A new study from security firm Barracuda Labs provides some interesting insights into the state of the Twitterverse. Unfortunately for the microblogging startup, the stats say that most of its users aren’t very active.

The study looked at around 19 million Twitter accounts (PDF) in order to figure out how people are using Twitter (). It started with one assumption: an active or “True” Twitter user has at least 10 followers, follows at least 10 people, and had tweeted at least 10 times. By that definition though, only 21% of Twitter users are active users.

There’s a great deal of interesting data in the breakdown. Only 26% of Twitter users had 10 followers or more by December 2009, while only 40% were following 10 people or more (in fact, a majority of Twitter users, 51%, were following less than five people).

When you start a website, no matter if you have chosen a top business hosting package or a cheap website hosting package, you will find various website analysis tools in your web hosting admin panel. Website analysis tools, such as Awstats, are typically included in both business hosting and cheap website hosting packages and these tools are indeed good. However, if you want options when it comes to website analytics tools, here are some suggestions.

JAWStats

If you like Awstats, you will certainly appreciate JAWStats as well. JAWStats runs in conjunction with Awstats and produces more graphics than Awstats.

goingup!

Goingup! is one more tool website stats freaks will love because it offers many kinds of statistical data, which is represented in visually attractive ways. A substantial part of the functionality of goingup! is SEO-related, so if you don’t use any other SEO-tools, this tool will do this job as well.

Clicky

Clicky also made the list of useful website analysis tools not only because it has tons of great features but also because it is one of the few website analysis tools you can use from your iPhone.

As Director of Twitter’s Trust and Safety team, a big part of my job is focused on the detection and prevention of spam and abuse. A couple weeks ago, Biz explained how Twitter users were being victimized by phishing scams spread primarily through links in Direct Messages. Basically, people click the link and bad things happen. My team can only detect these scams after malicious links have already been sent out.

Today, we’re launching a new service to protect users that strikes a major blow against phishing and other deceitful attacks. By routing all links submitted to Twitter through this new service, we can detect, intercept, and prevent the spread of bad links across all of Twitter. Even if a bad link is already sent out in an email notification and somebody clicks on it, we’ll be able keep that user safe.

Since these attacks occur primarily on Direct Messages and email notifications about Direct Messages, this is where we have focused our initial efforts. For the most part, you will not notice this feature because it works behind the scenes but you may notice links shortened to twt.tl in Direct Messages and email notifications. Special thanks to @wfarner and @ram for building this service and helping keep us all a little safer!

I am going to have to score me a pair of these bad boys for my new iPad yet to come

Back in August last year I wrote about my fears that we are facing a trust crisis in the social media space.

I’ve been disconnected from the United States since that time, so this post applies primarily to Australia. But given Australia’s ability to follow the trends out of the States, I’d bet that this might apply there as well.

In August, I wrote that “the label social media expert is being used by all and sundry just because they have used Twitter, or started a blog, or at the extreme, have a Facebook account.” I further discussed that this proliferation would in itself undermine social media because those that have no experience in the field would be preaching to those that want to know more, while those with the real experience were too busy using their knowledge to make a non-speaking living.

I’m sad to report that in March 2010, the crisis is here.

LOL, I have written about this exact same phenomenon here in the States in this post http://billcrosby.com/socialmedia/is-anyone-making-money-in-social-media-i-sa…

By no means are Twitter and Facebook perfect: You might wish that Facebook made it more intuitive to hide FarmVille or certain status updates. Or, maybe you wish that Twitter would introduce a new feature like nested tweets. Good news: For many of these website tweaks or suggestions, there’s likely to be a script you can download to fit the bill.

Here are my top eight picks for Facebook and Twitter add-ons. Many of these solve common user gripes (such as not knowing to what site shortened URLs will bring you on Twitter). Some, like “Facebook Fixer,” enhance the site and allow you to customize it beyond standard options. Do note that most of these scripts require that you first download Greasemonkey, and not all are compatible with every browser, so be sure to check the requirements before you download a script.

1. Facebook Fixer.

This script lets you customize your Facebook account and offers many features that are enabled by default, but can be enabled or disabled independently. Some of these features include: larger profile and album pictures; homepage customization where you can hide independent sections such as pokes, suggestions and “connect with friends”; and calendar integration, which includes a link on each profile that synchs birthdays with Google Calendar, or the option to export a file with all your friends’ birthdays, which can be imported into sites such as Google Calendar, Yahoo, Apple iCal, Microsoft Outlook and more.

2. Facebook Purity.

The Facebook Purity script cleans up your homepage and removes all newsfeed items from third-party games such as Mafia Wars and FarmVille, and zaps announcements on who’s become friend with who, who’s attending a certain event, who joined a group and who became a fan of something. Optional items you can block include: comments on a status, photo, photo album or link; tags in a photo or photo album; and event postings.

3. Unfriend Finder.

Made by Drew McLellan found via dailybloggr.com. Click the image for a slightly bigger version or download the full screen PDF.

iStockphoto.com

Looking for an excuse to work in a quick snooze in the afternoon?

Here you go: Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have found that naps may help your brain work better later.

Matthew Walker, who led the study, says we know that sleeping is critical to cementing new memories, but this research looked at whether getting sleep before learning is equally important to prepare your brain to soak up information.

“Despite us all knowing the sort of subjective benefits of sleep, what may be surprising to the general public is that scientists and doctors do not still have a satisfying answer as to why we sleep — and that, of course, is one-third of our lives,” Walker tells NPR’s Guy Raz.

We’ve all seen some funny signs out there on the road. Well here are 50 more to look at that will give you a good laugh.

As far as we know these are not photoshopped, however I have not driven by each sign to confirm.

Hmm which light do I follow?
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They finally ran out ouf names.
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How often do they have cows falling off of cliffs?
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That’s just wrong.
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You never know you might fly.
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Hey at least they said “Good Luck”.

I just captured a few, many of the rest are super funny! (read more on the link above)

Foursquare the location based social network game is just about to release a new version of their iPhone application. The new application will feature a revamped interface, a brand new user tab, and a new checkin history view.

This version of the app – v1.6 – should be heading to the App Store soon. Nick Starr shared screenshots of it with us and we’ve included a few below so that you can see some of the new features.

Looking at the images from Foursquare 1.6, the first thing you’ll notice is that the interface has been totally revamped. The colors, icons and menu layout are all completely restyled and rearranged in a much more appealing manner.