Saudi Arabia on Twitter

#saudieggs: While Americans are busy tweeting about Weinergate, Saudi Arabians have more important things to tweet about, like standing up for their rights. There’s been a lot of talk lately about how social media has been playing an integral role in social and political activism in the Middle East, especially in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and now Saudi Arabia. Twitter has become an incredibly important tool in Saudi Arabia, where public gatherings are forbidden and people (especially women) rarely socialize with other people besides family members. Twitter has turned into the virtual meeting place for Saudis; it’s where they can communicate freely with each other, organize boycotts and protests, and find other supporters. However, unsurprisingly, the government has followed the action online too. Saudi activists have noted a flood of new Twitter users who have spoken up in defense of the government and have attacked critics. Activists have started monitoring these suspicious pro-government users whom they have given the tag, #saudieggs (because the default Twitter account image is an egg). NYT

Personal PR: For those of you non-celebs who are concerned about your public image, Google has a new tool for you called “Me on the Web.” While some of you narcissists are probably saying, “But I already have a Google Alert for my name,” as Google explains, this new tool makes it that much easier to monitor things on the Web associated with your name or email. Mashable