Despite nearly 8% unemployment, a tepid economy and millions of dollars in negative advertising, President Obama managed to pull off a sizable Electoral College win on Tuesday.

While Obama's 2008 campaign is now seen as a real-world demonstration of the power of social media, his operation four years later was much more complex. The '08 campaign is the stuff of textbooks, but the lessons of '12 are brand new. Marketers of all types studied Obama's '08 campaign and they would do well to take a look at his subsequent mobilization effort. Here are some of the obvious lesson of Obama's triumph this time around:

1. It's the Big Data, Stupid

Big Data may have its flaws, but this e…
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More About: Advertising, Marketing, Presdient Obama, election 2012, trending

About 113 smartphones are stolen or lost each minute in the U.S., but there's one city in which they are swept away more than any other.

More About: Mobile, cellphone, iphone, smartphone

Parents are using their children's attachment to social media to their advantage, making it a powerful incentive -- and punishment -- in the age-old struggle to raise kids right.

Parents are tightening the reins on their kids' previously unchecked Internet access, as they begin to better understand the broader implications of social media, constant connectedness and limitless browsing.

Facebook, text messaging and YouTube blanketed our entertainment landscape overnight, and these tools drifted into the very eager and capable hands of children, who enthusiastically adopted the technology.

The digital revolution took off, in part, because of the popular gadgets' great intuitive ab…
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More About: facebook tips, mobile lifestyle, mobile technology, parenting

Halloween may be over, but Thursday's Google Doodle wouldn't be out of place on Oct. 31.

The creepy drawing honors famed author Bram Stoker, who would have turned 165 this year. Born on Nov. 8, 1847, Stoker is best known for his 19th-century gothic novel Dracula, a.k.a. the ultimate vampire (sorry, Twihards).

The bloodsucker is depicted on the doodle's right-hand side in all his fanged glory. Dracula was published in 1897.

What do you think of Google's latest doodle? Let us know in the comments below.

BONUS: Our Favorite Animated Google Doodles

More About: Bram Stoker, Dracula, google doodle

Mashable's Gift of the Day series highlights cool, interesting and fun products for that special someone on your holiday list.

When indie game sensation Minecraft started picking up steam in 2010, it was fondly referred to as "LEGOs on crack." That's because the creative sandbox game is extremely addicting, and reminiscent of the colorful childhood building toy.

SEE ALSO: Minecraft Meets 'Gangnam Style' in Block-Building Parody

Two years and nearly 8 million downloads later, the official LEGO Minecraft kit hit store shelves in June. If you've got a Minecraft fan in the family (young or old!), this fun toy is sure to win them over. If you need it in time for the holidays,…
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More About: Gaming, Gift of the Day, Lego, holidays 2012, minecraft

LG will launch the world's first LCD monitor with a 21:9 aspect ratio, the 29-inch EA93, in Korea later this month.

If you've been following the LCD monitor scene, you'll know that not much has been happening lately in terms of innovation in format and resolution. Demanding users can choose between a 27-inch or a 30-inch panel -- and that's it.

We've seen the ultrawide, 21:9 aspect ratio used in several TV sets -- some of which are available in the U.S. -- but never for an LCD monitor.

Unlike most 30-inch LCD monitors, which sport a 2,560 x 1600 pixel resolution, LG's upcoming ultrawide 29-incher offers less vertical pixels: 2,560 x 1,080. It has, however, a much slimmer…
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More About: 21:9, LCD, LG, ultrawide

If Francisco Aguilar and Dave Young get their way, police officers and firefighters will someday carry baseball-shaped, throwable cameras along with the rest of their equipment.

As the founders of Bounce Imaging, Aguilar and Young are developing spherical, camera-laden gadgets that can be tossed into dangerous places—such as the rubble of a building leveled by an earthquake—and then wirelessly relay 360-degree panoramic images of the scene back to a tablet or smartphone.

First responders and military personnel increasingly use technology to scout out places of interest without putting themselves in harm's way. Often this means using robots capable of crawling into a building…
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More About: camera, emergency response, robots

One of the biggest issues with robotic planes or helicopters, also known as drones, is that they are not very good at avoiding obstacles on their own. In other words, they need a human pilot on the ground to prevent them from crashing. But that could change soon.

