Social media is the theme this week with the dominant company in this space finally entering the open market with a long anticipated IPO. Google has also announced new policies across most of their products and Microsoft has responded with an ad campaign promoting their own products. Even with all this activity from established online brands, the emerging social network Pinterest has started to get attention from the online marketing media.

Facebook's IPO

The big news this week is that Facebook is finally going public and has just filed for it's IPO. For the last few years there has been a lot of speculation on when the world's largest social network will finally be traded publically, and howmuch it will be valued at on the open market. Facebook's IPO will also mean that the social media giant will be required to release it's financial figures publicly, which is certain to be interesting.

Pinterest, Another Social Network?

Pintrest is the latest social network to get the technology media's attention, and with it's rapidly rising volumn of referal traffic, this is no surprise. Just passing Google+, Pintrest looks like it will become an important part of the social commerce landscape. Pintrest provides it's users with a space where users can organise images and online content for other users to see.

New Privacy Policies for Google Products

Google has replaced more than 70 different privacy policies with a single, simplified version. Google has been very open about these changes and have made every effort to inform their users. The changes cover amoung other things that for users who are signed in with Google accounts, information from one service may be shared with other Google products.

Microsoft's Response to Google's New Policies

Not everyone is happy with Google's latest changes to their privacy policy and Search Plus Your World, and Microsoft is taking advantage of this. Microsoft has launched a new marketing campaign aimed squarely at Google and it's users unease regarding their personal information. The "Putting People First" ad campaign is promoting Microsoft products like Hotmail, Bing, Office 365 and Internet Explorer as an alternative for users who want more control over how their personal information is shared, and used.