Remember, remember, the 4th of November. Why? Because it’s Friday and I’ve got another round of “This Week In Digital” for you.

The Shirt Off Their Back It seems like every time a news story breaks about a company’s use (or lack of use) of Twitter or Facebook, it’s a lesson “What Not To Do”. Sometimes, like Dustin Godsey’s recent experience with DKNY, a brand gets it just right. After mentioning a torn shirt on twitter and exchanging a few emails, Dustin received a brand new one from the company.

Socialbots Set Their Sights on Facebook As if inflating Twitter follower counts wasn’t annoying enough, socialbots – programs designed to trick spam and fraud filters for social media sites- managed to scrape a significant amount of “secure” content from Facebook before they were unplugged. The creators say they weren’t trying to be malicious, just help improve the system. Tell that to the unfortunate folks who thought they were making new Facebook friends.

If You Build It, Someone Will Put An Ad On It In 2005, AT&T’s foray into Internet TV was looked at by many as a risky venture. (Fun fact: In a former life, I actually wrote some of the billing software that supported it.) Fast forward 6 years and almost half of American households have at least one Internet-capable TV. LJ is capitalizing on the trend by building advertising capabilities into their software. Internet TV advertisements may be the best of both worlds: the reach of a TV commercial, with the ability to target content to the viewer’s specific interestes like an Internet Ad.

Google Changes Everything – Part 1 Google was busy this week, and the impressive pumpkin carving was the least of their feats. The week started with the notice that Google is now able to index comments made on public Facebook pages. Suddenly SEO has an entirely new sandbox to play in, and privacy-conscious users have another reason to close down their profile.

Google Changes Everything – Part 2 Google’s gotten “Fresh” with their search engine and when the content is posted or last updated may now affect placement in search results. About 35% of search results will be affected, likely because that percentage of Google queries are date-sensitive. Ask Google about Ancient Rome and the “Freshness” isn’t so relevant. Ask which Kardashians are still married, and content more than a few hours old might be out of date.