Google is reportedly planning to make Gmail more social by allowing users to exchange status updates with friends and share Web content links, features that moves Gmail into more direct competition with Facebook.

News of the plan was revealed on Monday by The Wall Street Journal.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, the company on Monday did invite journalists "to see some innovations in two of our most popular products" at a media event to be held Tuesday at the company's Mountain View, Calif. headquarters.

Zealous Interactive, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Zealous, Inc. (OTCBB: ZLUS), announced today that its premiere portal, TheAdultSpot.com, has launched its 3D virtual social network providing users with a unique interactive and shopping experience. Members of TheAdultSpot.com can socialize with others as avatars in a 3D virtual reality space, known as MMOR (massively multi-user online reality) and not be limited to only a flat screen, text environment that may be boring and restrictive.

Membership is free. However, there are special features in the 3D world reserved for VIP paid membership. Users can interact with old friends or meet new people and participate in various activities including dancing, karaoke, watching a movie, shopping, or dining with someone special at a favorite restaurant. There are no boundaries in this virtual world platform provided by the partnership of TheAdultSpot.com and Utherverse Digital, Inc.

"TheAdultSpot.com users are in for a shock," said Brian Shuster, CEO of Utherverse Digital, Inc. "The synergy of our 3D technology with the leading adult social network is going to give users the kind of experience that they will be telling their friends about for years to come."

A survey of 500 companies found a 70 percent jump in spam and malware attacks via social networking sites in 2009, according to a new report from security firm Sophos.

Facebook topped the list as the perceived riskiest of the major social-networking sites, followed by MySpace, Twitter, and finally LinkedIn.

The Sophos report (PDF) said that more than 50 percent of the companies surveyed were spammed through a social-networking site last year and that 36 percent were hit by malware from such a site.

A social networking site developed by a Nepali has been launched and, like Facebook, looks to tap into the globally rising revenues of social networking sites by earning revenue from advertisements on its site.

Despite enrolling some international social networking websites like 'Facebook.com', 'Hi5.com' on a daily basis, majority of Nepalese users does not know where they were established from. But it should be different in case of another global social networking website called 'Connectfrens.com' because it is the first launched international social networking website from Nepal which was developed by a course tutor at Arena Multimedia Pvt Ltd and he is 'Krishna Karki'.

Capacity – especially to plan and execute effective marketing strategies – is a big challenge for every small business. In this post, I’ll offer 10 suggestions for how small businesses can supercharge their marketing efforts by leveraging social media. For each suggestion, I will discuss a basic strategy – for those who simply want to get their toes wet, as well as an advanced strategy – for those who want to spend a bit more time and go a bit deeper in their social media marketing efforts. These tips are based on my experience leveraging social media marketing for my company, crowdSPRING.

I suggest you begin by outlining clear goals for your social media marketing efforts and figuring out how you’ll measure success. Once you’ve outlined your goals, let’s look at 10 great ways you can begin to leverage social media for your marketing efforts.

1. Facebook

Facebook (Facebook) offers exceptional, low cost marketing opportunities for small business. Facebook now has over 300 million users, and while that seems like an outrageous number for small businesses to be targeting, Facebook offers a very powerful platform on which to build a presence. If you’re not already active on Facebook; you should get started right away.

Social Networking has become very popular during the past few years, but it can still be very difficult to understand for someone new to social networking. The open-ended nature of social networks add to this. Once signed onto a social network, having answered a few basic profile questions, it is easy to sit back and wonder what you are supposed to do next.

The easiest way to understand social networking is to think of it like high school. You had friends in school, and you knew quite a few people even if you weren't friends with all of them, but it's likely that you didn't know everyone.

If you ever moved to a new school -- or if you can imagine moving to a new school -- you start out with no friends. After attending classes, you start meeting people, and as you meet them, you begin associating with those that have similar interests.

Despite Having 300 Million Members, Facebook is Not The Largest Social Network

In my opinion, online social networks have three distinguishing features:  1) They have profiles that enable people to express their identity 2) Ability for people to connect to these profiles 3) To be successful, there’s a greater value created by a group of people sharing than as individuals who do not.

This week, Facebook announced it has ballooned to 300 million users, far more than MySpace and certainly Twitter.  Yet, I want to assert that Facebook isn’t the largest social network, email is (we’ve talked about this before).  Recent numbers from Microsoft showed that the number of active users (although the definition of ‘active’ isn’t explained) exceeds 375 million users for Hotmail.