Here's one Twitter account that is definitely not going to earn that blue "verified account" checkmark: A fake Eric Garcetti has been Tweeting since January 22, spreading mostly dopey messages of eco-friendliness and love of KCRW. more ›

If you Tweet about your work on your personal account, should you get in trouble with your boss? What if your workplace happens to be crime scenes? Twitter's @LAMurderCop is Sal LaBarbera ("Big City Homicide Boss" says his mini-bio on the social media site), and he is under fire for sending out a photo he took at one of the crime scenes he was called to. more ›

Today at F8, the Facebook conference, the social networking übersite announced the next big change, and, OMFG!, you thought you were pissed yesterday when they effed up your news feed. more ›

Local music legends The Beach Boys are proving you can evolve oldies with some social media tricks. The band is crowdsourcing content for two videos for two of their songs, "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes and Villains" ahead of the November 1 release of "The Smile Sessions." more ›

Say good-bye to the horror of logging on to your computer after a night out only to find pictures of yourself with your fist wrapped around a beer, sweat dripping down your forehead and your mouth forming the word "wooo!" -- the Gods of Facebook have deigned to let us approve photos before they get tagged. more ›

California houses the headquarters of the world's top social media sites - Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Myspace - they're all here in the golden state. Tripl, a Sweden-based social travel startup, whipped up a lengthy infographic called "The Social Travel Revolution." Their studies note the impact of 'social' on travel. more ›

A separate site, Find People On Plus, offers an intuitive search index of all Google+ users. Searchable categories include relationship, gender, looking for, following, followers, occupation, on Twitter, on Facebook, country, state and city. more ›

Media Leaders, the social media strike team that manages Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for over a dozen brands, hosts an influential networking event tonight in Santa Monica. more ›

Friendster, a key evolutionary step in the creation of a social media species, fell victim to natural selection with the advent of MySpace which in turn drifted from favor in the shadow of its successor, Facebook. In an attempt to adapt to its new surroundings, Friendster will be transforming the site beginning with a total obliteration of existing user data as it morphs more fully... more ›

When taking photos at the Playboy Mansion, be sure to tag yourself on Facebook so the health department will know to contact you in case of an outbreak. Turns out social media may be good for public health. more ›

The man wounded in a shooting on the Venice Boardwalk Saturday night was struck during the course of a flash mob gathering that had been organized using Twitter, reports the LA Times. The victim, said to be in his mid-20s, received a gunshot wound in the head and was listed in critical condition following the shooting. more ›

Four squared is 16, which is how April 16th, (aka 4/16) became known as Foursquare Day to those who use the social media site to check in to places all over. While users will indeed get a coveted badge, some of the perks of being a customer or visitor are getting tapped into special offers and pricing for tapping a check in via your smartphone, and those opportunities are squared today. more ›

"What are you doing?" That's pretty much the question that has launch a bazilliondy Tweets, ranging from real-time firsthand accounts of social upheaval, to celeb inanity, to some of the most "profound" navel-gazing ever (or not) imaginable. Today, the social media site Twitter is celebrating their 5th birthday, and they are doing a few things to mark the occasion. more ›

Sure, Twitter is free, and, if you can put up with some spammers, the occasional fail whale, and those annoying "promoted Tweets," at the end of the day, it doesn't cost you a damn thing to use it. However, if you use your Twitter powers for evil and not good, well, it could end up costing you like it did Courtney Love. more ›

It may have been a down year at the box office but Oscar organizers plan to take their social media and online fan engagement to the next level this year. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences presents its 83rd annual award show Sunday night. But the festivities have already begun online. more ›

Pleased or displeased about plans to make improvements to the 710 Freeway corridor? The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) announced plans today to take advantage of the broad reach of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to get people connected to conversations about their proposed plans. more ›

The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards take place Sunday but before you start placing bets on whether Britney Spears will show up or who Kanye might diss, the Recording Academy has a week full of affiliated red carpet events, many open to the public, and some that may turn out to be too good for network TV. more ›

