<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
	<channel>

		<title>Instant Breaking News - Social News</title>
		<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/</link>
		<description>Instant Breaking News Articles</description>
		<language>en</language>
		<pubDate>Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:20:31 -0400</pubDate>

		<atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" href="http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/rss_articles.xml" type="application/rss+xml" />		<item>
			<title>Hacker cracks TinyURL rival, redirects millions of Twitter users</title>
			<description><![CDATA[A URL-shortening service that condenses long Web addresses for use on micro-blogging sites like Twitter was hacked over the weekend, sending millions[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[A URL-shortening service that condenses long Web addresses for use on micro-blogging sites like Twitter was hacked over the weekend, sending millions of users to an unintended destination, a security researcher said today.
After Cligs, a rival to the better known TinyURL and bit.ly shortening services, was attacked Sunday, more than 2.2 million Web addresses were redirected to Kevin Saban's blog, which appears on the Orange County Register's Web site. Noticing a dramatic upswing in traffic, Saban -- who uses Cligs in his Twitter messages to shorten URLs -- contacted Pierre Far, the creator of Cligs.
&quot;Quite curious,&quot; was how Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant with security company Sophos, put it. &quot;Our first thought was that it was a spam campaign, that the hack would redirect [users] to a porn site perhaps, but it seems that [Saban] was entirely innocent. Very bizarre.&quot;
Cluley's take was fueled by the assumption that the vast majority of criminal activity on the Internet is based on the profit motive, and here there didn't seem to be one. &quot;Maybe this was a mistake on the part of the hackers,&quot; he said. &quot;Maybe they just got the [shortened] URL wrong, and meant to direct users to a different site.&quot;
That site, he said, could have been a malware-infected address where exploits lay in wait. Or to a spam destination, since spammers have used shortened URLs
Cligs currently doesn't register in the top five shortening services used on Twitter, according to Tweetmeme, which ranks bit.ly and TinyURL in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, so the hack could have been significantly worse if it had happened on one of those services.
Cluley's point: &quot;There was one single point of failure here,&quot; he said. &quot;They only had to hack one thing, the Cligs service, to affect millions of URLs.&quot;
Early yesterday, Cligs acknowledged the hack, which had exploited a vulnerability in its editing function. &quot;I've identified the hole and disabled all cligs editing for now and I'm restoring the URLs back to their original destination states,&quot; said Far, Cligs' creator, in a blog post. &quot;However, the most recent backup is from early May, and so we may have lost all URLs created since then. My daily backups with my host were turned off for some reason, which is another story.&quot;
Far said that the attacker's IP address resolved to a Canadian address.
Cluley, meanwhile, recommended that users install add-ons to their browsers that expand shortened links to see the actual, underlying destination. &quot;With short URLs, you don't know where you're going until you get there,&quot; he said. &quot;We recommend that you use an add-on which expands the URLs. You get a preview -- they're not 100% protection, of course, because legitimate sites can be infected as well -- but they're better than nothing.&quot;
Twitter, by far the biggest micro-blogging site and user of short URLs, should be doing more to keep users safe, Cluley said. &quot;There's an option to expand the link view when you search Twitter,&quot; he said. &quot;Why don't they offer that in the regular stream?&quot;]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/750/Hacker_cracks_TinyURL_rival,_redirects_millions_of_Twitter_users</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/750/Hacker_cracks_TinyURL_rival,_redirects_millions_of_Twitter_users</guid>
			<pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:04:29 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Twitter traffic growth stalls</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Growth for Twitter, the superhot San Francisco  microblogging startup, slowed significantly in May, according to the digital  traffic measurement fi[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Growth for Twitter, the superhot San Francisco  microblogging startup, slowed significantly in May, according to the digital  traffic measurement firm Compete.
Monthly unique visitors to Twitter rose a mere 1.47 percent, or 285,333, to  19.7 million between April and May, according to Compete. The number of visits  increased just shy of 7 percent.
That compares with an increase of monthly visitors of 5.4 million during  March and 6.1 million in February.
Compete&rsquo;s figures follow closely on the heels of a  controversial Harvard Business Review study that looked at  300,000 Twitter accounts and found the top 10 percent of Twitter users accounted  for over 90 percent of tweets, as postings on the service are called, while over  half of the account holders tweeted less than once every 74 days.
On a typical online social network, the top 10 percent of users account for  30 percent of all production, the study asserted.
At the same time, however, Twitter is proving its worth to some corporate  users, even though Twitter itself has not announced how it is going to try to  make money off its free service.
Dell Computer is reporting that since 2007 more than $3 million in sales have  come through its @DellOutlet account, either through direct purchases or by  channeling traffic to other Dell sites. @DellOutlet has more than 600,000  followers.]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/749/Twitter_traffic_growth_stalls</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/749/Twitter_traffic_growth_stalls</guid>
			<pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:39:35 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>paidContent.org - Twitter, Facebook To Protect High-Profile Accounts, But What About Average Joes?</title>
			<description><![CDATA[What's in a screen name, Facebook profile or  Twitter account? Brand equity and integrity, for some; potential revenue streams  (from selling virtual[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[What's in a screen name, Facebook profile or  Twitter account? Brand equity and integrity, for some; potential revenue streams  (from selling virtual merchandise or account subscriptions) for others. Which is why the issue of  protecting someone's name?essentially their brand?across these various networks  has become such a hot topic. Baseball manager Tony La Russa is suing  Twitter, for example, because someone set up a phony account in his name and  posted &quot;derogatory and demeaning&quot; status updates (via  ESPN), and NFL quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had to deal with a fake  Facebook profile that claimed he had skin cancer (via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). So both sites are rolling  out new features aimed at making it easier for (some) people to claim and  protect their online identities:

?Twitter's  verified profiles: Twitter responded to reports that it had already settled the suit  with La Russa with a big fat no?but did acknowledge that its policy of finding  and deleting fake accounts needed improvement. So it has launched &nbsp;Verified  Accounts, which means that a Twitter rep has been  in contact with the person or organization behind the profile to make sure that  it's approved and real. The service is in beta; it also takes too much time  and money for Twitter to vet thousands of accounts, and is thus restricted to  &quot;well-known artists, athletes, actors, public officials, and public agencies&quot;  for the time being. The team says it's looking for ways to expand (and possibly  automate) the verification process in the future.
?Facebook restricts vanity URLs: Fake  Facebook accounts have always violated the social network's terms of service,  but news that people would  soon be able to grab an easy-to-remember profile link (like http://www.facebook.com/ContentNext instead of http://www.facebook.com/pages/ContentNext-Media-Inc/34051799215)  sparked concerns that impostors would snap up branded URLs that belong to  businesses or celebrities. So Facebook has already reserved some vanity URLs  for journalists (like Michael Arrington) and &quot;tens of thousands&quot; of business names,  according to CNET?meaning they won't have to try to rush and  register their names when the system goes live at 9:01 pm PST tonight.
Unfortunately neither network is protecting ordinary users?including  bloggers, small business owners and even certain lesser-known brands?from having  one aspect of their online identity hijacked. And even though the celebrities  and big companies are ideal targets for potential fee-based services, neither  Facebook nor Twitter would be able to attract high-profile users if &quot;average  Joes&quot; hadn't made the networks popular in the first place.
Staci adds I was one of the journalists whose name URL was reserved by  Facebook. In an e-mail yesterday, a Facebook rep explained the unsolicited  action for &quot;key journalists and outlets we work with&quot; (it also was taken for  brands): &quot;Because you're a visible public figure, we wanted to take the extra  step of reserving a name for you to help mitigate impersonation and so on.&quot; I  had the option of replying by a certain time to activate the URL  &quot;StaciKramer&quot;?chosen by Facebook, not me?when the feature goes live at 12:01  a.m. Saturday. I didn't take that option, and instead will go the &quot;first-come,  first-serve&quot; route, but my understanding is that URL remains on the restricted  list unless I ask to use it.]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/748/paidContent.org_-_Twitter,_Facebook_To_Protect_High-Profile_Accounts,_But_What_About_Average_Joes?</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/748/paidContent.org_-_Twitter,_Facebook_To_Protect_High-Profile_Accounts,_But_What_About_Average_Joes?</guid>
			<pubDate>Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:36:38 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Why Google Should Buy Twitter</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Over the last 15 months, I have been analyzing both Twitter (feeds and  search), and the Google &quot;real-time&quot; Search Options feature for Web[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Over the last 15 months, I have been analyzing both Twitter (feeds and  search), and the Google &quot;real-time&quot; Search Options feature for Web Search (many  months before release, a Search Options search box could be configured by  modifying the URL with its date-based variable). &nbsp;During this time, I have come  to the following three conclusions about the prospects of real-time social  search engines: &nbsp;1) The reality of the robust real-time search concept is much  closer than we think; 2) real-time search results have a number of common uses,  and are highly preferable over &quot;anytime&quot; search for a wide variety of search  tasks; 3) the best way for real-time social search to come to full fruition is  for Google to acquire Twitter, and add a social network layer to its  crawler-based real-time results.

The prospect of real-time social-search  is that it would fill in major gap in the search results, mainly in a shift that  might be best described as what is the best result right now, as  opposed to what is the best result over time. It's not necessarily a  question of which one is better than the other, but more about which one is more  suitable for a particular query and/or search intention. The likely best answer  is that the two would complement each other enough to provide a more complete  real-time search innovation. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

How Twitter's network can  enhance Google's real-time crawler-based search results
Providing a  historical answer (what is the &quot;best&quot; result over all network Web documents  produced any time) is what Google and the other major crawler-based engines  excel at, though of course it's not always perfect. &nbsp;While Google has produced  its blog engine, and other results  like Google News&nbsp; and Hot Trends&nbsp; to keep the  overall results fresher, its recently updated &quot;Search  Options&quot; &nbsp; featuring Web crawls from the last day, week and month have added  an important dimension to its results. &nbsp;&nbsp;Even within the daily or weekly  real-time Google crawl, there can still be a lot of noise, and this is where  Twitter could come in to add social relevancy to the mix. Both Google's Search  Options and Twitter have proven to be indispensible tools for finding new and  useful information, and together they would create a layer to the search  experience not possessed by any one engine. &nbsp;

The quality of the  real-time network-search experience hinges on keeping out spam - this could be a  problem for Twitter, and Google may have the solution
Part of the  reason that Twitter Search is useful now is because there is sparse presence of  spam in its results. &nbsp;In terms of being spam-free, this may be Twitter's Golden  Age; at least as far as hash tag search is concerned. &nbsp;But history shows us that  as serious spammers find a new hole, in this case finding out about the reach of  hash tags, URLs, keywords and other triggers, we should expect a lot more noise  in those streams to the point that it may ruin relevancy. &nbsp;I've personally been  seeing more spam on Twitter in the last few weeks than in the prior 15 months of  activity.
In the game of real-time search, controlling spam and assessing authority and  trust becomes more important. &nbsp;Google has excelled in getting spam out of the  results to increase relevance, and this is where they would be a great partner  with Twitter in terms of keeping their real-time results clean. &nbsp;Spamming in  Twitter is only going to get worse unless something drastic is done to combat it  (though it is worth noting that Google also has a human search quality review team  of thousands &nbsp; -- this may make them the first real human-powered social  search engine, but in a different way).
Twitter's data is also not currently being put to its best use in the current  iteration of Twitter Search, and other third-party engines are starting to get  more creative in the way the data is being presented. One Riot &nbsp; is one particular engine doing  innovative things with Twitter search. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Google Search Options and  Twitter search represent the two halves required for the whole success of  real-time social search. &nbsp;Google has the crawler, and algorithmic sense to  return a useful result. &nbsp;Twitter on the other hand, has the audience and data  that could enable the first true social layer to crawler based search, where  trusted users, much like trusted Web sites and links, are moving relevancy in  real-time.&nbsp;]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/747/Why_Google_Should_Buy_Twitter_</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/747/Why_Google_Should_Buy_Twitter_</guid>
			<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:24:12 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>What Twitter Traffic Flat? Must Be A Mistake</title>
			<description><![CDATA[It was only two months ago that we noted that in just one month Twitter had  added 5 million visitors to its site, doubling traffic. Now, data from Co[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[It was only two months ago that we noted that in just one month Twitter had  added 5 million visitors to its site, doubling traffic. Now, data from Compete  and Quantcast shows that Twitter traffic flattened last month&mdash;and may have even  fallen.
Granted Twitter still has traffic that any big media site would kill for. (To  make just one comparison: It&rsquo;s still greater than traffic to both the WSJ  and NYT sites). But it begs the question of when Twitter is going to roll  out some new features that would improve the site&rsquo;s user experience (and thus  it&rsquo;s well-documented user retention problem). Executives have said they are  looking into it. John Battelle, who pulled the Quantcast data, says not to  worry, predicting that &ldquo;Twitter will address this issue, and growth will resume,  but at a more moderate and sustainable pace.&rdquo;
Take a look at these numbers:
Twitter on Compete

Twitter on Quancast]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/746/What_Twitter_Traffic_Flat?_Must_Be_A_Mistake</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/746/What_Twitter_Traffic_Flat?_Must_Be_A_Mistake</guid>
			<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:09:38 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Twitter Security Breached, Again</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Twitter seems to have gotten used to be always in the limelight now. Weeks after the Ashton Kutcher saga and news about Oprah Winfre[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Twitter seems to have gotten used to be always in the limelight now. Weeks after the Ashton Kutcher saga and news about Oprah Winfrey being too impressed, its time for some security related news. 

After the teenager-created Mikkey worm&nbsp; wrecked havoc in mid-April, another hacker, a French hacker by the screen name &quot;Hacker Croll&quot; has managed to break into Twitter's systems and sneak in information related to user accounts, including that of U.S. President Barack Obama's. In a display of arrogance, the hacker has posted screenshots of him viewing private details of the accounts-including details regarding the IP address of the user who accessed the account last.
The news has been confirmed by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. He, however, added that only 10 accounts were broken into and that none of the information in the accounts was altered or removed. The hacker accessed a Yahoo e-mail ID of a Twitter employee from where he got the password to gain access in to the Twitter systems. Earlier this year, another hacker had managed to break into high profile twitter accounts including that of Britney Spears and Barack Obama, who seems to be amongst hacker's favorite!]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/744/Twitter_Security_Breached,_Again</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/744/Twitter_Security_Breached,_Again</guid>
			<pubDate>Mon, 04 May 2009 15:36:35 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Twitter's hot, sure, but what does it all mean?</title>
			<description><![CDATA[I'm sitting in my office listening to R.E.M. and pondering a piece on Twitter. My left leg is crossed over the right at the ankle. D[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[I'm sitting in my office listening to R.E.M. and pondering a piece on Twitter. My left leg is crossed over the right at the ankle. Do you care? 
That last paragraph contains about 140 characters, which is the most Twitter, the social network system, allows in an entry. 
Founded in 2006, Twitter is a free service with about 6 million users. Its monthly growth rate, according to Nielsen, is 1,382 percent. 
Or, as we say across all media platforms: Wow. 
Did you get that this story will be written in 140-character-or-fewer-chunks? Just like a Tweet, which is what Twitter entries are called. 
Many celebrities, politicians and some journalists use Twitter to talk directly, in real time, to their fans/constituents/readers/viewers. 
You can Tweet from your computer or your cell phone; some Twitterers go on all day about what they're doing, feeling, musing and eating. 
This might be very cool; &quot;the message system we didn't know we need until we had it,&quot; according to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. 
Or as Stephen Colbert said to Stone, just stupid; &quot;... like the answer to a problem we didn't know we had until I invented the answer.&quot; 
No matter, Twitter has supplanted Facebook as the online social networking phenomenon of the moment; the must-have application. 
But is perpetual immediacy, and a constant stream of short info-bursts, the best way to describe or experience the world around you? 
Or is Twitter the latest and, to put it ironically, greatest step in the stripping of meaning from news, information and social discourse? 
K103's John Erickson Twitters to &quot;commiserate&quot; with other pre-dawn DJs, and chat with listeners. &quot;It makes me feel like I have company.&quot; 
Portland public relations exec Christina Dyrness Williams said Twitter keeps her current on a variety of social and professional levels. 
&quot;It's my news wire, my water cooler,&quot; said Williams, who works out of her home. &quot;I'd say it's my social life, but that sounds too sad.&quot; 
Not to Stone and his Twitter co-founders, though. They're already fielding offers from massive companies eager to buy their business. 
Which is particularly compelling when you consider that Twitter, for all its millions of users, has no ads and produces no money. Yet. 
It is arguably the corporate version of a Tweet: New, flashy, full of potential. And valued more for what it might be than for what it is. 
&quot;There's a difference between profit and value,&quot; Stone says. &quot;Value to us is a strong, robust, worldwide network that (becomes) part of ...&quot; 
&quot;... everyday life for people, organizations and companies.&quot; At which point &quot;you have just so many opportunities for generating revenue.&quot; 
Intriguingly, it takes far more than 140 characters for Stone to explain how Twitter might, someday, make money. 
Whatever. For the rest of us it's more interesting to consider Twitter's cultural implications. In other words: To Tweet or not to Tweet? 
Instant, widespread communication can be transformative in global hot spots, rallying citizens even in the most repressive societies. 
When student photographer James Buck got arrested at a protest in Egypt, his one-word Tweet (&quot;arrested&quot;) beamed instantly to friends. 
Word moved quickly to the U.S. embassy in Egypt, which intervened with local authorities on Buck's behalf. His next Tweet: &quot;Freed.&quot; 
Politicians Tweet, too. Barack Obama (or someone on his staff) posted throughout his presidential campaign. That ended when he took office. 
Some members of Congress Tweet to keep in touch with their constituents. None of Oregon's reps seem all that into it, though. 
Earl Blumenauer posted a lot of bracing insider stuff from the Capitol this winter, but lately took a month-long break from Tweeting, until this week. 
The most famous Tweeter these days is TV star-slash-reality-show-producer Ashton Kutcher, who has nearly 1.5 million followers. 
Kutcher fought with CNN to top 1 million followers, and won. &quot;We can and will create our media,&quot; he said. &quot;We can and will edit our media.&quot; 
He went on: &quot;We can and will create our media; we can and will edit our media; we can and will censor our own media, ourselves.&quot; 
Kutcher media ranges from his tasks (&quot;tactical weapons training today,&quot;) to beliefs. (&quot;Everyone needs to chill out on the swine flu thing.&quot;) 
Don't even ask about the Tweets of Kutcher wife Demi Moore, an actress who has also become a fervent Twitterer. 
Here Moore is responding to a Tweet posted by singer Fred Durst: &quot;I am loving your love to your lady! It is been felt and shared.&quot; 
Which is nice, if not quite grammatical. And if Moore's feelings about Durst's feelings for his lady intrigue you, she Tweets regularly. 
Still, some Twitterers are smart, funny and readable. Some are people you've heard of (Matthew Perry, for instance). Others are unknown. 
Check out http://favrd.textism.com/most to see the day's funniest Tweets. I have no idea who compiles the list, or how, but it's cool. 
Sample: &quot;Some people say you have to drink eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy, but I think they're diluting themselves.&quot; 
That's by a guy named Dan Wineman, from North Carolina. 
Twitter may not be the future. It may not even have a future. But it's something. And for now, it's free. Tweet away. 
&nbsp;By Peter Ames Carlin, The Oregonian&nbsp; Twitter's hot, sure, but what does it all mean?]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/743/Twitter's_hot,_sure,_but_what_does_it_all_mean?_</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/743/Twitter's_hot,_sure,_but_what_does_it_all_mean?_</guid>
			<pubDate>Mon, 04 May 2009 07:27:45 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Apple Devices Coming Just for Verizon?</title>
			<description><![CDATA[For those who switched to AT&amp;T from Verizon in anticipation of the iPhone, now may be the time to switch back. According to two anonymous sources[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[For those who switched to AT&amp;T from Verizon in anticipation of the iPhone, now may be the time to switch back. According to two anonymous sources speaking to Business Week, Apple and Verizon may release two new Verizon-exclusive iPhone-like products as early as this summer. The rumors go hand-in-hand with recent talk that the iPhone is coming to Verizon, and that Apple has new devices up its sleeve for the summer.
&nbsp;
One device seems like it'll be the closest we'll ever get to the iPhone Nano: a smaller, less expensive iPhone. The iPhone Lite, as it's being called, is smaller and thinner than the existing iPhone and will come cheaper because it &quot;relies on a so-called system on a chip, which incorporates many types of chips and drives down the cost of silicon in such devices.&quot;

