Twitter Tools

Feeds and Activity Streams

2009-03-16T19:11:00.001-05:00

Its pretty obvious that most folks (assume knowledge worker) are still using the web for information. Dawn Foster’s notes published as Beyond Aggregation — Finding the Web’s Best Content at SXSW show how lots of Information Technology Knowledge workers are using the new feeding and streaming tools. Most folks while already using these tools for more than information think they are still doing information activities. The folks are lucky to be the first generation of Knowledge Traders. The new wealth is going to be real knowledge. Information is too slow in the Information Economy. What is driving this New Information Economy is a need for efficiencies. Aggregation tools helped manage the Web 2.0 information drama very well but FriendFeed probably has a better chance at making Feeds mainstream than Google Reader. Feeds haven’t delivered to consumer but have succeeded with geeks who fortunately build most information systems today. This means there are feeds everywhere. Feeds are real time like activity streams feeds. Most people’s creative activities going forward will probably originate from a feed they were reading on a service like FriendFeed. Most people’s activities going forwards will begin and live forever on activity streams and feeds. This activities are the new work. This activities will probably include all the common activities that we see in organizations today. What happens after Feeds and Aggregation. Rapid Info-consumption and sharing? Rapid discovery and creativity. Rapid Real-time Solutions and Problems?

Beyond Aggregation — Finding the Web’s Best Content at SXSW Published by Dawn on March 16, 2009

Here are my notes for this session. These are the words of the panelists (not mine) as best I could capture them (please forgive the typos).

Beyond Aggregation — Finding the Web’s Best Content

Panelists:
Marshall Kirkpatrick   VP Content Dev,   ReadWriteWeb
Louis Gray   Author/Publisher,   louisgray.com
Gabe Rivera   Founder/CEO,   Techmeme
Melanie Baker   Community Mgr,   AideRSS Inc
Micah Baldwin   VP Business Dev,   Lijit Networks Inc

This was another full session with people packed into the aisles.

Louis: limit sources to those things that are highly relevant. Uses Google Reader as a starting point. Read fast, share fast, decide fast. Know where it goes when you share it & engage there, too. Louis beats many of the top tech blogs with startup knowledge using these techniques.

Gabe: Techmeme is powered mostly by automation to find the top tech stories. Relies mostly on links to determine newsworthiness. It also looks for clusters of news on the same topic. Helps to surface most of the good news, but he recently introduced an editing process into the mix to add / remove headline.

Melanie: AideRSS focuses on social interactions to determine the best content (links, bookmarks, comments, Twitter, etc.). Best posts show the top articles. New beta product will be more focused on content discovery.

Micah: Start with trusted sources. Read the posts plus the links. Includes Lijit to aggregate these sources. Focused on trust relationships to drill down until you find the content you need.

Marshall: “How to find the weirdest stuff on the Internet” Used Delicious, PostRank, Yahoo Pipes, and Feedburner to find the weirdest stuff. Delicious to find the content, PostRank to find the best, yahoo Pipes to splice filtered content together, and Feedburner to give people a feed of the content.

Micah: For those looking to be found online. No matter how good you are, if you don’t interact with people, no one will find you.Many products take RSS, filter it, find the interesting content, and make it easier to find. Look for the products that have a human element & are not just algorithmic (Google vs. Delicious).

Melanie: Even for the tools, those are built by people and each one does something a little different & you need multiple tools to solve a problem, so you can’t take the human side out of the equation. It’s more important to find what people are actually reading and bookmarking vs. what they are recommending.

Louis: Follows other people’s Google Reader shares. Uses FriendFreed to put people in specific lists to find the best of the day within a specific list. Finds new information that he didn’t have before.

These techniques work best for tech, politics and a few others. It only works when people link to each other, comment, etc.

Gabe: This is why he hasn’t launched any new sites for a while. The data just doesn’t exist to do a Techmeme for many other topics. He might tackle something in a more traditional business / economic / finance area, but these topics alone are too small and aggregated might be too broad, so he’s looking for the right mix.

Louis: MacBlips has a family of sites with tech and a few other topics branching out past tech / politics.

Melanie: Disagrees that it doesn’t exist outside the tech space. It’s smaller and different, but it’s still there. Religions, knitters, etc. They are harder to find.

Micah: Launching content networks grouping like-minded bloggers to aggregate content (Security Bloggers Network). There are ways to utilize the tools outside of technology bloggers. We’re too close to the technology to see what is outside of our world. Does not think that you can automate recommendations. We take recommendations from actual people that we trust.

Marshall: He creates elaborate systems to find the lists of top blogs in a topic, but sometimes forgets to just Google it to see what lists other people have created.

Melanie: The way people think and search and make lists is on a personal trust basis. Be able to scan information to find the trusted sources.

Louis: What is your goal for finding information? Do you want to be first? Find new content? Find interesting things to read? Your methods will differ depending on your goals.

Micah: How do you find the next meme. FriendFeed is a river of information. You should try to find a new blog every day to find something new. Each one should drive you deeper into new things.

