TechAddress

Twingr: Create Your Own Twitter

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:30:43 +0000

There are a number of microblogging engines in existence today that work the build-your-own angle of the market. The corporate and closed Yammer and the open source Laconi.ca are two such enablers.

Well, today one more joins the fold. Its name is Twingr. It comes by way of Miami and the Startups.com network and its aim is to give anyone the ability to create free custom Twitter-like forums without having to do much legwork.

Easy to Use

Suffice it to say that the promise of an easy-to-use system is realized at Twingr quite strongly:

- It sports a simple layout that anyone familiar with the 140-character messaging architecture will recognize and immediately warm up to.

- Its community-building component allows you to tap into your Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo accounts to send invites to contacts you know. You have the option to manually send messages to email addresses without having to log into one of the above mentioned services if you prefer to avoid that method.

- The settings menu provides users with switches to fine tune member-to-member messaging access. By default, the main options are as open as possible, except for follower request approvals.

Insofar as microblogging goes, there is little or nothing about Twingr that won’t appeal to registrants. Save for select circumstances for users of WordPress and 37signals webware, who have things like Prologue and Newsroom to interact with relatively small groups of people, a community on Twingr to complement your website or fanclub or whathaveyou can be the very style of forum you’re looking for. Startups.com Marketing VP Pepe Amorin says that the plan for the new venture is really to “let the flower blossom.”

And it’s free…

Again, there’s no cost of admission, at least not yet. It’s in public alpha mode for the time being. Yet even at launch stage it looks like it’s off to a good start. If I am to compare it to alternatives in the field, it has more in common with Yammer than Laconi.ca. But the fact that that it is free of cost regardless of engagement will have the attention of microblog fans who wish to limit the public thread to personal invitees only.

A few final words to cap our review: Pardon the electropop in the demo video below. Yes, it’s just as informative to watch when muted.

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Twitter: One Billion Tweets. Wow.

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:32:01 +0000

Source:Mashable!

MySpace has launched an internally developed application called Primetime that is essentially a custom media player providing access to all of Hulu’s video content. The app allows you to embed the player on your personal homepage and profile, and lets you to search Hulu and watch video from within the player.

MySpace previously allowed users to watch some of this content – like Saturday Night Live and 24 – via a special page on the site, but now, users can simply watch whatever they want from their homepage or profile (where there friends can also watch and in turn add the app). Like Hulu, videos will include various forms of advertising like pre and post-roll commercials.

While it’s not surprising that MySpace is moving to make better use of Hulu content – it is after all a joint venture between parent company News Corp and NBC Universal – it does represent a massive opportunity to expand Hulu’s distribution. MySpace is still the world’s second largest social networking site, reaching more than 100 million unique visitors per month.

And while Hulu has shown impressive growth in its first year, many of those 100 million MySpace visitors probably haven’t checked it out yet - that all changes with the Primetime app. Smart move by News Corp to better integrate these two properties.

Source:Mashable!

Popacular, a site that measures popularity of websites according to the number of related tweets, has a huge counter that counts the overall number of tweets. I don’t know how accurate this thing can be, given that it’s third party, but if it is, then we’ve recently surpassed the billionth tweet mark.

This is just another sign of how big Twitter has become. For comparison, Facebook recently announced they host 10 billion photos in their database; however, Facebook is huge and has been around much longer than Twitter. If anyone ever needed a clear sign that Twitter has gone mainstream - however you define it - this milestone is it.

Also, seeing that counter spin amazingly fast makes us sorry for all those times we’ve made fun of Twitter’s engineers for not being able to keep the site up during a traffic rush. Sorry, guys, we understand now.

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HOW TO: Build Community on Twitter

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:33:16 +0000

Source:Mashable!

I’ve often asked myself, “how do enough people possibly click on this awful piece of spam to make it profitable?” Apparently, “enough people” is an incredibly small number. According to a new study, only 1 in 12.5 million pieces of spam draws a response, but that alone is enough for a spam network called Storm to generate more than $2 million in annual revenue.

To come up with those numbers, a team from several institutions in the University of California system hijacked Storm and setup fake spam campaigns to measure the response rate. According to the BBC, they took control of more than 75,000 machines, and then extrapolated out the data to the full size of Storm’s network to arrive at the final numbers. In case you’re counting, 1 in 12.5 million in a response rate of 0.000001%.

