Existing YouTube users are now required to associate their YouTube accounts with Google’s cross-site account system.

Correction: We quoted the NYT as saying the @BPGlobalPR account had more than 150,000 followers. “Leroy Stick” contacted us and says that this is incorrect. The account never had that many followers, “but I predict we will be the end of the day,” Stick says.

After oil started spewing into the Gulf of Mexico following the BP oil rig explosion almost a month ago, a Twitter account launched purporting to be BP’s public relations group, @BPGlobalPR . The account, which offers dark, satirical commentary about the spill and cleanup efforts, is run by an anonymous person (I know for a fact that he’s a “he”), who responds to all media inquiries as “Terry.” Mashable contacted “Terry” in an attempt to find out more about the man behind the Twitter stream.

It’s official: Britney Spears has just become the top Twitter account, surpassing longtime Twitter king Ashton Kutcher by a margin of a handful followers at press time.

Facebook just announced a tool that notifies you by e-mail or SMS text message when someone logs into your Facebook profile from an unknown computer. The idea is to help you recognize when a hacker has broken into your account so you can respond quickly by either changing your password (if that’s still possible) or contacting Facebook.

In the ongoing Adobe/Apple debate over Flash and its place in the mobile web, a curious term has been invoked by both companies: Open. Apple cited “open” as one reason that Flash isn’t allowed on the iPhone and Adobe has adopted a “we love choice” mantra in its response

A Twitter phishing attack is spreading rapidly today, attempting to obtain Twitter logins via Direct Messages.

UPDATE: Her Twitter account has been reverted, but with her profile picture and background stripped, most likely until the Spears people can deal with the situation. – Unless Britney Spears secretly worships satan, it looks like her Twitter account ( @BritneySpears ) has been hijacked by hackers with hijinks in mind. About one hour ago, two new tweets appeared in the Britney Spears stream.

Television search engine startup Clicker.com has been in private beta for several months, and sees its public launch today. Positioning itself as a “TV Guide for television content online,” Clicker has indexed over 400,000 episodes from 7000 television shows, making it a veritable one stop shop for finding legally-available TV shows online. With the full launch the site also incorporates indexed premium content from two major partners: Netflix and Amazon

There is a new Twitter phishing scam making the rounds, and this one is spreading quickly via direct message.