Instead of shooting back a short email acknowledging a joke ("Haha!") or that you received a person's message ("Got it!"), users can push "like" or "favorite" on a note. The original sender will be pinged with your interaction, helping cut down on an unnecessary email.  (Read more: Social Media in 2014: All about show, not tell)  Sorry Facebook, Google wins the Snapchat battle  Here's our call for Google. Tired of losing out to Facebook and Twitter in the social media space, the search giant acquires Snapchat for $3.7 billion after multiple offers from Facebook. Snapchat, the rapidly growing messaging app, allows users to share destructible pictures and videos.  Snapchat would be added to Google's mobile arsenal, which includes Waze, the world's largest community-based navigation app that Google acquired in 2013. Getting Snapchat would give Google hope that it may finally catch up with the social media giants before long by tapping into the app's teenage audience. Brands also will finally take Snapchat seriously.  Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel has publicly shared his displeasure with Google, specifically with the service's efforts to increase the number of monthly active users.  Still, knowing that Facebook is not as appealing as it once was with teenagers, the 23-year-old Spiegel finds Google to be the better fit.  (Read more: Google shares hit new high after earnings beat)  Jack Dorsey takes stake in The New York Times?  With the Twitter IPO behind him and a potential Square IPO ahead of him, co-founder Jack Dorsey—who hopes to one day become the mayor of New York City—will take a 3 percent stake in The New York Times next year.  In 2008, when the Times joined Twitter, Dorsey called the publication his "favorite paper." In a 2011 interview with Vanity Fair, Dorsey said the NYC mayoral gig would be his dream job. In 2014, Dorsey moves to the Big Apple and teams up with the paper.  Followers of @Jack's Twitter feed know well that Dorsey often tweets links (184 tweets over the last four years, to be exact) to @nytimes articles, sometimes in rapid succession. With a piece of the 162-year-old newspaper in his pocket, clicks on those links will now actually benefit the tech entrepreneur.
What lies ahead for the booming social media industry in 2014? CNBC's social media guru notes three developments that would shake up the market.