So how is that possibly profitable? Since the spammers behind Storm don’t actually send the malicious email from their own servers and instead use a vast network of distributed PCs that they’ve infected, the costs are basically nil. And the end products that they are selling – usually prescription drugs – pay huge referral fees.

Essentially, this study means that spam isn’t going away any time soon, despite the seemingly horrid numbers behind it. It’s also one of the more recession proof online businesses you can find – people need their V1AGR@ no matter how dire the economic conditions.

Image courtesy of iStockPhoto, fpm

Source:Mashable!

Sarah Evans is the director of communications at Elgin Community College (ECC) in Elgin, Illinois. She also authors a PR and social media blog.

Your Twitter community is your life line. The strength of your community determines overall what you will (or won’t) get out of the microblogging platform. What do you want to use Twitter for? I wanted to build a community where I could engage in dialogue, stay ahead of the social media curve and share some laughs.

I just shared my objective with you. What’s yours? Start with your community objective and then go for it. Use the 10 tips below as your guide to grow the community which benefits you (and your audience).

Do… Create a user-friendly Twitter ID (@yourname)

Your Twitter ID is part of your personal brand. Plain and simple. Your first choice for a Twitter ID should be your name. There is nothing stronger for creating your personal brand. If your name is taken (as mine was) find a way to keep it as close as possible. (I added “PR” in front of my name, which worked for me as it reinforced my name and my expertise.)

There are only 140 precious characters available in each Twitter post.The longer your Twitter ID, the more space it takes up, thus limiting your interactions. If at all possible, stay away from numbers or an underscore. As your community grows, you’ll have many names and IDs to remember. Throwing in numbers and underscores makes it more difficult. This could ultimately minimize your interactions.

Are you reading this and thinking you should get a new username or a stronger personal brand? It’s actually pretty easy.

Do… Search for people to follow

It’s completely normal in Twitter culture to “follow” people you’ve never met. In fact, it’s encouraged. Begin by looking for people with common interests, hobbies or professions. I also like to follow people who are experts in areas I know nothing about.

A few tools to get you started:

• Twitter search - This is the only search function actually hosted by Twitter. It’s extremely easy to use and offers comprehensive results.

• Twellow - An application similar to Twitter search except that you can search by categories (which makes results more targeted).

• TwitDir - I like TwitDir because it offers a search function and breaks Twitter users into categories like the top 100 people followed and top 100 updaters.

Do… Learn the lingo. You’ll want to join the crowd. Trust me.

As with any new network there is a learning curve. Twitter has a quirky lingo all its own. But don’t let that hold you back from interacting. If you don’t understand something, ask someone. That’s how I learned!

A few of the essentials:

• DM = Direct Message

• @ = Use to reply and always include proceeding a Twitter ID in a reply

• RT = Retweet

• Tweet = Sending a message on Twitter

• Tw + any other word. A fun practice on Twitter is to develop a new twist on old words. For example, Tworld = Twitter world, and Tweeples = Those who use Twitter. You get the picture.

It’s an evolving list. Who knows, you might even invent the next “tword.” You can also check out basic Twitter commands.

Do… Know who “@” replies to you

It may not seem overwhelming at first, but soon after you gain friends on Twitter, conversations tend to move quickly. How will you keep up with it? My personal favorite is Tweetdeck (however it can slow down the functionality of your PC), I recommend a combination of the following:

• Twitter search - If you use Twitter search, also subscribe to the RSS feed. I set up two searches, one with the “@” in front of my Twitter ID and one without. You will get different results for each query.

• Tweetscan - I use Tweetscan as my quality check to see if I’ve missed any replies. You can also see a trends search cloud before you type in your search query.

• Google Alerts - Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (Web, news, blogs, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Do… Add your Twitter ID to all of your signatures

Pimp out your Twitter name (and not just on Twitter). As social networks like Twitter begin to go main stream, you’ll want to be able to connect with new users.

A few opportunities to pimp out your Twitter ID:

• Add under your name when you comment on a blog

• If you friend someone on another social network, add a personal message which includes your ID

• Include a “follow me on Twitter” signature on all of your email accounts or for your social media email signature

Do… Reach out and say something

No one likes what I call a “virtual voyeur” (i.e. someone who watches social media interactions without responding). Everyone is putting him or herself out there and as far as my experience has shown, people are pretty darn accepting and helpful. Something as simple as a “good morning” often leads to a response. If that doesn’t work, try something a little more aggressive like, “someone say hello!”

