ReadWriteWeb

Today StockTwits, the online community of investors, expanded its reach to include companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). The format for Canadian stocks is $(TICKER).CA.

To use StockTwit, sign in with your Twitter account, and tell the service which stocks you'd like to follow. Every tweet tagged with $ before the stock symbol (e.g. $GRPN, $LNKD) will show up in your stream. Tagging Canadian companies works the same way as American companies.

On November 15, 2011, there will be a ReadWriteWeb Meetup near you! If you don't see a Meetup near you, be sure to add your city to the list.

There are several meetups planned already in North America. Here are a few that caught our attention.

The Y Combinator-backed startup TellFi announced today that it was launching a virtual phone service that would give one year of free service - and a local phone number - to anyone in Canada.

Since Google Voice dropped its Canadian service in in 2009, there have been no free virtual phone options to customers and businesses in that country. and TellFi, which also offers service in the U.S., has stepped in to fill that gap.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings will arrive in Toronto on Wednesday to launch the company's first foreign expansion: the Canadian market. For now, Canada's version of the movie-by-mail service won't actually include the "by mail" option - it will only offer online streaming, according to a recent Reuters report.

This morning Canadian startup accelerator Bootup Labs showcased some of its program graduates at Plug and Play Center's Sunnyvale location. While a number of the companies show promise, it was a gaming product that caught our attention. DimeRocker is offering developers a chance to elevate the level of gaming experiences and monetization on sites like Facebook, Myspace and Bebo.

A month ago, Canada's privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddard announced that Facebook did not satisfy Canadian privacy law on several counts. After an investigation prompted by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), Stoddard identified several areas where the company could better address privacy gaps for 12 million Canadian users (roughly 85% of Canadian netizens). The complaint raised concerns about "default privacy settings, collection and use of users' personal information for advertising purposes, disclosure of users' personal information to third-party application developers, and collection and use of non-users' personal information." The company was given 30 days to comply with recommendations and if Stoddard is not satisfied with Facebook's response she can go to the Federal Courts for enforcement. Today is Facebook's deadline.

If Facebook wants to comply with Canadian privacy laws, the company will have to make some changes to how it collects and retains information about its 12 million Canadian users. Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart singled out a number of issues her office found with Facebook's practices. These include the fact that the company's privacy policies are often incomplete and confusing, and that third-party applications can access far more information about a user than would be necessary for the application to work well. The complaint that triggered this investigation was filed by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC).

According to research group Ipsos Reid's "Social Networking: 2009" poll, Canadians are flocking to social networking sites. In the last 18 months, the percentage of Canucks with a social networking profile has increased from 39% to 56%. This rapid rise in social networking users has Canadian marketers scratching their heads as to how they can best brand in the space. With more than three quarters of those online owning a Facebook profile, it's not surprising that the blue beast is the main topic of discussion in relation to marketing groups. Says report writer Mark Laver, "Online social networks tend to be extremely personal and this thus creates a dilemma for marketers and businesses - how to communicate in a personalized setting without upsetting the target audience."

Parts of Canada finally have their own Street View maps, but surprisingly, they didn't come from Google. Instead, the maps were created in a joint effort between British Columbia-based Canpages.ca and San Francisco-based MapJack, two companies that have teamed up to provide the service which Google has yet to bring to Canada. These new Street View maps also have features that the search engine giant doesn't offer, including a fullscreen mode and views of pedestrian pathways where cars can't travel.

Like it or not. You're a writer. You're creating content on a daily basis, updating your Facebook status, commenting on blogs, sending tweets. Social networking requires that level of communication. But as a writer, you're also a potential victim for writer's block, a condition that plagues even the most prolific authors.

The next time you find your desire to write lacking, Plinky may be just the inspiration you need.