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Chevrolet has announced that during Super Bowl XLVI, they will be running a “Play to Win” game on their interactive Chevy App.  The app itself ties in with a special Chevrolet Twitter account and allows participants to interact live with other SBXLVI fans as well as participate in trivia and game-based polls to try to win one of 20 cars being given away as prizes.

The Chevy Game Time App is available free in the Android and iTunes markets as of yesterday (Jan. 22).

Other prizes will include tires and accessories from Bridgestone, Motorola phones, National Football League (NFL) gear, Papa John’s pizza, and Sirius XM.  This is the first time Chevrolet has tried to implement a large-scale app for smart phones with this kind of interaction.

“This is the first time any company has attempted such a large-scale app,” says Joel Ewanick, global chief marketing officer for General Motors.

The games begin as soon as the app is loaded, though most of the big prizes will be given immediately before, during, and after the big game.  The first thing the app does is give the user a unique license plate.  If that plate appears in any GM commercial (both during broadcast and online) during the Super Bowl, then you’ve won a car.

Trivia questions revolve around players, teams, commercials aired during the game, the game itself, etc.  Correct answers get you entered into drawings to win prizes.

This is very cool and a first of its kind, so it will be interesting to see how well it plays out and how popular it is.

Microblogging online – on social media sites such as Twitter – is exceptionally popular across the world.  Nevertheless, not all countries are keen on people using such services.  One famous example of this is China.

While Twitter is banned in China, there are other microblogging services in the country that the Chinese people use.  However, the Chinese government appears dissatisfied with the fact that people can criticise them openly online.  More people are joining these microblogging sites – called weibo in China – every single day.  This has led to the government trying to find ways to stop the increasing tide of criticism against them.

The latest effort has seen them launch a trial run of real name registrations in five cities across the country.  This means that if someone wishes to sign up to use a weibo service, the person must supply his or her real name.  Without this information, they cannot use the service.

It also means that the government can track people who post derogatory or negative comments about them.  It is just one more step in China’s battle to control the internet – a battle that many Chinese people disagree with.

Many of us take freedom of speech for granted.  However, as this story reveals, freedom of speech is not a regular part of life in China.  Many people have already used these services to voice their discontent over the actions of the government.  While the Chinese government sees this move as a good thing, many people think exactly the opposite.

Most of us are aware that Facebook loves change.  While some of its users may not be so keen, there are more changes coming very soon.  These will take the form of sixty new apps that members can use to share information on their profiles.  It remains to be seen which apps prove to be the most popular, and whether users will be willing to get involved with them.

While sixty new apps may seem like a big number, it should pale in comparison compared to the estimated number of apps that could be built for use on Facebook in the months to come.  A spokesman for Facebook speculated that thousands of apps could eventually be built for members to use in this way.

These initial apps were set to be launched on Thursday 19^th January.  They will allow each Facebook user to add some personalisation to their profile.  This will be possible through the apps they choose, as they are extremely diverse.  Some of those launching initially include apps for Rotten Tomatoes and Foodspotting.  No doubt, food lovers will want to take a closer look at the Foodspotting app, while moviegoers will give the Rotten Tomatoes app a spin.

This is a major change for Facebook and it makes the Timeline feature more dynamic.  As more apps roll out over the coming months it could completely change the social media site as we know it.  What do you think of this new change?

Saturday night, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who’s new to Twitter and may not fully understand how permanent tweets can be and how broadly they can be distributed (which may, ultimately, be part of his problem – more on that in a minute) posted a barrage of accusations in 140 or less against President Obama and Google.

The gist of those tweets?  Murdoch is a huge supporter of the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and accused the president of selling out to Silicon Valley money.  He then accused Google of being the world’s largest pirate enabler and of profiting from advertising sold alongside pirated content.  You can see Murdoch’s full list of tweets at this link.

Google, of course, responded by denying the accusations made against them and pointed out the millions of dollars they’ve spent and the man hours given by their company to stop piracy.  Without government legislation, it should be added.

The president, given he dignity of the office, probably won’t bother responding to these lame 140-or-less tirades from Murdoch.  If Obama does, I think it should be via a simple blog post that is then syndicated via Twitter.  Just to show Mr. Murdoch how it should be done.

Murdoch, for his part, has shown that he has a poor grasp of how social media works.  Sitting with your iPad and typing a barrage of tweets is.. well, not the right way to do it.  Twitter is meant for a quick exchange of ideas.  Those ideas, however, need to be expressed in one tweet – two at the very most.  Each tweet should stand alone and not require the tweets before it to be involved in the understanding of the micro-blog’s content.

In other words, Murdoch is doing it wrong.  His SOPA-endorsing tweets should have been compiled into a blog post and then the gist of that post plus a link tweeted instead.

In short, Murdoch has proven that the reason people like him support SOPA is that they are ignorant of how technology works.  I realize that piracy affects the bottom line of everyone in media – including myself, in fact – but it’s not something that can be dealt with with sweeping legislation that is poorly worded and which will dramatically change the Internet for the worse by stifling people’s use of it.

I would submit that if more media moguls like Murdoch were to embrace the Internet rather than try to fight it, they would be able to capture more revenue from it than they stood to lose from piracy.

According to a recent press release, 2012 will be the year that micro-entrepreneurs will hit the big time.  This will occur thanks to the help of sites such as Used Everywhere.  As the name would suggest, this site (or rather network of sites) lets people sell used items to buyers from all kinds of different locations.  According to the information given in the press release, over 90% of Used Everywhere listings are from people who have small businesses of some description that are based at home.

The company offers a strong social commerce platform.  They provide a marketplace in which transactions can take place, and this marketplace uses connections with sites such as Twitter and Facebook to enable users to make the most of the social side of the business.

At present, the business has dedicated sites in various locations in Canada and the UK.  If Used Everywhere continues to enjoy the amount of success it has so far, we can expect other sites to pop up in the near future as well.

However, the real question is whether Used Everywhere will be the first of a series of such sites, focusing on giving the small business owner a chance to sell online by using proven social commerce techniques.  The service is offered free of charge so it is likely to appeal to the very micro-entrepreneurs who were mentioned in the release.  Earning small avenues of income could be wanted by many in the New Year.

There has been no shortage of drama with regard to the relatively new social media site from Google, Google+.  The site has suffered a drop in traffic in recent times, but it now appears to be fighting back and giving Facebook a better run for its money.

The latest news is that the social media site is going to roll out an interactive game for its users to enjoy.  This game will be based on certain aspects of Google Maps, although it is not yet clear exactly what the game will involve.  It will be called Play Your World and those who play it will see a similarity to such games as Labyrinth.  As such it could well prove to be immensely popular with users.

Games have certainly been a successful part of Facebook in recent times, so there is every chance that they will prove to be just as good for Google+.  It remains to be seen whether people join the service just so they can try the game, but if it is successful Google will no doubt roll out more games in the future.  It is a smart way to promote another of their products too, so the cynical ones among us may not approve.

But we shall have to wait until February to try the game for real on Google+.  This is when it is expected to be launched.  Google+ has already released a video on the game, so you can get a sneak peek before then.