Do… Read the bio of those who follow you

Know something about those who follow you. The information you get from a bio makes it easy to engage in dialogue. If someone lists knitting as a hobby, send them a link to a knitting blog you came across. It opens the door for dialogue and that is what your community is all about.

Do… Promote others and share your best information

Twitter is all about karma. The more good you put out there the more you receive. When you find others with great information, don’t be shy in sharing with your community. It’s a great feeling when you promote one of your followers (instead of yourself) and it results in dialogue among your community. It ultimately reflects support for you and credibility for your follower. Win-win!

Do… Learn the etiquette.

Most important is to learn about when you should “@” versus DM (i.e. direct message):

• Sending personal information like a phone number or email address. (It may seem like common sense, but I encourage you to NEVER post personal information like your social security number over ANY public forum.)

• A conversation which will consist of multiple “tweets” or a lengthy discussion with more than three posts. (Many people on Twitter will “unfollow” someone who sends multiple “tweets” in a row. Trust me.)

• Asking multiple questions to the same person or the same question asked to multiple people. (Your content becomes less valuable when people see the same thing repeated too many times…especially right in a row.)

• Correcting a mistake you’ve identified in someone’s blog post or “tweet.” (This isn’t required, but it is considered a common courtesy. The person who made the mistake will thank you.)

• Thanking each of your new followers. (It’s a nice concept to thank each of your new social media connections, but keep in mind how many responses you’re sending out each day or within a 10 minute period.)

• Making a request to someone. (Want to ask someone to write a guest blog post or partner on a project? Don’t put them on the spot in a public forum. Once you agree on a partnership, then by all means, tweet away!)

• Constructive criticism…this is your call. (If you have some pretty serious feedback to give someone, consider the most appropriate venue.)

• Getting someone’s attention! (Want to make a connection with someone, send them a direct message to get things started. A lot of people on Twitter get direct messages sent to their email or mobile phone.)

Do… Find out who some of the big players are

Twitter is not a popularity contest and it’s your choice on whether or not to follow these “top tweeps,” but they do tend to share a lot of great information. Did you know Pete Cashmore and other Mashable “tweeps” are on Twitter?

Stay tuned for a follow-up to this post on what NOT to do.

Sarah writes her own blog PRsarahevans.com and is the director of communications at Elgin Community College (ECC) in Elgin, Illinois. She also worked for Advocate Health Care, the largest health care system in Illinois, as the manager of communications and government relations at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital. She brings a comprehensive background in the knowledge of non-for-profit and health care management. Her personal mission to engage and employ the use of emerging technologies in all communication makes her effective in reaching a dynamic audience.

Image courtesy of iStockPhoto, Sveta

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Meetup Founders Launch Wee Web: Multimedia Microblogging for Babies

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:32:29 +0000

Source:Mashable!

from The New York Times

It seemed like November 4th, 2008 would never get here, but at long last it has. The campaigning is done, the yard signs will start coming down, and we will (hopefully) awake tomorrow to news of who the forty-fourth President of the United States will be. In the meantime, here are eight of the best Election Day photos from around the Web.

Share links to your favorite Election Day photos from around the Web below in the comments.

from UPI

from The Huffington Post

From New York Daily News

from The Associated Press

from Fox News

from USA Today

from Krispy Kreme

Source:Mashable!

Wee Web is a new startup entering the increasingly competitive market of social networking for babies. Of course, it isn’t the babies that actually do the networking, but rather their parents, who are eager to share the latest developments in their newborn’s life, along with pictures and videos.

And by adapting some of the microblogging principles of Twitter, multimedia updating, and a strong pedigree (the company is co-founded by Matt Meeker and Peter Kamali who previously started Meetup), the site has a chance to succeed in this crowded space.

Like Twitter, Wee Web offers a timeline view of your updates, though it prompts you with a variety of random questions, such as “What makes your baby giggle?” or “How much does your kid weigh now?” These updates are limited to 140 characters, but alternatively you can enter in a long-form story, more like a traditional baby blog. The site also has its own simple photo uploader, as well as an option to embed videos of your kid.

As for sharing the content on Wee Web, it’s all invite-only. You specify who you want to have access to your kid’s pages, and when those users sign up and login, they can see the updates either on their homepage or on their “Friend’s Kids” page (akin to the “my timeline” or “friend’s timeline” views on Twitter). Friends are then able to leave comments on any of the individual updates. Those friends can also specify how often they want to receive updates via email – as they happen, sometimes, or never (ouch).

