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It has been widely publicised that the riots we experienced throughout the UK were instigated via social networks. But what is the true role of social networks here, and should we be preventing these services from exacerbating such situations?

There’s no way you could have missed the latest news stories, groups of youths within the communities of England have been causing unrest in many major cities, causing criminal damage, burning down buildings seemingly indiscriminately and looting from all manner of businesses.

Digesting numbers is a lot easier when they're in pretty picture format, and for a visual download of the latest Twitter stats, this is a handy infographic from the folks at Touch Agency in Lancashire, they've pulled together "over 35 different statistics - it contains everything you need to know about (twitter)"

Using Google Trends and the popularity of search terms as a guide to media consumption certainly isn't bulletproof, but reading Matthew Slight's post about the shift in media consumption inspired a spot of digging. And boy, is Facebook having an impact on search terms - just look at the graph above.

I can't work out whether it must be slightly galling for Google search execs to watch one of their main rivals rocket in popularity, or are they rubbing their hands with glee at all the data gathered about user's interaction with Facebook?

Whilst Facebook and Twitter are both ramping up their sales functions in the UK, sheer numbers play a factor, but influence will play a critical factor in grabbing those marketing dollars.

Hunting for a job can feel like a never ending cycle of CVs, applications forms and tears of desperation. Add to the mix, a diet of emergency biscuits and daytime TV and the job search could feel like a unique punishment inflicted on to the innocent.

With such fierce competition, marketing yourself online can help you to cut through the masses and become the victor. But where to start? Handily, we've come up with three easy ways of using social media to get ahead in the job hunting game.

Facebook this. Facebook that. Facebook blah blah blah. In digital circles that's all anyone seems to talk about these days. Over 500 million people can't be wrong? Or can they? The picture isn't quite as black and white, or should that be blue and white?

PR giant Edelman recently published two social media maps looking at social networks and social media consumption across Europe and Asia along with an analysis of the most popular social networks and online usage.

At first glance Facebook is dominant, with the majority of online time spent on social networks or consuming video, with Zuck's giant dominating the European scene. From the research:

Facebook and students: A happy marriage, or a receipe for disaster?

As you'd expect, the answer isn't so simple. A study and rather lovely infographic (see below) produced by OnlineEducation.net ponders this question from several different viewpoints.

As those tied to email all day can testify distractions hurt productivity, and the same is true when studying. Unsurprisingly, flicking between Facebook and studying results in 20% lower grades. Sound obvious? Turns out 79% of students don't believe it.

They're also less likely to be paying their way whilst studying, with Facebook user's working less than 5 hours per week, whilst their social-media-phobic counterparts clocking in an impressive 16 hours per week. Still, that's what student loans are for, right?

This is a fantastic visualisation of 24 hours' worth of tweets across London. It's a great video - and choice material for social media presentations, I'd wager - that brings to life the way information is shared across a geography.

The red dots are the tweets, with the yellow streaks showing the direction of a retweet (RT) from the origin to the destination. Of course, this is just a fraction of the actual volume as most people don't have geolocation turned on.

Founded by ex University College London student Rich Martel, Floxx, "dating" social network Floxx is hitting the headlines. In its first day online the site managed to attract a whopping 6,000 visitors and, over the following few days, over 1,000 posts.

Pretty impressive but could it be the next Facebook?

Floxx officially went live on Jan 10th this year but quietly sneaked online a few days before that on the 3rd. Like its old incarnation Fit Finder, Floxx is aimed at students; letting them post messages online, on a public platform, about an attractive stranger who has caught their eye.

As a result of organisations becoming increasingly aware of the burgeoning power of social media and consequentially seeking to grow their online presence, a new breed of candidate has emerged.

The self-proclaimed ‘social media guru’, but with no bench mark set to aspire to and no qualifications to back up this status, couldn't anyone call themselves a Social Media Guru? And what effect will this have upon the industry as a whole?

Researchers have discovered that tweets can predict the outcome of the stock market, with an accuracy of around 90%.

Johan Bollen, associate professor of informatics at America’s Indiana University discovered the correlation between the Dow Jones Index and the collective mood of the public, via Twitter, 6 days ahead of schedule.

The study analysed more than 9.8 million tweets, from over 2.7 million users, between February and December of 2008.