Facebook & Company

Facebook Graph Search is predicted to change the way people search online.

With the amount of data Facebook users create every second, it is easy to understand the need for a tool that can crawl and index information in real time. In this infographic, learn how Facebook is using Graph Search as a way to break into the Big Data space and what it means for marketers.

If the future of search is likely to be social, the future of social is likely to involve more search.

A new infographic based on statistics published by the Huffington Post lists 100 of the most fascinating figures from 2012, focusing on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & Google+.

More than 1 million websites integrated with Facebook since the beginning of 2012. with a reported 80% of users preferring to connect with brands via the social site. With 23% of people checking their accounts five or more times a day, it's hard to miss an advertising opportunity.

Rival social network Google+ could become real competition, garnering 625,000 new members every day of last year. Of those millions of people, active users reportedly spend more than 60 minutes a day across Google products, averaging 12 minutes per day with Google+.

Meanwhile, micro-blogging site Twitter held its own last year. The average user tweeted 307 times over the course of 2012...

See more social media statistics and figures at the infographic.

A little-known but very interesting government agency, the National Endowment for the Arts, is quietly leveraging small amounts of financial assistance to make a big difference in helping communities across the country become stronger and more alive.

Whether in Portland, Maine, Pendleton, South Carolina, the Kewa Pueblo in New Mexico, or another of the scores of locations that its Our Town program is assisting in all 50 states, the agency believes "creative placemaking" can strengthen "community identity and a sense of place, and help revitalize local economies." I couldn’t agree more.

Indeed, music, film, the visual arts, and even design tend to get us gathering and talking together, frequently in the same place. Sometimes they reinforce a shared sense of culture; sometimes they provoke us (and others) to think of our communities in new ways; sometimes they are just fun. (Do not discount happiness as important to sustainability.) Often they create vital, new identities or "brands" in cities, towns, and neighborhoods.