As the world?s two most popular social networking sites battle it out for the loyalty of teenagers and young adults, one survey shows that Facebook enjoys a clear lead over Twitter, its micro-blogging rival. The Pew Internet Research report indicates that fewer teens are choosing to write blogs, but many more are instead posting their thoughts, photos and links directly to Facebook. Additionally, the rise of Twitter over the past two years and growing media attention thanks to celebrity tweeting has not dented Facebook?s popularity as the world?s primary social networking tool. Only 8 percent of teenagers use Twitter and 14 percent write blogs.</p>

Twitter has been hit by yet another phishing scam and this time the world?s largest micro-blogging site has decided to suspend accounts that have been compromised. The San Francisco based organisation did not reveal precisely how many Twitter users had their passwords and personal log-in information stolen, but possibly thousands of micro-bloggers may have found themselves locked out of their own account this week. Twitter notified all users who had their accounts suspended by e-mail and invited them to create a new, more secure password, if they wished to start tweeting again. As part of the scam, numerous Twitter accounts were hacked and cyber criminals posted fake tweets using this information which, according to an AFP press report, gave some Twitter enthusiasts ?the shivers.?</p> <p>It is relatively easy to fall victim to a phishing scam, as all con artists need to do is send out seemingly legitimate e-mails, or direct users to websites that resemble major portals such as Twitter, only to then convince users to disclose their password and other log-in information. Twitter noted that law enforcement authorities have been notified of the scam and that all necessary steps are being taken to ensure the safety of their users? personal information. Twitter first became suspicious that user account information may be compromised when a small handful of micro-bloggers registered a massive surge in the number of followers over a very short period of time. All of those Twitter users who followed these suspicious accounts were required to change their password earlier this week. It is believed that the current phishing scam was related to a BitTorrent piracy scheme.

A 22 year old blogger and recent university graduate decided to conduct an experiment in the world of blogging, to see if it was possible to rely exclusively on an online community for a nine month period when arranging all employment, accommodation and personal needs. According to a report in The Globe and Mail, Jason Paul embarked on a nine month journey during which time he will essentially arrange his entire life through the free classified ad site Craigslist, and then blog about his experiences. What this means is that all human relationships formed must be through Craigslist , and all purchases of furniture or other items, rental agreements, as well as events attended have to be arranged solely through the classifieds site. Paul has blogged about a diverse range of experiences, such as how he received 20 invitations to attend Thanksgiving dinner after he posted an ad detailing how he was new in town, lonely and wanted to be ?adopted? for an evening, or the reason why this 22 year old male became an avid fan of crocheting.</p> <p>Paul?s LivingCraigslist.com blog tells the story of this Washington, DC native?s travels through the United States?including all the way out to the California coast?and how he was able to organize every single detail of his life through the classified ads site. Paul took just the bare essentials with him when he embarked on his journey some four months ago, including a single bag of clothing, a mobile phone, the most basic food and $2,500 in order to fund his Craigslist purchases. He has since used Craigslist to find employment as a live-in nanny, and then later at the Denny?s breakfast restaurant chain.</p> <p>But some question the ethics of this blogger?s experiment. While Paul blogs away about his experiences, the friends and acquaintances who he meets along the way don?t realize that they are participants in this online project.

Statistics released by two major Canadian universities suggest that social networking sites?particularly Twitter?may be behind a rise in illiteracy among postsecondary students in Canada. The University of Waterloo, in southern Ontario, decided to require all students to pass a basic English language exam prior to graduation, but a staggering 30 percent of these university students are failing the test. Only a couple of years ago?before the rise of Twitter and Facebook?this figure stood at below 25 percent. Some of the most common problems seen by university professors is the presence of emoticons in formal essays and letters, the incorrect abbreviation of words?such as ?cuz? rather than ?because??and frequent spelling or capitalization errors even in the case of the most common words.</p> <p>Ontario?s Waterloo is hardly the only university struggling with a growing generation of illiterate students. British Columbia?s prominent and well-respected Simon Fraser University recently released statistics showing that 10 percent of its students are unable to fulfill the school?s basic English language requirements for graduation and are therefore forced to take a so-called ?foundational? class, in order to help polish their writing ability.</p> <p>Professors at both universities are up in arms over the fact that people seem to be encouraged to drop or misuse apostrophes and capitalization when sending tweets, and that incomplete sentences are increasingly becoming the norm. But not everyone agrees that social networking tools are to blame. James Turk, representing the Association of University Teachers, pointed out that older generations complaining about the alleged incompetence or inferiority of the youth has always been around. Even Plato and Socrates entertained these complaints, despite the fact that Twitter and Facebook were not even blips on the radar until a few years ago.

Google has decided to give Facebook a run for its money in the world of social networking, by offering users the opportunity to more easily search for photos and social contacts through the site?s main engine. Google will soon allow for users who have logged on to their account to view search results including photos that friends have uploaded to Picasa albums or to Flickr, one of the most popular photo sharing sites. New links will also be added to Google?s English version, inviting users to create a ?social circle? and to specifically search for ?social content.? Social networking and new media specialists believe that Google?s move will serve as a direct challenge to Facebook.</p> <p>In order to take advantage of this new tool, users must create a Google profile and be logged on to their account. Once this profile has been created, the search engine will automatically add search results from any contacts, including Gmail users. The world?s most powerful search engine will also gather information on contacts that each user has built on related sites, including Picasa, Twitter, FriendFeed and Flickr, in order to further expand one?s social circle and ensure that all relevant social search results are displayed whenever the main engine is used for finding sites.</p> <p>An even more powerful feature of the search engine is that it will be able to track down written content created by one?s friends and published on a range of websites. These pages will then be displayed at the very top of the list whenever search results are generated.