Melanie: Many of us are using Twitter more to get information at the expense of our RSS readers.

Louis: People are live tweeting (it’s easier) rather than writing blog posts.

Marshall: Twitter real-time search in Google (Greasemonkey script). He also builds custom search engines to search only within a defined list of sources. He also uses a FF plugin that allows him to get a grid of places to search.

Louis: Don’t be afraid to unsubscribe and prune content.

Marshall: Prefers to oversubscribe and prioritize. Never unsubscribes, just moves things lower in priority.

Secrets

Gabe: Information overload is a problem, but if you want an audience, they don’t always have the information overload problem. You have the problem, but your readers want interesting stuff.

Louis: FriendFeed best of day (I missed part of this)

Marshall: Looking at the bookmarking history and finding the people who bookmarked them first to identify some key people who are the first people to disover content, and subscribe to them.

Melanie: Ping her to get a beta code for the new PostRank feature.

Micah: Close to releasing a way to score individuals based on influence and connections. It should be released in the next 30 days.

I don’t need Money? I just need 10,000 followers

2009-03-12T08:57:00.001-05:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The world’s billionaires got poorer last year. The twittersphere guarantees that this trend will continue forever. What is the value of money if the goal is not to amass stuff but to do stuff? The most money can’t get as much done as 10,000 people can or a million people determined to change everything right away. Social Medial and Social network Tools are the new resources.

I can’t remember where i first heard this: “Anyone with 10,000 followers will always be able to find solutions and opportunities”

You can follow me at http://twitter.com/tweet_feeds

What matters most today? stored capital or real-time capital. Who has more capabilities the dude with a billion dollars or the dude with a million followers? see The end of Money

Real-time information moving at the speed of light means that change can move faster than time. Its called the future. As a 21st century economy of thousands of producers and unlimited choices unfolds the “old money” will find that the value of their “assets” will decrease rapidly. It’s a sharing and liking economy driven by a need to squeeze out as much of the waste of the past. The Now Web enables rapid change and feedback flows. Innovation is also as rapid because the solutions are developed and designed in real-time so there’s little waste. Its like an open source project. Only the stuff that works matters. Capital like lifestreaming wants to be alive and vibrant. That’s why the current rich are getting poorer. There were farmers who were very rich, factory owners and the information technology moguls who dominated the end of the 20th Century. The new economy is about rapid solutions and fast change, the “richest” people won’t be the folks that amass capital, but the folks that can change capital to solutions rapidly enough to be interesting. Wealth in a real-time world is measured not by what you did yesterday but by what you are doing right now!

World's Billionaires 2009

by Luisa Kroll, Matthew Miller, and Tatiana Serafin
Wednesday, March 11, 2009provided by

It's been a tough year for the richest people in the world. Last year there were 1,125 billionaires. This year there are just 793 people rich enough to make our list.

The world has become a wealth wasteland.

More from Forbes.com:
• Billionaire Bachelors and Bachelorettes
• Women Billionaires
• Celebrity Billionaires

Click here for the full list of the World's Billionaires

Like the rest of us, the richest people in the world have endured a financial disaster over the past year. Today there are 793 people on our list of the World's Billionaires, a 30% decline from a year ago.

Of the 1,125 billionaires who made last year's ranking, 373 fell off the list--355 from declining fortunes and 18 who died. There are 38 newcomers, plus three moguls who returned to the list after regaining their 10-figure fortunes. It is the first time since 2003 that the world has had a net loss in the number of billionaires.

The world's richest are also a lot poorer. Their collective net worth is $2.4 trillion, down $2 trillion from a year ago. Their average net worth fell 23% to $3 billion. The last time the average was that low was in 2003.

Bill Gates lost $18 billion but regained his title as the world's richest man. Warren Buffett, last year's No. 1, saw his fortune decline $25 billion as shares of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) fell nearly 50% in 12 months, but he still managed to slip just one spot to No. 2. Mexican telecom titan Carlos Slim Helú also lost $25 billion and dropped one spot to No. 3.

It was hard to avoid the carnage, whether you were in stocks, commodities, real estate or technology. Even people running profitable businesses were hammered by frozen credit markets, weak consumer spending or declining currencies.

The biggest loser in the world this year, by dollars, was last year's biggest gainer. India's Anil Ambani lost $32 billion--76% of his fortune--as shares of his Reliance Communications, Reliance Power and Reliance Capital all collapsed.

Ambani is one of 24 Indian billionaires, all but one of whom are poorer than a year ago. Another 29 Indians lost their billionaire status entirely as India's stock market tumbled 44% in the past year and the Indian rupee depreciated 18% against the dollar. It is no longer the top spot in Asia for billionaires, ceding that title to China, which has 28.

Russia became the epicenter of the world's commodities bust, dropping 55 billionaires--two-thirds of its 2008 crop. Among them: Dmitry Pumpyansky, an industrialist from the resource-rich Ural mountain region, who lost $5 billion as shares of his pipe producer, TMK, sank 84%. Also gone is Vasily Anisimov, father of Moscow's Paris Hilton, Anna Anisimova, who lost $3.2 billion as the value of his Metalloinvest Holding, one of Russia's largest ore mining and processing firms, fell along with his real estate holdings.

Twelve months ago Moscow overtook New York as the billionaire capital of the world, with 74 tycoons to New York's 71. Today there are 27 in Moscow and 55 in New York.

After slipping in recent years, the U.S. is regaining its dominance as a repository of wealth. Americans account for 44% of the money and 45% of the list's slots, up seven and three percentage points from last year, respectively. Still, it has 110 fewer billionaires than a year ago.

Those with ties to Wall Street were particularly hard hit. Former head of AIG (AIG) Maurice (Hank) Greenberg saw his $1.9 billion fortune nearly wiped out after the insurance behemoth had to be bailed out by the U.S. government. Today Greenberg is worth less than $100 million. Former Citigroup (C) Chairman Sandy Weill also falls from the ranks.

Last year there were 39 American billionaire hedge fund managers; this year there are 28. Twelve American private equity tycoons dropped out of the billionaire ranks.
Blackstone Group's (BX) Stephen Schwarzman, who lost $4 billion, and Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts' Henry Kravis, who lost $2.5 billion, retain their billionaire status despite their weaker fortunes.

Worldwide, 80 of the 355 drop-offs from last year's list had fortunes derived from finance or investments.

While 656 billionaires lost money in the past year, 44 added to their fortunes. Those who made money did so by catering to budget-conscious consumers (discount retailer Uniqlo's Tadashi Yanai), predicting the crash (investor John Paulson) or cashing out in the nick of time (Cirque du Soleil's Guy Laliberte).

So is there anywhere one can still make a fortune these days? The 38 newcomers offer a few clues. Among the more notable new billionaires are Mexican Joaquín Guzmán Loera, one of the biggest suppliers of cocaine to the U.S.; Wang Chuanfu of China, whose BYD Co. began selling electric cars in December, and American John Paul Dejoria, who got the world clean with his Paul Mitchell shampoos and sloppy with his Patrón Tequila.

The Top 20 Richest People in the World

1. William Gates III

Net Worth: $40 billion

Source: Microsoft/U.S.

Age: 53

Marital Status: Married, three children

Software visionary regains title as the world's richest man despite losing $18 billion in the past 12 months.
Stepped down from day-to-day duties at Microsoft last summer to devote his talents and riches to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Organization's assets were $30 billion in January; annual letter lauds endowment manager Michael Larson for limiting last year's losses to 20%.
Gates decided to increase donations in 2009 to $3.8 billion, up 15% from 2008.
Dedicated to fighting hunger in developing countries, improving education in America's high schools and developing vaccines against malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS.
Appointed Microsoft Office veteran Jeffrey Raikes chief executive of Gates Foundation in September. Gates remains Microsoft chairman.
Sells shares each quarter, redeploys proceeds via investment vehicle Cascade; more than half of fortune invested outside Microsoft.
Stock down 45% in past 12 months.
"Creative capitalist" wants companies to match profit making with doing good.

from tag twitter

Why We Often Write About Twitter And Will Continue To Do So

(more..)

The Hive Mind: Find everyone with Twitter

2009-03-07T11:29:00.001-06:00

Chris Allison (@Chris_Allison) CMO of Centsports. just posted an article titled Welcome to the Hive Mind; Learn How to Search Twitter. He discusses searching on Twitter but what’s more interesting is the title. The closest thing we have to a collective consciousness is Twitter. That’s what makes searching Twitter so exciting. You can find things that are happening and those that happened. Because its real time, you can also find people who are near you or who were near you.

Being able to do advanced twitter search’s is required to tap into this Hive mind and Twitter search Operators are the language that you can use to talk to the Hive. Use with Hashtags and the Minus sign to filter, Use Near to find local tweets and connect with people and use Since and Until to watch time.

Here is a question that you can ask on Twitter? Who in NYC just tweeted. The search to use is near:NYC within:1mi

Show tweets near:

Within: 15101525501005001000 miles

:NYC within:1mi

1 more results since you started searching. Refresh to see them.

tweetncoffer: @wcgallego I have too many other shows to watch. I'm just saying it would be a nice alt to Leno. Oh, but Conan is Coming soon...what to do

iPhone: 40.764229,-73.986778

1 minute ago from Tweetie · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation
Roz2010: http://twitpic.com/1wnpe - mommy taking my son to run errands, he scored some new shoes. converse high tops.

iPhone: 40.759254,-73.992653

4 minutes ago from TwitPic · Reply · View Tweet
Roz2010: http://twitpic.com/1wnp1 - mommy taking my son to run errands, he scored some new shoes. converse high tops.

iPhone: 40.759254,-73.992653

4 minutes ago from TwitPic · Reply · View Tweet
ESco09: @NoTTsTheManaGer lmao!

iPhone: 40.757511,-73.976707

5 minutes ago from TwitterFon · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation
jadedid: On the train http://twitpic.com/1wnmk

iPhone: 40.753464,-73.998169

6 minutes ago from TwitterFon · Reply · View Tweet
tweetncoffer: Any deals on Austin street in #foresthillsNY? Tweet back with the deets!

iPhone: 40.764229,-73.986778

6 minutes ago from Tweetie · Reply · View Tweet
tweetncoffer: I didn't even make it 5 minutes watching Fallon before I fell asleep. That show is on too late for me.

iPhone: 40.764229,-73.986778

10 minutes ago from Tweetie · Reply · View Tweet
ACEofthePACK: Listen to Pray For Me - Joe Budden.. He is Definitely one of the best doing it..

iPhone: 40.753952,-73.976837

12 minutes ago from TwitterFon · Reply · View Tweet
silverph: @ChicMom at least you have a choice. 

iPhone: 40.754971,-73.988190

13 minutes ago from TwitterFon · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation
robbmonn: Pizzatown is the best. http://twitpic.com/1wn94

iPhone: 40.758334,-73.988064

16 minutes ago from Tweetie · Reply · View Tweet
mandalatv: It sure knows how to snow out here.

iPhone: 40.753413,-73.990066

19 minutes ago from TwitterFox · Reply · View Tweet
silverph: If I charge for every tech advice I give to friends and other people, I'd be rich by now.

iPhone: 40.754971,-73.988190

26 minutes ago from TwitterFon · Reply · View Tweet
silverph: @kchohensee somone tweeted that 765t was disappointing. Any problems encountered?

iPhone: 40.754971,-73.988190

29 minutes ago from TwitterFon · Reply · View Tweet
ESco09: @recession_proof when don't u let the tiger out the cage. That shit been roaming the street since 03 LOL

iPhone: 40.757511,-73.976707

32 minutes ago from TwitterFon · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation
silverph: @technical_itch disappointing?? Why? I'm about to buy one today.

iPhone: 40.754971,-73.988190

33 minutes ago from TwitterFon · Reply · View Tweet

Advanced Search

Some more examples:

twitter search
Finds tweets containing both "twitter" and "search". This is the default operator.

"happy hour"
Finds tweets containing the exact phrase "happy hour".

love OR hate
Finds tweets containing either "love" or "hate" (or both).

beer -root
Finds tweets containing "beer" but not "root".

#haiku
Finds tweets containing the hashtag "haiku".

from:alexiskold
Finds tweets sent from person "alexiskold".

to:techcrunch
Finds tweets sent to person "techcrunch".

@mashable
Finds tweets referencing person "mashable".

"happy hour" near:"san francisco"
Finds tweets containing the exact phrase "happy hour" and sent near "san francisco".

near:NYC within:15mi
Finds tweets sent within 15 miles of "NYC".

superhero since:2009-03-06
Finds tweets containing "superhero" and sent since date "2009-03-06" (year-month-day).

ftw until:2009-03-06
Finds tweets containing "ftw" and sent up to date "2009-03-06".

movie -scary :)
Finds tweets containing "movie", but not "scary", and with a positive attitude.

flight :(
Finds tweets containing "flight" and with a negative attitude.

traffic ?
Finds tweets containing "traffic" and asking a question.

hilarious filter:links
Finds tweets containing "hilarious" and linking to URLs.

news source:twitterfeed
Finds tweets containing "news" and entered via TwitterFeed

As an aside, Google is a hive mind too, but their data is often collected as a side effect of user action, whereas the majority of Twitter’s “thoughts” are genuinely created and intentionally produced- carrying on. ……

Putting It All Together:

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning a little more about what you can do with Twitter search. Here is an example of putting it all together using #inauguration, near:collegestation , since:2009-01-20, until:2009-01-20.

You can see the results here.

Note: Twitter’s servers went all crazy eyed when I did this search near Washington DC, my guess is they’re just overloaded. I went ahead and submitted a note via their help form so hopefully they’ll look into it. Either way, the power of the search remains the same; it’s only a matter of Twitter getting their servers more prepared for larger searches; when they do, you’ll be ready.

Happy searching, welcome to the hive mind.

see Welcome to the Hive Mind; Learn How to Search Twitter.

Top Twitter Tools

2009-03-03T18:32:00.001-06:00

The Top Twitter Tools are:

Widgets by Twitter
Twhirl by Seesmic
Twitterrific by IconFactory
TweetDeck by Iain Dodsworth
Twitter Widget by WidSets
Opera Widget by Opera
Twitter Gadget by Google
Twitterrific by IconFactory
PocketTweets by PocketTweets
Spaz by Ed Finkler
Blogo by Brainjuice
Digsby by dotSyntax

This are the listed on the official Twitter Downloads page. You can also check out Twitter Fan Wiki for a complete list of all Twitter applications. What Twitter tools do you use?

Desktop apps
1. Windows
2. Mac
3. Linux
4. Multi Platform
5. Second Life
6. Other
Web Apps
Mobile apps

Useful Twitter Tools

2009-03-03T17:59:00.001-06:00

There are lots of great Twitter tools available. What tools do you use?

The article titled Twitter tips - tools for your tweets by Dolores Parker covers the most basic tools that you can use with Twitter.

I also use TweetDeck and Twirl. What Twitter tools do you use?

Twitter Tools

Widgets by Twitter
Twhirl by Seesmic
Twitterrific by IconFactory

Twitter Gadget by Google
Twitterrific by IconFactory
PocketTweets by PocketTweets

TweetDeck by Iain Dodsworth
Twitter Widget by WidSets
Opera Widget by Opera

Spaz by Ed Finkler
Blogo by Brainjuice
Digsby by dotSyntax

EmailTwitter allows you to post Twitter updates and retrieve your Twitter timeline via your cellular phone or other e-mail enabled mobile device

Twittervision A real-time geographic visualization of posts to Twitter. A poetic time waster of sorts.

Twitterholic Lists the top 100 Twitter users based on the number of their followers.

Twitterific - Free desktop application for Mac users

Twitteroo - Desktop application for Windows users
Twitbin An extension in your Firefox browser.

Power Twitter:- Nice Firefox add-in from 30 Boxes, which allows you to add photos from Flickr and your YouTube videos directly in your tweets. It also unwinds the tiny URL's.

Twitter tips - tools for your tweets

by Dolores Parker May 10th 2007

You are reading this post about Twitter. That's what you would answer to Twitter's simple question, "What are you doing?", which is the entire premise of Twitter's existence. Getting people to answer in 140 characters or less, by IM or logging onto Twitter.com, what it is they are doing at that particular moment. Big stuff, right?
Constant stream of consciousness chatter is the lifeforce of Twitter. And this constant feed of the bright and banal is turning a lot of people into Twitter addicts. What makes this so? It could be the sheer ease of use to Twitter. You don't have to construct an entire blog post or for that matter, even a full sentence. Just a thought, a word, an impulse to share and you can Tweet (or post something on Twitter).
To Tweet or not to Tweet
Warning: if you're the compulsive type, you may want to move onto the next post and stop your habit before you even have a chance to start it. (We're not making this up. According to Alexa, Twitter's user reach has increased 526% in the last three months). Now, for those of you who aren't the addictive type or who like to throw all caution to the wind, let's investigate what awaits you in the world of Twitter.

Twitter
Here's where you start by creating an account, user name, password, profile, etc. Add a fun picture and invite some friends to join, or grab some users from the Twitter page as your friends. A popular friend is Darth Vader who is still searching for Luke and posting about life on the dark side. One of his tweets described the inhumanity of a pressure suit after a grande burrito lunch.

You can post tweets by IM, (AIM, Jabber or GTalk), on the Twitter site, or mobile text (SMS) on your phone. Note: If you post by IM, you will not receive phone alerts. To post by mobile, type in 40404 which is a short code to allow you to interact with Twitter.
Twitter is a free service, however, depending on your mobile plan, there may be text charges with your new Twitter activity. You may want to get an unlimited plan or use EmailTwitter (see below), which allows you to avoid those pesky SMS fees.
Commands
There are certain commands, such as, Get - gets recent updates from all your friends, Off or On -turns updates on or off, and Help - which will send a list of commands to get you going. Off will obviously be your friend when you are on deadline and can't afford to procrastinate for much longer.
In Twitter, there is a difference between Friends and Followers. When you add someone as a Friend, you will follow them by default (that is receive all their tweets). However, you can change this situation by clicking leave from their web page (in the actions box) or texting leave + usernamefrom your phone or IM.
Example: Leave Darth Vader - this command would keep Darth Vader as your friend, however, his messages about Luke would not follow you everywhere.
Followers are people who receive their Twitter updates on your phone or IM, as well as the web.
@username - allows you to publicly respond to a tweet and references the conversation so others can follow. Below is Scoble's twitter page. It shows a public response tweet to "spin" with an "in reply to spin" tag so people besides "spin" know what he's referring to.

Twitter Badge
If you have a blog or website you can post a widget that streams your tweets on your site.

The Twitter Fan Wiki has all the news and tools to help you get your Twitter going, as well as, great mash-ups for the most expert Twitterers.

is an easy way for people to send Twitter messages about your blog post or website. When visitors to your website click on the TwitThis button or link, it takes the URL of the webpage and creates a shorter URL using TinyURL. Then visitors can send this shortened URL and a description of the web page to all of their friends on Twitter.
EmailTwitter
allows you to post Twitter updates and retrieve your Twitter timeline via your cellular phone or other e-mail enabled mobile device, without incurring SMS fees. On the downside, you will have to input your username and password for each tweet, however, you can register at the site and do away with this inconvenience.

Twittervision
A real-time geographic visualization of posts to Twitter. A poetic time waster of sorts.

Twitterholic
Lists the top 100 Twitter users based on the number of their followers.

