Rivaling the ubiquity of Google’s search bar, Facebook on Tuesday firmly lodged itself on the front page of NYTimes.com. “The functionality appears to be similar to Facebook’s recommended articles social plugin, with users being required to opt-in to the service,” notes All Facebook.

“The most notable aspect of this new service however is that the typically design-conscious company, has a plugin which doesn’t align with the rest of the site.”

According to The New York Times, the only information that will be displayed on one’s Facebook profile is recommendations that they chose to share on Facebook. What’s more, all information being used by NYTimes.com will be explicitly stated.

What the partnership does not do is integrate Facebook with the New York Times’ existing TimesPeople social news network. Rather, as All Facebook reports, “The company has chosen to use a number of separated social tools for providing more interaction among its users.”

via [Mediapost]

If you’re an early-stage consumer internet company looking for funding from angels, seed funds or an early-stage venture capital fund, (Read VC Fred Wilson’s July post for a look at what entrepreneurs can gain from each type of funding), consider two new rules of thumb when you pitch potential investors, courtesy of Howard Morgan, a self-proclaimed super angel at First Round Capital.

Every consumer internet company needs:

#1 A Mobile Strategy — Explain clearly how your product will work on Apple’s Iphone or the Google Android.

#2 Social Media Marketing Strategy — Search Engine Optimization is passe. You need to understand and clearly articulate how you’ll leverage your brand through the social media marketing channels, i.e. Twitter, Facebook and the rapidly proliferating companion sites.

Simple rules. But important ones to remember when you’re hunting for funding from any early-stage investor.

Via [Forbes]

U.S. adults ages 50 and up who use the Internet are flocking to social networks, according to the results of a survey of 2,252 adults ages 18+ by Princeton Survey Research Associates on behalf of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The survey provides more evidence suggesting social media could become an effective advertising and marketing platform for reaching older Internet users (chronic offense-takers, please note that I did not write “old people”).

The Pew findings are pretty dramatic: Among Internet users ages 50+ overall, social network use increased from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010. To boot, 10% of the 50+ cohort uses Twitter or a similar “status update” service, either to post updates or check other people’s updates.

Looking at specific age cohorts, social network use among Internet users ages 50-64 surged from 25% to 47%, with 20% of this group saying they check into social networks on a daily basis — up from 10% last year. Meanwhile the proportion of Internet users ages 65+ using social networks doubled from 13% to 26% over this period, with the number checking in daily jumping from 4% to 13%.

By contrast, social network use among Internet users ages 18-29 appears to be reaching saturation, growing from 76% in April 2009 to 86% in May 2010.

These findings seem to jibe with some other figures Erik wrote about recently, suggesting that the overall rate of growth in social networks is slowing, but that growth could continue if social networks penetrate certain under-utilizing parts of the population — especially older adults. The pool of potential users is growing rapidly: a separate study from Pew found that the proportion of Americans ages 70-75 who were online increased from 26% in 2005 to 45% in 2009.

via [Mediapost]

Delegates and guest speakers at the 2010 London Net Promoter conference share their views on Net Promoter in this short video.

Usually, new vehicles are unveiled at big marquee auto shows in places like Detroit and L.A. But Ford seems to have done well to launch its Explorer crossover virtually, on social media.

The reveal’s physical occurrence was in the middle of New York City, on a faux hillside right in front of Macy’s. But Jumpstart Media, a Hachette Filipacchi-owned network of auto-centric Web sites, says the real jaw-dropper may have happened online.

The firm says the reveal of the 2011 Ford Explorer on Facebook caused a 104% increase in the number of people going to Ford Explorer pages in Jumpstart’s network of Web sites on July 26, the day of the unveiling.

Ford took the unusual tack of unveiling the vehicle on Facebook, and subsequently doubled the daily users researching Ford Explorer across Jumpstart’s online automotive shopping and enthusiast properties, compared to the average daily usage for the month of July, per the firm.

Jumpstart says the boom continued with successive daily improvements in usage versus the average, of 66%, 25%, 13% and 8% by July 30.

The firm says that because of engagement during the Facebook reveal, Ford got a greater share of SUV shoppers across Jumpstart’s 13 automotive shopping and enthusiast Web sites, including Vehix, Consumer Guide Automotive, JD Power Autos, Shopping.com Autos, Car and Driver, Road & Track, and U.S.News.com. The network says Ford’s share of SUV shoppers grew by 52% on the day of the unveiling to become the most-researched SUV.

Joe Kyriakoza, VP of marketing communications at Jumpstart, said in a release that the Facebook effort managed to encourage a high volume of in-market shoppers to consider Explorer. Kyriakoza says that after trailing Grand Cherokee — which also recently launched a new design for 2011 — for most of July, Explorer soared ahead of it and the rest of the competition for the remainder of the month.

Jumpstart also said the Explorer Facebook reveal did better than Super Bowl ads for other automakers. Ford outdistanced other automakers’ share-of-shopping increases the day after they had run 30-second Super Bowl commercials this year. The firm says Super Bowl auto advertisers saw average share of shopping lift by 14%. But that was less than a third of Explorer’s growth from the Facebook unveiling.

“While it’s unclear what Ford paid for the Facebook reveal, I’m confident it was nowhere near the cost of even one $2.5 million Super Bowl commercial,” said Kyriakoza. “Ford’s campaign clearly demonstrates that while traditional media can be highly effective in driving consideration, a well-executed and deeply influential online program can shift car shopping intent with immediacy and efficacy.”

via [Mediapost]