5 Twitter Superstars You Don't Know

(NEWSER) - Irate Twitterers appear to have forced General Motors to scrap a proposed Buick plug-in hybrid based on the Saturn Vue, Jalopnik reports. “VUE, with a touch of Buick,” tweeted one hater. “I dub thee the Vue-ick.” GM cited “the overwhelmingly negative response to this vehicle” in its decision to cancel the model. “yea GM saw our tweets on the #Vuick and they listened” tweeted one enthusiast. More»

(AP) - Lance Armstrong brought Scottish traffic to a standstill today after more than 200 cyclists answered his Twitter invitation for a casual bike ride. The seven-time Tour de France winner issued the invitation while in Glasgow to watch Irish rockers U2 perform tonight. "Hey Glasgow, Scotland! I'm coming your way," Armstrong wrote. "Who wants to go for a bike ride?" More»

FriendFeed buy is bid to consolidate Internet

(NEWSER) - Facebook’s $47.5 million purchase of FriendFeed is about more than competing with Twitter in real-time search, Chadwick Matlin argues for the Washington Post. Facebook could use FriendFeed and Facebook Connect to become a “social media aggregator”—a hub for all content its users create and peruse on the Internet at large. More»

Purchase sets up battle with Twitter for real-time search market

(NEWSER) - Facebook is buying fellow social networking site FriendFeed for nearly $50 million, the Wall Street Journal reports. Friendfeed, a 12-employee outfit founded by former Google engineers, allowed users to share information across multiple social media services but never took off beyond a core techie user base. The purchase may help Facebook in its battle with Twitter, which it failed to buy last year and which is outpacing Facebook in the lucrative area of real-time search. More»

(NEWSER) - Online shoppers have discovered "a world beyond Amazon," Ben Parr writes on Mashable. Now they can swap advice, start up shops, and even get to know designers on sites like:

• Pikaba. Post requests for purchases ("I need to buy a new laptop for $500"), receive merchant offers, and trade suggestions via Facebook and Twitter.