Step aside, fashion designers and retailers: Web sites devoted to selling user-generated -- or "crowd-sourced" -- clothing are proliferating, enabling shoppers to take product design and selection into their own hands.
Why is Autodesk -- the leading provider of design software for architects and engineers -- snapping up the maker of controversial video-sharing app Socialcam? Even the most reasonable answers point to problems ahead.
Facebook commerce? That's so 2011. Now it's Pinterest, the social scrapbooking site with a visual flair, that's striking a chord with shoppers.
After Facebook's belly flop of an IPO, the next major dot-com slated to go public -- popular travel website Kayak -- is slowing down. And its not just Kayak: Twitter, LivingSocial and several others are now in an IPO holding pattern too.
The most interesting story about investing and social media isn't that you can buy shares of Facebook -- it's the way so many advisers and investors are using social networking sites to connect with each other, and with market information.
The rough economy has spurred a nationwide trend toward thrift and reuse, and nothing exemplifies that quite like Pinterest. The social photo- and idea-sharing website is more than just an electronic corkboard: It's a money-saving, life-hacking virtual community.