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Does this violate end-user expectations of the micro-blogging service, which might cause a drop in use?  Or is it the message size increase a smart business move to lure advertisers?

Twitter's basic ad unit is a tweet, which is why the company says it is having early success with mobile ads. But advertisers want more than just 140 characters, and Twitter is happy to help them out there, too.

That was the point of the TV ads Twitter bought Sunday -- to showcase what marketers can do when they get their hands on an actual Twitter webpage. And that is what Twitter hopes to point out in high-profile ad campaigns to come.

Twitter's NASCAR campaign shows what Twitter can do with a single keyword term -- and, presumably, what an advertiser can do once they purchase that keyword for a day (or more?). But Twitter has been steadily amping up what advertisers can do on Twitter.com for a couple years.

Britney Spears is ensuring she has plenty of energy for her X Factor debut, issuing a rider that reportedly requests 10 pieces of chicken, 10...

Real-Time Advice: Newlywed CEO Mark Zuckerberg may want to watch his status updates, divorce lawyers say. Facebook often gets blamed for breakups.

It's a bit of an overstatement to say that Fox's "American Idol" and NBC's "The Voice" are locked in a head-to-head battle. While NBC clearly aimed to ding Fox's franchise by scheduling the second season of "The Voice" to run in the same part of the year as "Idol," the shows air on different days of the week and have differing rhythms (not to mention very different direct competition on other networks).

That said, it's impossible to resist comparing how the shows are performing against each other, so to speak. The Hollywood Reporter's Shirley Halperin did that recently and concluded that "Idol" has the clear ratings edge: "Even with a ratings slump, most networks would kill for the show's numbers," she wrote. (Her whole piece is worth reading because she really digs into the numbers -- examining, for instance, what happens when you factor out the freakishly huge post-Super Bowl ratings of the Season 2 premiere of "The Voice").

But which show has its viewers more engaged? For a social-TV perspective on the "Idol" vs. "Voice" matchup, Ad Age worked with our editorial partner Trendrr, the social-media monitoring firm. Scroll down below the infographic for some context.

The giant coffee chain has revealed that they use cochineal extract, which is the ground-up bodies of insects, as a dye for their popular Strawberry Frappuccino beverage.

Facebook just removed everyone's email address from their profile and replaced it with an @facebook.com email address without asking you. Here's how to easily fix the problem, courtesy of Lifehacker.com:

Facebook continues to quietly add and tweak features behind the scenes, without fanfare or announcements. The latest example is the addition of a percentage link to posts on brand pages, which enables page administrators to see what percentage of the users who like the page have seen the post....

Katy Perry told Ellen DeGeneres that her tour documentary 'Part Of Me' is going to include the dissolution of her marriage from husband-of-14-months Russell...

DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio revealed that an existing character - who was previously assumed to be straight - would become ‘one of our most prominent gay characters’.

A story yesterday in MediaPost Media Daily News reinforces something I have strongly advocated at radio for more than a dozen years ...

TV incentive social media programs seem to be gaining ground.  

In revealing some results of its social TV rewards app, ACTV8.me -- which has deals with Fox Broadcasting (for "New Girl"), Mark Burnett Productions, Oxygen TV, Virgin Produced -- says early data shows heavy usage and rewards for viewers with "digital currency."  Though it didn't offer specifics concerning programs or networks, the company says early data shows users of the app are interacting an average of 10 times per episode and accepting over two offers per episode.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/173151/tv-incentive-social-media-programs-gain-ground.html?edition=46086#ixzz1t4WKO6L2

Facebook announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire Instagram, a fun, popular photo-sharing app for mobile devices.

The total consideration for San Francisco-based Instagram is approximately $1 billion in a combination of cash and shares of Facebook. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close later this quarter.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, posted about the transaction on his Timeline:

To understand the future you have to understand the folks who will populate it, especially those folks coming into demos that matter – and those are the so-called Millennials, the 76 million Americans born between 1978 and 2000 who today are between 12 and 34 or so.  Check out these important facts about millennials – especially millennial tablet owners – from Magid Associates:

Slightly more than half of all tablet owners are Millennials.

Thirty-five percent of adult Millennials own a tablet. Nearly half of all males in this group own a tablet—that’s higher than any other gender/generation break.

Millennials are more likely to have a tablet than to own and regularly use personal digital media players without wifi (think older-generation iPods), netbooks, HD radios, satellite radios or e-readers.

They are just as likely to have a tablet as they are to have a handheld gaming device or Blu-Ray player.

Atlantic Records has taken an uncommon approach to using Apple’s iBooks Author — touted as a creation platform that will “reinvent the textbook” — by building an interactive ebook for the band Shinedown‘s next album.

The 75-page iPad ebook will be available March 26, coinciding with the Amaryllis album release the following day. The ebook visually tells the story of the multi-platinum rock band’s new songs, creative process and cover art.

The largest solar flare in five years is racing toward Earth, threatening to unleash a torrent of charged particles that could disrupt power grids, GPS and airplane flights.

The sun erupted Tuesday evening, and the effects should start smacking Earth around 7 a.m. EST Thursday, according to forecasters at the federal government's Space Weather Prediction Center. They say the flare is growing as it speeds outward from the sun.