That’s right, cats and kitties: We’ve sifted through the litter to find 5 little nuggets of Internet goodness to share with you. Dive in, debate and discuss as directed.

1.) Dole’s Appealing Facebook Contest: As part of Dole’s summer-long Go Bananas After Dark campaign, which urges consumers to nibble on the monkey’s favorite snack at night, Dole has launched a Facebook-based campaign to vote for the best banana-themed artwork. From a Lady Gaga made out of bananas to bananas playing poker, the submissions were whittled down to a select group and now Facebook members get to have their say. The winner will receive prizes like a new grill and free fruit courtesy of Dole.

2.) Facebook Places & Marketing: This piece in Ad Age details all of the ins and outs of Facebook’s new geolocation program. Facebook hopes to take Foursquare’s model and turn it into something massive using its near-billion-plus users to help the push. The conversation is just starting on what FB’s Places potentially will mean for social media marketing; thus far, it appears that, like Foursquare, there are oodles of opportunities for brand development.

3.) Your Digestive System is Adorable: This little advertising oddity, brought to you by the makers of Yakult yogurt drink, has been tweeted and blogged about a lot this week, but we thought it deserved a little more attention. Why? Simply because it’s the grossest and yet most adorable ad we’ve seen in awhile. And it’s a well-played marketing move by Yakult, as similar yogurt products promising digestive miracles have been the subject of liability lawsuits and consumer scrutiny. Plus, even though the star of the ad is really a digestive system turned into a puppet, it’s still pretty darn cute.

4.) Designs on Better Business: Good.com featured an article entitled “What Businesses Can Learn From Designers” this week and we think it is a must-read. Focusing on how business can benefit from the know-how of artsy types is the type of piece that Good does really well, and this one is filled with info any sized company can use.

5.) Matches Made In Ad Heaven: So this spot rounds out our list for sheer “huh?” factor. Is it about energy-saving light bulbs? Is it a commercial for a new toy? A dating service? Nope. It’s all part of “Made For Each Other,” Frito Lay’s whimsical yet strange campaign for its chips and dips. Demented? Yeah, but Frito Lay gets credit for going out on an artistic limb by creating something eye-catching — and the accompanying social media marketing is spot on.

The InterWeb has been overloaded this week with news about new Droids hitting the stores, weird lawsuits and celebrity drama. So we at Brandsplat have scooped up some little tasty tidbits you may have missed. Bon appetite!

1.) Sipping On Miso: Blending together our love of entertainment and our growing obsession with check in-based social media, Miso is a ground-breaking new site that aims to please. Launching big time with a promotion with the cable hit Bridezillas, Miso fans get rewarded with badges while watching the show live. Miso encourages users of the iPhone, iPad and the web to check in with their fav TV programs. It’s a multimedia model that bridges the gap between traditional TV and social media, and it’s just brimming over with smart marketing possibilities.

2.) Getting Out of Our Comfort Zone: This piece ran online at The New York Times earlier this week and is worth the read. The article profiles Theresa Daytner, a multi-business owner who lives by the “it doesn’t hurt to ask” motto. Her success and go get ‘em spirit are a call to action for markets and small business owners to step out of their comfort zone.

3.) Facebook Shines as a Powerful PR Tool Once Again: Facebook has spent the summer nipping naysayers in the bud for brands and personalities that have come under fire. The latest Facebook PR prattle came from Desperate Housewives actress Terri Hatcher, who showed her wonderfully wrinkly face to disprove the theory that all the women from Wisteria Lane are Botoxed up old hags. The tabloids are calling it courageous but TV watchers know that Housewives needs all the PR it can get right now. Hatcher has taken matters into her own hands on Facebook and instantly made headlines. Kudos.

4.) Korean Pizza Hut Ad Makes Ya Wanna Boogie: We tweeted about it last week, but for sheer enjoyment this Korean ad for Pizza Hut deserves another look. Who knew stuffed crust pizza could inspire such choreography? Plus, the ad teaches pizza lovers how to do the same moves!

5.) Using Fall For Newsletter Re-Launches: With the dog-days of summer winding down, why not use the upcoming autumn season to re-invent your newsletter? We’ve been inspired by the spiffy new e-mail newsletters published by Amazon and Sephora, so we think a great fall marketing project is to spruce up your e-mail newsletters. New content, new graphics, new giveaways. Sky’s the limit!

Let’s hear about five of favorite fancies in the comment section below.

It’s time once again to take five, kids. Sit back, turn on some relaxing tunes, and enjoy our weekly harvest of five things they may have sailed by you like a summer breeze.

1.) Lori Culwell on Writers & Social Media: Here’s a must-read for writers who feel slightly trampled by new media and social media. Culwell uses the latest post on her HuffPo blog to help writers embrace social media by putting PR back in their own hands. Culwell tells timid author types to get their hands dirty with social media even when the publishing biz appears to be all out of love.

