The three major social media sites have been pushing new tools out to their user communities aggressively over the past year. Each company has its own set of rumors, from IPOs to being on both sides of an acquisition. While the ultimate 2010 aims of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn may not have been revealed to us yet, it is clear that all three are looking for ways to beef up revenue and demonstrate long-term viability.

Whether or not Facebook goes public this year, it's still pointed toward that ultimate goal. The 350-million member social network is focused on finding new sources of revenue and gaining better penetration into those it already has. Even if it's more than a year away, it's never too soon to start shoring up your financial statements for an IPO. The latest new feature from Facebook, which has been announcing enhancements fairly rapidly over the past few months, is targeted directly at advertisers, underscoring the importance that the company's attaching to revenue growth.

The Twitter-verse continues to get interesting. I've always felt that the returns are to be found around Twitter rather than with Twitter itself, and the venture capital community seems to be acting from the same position. Twitter interaction platform HootSuite just announced a new round of venture capital funding, with $1.9 million in fresh money coming in the door to support its growth efforts.

HootSuite, which was started by Invoke Media in November 2008, has evolved into a brand monitoring, file-sharing and social media integration utility. Only a year later, it has attracted more than 300,000 users, from Time (TWX) to Martha Stewart to the White House to Aol (AOL).BloggingStocks is among the Aol blogs using HootSuite.

Looking back on what became a tough end to a tough year for the retail sector, the one bright spot was the online sector. Shoppers whipped out their plastic at a record rate on Black Friday, a trend that continued throughout the season.

The Amazon (AMZN) Kindle killed the competition, reinforcing the status of the online channel as the future of the retail business. Social media, in particular, had its first real test this year, as many companies -- including Best Buy (BBY), JCPenney (JCP) and Target (TGT) -- used the likes of Twitter and Facebook to engage customers, publicize sales and generally increase revenue. The next stage in the evolution, of course, is to use shopping behavior to trigger viral results.

If Mark Zuckerberg knew then what he knows now ... Facebook would be more like MySpace, which is now owned by News Corp. (NWS). And, he's willing to admit this in public.

In a six-minute on-stage interview with TechCrunch, Zuckerberg went on at length about the social media platform's privacy settings, which have been the subject of unending debate. He says that he'd make more data public by default if he could start Facebook again. Though Zuckerberg cites Internet trends that indicate a reduced concern with privacy, the real reasons are more likely financial.

The New York Times (NYT) is putting its 2.3 million followers to work. It isn't ready to start charging a la carte for Twitter advertising, but it is including the channel in the comprehensive packages it presents to advertisers. And, the Times isn't alone. Several media outlets (including BloggingStocks) have ads running through their Twitter streams, but this is still virgin territory, for the most part, and media companies are still feeling their ways through it.

Facebook could use more older women, not to mention younger people in general. As the company pushes toward what is expected to be an IPO in 2010, it needs to shore up its user base in all demographics, if for no other reason than to diversify against a new social media platform that appeals to a specific community. So, even with the site pushing past 100 million monthly active users according to its advertising tool, with the addition of 5 million in December, there is work to be done if Facebook will make a successful entry into the public market.

Long derided by "serious folk" as a place for kids, Facebook's membership consists mostly of adults. Fifty-six percent of the user base is female, and 60% of users are 25 years of age or above. In fact, 20% of them are at least 45 years old. Some of the groups that are underrepresented are showing rapid growth. Men over 55 grew twice as fast as their female counterparts, though the younger generation moved onto Facebook most aggressively last year. Users age 26 to 34 showed the biggest overall increase in 2009, with 839,000 monthly active users. This represents a substantial shift from the trend earlier in the year, in which it was the later generation flocking to Facebook. Women over 55 didn't jump on the bandwagon as quickly as other groups.

Look, 2009 was a "flush" year. Market rallies were constrained by the low baseline set at the end of 2008, unemployment was high and caution defined nearly every corporate decision. The travel market sucked. The art market sucked. The financial industry labored on with the support of taxpayer money while 140 banks were forced to call it quits. So, we turn to the new year, as yet undefined, for excitement of the type we want ... and it seems likely to deliver. As Nero played from the rooftops, the social media industry inched forward to the climax we hope to see this year -- the initial public offering.

The action hasn't really begun, and the signals emitted are open to various interpretations. Nonetheless, Facebook's new dual-class stock structure is hard to miss, as it would protect the influence of early entrants to the company -- either as investors or options-compensated employees in the event that the 350 million-strong social networking site brings ownership opportunities to the public.

