Crenk » twitter

Top 5 New Twitter Tools For Your Blog or Website

Steven Finch — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:38:20 +0000

TweetSuite – A Twitter-WordPress integration plugin that includes server-side TweetBacks, ReTweet-This buttons, digg-like Tweet-This Button, automatic tweeting of new posts and some widgets.

Twitter Feed – Posts your blog updates to your twitter account. Login to twitterfeed using your OpenID, provide the URL for your blog RSS feed, and how often to post to Twitter.

TweetMeme button – Aasily allows your blog posts to be retweeted.

Twitter Tools – This wordpress plugin creates an integration between your WordPress blog and your Twitter account. Pull your tweets into your blog and create new tweets on blog posts and from within WordPress.

DiggDigg- An awesome tool that displays social buttons on your website/blog.

Burnt Wood: Free Social Media Icon Set

Steven Finch — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:59:12 +0000

Burnt Wood is a collection of wood-tiled icons branded with various social media network logos that are perfect for your next grunge-styled web design.

The package contains 12 icons for many of the popular social sharing sites. Each icon is a 420×420px PNG file that can be scaled down to any size needed.

This set was designed by Chris Thurman of Visual Swirl exclusively for the readers of Six Revisions. It was inspired by a burnt wood text effect tutorial and created entirely in Photoshop.

Download the Icons here.

Stock Tweet App Tracks Twitter Stock Discussions Easily

Steven Finch — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:30:33 +0000

Stock traders are among the many groups of people who have taken up Twitter as a way to discuss their interests. They’ve even developed their own shorthand; a stock symbol is typically prefaced with a dollar sign, such as $MSFT, and tweets that discuss stocks often end with two dollar signs.

Stock Tweet App has taken these conventions and used them to build a custom interface for viewing Twitter with a scrolling live stream of all stock-related tweets. Alternatively, you can use the Custom Stock List option to type in the symbol for a few stocks you’re interested in tracking, and only tweets concerning those stocks will be shown.

Top 100 Engineers on Twitter

Steven Finch — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:25:12 +0000

We received a great tip this morning about a list of the Top 100 Engineers on Twitter. Nearly everyone knows what Twitter is these days, but its so hard to find quality people to follow. Here is the top 8 Engineers to follow on Twitter. For the full 100 list you can check it out here.

Top Engineers on Twitter

The below feeds are solely or mostly dedicated to the profession of engineering.

Kevin Mastaw

Mustafa Yusuf

3. Tyrone Taborn : Also known as the Black Engineer, he is the Chairman and CEO of Career Communications Group. Engineers, along with those looking to bring diversity to the field, will enjoy this Twitter feed.

4. Angela Melick : If you are an engineer who feels they are wasting their talent, visit here for someone who feels just like you. Angela is both a mechanical engineer in the sustainability sector and author of a webcomic entitled “Wasted Talent.”

5. David Rush : Visit here for the Twitter feed of an engineer with an ecologic frame of mind. David is a civil/environmental engineer who promotes sustainability and the reduction of man’s impact.

6. Manny Jimenez : This engineer is actually in recording and mixing. He is also a computer nerd and not shy about it.

7. Matthew Anderson : He is a civil engineer from the suburbs of Chicago. His other interests include AutoCAD, hydraulics, and being a father of five.

8. Chris Gammell : Chris is an electrical engineer who uses Twitter to blog about analog electronics and renewable energy. Check out interesting engineering tweets, along with daily life.

Retweet Has Been Sold for Buy It Now Price of $250,000: Quite Cheap

Steven Finch — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:58:46 +0000

Yesterday Retweet.com found a buyer for their site at a “buy it now” price of $250,000. Retweet is just a Tweetmeme clone, but still surprisingly has some great pageview numbers, 26 million pageviews last month to be exact.

After looking at these numbers I really think the “buy it now” price of $250,000 was quite cheap and if I had that kind of money spare Im sure I would have purchased Retweet. Retweet is of course a great domain with a site that is performing ok, but it still lacks a real identity or brand (but this could be easily changed). Mainly, the based upon the pageviews of 26 million it would only take approximately 10 months for the new owner to get their money back based upon a $1.00 CPM which is very achievable.