2.) Tag Your Tune: We tweeted about this earlier, but this new app from Fuse TV harkens back to the old-timey request and dedication love song shows of radio. FB users are invited to use Tag Your Tune to pick from a rotating list of 30 videos every week with a personalized message to a loved one. Aww. Karen Sharp would approve.

3.) Twix Gives Ya A Moment: Cleverly capitalizing on its “Need A Moment?” campaign, Twix has taken to Facebook to give chocolate lovers a moment. With a fun little feature on its Facebook page called Twix Knows, users can get “advice” from Twix on things they need a break from, like their relationship, school or texting. Skewed to the young candy-munching FB crowd, Twix dials in social media to perfection.

4.) Five More Minutes Of YouTube Radness: YouTube announced a new 15-minute video limit, allowing for even more procrastination. Yippee! And being YouTube, they have a “15 Minutes of Fame” contest to promote the feature, giving users a chance to create videos to propel them to temporary stardom by telling the world about themselves (in 15 minutes, of course).

5.) Ad Love: Maybe all these mushy-syrupy feelings stem from yesterday’s news that media companies and small business are bouncing back thanks to the recent recovery in the ad biz. It’s a little premature to roll out the Clinton era spending of yesteryear, but the news sure beats the downer mood of the last two years. More money spent on marketing is news we welcome with open arms.

So that’s what made our list, but what things from this week would you need if you were caught between the moon and New York City? Share the love in the comments below.

Happy Friday! We’re back with another list of weird, wonderful and wise findings from the Internet that you might have missed.

1.) Motorola Schools the iPhone: Well, it was only a matter of time before one of iPhone’s competitors decided to swing below the belt. Motorola gets a prize for being the first (but surely not the last) to kick Apple when it’s down. Motorola launched a “No Jacket Required” ad that references the free iPhone jackets Apple is giving out to help solve its antenna problems. Aside from the impeccable timing, what makes the ad list-worthy is its great copy: The ad cleverly reminds buyers that Motorola kind of invented this whole cell phone thing in the first place.

2.) The Debut of Kelly Canter: “The debut of whom?!” you ask. Kelly Canter is Gwyneth Paltrow’s character in a new film entitled Country Strong. A new country single with the same name as the film hit the airwaves this week. Promoters of the movie sent the single to country radio under Paltrow’s character’s name. Further news of the song was spread through the Kelly Canter Facebook page. The PR ploy worked and news as well as reviews of Paltrow’s song became a national topic in a matter of hours.

3.) Journalism on Facebook: AllFacebook.com ran a blog on 10 pages journalists should follow via Facebook. Sure, CBS and WSJ are here, but it’s cool that AllFacebook mentions Facebook’s own Media and PR pages, which can be great tools for journalists and marketers.

4.) New Tweeps to Follow: The esteemed Mayo Clinic, captain of the Enterprise William Shatner and the guy who killed hip hop as well as his own career (Kayne West) all joined Twitter this week, proving once again that the little bird is always entertaining. Plus each of these random new Tweeters is using the site to plug new products, conduct new studies or change public perception about their brand. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which one is doing what.

5.) Online Inception Spoofs: When a movie like Inception — so dour yet so popular — has no sense of humor about itself, the Internet usually steps in to send it up properly. PopEater gathered the best of the best, but personally I’m a fan of the sweater within a sweater at Buzzfeed called Insweaption.

But that’s enough out of us. Tell us five things that rocked your world this week in the comments section below!

Here’s your weekly dose of recent web findings that could have slid under your radar. From burrito superheroes to SEO articles, we found some shiny Internet gems worth taking a look at.

1.) Taco Bell’s Super Delicious Ingredient Force: Attention, all you 1970s kids who secretly hoped you could be one of the Super Friends! Taco Bell’s new digitally-animated campaign is a home run of throwback humor. Just in time for Comic-Con, The Super Delicious Ingredient Force battles cheap burgers and evil French fries. Promoted on Facebook and YouTube, The Force even has its own site where you can get to know heroes like Chicken Woman and Commander Seasoned Beef. Taco Bell deserves props for creating a retro-feeling campaign that really utilizes digital media.

2.) 15 Ways To Pimp Your Design Portfolios: Vandelay Design gathered up a killer must-have list of resources for web and graphic designers. Less of a to-do list and more of a call to action, the article is a must for the many designers battling the competitive job market.

3.) Jason Fell on Social Media: Foliomag.com ran a great blog about using social media for more than just grabbing traffic. Written by Jason Fell the article gets to the heart of employing social media marketing for profit while teaching marketers to engage with their clients.

4.) SEO Chicks: This is, hands-down, the best and sharpest-written blog about search engine marketing. The chicks avoid blogs that blather on about metrics. Instead, the gals offer blogs that are solution-based while being funny, edgy and informative. Especially great this week is Sarah Caring’s blog about what social media can learn from traditional marketing.

5.) Electronic Reader Fever: As we discussed here on Tuesday, Amazon’s Kindle hit the big-time with massive news that Kindle hardcovers were for the first time outselling regular books at Amazon.com. Now everybody has something to say about the future of publishing. This piece at HuffPo is thought-provoking, although a tad Chicken Littleish for my taste. Still, it is listworthy because it covers all the bases of a conversation that we will undoubtedly hear for months to come.