The other is a &quot;media pad&quot; that has the same functionality as an iPod Touch -- music, games, photos -- but with HD video and calling ability via a Wi-Fi connection. Sources tell Business Week that the device will be smaller than the Kindle 2, but with a larger touchscreen, paving the way for more speculation about Apple slinking into the eBook market. This might be the Apple Tablet everybody has been talking about.
&nbsp;
&quot;The media pad category might go to Verizon,&quot; a witness told Business Week. &quot;We are talking about a device where people will say, 'Damn, why didn't we do this?' Apple is probably going to define the damn category.&quot;
&nbsp;
All signs point to a burgeoning deal between Verizon and Apple because, 1) Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam told Business Week that he has spoken to Steve Jobs within the past six months even though Jobs is on medical leave; 2) Business Week isn't the type of publication to spread rumors; and 3) if Verizon wants Apple products, new products must be developed. Apple isn't about to renege on its iPhone exclusive deal with AT&amp;T, and the current iteration of the iPhone is on a GSM network and won't function on Verizon's CDMA network.

Courtesy of pcworld.com]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/736/Apple_Devices_Coming_Just_for_Verizon?</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/736/Apple_Devices_Coming_Just_for_Verizon?</guid>
			<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:00:01 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Twitter Suffers from Disloyalty, Says Metrics Firm</title>
			<description><![CDATA[New Twitter users are a disloyal bunch, according to data from Nielsen Online, a metrics firm that measures Internet traffic.
More than 60 percent of[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[New Twitter users are a disloyal bunch, according to data from Nielsen Online, a metrics firm that measures Internet traffic.
More than 60 percent of new users fail to return to Twitter the following month after they sign up, according to a blog post by David Martin, Nielsen's vice president of primary research. Martin believes loyalty is a problem for Twitter, because despite Twitter's explosive growth in recent months, the number of Twitter's returning users -- the retention rate -- does not outnumber those giving up on Twitter after trying out the site. This could prove problematic, because while a high retention rates doesn't guarantee a site's success. it is a prerequisite for growth.
To support his assertion, Martin points out that both Facebook and MySpace had retention rates around 70 percent when they were emerging sites like Twitter is now, while Twitter languishes below 40 percent. Things have improved, though; before Oprah started tweeting and Ashton Kutcher took on CNN for Twitter dominance, Twitter's retention rate was below 30 percent.
While these numbers may sound troubling for Twitter's future, I think Nielsen could be way off base with this report. Martin didn't say how Nielsen came to these numbers, but if the evaluators simply determined Twitter's popularity by measuring visits to Twitter.com from Web browsers, then Nielsen's numbers are completely inaccurate. The reason is that unlike other social networks, Twitter's primary use is not really as a Website but an Internet-based communications service.
That may sound like Web 2.0 nonsense, but consider that once you've signed up for Twitter on its Website you could, theoretically, never visit Twitter via a Web browser again. That's a gigantic difference when you compare Twitter to Facebook and MySpace. For example, to really get the most out of your Facebook network you have to be on the site viewing photos, responding to messages, listening to music, playing games, and so on. It's true that you can access Facebook with an iPhone application and other programs, but the action you can take within those applications is limited. Ultimately, all Facebook actions lead you back to Facebook.com. Twitter, on the other hand, offers a personalized stream of text-only messages of 140 characters or less that can be accessed any number of ways.
Instead of visiting the Twitter Website, you can use one of the multitude of other access points like desktop or smart phone applications, browser add-ons, Gmail gadgets, and text messaging. This is possible because of Twitter's virtually wide-open application programming interface (API), which allows software developers to build Twitter applications that are designed to rob Twitter of Web traffic. TweetDeck, for example, is a desktop application that lets you send and receive messages, perform a Twitter search and even follow new people right from your desktop.
Granted, it's unlikely that a user would never visit Twitter's site, but with so many ways to access the service, daily visits to Twitter.com via a Web browser will automatically be reduced. So before we start writing Twitter off as a fad, Nielsen needs to explain how it compiled its data and whether it considered Twitter's open API in its research.]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/740/Twitter_Suffers_from_Disloyalty,_Says_Metrics_Firm</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/740/Twitter_Suffers_from_Disloyalty,_Says_Metrics_Firm</guid>
			<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:57:53 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Supreme Court rules against TV swearing</title>
			<description><![CDATA[The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that federal regulators have the authority to  clamp down on broadcast TV networks that air isolated cases of profanit[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that federal regulators have the authority to  clamp down on broadcast TV networks that air isolated cases of profanity, known  as &quot;fleeting expletives.&quot;





The Supreme Court ruled  federal regulators can stop TV networks from airing profanity.






