This week in social media, Facebook acquired shopping search engine TheFind.com, Twitter pressures Meerkat, and Snapchat gets another major investment but loses a long-time executive. All of the week's top social media news and more, now at its new home on Sundays at Latin Post!

It's time for Social Media Sunday!

Facebook:

Diving into Social Shopping with New Acquisition

On Friday, Facebook announced it had acquired the popular shopping search engine TheFind.com in an ever-intensifying quest to build the world's biggest social media company into an e-commerce hub.

The deal, the terms of which have not been disclosed, according to Fortune, was portrayed by the two companies as a boost to each other's digital advertising businesses. "Together, we believe we can make the Facebook ads experience even more relevant and better for consumers," said Facebook's blog on announcing the deal.

Rivals' E-commerce Push as First Earnings Decline Expected

However, with Facebook and Twitter both testing "buy" buttons and other embedded shopping features, it's clear the race is on between the two to become the predominant digital space for searching, sharing, and buying socially. That possible expansion in revenue could be vital, as Facebook is expected to post its first earnings decline since its 2012 IPO, according to Forbes.

Twitter:

Acquires Live Video Service, Hampering Rival Meerkat

Twitter also made an acquisition this week, buying Periscope, a live-streaming video app that works through Twitter feeds. Soon after, according to Buzzfeed, it became clear that Twitter was working to kill off -- or at least severely limit -- the ability of the popular, independent iPhone Twitter live-streaming app Meerkat to access its network.

A Twitter spokesperson told Buzzfeed that the company was "limiting [Meerkat's] access to Twitter's social graph, consistent with our internal policy. Their users will still be able to distribute videos on Twitter and log in with their Twitter credentials," meaning the social media network hasn't outright banned the use of Meerkat.

But it certainly is impairing the app's abilities, and the timing is quite inconvenient for the up-and-coming Meerkat: SxSW is just starting, and live-streaming video from the huge cultural and technology event on Twitter is (or at least, was) expected to be a big trend this year.

TV Timelines Experiment

Meanwhile, Twitter is still working to solidify its place as the second-screen TV hub -- the instant watercooler in the cloud, so to speak -- by launching a new experimental channel on its network called TV Timelines.

According to Mashable, which got early access into the beta feature, Twitter will pop up an option to try TV Timelines if it detects you're tweeting a hashtag related to one of a few popular TV shows included in the experimental feature. If you click on the option, the Twitter app will take you to a TweetDeck-like three-column interface with Highlights, Media (tweets with pictures or video attached), and finally "All" tweets related to the show.

It's another foray for Twitter into user content management, which could upset the die-hard tweeters, but could also attract new users who aren't as savvy at following trends and conversations in real time, otherwise.

Snapchat:

New Alibaba Investment Rumored at $200 Million

News leaked this week at Bloomberg that the Chinese giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. plans to invest $200 million in the ephemeral messaging service Snapchat. With that investment figure, which remains unconfirmed, Snapchat would reach a valuation of approximately $15 billion. Not bad for a "startup."

CEO Evan Spiegel to Be More "Hands-On" as COO Leaves

Meanwhile, young Snapchat co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel is rumored to want more control over operations at his multibillion dollar startup, according to anonymous sources who talked to Re/Code. The insider information leaked the same day as the announcement that Snapchat's COO for much of the company's short life, Emily White, would be leaving the team.

"Emily is a talented executive and we thank her for her many contributions to Snapchat," said the company in a statement on the departure.

White is the third high-level executive to leave Snapchat in 2015, but by all indications, her departure wasn't part of a purge or power grab. White, a former executive at Google and Instagram, reportedly has wanted her own CEO position at a Silicon Valley company for a while, and the departure seems to be amicable and mutual -- the result of differing priorities.

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