Root Orange allows businesses to lease premium domain names

Small businesses often have a difficult time getting to the top of search results for common terms, such as “auto repair.” Root Orange allows these businesses to lease premium domain names (such as www.autocenter.com) for their location, so that top search results are automatically routed to the small business’ website when the search is conducted from within a given geographical radius. This technology doesn’t have to be limited to the local repair shop, however – multinational companies in hotly contested categories like restaurants could also benefit.

Is the future of online video viewing more social?

A couple of interesting tidbits from the Akamai HD Webinar this week, including Epix’s development of a new feature that allows users to invite friends to watch movies with them online and MTV’s “vommenting” – video commenting – model that features a user’s comment and avatar on screen as a video plays. Advances in connectivity and shared experience will be increasingly important as more and more marketers look to YouTube as a key platform in social media activation.

TwitGift.me allows physical gifting via Twitter

Users can now send physical gifts – ranging from gift cards to cupcakes and tech gadgets – to their Twitter connections via TwitGift.me, even without basic information like the recipient’s shipping address. This could have major implications for brand-sponsored gifting if the service can scale appropriately.

Social commerce site LivingSocial raises $39 million in six weeks

Groupon competitor LivingSocial may have big plans for its seamless Facebook and web applications after raising two major amounts – $25 million and $14 million – in just six weeks. High-profile fashion sales site Gilt has also raised $48 million in capital, in part to fund its Groupon competitor Gilt City. Social commerce is hot right now, and two more big time players in the space could mean a race for more and better deals, technology and reach.