With practically unlimited ways for users to access Twitter for sending and receiving tweets, we wondered how long it would take before it became an active participant in courtrooms.

We’ve already seen journalists in the United States granted permission to tweet while in court, but Australia is breaking some interesting ground when it comes to Twitter and the legal system.

• Marc Ilagan's blog

If someone told you that the CIA was spying on you by way of your Twitter updates, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, or Amazon reviews, you’d probably chalk it up to a conspiracy theory.

But today we’re learning from Wired that the CIA’s technology arm In-Q-Tel has invested an undisclosed sum in Visible Technologies, a firm that provides software to companies like Microsoft for social media monitoring.

According to Wired, the investment is “part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using “open source intelligence” – information that’s publicly available, but often hidden.” The current plan is for the CIA to use the technology to monitor International intelligence shared in public channels to get an early edge on what’s being shared and communicated by influential voices. In addition, funds from the deal apparently will be allocated towards enhancing the foreign language monitoring capabilities of Visible Technologies .

From the report:

• Marc Ilagan's blog

There might be yet another Facebook homepage redesign in the works, but another Facebook feature is about to receive an overhaul as well: Groups.

To-date, Groups have been a relic of Facebook’s past, but now, they’re going to start looking and behaving a lot like Pages and Profiles. In addition to aesthetic changes, Groups will get their own Wall, and updates will appear in the News Feed, complete with commenting features.

Sound a lot like Facebook Pages? In terms of functionality, they are, though Facebook attempts to explain the difference:

• Marc Ilagan's blog