQto the potential for real-time journalismand the utility of lists after the tragic Fort Hood shootings.As such, we’ve started work on our own project to categorize Twitter into what we hope will be useful lists. These are nowhere near finished, of course: just a starting point. We’ll be adding more and more names over the coming weeks. If you see people you’d like to include (and there are many, many more to add – sorry if we missed you!), just send a Tweet to @mashable with your suggestions.Twitter Lists from MashableYou can explore all our evolving lists here >>Media Thinkers:media thinkers and commentators.Social Media Linkers:social media experts, thinkers and linkers.Mashable Team:the Mashable team, social media musings and personal Tweets.News Orgs:news organizations on Twitter, breaking news.Marketing Experts:marketers who Tweet, digital marketing insights and links.Top Designers who Tweet:web designers share their insights and musings.Music:popular musicians on Twitter.Web People:the web scene, a growing list of all things webby.Top Brands on Twitter:brand names on Twitter, official company accounts.Tech:interesting voices in tech.Foodies to Follow:foodies who Tweet, top chefs share knowledge.Celebrity:celebrities who Tweet.Journalists and Journalism Tweets:journalists talk media, newspapers, tv and the growth of online journalism.The Twitterati:early Twitter stars who share interesting links.Healthcare on Twitter:healthcare experts and organizations on Twitter.Reviews: Mashable, TwitterTags: trending, twitter, Twitter Lists

  America’s most trusted satire newspaper and website, The Onion, has been steadily moving into online video in the past few years (with many hilarious pokes at the Web, the iPhone, and social mediaalong the way).Now, the outfit has landed a very real deal with Comedy Central to develop a pilot for a show based on its Onion Sports Network (OSN) videos.According to a statementput out by the companies, “the as-yet untitled series will take on the whole universe of modern sports – teams, players, leagues, sycophantic fans, ridiculous products and over-hyped sports coverage – with an eye towards appealing to sports fanatics and more casual fans.â€�It’s not hard to see an OSN-based show fitting in nicely alongside The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. The completely over-the-top parodies of ESPN and FOX Sports Net talking heads and cliché stories and soundbites is very analogous to what the network has done with its take on cable news. You do have to wonder, however, if the humor of stories like today’s “Tom Coughlin Retires From Family to Spend More Time With Teamâ€� might be loston those that don’t quite get the whole satire genre. If you haven’t seen OSN before (or even if you have), here’s the hilarious Coughlin story:Tags: Comedy Central, the onion, tv, video

  This is potentially minor as none of us at Team Mashablehave spotted any, but Twitter reports looking into the source of elevated errorson the site currently. There appear to be more folks retweeting the status post than actually reporting errors themselves as well, so if you’ve run into anything suspicious you should let us know what you’re seeing in the comments.Are you seeing any errors either on the main Twitter site or via clients? We’re wondering if this is at all related to the missing mentionsissue from yesterday, but it’s hard to speculate too deeply at this point. We’ll let you know if we hear any updates on these.[UPDATE]: Luckily, that was quick — Twitter reports the issue is now fixed, although they don’t say what the cause of the errors were.Reviews: TwitterTags: bugs, errors, twitter

  We’re fans of the social media-enabled media center Boxee, so news of its impending beta launch on December 7is music to our ears (and eyes!). The Beta version will feature a number of additions and improvements, including a new user interface, better navigation, TV and movie search, shortcuts, a user controlled queue and more. It will incorporate a number of user requests and feedback received over the past year while Boxee has been in Alpha mode.The official launch event will be at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in New York City, where the Beta will be demoed along with some new partner applications (check out some of our favorite apps so far). It will also kick off a 4-week early access program for the Beta version before it’s officially launched to the public during the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show on January 7.CEO Avner Ronen says you won’t have to attend the actual launch event to get on the early access list, so stay tuned for more information about how to get into the 4-week preview. He also says the Beta launch will see the Windows version step up to be 100% on par with the Mac OS X version, including Netflix and ABC support.Do you use Boxee? What feature requests and additions are you hoping to see in the Beta release?Reviews: BoxeeTags: boxee, boxee beta, CES 2010, netflix, social tv