At a time when local newspapers, radios and television stations are struggling to stay afloat in a changing media world, Twitter has decided to enter the local news business. The micro-blogging site now offers users the opportunity to filter tweets based on their city, state or country of residence. The new tool is called ?local trends,? and it provides users an opportunity to see what is going on in their hometown or country through the eyes of other Twitter users. Jenna Sampson, representing the micro-blogging site, noted that the new feature will provide users with a more ?nuanced? experience, as they will be able to separate tweets focusing on neighbourhood and community issues from discussions about major international events.</p> <p>But Twitter users who look forward to using the local trends tool as soon as possible will have to keep in mind that the San Francisco-based micro-blogging site is rolling out this new feature on a gradual basis. For the first several months, it will only be available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and in Ireland. Separate local trends feeds will also be available for a small handful of American cities, including New York, Washington DC, Boston, San Francisco, Atlanta, as well as several urban centres in Texas. Twitter will also introduce a separate tweet feed for London.</p> <p>As Twitter continues to expand and hopes to turn a profit for the first time, the micro-blogging site may soon start giving local papers and neighbourhood community blogs a run for their money.

The Vatican has long had to deal with dwindling church attendance through much of the Western world, but it appears as though Pope Benedict XVI is about to embrace Web 2.0 technology, in order to reach out to internet-savvy youth. Moreover, he is enlisting the entire Catholic clergy. In a crucial address that the pontiff will give this spring, Benedict will outline his thoughts on how digital technology has changed the way that human relationships are both formed and maintained. According to a report in The Telegraph, Benedict will call upon priests and all levels of the clergy to start blogging, thus ?putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word.? Blogging and social networking experts maintain that this may be the first time that a major, internationally-recognized religious leader has so explicitly called on the clergy to turn to blogs.</p> <p>Vatican observers, however, were quick to point out to those who might have hoped that reading priestly blogs or joining church groups on social networking sites may replace mandatory church attendance on Sundays, or a trip to the confessional, to keep in mind that the internet is no substitute for actually participating in a faith community in the physical world. Benedict hopes that by getting priests to launch blogs, </p>

According to a study conducted by Oxford University professor Robin Dunbar, we may might have a real talent for attracting hundreds or even thousands of friends to our Facebook profile, but in reality, the human brain is ill equipped to keep track of all these relationships. While a growing number of high school and undergraduate students add four, five and even six hundred friends to their Facebook profile, Dunbar found that the core group of friends they actually follow or keep in contact with never exceeds 150. This is what the evolutionary anthropology professor named ?Dunbar?s number.? According to the British scientist?s theory, the part of our brain that manages social contacts sets a limit at around 150. We may have many more acquaintances on Facebook, but beyond the first 150, we are not likely to be conscious of their relationship to others in our circle of friends, nor do we contact them at least once a year.</p> <p>The purpose of Dunbar?s most recent study was to see what impact the rise of Facebook as the world?s most popular social networking site might have had on human friendships and relationships. In short: little has changed, and even those with thousands of Facebook friends are only likely to visit the profiles of up to 150 people, whilst treating the others as mere virtual numbers.</p> <p>While Dunbar generalizes about the Facebook relationships of more than 350 million users world wide, one thing that he does notice is a real gender difference between how men and women interact with each other both online, and in the real world. Women are far more likely to form meaningful and lasting friendships with others of their own gender, while men seem less talented at this and can only develop a bond between other males if they participate in activities together.

Twitter, the world?s most popular micro-blogging site, is now not only used in the four corners of the earth, but even by astronauts in outer space. NASA announced a major change to the software onboard the International Space Station, in order to ensure that astronauts have the opportunity to tweet tidbits about their everyday life on a spaceship, as well as keep in touch with family and friends. The first live tweet ever sent from space was posted to the micro-blogging site by TJ Creamer, an astronaut aboard NASA?s Expedition 22. Creamer, whose Twitter name is Astro_TJ, greeted his followers in the ?Twitterverse? and reminded them that they are welcome to ask him any questions related to his work on the International Space Station.</p> <p>Before NASA?s software upgrade, the only way that astronauts on the space station were able to use Twitter was to send e-mail messages to NASA?s ground staff, who would in turn post their tweets from earth. This new technology raises the possibility that astronauts may in the future start posting photographs directly to their Twitter profiles, and allows for unprecedented openness in communication between NASA?s space station team, and micro-bloggers here on earth. NASA also points out that the ability to post tweets directly and answer questions posed by Twitter followers will go far in breaking through the sense of isolation that many astronauts with lengthy stays at the space station feel. In addition to Twitter, astronauts can browse much of the web, send e-mails and even participate in digital video conferencing from space.

The number of unique visitors logging on to Facebook increased by more than 105 percent over the course of the past year, according to research published in PC World and compiled by comScore. Approximately 112 million unique visitors logged on to Facebook in December 2009 alone, thus turning the social networking portal into one of the top five most popular websites in the United States. The site now attracts nearly 38 million individual users on an average day who together click on approximately 45 billion pages each month.</p> <p>Not only are more people logging on to the world?s most popular social networking site, but they are also spending more time than ever before posting photos, adding status updates or commenting on their friends? walls. Facebook users collectively ended up spending some 28 billion minutes networking last December. In fact, Americans now spend around 7 percent of their online time using Facebook. Registered users are also relying more on Facebook when it comes to communicating with friends, staying posted on community events and browsing the photos of long lost peers. While most users logged on to Facebook less than 8 days out of a month in December 2008, this figure rose to 10.4 days at the end of 2009. The average Facebook user also spends approximately 247 minutes browsing the site and commenting on profiles each month, which represents a 45 percent increase from 2008.</p> <p>But Facebook?s</p>