Three, if you believe this guy, is the magic number. Yet for Amazon, the site that changed online shopping, and Facebook, the site that forever altered social media, 15 and 500 million, respectively, seem to be pretty awesome numbers, too.

On Friday, Amazon turned 15 years old. Launched into the public collective in 1995, Amazon has had a bumpy, memorable and ultimately game-changing 15 years. For starters, let’s give Amazon a round of applause for saving Christmas. Many a retail smack down has been avoided during the holidays thanks to Amazon. Bookstores, however, suffered big time thanks in large part to Amazon. Why toddle on over for the latest Harry Potter when Amazon can bring it right to you? Only the toughest book retailers survived as Amazon unleashed the Kindle on the world and, thanks to an Oprah endorsement, once again changed the way we read.

Yet I’d argue one of the biggest changes Amazon helped usher in was the way books are marketed. Thanks to Amazon’s customer reviews, publishers and authors knew what readers thought of their books days after they were released. Publishers were pushed into action to provide Amazon and other sites with maximum information and author interviews if they wanted their titles to be found on the massive inventory. Authors soon were expected use social media to connect with their readers and help market their books. Amazon paved the way for DIY marketing and for companies directly talking to their bread and butter.

By the time this blog is published, Facebook will have reached 500 million users. It’s an impressive yet slippery slope for the social media giant. This colossal success has been met with even bigger criticism ranging from the paranoiac to the sociological. However, Facebook has changed marketing, too, like Amazon. Social media advertising and upkeep is now its own industry thanks mainly to Facebook. But the question now is what’s next? Marketers wonder if the social media well is nearly dry as Facebook starts to dip in the all-important 18-24 demographic. Facebook itself is highly addictive and fascinating to watch so it’s befitting that the inner-workings of the conglomerate are equally as thought provoking.

So whaddya think? What was the first thing you bought from Amazon? Did Amazon kill books or save books? And is the tidal wave of Facebook popularity destined to be met with a tsunami of backlash? Spill it in the comments section below!

Another weekly round up shout out to web findings that are helpful, interesting or perhaps, like the great TLC once said, Crazy Sexy Cool.

1.) Square Biz for Small Biz — This straightforward guide for small businesses on how to successfully integrate Foursquare into their social media marketing plans is a great read and may have passed you by when it was published earlier this month. Covered here are the basics of Foursquare, brand preservation, fan and user reward programs and how to use Foursquare’s dashboards and business tools. Foursquare is an emerging social media channel and this article starts the conversation on how we all can tap into it. Thanks, Suite 101, for some good food for thought. One might even call it a “square meal.”

2.) Lemonade Stand 2.0 — Here’s a distinctly modern twist on an old summertime favorite: I stumbled upon the organization Alex’s Lemonade Stand that encourages people around the country to start lemonade stands to help raise money for childhood cancer. They’ve been around for more than a decade; now they’re using Twitter to spread the word about events and to interact with supporters. It’s an inspiring business model for non-profits using social media. From your church bake sale to your Girl Scout cookie showdown, blending social media with non-profit agendas provides endless possibilities.

3.) Alternative Outsourcing — This is a mind-opening piece on CNN.com about how certain companies are suing small, economically-challenged states like Arkansas for outsourcing labor and technical jobs. While not the usual techy fun that we devour here at Brandsplat, the piece throws down the gauntlet to inspire big and small companies alike to find answers in our own backyard.

4.) Make a Walrus Playdate — Now for something just goofy and fun, here’s this commercial! Vigorsol Cult picked up steam this week on a variety of sites and it’s worth posting here. Why? Because who doesn’t love a patty-cake playing, pimp-slapping walrus? I know I do.

5.) Brandsplat Report-Live From Big Sur! — Call it a little shameless cross promotion but this week’s edition is worth a look if you haven’t seen it. YouTube leanback, sometimes daily.com, and Asian reenactments are all to be found in this episode. Plus there’s pretty scenery and a cameo by some vocal birdies!

Regardless of what Glenn Beck says, people still love Mother’s Day. Folks are finding all kinds of ways to use social media to tell mom that they love her, and marketers couldn’t be happier.

Love or loathe E-Trade’s talking baby campaign, its hard to argue with how memorable the little buggers are. As featured in USA Today, E-Trade is rolling out widgets that more…

Okay so maybe that title is a tad dramatic but the little coupon is certainly generating a lot of talk these days.

The New York Times recently ran this somewhat cautionary piece outlining how online coupons could really be giving retailers access to vital and private information about their shoppers. This mutated coupon hybrid is loaded with super bar-codes that when swiped can pull up everything from your address, Facebook page information, and even the keywords you more…

Emmy winning hit Mad Men notwithstanding, turning to big agencies has fallen out of vogue. Between that blasted “economy sucks” excuse and the ease of using freelancers and more…