No topic today.  Instead, there has been a flurry of activity after the holiday in announcements of new social media marketing activities.  We will use the space today to report on some of these recent developments.

Google announced a competitor to Second Life in virtual entertainment.   The new world is called “lively”.  It features 3D Avatars common in other virtual spaces as well as rooms that can be furnished and visited.   Lively will also play YouTube videos on screens, taking advantage of other Google properties.

In other Google news, Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane will bring 50 2 minute animation episodes as a direct to online video series for Google.  The project is scheduled to launch in the fall.

LinkedIn sent an announcement to all of their Group managers today, announcing that the much awaited group directory will launch on July 11th.  Users of LinkedIn will now be able to search for groups by utilizing the directory, making it easier to find those of particular interest.  Recently, the only way to find a group was by seeing it listed on a members profile.

Lastly, Marketing Sherpa released a chart detailing the search engine optimization metrics that are often overlooked: