follower

Not only did Jamaican Olympian Usain Bolt tear across the finish line winning the 200-meter sprint today, he also triumphed on the Internet. Bolt fans tweeted a record 80,000 tweets-per-minute as the runner overtook his competitors in the race.

"Record alert!" Twitter announced in a tweet earlier today. "@usainbolt sets a new Olympic Games conversation record with over 80,000 TPM for his 200m victory."

Bolt, 25, finished the race in 19.32 seconds winning the gold and beating fellow Jamaicans Yohan Blake and Warren Weir, who came in second and third respectively, according to … Read more

In playing catch up with President Obama's social media savvy, Republican nominee Mitt Romney might have cut some corners. A new report by Barracuda Labs shows that more than 15 percent of Romney's Twitter followers may have come from bogus accounts generated by pay-for-followers services.

"We believe most of these recent followers of Romney are not from a general Twitter population but most likely from a paid Twitter follower service," Barracuda Labs research scientist Jason Ding wrote in the report.

It's important to note, however, that it's not clear if the Romney campaign, an … Read more

As a whole, Twitter's official mobile app is solid. The interface is sleek, and it brings with it most of the features you'd expect from a Twitter client produced in-house.

All of Twitter's features are housed in four different navigation tabs. Home is your primary Twitter feed, just as you would expect. Each time you boot up the app, it opens to your Home screen and lands on the last tweet that you read. You can tap the Home tab to quickly jump to the top. The Connect tab charts your interactions with your Twitter friends, showing … Read more

Built as a Universal update, Google+ version 3.0 adds new features to the iPhone app and is the first version that is made for the iPad with its own unique interface features.

On both iOS devices, you'll now be able to create and manage Google Events. You can create an event, manage comments, add photos, and see who is coming to the event. All the info from past events is saved as well, so you can go back and revisit them later.

Google Hangouts are now supported on both iOS devices as well, which means you'll be … Read more

What do Steve Martin, Salman Rushdie, and Nascar all have in common? A new special feature on their Twitter accounts that lets followers decide whether to see their tweet conversations.

Twitter announced today that on certain verified accounts of well-known musicians, actors, athletes, and brands, users can decide whether to see back-and-forth exchanges. The way it works is by clicking "all" above the Tweets timeline on the user's profile page to see full conversations or by clicking "no replies" to see only original tweets.

Having trouble figuring out who to follow on Twitter?

The microblogging service announced today it is experimenting with tailored suggestions based on personal interests.

"Currently, when new users come to Twitter, we show them all almost the same suggestions for what or who to follow," Othman Laraki, Twitter's director of global growth, wrote on a company blog. "That isn't ideal."

Newbies and seasoned users alike will soon see personalized suggestions in Twitter's "Who to Follow" section based on the service's knowledge of users, including the Web sites they visit.

The … Read more

Do you watch a lot of Internet video? With so much out there to consume, from hot music videos and "SNL" skits to arty Vimeo clips and sports highlights, it's impossible to see everything. But an app that's new to iPhone helps you discover new videos by organizing them into channels you can browse by category, popularity, and Web site.

Squrl Video Discovery, (free) was formerly for iPad only, but now brings the app's wealth of video discovery tools to the iPhone. You can get started by browsing through popular or "Fresh" (new) videos to see the type of content you can watch. But to really get the full experience of Squrl, you should connect with social networks like Facebook and Twitter so you can watch videos posted by your friends and share your favorites with them.… Read more

Socialcam Video Camera lets you create videos, share them with a community, and offers several cool features to make your personal videos pop.

To get started with Socialcam, sign up from within the app using your Facebook or Twitter account, or you can sign up with your e-mail address. From there you have buttons across the bottom for Videos (users you follow), Popular Videos, Friends (filled with various people and friends you can optionally follow), and latest activity. Touch the Popular or Friends tab to see what Socialcam is all about and see which people are posting (you'll see … Read more

Whether you're a fan of social video apps or not, there's something to be said for short, quick videos you make on the fly and then share with your friends. These apps are a lot like Twitter in that you can post your own short videos, follow other video creators, and view a feed of your favorites to see their latest updates.

This week's iOS apps have been out for some time, but over the past couple of weeks, social video app fans are choosing sides, downloading their favorites, and even posting to social networks to talk … Read more