The house is a little too cold and quiet, the winter holidays are over, Valentine’s Day looms like a horror movie villain. You’re tired of watching CSI by yourself, you need something to love unconditionally and your kids need to learn responsibility. It’s clearly time to get a pet. Here's how the Internet once again proves its worth thanks to a slew of forward thinking rescue agencies with a little social media savvy. more ›

The Huntington Beach City Council is being urged to approve a proposed motion to use Facebook to shame those with DUI records, according to the Independent. One Councilman wants to reinvigorate a previously ditched plan for "the Police Department to put up information and the booking photographs of those arrested on suspicion of drinking and driving who has been 'arrested for drunk driving multiple times,'" also known as "habitual drunk drivers." The council will vote on this issue on Monday, January 17th. more ›

It can't be "one of the most widespread and strongest wind episodes in recent years" without some fallout--or, more appropriately, some fallen trees and power outages. There is, of course, already the requisite Foursquare Windpocalypse 2010 venue for your check-in entertainment (a moving target, if ever there was one). more ›

Everyone copes with the rain, and the world's largest noise receptacle these days is Twitter, where people inside and out of Los Angeles are chiming in with their witticisms and observations about our apocalyptic rain, hail, and thunder. Some are inspired to eat burgers or drink lattes, others think of Hollywoodites who are bumped out of the headlines, some have smug Seattle-ite superiority, while some just want to get busy. It's your city, Los Angeles, here's how you're Tweeting it: more ›

For many, the strategy to surviving Thanksgiving week air travel, and the TSA's new search policies and procedures, is to have a sense of humor. While that doesn't mean suddenly it's funny to make "explosives in your underwear" jokes at the check-in counter, for social media junkies it means risking having your junk touched by a TSA agent gets you a badge of honor. more ›

Welcome to Los Angeles, known to many as the place where dreams come true. While we might be in line for a Frappucino next to Miley Cyrus one day, then seeing a paparazzi shot of a Twilight star pumping gas ("They pump their own gas!") on a glossy page of a gossip rag while waiting at the doctor's office, here we live in a curious world of celebrity, no matter how distant the proximity. more ›

The "everybody's doin' it!" mentality doesn't have to mean your friends inspire you to just do drugs or jump off a bridge, like mama always warned you. Today, if you are a Facebook or Foursquare user, you might notice friends sporting some Midterm Election flair in the form of badges and buttons that are like a virtual version of that little sticker they hand you at the polling place. more ›

Politicians have come to embrace Twitter as a great, free way to get out messages about their campaigns, policies, and events, but there's still plenty of room for gaffes, as a Meg Whitman staffer is learning. Two days ago, Whitman spokesperson Sarah Pompei turned to Twitter to send out a message from her own account about rival Jerry Brown... more ›

A new cookbook aims to turn crowd-sourced material into crowd-pleasing plates, and among those whose eats are included are ten Southern California-based food bloggers. Though collecting a community's recipes to compile in a publication is how many beloved cookbooks have come to be, The Best of Food Blogs Cookbook hails itself as the first to source the recipes from social media. more ›

"MAJOR EARTHQUAKE WARNING; 6.0 to 7.0 earthquake likely in S California; Sep 30. Foreshocks Sep 27-28: Please Retweet." was one of principle Tweets heard 'round the world, shaking people hard enough to make them forget that earthquakes are, essentially, unpredictable. Similar Tweets issued from the Quakeprediction account over the next several hours warned of the quake's arrival in 80 hours, then 60 hours. more ›

Foursquare has launched a new reward for those who frequent farmers' markets. Starting tomorrow (though we know some folks have received one today) if you have "friended" CNN via your Foursquare account you can pick up their "Healthy Eater" badge. No, it's not relative to the size of your appetite; the badge stems from their "Eatocracy" campaign and pops up when you check in at a farmers' market. If you need help finding one, the USDA has a directory, though we love our local Los Angeles database. We've been checking different markets all over town to profile them for our Know Your Farmers' Market series. more ›