There are a lot of sites that do similar – like Totspot, Kidmondo, and LilGram’s – just to name a few (see also: 35+ Sites for Web Savvy Families). However, where Wee Web stands out is simplicity, and as a passive user who is currently just reading email after email about other people’s kids as opposed to producing my own babies content, the non-intrusive update style that Wee Web offers is a big plus. It’s sort of like Cliffs Notes for keeping up with your friend’s kids – assuming they start using it.

Let’s not forget that Meetup also took an incredibly simple concept – organizing gatherings for people with similar interests – and turned it into one of the most popular real-world social networking sites on the Web. With the same founding team at the helm of Wee Web, it certainly has a chance to make a splash in the baby networking niche.

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Thummit Offers Microreviews for Restaurants (Invites)

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:30:39 +0000

Source:Mashable!

When someone asks you “how was it?” in relation to a new restaurant, do you typically go on for a few minutes about everything from the wait staff to the décor, or are you more likely to offer a “it was pretty good, I’d go there again!”? If you’re more like the latter, you might enjoy Thummit, a new restaurant review site that asks you to review eateries in 140 characters or less.

Much like Twitter, Thummit revolves around a simple question: “eat anywhere good (or bad) lately?” You can then simply offer a thumbs up, down, or neutral, and if you’d like, add a comment to give some context to your rating. Since Thummit realizes there is already a lot of competition in this space – including Twitter itself – they are offering a few different ways to update.

In fact, you can sync your Twitter account with the review site, and any time you send a tweet to “@thummit” it will be appended to your list of reviews. There is also the option to update via SMS, so you can let the world know as soon as you find either the perfect cheeseburger or a rotten Cobb salad.

Thummit has seeded the site with a large database of restaurants and smartly uses predictive text in its search forms to keep everything in sync. They’ve also gone out and captured snippets of reviews from around 40 different sites, and used semantic analysis to determine if those reviews were positive or negative. To some extent, this should solve the problem that most new review sites encounter – the need for a large base of users to become useful.

That said, Thummit is eyeing many of the same social features you’d expect to find on any microblogging tool. Your homepage features an activity stream of the latest reviews and new connections made by friends, and there is also a polling features, so you can ask your network specifically for recommendations if you’re looking to plan a specific dining adventure. These features will obviously be more useful as your network joins Thummit, though the company is looking at utilizing Facebook Connect so you don’t need to recreate your network.

As Thummit grows, expect to see more than just restaurant reviews. Travel is a logical next step for the company, as the company is founded by Sean Greene, who previously sold his startup Away.com to Orbitz. Some of the same investors that backed Away.com are currently angel funding Thummit.

We have 100 invites for Mashable readers to check out the service, which is currently in private beta. Use the code “Mashit2” when signing up if you’d like to try it out.

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Sixteen Great Twitter Moments

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:30:23 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Being a Twitter user (@dspark) for some time now, I like many others have become evangelical about the micro-blogging tool.

I believe what makes Twitter so valuable are these moments of connectivity that simply aren’t possible through any other communications tool. I’ve had these “Twitter moments” and I set out to discover “Twitter moments” from others as well. What all the following stories have in common is a Twitter user had a question or a concern, and someone (or many people) responded. Twitter was the connective tissue that made that moment happen in a time of need.

I’ll begin with a Twitter moment of my own that inspired me to write this article. Read on for fifteen more and make sure you make it to the end. The last one is my favorite.

Save $150 on a computer

While shopping for an HP computer online, I, David Spark found a coupon code that saved me $200. So happy about my last minute savings, I tweeted it. A follower (@drapps) tweeted back offering up a better coupon code that would have saved me $350. I cancelled my original order and ordered the computer again for the additional $150 in savings.

Get a journalist to write about your business when he wants to hear your pitch

Rafe Needleman (@rafe) of CNET tweeted that he would be attending the Web 2.0 Expo in NYC and that he’d be interested in meeting startups. Sachin Agarwal (@sachinag) of Dawdle.com (@dawdledotcom) was listening and approached Needleman based on that tweet. Agarwal got a one hour sit down, and Needleman wrote a great overview of his business.

