Shopping app Shopkick will reportedly announce a partnership with The CW Network during an upfront presentation on Thursday. "Viewers will be able to earn special discounts and rewards by opening the Shopkick app during CW shows, reminded by on-screen notices," Business Insider writes. The Shopkick app will automatically recognize commercials -- using a phone's microphone, BI assumes -- and will credit users with deals and rewards. "Sounds interesting. Now we'll see if advertisers buy in, and if Shopkick can get similar deals with more networks." To date, Shopkick focused mainly on retail partnerships with the likes …

In other "Liking" news, 275 million Facebook users have "Liked" a TV show, according to Justin Osofsky, Facebook's Director of Media Partnerships. Those that have Liked a TV Show, Like an average of six shows, which means there have been roughly 1.65 billion Likes of TV shows, calculates Inside Facebook. "These statistics indicate that TV studios should consider increasing their marketing efforts on Facebook to take advantage of the organic interest in Liking Pages of TV shows," it writes. "Through Pages, they can strengthen fan loyalty, increase viewership, and sell merchandise." In particular, Facebook pages for …

Respectively, "Like" and "Tweet" buttons notify Facebook and Twitter that a user has visited a particular Web site even when they don't actually click on the buttons, according to a study done for The Wall Street Journal. "For this to work, a person only needs to have logged into Facebook or Twitter once in the past month," The Journal reports. "The sites will continue to collect browsing data, even if the person closes their browser or turns off their computers, until that person explicitly logs out of their Facebook or Twitter accounts." Facebook, Twitter, Google and other social …

Where does Google draw the line on personal privacy? Apparently, building a massive database capable of recognizing individual faces. Even though such a project is increasingly possible, Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, said the search giant won't go down that road. Speaking at Google's Big Tent conference on Internet privacy, Schmidt said that the rapid development of facial recognition technology has been one of the things that has surprised him most in a long career as a computer scientist, The Telegraph reports. "Such 'surprising accuracy' was, however, he said, 'very concerning.'" As such, Schmidt said it's "unlikely" that …

During the first quarter of the year, smartphones running Android OS secured 36% of the global market, with more than 36.2 million units sold, according to new data from Gartner. "Gartner's figures show just how much of a difference a year can make," writes CNet. "During the first quarter of 2010, Android's market share stood at just 9.6 percent, putting it in fourth place." "Android is leaving other operating systems in the dust, growing its market share in one year from 9.6% to 36%," Computerworld writes. This past quarter, meanwhile, Microsoft found itself far …

According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, the Drudge Report sends more than twice as much traffic to top news sites as Facebook, and seven times as much as Twitter. Yet, despite this feat, "If you mention Matt Drudge in the tech world, the best you can hope for is a smirk," writes Eric Jackson, co-founder and CEO of fund-raising platform provider CapLinked, in a column for GigaOm. Why isn't Drudge lauded in Silicon Valley as a Web innovator? "Maybe it's because the design of his Website has changed little in 14 years …

Demonstrating its international dominance, Google commands more than 90% share of all searches in Latin America, according to a new report from comScore. "It's pretty well known that Google's market share is even higher elsewhere than the roughly 65%-70% share it has inside the US," writes Search Engine Land. "But we don't often see just how dominant Google's position is in other countries." Also of note, Facebook is the No. 2 search engine in Latin America, according to comScore, barely edging out Microsoft Sites by about 12 million searches -- 525 million to 513 million, respectively. Overall, comScore …

Jobvite, a developer of software that helps companies leverage the social Web for finding and hiring new employees, has secured $15 million in Series C funding, TechCrunch reports. Launched a few years ago, Jobvite was one of the first start-ups to pick up on how the social Web was affecting professional recruiting. Having now raised over $30 million, this latest round was led by Trident Capital, along with existing investors, including CMEA Capital and ATA Ventures. According to TechCrunch, Jobvite now offers social recruiting applications to over 500 companies, while its customer base has grown by 600% over …

The New York Public Library this week is expected to debut its new iPad app, "Biblion: The Boundless Library." Available for free, the first edition of the Biblion app features over 700 items from the library's 1939-1940 New York World's Fair collection. But, according to VentureBeat, the app is just the beginning for the august institution as it's "beginning to embrace tablets in a big way." Indeed, "The Library is aiming to open up the wealth of its research collections to the public, so we can expect updates to the app with more collections in the future ... …

Challenging Apple's monopoly on tablet-based magazines, publishers have begun bringing Android-based devices into the fold.  Starting Wednesday, some Samsung Galaxy tablet users will be able to buy app versions of seven magazines, as single copies or monthly subscriptions, MediaMemo reports. "The deal comes via Next Issue Media, the ‘Hulu for Magazines' consortium five big publishers put together to build their own digital newsstand." "Publishers aren't solely focused on iOS, and five of them have teamed up in a consortium called Next Issue Media to peddle magazines on tablets running on Google's Android platform," PCMag writes.  "Unlike …