In the past few weeks , we've made a concerted effort to spread out the Google Lunar X PRIZE presence on a number of interesting social networking websites. Prizes are always more effective the more people know about them, and this one is no exception. Hopefully, sites like Facebook [1], Twitter [2], et cetera, can help us both reach a wider audience and also better inform the audience we've already reached.

Below is a list of ways you can follow us online. In many cases, you'll need to sign up for a membership with the site to view our page / group / whatever; but if you do, these tools will give you fresh updates, rich tools, and another network of like-minded people with whom you can associate. Please check them out, and spread the word!

• Twitter: This microblogging / liveblogging site is incredibly addictive. Built off an SMS-like model (messages are capped at 140 characters), Twitter is useful to provide very brief, very fresh information. Sometimes it's links, sometimes it is reporting from a conference, sometimes it is gripping about being stuck in an airport! There are a few X PRIZE related twitter streams; users can follow all of them by viewing the "with friends" option on twitter user "GLXP" [3].
• Facebook: Facebook seems to be emerging as the new king of social networking sites. We're fully on the bandwagon. You can view the page [4], become a fan [5], or join the group [6]. Several Google Lunar X PRIZE teams also have pages!
• MySpace: Though Facebook's star is ascending, MySpace is still the number one social networking site, I'm told. We've got a page there [7], too. Don't ask me why we count as an 80 year old female!
• YouTube: This one is Foundation-wide, not just X PRIZE Space. But you can find all sorts of great videos on our YouTube channel [8]. I'll also occasionally post video blogs up there.
• RSS Feeds: Scatter all throughout the X PRIZE Foundation and Google Lunar X PRIZE webpages, you'll find links to RSS Feeds. If you sign up to these, every relevant post (so, for example, the relevant posts for this feed [9] are every blog post by every Google Lunar X PRIZE Team) from that feed will be pushed out to an aggregator site like Google Reader [10]. Signing up for RSS feeds for all of your favorite sites will give you a convenient one-stop-shop to read all of them. Many aggregators have very convenient mobile versions, so you can keep up with the news from your cell phone, Kindle, et cetera.
• Forums: I've posted about the Google Lunar X PRIZE Community Forum [11] before, but I did want to note that we are implementing some changes to help the signal rise further above the noise. Of course, the best way for that to happen is for all of you to go and post more good points--and just drown out the noise with lots of good signal!
• Google Gadget: Users of Google's iGoogle can add a Google Lunar X PRIZE Google Gadget to their iGoogle homepage by clicking on this handy button here: [12]. The gadget will put Google Lunar X PRIZE news, videos, and more directly onto your iGoogle homepage, so that you are never out of touch.
• Newsletter: In addition to the Foundation-wide newsletter [13], you can now sign of for a Google Lunar X PRIZE-specific email-based newsletter. It comes out once a month, and will collect together some highlights and links to topics of interest, like upcoming events, recent announcements, Lunar Legacies, et cetera. You can sign up on the left hand side of the Google Lunar X PRIZE website [14].

We've got many more products in the works--but we think you'll be pleased with this bunch already. Hopefully, we'll soon complement these with things like Google Moon [15] content, KML layers for Google Earth [16], et cetera. So, stay tuned!