You know, the web is a truly wonderful and wacky place. Without fail, every new day offers a significant development in the world of social media. What’s more, whether it’s Facebook’s latest privacy change, Twitter’s ongoing growth, or the web’s newest celebrity death rumor, all of these stories are significant to the fields of online reputation management and Internet privacy.

That’s why we’re going to try something new on the Reputation.com Blog. Beginning today, our first post of the morning will highlight all of the news stories related to reputation management, Internet privacy, and social media that we think you should check out. Throughout the day, we may return to some of these stories for additional analysis, but this is our way of making sure that you get the latest news and information that can help you protect your good name online.

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Cyberbullying Victims Fighting Back?

According to an article in the New York Post, in light of the Liskula Cohen v. Google ruling (which we have covered extensively here at the Reputation.com Blog), more and more victims of anonymous online attacks are consulting with attorneys to learn what their legal recourse is against online defamation.

Your Brain Can’t Handle All of Your Facebook Friends!

British anthropologist Robin Dunbar has a theory that the cognitive limit on the number of friends a person can have and actually keep track of is 150. Now, according to Mashable, Dunbar has shown that this number is accurate for Facebook friends as well. Does that seem like a realistic assessment? How many Facebook friends do you have?

Chinese Government Denies Involvement on Google Attack

Mashable reports that the Chinese government has finally gone on the record denying any involvement in recent cyberattacks against Google, which were partly responsible for prompting the company to consider leaving the Chinese market.

The Future of Twitter: Location, Location, Location

If you use Twitter, you may or may not have noticed that the trending topics section on your profile can now be set to location-specific trends (this functionality has not been unrolled for everyone). This development is part of an effort by Twitter (and numerous other web companies) to harness the power of hyper-local search. Mashable has a great analysis of Twitter’s ongoing development of location-based technology.

Exploring the Journalistic Value of Social Media

A couple of weeks ago, a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism discovered that 95% of original news stories come from “old media” such as newspapers and are then disseminated and analyzed through “new media” tools. This begged the question of what value there is in utilizing social media as a news source. Five international journalists may soon be able to answer this question by participating in an experiment where they have no access to reporting tools besides social media. The goal is to see how accurately they can assess breaking news when only using something like Twitter or Facebook rather than reading the entire news article.

Look Out World, My Daughter’s on Facebook

Detroit Free Press columnist Jeff Seidel shares a pretty amusing column about his decision to let his daughter use Facebook. The column itself is meant to be taken as a joke, but I think it touches on some of the actual feelings parents have about making the decision to allow their children to participate in social media.

Convicted Murderer Has Facebook Profile Revoked

A UK man convicted of murder was using a Facebook page from within prison to promote his innocence. The family of the murder victim appealed to Facebook to shut down the page because they believed it was a form of harassment against them. Facebook has complied and removed the account, though it’s unclear if they did so at the family’s request or because the prisoner was not supposed to have access to Facebook from prison.

Johnny Depp Joins List of Celebrity Death Hoaxes on Twitter

Because of the speed with which information spreads online, it’s no surprise there have been so many Twitter-fueled hoaxes in recent months. This phenomena is felt nowhere more clearly than in the celebrity death hoax. In the past, Jeff Goldblum, Taylor Lautner, and Zach Braff have been swept up in Twitter death hoaxes. This time, the Twitter world has deemed that Johnny Depp died in an auto accident. Naturally, of course, Mr. Depp is fine.