What do you "like?" Facebook has introduced its Open Graph initiative that permits users to track websites you visit and share that information across your network.

The initiative will see a lot of media partners attach "like" buttons on their sites --- the scattering of those billion buttons began today --- and won't affect any privacy of Facebook users.

At its developers conference Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the new Web default "is social," so all applications are being built with that in mind.

For news organizations, the opportunity now exists to more readily channel content across Facebook. The Washington Post is one such newsroom.

Michele McLellan has posted a summary of a session on mobile media and the newsroom for the Knight Digital Media Center, and its essential points are worth reviewing for any organization getting serious.

The session was sponsored by the Reynolds Journalism Institute and featured speakers on the tension of transforming news organizations into mobile-friendly creators.

Among the points:

1. Put someone in charge. Like the Internet projects initially, this isn't a function that should be divided with other duties.
2. Content is king, but convenience is very important in the experience. Ensure the latter is dealt with.
3. Mobile doesn't mean a website tweak. It's a whole new platform.
4. Focus on local, location based, and social functionality.
5. Don't forget dumb phones, too.

The editor-at-large of the San Francisco Chronicle, Phil Bronstein, spent some time yesterday  with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and extracted some thoughts about the state of journalism and social media.

Until recently, Gates wasn't using social media. It was too intrusive and he just couldn't keep up with the demands of Facebook friendship. But he's finding ways to asymmetrically use it through his Fan page, just as he's adopted Twitter to talk about his foundation work and look for useful information.

But where Gates sounded most reflective was in his discussion on the changes in journalism. He seems worried that, as organizations cut resources from major investigations, the blogosphere will not replace it.

"Is the Internet missing something that the top papers have collectively provided? Probably so," Gates says. Organizations like ProPublica are doing good work but not necessarily filling the gap, he says.

Facebook today introduced a series of new ways to discuss interests and what you like as part of a concerted campaign to gain a bigger share of what you share. More details are due later this week at its developers' conference.

It is, as the New York Times describes, Facebook's effort to create a system of satellites for its users to share content with friends. But the community pages and "like" buttons aim to control more of a user's interactions with content and sites. 

Facebook would like the implications for media to be clear: Get into its orbit or find yourself lost in space. The monetization opportunities abound.

Then again, a coalition of sites is creating a new system to share content across networks, not just Facebook. They're propelled by Meebo and include Google and MySpace.

For news organizations, this has some positive qualities in providing additional means by which content can be shared. At the same time it is wresting some control from the creators and vesting it in the intermediary.

Benedict Evans, a consultant at the Enders Analysis firm, argues in paidContent UK that the Apple iPad doesn't stand to silence the newspaper presses. In short, the prospects for the new device won't generate a viable business model for the paper.

The real question is one of scale, Evans argues. Not enough will be sold, and not enough people will pay for content once they own one, to cover the cost of a newspaper model predicated on the absence of the Internet.

While some have argued that the applications --- and not the subscriptions, per se --- will drive the revenue, Evans suggests the long-term sustainability of the app model shaping consumption is questionable.

"The main impact of the iPad might be to erode further the position of print publications and their websites, by giving all of the web the same portability as a physical newspaper or magazine," Evans writes.

Jim Brady, the former digital chief at washingtonpost.com and recent consultant to a variety of media, has been quietly building a team at the Allbritton Communications headquarters. Its name is still not public, but it is bound to make a public splash.

Brady has been a digital leader in North America and his departure from the Post to establish what could be a rival news operation is going to be the most interesting online news spectator sport.

Some details of his approach are out today in a lengthy post at Poynter Online. Some of the attributes conventionally measured will be less so on his site. Instead, community engagement, geocoding and aggregation will be prominent features. Brady believes a mix of original reporting, data and community needs to exist.

He'll focus on the material that matters most and the material that happens most closely, and leave the rest. Beats will be targeted. Geocoding will be essential in delivering content and in serving advertisers. Utility will be a priority.

About 50 will work at the site, including 20 reporters and seven in community engagement.

A new report on mobile marketing from the Borrell Associates firm indicates that the trajectory of mobile advertising will exceed what happened with television in the 1950s or the Internet in the 1990s. 

In other words, it will zoom. The initial action: Couponing.

"We view advertisers' growing love affair with coupons as a major key to the emergence of mobile marketing," the report released today says.

Redemption rates in the early stages of development are 10 times higher than rates of newspaper-clipped coupons.

Online marketing will increase by a compounded 13 per cent through 2014, but mobile marketing will grow at an annual rate of 84 per cent. Mobile advertising at a local level will double in each of the next few years.

Today Google introduced a feature to search archival material from Twitter. As a news tool it has exceptional implications for research of the public record --- what the conversation was at a particular time on a topic and what resources were mounted as that conversation proceeded.

In playing with the limited tool today --- Google is rolling it out in stages, with the first one going back to February, but soon to date back to 2006 --- it offered a great library of data.

The tool shows the velocity of a topic and permits you to isolate a time to explore what was Tweeted.

"All of us are just beginning to understand the many ways real-time information and short-form web content will be useful in the future, and we think being able to make use of historical information is an important part of that," writes Dylan Casey, the product manager for real-time search on Google on the company's official blog.

A new venture taking shape through NewsLab aims to build a journalist's brand by creating a content network for his/her work.

NewsTilt will essentially take care of search engine optimization, advertising, design and management of a microsite in exchange for 20 per cent of any revenue generated.

It will screen applicants and determine if their niches fit the model. From there it will be a matter of reporting and sharing ideas across the various sites it houses.
 
The service is designed for those who want to take their blogs into a more entrepreneurial phase or for new bloggers who aim to make a business out of their content.

The difference with this service from, say, Demand Media appears to be that it's focusing on experienced journalists for its source material.

On Tuesday Twitter will at last introduce its plan to monetize the millions of Tweets it now enables to freely course across its microblogging service. Get ready because eventually it will invade your Twitter stream.

Promoted Tweets will, in essence, promote what an advertiser wants when a user searches for a particular term. It will permit advertisers to insert themselves into the real-time conversation on Twitter, something they've had difficulty doing to date.

Twitter promises no irrelevant Tweets will make their way to you, even though it plans in its next phase of development to send Tweets you didn't subscribe to or search for. That will prove highly controversial because Twitter has conditioned users to not receive unwanted information.

To mitigate possible negative response it has created a relevance criteria that will gauge the effectiveness of messages --- how often they were read, replied shared and so on.

Everyone had to know that, sooner or later, the party would end. Twitter is trying to find a way to send people along relatively happy.