Twitterific
Free desktop application for Mac users - allows you to send and receive tweets without being on the Twitter site and takes up small real estate on the desktop. From the Iconfactory, it has the clean user interface you have come to expect on a Mac. Requires: Mac OS X 10.4 or later, Twitter account

Twitteroo
Desktop application for Windows users - allows you to send and receive tweets without being on the site. From Rareedge.com, requires Windows 2000/XP/Vista and the .NET Framework 2.0

Twitbin
An extension in your Firefox browser, it allows you to post tweets within the browser and receive tweets as well.
Power Twitter
Nice Firefox add-in from 30 Boxes, which allows you to add photos from Flickr and your YouTube videos directly in your tweets. It also unwinds the tiny URL's.

We've listed lots of tweet tools to get you started on Twitter, or perhaps enhance your Twitter experience, if you've already begun.

Tags: Aim, darth vader, DarthVader, emailtwitter, Gtalk, iconfactory, Jabber, power twitter, PowerTwitter,rareedge.com, scoble, twit this, twitbin, twiterrific, twitter, twitter badge, twitter commands, twitter fan wiki,TwitterBadge, TwitterCommands, TwitterFanWiki, twitterholic, twitteroo, twittervision, TwitThis

Twitter tips updated in real-time.

2009-03-03T17:43:00.001-06:00

Using Twitter with your phone

2009-03-03T10:31:00.001-06:00

Its inevitable that you will need to Use Twitter with your phone. See the Twitter Phone FAQ

Using Twitter with your phone

Twitter is a new kind of technology that uses multiple methods of communication to help keep you in touch with people you care about. Using Twitter with your phone will change the feel of Twitter for you. Not only can you receive text messages when people you've specified update, you can also send updates to Twitter while you're on the go, even if you don't receive messages from others. These are some of the most frequently asked questions about using Twitter with your mobile phone.

Do I have to use my phone to use Twitter?

Nope. You can send twitter updates from the Twitter website or from our mobile website, m.twitter.com. You can also check out the apps page to see other popular ways people use Twitter.

Text Messages? Sounds expensive. How much will Twitter cost me?

Twitter charges you nothing, but how much it costs to use Twitter with text messaging depends on your text messaging plan. Standard text messaging rates (such as international text messaging fees) do apply. Consult your service provider to ensure that your text plan covers your Twitter usage. If you're using our international number, give your provider the Twitter phone number you'll be using to see if you'll incur extra charges. If you're using Twitter from outside of the US, please consult your carrier, as every provider has a different policy.

When I give you my number, you wont charge my phone bill?

No. Twitter doesn't charge your phone bill. Sending and receiving messages to Twitter is like sending to a regular number. Usage charges for text messaging are applied by your carrier and depend on your SMS plan. Some people pay a per-message charge of ten cents or more. Some people have an allotted number of text messages monthly. Some (lucky!) people have unlimited text plans. We must caution: Twitter can become highly addictive, so make sure that your texting habits and your text plan are compatible.

How does Twitter use my phone number?

Think of Twitter as a single contact who sends all of the messages from your friends. Twitter uses your number to send web updates to your phone in text message format. Your number is private; Twitter never reveals phone number information.

What are the Twitter phone numbers?

We currently have two short codes and three long codes for those who twitter internationally.

In the US, use 40404.
In Canada, use 21212.
In Sweden, use: +46 737 494222
In Germany, use +49 17 6888 50505
Anywhere else, use +44 7624 801423

For all people using international numbers: once your phone is verified, you'll be able to send your updates to Twitter, but you will not be able to receive text updates from Twitter. Find out more on the Twitter Blog.

What is a short code?

Short codes are numbers made specifically for SMS (text) messages. Twitter uses various short codes to send and receive your updates. Sending a text message to a short code is just like sending a text message to a phone number. Short codes are made specifically for text messaging, so you can't send an email to a short code, or call a short code. Charges for using our short codes are the same as standard text messaging rates to full-length phone numbers. Long codes are also text only, but they're the length of a standard phone number instead of being shortened.

What is Twitter's international number?

If you're not in the US, Canada, Germany, or Sweden use the international long code instead: +44 7624 801423. If you're using this number you will be able to send messages to Twitter, but you will not be able to receive them.

A word of caution for those using the international number: some carriers don't charge an international fee to use the Twitter international number. Others consider it an international number and charge from .15 to .25 per message, even within the UK. Remember to check your phone plan for international rates; be aware that even in the UK, standard messaging rates vary by carrier, and do apply.

How do I add my phone to Twitter?

Add your phone to your account in your Twitter settings. Once you've added your phone to Twitter, just send the verification code in a text message to the Twitter phone number assigned to you in your settings page. Once your phone is verified, send Twitter a text message and we'll post it to your profile page and send it to your followers. (Find out more cool things you can do with your phone here!)

How do I add my international number?

Twitter accesses international numbers from the US. This means that it's important to include '+' and your country code with your complete number in order for us to recognize it properly. Our international number is a good example; it's formatted like this: +44 7624 801423. Note: when adding a country code to your number in some countries, you must drop the leading zero.

Can I use the same phone number on multiple accounts?

No. You can only use one phone number for one account.

If I change my phone number, can I change it on Twitter?

Yes. To add a new number, just delete your current number from the settings page, and add your new number. (You'll need to verify your new phone number before using it.)

How long can my updates be?

