For last week’s edition of Bluefin Labs‘ most talked about commercials, we see that AT&T, Pepsi and Progressive are at the top of the chart. With a 191% gain week-over-week, AT&T has launched into the number one spot with its brilliant “It’s Not Complicated” ads. The buzz confirms that AT&T has a hit on its hands. The moderator of the focus group in the commercial is Beck Bennett, who has a YouTube series called “Fresh Perspectives.” Fresh Perspectives is like The Daily Show with Bennett as Jon Stewart, and kids as the correspondents. This is a great move by AT&T and creative agency BBDO Atlanta to take Bennett’s act national. Read more

Displaying a tweet on TV? That was so 2012. Last month, Mass Relevance launched SocialPhoto™, a new tool that will allow “brands can easily tap into the social sharing already taking place on Instagram, as well as on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.” As 2012 wraps up, and photo platforms like Instagram evolve and grow, visualizing tweets on TV is not enough anymore. Here’s how Mass Relevance is helping TV networks and brands more easily bring photos into their social TV experience.  Read more

In honor of the new season of A&E’s Duck Dynasty, the network has pulled out all the stops for a social TV strategy that extends beyond digital. The show, about a unique Louisiana family that owns a “sporting empire by fabricating top-of-the-line duck calls and decoys out of salvaged swamp wood.” To translate the lifestyle that the family, the Robertsons, live A&E using Google+, limo rides and more to prepare for the premiere tomorrow at 10/9 Central. Read more

Amazing how quickly the television space is changing. As Google unveiled its new one-gigabit-per-second fiber service in Kansas City today, it made a surprise announcement: residents will be able to sign up for a new Google Fiber TV service with a respectable list of channels out of the gate, tablet viewing, searchable programming, a HD DVR (up to 500 hours and 8 shows at once) and a free Google Nexus tablet thrown in to use as a remote control.

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Google came out swinging at today's developers conference, unveiling a long list of new products to counter Apple and Microsoft's push into a tablet-friendly living room. To start things off, Google introduced the Nexus 7, a 7" tablet running Android 4.1 that will retail for $199 -- clearly competing with the Kindle Fire. To accompany the announcement, Google said it's bringing TV, movies, and magazine purchases to Google Play...

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KOMU has been leading the way in incorporating real-time social media elements into a live TV news broadcast, especially around Google+ Hangouts. Last September, the station launched News_U, which incorporated Hangouts on air along with other ways for the audience to participate. Anchor Sarah Hill grew a huge Google+ following across the globe. But now KOMU "plans to scale back on how we present interactivity...

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President Obama has been popping up in live events and town halls on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and now in a Google Plus hangout, chatting with 5 lucky (and pre-selected) Americans in a live video stream. Over 130,000 total questions were submitted, and we're waiting for the final audience numbers from Google+. Just as FDR triumphed on radio and JFK on TV, Barack Obama shines in social media circles with an upbeat, easy-going style.

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Google+ has launched a television commercial, which started airing during the Lions vs. Packers NFL game on Thanksgiving. The commercial focuses on the importance of "Circles" and how, "in your head you assign everyone these roles, once you step back and get away from that you realize these are the people that were actually there for me."

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(Guest post by Jen Lee Reeves, interactive director at KOMU.com, which was the first local TV station to use Google Hangouts on the air. She's also an Associate Professor at the Missouri School of Journalism.) The day after Google+ was open for invites was the day I creates the KOMU 8 News account. For 19 glorious days I played with its potential as a brand at the same time I tried to understand its uses as an individual. I immediately recognized the differences. The KOMU brand page (the new location is here) was a chance to share updates from our newsroom and encourage input from people who want to discuss news topics.

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Google launched business pages Monday, and it didn't take long for the major TV brands -- and a handful of local TV stations -- to create their own Google+ pages. Here at Lost Remote headquarters, we've created our own, adding the G+ button "follow" button throughout. (Here's how. It's a static button for now, but Google says one-click follow buttons are coming in the next few days.)

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