West, in a posting on his website, said that joining social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter will help him connect with his fans and interact with them personally.

On Tuesday, the RnB superstar visited the office of Facebook in Palo Alto, California to preview some of the materials, which will be included in the special page in the social networking site.

West then performed a rap song an in front of Facebook employees and officials, which was uploaded on Youtube. On the video, the singer was seen rapping while standing on top of the conference table.

West, who figured in several rants against other singers like Taylor Swift, also took the chance to thank the Facebook management for the support that they have given to him in his new album.

“Your energy was a gift so electric, so genuine, that it really helped me give my best,” West said in his posting on his official website.

The new album, which remained untitled as of posting, is expected to be released on September 14 this year.

Meanwhile, sought for comment, Facebook spokesperson remained mum over the development of the webpage for the RnB singer.

It will be recalled that West suffered a major fallback in his career after ranting against Taylor Swift during the MTV Music Awards. Several fans and fellow artists expressed disappointment over his “childish” rants, which some called “racist” and “insensitive.”

With the release of the new album, West, according to some of his hardcore fans, will shut his critics and will retain his status as one of the top artists in the music industry.

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According to a recent study, the use of Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site, reduces the productivity rate of employees by 1.5 percent.  This finding is not surprising given the fact that more than 60 percent of US workers admitted that they are using Facebook during work time.

While most experts believe that companies should not completely ban access to social networking sites, most of them agree that employers should have a strict policy regarding the use of these online properties.

However, a survey conducted by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics revealed that only one out of three companies in the US have employee online policies including the use of social network sites.

The survey, titled “Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Compliance: What are Companies Doing?” also found that a significant percent of online policies do not include Internet activities outside work.

In addition, only 10 percent of the US businesses have a specific policy on the use of social network sites.

“Companies should have a clear policy regarding the use of these online properties.  However, supervisors and should still encourage their employees from using social media as a way to communicate with their industry peers”, Society’s CEO Roy Snell said.

With a clear and strong policy, experts believe that employers can protect their worker’s productivity rate, sensitive business information, and rapport between workers and supervisors and management.

A recent survey shows that about 45 percent of US companies were “concerned about their employees leaking sensitive information through the use of social sites.”

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Meanwhile, rumors have been circulating about Facebook’s plan to celebrate its 500^th million user.  But when asked for details, Facebook spokesperson Andrew Noyes declined to give comments.

Despite Facebook increasing number of members, Inside Facebook, a website which tracks the social site’s user growth, revealed that the online community has experienced a growth decline in June with only 320,800 new US users compared to 7.8 million newly registered members during the previous month.

While there was a slower rate of new users, some Internet experts said that Facebook will still remain the most popular social networking in the US and other countries for the next few years.  But despite its growing popularity, they said the site will be under more scrutiny in terms of contents, user’s security and privacy, and stability.

According to several studies, more women in the US said they are addicted to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter that a significant percent of them admitted to be a “social media addict”.  However, some analysts said that the social media’s popularity may be short-lived just like other previous online properties.

Meanwhile, Google has been rumored to have plans to create a Facebook-killer site dubbed as Google Me.  However, the technology giant declined to give comments about the issue.

Some web experts said that Facebook may still be a vulnerable website since a lot of companies see the potential and the business viability of social network sites.

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The finding shows that about 65 percent of parents believe that their children are frequently distracted by social sites from doing their homework which may lead to poor grades.

With this growing concern, cyber-safety expert Martyn Wild is encouraging parents to place computers in common areas such as the lounge or living room so they will know the online activities of their children and prevent them from being distracted with social media sites.

“Usually, parents do not allow their children to socialize with their friends during late hours on a school night.  However, that is what they (children) are doing online and right under their parents’ nose”, Wild added.

The survey, which included parents who have children aged between 10 and 17 years old, shows the problem of social networking distraction is more common between teenagers aged 14 to 17 years old.

Despite some problems brought by the digital media, especially with the growing popularity of social networking sites, Wild said that turning off the Internet access is not the right solution.

“The answer is all about implementing online behavior and limiting the use of the Internet based on realistic expectations”, Wild said during an interview.

However, Wild said that parents “should not act like an Internet big brother” but should only “be setting realistic guidelines that would help their children from using the computer responsibly.”

Wild has also encouraged children to use their own judgment on using the online media so they can balance their “non-Internet” lives.

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In a statement, Yahoo said that its users will have to personally turn the link to avail of the services, which include regular updates on Yahoo shoutouts and other services such as photo-sharing on Flicker.

“The new features were part of the makeover that we have announced last year,” Yahoo said in the statement.

The company hopes to attract more users into their e-mail services and other website features through the Facebook tie-up.

It will be recalled that Yahoo users significantly trimmed down e-mail usage, prompting Yahoo to take action. The Internet giant has over 600 million users but the numbers keep on dropping progressively over the past three years.

“One of the main reasons we see for the fall in Yahoo usage is the proliferation of social networking sites like Facebook, where people can now exchange emails, music, and video clips.

But with the inclusion of these Facebook features in Yahoo websites, we hope to bring them back into using traditional email services,” a Yahoo official who refused to be named said.

“More visitors will stay on Yahoo if they can simultaneously monitor what’s happening on Facebook,” the official added.

Yahoo, the same with other websites, is banking on the number of people using their services to be able to sell online advertisements, which is the main source of revenue of the company.

Aside from the update capabilities, Yahoo said that it will also begin to feature Internet games that can be found on Facebook such as “Farmville,” “Mafia Wars” and “Fishville,” made by Zynga.

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The groups, led by the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), has filed a complaint before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) calling for a regulatory intervention to prevent further privacy violations being committed by social networking sites like Facebook and others.

