The power of the Internet and social media to spread messages and information is both awe-inspiring and frightening at the same time. We have all seen the e-mails from supposed Nigerian princes seeking wire transfers of a few thousand dollars that come attached with the promise of a return on investment in the millions. Myths, scams, half-truths and outright lies abound online and unfortunately travel far faster and further than common sense. Enter the latest example, a video purported to be a possible spotting of a time traveler caught in front of a 1928 Hollywood film premiere. It was uploaded by a company called Yellow Fever Broadcast and has received over two million views on YouTube.

The video shows a woman holding a device and talking as she walks past the camera. She looks exactly like someone in our modern day, roaming oblivious to the world, as they talk on a cell phone. Evidence, it is speculated, that the woman had traveled back in time. It has since been spread not only online but on broadcast and cable television news shows. One more example of how tiny internet memes and PR stunts are now moving from quirky to mainstream in record time.

Of course, like most spectacular “too good to be true” things found online, the video actually shows us an easily explainable and perfectly mundane example of historic life. The woman was most likely using an “ear trumpet” or hearing aid and not a cell phone which, of course, would also have required her to transport a cell tower back to carry and spread her message. Unless of course, she was from some even further time in the future, where cell towers are no longer needed making this whole thing even more plausible. Welcome to the leaps of logic wild internet speculation breeds!

Live Science has both the explanation and a photo of an ear trumpet that existed around that time. Not as exciting as a time traveler, I know, but far more reasonable.

I remember the buzz online, back in the days of AOL and online bulletin board services, when a video purporting to be of an alien autopsy was shown on television. Debate about its authenticity still continues online even though the filmmakers behind it have come out and confirmed its true Earthy origins.

There are thousands of myths and misconceptions that have pervaded our culture, many evolving from myths told long ago and updated to reflect technology or modern trends. A great resource and one of my favorite bookmarks for debunking myths, urban legends and rumors is Snopes.com. It is the first place I go when a family member or co-worker sends me an email with the question “Do you think this is real?” Usually it isn’t and I can forward the answer with a link back to Snopes.

These are all examples of how powerful the Internet is, where we can build resources of both misinformation and clarification.

One of the most difficult things about managing Twitter is keeping up with all of the tweets! There are many different sites and services to help you do that. One I’ve recently discovered is called Monitter a slick but simple site where you can build columns to monitor keywords being talked about on Twitter.

The site starts with three columns, you can add more later. You put keywords at the top of each and then watch as tweets appear. Tweets containing the keywords fall down the column like a waterfall giving you a vertical kind of stock ticker. My previous pick for this kind of service was TwitterFall. If you want to see just your tweet stream in this way, Twitterfall is better, but I have come to like Monitter because of the ability to monitor multiple keywords in columns all at once.

You can also limit the tweets shown to just a location showing only the tweets that appear, say, within ten miles of a zip code.

If you use services like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite you are probably already used to columns and the ability to watch keywords. If you just use the standard Twitter web site this is a great way to get the functionality of those services but only when you want it, without having to embrace a platform.

What I like most about sites like this is the sense of real-time they bring. You see a live conversation streaming on your screen and get a sense of just how popular a topic is by seeing how quickly it updates.

Tip: For more screen real estate click the link to HIDE the text at the top. The link appears under “what next?”