Get DirecTV to install your satellite in three days instead of three weeks

Three weeks was the earliest Jessica Gottlieb (@JessicaGottlieb) could hope to get her new HD DirecTV dish installed. Her husband was not happy about missing that much of the football season. Hoping for a sooner install time, Jessica called back…four times. No dice. Three weeks was the earliest they could do. Annoyed, Jessica broadcasted her frustration on Twitter and DirecTV (@DirecTV) caught it and responded. Within three days Jessica had a senior supervisor installer in her home installing the dish. While DirecTV didn’t respond to her private call, they did respond to her public tweet.

Pull a PR stunt on a journalist

Marketing rep Ashley Skiles (@ashleyskiles) has been following a medical reporter at the Atlanta Business Chronicle for one of her clients, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a fund dedicated to fighting breast cancer. One night the reporter tweeted there was a run on milkshakes at Chick-fil-a, a popular restaurant chain in the southern U.S. Next morning, Ashley ran to Chick-fil-a, picked up a milkshake for the reporter and left it at his office along with a press release from her client. She didn’t get any press (until now), but she did get the attention of the journalist.

Track a hurricane from the eye of the storm without any power

The night of the Hurricane Ike, Roshelle Gaskins (@Galvestonguru) of Galveston, Texas lost power, cutting her off from both TV and Internet news. That didn’t matter since most of the media was also forced to stay inside due to the 12 foot storm surge. Luckily Roshelle had her BlackBerry, and those Twitterers stuck in the eye of the storm (@Nickcognito, @Leighjones, and @KXAN_News) kept her up to date on the storm’s progress.

Help your family stuck in a tornado 1400 miles away

On May 25th, Britt Reints (@missbritt), a resident of Florida, got a frantic call from a friend in her hometown of Parkersburg, Iowa: “A tornado just hit Parkersburg. Houses are gone. Find your family.” Frantically, she tried to call her parents via landline and cell, but couldn’t get through. The Weather Channel had nothing. Local news sites had yet to be updated. Britt had no idea what was going on, nor did she know where her family was.

Using a Twitter locator site (she doesn’t remember which) Britt searched for users within a certain mile radius of Parkersburg and started following them. Their Tweets informed Britt as to what had happened and where the tornado went. Luckily it bypassed her parents and grandparents. When she finally spoke to her family on the phone they were still in the dark as they had no TV, radio, or Internet access. Britt and her husband made the 24 hour drive to Parkersburg. While on the road she stayed connected to Twitter, and relayed the Tweeted FEMA and Red Cross information to her family via phone.

Raise funds for a trip

Podcaster Tabitha Grace Smith (@tabz) wanted one of her UK-based writers of her radio drama to come to the U.S. to attend the science fiction and fantasy conference, DragonCon. Unfortunately, her UK-based writer had no money to come. Tabitha reached out to her listeners via Twitter and asked if they’d be willing to take up a collection. Quickly, six listeners coughed up a total of $600 using ChipIn and brought Tabitha’s writer to the States and the conference.

Convert subscribers through Twitter, not email newsletters

Paulette Ensign (@pauletteensign) had two slots left to fill for Circle of Experts, a booklet providing tips to women moving on after a divorce. Looking to quickly fill those last two slots, she sent out a tweet. Within minutes an expert responded, signed up, and provided his contribution to the booklet. That same expert is also a subscriber to her monthly ezine which always has information about the Circle of Experts service. While the expert never responded to her newsletter, he did see Paulette’s tweet and responded to that.

Monitor and stop robo calls quickly during the election season

Shaun Dakin (@EndTheRoboCalls) runs the National Political Do Not Contact Registry. While political robo calls to phone numbers on the Federal Do Not Call list are okay, robo calls to phone numbers on California’s Do Not Call List of any sort, even political, are illegal. When Shaun’s organization gets a complaint about a robo call, he quickly scans Twitter to see if anyone else has complained about the same call. If so, he follows up via blog, email, and phone for more details and then contacts the offending campaign directly and asks them to stop.

Shaun used Twitter this week to quickly track down and stop Zane Starkewolf, a Green Republican candidate for CA-1, for his odd and silly pornographic calls slamming his competitor, Mike Thompson. Because of Shaun’s quick action, the story was picked up by multiple news sources (e.g. Wired, Huffington Post, MSNBC, and CBS).

Save 20% on your favorite beauty products

Latoicha Givens (@luxetips) mentioned on Twitter how much she loves Ulta Beauty products. Immediately after her tweet she received an email from Ulta’s assistant merchandising manager thanking her for her good words and gave Latoicha and many of her friends 20 percent off discount coupons.