Tumblr Is Growing Fast: Perfect Tool for Quick Blogging

Steven Finch — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:23:42 +0000

Tumblr is a very simple blogging platform in which users can make a blog in minutes. Tumblr is the perfect tool for users who want to have a blog with photos, videos, and other content embedded, but simply hasn’t got the time or the will to struggle with a complex blogging platform.

How is this working out for them? Well, according to the neat infographic which they’ve sent us (see below), their traffic and user base is growing fast, and they’ve recently hit some major milestones.

Crenk Passes 2,000 Twitter Followers

Steven Finch — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:26:26 +0000

Crenk has just passed the 2000 mark for Twitter followers. Our follower numbers have been slowly increasing since the start, but we have really been growing great guns in the past few weeks. I cant believe we actually made 2000 followers, well come to think of it I’m still surprised people actually like our site. Anyways thanks for following @crenk, if you aren’t already following us why not?

How Do I Edit a Twitter List?

Steven Finch — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:48:48 +0000

If you’re used to working with Twitter through third party apps, it can indeed be a bit puzzling to figure out how to work with the list feature: if they’re supported at all in your favorite Twitter app, it’s unlikely they’ll have an ‘edit’ option.

By contrast, if you pop over to the Twitter site you’ll find that they keep tweaking and adding features and capabilities to make it more and more useful from within your Web browser. Now, having said that, I use a third-party app too, but as I’m suggesting, to edit Twitter lists, I pop back to the mothership.

Pop over to the site, log in, then look on the right:
If you move the cursor over a list name, you’ll see a subtle little triangle next to that particular list name. You’ll need to click on it to get the option of editing your list. I’ll do so for “Coloradoans” and here’s what I see at the top:
Note that if you click the list name, you won’t get to the same place, which is a bit weird, but now you know!
Click on “Edit” and you’ll see a window pop up with a bunch of interesting options:
From here you can see how to change the name, make the list private, etc. To edit list members, however, it’s a bit more confusing because you need to click on “Following”:
Once you’re there, you can see each member of the list:
See the first of those two little boxes to the right of Chris’ entry? Click on it and you’ll see a list of all your lists pop up, indicating on which this particular person is included:
Click on the check box next to the list name and that Twitter user is either a member of the list (if you didn’t have them checked before) or is now not a member of the list (if they were already checked in).
So now you know, I hope this will help you manage your own Twitter lists!

Twitter and Yahoo Team Up for Real Time Tweets in Search Results

Dean Sherwin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:12:51 +0000

Twitter is steadily climbing to reach the 50 million tweets per day mark. This huge social network now represents a large proportion of the information shared on the web. More and more people are discovering breaking news through its trending topics (millions found out about the Haitian earthquake via Twitter).

Now Yahoo! have just signed a deal to be put on what Twitter calls it’s Firehose. This means Tweets will now be continually indexed by Yahoo!.

“Similar to the partnerships we have made with other large internet companies, Yahoo! will receive what has been dubbed “Firehose”—a full feed of public tweets sent to Twitter and our partners every second of every day from all around the world.”

Through this arrangement, you’ll be able to find tweets through Yahoo! Search amongst other Yahoo! services Mail and Sport. It is also said that Yahoo! will be building unique Twitter clients to enable people to tweet from inside the Yahoo! network.

Twitter hit the nail on the head when they discussed how Tweets are vital to the social news scene and their inclusion in other big Internet services is vital:

“Tweets may be short, but they have proven over and over again to contain valuable information. As the Twitter information network grows and expands, it becomes more valuable for everyone who participates. Our open approach helps us get closer to providing universal connectivity to a global network of immediate information.”

Google Attacks Definitely From China

Dean Sherwin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:10:08 +0000

Two universities, funded by the Chinese military to train computer scientists for use in their forces, have had their computers used on the recent cyber attacks on major companies such as Google. This news comes as Google contemplates its withdrawal from China following disagreement with the Chinese government over censorship.

Interestingly enough, the universities are also part of a network which is operated by Baidu who stands to gain millions of users upon Google’s departure.

The Chinese government has denied any involvement of sanctioning of these cyber attacks upon US-based web companies and stressed it has been the victim of many cyber attacks itself.

