It's an odd little ecosystem in which a Scottish fellow most people haven't heard of ranks above the President of the United States, celebrities worth gazillions of dollars, and, well, everybody. But that's the state of things on Twitter, according to a new report from INQ that named Mashable's CEO, Pete Cashmore, the "top international influencer." INQ looked at five different factors to determine its rankings, including number of followers, number of tweets,

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the release of its latest report on the mobile market, Android: Crashing the Smartphone Party. The report provides an overview of the current U.S. mobile environment and offers an in-depth look at how the Android operating system is impacting the market. Among the report's key findings is that consumer awareness of Google's Android is growing rapidly,

Twitterers in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands will be happy to know that TwellowHood , the Twellow feature that allows Twitterers to connect with people in their own area, is now available in these areas. Until now, it has only been available in the US, Canada, and Australia. If you are unfamiliar with Twellow , think about it as a yellow-pages service for finding people on Twitter.

Wikipedia had a record-shattering day this week. On Tuesday afternoon, the Wikimedia Foundation posted a personal appeal from its founder, Jimmy Wales. In that, Wales said : The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization I created in 2003 to operate, grow, nurture, and protect Wikipedia. For ten million US dollars a year and with a staff of fewer than 35 people, it runs the fifth most-read website in the entire world.

by Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Tina Fey (Searches increased by 1,248%). The "30 Rock" star and Steve Carell may take on a new movie project, " Mail Order Groom ." Dubai Zoo (+503%). The zoo is publicizing the problem of illegally trafficked exotic animals into the United Arab Emirates. " Iron Man 2" trailer (+402%). OK, Robert Downey Jr. fans: Christmas come early . Chocolate truffles recipe (+194%). If you make them, please invite us over.

Sony said today it will begin offering subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch on its new electronic reader. In addition, Sony will also offer subscriptions to the digital version of the New York Post on its e-reader. "Sony is a world leader in bringing together content and technology to provide the richest and most rewarding experience for the consumer," said Sir Howard Stringer, chairman, CEO and president, Sony Corporation .

My sister is one of those smug shoppers that purchased her final Christmas gift back in August, but perhaps youre normal like me and you still need a couple last-minute gifts. Maybe youve come up blank and have no idea what to get your mother-in-law. You may have forgotten someone on your list, received an unexpected gift and now feel obligated to reciprocate, or maybe you just procrastinated and now you need to pull the shopping equivalent of an all nighter. Never fear!

In July we announced that the Google OpenID Federated Login API has been extended to Google Apps accounts used by businesses, schools, and other organizations. The service is important not only to individuals, who can now use their single Google Apps Account to sign in to a variety of websites without sharing credentials, but also to the organizations themselves, who increasingly rely on multiple Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions from different vendors.

An economic downturn never arrives at a suitable moment. However, if you are a retailer, or looking after a retailer's search account I hope you can forgive my superficial first thoughts when the markets went all pear shaped last September. Never mind countries going bankrupt. All I could think was "Why now, how inconvenient, let them break the news when the stockings are safely filled!" So how did Christmas retailing fare in 2009 and what can you do to start 2010 with a bang?

In a recent article , we looked at a debate over what is better between search engine optimization and pay-per-click. Of course both should be used typically, but on a recent panel at SES Chicago, participants were asked to pick a side to highlight the benefits of each compared to the other. It made for some pretty interesting conversation. Both SEO and PPC are important, but do you think one carries more weight than the other? Share your thoughts here .