After adding new features to Seesmic for Windows earlier this month, the third-party Twitter client turned its attention to Seesmic Web.

The Internet-based Twitter interface now offers updated followers and following lists in contacts, adjustable column sizes, sound notifications, the ability to mute and unmute users, location trends, and inline pictures and video previews.

Seesmic detailed the tweaks in a post on the Seesmic Blog:

Manage your followers and who you follow in our recently released Contacts feature. Be able to look through and view all of your relationships on Twitter by reviewing their profile, add them to lists, and easily manage your connections.

By allowing much narrower columns, Seesmic Web will surely become the best friend of your Netbook! Wanted to view more columns simultaneously and they seemed too large? Go to the left side of the screen and choose the width: small or wider!

Missed important tweets because you did not check them in time? Seesmic Web now announces when you've received Direct Messages, Replies, or you've even sent tweets. Sounds are enabled by default and can be disabled by clicking on the second button of the top right bar.

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Angela Riechers wants bloggers to Blog Smarter.

Who is she? Riechers is an art director, educator, and consultant with 15 years of professional experience designing national magazines including More, O at Home, The New York Times' T Magazine, and Harper's, and her writing appears online on AIGA Voice and Design Observer. She has also taught graphic-design courses at the City College of New York and the School of Visual Arts.

In Blog Smarter with Angela Riechers, she offers tips on blogging including how to develop a personalized logo and how to defeat writer's block.

Blog Smarter with Angel Riechers is just one of the selection of videos available via mediabistro On Demand, and for a limited time, annual subscriptions are $147 ($127 for AvantGuild members), which includes complete access to tutorials on software, career, and professional-development topics, as well as videos from mediabistro conferences, and interviews with new-media thought leaders. Annual subscribers save 36 percent on the monthly rate.

The offer expires March 31.

CNN will host an interactive panel at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, March 14 at 12:30 p.m. CT, "CrowdControl: Changing the Face of Media or Hype?."

The panel -- which will examine new-media democracy, citizen journalism, and the wisdom of the crowd -- will be moderated by Joe Kinsgbury of Text 100 and feature Lila King of CNN iReport, Pete Cashmore of Mashable, Randi Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Jason Rzepka of MTV Networks.

CNN will also feature stories from SXSWi in the Tech section of CNN.com, updates on the CNN Tech Twitter feed, a Twitter list of CNN reporters and producers attending the event, and photos and videos on CNN iReport.

MSNBC announced the launch of the Breaking News Facebook Fan Page, which will provide breaking news stories from around the world from the same team responsible for Twitter account @breakingnews.

The Facebook page follows MSNBC's acquisition of the www.breakingnews.com domain in January and its takeover of @breakingnews in December.

MSNBC Digital Network president Charlie Tillinghast said:

People already use Facebook as a constant feed of news about friends, family, and the world. Since breaking news both informs and sparks vibrant discussions on the Web, the immediacy of our comprehensive, real-time service is a natural addition to the Facebook community.

Google continued to account for the most news links shared via Twitter, while gay-rights issues topped the blogosphere, and the most-watched news and politics YouTube video was CBS News Online's raw footage of the accident at Sea World in which animal trainer Dawn Brancheau was drowned by a killer whale, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism's New Media Index for the week of March 1-5.

A total of 13 percent of news links shared via Twitter involved Google, particularly a CNET report that the search-engine giant purchased Web-based photo editor Picnik and a CNET column by Stephen Shankland about his experiences with Google Buzz making him use Facebook more. Google was followed by: a story on msnbc.com about John Patrick Bedell, who opened fire at the Pentagon and wounded two police officers, at 8 percent; protests by students and professors in California against budget cutbacks, also at 8 percent; the Smithsonian Institution refusing the suit worn by O.J. Simpson when he was acquitted of murder in 1995, at 7 percent; and Facebook, also at 7 percent.

Gay-rights issues accounted for 16 percent of news links shared via blogs, led by a BBC.com report about a protest at a Catholic mass in the Netherlands, a story in The Washington Post about a change in health coverage for Catholic Charities employees; and another item in the Post about Washington, D.C., accepting same-sex marriage applications. Gay rights was followed by: the earthquake in Chile, also at 16 percent; a BBC report about the shuttering of digital-radio stations BBC 6 Music and Asian Network, at 12 percent; health-care reform at 10 percent, mostly a Washington Post story on a claim by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that if Senate Democrats use reconciliation to pass the bill, it would be an assault on the democratic process; and yet another Post contribution, a profile of Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff for President Barack Obama, at 9 percent.

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Reuters published its guidelines for reporting via the Internet and using social media, stressing transparency in using social media, including mentioning affiliation with Reuters and stating that opinions expressed are personal, as well as clearing the use of social-media sites with managers, and breaking news via the wire rather than via Twitter or other sites.

Highlights, particularly on the subject of social media:

We want to encourage you to use social-media approaches in your journalism, but we also need to make sure that you are fully aware of the risks -- especially those that threaten our hard-earned reputation for independence and freedom from bias or our brand. The recommendations below offer general guidance with more detailed suggestions for managing your presence on the most popular social networks. This is a fast-changing world, and you will need to exercise judgment in many areas. In framing this advice, we've borne in mind the following principles and encourage you to think about them whenever using social media.

The advent of social media does not change your relationship with the company that employs you -- do not use social media to embarrass or disparage Thomson Reuters. Our company's brands are important; so, too, is your personal brand. Think carefully about how what you do reflects upon you as a professional and upon us as an employer of professionals.

The distinction between the private and the professional has largely broken down online, and you should assume that your professional and personal social-media activity will be treated as one no matter how hard you try to keep them separate. You should also be aware that even if you make use of privacy settings, anything you post on a social-media site may be made public.