The 5-4 vote was a victory for Bush-era officials who pushed  fines and sanctions when racy images and language reached the airwaves.
Controversial words have been aired in scripted and  unscripted instances on all the major over-the-air networks in the past six  years, when the Federal Communications Commission began considering a stronger,  no-tolerance policy.
&quot;It suffices the new policy is permissible under the  statute, there are good reasons for it, and the agency believes it to be  better,&quot; Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority.
The high court, however, refused to decide whether the  commission's policy violates the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. It  ruled only on the agency's enforcement power. The justices ordered the  free-speech aspect to be reviewed again by a federal appeals court.
ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox were parties in the case. A federal  appeals court in New York had ruled in their favor, calling the commission's  policy &quot;arbitrary and capricious.&quot;
The commission then appealed to the Supreme  Court, seeking restoration of its power to penalize the networks airing  &quot;indecent&quot; speech, even if it is broadcast only one time, and even if it does  not describe a specific sex act.
The high court agreed to some extent. &quot;Even when used as an  expletive, the F-word's power to insult and offend derives from its sexual  meaning,&quot; wrote Scalia.
Such language is heard with greater, albeit varying,  frequency on cable television, the Internet, and satellite radio, which do not  use public airwaves. But the federal government is charged with responding to  viewer complaints when &quot;indecent&quot; language reaches broadcast television and  radio, which is subject to greater regulation. That is especially relevant  during daytime and early evening hours, when larger numbers of families and  younger viewers may be watching.
The communications commission formally reversed its policy  in March 2004 to declare even a single use of an expletive could be illegal.
The changes became known as the &quot;Golden Globes Rule,&quot; for  singer Bono's 2003 acceptance speech at the awards show on NBC, where he uttered  the phrase &quot;really, really, f---ing brilliant.&quot;
The commission specifically cited celebrities Cher and  Nicole Richie for potty-mouth language in the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music  Awards, which aired on Fox. Richie, in an apparent scripted moment said, &quot;Have  you ever tried to get cow s--t out of a Prada purse? It's not so f---ing  simple.&quot;
The complaint against ABC involved  &quot;NYPD Blue,&quot; a now-canceled scripted police drama, and the CBS' complaint  involved &quot;The Early Show,&quot; a news and interview program.
Enforcement of the law had been put on hold while the case  was being argued.
In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said &quot;customs of  speech&quot; made the Federal Communications Commission's position unworkable.
&quot;As any golfer who has watched his partner shank a short  approach knows, it would be absurd to accept the suggestion that the resultant  four-letter word uttered on the golf course describes sex or excrement and is  therefore indecent,&quot; he wrote. &quot;But that is the absurdity the FCC has embraced  in its new approach to indecency.&quot;
The Supreme Court first ventured into the broadcast speech  debate in 1978, when it ruled as indecent a monologue by comedian George Carlin  on society's taboo surrounding &quot;seven dirty words.&quot; The bit had received some  radio airplay. Stevens, 89, was the author of that opinion.
Time  Warner -- the parent company of CNN -- filed an amicus brief supporting the  networks fined by the communications commission. The company is part owner of  the CW broadcast network, and operates several cable networks.
Source: CNN Supreme Court rules against TV swearing]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/733/Supreme_Court_rules_against_TV_swearing_</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/733/Supreme_Court_rules_against_TV_swearing_</guid>
			<pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:49:43 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Official who OK'd NYC flyby accused of 'felony stupidity'</title>
			<description><![CDATA[After a YouTube video showed panicked New Yorkers scrambling as a Boeing 747 flew frighteningly close to the lower Manhattan skyline, a former Homelan[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[After a YouTube video showed panicked New Yorkers scrambling as a Boeing 747 flew frighteningly close to the lower Manhattan skyline, a former Homeland Security adviser questioned whether the man who approved the flyby should remain in his White House office.

Witnesses reported seeing a plane circle over the Upper New York Bay near the Statue of Liberty.
Fran Townsend, who advised President George W. Bush for more than three years, called the move &quot;crass insensitivity&quot; in the wake of 9/11.
&quot;I'd call this felony stupidity. This is probably not the right job for Mr. Caldera to be in if he didn't understand the likely reaction of New Yorkers, of the mayor,&quot; Townsend said Tuesday on CNN's &quot;American Morning.&quot;
Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office, quickly apologized for Monday's incident after the planes prompted workers and residents to evacuate buildings in New York and New Jersey.
&quot;Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision,&quot; Caldera said. &quot;While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it's clear that the mission created confusion and disruption.&quot;
The Federal Aviation Administration said the aircraft, which functions as Air Force One when the president is aboard, was taking part in a classified, government-sanctioned photo shoot.
An angry Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it &quot;defies the imagination&quot; that an agency would schedule the photo shoot so near the site of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.
President Obama also reportedly expressed outrage. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, said the FAA's decision to not announce the flyby &quot;borders on being either cruel or very, very stupid.&quot;
Witnesses reported seeing the plane circle over the Upper New York Bay near the Statue of Liberty before flying up the Hudson River.
The YouTube video shows dozens of people standing in a parking lot, watching the plane approach. As it nears, they begin to run. Someone unleashes an expletive. &quot;Run, run!&quot; says one person. &quot;Oh my God,&quot; cries another.
Two officials said the White House Military Office was trying to update its file photos of Air Force One. The officials said the president was angry when he learned Monday afternoon about the flight.
&quot;The president was furious about it,&quot; one of the officials said.
On Tuesday, Obama told reporters, &quot;It was a mistake. It was something we found out about along with all of you. And it will not happen again.&quot;
&quot;I'm annoyed -- furious is a better word -- that I wasn't told,&quot; he said, calling the FAA's decision to withhold details about the flight &quot;ridiculous&quot; and &quot;poor judgment.&quot;
&quot;Why the Defense Department wanted to do a photo op right around the site of the World Trade Center defies the imagination,&quot; he said. &quot;Had we known, I would have asked them not to.&quot;
Linda Garcia-Rose, a social worker who counsels post-traumatic stress disorder patients in an office three blocks from where the World Trade Center stood, called the flight an &quot;absolute travesty.&quot;
&quot;There was no warning. It looked like the plane was about to come into us,&quot; she said. &quot;I'm a therapist, and I actually had a panic attack.&quot;
Garcia-Rose, who works with nearly two dozen patients ages 15 to 47, said she was inundated with phone calls from patients.
&quot;They're traumatized. They're asking 'How could this happen?' They're nervous. Their anxiety levels are high,&quot; she said
Garcia-Rose said she is considering filing a class-action suit against the government for sanctioning the plane's unannounced flight.
&quot;I believe the government has done something really wrong,&quot; she said.

