The FBI has been pursuing Web initiatives over the last few years, including such stand-still functions like e-mail alerts, news feeds, podcasts and widgets. But as everyone and their grandma has watched the unprecedented rise of social networks, user-generated video, and virtual worlds, the FBI is now jumping head-first into these initiatives. You can now friend the FBI in Facebook; watch FBI videos on YouTube for recruitment purposes; and read FBI tweets. You can also stick a ‘Most Wanted’ widget into your iPhone: if you’re lucky enough to spy one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, I guess the idea is to snap his photo before he (or she) snaps your neck.

“There shouldn’t be a single source of information about the FBI,” said Special Agent Jason Pack of the National Press Office, about Twitter and other sites. “Using these social media platforms enables us to reach new and different groups of people.”

The organization is now running a “pilot test” in Second Life. As part of this test, the FBI is putting up billboards and kiosks in-world that show the faces of the Ten Most Wanted, as well as connecting users to the FBI job board and to the Internet Crime Complaint Center. The goal is crime prevention and locating missing people, according to Jonathan Cox, a management analyst in the Office of Public Affairs.

“The ease at which information can be transferred, ideas can be exposed, and technology can be shared in virtual worlds will hopefully lead to the arrest of a fugitive or the location of a missing child in the near future,” he said in a statement posted at FBI.gov.