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Reporters Without Borders marked World Day Against Cyber Censorship March 12 by adding Turkey and Russia to its "Under Surveillance" list, where they join Australia, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Belarus, Thailand, Bahrain, Eritrea, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia on the list of countries attempting to tighten control over the Internet.

The journalism advocacy group's "Enemies of the Internet" list is made up of Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam.

According to Hitwise, ABC and CBS again maintained their positions as the top-ranked broadcast-network Websites for the week ending March 6.

Fox's American Idol remained the top broadcast-network-show Website, while ABC's Dancing with the Stars leaped into the No. 2 spot, followed at No. 3 by fellow ABC show The Bachelor.

The top two spots for cable networks (adults only) were unchanged from the previous week: Comedy Central's South Park, and Oxygen's Bad Girls Club. Bravo's The Real Housewives of NYC grabbed the third slot.

When combining broadcast and cable networks, Idol and Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants claimed the top two spots, followed by Dancing with the Stars, which bumped South Park out of third place.

Fast risers on the broadcast list were Dancing with the Stars (to No. 2 from No. 30), and NBC's Law and Order: SVU (22 from 43).

Cable's fast risers were The Real Housewives of NYC (3 from 32), Bravo's Millionaire Matchmaker (4 from 21), MSNBC's Morning Joe (10 from 39), and SyFy's Ghost Hunters (15 from 57).

Fast risers among the top 25 Websites were Dancing with the Stars (3 from 73), NBC's The Office (9 from 20), The Real Housewives of NYC (10 from 69), Millionaire Matchmaker (11 from 47), and Morning Joe (20 from 85).

Click here to see the report.

Barracuda Labs examined usage of Twitter as part of its recently released Barracuda Labs Annual Report, analyzing 19 million Twitter accounts.

Among the findings by Barracuda Labs:

Only 21 percent of Twitter users are "true Twitter users," defined by Barracuda Labs as having at least 10 followers, following at least 10 people, and tweeting at least 10 times.

A total of 17 percent of Twitter users have zero followers, versus 30 percent in June 2009. Meanwhile, 26 percent have at least 10 followers, compared with 20 percent in June; 40 percent are following at least 10 accounts, up 18 percent compared with the June total; and 27 percent have sent 10 or more tweets, up 29 percent versus June.

As far as Twitter being used as a two-way communication tool, Barracuda Labs found that 36 percent of Twitter users have more followers than accounts they are following, up from 20 percent in June.

There are still 34 percent of Twitter users who have not tweeted since they created an account, which is down slightly from 37 percent in June.

Barracuda Labs also created a statistic called the Twitter Crime Rate, which it defined as the percentage of accounts created per month that are eventually suspended for malicious or suspicious activity, or otherwise misused. The Twitter Crime Rate was 1.2 percent in 2006, 1.7 percent in 2007, 2.2 percent in 2008, and 12 percent in October 2009.

News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch spoke with Fox Business Network's David Asman in an interview that will air in its entirety on America's Nightly Scoreboard at 7 p.m. ET Thursday.

Fox Business Network is airing segments of the interview throughout Thursday. Courtesy of the network, Murdoch on paid content:

Well, Fox is now paid for. People, when they pay their cable bills, some of it comes to Fox. Cable television is paid television. But search on the Internet, whether it be Bing or Google, whatever, it's free, and they simply take all of our expensive and, we think, very good content, such as The Wall Street Journal or whatever, and what they call they scrape it, and they use it for search. It gives them their raw material for nothing. And then they have this very clever business model of charging for searching it. We don't get any of that. And they are technologically brilliant, they are a long way ahead, but they do not have the right to do it if we want to stop them.

Hot on the heels of its Feb. 17 launch of entertainment and lifestyle site Crushable and the March 8 launch of fashion and beauty site The Gloss, b5media Thursday unveiled health and wellness site BlissTree.

b5media said BlissTree is aimed at "women in their 30s and 40s whose priorities include optimal wellness and overall balance in life among health, work, family, home, and relationships."

Elizabeth Spiers oversees b5media's sites, and BlissTree will be led by editor in chief Christine Egan and deputy editor Briana Rognlin. Egan is a former magazine editor who has written for The New York Times, Glamour, Brides, Town & Country, Indagare, and USA Today. Rognlin is a former fashion blogger and travel reporter for Oyster Hotel Reviews.

Columnists for BlissTree include author and home cook Giulia Melucci; raw-food chef and "green lifestyle" expert Renée Loux; and Toronto-based naturopath John Dempster.

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NBC Universal's iVillage women's online community and Penton Media's New Hope Natural Media, which provides information on natural, organic, and healthy products, teamed up on research showing that a majority of women are more focused than ever on buying healthy foods.

The two parties said the full study will be released at New Hope's Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif., Saturday, to be presented by iVillage senior vice president of marketing Catherine Balsam-Schwaber and New Hope Consumer Portfolio director of content and research Nancy Coulter Parker. The study surveyed 4,898 iVillage members 18 and older Feb. 15-24.

Highlights from the findings:

A total of 73 percent of respondents read labels carefully, as they are concerned about specific additives, such as high-fructose corn syrup.

Approximately 50 percent look for specific health benefits such as high fiber, reduced fat, and low sodium, rather than general claims that food is "organic" or "natural."

A total of 71 percent are very interested in buying healthy products at mainstream grocers.

While 57 percent believe organic food is better for them, only 26 percent will actually go out of their way to purchase it.

And 39 percent find that time is the biggest impediment to eating right, closely followed by willpower and motivation.

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