If their aim is influence, anyone who's spent the past few years feverishly racking up tweets and Twitter followers should take a breather. Why? Because it isn't the "most prolific tweeters or those with [the] most followers" who are steering the conversation, according to Bernardo Huberman, director of HP Lab's Social Computing Research Group. On the contrary, as ReadWriteWeb points out, "long-standing status as a source of information and news," is what mostly determines Twitter's Trending Topics. As such, "We found that mainstream media play a role in most trending topics and actually act as feeders of these trends," …

Expanding rapidly into new and rival territories, Facebook seems to have replaced Google as the business world's chief disruptor. "It is disrupting the businesses of established companies like Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. and putting even more Internet firms on notice," writes The Wall Street Journal. Indeed, "The social network is a potential rival in electronic payments to eBay Inc.'s PayPal, while partnerships Facebook is cementing with smartphone makers set the stage for competition with Apple Inc." Companies from the Valley to the Alley are therefore agonizing over whether or not to work with Facebook. "Facebook is both a …

Bonnier Corp. became one of the first publishers to take advantage of Apple’s new digital subscription service by offering an annual subscription to the iPad edition of Popular Science. The company will charge $14.99 a year for 12 issues--a time-limited price that will eventually return to the standard rate of $19.99 for an annual subscription. Single issue downloads will still be available for $4.99. “Our iPad readers let us know they wanted the ability to buy annual subscriptions using their existing iTunes account, and we’re happy to deliver on their demands,” said Gregg Hano, VP, group publisher of …

Android expanded its lead over Apple's iOS as the top smartphone platform on the Millennial Media mobile ad network, with a 54% share of impressions compared to Apple's 28% in January. In December, the Google mobile platform had a 46% share versus 32% for iOS. Millennial said that overall, however, ad requests on iOS increased faster (47%) last month than for any other operating system, aided by iPad traffic. iOS is the top platform among connected devices on the mobile ad network, accounting for 9% of impressions. Smartphones generated 66% of impressions and feature phones, 25%. The growth …

Colleen Fahey Rush has been named Executive Vice President and Chief Research Officer of MTV Networks, responsible for all research, including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, VH1, CMT, Logo, Spike, and TV Land. She had been executive vice president- strategic insights and research.

So much for the "Americans love to shop" theory: The latest rankings from the American Customer Satisfaction index show that actually, we don't. The index has taken its biggest slump since 2008, driven primarily by our dissatisfaction with buying gas (really, who likes these prices?) and government services. Certain e-tailers hung on to their high ratings, including strong showings from Amazon, Netflix, and Newegg. And such brick-and-mortar brands as Publix, Nordstrom, and Kohl's continue to shine. Brands that took a dive include CVS and Priceline. Overall, the ACSI index dropped 0.5% to 75.3 on its 0-100 scale, the …

Independent mobile app store GetJar has secured another $25 million in a third-round funding led by Tiger Global Management with participation from prior investor Accel Partners. That brings total venture financing to date to $42 million. San Mateo, Calif.-based GetJar said it would use new capital to aggressively expand its business to become the premier alternative to Google's Android Market for Android apps. That effort includes ramping up sales, marketing and engineering initiatives. GetJar, which offers 75,000 apps and boasts more than 1.5 billion downloads to date, will also continue to support other platforms including BlackBerry and iOS. …

YouTube marketer Orabrush has singed a $2.5 million funding round led by from Silicon Valley-based True Venture Partners and Chicago-based 2X Partners. The company markets a patented tongue brush for halitosis. The marketer's YouTube channel has gotten 34 million channel views and is the second-most-subscribed sponsor channel, just recently passing Apple, Wii and Sims, per the company.

The Marketing Arm has named Jason Katz and Erin Dwyer to vice president roles. Katz joins as vice president/gaming to lead video game marketing strategies for the agency's clients and the activation of all gaming programs and initiatives, including in-game placement, branded games, promotions, partnerships, sponsorships, and events. Dwyer will serve as vice president/digital strategy and integration. In that role, she will plan and incorporate social, mobile, web and emerging technologies into client campaigns to extend and enhance consumer engagement. Both will be based in The Marketing Arm's Los Angeles office.

Apple today unveiled a new subscription service for magazines, newspapers, videos and music purchased through its App Store. The initiative allows for publishers to set the price and length of subscriptions (weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual). Consumers can click to select the option they want and manage all subscriptions from their personal account page. Apple will process payments via the App Store and take a 30% cut of revenue, as it does now with other in-app sales. It will also let publishers sell digital subscriptions through their own Web sites. “Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a …