CDD executive director Jeff Chester said that “more is needed” even with the positive changes in Facebook’s approach to its users’ privacy.

“Specifically, we want an opt-in approach on even the most basic personal information in Facebook, as well as the website’s Instant Personalization option,” he said.

Facebook’s Instant Personalization feature allows the automatic displays of any website-related information on its partners like Pandora and Yelp.

On Wednesday, Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg announced the changes in the privacy setting of the website, saying that the privacy option is made simpler for users.

Among the changes in the privacy setting is the one-stop webpage which allows users to choose their settings depending on who they would to view their accounts – they can choose whether everyone, friends of friends, or just friends.

Personal information of the users are also made less publicly available and users can now opt-in or opt-out in any third-party applications in the website.

Also, users can choose to limit the display of the webpages that they clicked or “liked.”

But despite all the changes made in the social networking website, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) called on federal regulators to continue its investigations and file the necessary charges against the Internet giant if there were evidences that people’s privacy was violated.

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Experts at Pew Internet said that the trend has gone against the conventional wisdom where adults used to lecture kids about their habits on the Internet.

“This is definitely surprising for us. It is now adding fuel to arguments that the youth has now become the ‘gurus’ to older generation Internet users.

They are now the ones teaching them about online reputation management, particularly in social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter,” a Pew Internet official said in an interview.

One of the most common advices being given by the younger people to the adults is how to limit their personal information being shared online. The youth also has more knowledge about their privacy options while using online networking services.

Many of the young adults who have social networking accounts are now scouring their profiles to remove unwanted and explicit contents that would prevent them from getting the jobs they want.

The youth said that while their public profile in their respective neighborhood will not hurt them, their social networking accounts can certainly give the wrong signals to the people who might see their pictures – including their potential employers.

According to Pew Internet, this topic has been disregarded by many adult users and has now taken its toll to many unemployed people looking for new jobs, saying that employers are looking to a person’s social networking account once he applied for a job.

Pew Internet and American Life Project hoped to bring the idea to millions of adult social networking users to help them gain more and suffer less when they log-in on their accounts.

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The Seesmic App was earlier released for Research in Motion’s Blackberry and other Android-based Smartphones, giving many iPhone users something to envy.

The application works by making social networking simple. It offers users customizable spaces that they can use to link their searches, shoutouts, trends, and topic list to all their social networking accounts under one program.

Users can also link their Facebook and Twitter accounts to Ping.FM, which was acquired by Seesmic in the first quarter of 2010, to be able to update multiple social networking sites.

The iPhone version of the application shows the main splash screens that are made accessible to the users through an icon placed in the upper left corner. Users can also swipe between spaces to navigate the App.

Aside from the said feature, the new Seesmic application allows iPhone users to integrate their files through file-syncing application called Evernote.

Access to Evernote allows users, without Instapaper or Read it Later support, to store messages for later reference to avoid inbox clutter.

However, several technology experts said that the application has several outdated features like pull-to-refresh option. It also failed to include a contact database and updating feature can only give users harder time by connecting to a built-in link.

But the experts said that Seesmic will figure out something to make the application more worthy for many iPhone and iPad users in the near future, saying that the initial launching was just a test run for many developments in the application.

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Based on the complaints, adopted children are being tracked down by their natural parents, which undermined that standard operating controls and safeguards being implemented during adoptions.

Adoption UK chief executive Jonathan Pearce noted that they already receive hundreds of complaints and calls from adoptive parents about the said incidents, fearing for the privacy of the adopted children.

“We are now having difficulty in dealing with the issues. What these natural parents did not realize is that not only they have to deal with the consequences of their actions. It is the children who usually suffer from these kinds of intrusive and unplanned communications,” Pearce stressed.

He said that it has become more difficult for the adoptive parents to guarantee confidentially.

The most common practice in adoption contact, between the natural parents and the child, is made through the “letterbox” process.

In a letterbox, birth families were sent letters and photos by the adoptive parents of the child every year through social networking websites or the adoption agency itself to avoid physical interaction between the two.

If the parents wish to respond to the letters, they will also have to go through the same process, keeping the privacy of the child.

However, with the use of social networking media, any excess information like names, location, and birthday of the child, can give biological parents an idea where to track down their children.

With the increasing number of complaints, adoption agencies are now looking for other possible ways to protect the children from the possible emotional harm the contact with their biological parents can bring to them.

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In an interview, Togetherville co-founder and chief executive officer Mandeep Singh Dhillon said that the new social networking site will give kids the “spirit of friendly neighborhoods” within the online world.

Togetherville will also educate more children on how to be a good digital citizen when they grow up, with the help of their guardians.

“Just like the friendly neighborhoods that we grew up in, Togetherville will give our children the safe feeling of having friends and people around you,” Dhillon said.

“And just like what we remember in our own childhood, everyone knows everyone and we’ll watch out for each other to help build a safer and more child-friendly environment for our children,” he added.

Togetherville, which is aligned with the advocacies of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), was specifically designed for children who are too young to have Facebook accounts (6 to 10 years old).

Dhillon said that kids can engage with their real-world buddies in several games that have been designed to build up their mental health as well as educational videos to help children gain more knowledge while surfing the Internet.

“They can also create art and showcase it among their friends,” he added.

“This is the best training ground for children and their parents in setting an example to the rest of the online community. Plus, the website is ad-free, so no outside interruption can be seen while children play and make new friends,” he said.

To avoid unnecessary entry of unwanted people, the website has an extensive log-in application procedure. The parents will serve as the security force of the website by taking full responsibility of each family that join the account.

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