Uncover the truth about a rumor

John Hawbaker (@jehawbaker) runs Chattarati (@chattarati), a Chattanooga-centric local news blog. After hurricane Ike, rumors started spreading that gas was going to jump up to $5 per gallon the next day. In hours, people reacted with fear and gas stations were clogged with long lines. John reached out to his Twitter community to uncover the origin of the rumor, and discovered it came from two misinformed local radio stations. Quickly he posted the facts on his blog and stopped the panic.

Find cowboy boots in Canada

For business and formal wear, cowboy boots are Dan York’s (@danyork) trademark. Unfortunately he left them at home on a business trip up to Ottawa, Canada. He could have called around to find a place, but the battery on his BlackBerry was almost drained. With what battery power he had left, he sent a tweet asking where in Ottawa he could go for cowboy boots. Dan turned off his phone and then checked back in 15 minute intervals. He got responses and advice from followers in Germany, New Jersey, Vermont, and Alberta, Canada. Collectively, they steered him to a pair of boots from Boulet that he still has today and loves.

911 is a joke. Twitter isn’t

Andrew Warner (@andrewwarner) was stuck late at night with his bicycle on the side of the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) in Los Angeles. Andrew called a cab and 911 and neither would pick him up. Alone, he Twittered his dilemma and a Twitter friend (@KenFeldman) offered to pick him up. Others not in the neighborhood kept him company by Tweeting. While he wanted to take Ken up on his offer, Andrew’s girlfriend eventually was able to pick him up.

Get free tickets to Cirque du Soleil

While at Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas, blogger Dave Taylor (@DaveTaylor) twittered that he was interested in going to a Cirque du Soleil show. In minutes a private tweet from Cirque marketing came in asking him which show he wanted to attend. “The Beatles: LOVE, Saturday evening” was his response. The marketing agent comp’ed him two VIP tickets to the show. When he returned home, he wrote a review of the show on his blog, and the marketing rep shared the story with the entire Cirque team.

Conduct focus group research with instant results and at no cost

With close to 3,000 followers, Jason Falls (@JasonFalls) uses his base as a personalized focus group. He works as a social media director for Doe-Anderson, a branding agency in Louisville, KY. Jason is always testing the waters for new opportunities. To see how people felt about advertising on Twitter, Jason announced that he was going to sell his 2,000th tweet for $5. Responsive to the opportunity, his followers debated the issue, Jason collected his research, and Michael Schnuerle (@metromapper) purchased Jason’s 2,000th tweet.

Suss out someone’s dating potential

Andrea (real name and Twitter ID withheld) went out on a first date with a guy. The date went well, and they talked about going out again. During the evening Andrea’s date mentioned he was on Twitter, as is Andrea. The next day Andrea looked the guy up on Twitter to send him a message that she had fun last night. But before she did, she discovered her date was Twittering nasty things about her every time she went to the bar or the bathroom. Ouch. And yes, Andrea didn’t go out with him again.

Have a Twitter moment of your own? Let us know. And for those of you who have friends you’ve been trying to get on Twitter, and they still don’t get it, please just send them this post.

David Spark (@dspark) is a veteran tech journalist and the founder of Spark Media Solutions, a storytelling production company. Read more of Spark at his blog Spark Minute or listen and subscribe to his “Be the Voice” blog and podcast.

Imagery provided by iStock/adamKaz

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This Could Get Annoying: Auto-Post Your Friendfeed Updates to Twitter

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:39:23 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Friendfeed has just enabled an option to broadcast your lifestream – in its entirety – to Twitter. This means that whenever you share something in Google Reader, upload a new photo to Flickr, favorite a video on YouTube, or participate in any of the dozens of other activity streams that FriendFeed monitors, it can automatically be tweeted as well. The tweet includes content from the message, and a link using what appears to by FriendFeed’s own URL shortener – ff.im.

It’s not hard to see how this could end up becoming incredibly annoying on Twitter and add to its already significant noise problems. While Friendfeed’s new feature lets you decide which services to sync with Twitter, many users are involved in hundreds of activities a day on the service. Having those all duplicated on Twitter seems like tremendous overkill. Nonetheless, I’m sure many power users will quickly move to double their exposure.

That said, you can always unfollow those that become too noisey. But, that seems so hasty, when all you really want to do is have a conversation. In short, this sounds great for attention hungry Friendfeed users, but, not so great for the quality of discussion on Twitter.

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