• Predictions (like the Future of Television), and other interesting posts of this week

It’s time to review the most interesting tweets, links, and posts I’ve stumbled across this week, for your reading and clicking pleasure. I call it NGIF, for Nick's Great Information Friday. You can get this and all my posts by subscribing to the free e-newsletter at www.nickdemartino.net.  

 ROUND-UPS

At the risk of getting too meta, many of the posts I liked this week were themselves end-of-year round-ups – either reviewing 2011 or predicting 2012. A selection:

• I shared my favorite books of 2011 in this post, the second in a series of year-end round-up that include movies, television, and apps. http://www.nickdemartino.net/blog/2011/12/11/best-of-2011-my-favorite-books.html
• Mashable lists five major trends that changed digital entertainment in 2011. No surprises, but a handy roundup.
• For you geeks out there, O’Reilly Radar lists five “big data” predictions for 2012.
• The top ten posts on Tribeca’s Future of Film site included two of my articles. 

FUTURE OF TELEVISION

Seemed like there were a LOT of articles this week that looked at the changing landscape of television (probably because all the “smart” apps I use notice I’m interested in this topic – that’s another post, however.)

• Why You’ll Buy TV on the Web in 2012, an interesting post at All Things D, summarizing analyst Rich Greenfield  
• MIP’s blog ran an interesting post about Bluefin Labs, a social TV analysis firm that demo’d deep processing of Twitter and Facebook comments to provide insights into television. 
• Siri’s implications on voice-controlled television (it will dismantle networks). See this post by WetPaint’s Ben Elowitz  
• Why Google TV will Win, claims GigaOm’s Janko Roettgers.
• Launch of the “Watch it” button, a social bookmarking system for television, creates a super movie queue across multiple sites. 
• Gracenote, the Sony-owned database company that powers iTunes and other sites, will announce a second-screen content recognition platform at CES, reports GigaOm. 
• Still unconfirmed, this week’s rumor mill has Verizon buying Netflix. 
• What should a “TV Guide” product do? Jinni founder Yosi Glick gives you his vision.
• Why not turn to “couch consultants” to learn more about what consumers want from tomorrow’s TV, in this ITVT post?
• The “memeification” of the sitcom: the intersection of Twitter and television programs. 
• Is there a future for “social TV”? Some say that most of the “social” features will become a standard part of content. 
• A review of the “new” YouTube by NY Times TV critic Mike Hale
• YouTube for Schools just launched as well, offering schools a way to filter for educational content and eliminate the, well, the other stuff.

SOCIAL

Sometimes it seems that Facebook and Twitter are the only social networks covered, but this Business Insider post reminds us that #3 site TAGGED is growing too, this time by acquiring hi5

Why Spotify can never be profitable: The secret demands of record labels. 

FUN

Loved this “transmedia purity test” quiz.

The “video essay” is a new form being pioneered by Press Play, in conjunction with IndieWire. Matthias Stork’s three-part series on “Chaos Cinema” finishes up, and “Magic and Light” about the career of Spielberg begins

R.I.P.

Christopher Buckley’s tribute to his friend Christopher Hitchens, who died this week, in The New Yorker