Capt. Anna Carpenter of Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland said local law enforcement agencies and the FAA had been given notice of the exercise.
New York Police Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne said the department had been alerted about the flight &quot;with directives to local authorities not to disclose information about it.&quot;]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/732/Official_who_OK'd_NYC_flyby_accused_of_'felony_stupidity'</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/732/Official_who_OK'd_NYC_flyby_accused_of_'felony_stupidity'</guid>
			<pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:40:50 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Facebook Users Approve Terms Of Use</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Facebook members will own and control their own information under the social networking site's new policies. 
Users this week voted[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Facebook members will own and control their own information under the social networking site's new policies. 
Users this week voted on a new set of terms and conditions, and most users who voted approved of a new set of Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Along with a forthcoming new Privacy Policy, the documents represent a new Bill of Rights, so to speak, for the Facebook nation.

The Web site put forth the terms and statement after an earlier revision of the terms upset members and advocacy groups. The changes increase user control and privacy protection while improving account deletion and limiting sublicenses and reducing data exchanges between application developers. 
The move resulted from online discussions among users and the company. It drew immediate praise from users and advocacy groups. 
&quot;We are pleased with the outcome,&quot; Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said in a statement released Friday. &quot;Facebook addressed several privacy problems that EPIC had identified.&quot; 
EPIC, which had threatened two months ago to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, also praised members who campaigned for increased privacy protections. The group said that the changes reaffirm key privacy principles for Web 2.0 applications. 
&quot;There will always be privacy issues with Facebook and other popular web services,&quot; Rotenberg said. &quot;The need for a comprehensive privacy framework is clear. But this week Facebook took an important step in support of user privacy, and we support the outcome.&quot; 
&nbsp;]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/723/Facebook_Users_Approve_Terms_Of_Use_</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/723/Facebook_Users_Approve_Terms_Of_Use_</guid>
			<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2009 07:55:07 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Twitter's  Global Visitors Shoot Up To 19 Million</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Twitter&rsquo;s march towards world domination continues apace. This morning  comScore released its global numbers for March, 2009. Worldwide visitors[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Twitter&rsquo;s march towards world domination continues apace. This morning  comScore released its global numbers for March, 2009. Worldwide visitors to  Twitter.com increased 95 percent in the month of March from 9.8 million to 19.1  million, according to its estimates. This compares to 9.3  million visitors in the U.S. alone.
These numbers only count visitors to Twitter&rsquo;s Website, which is not the same  as active users and also does not include people who interact with Twitter via  desktop or mobile clients (a large portion of users). But the comScore numbers  provide a good proxy for Twitter&rsquo;s overall growth, which was helped recently by  Ashton  Kutcher&rsquo;s race with CNN to one million followers, and Oprah&rsquo;s  subsequent adoption of the service.
If Twitter can keep this rate of growth up, it should cross 50 million  visitors by summer]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/716/Twitter's__Global_Visitors_Shoot_Up_To_19_Million</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/716/Twitter's__Global_Visitors_Shoot_Up_To_19_Million</guid>
			<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:05:23 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Facebook Moves Ahead With New Terms of Use</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Facebook, the world's most used social-networking site, will soon move ahead with revised rules for how it operates following a  row with users ea[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Facebook, the world's most used social-networking site, will soon move ahead with revised rules for how it operates following a  row with users earlier this year.
The company's new guiding documents, called the Facebook Principles and  Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, will be adopted, wrote Ted Ullyot,  Facebook's general counsel, on the site's blog.
Those documents were put to a vote, but Ullyot said the company had hoped for a bigger turnout. Of 200 million registered  users, about 600,000 people participated, with nearly three quarters of those  favoring the new documents. An outside auditor is reviewing the vote, and it's  expected the documents will be implemented in a few weeks.
Facebook set a goal that a vote would be binding if 30 percent of all users  approved the changes, but that threshhold may be lowered. &quot;We are hoping there  will be greater participation in future votes,&quot; Ullyot wrote.
Facebook landed itself in hot water earlier this year after The Consumerist , a consumer  advocacy site, noticed that a change in its terms of use gave the company  control over data that users had deleted.
Shortly after people vociferously complained, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg  reverted to the old terms of use while the company initiated a campaign to let  users contribute and review changes.
Ullyot wrote that several vocal critics of the changes now endorse the new  documents, including Jonathan Zittrain, co-director of Harvard's Berkman Center  for Internet and Society, The Consumerist as well as Julius Harper and Anne  Kathrine Petteroe, who both founded the largest Facebook group opposing the  changes.
Future changes will also be put to public review on Facebook's Site Governance  Page.
Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service&nbsp; Facebook Moves Ahead With New Terms of Use]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/719/Facebook_Moves_Ahead_With_New_Terms_of_Use_</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/719/Facebook_Moves_Ahead_With_New_Terms_of_Use_</guid>
			<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:05:19 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Twitter challenge between Kutcher and CNN</title>
			<description><![CDATA[On the eve of World Malaria Day, UNICEF today announced that it will be the  recipient of a $100,000&nbsp; gift designated for the provision of insect[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[On the eve of World Malaria Day, UNICEF today announced that it will be the  recipient of a $100,000&nbsp; gift designated for the provision of insecticide  treated nets (ITNs) meant to stem the spread of malaria.
The gift comes as the result of a highly publicised challenge between actor  Ashton Kutcher and the Cable News Network, and played itself out on the  increasingly popular social networking website 'Twitter'. &nbsp;
&quot;It is estimated that if every child in Africa slept under an  insecticide-treated net, some 70 per cent of malaria deaths could be avoided,&quot;  Executive Director of UNICEF Ann M Veneman said in a statement.&nbsp;&nbsp;

