In the spirit of romantic moments shared on the social web, we’ve teamed up with Blue Nile for a comment contest to give away 50 pairs of sterling hoop earrings, and a 1/2 carat Diamond Solitaire Pendant. We kicked off the contest by asking readers to share a romantic item found via a social media site in the comments. Pictures, tweets, blog posts, and videos, we’re game for any and all of it. We’ve compiled the best moments... 

Almost everything in life comes with a price tag, but some things, like geek street cred, are just priceless. Thankfully, showing off your online savvy, gaming skills, and web/tech chops can be as easy as spending a few bucks to pimp out your pad, dress yourself up, deck out your iPhone, or even freshen up with a geek scent or soap. Word to the wise, the owner of these products should be very comfortable with their geekiness, as several of these... 

by Robert Dwyer of The Wellesley Wine Press – Follow him @RobertDwyer A subtly confusing aspect of Twitter , even for people who have been using the service for a while, is understanding the differences between replies, mentions and direct messages. These concepts are confusing because they’re different than E-mail and aren’t necessarily the same as on other social networks like Facebook. The goal of this piece is to help well-meaning... 

The curtain has closed on yet another great DEMO conference. The fall 2009 event saw 56 demonstrator companies and 14 AlphaPitch startups debut products to a packed house in San Diego. Produced by Chris Shipley and Matt Marshall of VentureBeat (who will be taking over future events as Executive Producer), the climax of DEMO came earlier this afternoon when the winners of the conference’s top prize – IDG’s million dollar media... 

If you’re a regular Twitter user, you know about Twitter Trending Topics. It’s that list of keywords that appears in the right hand column of Twitter.com, on the homepage, and on Twitter Search . It’s a global system that gauges the thoughts of all of Twitter’s users. But that’s just it – it’s limited to just global trends. It does not drill down to what Twitter users near you care about. Knowing what... 

Fresh off of its homepage redesign (and the Microsoft search deal ), Yahoo has launched a full revamp of its search results page. The new search page, which is now active for all users, adds a new discovery bar just under the search box, adds a left-hand navigation column (not unlike Bing), and aligns more with the functionality and color scheme of the new widget-based Yahoo homepage. So what’s the change look like? Perhaps the best way... 

A survey conducted by Crowd Science gives us some insight into the habits of Twitter users, compared to users of other social media sites. While far from unexpected, some of the results of the survey are quite scary. For example, 11% of Twitter users admitted they’re accessing social media while driving, compared to 5% of other social media users. 29% of Twitter users claim they had accessed social media from a car at least once before.... 

Who says Twitter is full of pointless babble ? Certainly not Artwiculate , a new Twitter-based “Word of the Day” competition that aims to help us learn new words and earn points for using them cleverly. Every day a new word is chosen, and simply sending a tweet containing that word will enable your update to appear on the Artwiculate site. Once there, other users can vote whether your usage was “liked” or whether it was... 

We love how the Mashable community uses Twitter to discuss and share our stories, but until now there’s been no way to connect with Mashable readers who Tweet. Why not create a hub of all the Mashable-related activity happening on Twitter to help find the most talked-about stories, track trending topics within the social media realm and connect with other Mashable …  Read More →

Josh Peters is a freelance social media consultant who has been deeply involved in the research and application of social media for several years and is the co-author of TwittFaced . He blogs at Shuaism and would love to connect with you on Facebook , LinkedIn , and/or Twitter . Having an online newsroom for your company is a very important way to provide information about your business for customers, bloggers, and journalists. Through a well... 

Noticed something … odd about your Twitter stream? Do you see a lot of … colorful birds instead of the pretty faces of your friends? Well, apparently you’re not alone . A flood of complaints is overwhelming Twitter about the new Twitter avatar taking over user pictures. What’s causing this issue? Well, we’re not sure and apparently Twitter is not either. Twitter Platform Lead Alex Payne has already tweeted about... 

Facebook Fan Pages have been become killer community building tools for the social media savvy. Pages bring together fans and supporters with the brands and celebrities they want to keep up with. The only downside for both fans and admins is keeping up with and maintaining Page content. Seesmic Desktop to the rescue. One of our favorite Twitter apps has just added robust Facebook Fan Page support in version 0.6. Now Page admins can update their... 

Yesterday Facebook launched its @mentions feature. As we’ve previously noted, this has the potential to take on some of Twitter’s heart and soul head-to-head. But what about users who often use their Twitter and Facebook accounts in tandem?  Read More →

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum , where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.  Read More →

While Twitter may be getting the majority of the press in the Facebook-Twitter competition, Facebook’s still the 800 pound gorilla in the room.  Read More →