11 Essential Social Media Stories

here was a ton of buzz in social media this week. Twitter’s co-founder squashed acquisition rumors (for now), while Facebook relented under pressure to bring back some old features. Twitterrific 2.0 came storming onto the scene this week, and Seesmic added Facebook to Seesmic Desktop.

We also brought you some useful resources this week, from amazing designers and authors to follow on Twitter to different ways to create your own social media start page.

So without further ado, here are the key stories that made social media news this week:

1. Twitter Co-Founder: “We’re Not For Sale” - Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, made it clear on The View that Twitter is not for sale.

2. 85+ of the Best Twitterers Designers Should Follow - Cameron Chapman opens our eyes to a new level of web design with 85+ great designers to follow, including sample tweets from every person.

3. 7 Ways to Create Your Own Social Start Page - Turn your browser into a social portal with these customizable social media and Web tools.

4. Twitter Search to Become Real Search - Twitter search will soon start crawling not only tweets, but the links within them. Could this development make Google sweat?

5. Seesmic Desktop Fully Integrates Facebook: It’s Awesome - Seesmic released Facebook for the desktop. We review it and tell you whether it’s up to par.

6. Google Sets Contacts Free - Google has made Contacts its own product. Stan Schroeder explores the change.

7. 5 Terrific Twitter Research Tools - I highlight some of the best ways to gather raw data and gleam new insights from Twitter and its millions of users.

8. Literary Tweets: 100+ of the Best Authors on Twitter - Cameron Chapman turns you into a literary aficionado with a recommended list of Twittering authors, as well as sample tweets from each.

9. NIN App Gets Rejected by Apple, Reznor Threatens to Go Jailbreak - Nine Inch Nails’ application was rejected by the App Store, and Trent Reznor wasn’t all too happy about it. Read what he had to say on the matter. (Incidentally, Apple later backtracked and decided to allow the app into the App Store.)

10. A Small Piece of the Old Facebook Returns - Facebook has brought some old news feed features back from the dead, including relationship status and profile picture updates. Adam Ostrow explores Facebook’s decision.

11. Twitterrific 2.0 Makes Twitter Terrific on the iPhone - Pete Cashmore tries out Twitterrific 2.0 for the iPhone. What does it mean for the Twitter applications on the iPhone and especially Tweetie?