There is huge untapped potential for Facebook to get a new source of revenue from social advertising, according to research by a marketing expert from the prestigious MIT Sloan School of Management.

Analysts say it is reassuring that Facebook has been able to convert its 845 million active users into revenue and profits, with both the company’s operating income and revenue growing strongly over the past two years.

Facebook’s goal is to redefine the social media experience by creating an immersive platform that will be the centre of people’s digital lives, making it the dominant platform for rich communications, commercial content and advertising. That’s the view of one global analyst firm that believes that if the social media giant can achieve its vision then the predictions of an IPO valuation of $100 billion might well be justified.

Security firm Bitdefender has secured a deal with the Westpac banking group to offer the bank’s customers a one-year free subscription to its Internet security package including antivirus, antispam, firewall and parental controls as well as social networking protection against malicious pages and privacy threats.

Optus is expecting calls and messaging across its mobile network to go gangbusters right through the Christmas and New Year period, with we Aussies expected to pass on cheer and goodwill by making over 34 million calls and sending more than 65 million SMSs on the Optus network on Christmas Day alone.

Global messaging technology provider, Retarus, has released a new version of its WebExpress, multi-channel communication platform, that now facilitates users posting messages on social media networks, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Xing.

Reports are suggesting that Facebook is poised to make its first move into the mobile advertising space, possibly by inserting its sponsored stories adverts – which highlight a user’s friends’ interaction on the social network with various brands – into a user’s mobile news feed.

A tool which provides parents with a dashboard revealing their offspring’s online activities has been released by Trend Micro. The tool can reveal what videos kids are watching, what they’ve uploaded to social networks, what terms they’ve searched and what websites they’ve visited.

Unisys reckons companies getting into cloud computing for the first time should take a hybrid enterprise approach and integrate the cloud solution with existing IT resources.  The sales pitch from the IT services vendor comes on the back of a new poll, with enterprises indicating cloud computing is their top IT investment priority next year.

The big movers in IT at the moment are mobile computing, cloud services, social networking and big data analytics technologies, with one analyst firm predicting a high-stakes battle next year as vendors fight for market share. Microsoft, HP, SAP, Apple and RIM are all expected to go head-to-head in the frontline battle for market dominance.