Yesterday we took a look at 10 terms that are out for 2010. Today I’d like to share three Twitter apps that could be acquisition targets in 2010. If these acquisitions do take place, it would say a lot for the value of the “ecosystem”. I have no knowledge of any potential acquisitions past my own research and panel discussion with several friends who build social apps. Overall I see Twitter focused on acquiring two types of companies: 1. companies where they want the talent (see my 2010 predictions) and 2. companies that can help with expansion outside of the U.S.

Acquisition #1 – Tweetdeck

Potential acquirer: Twitter
Tweetdeck continues to remain a top Twitter desktop application and founder Iain Dodsworth is popular with developers within the Twitter app community. The company has raised just over $2 million in funding and the majority of the funding comes from NY-based Betaworks. Anything that has a Betaworks stamp has an increased multiplier on the odds of a Twitter acquisition. The acquisition of Tweetdeck would provide Twitter with an in-house strong desktop client which should help new users get past the poor UI of the current Twitter.com interface.

One person on my panel believes that Twitter will use a Tweetdeck acquisition as a way to gain a strong foothold in London and the UK.

Acquisition #2 – Seesmic

Potential acquirer: Twitter or Microsoft
While Seesmic has changed from their original vision as a video sharing company, they have released a variety of popular Twitter clients for the desktop, mobile and the Web. Last month Seesmic launched a native Windows client which was demo’d on stage by CEO Loic LeMeur at Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference. The company has raised $12 million in funding but the money was raised during their “video” stage. I see Twitter as a potential acquirer because the company would have access to Loic and his connections in Europe (and a tight tie-in with the LeWeb conference). The Seesmic products would be merged with the Tweetdeck service to create one best-of-breed in-house service where the experience is the same whether you use Twitter on your desktop, mobile, Web, etc. I am not sure how the Facebook portion would be handled should Twitter acquire Seesmic.

One panel member disagreed with me and believes that Microsoft will acquire Seesmic. He notes that Seesmic and Microsoft seem to be showing a lot of love both ways lately and Microsoft needs to get into the “social app” market. Microsoft would gain access to Twitter and to Facebook and could potentially tie into Bing as well. I’m not sold on this strategy but do agree that Microsoft will need to get out the checkbook next year in the social space.

Acquisition #3 – Tweetmeme

Potential acquirer: Twitter
Twitter wants to be seen as a breaking-news organization and services like Tweetmeme offer a way to bubble popular content to the top. The company raised 650,000 euros in an angel round of funding. Compete shows a good growth pattern ...

Many years ago I stopped by the Times Square visitor’s center in Manhattan. They offered a program which offered to take a photo of you (or your group) and put it up on the huge screen at the north end of Times Square. It was totally cool and a great way for tourists to say they were on top of Times Square.

Kodak is now offering something similar but with a much better screen.  It’s also a lot more advanced than the previous attempts at photo on a big picture wall. Kodak is promoting the screen as part of the New Year’s eve festivities in Times Square tomorrow evening. Seems like a fun way to ring in “two-thousand ten” (sorry MG not twenty-ten).

With this new service, you email your photo to Kodak and within 24 hours you will receive a notification if your image was approved. Kodak notes that the images must be “appropriate”. In the notification email, Kodak will include a text code.

When you get to Times Square, you send a text message to the address provided and your picture, with caption, will show for 10 seconds. Assuming Kodak can get the word out about the program today (since it takes 24 hours for approval), I can imagine how many people will want their image to be displayed on the screen at exactly 12:00am on January 1st. I guess anytime during New Year’s eve would work as well.

It looks like the service will be available past New Year’s so if you are planning a trip to New York, you could send in your photos now and just use the text code once you arrive. Maybe you could use the screen to propose to your significant other?

As a side note, the Times Square visitor’s center is still a great place to go if you are coming to NYC for the first time. They have loads of maps, discounts, free Internet access and clean toilets.

