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Some companies are leaning on social media like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare for advice on what products to bring to market.

Twitter has suspended the account of a Los Angeles-based reporter for a British newspaper who included the email address of the NBC Olympics president and asked his followers to write him to complain about the network's coverage....

The Twitter hashtag #NBCfail – about the American network’s Olympic shortfalls — is covering a lot of ground. But a key early frustration was the online viewing experience.

Facebook‘s first quarterly report is inspiring few new friends. The social network swung to a loss in the most recent period, casting fresh doubts on the company’s ability to monetize its giant user base. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company posted a $157 million, 8 cents a shares, loss in the quarter, down from a $240 million profit. Excluding hefty stock compensation charges, Facebook earned $295 million, 12 cents a share. That meets the Wall Street forecast.

While some Twitter users reported intermittent updates via TweetDeck dashboard applications, the short-message website was down for many late Thursday morning.

Foursquare is rolling out its first revenue product as the company moves from focusing on user growth to generating cash. The new Promoted Updates enables businesses to send promoted content to users. These updates will appear at the top in a prominent position in the “Explore” tab in Foursquare. That’s the section of the app that is for users to find businesses nearby. The Promoted Updates, like Google search ads, there is “intent” there while users are looking for a restaurant, bar or other business nearby, says Steven Rosenblatt, Foursquare’s chief revenue officer. Businesses pay on a “cost per action” performance basis for these ads. In some ways these updates are also like Twitter’s promoted Tweets.

Wal-Mart's Facebook page has more than 17 million fans and the company also pays to advertise on Facebook. Expanding its reach online is key for Wal-Mart as shoppers increasingly shop on their computers, tablets and smartphones.

Once relegated to sleazy red light districts and the darker corners of the internet, porn stars are now gaining followings in a surprising place: twitter. They are using the social media site to engage directly with their fans and build their individual brands.

YouTube has added a tool which automatically blurs out the faces of people appearing in uploaded videos. It said the function would be of use to activists wishing to share footage of protests involving participants who wanted to remain anonymous. It hinted other features would follow, describing the move as "the first step towards providing visual anonymity".

At least, that’s what the statistics say. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), Google+ scored a 78 percent customer satisfaction rating. Facebook, on the other hand, languished below the rest of the social media competition at just 61%.