Just hours after social networking website Twitter rolled out their new homepage (pictured to the left) the company was forced on Tuesday to revert back to the sites old homepage setup, citing technical difficulties.

The “New Twitter” homepage was suppose to mark a turning point for Twitter after co-founder Evan Williams announced just last week as he took a different role in the company that “the dark days of imminent technical meltdown are over.”

After several hours the new homepage did return for many users, however many Twitter users are still seeing the old Twitter homepage (myself included, even after clearing my browser cache).

After the launch of the new homepage many users were seeing different Twitter feeds than the one’s they signed up for. In some cases users were also seeing regional languages other than their own. read more

President Barack Obama is meeting with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, company COO Sheryl Sandberg and the rest of their brood on April 20.

The President will be making a special appearance at 1:45PM PST and Facebook will live stream the “town hall” meeting while hosting 3,400 attendees.

As part of the event, online visitors are being asked to submit their questions for the President as part of his appearance. Users are asked to submit questions about the economy and innovation through the event’s Facebook page.

At this time hundreds of questions are rolling in, however the questions President Obama will answer will not be revealed until the Town Hall meetings live airing.

Will you be attending the online version of the meeting? You can check out the event page HERE.

Twitter may be considering a more personal and surprisingly expansive profile view for brands according to a report. The new view for a brand’s Twitter profile is being spearheaded by CEO Dick Costolo and President of Revenue Adam Bain. Not only would the page concept take a cue from Facebook but the design of a brand’s Twitter page is said to look similar to Facebook’s:

Branded pages, through which advertisers could deliver tailored messages, are under consideration, along with other plans to increase the long-term revenue potential of the social network, according to sources familiar with the subject.

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iPhone users using the official Facebook app now have the option to check in at events around the United States. The upgrade, available on Facebook Version 3.4 was released on Monday morning and also includes a map view for Places option and the ability to unfriend Facebook friends directly from your Apple device.

The event check in function can be found in the “events” section of the application and allows users to check-in at events they are currently attending, plan to attend in the future and those events that are close to the user in terms of proximity. Users can also choose to tag their friends with the check-in should they have Facebook friends at the event with them.

If you’re a fan of Facebook Places you’ll also find the new map view option housed in the “Places Section.” Using the maps users can view check-ins using a standard list view or toggle over to a map view. read more

Hello. My name is Jonathan Bailey. I’m the new guy here at the Blog Herald, once again, and I’m starting up a new column that will be running every Friday targeting the law and blogging. We’ll be tackling some of the major legal issues that bloggers face as they run their sites.

Many of you may already know me from the various sites I have either written for or currently write at. This includes a previous stint here at The Blog Herald, my ongoing Blogging Pitfalls column at BloggingPro, my hosting-related column at WhoIsHostingThis and, of course, my home site of Plagiarism Today, where I talk about copyright and plagiarism issues on the Web.

To be clear, I am not an attorney and nothing in any of my columns should be considered legal advice, but I have studied the law as it applies to mass media for over 12 years, come from a journalism background and have been studying copyright especially closely for over ten.

My goal with this column is to include a variety of pieces including general information pieces about how the law, in particular U.S. law, applies to blogging, legal news and rulings that might affect bloggers and also answer some of your questions as time permits.

With that in mind, here are just a few of the topic areas that this column will cover moving forward: read more

Almost every company supports a blog these days as do literally millions of unaffiliated individuals. Blogs are a relatively informal medium by nature, so lots of bloggers take considerable liberties in terms of tone, diction, etc. Many choose to employ a conversational style even in a corporate setting. Breaking the rules a bit breathes life into otherwise stale content, yet writers need to respect basic limits in order to maintain the aura of professionalism. This establishes credibility and builds trust, which is especially important in cyberspace.

It’s fair to assume that most paid bloggers successfully passed college level English courses, which means the grammatical errors should be kept to a minimum. Nevertheless, there are several recurring mistakes throughout the blogosphere. Here are the most common mishaps along with a few tips on avoiding them. read more

Google recently introduced a new add-on to search results called +1. It’s not groundbreaking but it’s relevant and it’s not complicated but it’s too simple. Google +1 has its problems.

The problem with Google +1 is the entire implementation. Search and social have had an odd relationship: sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t. This is one of the cases where Google’s treading the social waters with a tool that’s useful for a small subset of users.

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It’s April fools day otherwise known as the day when you disregard all news on the Internet and check back the next day to see if it’s real. Playing on the silly side, Google, AOL and a few others have put up their elaborate and humorous April Fool’s Day pranks.

Huffington Post Erects PayWall For NYTimes Employees

The New York Times has faced some retaliation from readers and Bloggers over erecting a paywall. While the publisher has tried to make good by allowing incoming links from social channels to sidestep the wall, backlash hasn’t eased.

Recognizing the opportunity to poke fun and mock the New York Times was AOL/HuffPo’s own pay wall. This pay wall is exclusive for New York Time’s Employees and mocks the restrictions placed on article viewing.

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Google email users who store any of their personal information in their accounts should be very concerned, a Google engineer confirmed today that approximately 20 million accounts have been hacked, allowing for user information to be gathered.

Along with basic login details, hackers have also compiled a list of users whereabouts through the use of Google IP tracking and stored encrypted cookies.

Also affected are free and corporate accounts from Google Apps for Domains.

Google engineers are urging Gmail users to change their password as often as possible (at least every few hours) over the next several days until the direct cause of the hack can be discovered.

U.S. and EU officials are investigating the breach and are expected to release their own findings in the next five to six months.