The New York Times tells us today that Starbucks is launching a major social media blitz to tie in with their latest advertising campaign. Among other things, a contest to be the first to post a photo of new ad posters on Twitter.

They already have large followings on Facebook (1.5 million fans) and Twitter (183,000 followers) and this campaign is sure to get them more. So will social media get people to drink more coffee? Or buy more cars?

No one knows yet how to measure the ROI on social media, yet we all secretly believe it makes a difference. These grand experiments are laying the foundation for the future if nothing else.

Relationships are supposed to be the cornerstones to success on the social web. So what does this mean for brands? We find ourselves wondering how Starbucks (or any other brand) plans to have a personal relationship with millions of people. What's the point of social media if not to be social? Don't get us wrong, we are all for expanding into the social web. In fact, we think it is necessary and only a matter of time until all aspects of the web are social.

And yet, we find ourselves wondering where it's headed. Will social media continue to be part of advertising? Residing within the marketing department? Or is it something else, like, say, how a company does business everyday, up there with answering the phone. Because carrying on a conversation is what customer service representatives do. Not necessarily marketers.

As for Starbucks? We don't make friends with our coffee. We drink coffee with our friends. So we're going to grab a latte, sit down at the keyboard, and check in on Facebook. Maybe we'll tell our friends how great this coffee is.

Sick of hearing about layoffs, bankruptcies, and — dare I say it — cut ad budgets?

Here are few bright spots among all this doom and gloom:

• Interpublic Group (holding company for McCann Erickson, Universal
  McCann, Initiative and Lowe) posted  organic revenue growth of 6.2%
  last year, despite the downturn. That's $6.9 billion in annual revenue, but more importantly, $265.2 million in net income, up from $133.3m in 2007.
• Tech companies are going green. That is, using solar energy to power their massive, power-hungry server farms.
• Brands are figuring out how to do Facebook up right.
• Advertising is still sexy, politically-incorrect, and can be totally dangerous. My favorite: Mad-Men-style ad execs "doing nothing," from JWT Manila.

It was bad enough leaving his pleasant Hyde Park digs and burying his Blackberry, but President Obama had a whole lot more to deal with when he entered his new home this week.

He and his staff entered a White House steeped in history – but not so much with technology, TechCrunch writes.

Upon entering their new offices, staff found that many phone lines had been disconnected and the internal ones that did "work" gave nothing but busy signals. Software on PCs had not been updated in years; Mac-users were forced to use Windows systems; few people were given laptops.

“It's kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari,” noted Obama spokesman Bill Burton.

More importantly for many staffers, their favorite ways of communicating with each other (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) were suddenly silenced, as government
regulations clamped down on these methods. (For the other side, read the article from FOXNews where the out-going Bush admin disputes the Dark Age accusation.)

The only surviving "new" technology approved by the White House counsel – and temporarily at that – is the use of gmail
accounts for the press office. I guess all that data now "belongs" to Google – have fun, guys.

At Apple Insider: Apple plans to cut costs by shuffling the staff in its retail unit, making its part-time workers clock fewer hours and its full-time "Geniuses" pick up the slack by getting out from behind their service desk, err, "bar," to greet customers and answer basic questions. Apparently this will reduce human resource costs without having to actually fire anyone. But from my experience, part-time workers usually want more hours, and full-timers want less. Okay, Apple, you try this and see how your Geniuses handle it.

On Valleywag: The rumors circulating the tech world that "10,000 Google jobs are on the chopping block" are not true. It's more like 2,000, sources are now saying. And most of them are technically "temporary workers" so Google doesn't even report them to the SEC – though insiders note that many of these employees have been with the company for 5+ years, but keep getting shuffled around so that their status remains temporary and they don't have to get health benefits, insurance, stock options, or an offer for a permanent position.

On the Wired blog: Six Apart – the maker of TypePad, the blogging platform that this little baby is running on – is offering laid off bloggers a "bailout package" that includes a free TypePad Pro account (allowing multiple authors and blogs as well as more storage and control over the design), a spot in the Six Apart Media
advertising program, promotion on Blogs.com and other information and
advice in how to succeed in online journalism.

Are they swearing off China? Not remotely. It's too juicy to pass up.

But the new guidelines – drawn up by "leading Internet companies" along with human rights organizations, investors and academics – do lay out some do's and don'ts of the sharing of personal information in these emerging markets, the AP reports.

Only this time around, it's not with private companies who want you to buy their stuff, but governments that want to shut you up. Okay, maybe not you. But someone equally as opinionated – who is not as fortunate to live in a country as rabidly defensive about free speech.

The Global Network Initiative guidelines direct companies like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft to…

1. Consider human rights issues ahead of time as they decide which countries to operate in and what services to offer.
2. Train employees and develop mechanisms to resolve conflicts.
3. Require written requests for information, along with the names and titles of the authorizing officer.

…Ultimately figure out on their own which "practices" to change in order to comply. Because the guidelines are just, well, lines in the sand, and do not ban any specific
conduct, many of them are open to interpretation – and they are certainly not enforced by any third party.

Google and Yahoo have come under the gun for some of their practices in China – Google for censoring about 2 percent of its search results and Yahoo for turning over emails that led to the imprisonment of two Chinese journalists – though the repercussions of that gaff have already been settled, wrote Wired.

Taking a break from the battle of the search engine advertisers (which is getting boring anyway, unless of course, they're rapping), let's take a crack at trying to understand what's going on in the world of e-commerce. Yes, e-commerce. It's not as pretty as search, or contextual advertising, but it's kind of hard to ignore.

Despite the crappy economy, people are still buying stuff – and perhaps because of it, they're turning to the online channel. Think about it: You get all your choices right in front of you, when you want them, and you don't have to drive anywhere! Sure, the cost of shipping may go up because of higher fuel prices, but since you're not actually seeing your own gas needle dip, it's like it's not even happening.

But let's skip over all of those middle conclusions about how e-commerce is so, so resilient to a faltering economy, and get right to the playa's.

eBay's third quarter results were disappointing and Q4 doesn't look like it's going to be much better, InternetNews reports. Under pressure to compete with Amazon, the company started focusing more on fixed price sales rather than the auction/marketplace model that it used to grow its wings. It also started pissing off sellers with new fees and regulations. And then, lo and behold, 10% of its 15,000-person workforce is shown the door. Oops.

Amazon, on the other hand, has committed no such travesty – and apparently profits are up 48% from Q3 last year, writes Retailer Daily. Revenue was also double-digit-y, squeezing out 31% more from consumers. However, much of this revenue was not from Americans – Amazon is capitalizing on foreign markets like the UK, Germany, Japan, France, and China. (Amazon's biggest American fan might just be Oprah.)

You gotta wonder what's going to happen when the spending slowdown starts affecting those markets as it's been hitting us for the past year. I think Amazon's wondering that, too: It gave a glum Q4 outlook as stock prices plummeted last week, down even more from the 40% plunge from the past two months.

eBay's stock has lost half its value so far this year. Ouch.

Brad Stone from the NYT shed some light on the situation:

"While
eBay was buying into classified advertising, online payments and
Internet telephony, Amazon spent hundreds of millions of dollars
building its brand as a trusted retailer – hiring customer service
representatives and returning money to customers when transactions went
awry."

I think he's leaning more toward Amazon, don't you? What do you think? Where are these two e-tailing giants going? All the way? Or to the grave?

In case you're thinking I made a typo in the title, think again. This battle is worthy of any Supreme Court.