Had reason yesterday to touch base with an old friend from the days before there was social media, or at least the days when no one called it that. His name is David Hyman, and he used to sell ads on the music site Addicted to Noise, back when people thought banner ads were cool. Oh, and dinosaurs roamed the earth then, too.

Ever since I returned from vacation a week and a half ago, I've been mulling our time at Jiminy Peak in the Berkshires from a social media context. It's not that Jiminy Peak is a major presence on, say, FriendFeed, but that, in order to get two nights virtually free at the mountain -- which, in the summer, has a great amusement/adventure park for kids -- my husband and I listened to a two-hour sales pitch for Wyndham Vacation Ownership. The process is really quite fascinating, particularly for people like my husband and I who have spent much of our …

We interrupt what was supposed to be this week's column topic with a discussion we must have about Scrabulous. You should know by now that the game's creators pulled the game from Facebook yesterday, because of Hasbro's copyright infringement lawsuit against Scrabulous. (Mattel, which owns rights to the game in some countries, is also in this dirty mix.) The punch line -- and isn't there always one where brand power struggles are concerned? -- is that Hasbro's own version of the game, which is available on Facebook, was hacked yesterday and wouldn't work.

It's been a while since I've thought about IMing -- or instant messaging, by its more formal name. In fact, I don't use it much at all these days, save for an occasional Gmail Chat conversation. But IM really was the original social medium, and, of course, it's still used by millions of people. Just not me. But then I had a chat -- by phone- -- with Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg, and Vice President/Business Martin Green, and it made me wonder if IM can also ride the wave that's currently being surfed by companies embracing newer forms of social …

Not just because I'm currently staring out at Niagara Falls as I write this from my more-or-less vacation, but I thought it was time for the Social Media Insider to turn the column over to the community with another group critique. The one I chose this time was the RadioShack MyMosaic Facebook app that launched last week to promote RadioShack's digital imaging products and the "get more out of every megapixel" positioning.

As anyone who has been reading my column knows, I've been traveling hill and dale (or more likely Facebook and FriendFeed) in search of workable ad models for social media. Therefore, I'm intrigued when any company tries to solve this most essential of social media problems, and WPP Group-backed VideoEgg, particularly with its announcement today that it is rolling out a few new features aimed at making its advertising more engaging, bears a closer look. (The company distributes ads to social networks and other of what it calls "social environments," such as gaming sites.)

Maybe I should be writing about something more substantive this week. Or maybe not. The Fourth of July is only two days away. But it's time I discussed my creeping Twitter addiction. It's been weighing on me for some time.

It's somewhat ironic that, as the emcee of OMMA Social on Monday, I spent less time Facebooking, Twittering and blogging than I have in weeks. The venues were certainly open to me. I could have posted to Mediapost's Raw blog, or Twittered (tweeted?) about my own impressions of the conference. But there was always a missing speaker to find, an introduction to make, a housekeeping reminder to make from the podium....

The best example of using social media to bring non-attendees to Cannes is JWT's "Cannes to the People" effort, which links together Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube to bring the Festival to JWT people who couldn't go.

Trying to parse the following two news headlines about the wonderful world of video is giving me an Excedrin headache. "Broadcasters Fare Surprisingly Well in Ad Sales," said The New York Times in a wrap-up of this year's network TV upfront, which saw the nets bring in just about the same amount of money they did last year -- a little north of $9 billion -- despite declining viewership. "YouTube: You Created the Content, Now Sell the Ads: Google, Looking to Monetize Video Site, Is Letting Content Producers Sell Advertising on Their Branded Channels" said Advertising Age in a Monday …