Lastly, walking around Times Square today I noticed Yahoo is still advertising above the police substation. I wonder how long that ad will be there…especially since it’s never changed in all the years it has been there.

Yesterday we took a look at how Kodak is welcoming in the new year using their video wall in Times Square. If you aren’t planning on going out into the snow tonight or are located in another city, you can still watch the ball drop to 2010 tonight in Times Square.

Hulu and Livestream have you covered with New Year’s related content from around the U.S. Hulu notes, “from approximately 10 p.m. EST to 12:15 a.m. EST, we’ll be hosting a live stream direct from Times Square as the crowd counts down to the ball drop at midnight.” It looks like Hulu will provide the same coverage they did for the welcome to 2009.

Livestream will show a variety of programming beginning at 6pm Eastern tonight from around the country. They note that you can even watch the “littlest ball drop” which is located in Aggieville, Kansas. Livestream’s coverage is also available on the iPhone.

How will you ring in 2010? Leave your geeky or non-geeky suggestions in the comments.

Today is the first official day of 2010. Last week I shared three potential Twitter app acquisitions and five startup predictions both for 2010.

Darren Herman has put together a massive list of predictions for 2010 in the media and marketing space. A few from Darren’s list include:

• 7 Things We Hope Will Come True in 2010 (GigaOm)
• Twitter in 2010:  Acquisitions (The Next Web)
• 11 Smart Marketers Shared Their Predictions (Marketing Profs)

Here are some additional prediction lists I’ve come across today:

• Chris Saad
• Louis Gray
• Jim Goldstein
• Justin Levy

If you have a list of predictions, leave them in the comments or leave a link to your blog. Welcome to two thousand ten, it’s going to be an exciting year.

We’ve heard from multiple sources that presentation sharing service SlideShare has been down for over 4 hours. The SlideShare Twitter account notes that they are installing some new software on their servers and the service will be back pretty soon. Here’s their message regarding the downtime, “HEADSUP: Our servers are getting brand new software installed. They’ll be back at your service pretty soon!”

It’s a perfect time for this type of maintenance. Most people are off from work today and it’s still early in the U.S. Normally I wouldn’t even share this type of downtime however there’s an important lesson regarding communication that we can all learn from.

There’s no message on the SlideShare blog nor on the home page regarding the downtime today while they install new software. Unlike a typical downtime, SlideShare apparently still has access to the site (the homepage loads just fine) and blog.

Always remember that your customers may not all be on Twitter, Facebook or any of the other social networks. Use your own site, blog, etc. to communicate important updates. In this case I would update the home page with a brief note that points to a blog entry. I’d also update the 500 error page below with a link to the blog post. This will keep their customers in the know regarding what’s up and the customer won’t be wondering why their desired presentation didn’t load.

Here’s the message that is received when you attempt to load a presentation:

I just posted five of my startup predictions for 2010 over on InformationWeek. Below is the first prediction, head over to InformationWeek to read the others.

Prediction #1 – Acquisitions
Overall I expect the startup market to be very hot in 2010 and the year will see many acquisitions — especially for talent. Larger startups will throw some of their big venture capital warchests to acquire smaller startups to gain the talent in-house. An example of this style of acquisition from 2009 would be Facebook’s acquisition of Friendfeed.

In another example of “talent” acquisitions, Twitter acquired Mixer Labs earlier this month. Most seem to believe this acquisition was made because the founders were previously at Google in the mobile department. I expect Twitter to open their bank account for many acquisitions in 2010. While all will be small and for “undisclosed amounts”, it’s important for Twitter to stock up on talent in 2010.

While larger startups will acquire a large number of smaller startups, the big money will come from the tech giants including Microsoft and Google. One startup that will see acquisition bidding is NY-based Etsy. While I don’t expect the company to sell, I do expect to read lots of stories about the multiple acquisition offers they will receive.

If you have posted tech predictions for 2010, leave your links in the comments and I will add them to the post.