It’s that time of year again when the who’s who of social media air out their most casual attire for the 2015 Maximum Media Social Media Awards, aka ’The Sockies’.

The Irish Examiner’s innovative use of social media was rewarded at the inaugural Cork Digital Marketing Awards today.

Tinder claims it makes 15m matches a day and it is about to launch a new, premium service, but while romance can flourish online, Tinder and Plenty of Fish, and other such services, are just as likely to be used for casual-sex hook-ups.

Ireland will be asked to explain its tax arrangement with Apple as a new investigation into the deal is launched today.

Growth in the more established social media platforms has slowed here, while newer mobile-based apps are gaining ground, according to the latest research into Irish social networking habits.

Measurement.ie, the premier conference for those working in the digital sector, is back.

The international stars of digital media marketing will gather in Dublin to share their thoughts, techniques (and a few secrets) on data analytics as part of the third annual measurement.ie conference.

An Irish website yesterday posted a competition on Facebook for a €40 Aldi voucher - but accidentally called them Lidl instead. Lidl’s response was social media gold.

University College Cork was the hub of discussions ranging from the future of print media to the role of feminism in journalism last Saturday.

SEXTING is trouble — the tabloids are full of stories of the heartbreak caused by scrolling through a partner’s phone.

With school holidays looming, Conor Power wonders how long he should allow his son to be online during the summer. It’s a constant battle, experts admit, and you can’t compare it with TV ‘in our day’

Rumours abound on Twitter and the internet. The consequences of trolling can be traumatic, says Rachel Borrill.

It’s hard to imagine that just six years ago we were living in a world without Twitter. Pól Ó Conghaile asks top Irish tweeters for their favourite follows — and lists the 20 people everyone should be following.

Lidl Ireland are among the winners at the 2012 Irish Social Media Awards

“You can prove anything with statistics” - and that’s exactly what Irish users of Twitter have been attempting doing today.

As people expect faster communication, email as we know it seems doomed, says John Hearne

LADY Gaga may have been crowned Twitter queen, or ‘Tween’ as the outlandish one is calling herself, but in Ireland, Ronan Keating reigns supreme.

I AM increasingly convinced that events move in cycles. Our current economic difficulties, particularly the unsustainability of the public finances seem to mirror the 1980s — increased borrowing, political procrastination, public sector conflict and, ultimately, cutbacks.

DATA Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes was left red-faced yesterday after a blogger “hacked” into his office’s website and managed to access his office’s annual report prior to its official publication.

IS Bertie Ahern among the 125,000 new users to sign up to Facebook since January?

THE disability lobby has criticised the Government for restricting opportunities through delays in rolling out high quality internet access.

Eircom have enabled 319 more exchanges for broadband, it was announced today.

POLITICIANS are busier than ever these days briskly embracing the electorate on doorsteps and pressing punters for votes across Ireland.

Politicians, journalists, bloggers and interested members of the public are set to gather at an event in Dublin examining what bloggers can do for politics in the next general election.

IRELAND has the second lowest take-up of broadband in the EU 15 and has fallen behind three of the European Union’s new member states according to the latest figures.

TELECOM service provider Imag!ne yesterday offered consumers a free broadband service and cheaper local and national telephone calls in a move designed to shake up the Irish telecom market.

Irish consumers are faced with the highest mobile telephone and line rental charges in Europe, it emerged tonight.

Colossal damage is being done to the economy because of the slow pace of broadband roll-out, it was claimed today.

Ireland is third last in broadband pricing value for money among OECD countries, a new report has claimed today.

IRELAND is one of the most expensive countries in the world for broadband high-speed internet access, according to a new report.