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Here’s a roundup of whats keeping us talking in the office. For videos, scroll down to the botton to see Obama on Leno, Hulu’s new ad, and Russel Brand on Current TV.

• Facebook’s new design is a Flop - eConsultancy: Facebook recently rolled out a new design that, in the eyes of some, represents a fundamental shift for the world’s largest social network. The new design places an emphasis on showing Facebook users real-time updates of their friends’ latest online activities. Some suggest this is Facebook’s response to the growing popularity of Twitter. Facebook, of course, recently tried unsuccessfully to acquire Twitter. Unfortunately, Facebook’s new design isn’t going over too well with users. A poll on Facebook shows that only 5% of the respondents like the new design. That’s not very good news given that over 700,000 people have already weighed in.

• Requiem for a frog: SpiralFrog shuts down. SpiralFrog, the pioneering ad-supported music service, quietly closed down on Thursday. The site went dark at about 4 p.m. PDT yesterday.

• Adage: According to the March 2009 Advertiser Optimism Report by Advertiser Perceptions, between this most recent report and the company’s November report, the number of marketers and their agency partners feeling optimistic about increasing their online spending in the next six months dropped 16 percentage points, from 68% to 52%.

• CNNmoney says, The US government’s stimulus plan won’t work as planned if we don’t get consumers spending again. But in the nearly $800 billion package, there is one thing missing that would surely help accomplish this: advertising. To get people spending again, and the economy moving, the government needs to provide help for businesses in America to advertise their products and services.

• Paidcontent shares a few developments on Next-Gen TV Platforms Virgin Media, NDS-Comstar-UTS, BBC HD: However most people watch TV now, it’s a fair bet they will be watching it in a different way in 12 months’ time. With the Cable Congress kicking-off in Berlin and the IPTV World Forum next week, TV companies will be looking over the technologies on offer and publicising their own platforms. With the iPlayer growing in popularity and the BBC’s Canvas project set to bring affordable IPTV into homes via an open standard set-top box, 2009 could well be a watershed year in the changing viewing habits of UK consumers.

• Jeff Zucker, chief executive of NBC Universal, fired back at comedian Jon Stewart on Wednesday, saying that the Daily Show host’s recent criticism of the CNBC financial news network was “incredibly unfair”. Watch the interview with Jim Cramer  (host of Mad Money) here

• Is Hulu in broadcaster talks for a possible UK launch? NBCU International president Peter Smith told Paidcontent’s Robert Andrews “They’re in dialogue with all the usual suspects, they have been for some time…The UK is more complicated than anywhere else to have this dialogue at the moment - we just had the Kangaroo dialogue, now Canvas, and a whole set of political issues which make conversation slow. But still keen, the guys are really keen.”

• Wall Street Journal: President Barack Obama made a special appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night (see video below). Obama used the platform to pitch a change in economic ethics and values, much of it centered on the recent AIG bonuses scandal. Barack Obama is the first President in office to be a guest on the famed Tonight Show.  Obama took to Jay Leno’s stage and compared life in Washington to “American Idol,” where ‘”everybody’s got an opinion.” He adds, “Everybody is Simon Cowell,” referencing the sometimes acerbic judge on the hit Fox TV show. “Everybody’s got an opinion. But that’s part of what makes for a democracy. You know, it’s contentious, people are hitting back.”

• Silicon Alley Insider: When they joined to create the company, Fox and NBC promised Hulu $50 milllion worth of free air time. Hulu’s been filling it with its Super Bowl ad featuring Alec Baldwin, a spot starring Dollhouse’s Eliza Dushku, and now, one in which Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane talks in funny voices. Check Hulu’s latest ad below:

• Lets end on a funny note!! Russel Brand makes us laugh on Current TV (our advice: skip over “The Comedy Bus” bit as it has nothing to do with Russel)
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