Researchers at Cornell University have developed software that, coupled with a camera and hardware that mimics a brain, helps a small drone to dodge obstacles like trees or poles.

The software makes the drone turn an image taken with its camera into a 3D model of the environment. The robotic brain can then determine which objects are obstacles and change its route accordingly. This wou…
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More About: drone, popular science, robots

Have any casting predictions for the seventh Star Wars film?

While many are saying that Harrison Ford may reprise his role of Han Solo, Screen Junkies has another idea in mind. Apparently, they think Disney characters should run the show.

SEE ALSO: Star Wars Just Got a New Lease on Life

The auditions and screen tests featured in the video above are something to behold. We think Mickey, for one, makes a stellar Darth Vader.

BONUS: The Force Is With These Star Wars/Disney Mashups

More About: Star Wars, Watercooler, viral videos

Standard tips typically range from 15 to 20% of the bill, but one campaign hopes to push those numbers way up in Hurricane Sandy's aftermath.

The #EatDownTipUp initiative aims to help restaurants in Lower Manhattan -- many which lost power for nearly a week -- recover from the economic hit to New York after Sandy's thrashing.

To participate, people follow three simple steps, according to #EatDownTipUp's official website: eat downtown, tip generously and share the hashtag with friends.

The campaign was inspired by this tweet from celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain.

In NYC ? Eat downtown tonight! Pick a small restaurant. Tip heavily! Send a 20 b…
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More About: EatDownTipUp, Hurricane Sandy, NYC, new york city

As a nor'easter makes its way along the U.S. East Coast, many in the storm's path will be turning to Twitter for updates, as they did during the recent superstorm, Sandy. Twitter often reports events faster than mainstream media, plus it's a fun way to get the news.

As many saw during Sandy, however, social media can quickly spread false rumors and images. To help you get a solid start, we've collected some of the best Twitter accounts to follow for quick, reliable, basic information on the upcoming nor'easter, which is expected to bring strong winds and a mixture of snow and rain to the East Coast today (Nov. 7) and tomorrow.

Capital Weather Gang, @capitalweather

Who they…
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More About: Hurricane Sandy, Twitter, national weather service, weather channel

Rockaway, a peninsula in Queens, New York City, was one of the many regions affected by -- and still recuperating from -- superstorm Sandy. The area's been without power since last week, and it doesn't look like it's coming back anytime soon. Aid stations have been providing support, but due to lack of power, most are unable to stay open at night.

Since Wednesday, though, Greenpeace has provided full-time power to one aid station with its Rolling Sunlight -- a truck cleverly mounted with a solar power array.

SEE ALSO: Why It Takes So Long to Restore Power in New York After Sandy

The vehicle was built about ten years ago. It's able to stor…
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More About: Hurricane Sandy, Newsy, solar power, videos

Pogoseat lets fans upgrade to better seats while at the game, and lets teams recoup some of the money lost on good tickets that go unsold.

More About: App, Sports, Startups, apps

Along with the nightly news, NBC anchor Brian Williams delivered an Election Day diss to one Donald Trump, on air.

While covering the U.S. election Tuesday night, Williams reluctantly reported on Trump's Twitter tirade after President Barack Obama won re-election.

"Donald Trump, who has driven well past the last exit to relevance and veered into something closer to irresponsible, here, is tweeting tonight."

Williams then goes on to read out Trump's tweets, concluding with the statement, "So there you have that. That happened."

Trump -- who, as we know, is not one to take insults quietly -- responded to @BWilliams (the anchor's official Twitter handle) and @NBCNightlyNews, wi…
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More About: Brian Williams, Donald Trump, Twitter, nbc

Need to cross a couple names off your holiday shopping list? Apple's EarPods are some of the most popular headphones on the planet. A recent upgrade to Apple's earbuds improved their comfort and sound quality; and most importantly, they retail for under $30.

Apple's first earbuds debuted as a complimentary accessory, packaged with the first iPod in 2001. Since then, Apple has sold more than 350 million iPods and 250 million iPhones, which also come with a set of earbuds. It's safe to say that Apple's ubiquitous plain white headphones are probably the most iconic of all time.

SEE ALSO: Listen Up: Here's a Brief History of Headphones

At the iPhone 5 release in September, A…
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More About: Gift of the Day, Headphones, apple, earpods, features, holidays 2012

The eccentric world of an Internet startup takes center stage this fall when Bravo debuts LOLwork on Nov. 7.

