If you ever see a Twitter pop-up message that looks like the following:

RUN! Close down your browser, turn off your computer, do not pass “Go”, do not collect $200!

Why such panic? Because, if you ever see a pop-up similar to that above, it may not be as innocuous as the one created by the guys over at Dave Naylor’s blog. In fact, someone with half an ounce of tech savvy could

…make a Twitter ‘application’ and start sending tweets with it. Using the simple instructions below, it can be arranged so that if another Twitter user so much as sees one of these tweets – and they are logged in to Twitter – their account could be taken over.

Yikes!

While the subject is often debated, there is mounting evidence that the Internet community’s desire to pin the label of ‘early adopter’ for new technology advances on the youngest users may be misguided. Earlier this month we asked the question as to whether teens use Twitter and it looks like the answer is, for the most part, not so much.

The New York Times examines this area in more detail as it becomes more an more apparent that many of the users of social media skew much older. While this has been suspected for a while now there needs to be more unearthing of this phenomenon before it can be declared reality.

Well, no one can accuse Yahoo of sitting back and waiting for the Microhoo deal to get underway. Instead the soon to be social media destination (or is it already, I can’t tell) is increasing its reach and social media footprint into the Arabic world with the purchase of Arabic social media site Maktoob.

You’ve never heard of Maktoob? Unless you are part of the Arabic world it is not likely that you would have. In fact, most in the region admit that this entire area is still in its infancy with regard to the level of Internet penetration.  The Maktoob business site tells us

Yahoo! has agreed to acquire Maktoob.com, the Arab world’s largest online community, marking the first major investment by a U.S. technology company in a region where internet penetration is still in its infancy.

The Center for Media Research has reported on a paper that reaches the conclusions that executives in many companies are worried about social media in some form or another. If it’s not how employees are wasting valuable company time as a result of their Twitter and / or Facebook fetishes (51%) it is about how their companies and brands are being represented in the social media world (49%). Legitimate concerns for sure but it is probably high time that executives stop wringing their hands about this stuff and just jump in with the rest of the sharks people.

About the study itself