Generally, these bans are instituted because the videos on the popular hosting site show something a government would rather its citizens not see, from state police brutality at a protest to unflattering depictions of its leadership to “immoral” or sexual content.

However, this particular ruling stems less from a desire to protect a country’s internal PR and more from a desire to keep Russian media — including citizen-generated and social media — free from the possibly harmful influences of ultranationalist, racist and xenophobic speech. The phrase “Russia for Russians” itself is a slogan of hatred used against the multi-ethnic society that exists in Russia today, and searching for the phrase “Россия для русских” on YouTube will return a number of disturbing videos typical of the white nationalist movement around the world.

But intentions aside, this ruling still constitutes what many other governments would consider a prohibition or restriction of free speech.

The owner of Rosnet, the ISP affected by today’s decision, is Aleksandr Ermakov. He spoke to media today, saying essentially that the court had thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

“All of mankind is using this website. And providers like ours do not violate Russian law. But we are still being forced to close the website so that our users can not log on and watch the videos. This is absurd! According to this logic, we have to demolish all buildings that have swastikas on the walls. Or when two people are discussing a bomb over the phone, we have to take away the phones from all people across Russia.”

The Social Marketing Hub was designed to make the social media management and tracking responsibilities manageable for large enterprise organizations. The platform does so by presenting users with the ability to create content — photos, blog posts, video, files — and automatically post it to all or select social sites with just a few clicks.

These destination sites are referred to as channels, and the Hub supports updates to all of the following: Facebook (), Twitter (), YouTube, WordPress (), Flickr () and Awareness-branded online communities. Of course, the Hub includes management for multiple accounts on each of the various channels.

Saxobank has been sponsoring a cycling team for quite some time. This year the team will compete once more in the extremely popular Tour de France. Nevertheless, it may well be the last Tour for the Saxobank team as the bank announced in February 2010 they would put and end to their sponsorship. 

 Last year, the bank launched a dedicated facebook group, Team Saxo Bank, (group?), and a youtube channel with 29 videos. There is no dedicated twitter account, which I believe is not a bad move. It enables the bank to show a different side and use a friendlier tone of voice on their main twitter account (@saxobank), and drive the number of followers up. One might argue that may impact "the quality" of the bank's follower base.

  I assume the bank wants to go out in style, and try something new in 2010.

Earlier this year, they launched a dedicated blog / microsite to give more visibility to their team, Taking the Lead. 

 
They surely found some inspiration from Rabobank's popular "Web TV 2.0" (Rabosport.nl) and twitter account (@rabowielrennen, with over 3,6800 followers which makes the Top 20 on my Visible Banking Twitter Watch) where the dutch bank urges its cyclists to share their thoughts and insights via blogs and video blogs & interviews.

Just like Rabobank's, saxobank created its own twitter list with their cyclists.

 SaxoFan.net
To make the site more engaging and fully leverage their online initiative, they have just launched a contest on their micro-site.

The contest has its own url, "http://SaxoFan.net" which redirects you to the contest section on Taking the Lead.

 The idea is to urge the Saxo Team fans to register and upload their loving pictures and videos to the micro-site. It is a good way to create content at a minimal cost, and create more buzz online.

My favorites are:
#5 YouTube's I'm a Star:
You can pick any movie available at YouTube. Many full-length movies, like all of Hitchcock's work, have passed into the public domain by now, allowing creative remixing and more. You click the "I'm A Star" button, and let your webcam snap a few portraits of you. Google's face recognition will then show you a selection of actors of the movie. You click on Rod Taylor, and instantly have his face be replaced with yours across all of the movie.

#10 YouTube Shut Out the Kids:
What it is: YouTube allows you to switch on a setting so that kids won't be able to see certain content, like brutal kung fu movies.

How it works: It doesn't really work, because kids end up outsmarting their parents and blocking them from seeing anything. YouTube cancels this feature after a two week trial and creates a support hotline for confused parents.