We have a 140 character limit on Twitter updates. If your update is longer than that, the full update will post to the web where it can be viewed in its entirety. We'll still send the truncated version: only the first 140 characters will go to phones.

How do I send direct messages from my phone?

Send a direct message to anyone on Twitter using the direct message comman, d + username, like this: d krissymessage goes here

Make sure to use the user name (found in the profile URL) and not the real name, or it will post to the public timeline, or go to someone else!

Can I update Twitter from my phone but not receive other people's updates?

Yes. As long as you've verified your phone, you can send updates to Twitter even if all notifications are off. Make sure to set your updates to OFF on the web, or send OFF from your phone. People using +44 7624 801423 will always be able to send messages, but will not be able to receive them.

Can I turn updates on for some people and off for others?

Yes. Set up text preferences for people you follow from the drop down 'following' box on the profile page.

How do I turn a specific person's updates on or off from my phone?

To get a person's updates on your phone, use the commands FOLLOW or ON + username, like this: follow caroline, on caroline

To turn updates off again, send LEAVE or OFF + username, like this. leave crystal, off crystal

You can change notification preferences from the profile pages of everyone you follow.

How do I know if my friends are getting my updates on their phones?

You don't. But, if they are on your followers list, they will always receive your updates on the web.

How do I turn ALL twitter messages off or on from my phone?

To stop getting Twitter updates, send OFF, STOP, or QUIT from your phone at anytime. We will send you a final message confirming that your phone notifications are off. Sending ON will turn them back on.

Is there a setting for receiving only @replies on my phone?

Nope. But if we get enough feature requests, we may just add it for you. Send us one!

Is there a setting for receiving only direct messages on my phone?

Yep! You can set this up in your device settings page. When you send OFF once, Twitter messages will turn off but direct messages will be on. When you send OFF twice, everything will be off. You can also set up email preferences for direct message notifications.

If I turn Twitter off, will I still get Direct Messages?

Yes. You will receive direct messages if you send OFF only once; to disable direct messages, send OFF twice or change the settings in the device settings page. You will always receive a copy of your message on your web archive, and in your email if you set it up in your preferences.

What's a Nudge?

A nudge is a friendly reminder to update Twitter. Friends can nudge you (and you them) by sending nudge + username to Twitter, like this: nudge mhegge

Can I favorite updates from my phone?

Yes. if you receive an update that you'd like to mark as favorite, reply to the update with FAV + username, like this:fav delbius

I'm getting a lot of updates. How can I get fewer?

Stop getting updates from some friends without stopping all updates from all friends. The easiest way to do this is to change text preferences on the web from the person's profile page. You can also use the leave or OFF command. Text OFF + username or LEAVE + username to stop getting messages from a specific person, like this:leave bs

Make sure you're using the username, and not just the screen name. (Find the user name by going to the person's profile and looking in the URL at top.)

The Essential Twitter Tools

2009-03-03T10:03:00.001-06:00

Based on jowyang’ My Essential Twitter Tools. What are your essential Twitter Tools?

Do you use a Twitter Client.I mainly use the browser to see what’s going .Is Twhirl the most popular client?
For Search I use Summize
For Conversations: I also use Quotably
For Aggregation: I also use Friendfeed
For Tagging Content: I use the hashag “#” to add metadata around any tweet, this becomes more important as we rate and tag content. Here’s a helpful primer.
For Location Based:I use Twitterlocal filter finds tweets based upon a users profile location. If you’ve a local business, this could become useful.

For Alerts: I also use Google Alerts

which ones do you use, or are there others you recommend?

jowyang on Twitter -- see My Essential Twitter Tools

Many conversations are shifting to Twitter, this post proves it (network with others, by adding those in the comments). Twitter is extensible, and many third-party developers are creating tools around the simple data being exported for a variety of unique applications.

If you’re using Twitter for personal, corporate use, or to manage the brand of a client, you’ll need the right tools to find and engage the discussions.

Here are the tools that I’m using to improve my Twitter experience, note that all of these are using my profile, but you can change to fit your needs.

1) Client: Although I mainly use the browser to see what’s going on (I click on profiles to see what people have said) Twhirl is the most popular client, using adobe air technology. Leave this on your desktop, instead of going to browser, also these clients may be more accurate in seeing who’s replying to you, unlike the browser version.

2) Search: Use Tweetscan (Update: I now use Summize as it can track conversations) to see who’s talking about you, your brand, or a topic you’re interested in. For example, I may not just search on “jowyang” but also on “owyang” as some don’t use the full name.

3) Conversations: Quotably is the top ‘conversation’ tracker, it threads together the discussions that members are having by looking at the replies, interesting to see how conversations spiral into different threads.

4) Aggregation: Friendfeed puts all of our RSS content onto one page, making it easy to see from one glance (rather than going to different properties) and you can even reply from friendfeed to different tools. It’s smarter to organize around people, rather than tools.

5) Tagging Content: For advanced users, you can start to use the hashag “#” to add metadata around any tweet, this becomes more important as we rate and tag content. Here’s a helpful primer. I’m not making much use of this feature –yet.