&quot;These  new donations will help deliver-insecticide treated nets to children at risk  from this deadly disease, and will save lives,&quot; Veneman said. &nbsp;
A vocal advocate for the eradication of malaria, Kutcher issued a challenge  to CNN several weeks ago saying that his account would set a new record on  Twitter, attracting one million followers before the Twitter account held by  CNN's breaking-news feed. &nbsp;
The wager was $100,000 and last Friday, Kutcher, whose Twitter name is  @aplusk, reached that one million mark.&nbsp;]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/717/Twitter_challenge_between_Kutcher_and_CNN</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/717/Twitter_challenge_between_Kutcher_and_CNN</guid>
			<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:05:12 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Facebook Releases Results of Governance Vote</title>
			<description><![CDATA[The turnout was far under the 30 percent of users Facebook hoped for, but the social networking site said the week-long vote, in w[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[The turnout was far under the 30 percent of users Facebook hoped for, but the social networking site said the week-long vote, in which users determined which documents should serve as the foundation for governing the site, was a success.

Social networking behemoth Facebook announced terms of service changes as the result of a vote the company held to determine whether users supported the adoption of new governing documents. The vote came after users protested previous changes to service, when Facebook seemed to claim users&rsquo; data as their own. 

Approximately 74.4 percent of users who voted chose the proposed documents &ndash; the new Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities &ndash; over the existing Terms of Use. Although the company said 600,000 people voted, the figure was far below the 30 percent participation rate Facebook&rsquo;s founders were hoping for. The site currently has more than 200 million registered users.

Ted Ullyot, Facebook's general counsel, wrote in a blog post on Facebook that the company hoped to have a bigger turnout for this inaugural vote, but it is important to keep in mind that this vote was a first not just for users but also for Facebook. &ldquo;We are hopeful that there will be greater participation in future votes,&rdquo; he wrote. &ldquo;In the meantime, we're going to consider lowering the 30-percent threshold that the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities establishes for a user vote to be binding.&rdquo;









In essence, the &ldquo;Rights and Responsibilities&rdquo; document would replace the old terms of service, in which Facebook now makes it clear that the company claims only the right to use your content to make backups or to share it with people or applications users approve of. The furor in February was touched off by the use of the word &ldquo;licensing&rdquo; in the original terms of service agreement. This led to user outrage that Facebook would&mdash;or could-- exploit their photos or creative contributions to the site.

Ullyot goes on to explain the &ldquo;significant efforts&rdquo; Facebook made to make voting easy and to give everyone the opportunity to vote. Specifically he cited translating the documents and voting application into several of the most popular languages on the site, showing a message about the vote on users' home pages, and running advertisements and videos across Facebook promoting the vote.

&ldquo;Assuming the auditors confirm the preliminary vote result in favor of the proposed documents, we'll be adopting the Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities as the governing documents for the Facebook site,&rdquo; he wrote. &ldquo;We're pleased that users supported the proposed documents and validated our efforts to respond to their concerns.&rdquo;]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/715/Facebook_Releases_Results_of_Governance_Vote</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/715/Facebook_Releases_Results_of_Governance_Vote</guid>
			<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:50:44 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Shake Up at MySpace Amid Competition from Facebook</title>
			<description><![CDATA[NEW YORK -- Less than a month after former AOL chief Jonathan Miller joined News Corp to oversee the digital media business, he's cleaning house at My[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[NEW YORK -- Less than a month after former AOL chief Jonathan Miller joined News Corp to oversee the digital media business, he's cleaning house at MySpace.
On April 22, Miller and MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe announced DeWolfe will soon step down from the top job. He will remain on the board of MySpace China for now, and continue on as a strategic advisor.
MySpace cofounder Tom Anderson, long every user's first &quot;friend&quot; on the site, remains president, but is also in talks with Miller about a new role at the company.
Though Miller had been considering a management shakeup at the social networking site that Murdoch bought for $580 million in 2005, he had not planned to announce the change for some time.
(The company had to act fast after a TechCrunch posting forced a flurry of speculation over DeWolfe's departure.)
Miller is now in a hurry to fill the position and has narrowed down his list of candidates. The assumption is that the job will go to former Facebook operating chief Owen Van Natta, but an official announcement has not been made.
One thing's for sure: the company's next CEO will have a great challenge. The site is off to a rough year. The number of U.S. visitors has dropped off to just 70 million in March after hovering around 75 million for the last seven months. Top talent like former chief operating officer Amit Kapur is leaving the company. And like other media companies, MySpace is feeling the effects of the slowing economy.
This all comes after a disappointing 2008, in which analysts estimate MySpace posted revenue of about $600 million -- far short of the $1 billion target set by its parent company.
MySpace seems to be falling behind Facebook in the all-important race to sign up new users. Facebook now has more than 61 million U.S. visitors, up 70% from a year ago, according to ComScore. And internationally, the site has leapt ahead with 296 million visitors to MySpace's 126 million in March, according to Comscore measurements.
But Miller and News Corp. (NWS, Fortune 500) know the battle to be the top social networking site is not won. MySpace has a great deal going for it. Its loyal fan base spends a whopping 266 minutes a month on the site, according to Comscore, more time than on any other social network.
And MySpace is the only social network so far to come up with a business model that squeezes substantial revenue out of the site. It now falls to Miller to figure out how to jumpstart growth and make MySpace popular again.&nbsp;
by&nbsp; Jesse Hempel at CNN MySpace shakeup: News Corp.'s morning-after plan]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/706/Shake_Up_at_MySpace_Amid_Competition_from_Facebook</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/706/Shake_Up_at_MySpace_Amid_Competition_from_Facebook</guid>
			<pubDate>Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:34:28 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Updating Twitter with a Brain Interface</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are using Twitter posts
as a way of demonstrating a new system of communication usin[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are using Twitter posts
as a way of demonstrating a new system of communication using your brain as an
interface rather than typing out words. The research is being done in an
attempt to create a better communication system for individuals who are unable
to use their bodies. Well-known examples include Stephen Hawking who suffers
from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), but would also be beneficial to
people who have suffered paralyses or other problems leading to reduced body
control.