The comedic documentary series follows the employees of I Can Has Cheezburger, the nearly 6-year-old humor website that became famous for showcasing lolcat memes, a.k.a. cat photographs with funny text.

"I've lived on the Internet for so long that what we do is not unusual to me, but to the rest of America it is. It's very strange.""I've lived on the Internet for so long that what we do is not unusual to me, but to the rest of America it is -- it's very strange," Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh tells Mashable.

Huh admits the camera style used for LOLwork resembles NBC's The Offi…
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More About: Ben Huh, Entertainment, I Can Has Cheezeburger, TV, bravo, cats, humor, lolcats, memes, the Cheezburger Network

President Barack Obama celebrated his historic reelection victory across social media Tuesday night, right? Not quite.

On Twitter, Obama posted several post-election tweets, including his 'four more years' tweet which broke retweeting records. He posted a simple "thank you" on his Instagram feed, along with a confetti-filled picture. Both were cross-posted to Facebook, where they have now gained three million and one million Likes, respectively.

But the President's feed on Google+, active for most of Election Day, got left out of the victory celebration. The feed's most recent post as of Wednesday afternoon was "It's time to go vote!", posted Tuesday morning. (See above.)

Obam…
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More About: Google, barack obama, election 2012

Nate Silver's being hailed as a Big Data hero after correctly predicting an overwhelming majority of states in Tuesday's presidential election. But how did social media sentiment fair as a barometer of the electorate?

Before the election was called, Mashable reported that Twitter sentiment in the hotly contested battleground states was split: it favored Barack Obama in Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire and Iowa, while Romney had the lead in New Mexico, Virginia, Colorado and Nevada.

So did the Twitter sentiment "predict" the election? Not really: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Hampshire, Iowa, New Mexico, Virginia, Colorado and Nevada and like…
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More About: Politics, Twitter, US

UCLA football coach Jim Mora says the person who impersonated a Bruins player on Twitter is a "scumbag" who "ought to go to jail."

More About: Sports, college sports

There's no denying that we're a much more mobile nation than we were four years ago. That switch to mobile is affecting not only how we communicate with each other, but also how we engage politically.

As of late September, a reported 88% of registered voters had a cell phone of some kind, with 53% of those voters toting around smartphones. For this year's election, one in 10 voters made a political contribution via text message or a mobile app, and 37% of voters used their mobile phone for political information and discussion with others.

SEE ALSO: The Rise of Mobile in Election 2012

Payvia, a company that powered political contributions for the Obama and Romney campaigns, cre…
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More About: Mitt Romney, Presdient Obama, smartphones

The iPhone 5 is a C-average student. At least, that's the grade InsuranceQuotes awarded the smartphone, based on its effect on public health, the environment and the U.S. economy.

In the video above, the insurance news publisher weighed the pros and cons of newer iPhone models and gave them a solid C+ grade. Apple has come a long way in making its mobile devices more environmentally friendly, but poor conditions in Chinese manufacturing plants have led to employee suicides and protests.

SEE ALSO: 10 Stylish Stands For Your iPhone

Likewise, InsuranceQuotes found the cost to charge a smartphone over the course of a year to be negligible, but the overall cost of maintaining an iP…
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More About: Video, apple, environment, features, iPhone 5, iphone

Election Day served up a double scoop of memorable moments, but if by hour six of CNN's touchscreen-filled coverage you started feeling queasy, we're here to help. Think of it as Pepto Bismol for your brain.

We gathered up all the moments that had Tweeters and Facebookers talking Tuesday night and stacked them together in one friendly-on-the-belly list.

SEE ALSO: Yes, We GIFed: Obama's Animated Election Victory Celebration

Get it while it's hot.

Let's go to the polls! You too, Big Bird.

Image courtesy of Ralph Barrera

Moving to Canada!

Weeed, man.

Image courtesy of hot3s

Image courtesy of idonthavetimeforthat

Image courtesy of …
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More About: 2012 election, 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney, barack obama

New Yorkers didn't have to bother with cable news pundits to track the presidential election returns on Tuesday -- the results lit up the night sky. The iconic Empire State Building kept a running tally of electoral votes for both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney throughout the evening.

