Facebook has announced a dedicated portal for London 2012 to allow fans to "connect with their favourite Olympians" at the Games.
The section features dedicated pages for athletes and sports, including a complete timeline history of the competition since the 1800s.
The IOC said the portal would create a "social media stadium".
However, restrictions on what athletes can or cannot post will restrict some content from being published.
Participants are subject to tight guidelines over content posted on Facebook and Twitter, particularly in relation to brands and broadcasting deals.
It restricts the posting of any video from within an Olympic venue.
'Ambush'Mark Adams, from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said that while visitors to the Games would be able to post videos and stills, athletes' activities would be curbed.
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End Quote Boris BeckerIt's impossible to think all day and all night about the next match, interacting with fans is a good thing”
"It depends on where they are," he said.
"If they're in a stadium, they can't. We have a relationship with various broadcasters around the world which provides the funding [for the Games]."
In addition, he said, the IOC would be watching for any attempted "ambush" marketing.
"It's something we always have to keep in our mind," he said.
"It does take away money from the Olympic movement. It's something that we have to protect."
Facebook, which announced the portal at its central London offices, said it hoped the portal would mean Olympics fans could interact with athletes in a way that had not been possible in previous Games.
Alex Balfour, from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) said there was now a "perfect storm" of technology to allow a "really rich experience" wherever fans were in the world.
"We want make sure our Games is available to that new audience of digital consumers," he added.
Facebook said it would allow fans to use the network to discover footage of their favourite athletes - but some content would be geo-targeted, meaning certain footage might not be available in certain regions of the world.
Mr Adams admitted that the IOC had been slow to adopt social networking, but was now ready to embrace it for London 2012.
"The way I like to think about the IOC and our relationship with social media is that the Olympics is one of the oldest social networks that has ever been.
"Everyone has an experience and shares that experience with their friends and their family - everyone has an emotional attachment to the Games. We're just digitising that experience."
Hot waterFormer world tennis number one and Olympic gold medallist Boris Becker told the BBC that using social media could help athletes prepare.
"It's very positive. It gives athletes the chance to get real opinions and real questions and to answer back.
"It's fun - everyone's online anyway. It's impossible to think all day and all night about the next match, interacting with fans is a good thing."
However, he warned that it was inevitable that some athletes might not think before they tweeted and so land themselves in hot water during the Games.
"The world and people are not perfect," he said.
"There will always be athletes who will take it out of line, but that doesn't mean that the platform is wrong."
London Olympics: Cable Car To Launch By End Of June (PHOTOS) - Huffington Post
LONDON — Think Swiss Alps rather than San Francisco.
A new cable car will soar over the Thames River starting next week, promising to become part of the London landscape ahead of the Summer Olympics.
Transport for London has set June 28 as the opening date for Britain's first urban cable car – well in time for the massive crowds expected for the Olympics. It is called the Emirates Air Line, after the air carrier invested 36 million pounds ($56 million) as part of a 10-year sponsorship deal.
The cable car will make the half-mile (one kilometer) crossing between Greenwich and the Royal Docks, allowing visitors to take in the views of Olympic Park, the Canary Wharf financial center and the Thames Barrier, massive structures in the river that keep London from flooding.
"The Emirates Air Line is part of my plan to develop a package of new river crossings in east London and transform the surrounding area into a vibrant new metropolitan quarter that will attract new jobs, homes and enterprise," London Mayor Boris Johnson said in a statement.
Each of the 34 cars holds 10 people and looks like the gondolas that ferry skiers up the mountains in the Swiss Alps. Travelers can go one way or round-trip, with a one-way ticket costing 3.20 pounds ($5).
Aside from being just plain fun, the cable car should help ease public transport ahead of the London games, which start July 27 and end Aug. 12.
'Deadly game of cat and mouse': Teenage cyclist 'killed by driver racing his girlfriend at 80mph' - Daily Mirror
A teenage cyclist was killed when she was hit by a motorist racing his girlfriend at speed, a court heard today.
Amy Hofmeister, 13, died when she and her friend were both struck by a Vauxhall Vectra driven by Leonard Jones, 42.
Jones - who eyewitnesses described as driving at 80mph - was racing his girlfriend Leanne Burnell, 21, through the streets of Taunton.
He had just overtaken Burnell's Ford Focus when he lost control, overturned and hit Amy and her friend, who were riding along a nearby cycle path.
The schoolgirl died and her friend was injured in the crash, which happened on the evening of June 15 last year on Blackbrook Way.
Prosecutors allege Burnell was "egging on" her boyfriend by playing a dangerous game of high-speed "cat and mouse" and using their cars as "toys" and the roads as a "playground".
The details came during the first day of Burnell's trial at Taunton Crown Court, where she is accused of causing death by dangerous driving.
Jones, of Mulberry Close, Taunton, has already admitted the same charge and awaits sentence.
Prosecutor William Hunter told the jury of seven men and five women that Burnell was jointly responsibility for the crash.
"Leonard Jones was driving far too fast because, the prosecution say, he was playing a high speed game of chase or racing with another car," he said.
"He was winning that game. The prosecution case is that as a result of game playing - this high speed and dangerous game - on a road in built up area with a speed limit of 30mph, Amy Hofmeister was killed.
"This defendant was playing games with Leonard Jones and as a result was jointly responsible for her death."
Mr Hunter told the court that the chase began when Burnell sped off from a Harvester pub where she had been drinking with Jones and friends.
Witnesses said that they had each had a pint of Strongbow cider.
Jurors watched a four-minute compilation of CCTV footage showing Jones chasing the speeding Burnell through the town, including turning down a no-car bus lane.
Burnell's Ford Focus was leading but Jones caught her up and overtook her at around 80mph - despite Jones's front seat passenger Larry Grant telling him to slow down.
One motorist who witnessed Burnell's high speed driving described seeing her laughing at her boyfriend, who is known as Nitty.
"She saw the defendant turn around towards the other car and smile and smirk," Mr Hunter said.
"The prosecution say they were clearly playing games with each other."
Other witnesses described seeing Burnell's car get "faster and faster".
"The car seemed like it was being driven at full throttle," Mr Hunter said.
"Five to six seconds later the witness says he saw a Vauxhall Vectra following the Ford Focus and almost losing control around the bend.
"They thought the Vectra was trying to catch up with the other car. He says they were driving dangerously and they went through the bus lane as if they were taking a short cut.
"They ignored the 'bus and cycle only' sign which perhaps shows their attitude to the rules and laws of the road."
Police crash investigators calculated Burnell's average speed as around 65mph while Jones was doing nearly 81mph.
When Burnell was arrested she denied racing her boyfriend and said she was driving between 20mph and 25mph.
She also maintained that she had never driven down the bus lane.
"The defendant has lied when she said she was driving at 20mph to 25mph and she lied about the route she took," Mr Hunter told jurors.
"There is clear evidence that she is driving at high speed.
"By the manner and actions of her driving she was encouraging Leonard Jones to drive dangerously. She was in effect egging him on.
"A car is not a toy and the road is not a playground.
"The prosecution's case is that she has used her car as a toy and the road as a playground.
"Call it chase, call it racing, call it cat and mouse. It is as a result of using the road a playground that Amy Hofmeister lost her life."
Burnell, of Bishop's Hull, Taunton, denies a single charge of causing death by dangerous driving.
The trial was adjourned until tomorrow.
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