Apple of my i(Pad)

Mr Jobs did it yet again. Apple watchers were not disappointed when the company revealed its much-hyped iPad early this year. With its usual share of fans and detractors, the smart gadget has been consistently one of the top search keywords since its launch. Google's certainly giving its adversary due credit!

E-reader's charm stronger than Potter's

It's been casting a spell that even Rowling didn't dream of. Kindle 3 has become Amazon's best-selling item of all time replacing the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book (which sold 2.5 million copies). Some estimates put the sales at more than 8 million units in 2010. At about $130 a piece, that’s a lot of zeros!

Giving wings to your anger

If Farmville was yesterday's game-zone darling, today it's Angry Birds. The 'addictive' game has seen more than 50 million downloads with releases to suit different platforms and technologies, and even has an ecosystem of discussion forums, blogs, and reviews focusing on it. Point: we love our slingshots. And we like it even better if we can sling birds at pigs.

Drip, drip, drip...disaster

Call it the big bang of this year. Once the dust settled, the world knew how American diplomats saw their host countries and its people. Julian Assange released scores of cables from US embassies, bringing sensitive information into the public realm. The fall out was as expected. The US Govt swung into damage control mode, financial service providers withdrew services to the Wikileaks website, and Assange found a case of sexual assault filed against him.

Celebrating the birth of Christ, on Facebook What's doing the rounds this Christmas? Apart from the warm wishes, it is the age-old story of nativity. But this simple story has a social media twist to it. Virals based on the story of the birth of Christ have become the flavour of the season. “It's a BOY...and we're calling him Jesus,” proclaims a frame for a viral. Amen to that.

Site of the year

It was a great year for Team Facebook. The social networking site dethroned Google as the most-used website in the US (in terms of time spent), and Zuckerberg got his piece of personal fame as TIME's 'person of the year'. With a movie to bring out the less-known facts and circumstances behind the creation of this revolutionary site, this social network was certainly the talk of the town.

Google and social networking: Thumbs down

Google tried yet again to get a bite of the social networking pie, only to taste more dust in the mouth. Launched in Feb with average response, Buzz soon ran into legal troubles for privacy violations, mainly for automatically signing up Gmail users into the system. After paying nearly $8.5 million in lawsuits, it is finally down and out. But 2010 also saw new rumours of Google taking one more crack at the social space, this time with 'Google me'.

Helping in Haiti

When conventional communication gave way in earthquake-hit Haiti, social media sprang to the rescue. Not just as an alternative means to connect, but also to help in humanitarian efforts. Social media impetus to fund-raising campaigns and resettlement efforts have helped draw more than 2 billion dollars. We call it the power of 'social giving'.

Where are you now?

This simple question describes what could well become the next big wave online. Location services have had a great year in 2010. Foursquare has seen 5 million users and has almost 2 million check-ins per day. Data suggests that 9 million people use Google Latitude on all non-iPhone smartphones. In October, Facebook confirmed that about 30 million of the 500 million users had tried Facebook Places. Where do we go next? Wait and watch.

Amazon buys Woot!

The original e-commerce superstar, Amazon, bought daily-deals site, Woot, in June for a rumoured $110 million in cash. Goes to show that spending online for a deal is alive and kicking! 2011 will reveal how it plays out and what new innovation comes out of this.

Followers of fame

They loved him. They hated him. But they just couldn't stop talking about him. Justin Bieber was certainly one of the most admired and most troubled people on social media this year. This teenager made waves with his YouTube videos which catapulted him to fame in 2009-10. But like they say, fame comes at a price. The young star had to deal with umpteen social media pranks and assaults, including rumours about his death.