Popular shoe e-tailer Zappos has selected Interpublic Group's Mullen as its creative agency of record. This summer, the e-commerce company was acquired by Amazon for a reported $880 million. Interpublic sibling DraftFCB and CHI & Partners were among the finalists in a review that is said to have included over 100 shops. Zappos is known for its forward leaning approach to new media and technology. As one example, its CEO, Tony Hsieh, has 1.3 million Twitter followers.

Twitter users are twice as likely to engage with brands -- and in multiple ways -- than other social network users, according to new data from Tech and media research firm Interpret, which surveyed over 9,200 Internet users in August. Roughly 24% of the respondents that use Twitter also report reviewing or rating products online, while just 12% of people that use other social nets -- but not Twitter -- said as much. Twitter users were also more likely to visit company profiles -- 20% more -- than non-Twitter users -- 11% -- and twice as likely to …

Twenty newspapers, magazines and nonprofit organizations have joined an ambitious data archiving project that will -- at least for a time -- be free to all news hounds and the general public. Created by journalists and developers at ProPublica and The New York Times, DocumentCloud is cataloging all those papers that reporters, bloggers and civic groups typically discard at the end of a project or investigation. Think of it as Lexus-Nexus on steroids. By next August, the high-tech data archive should give both professional and amateur researchers easy access to tons of potentially invaluable …

Meet Oneforty, an app store that Twitter forgot to build. Founded by super-Twitterer Laura Fitton, oneforty has created a marketplace that offers up more than 1,300 tools and services, complete with user reviews, descriptions, screenshots, links to more in-depth features, and live Twitter comments going on around the Web. When you sign-up for Oneforty, you use Twitter OAuth to login. All of your profile information and avatar information is pulled in, and Oneforty will even analyze the apps it sees you using or tweeting from to your profile. You can add other apps to your profile and rate or leave …

Gmail users were once again having trouble accessing their email accounts this week. It's not yet clear what the problem is, but some users say they can't access contacts and chat, while others can't get into the service at all. Google says its working on the problem. This comes less than a month after Gmail outages managed to inconvenience tens of millions of consumer and enterprise users. With about 149 million users, the free version of Gmail is the third most-popular email platform worldwide. The unresolved issues are obviously troubling for Google as it continues to invest in …

Twitter is less than 24 hours away from raising up to $100 million in new funding, The Wall Street Journal is reporting. According unnamed sources, the investor group includes mutual fund giant T. Rowe Price and private-equity firm Insight Venture Partners -- both new Twitter investors. Existing Twitter investors said to be involved in this latest round include Spark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners. Last week, TechCrunch reported that was Twitter is involved in another round of financing worth $50 million -- which would add to about $55 million raised already. This latest round values the micro-blogging service …

Ah, the alchemy that is accounting. Under new accounting rules approved Wednesday, Apple's 2009 reported earnings could increase by a whopping 44%, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. Apple apparently wouldn't be required to switch to the new accounting method until Dec. 2010, but Munster expects the company will start as soon as possible -- most likely with the new fiscal year that begins next week. Yet, it's also possible that the impact of the rule changes have already been factored into Apple's share price. Indeed, the stock closed Wednesday at $185.50, having soared 137% over the …

From what body part are venture capitalists most likely to take direction? Their hearts? Their brains? Their, um, nethers? Turns out, a clear majority say their "guts" decide where their money goes, according to a study of 185 VCs conducted by Pepperdine University. "Gut feelings" were cited by 67% of those surveyed, compared to just 43% who cited cash-flow analysis. What does John Paglia, Pepperdine finance professor and author of the report, think about the finding? It "just makes us cringe in corporate finance," he said.

Sure, we're big fans of Mark Cuban. Along with the whole self-made-billionaire-diehard-sports-fan-all-round-nice-guy thing, he's known as a guy who has never been afraid to speak his mind and break with common convention. But, while he may be a maverick, he's no anarchist. A staunch critic of "net neutrality," Cuban's latest contention is that the concept's biggest detractors -- cable companies like Comcast -- have the most to gain from it. Cuban -- himself a Web video pioneer and cofounder and chairman of high-def cable network HDNet -- envisions a scenario where an unregulated Web is soon crippled …

Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire tells PaidContent that his company isn't for sale. Last week, the Twittersphere was buzzing with reports that Google is in talks to buy the Web video startup for $500 million to $700 million. At least one reason to believe Allaire is that Brightcove turned a profit for the first time this year, and has plenty of cash on its balance sheet. "That puts us in a place to continue to be independent," says Allaire. What's more, this year and next, Allaire says Brightcove will post 50% better year-on-year revenue, and, despite shedding staff late last year, …