As the votes rolled in, the skyscraper's spire illuminated with red and blue LED lights to reflect vote tallies.

SEE ALSO: Empire State Building Will Be Lit Up With Election Results

Photographer Lisa Bettany captured the building's lights and created this time-lapse video to show off the role New York's skyline played in this year's election.

And when Preside…
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More About: Mitt Romney, Politics, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. presidential election, barack obama, election 2012

Famous game designer Jordan Mechner released a re-imagining of Karateka Wednesday. The rhythmic beat-em-up was originally released in 1984 for the Apple II and has received a significant update for its indie release.

Karateka was Mechner's first game, which he created by himself when he studied at Yale. He's best known for creating the Prince of Persia franchise, which was first released on the Apple II and later the Nintendo Entertainment System. It spawned a series of games across console generations and a movie, all of which Mechner had a hand in.

Karateka represents a diversion from Prince of Persia, and it wasn't a game Mechner always expected to find a new audience.

"Comp…
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More About: Gaming, features, new games, video games

Airbnb is leveraging its network of accommodations to provide some relief to Hurricane Sandy victims.

The program, which was announced on Twitter by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office, pairs those rendered homeless by Sandy with altruistic New Yorkers who are willing to house them for free. As of publication, there were around 120 such people whose rooms are displayed on a dedicated Sandy site.

Since these are personal residences, some New Yorkers have attempted to preempt any awkwardness by being upfront about their preferences. A user named Padraic with a room in Woodside, Queens, for instance, does not want any smokers and adds: "If you show up and are an OUTSIDE smoker I…
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More About: AirBNB, Hurricane Sandy

Call it the new 47%. That's the percentage of you who have unfriended someone on Facebook because of this election, according to our poll from a few hours back (which has 1,500 respondents and counting).

That's not even counting the folks you've muted or tried to avoid on the social network, since unfriending them would have serious repercussions. (You can't possibly unfriend that one conservative/liberal uncle of yours, not with Thanksgiving coming up.)

No, that's nearly half of you who have straight-up unfriended someone. As some of you might say: that's cold, bro.

It goes without saying that this is a pretty serious rift if repeated on a national scale. And it isn't go…
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More About: Facebook, election 2012

You might remember Air New Zealand's latest Hobbit-themed video, featuring a special cameo from director Peter Jackson.

If you were wondering how a horse got on the plane, or what it's like to film with Jackson, Air New Zealand has released a behind-the-scenes look at the making of its latest in-flight safety video.

SEE ALSO: New 'Hobbit' Trailer Hits the Web

The company is known for its quirky in-flight safety videos, but it went all out for this particular one in preparation for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The video has gained nearly 8 million views in less than a week.

Several Air New Zealand crewmembers made their acting debut in the video, along with actual acto…
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More About: Watercooler, air new zealand, the-hobbit

TweetDeck for web, Chrome and PC was updated Wednesday to version 2.1, bringing with it a number of new features.

Feature additions in the updated TweetDeck include support for expanded tweets, the introduction of keyboard shortcuts, and the ability to edit your search columns.

Lists can now be quickly opened by typing the name of the list into the search box. If you want to check out a list you're not subscribed to that belongs to another user, you can do that by typing in @username/listname into the search box. Both actions will bring the list you're looking for into the list window, allowing you to view recent tweets as well as add a new column.

Search columns can now be…
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More About: Twitter, tweetdeck

Election night is like no other for on-air journalists. It's what Christmas is like to Santa Claus, Flag Day is for Betsy Ross, Super Bowl for football players.

It's a non-stop night of filler coverage, while pundits and political reporters stare as maps slowly change from gray to blue and red. It can be enthralling for us at home, but for those in the studio, it's a little bit of a (nationally broadcast, live) mess.

So no one can blame Diane Sawyer if she needed a little liquid courage to help her with the nerves of the night (or just help keep the night moving along). OK, so we don't actually know if Sawyer had been drinking, and ABC reps told The Daily Mail she was "exhausted"…
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More About: Diane Sawyer, Politics, Twitter, U.S. presidential election, abc, barack obama, election 2012

Bob Dylan took to his Facebook page for the first time ever to say he was right about his prediction that President Barack Obama would be re-elected.

More About: Facebook, Social Media