 




Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are using Twitter posts as a way of demonstrating a new system of communication using your brain as an interface rather than typing out words. The research is being done in an attempt to create a better communication system for individuals who are unable to use their bodies. Well-known examples include Stephen Hawking who suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), but would also be beneficial to people who have suffered paralyses or other problems leading to reduced body control.
As you can see in the video above the system works by presenting the user with a grid of characters that flash. The user has to concentrate on the character they want to use and when it flashes the brain interface detects that the user noticed the change and tells the system to print that character. The key is concentrating on a single character and waiting for the change that your brain then registers. When a message is finished the user concentrates on the &ldquo;TWIT&rdquo; characters and the system posts the message to your Twitter account.
The technique has been developed by biomedical engineering student Adam Wilson and UW-Madison assistant professor Justin Williams working with Gerwin Schalk and a team at the Wadsworth Center department of health in New York. Testing has been carried out posting Twitter updates and Wilson says it is just like getting used to writing a text message for the first time. When you first start using the system you are really slow and it&rsquo;s hard work, but speeds of up to eight characters a minute are being demonstrated by regular users.
Trials of the technology will now be done in homes and it is hoped the ease of use coupled with the well-known Twitter service will help bring more research to this area of communication.
Matthew&rsquo;s Opinion
The development of this new interface alone is impressive because it is simple to use, but the addition of Twitter integration means it becomes a lot more useful to those using it. Not only can messages be written down, they can also be easily shared on the Internet with a single brain button press.
Once setup the user can write and post messages completely independently. Friends and family can then subscribe to the feed and communicate with that person. As far as enabling the user it works very well and gives them an outlet to express themselves without anyone ever having to know they are actually using this interface or indeed are different from anyone else on Twitter.
&nbsp;]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/705/Updating_Twitter_with_a_Brain_Interface</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/705/Updating_Twitter_with_a_Brain_Interface</guid>
			<pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:24:21 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>Sony debuts 'Terminator' Twitter game</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Sony Pictures Releasing International says it has created its first movie-based  game for the Twitter social networking platform.

The announcement[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Sony Pictures Releasing International says it has created its first movie-based  game for the Twitter social networking platform.

The announcement of the &quot;Terminator Salvation&quot; Twitter game was made Monday  by Sal Ladestro, executive vice president of marketing for Sony Pictures  Releasing International.
&quot;Twitter users can join John  Connor in the war against the machines by following the tweets at Resistance  2018,&quot; Ladestro said in a statement. &quot;In the fight against Skynet and the  Terminators, mass communication is vital, so it's no surprise that the  resistance would turn to Twitter. We think this is the perfect environment for  the Terminator game as it allows users to interact with the movie, their friends  and other game players instantaneously.&quot;
Starring Christian Bale as hero John Connor, &quot;Terminator  Salvation&quot; is to be released in the United States May 21 by Warner Bros.  Pictures. Sony Pictures Releasing International is distributing the film in most  international territories between May 27 and June 13.


Actor  Christian Bale attends a press conference for the film &quot;The Dark Knight&quot; in  Tokyo, Japan, on July 29, 2008. (UPI Photo/Keizo Mori)
&nbsp;]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/704/Sony_debuts_'Terminator'_Twitter_game</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/704/Sony_debuts_'Terminator'_Twitter_game</guid>
			<pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:24:18 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title>2 Men Send 217,000 Text Messages, Get 26K Bill</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Two central Pennsylvania friends spent most  of March in a text-messaging record attempt, exchanging a thumbs-flying total of  217,000.
For one of[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Two central Pennsylvania friends spent most  of March in a text-messaging record attempt, exchanging a thumbs-flying total of  217,000.
For one of the two, that meant an  inches-thick itemized bill for $26,000.
Nick Andes, 29, and Doug Klinger, 30, were  relying on their unlimited text messaging plans to get them through the  escapade, so Andes didn't expect such a big bill.
&quot;It came in a box that cost $27.55 to send  to me,&quot; he said Tuesday. He said he &quot;panicked&quot; and called T-Mobile, which told  The Associated Press it had credited his account and was investigating the  charges.
The two Lancaster-area residents have been  practically nonstop texters for about a decade since they attended Berks  Technical Institute together.
That led Andes to search for the largest  monthly text message total he could find posted online: 182,000 sent in 2005 by  Deepak Sharma in India.
Andes and Klinger were able to set up their  phones to send multiple messages. During a February test run they found they  could send 6,000 or 7,000 messages on some days, prompting the March messaging  marathon.
&quot;Most were either short phrases or one word,  'LOL' or 'Hello,' things like that, with tons and tons of repeats,&quot; said Andes,  reached by phone.
Andes sent more than 140,000 messages, and  Klinger sent more than 70,000 to end the month with a total of just over  217,000, he said.
A spokesman for Guinness World Records  didn't immediately return messages asking whether it would be certified as a  record.
April came as a relief to Andes' wife,  Julie, who had found his phone tied up with texting when she tried to call him  on lunch breaks.
&quot;She was tired of it the first few days into  it,&quot; Andes said.
AP Pennsylvania Men Attempting Record Send 217,000 Text Messages, Get $26G Bill]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/697/2_Men_Send_217,000_Text_Messages,_Get_26K_Bill</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/697/2_Men_Send_217,000_Text_Messages,_Get_26K_Bill</guid>
			<pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:29:45 -0400</pubDate>
		</item>

	</channel>
</rss>