6) Location Based: If you live in a particular area, and want to parse out a specific location, this Twitterlocal filter finds tweets based upon a users profile location. If you’ve a local business, this could become useful.

7) Alerts: (update) Often, people will blog about the conversations that happen in twitter, the conversation shifts back to blogs. As a result, I setup Google Alerts for the phrase @jowyang, I see it appear 3-5 times a week on blogs. Thanks Andrew for the reminder in the comments.

I should add that I check to see who is replying to me from my mobile phone, and sometimes update from mobile phone.

Out of the 6, now 7 tools I listed above, which ones do you use, or are there others you recommend?

What Twitter tools do you use?

2009-03-03T07:52:00.001-06:00

Image via CrunchBase

Twitter is getting mainstream and more people are tweeting. This means more information and a need for great tools to manage the additional information.What Twitter tools do you use? Leave us a comment about What Twitter tools you use?

From the The Twitter Manual -David Risley has a section titled Getting the Most Out of Twitter .

Getting the Most Out of Twitter
So, Twitter is what it is. However, there are a lot of really cool third-party sites out there that take advantage of
Twitter to provide add-on capabilities.

Summize (
www.summize.com )
Summize is a search engine for Twitter. They cal themselves the "conversational search". It is cool because it
allows you to search realtime conversation taking place on Twitter. For example, the big news this week is
Apple's launch of the new Iphone. Twitter is atwitter on this topic, as a quick search for Iphone shows you.

TweetBeep (www.tweetbeep.com)
Get email alerts whenever somebody tweets about something you're interested in. It is actually allot like Google
Alerts, except for Twitter. Want to be notified if anybody mentions your name, your city or your website on
Twitter? Set up a TweetBeep.

A look at TwitterPoster might remind you of the old days of those million pixel homepages. What it is is a
graphical representation of the most influential Twitter-ers. The larger the image, the more influential the person
right now. Might be a bit useless, but it is cool.

TwitterFeed (www.twitterfeed.com)

If you run a blog or anything else which has an RSS feed, you can use TwitterFeed to automatically fetch the
latest entries from that feed and send them as tweets using your Twitter account. A lot of bloggers, for example,
use this to automatically send out links to new posts over Twitter.

The Twitter Manual - (cc) David Risley - http://www.davidrisley.com

what are the most popular Twitter tools and utilities.? What Twitter tools do you use?

About this blog

2009-03-03T07:45:00.001-06:00

This blog covers Twitter tools.

About this blog

2009-02-10T02:32:00.001-06:00

Twitter Tools

Feeds and Activity Streams

Beyond Aggregation — Finding the Web’s Best Content at SXSW Published by Dawn on March 16, 2009

I don’t need Money? I just need 10,000 followers

World's Billionaires 2009

Related Posts

The Hive Mind: Find everyone with Twitter

:NYC within:1mi

1 more results since you started searching. Refresh to see them.

Putting It All Together:

Top Twitter Tools

Useful Twitter Tools

There are lots of great Twitter tools available. What tools do you use?

Twitter tips - tools for your tweets

Twitter tips updated in real-time.

Using Twitter with your phone

Do I have to use my phone to use Twitter?

Text Messages? Sounds expensive. How much will Twitter cost me?

When I give you my number, you wont charge my phone bill?

How does Twitter use my phone number?

What are the Twitter phone numbers?

What is a short code?

What is Twitter's international number?

How do I add my phone to Twitter?

How do I add my international number?

Can I use the same phone number on multiple accounts?

If I change my phone number, can I change it on Twitter?

How long can my updates be?

How do I send direct messages from my phone?

Can I update Twitter from my phone but not receive other people's updates?

Can I turn updates on for some people and off for others?

How do I turn a specific person's updates on or off from my phone?

How do I know if my friends are getting my updates on their phones?

How do I turn ALL twitter messages off or on from my phone?

Is there a setting for receiving only @replies on my phone?

Nope. But if we get enough feature requests, we may just add it for you. Send us one!

Is there a setting for receiving only direct messages on my phone?

If I turn Twitter off, will I still get Direct Messages?

What's a Nudge?

Can I favorite updates from my phone?

I'm getting a lot of updates. How can I get fewer?

The Essential Twitter Tools

Based on jowyang’ My Essential Twitter Tools. What are your essential Twitter Tools?

Do you use a Twitter Client.I mainly use the browser to see what’s going .Is Twhirl the most popular client?

For Search I use Summize

For Conversations: I also use Quotably

For Aggregation: I also use Friendfeed

For Tagging Content: I use the hashag “#” to add metadata around any tweet, this becomes more important as we rate and tag content. Here’s a helpful primer.

For Location Based:I use Twitterlocal filter finds tweets based upon a users profile location. If you’ve a local business, this could become useful. For Alerts: I also use Google Alerts

What Twitter tools do you use?

About this blog

About this blog

For Location Based:I use Twitterlocal filter finds tweets based upon a users profile location. If you’ve a local business, this could become useful.

For Alerts: I also use Google Alerts