Jack Dorsey is accustomed to dealing in small. In 2006, he co-founded social media sensation Twitter, which traffics in content bites that are no more than 140 characters in length. He left his position as CEO a year ago (and remains chairman) and is now focusing on his newest endeavor: mobile payments. He came up with the idea for his new company, Square, a year ago and hopes it will revolutionize how money is exchanged.

The first product that Square is bringing to market lives up to its name: it's a small cube-shaped credit card terminal that can plug into an iPhone's headset jack. The problem that the device is intended to solve is the swift and easy transaction of credit card payments for anyone. It was inspired by the plight of Dorsey's friend, Jim McKelvey, a glass artist who lost a $2,000 sale because he couldn't accept credit card payments.

Revenue hasn't been as fast to change as end-user sentiment, but all that looks like it's coming to an end next year. Social networking site Facebook, which passed 350 million users last month, is poised to move ahead of rival MySpace in ad revenue in 2010, according to a report from eMarketer. The research firm expects Facebook to rake in $605 million in ad spend next year, compared to $385 million for MySpace, which is a News Corp. (NWS) property.

According to Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of Social Network Ad Spending: 2010 Outlook, "As more marketers incorporate social networks in their business, they will no longer look at them as siloed destinations. Instead, they will look to increase the impact of their social network presence by linking it to other marketing initiatives, both online and offline."

Back in September, the fast-growing online micro-blogging service, Twitter, raised a whopping $250 million at a $1 billion valuation. Meanwhile, it looks like the company has already reached profitability, despite this being usually an elusive concept for online services.

With its growing power, what's next? Well, now it looks like Twitter is into dealmaking as the company struck a deal last week for Mixer Labs at an undisclosed price tag.

It's going to be a nice Christmas for the folks at Twitter -- as well as the company's investors. Because of its red-hot growth, the website is attracting eager customers.

Customers? Yes, Twitter is working on a business model. In fact, according to a report in Bloomberg.com, it looks like the company is already profitable.

It was only a matter of time. This week, social media platforms Twitter and LinkedIn announced new features that will undoubtedly appeal to corporate marketing departments, so Facebook hopped on the bandwagon. Its new preferred developer program is a step toward structuring the Facebook application development and services space, by endorsing providers known to the company.

The program is still in its infancy, which means there isn't much structure around it. According to AllFacebook, "[T]here's really no way to apply to be in the directory aside from being connected with the people over at Facebook." Fourteen vendors are already listed in the directory.

Twitter-watchers have been expecting the company to make some move toward corporate microblogging capabilities for months now. This is one of the two directions that the social media platform has on its agenda for generating revenue, and it is likely the one with the greater potential. The other, serving ads on Twitter.com, is currently constrained by the fact that nearly 70% of Twitter use occurs away from the company's website.

While all talk of corporate accounts is still shrouded in speculation, the obvious plan would be for corporate users to have more robust analytics and other marketing tools for which a premium would be paid. Among the tools being rolled out ostensibly in advance of this business model is a multi-user account model, in which several "Contributors," as Twitter is calling them, can tweet under the same umbrella.

James Altucher is a financial journalist for The Wall Street Journal and founder of Stockpickr.com. His articles cover every angle of the market; he also stars in feature videos with other financial luminaries. He is the author of Trade Like a Hedge Fund, Trade Like Warren Buffett, SuperCa$h, and The Forever Portfolio.

He has taken a controversial path lately with numerous articles in the New York Post and Huffington Post. Some articles include: "Global Warming Is a Myth," "Should Insider Trading Be Made Legal?" "School of Hard Cash," "The Internet Is Dead (as an Investment)," and "5 Myths the Recession Taught Us."

Rumors of a new addition to the James Altucher library have entered the blogosphere, so I met with James to discuss a possible new book and the response from his recent aggressive views on finance and the stock market.

It really didn't take Yahoo! (YHOO) long to pull the trigger. Only a few weeks ago, the perpetual also-ran in the search engine market announced that, like Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG), it would integrate Twitter data into its search capabilities, part of a race among the three companies toward "real-time search." Unlike its competitors, though, Yahoo! didn't shell out a dime for its access to the microblogging service's data, instead using existing developer tools to get what it needs.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that it wasn't in a rush to win in real-time search ... while indicating that it wasn't exactly lagging Google. Both companies have yet to demonstrate a fully integrated Twitter capability. While Yahoo! still has a long way to go, its announcement on Thursday suggests that it has an early lead, despite not having licensed any data from Twitter.