Word that Twitter raised another $80 million, along with new valuations of $8 billion-to-$10 billion, has everyone talking tech bubbles -- or at least reassessing the value of today's tech leaders. "This for a company that, people familiar with the matter said, had 2010 revenue of $45 million -- but lost money as it spent on hiring and data centers -- and estimates its revenue this year at between $100 million and $110 million," remarks The Wall Street Journal. "So a $10 billion valuation would be more than 200 times the company's revenue," Deal Journal …

Bubbli, a startup that's trying to change the way we use photos on mobile devices, has raised about $2 million. Led by August Capital, Bubbli plans to use the investment to build out its technology platform before its debut at the famous TED conference in March. "It wants to use camera phones to create a new kind of photograph," according to TechCrunch. The startup says it wants to "bring the real world to the flat Web," by capturing places instead of just a rectangular image. "It sounds like it could be a sort of panoramic photo, possibly with an augmented …

Determined to fend off threats from Google and Apple, eBay is reportedly ready to layout a comprehensive plan for the future of PayPal. On Thursday, "At a meeting with analysts, EBay will unveil its strategy for the mobile version of PayPal, the BillMeLater service and its open-platform effort, which lets outside programmers work with its software," reports Bloomberg Businessweek. EBay CEO John Donahoe is expected to discuss plans for the entire company, but focus mainly on the company's fastest growing business -- PayPal. According to eBay, the popular payment service is on track to eventually generate more revenue …

Facebook is now letting self-serve advertisers publish a new sponsored stories ad format. There are two types of sponsored stories for Facebook page administrators: "Like Stories" and "Page Post Stories." "Both are definitely interesting and I'm sure page administrators will be split testing these types of ads for campaigns beginning immediately in an effort to decrease their fan acquisition costs," writes All Facebook's Nick O'Neill. The top social network is also now giving page administrators the ability to select which tab they'd like visitors to land on when they click on the ads. Incredibly, Facebook is charging advertisers …

As it has vowed, can Google really curb "content farms" and the increasing amounts of useless content flooding the Web? Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis thinks so. "The one rule of working with Google is don't make them look stupid," he said during an "Ending The Content Arms Race" talk this week as reported by Search Engine Land. "If you make 'The Google' look stupid, they'll f- you up." Indeed, the head of Google's Web spam team Matt Cutts said last month that Google was looking at ways to prevent "shallow or low-quality content" from doing well in its …

Marking a major milestone for mobile technology, smartphone sales in the final quarter of 2011 passed global PC shipments for the first time in history. "Simply put, smartphones just outsold PCs for the first time ever," ReadWriteWeb summarizes. Makers of mobile devices distributed a total of 101 million smartphones in the last three months of the year -- up 87% year-over-year, according to International Data Corp. "This 'inflection point has arrived quicker than many have thought," notes Fortune. "Former Morgan Stanley Analyst and now venture capital advisor Mary Meeker pointed to 2012 as when Smartphones would pass …

Social content sharing platform Meebo is buying online ad measurement and targeting firm Mindset Media. No word on the price tag, but the deal was no doubt made possible by Meebo's recent $25 million funding round. "As an online branding specialist that has a particular focus on consumer packaged goods marketers, Mindset is expected to enhance Meebo's existing work with brand advertisers without sacrificing its direct response business," paidContent reports. Meebo has recently been working on new features for its ad-supported toolbars, which can be seen on such sites such as TVGuide.com, Mediaweek.com and Maxim.com. The bars stay …

From free dinners to weekends in Vegas, marketers are increasingly courting social media influencers and relying on tech companies like Klout to track them down. "A new generation of VIPs is cultivating coolness through the world of social media," reports The Wall Sreet Journal. "Klout ranks people based on their influence in social-media circles." Along with rivals like PeerIndex and Twitalyzer, Klout feeds public social media data into what the newspaper calls "secret formulas," and then generates scores that gauge users' influence. "Think of it as the credit score of friendship or, as PeerIndex calls it, the S&P …

Total Web email usage was down 8% over the past year, with a staggering 59% decline in use among people between the ages of 12-17, according to a new comScore report. "Cue Matt Drudge-style alarm," writes TechCrunch. Usage was also down 1% among 18-24 year olds; 18% among 25-35 year olds; 8% among 35-44 year olds; and 12% among the 45-54 demographic. "Because oldsters are continuing to migrate online in droves, Web email use actually saw an uptick in the AARP-eligible sector, with 22% gains among 55-64 year olds and 28% among those 65 and older." Young people …

Mark Zuckerberg says a stalker is using Facebook to send him creepy messages and threaten his personal safety. According to TMZ, the young Facebook CEO recently filed legal papers claiming that 31-year-old Pradeep Manukonda has tried to "follow, surveil and contact Mr. Zuckerberg using language threatening his personal safety," along with the safety of his girlfriend and sister. Meanwhile, law enforcement sources tell TMZ that Manukonda has gone to several Facebook offices in Palo Alto attempting to contact Zuckerberg to ask for money. It's all too common for public personalities to attract overzealous followers, but the success of …