4 Friend Requests, 2 event invitations, 4 cause invitations, and…an invitation to the White House? If you’ve ever wanted to be a fan of the White House, you may now do so. True to its plugged-in, connected, and relevant nature, Obama’s White House has its own Facebook app—an up-close real-time look at White House current events right on Facebook.

The app (short for application) launched earlier in June keeps up an ever-steady stream of status updates that can keep pace with any Facebook-happy teen. The updates are typically political in nature—like “Watch, discuss, and engage with Van Jones of CEQ on Green Jobs,” rather than (fictional) “Obama Eats Cheerios for Breakfast.” But, to get a more personal look at the life of the First Family in the White House, the app provides “Photos” which reveal impromptu shots of Obama jogging down the hall with the First Puppy or tipping his chair back on two legs during a meeting.

Keep up with White House happenings by clicking on the “Events” tabs. A generous stream of commentary is available on the “Notes” tab, and the “Video” box always has something interesting to display. The White House Facebook app is a one-stop-shop for all your White House news.

The app has a friendly feel to it. Not a lot of ranting and raving, although there is room for friendly discourse. So far, the White House has well over 260,000 fans, and more are joining daily. The White House fosters a strong sense of community, as members “like this,” (Facebook’s version of a thumbs-up), others comment on a status update, and more fans give feedback on every topic imaginable. For example, 3,813 people have indicated that they like Obama’s pictures. 934 people have made comments on the photos. Friendly banter like “My dog can beat up your dog” (comment posted on a photo of Bo, the Obama’s dog) lace the comment feed. Other approving remarks like “great team!! Your the best Pres ever!!! luv u Rahmbo” are posted for all the world to see.

Unlike his predecessors, Obama keeps up a rapid stream of popular-level interaction. Admittedly, social media venues were not as available to past presidents as they are today. News, networking, discussion, commentary, and information from this administration can be found on virtually any media outlet today. The new White House App rounds out the following list:

http://www.whitehouse.gov
http://flickr.com/whitehouse
http://twitter.com/whitehouse
http://myspace.com/whitehouse
http://vimeo.com/whitehouse
http://youtube.com/whitehouse
http://apps.facebook.com/whitehouselive/

If Survivor is king of reality TV shows, then Twitter is king of reality Internet and social media. So what do you get when you mix the two together? Well, that’s a question that Twitter and Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment aren’t quite ready to answer with great clarity. However, Brillstein’s Jon Liebman is quite confident when he declares, “we’ve found a compelling way to bring the immediacy of Twitter to life on TV.” This announcement came on Tuesday when Twitter and Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment announced their upcoming joint project.

As if Twitter weren’t popular enough before, adding the TV element is certain to gain users from a less tech-savvy viewership. What’s next? FTV? Facebook TV? Or perhaps, rather than buying newspapers, Google will start its own television network? With Twitter at the forefront of this new media mixture, only time will tell if others will follow the Twitter vision for television.

Using Twitter in reality TV shows will certainly add a new element of reality. For many people, the Internet is a place to share private things they probably wouldn’t even be willing to mention to coworkers or close friends. Ironically though, those same coworkers are a part of their social network, and through the Internet they know they still sleep with a stuffed animal, used to weigh 30 pounds less, and can find at their fingertips 25 other embarrassing facts that they really never wanted to know about in the first place.

This is what adding Twitter to reality TV will give to the new show. Information you never needed to know about someone you don’t really know, but information that you’re dying to know because you feel like you know this person as well as your own brother. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see when the first season opens up. Meanwhile, you can tweet about it, if you want.

MySpace has rolled out a new MySpace Toolbar that allows users to receive notifications and alerts in real time.

Once the toolbar is installed MySpace users will be able to see New Friends Request, Messages, Comments, and Friend Updates in their browser.

The MySpace Toolbar will run inside the browser at launch on a PC running Internet Explore 6.0 or higher or Firefox 2.0 or higher. MySpace will introduce a version for Mac users in the near future.

Toolbar features include:
Auto Login - Automatically link to MySpace without entering your email and password

Always On - No need to refresh the browser for updates

Alerts - New Messages, New Comments, New Friend Requests etc.

Friend Activity Updates

Update My Mood and Status

See Friends’ Mood and Status

MySpace Search Powered by Google - Search the Web, People, and MySpace

“We believe strongly in our core technical foundation at MySpace and we’re building internal products based on the same technology that we’re developing in concert with the community,” said Amit Kapur, COO of MySpace.

The MySpace Toolbar is now available to all users in the United Sates, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, and Ireland.