Sir Alex, Happy Birthday LinkedIn, and Hotel Tonight

Millions of Manchester United fans were left devastated this week when the club’s manager of more than a quarter of a century announced his retirement. Sir Alex Ferguson, widely renowned as a living legend of the beautiful game, has won 38 major trophies over his 26 year reign at the club. Manchester United’s press office made the announcement via Twitter, stating simply ‘Sir Alex Ferguson retires. #thankyousiralex‘, this hashtag, along with many more around the announcement were immediately trending. Footballers flooded Twitter with their tributes to the UK’s greatest ever football manager and even prime minister, David Cameron, got in on the act. #thankyousiralex

Facebook is launching video advertising in its newsfeed in July in an effort to capture some of the growing online video and television ad markets. Like online video ads on other sites the new Facebook newsfeed video ads will begin playing automatically, but without sound, with the option of turning audio on left to the user. When audio is activated the ad will play from the beginning.

The weekend saw the tenth anniversary of professional network LinkedIn. The site, which was launched on 5 May 2003 by creator Reed Hoffman now has over 200 million users, 3,700 employees and 26 offices around the world and makes more than $300 million in revenue each quarter. Not bad for a bedroom start up!

In other news, YouTube announced this week that it plans to start charging users to watch video content on the site. The new subscription model is expected to cost around £1.28 a month and will grant the use access to more than 50 different YouTube channels

This week it was revealed that 56% of fathers and 54% of mothers snoop on their kids Facebook. Students need worry no longer with the launch of a new website Unii.com that promises to keep their antics strictly under wraps by connecting only with others in higher education. Tipped to rival Facebook the site mirrors the format of its rival but with access limited to those with official university email addresses only. Students can rest easy knowing that mum and dad won’t be getting wind of them skipping lectures and wild nights out but the site will also help students make the most of their university experiences with pages dedicated to university societies and a jobs board.

Hotel booking business, Hotel Tonight, is to launch a new feature to its already popular application. The mobile app helps users find cheap hotel rooms near them at the last minute. With a growth in user numbers and downloads, the travel technology company is launching a sort of photo ‘scavenger hunt’. After users book their hotel room through the app, they will be asked to upload six pictures during their stay – locations around the hotel such as their room, the bar or the view. The project, ‘Snap Your Stay’, is set up as a reward scheme – those who participate receive $5 in credit for every photo set completed and $10 for images that are selected by the community as ‘high-quality’. It’s a great initiative by the mobile technology company and once again highlights the power of user generated content.