“Computers at Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Lanxiang Vocational School in China reportedly played a role in the attacks, according to unnamed sources cited in The New York Times.” reported Information Week.

Cyber attacks are on the increase and are frequently becoming a method for governments to send diplomatic messages to one another. When the US asked Twitter to keep the service up (as apposed to taking it down temporarily for maintenance) during the Iran elections, it became clear that social networks and internet giants are the key targets in all of this. But how long will it be until utility companies and government databases are targeted on a big scale?

NBC Help Us Track the Winter Olympics

Dean Sherwin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:46:35 +0000

The Winter Olympics are well under way now in Vancouver but many of us are having trouble keeping track of both the results and the public reactions to the highs and lows of the games. Well Twitter have announced on their blog that NBC have launched their Olympic Twitter Tracker which allows you to see what’s happening in the games.

“I (@ChloeS) collaborate with our media partners, and have enjoyed watching them weave together new ways of experiencing these events that are even more engaging and interactive.”

This is definitely one of the best ways to follow the games if you can’t get to a television. A lot of us are stuck in school or work, so by just checking your Twitter account you can see what’s going on. The size of the pictures seen in the screenshot above, indicates how much a particular Olympic trend is being tweeted about. There is also a timeline along the top and different sections for different emotions such as those for fans rejoicing and those consolidating each other. Results are also updated regularly.

You can check out a video of the service in action here.

Is Foursquare the Perfect Crime?

Luis Sandoval — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:15:26 +0000

Most recently a site popped up that has Foursquare users questioning whether their use of the application is putting themselves and their home in jeopardy. Those unfamiliar with Foursquare, it’s a geo-locating application that pinpoints your location and notifies the Foursquare community and your social networks where you are. For example if you’re at the local grocery store, you can Foursquare it, users earn points that translate into badges depending on how often and where you check-in, and ultimately people are able to see the types of places you like to visit. On the other hand, it’s made cyber stalking that much easier.

A recent site called PleaseRobMe.com has highlighted the risk of sharing your locations for the most paranoid of the bunch. It stands to reason that anyone can know anything about you if they really wanted to, with or without Foursquare. Though the site appears to be a joke, the seriousness in which someone’s property could truly be in jeopardy is something that is not easily overlooked.

Illegal? Does this site incite people to do harm to another? Some say that if you choose to share your location you deserve what happens, but that seems a very narrow minded point of view.

So tell me, where do you stand? Do you use geo-locating services? Do sites like PleaseRobMe.com exist as a wake up call or as a way to incite theft?

Twitter Will Soon Be Using Bittorrent Technology for Servers

TorrentFreak — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:06:06 +0000

Large scale web-services such as Twitter need thousands of servers to manage the flow of updates that are sent out by their millions of users. As a result, keeping all these servers updated with the latest data can be time and resource intensive.

To improve the deployment of files across their servers, Twitter is calling in the help of BitTorrent. With BitTorrent, Twitter is planning to distribute files faster and more efficiently, saving time and precious resources and improving the scalability of Twitter’s operation.

Twitter’s new project, codenamed ‘Murder’, will not use the bandwidth of Twitter users. Instead, it will transform the site’s servers into a large BitTorrent swarm that will distribute file updates using BitTorrent technology.

The setup is pretty straightforward. Murder uses a ’seeder’ server where the new files will be distributed to thousands of ‘peer’ servers.

Because all servers assist in the deployment of the files, it will only take a fraction of the time it would otherwise take when files are distributed from a central server. This server-to-server BitTorrent technology also explains the name ‘Murder’ which is used to describe a flock of crows.

The Murder project is developed by Twitter’s Larry Gadea and built based on the BitTornado BitTorrent client, which was the first client to implement web-seeding. The code is open to the public and licensed under the free software Apache License.

Eric Klinker, CEO of BitTorrent Inc. is excited about Twitter’s adoption of BitTorrent. “We are thrilled to collaborate with them on this and hope that more Web Monsters out there look to this and other applications of BitTorrent in solving some of the hard problems of the Internet,” he said.

“The distributed nature of BitTorrent means an operation that once took many dozens of minutes, now happens in less than a dozen seconds. These efficiencies will reduce maintenance windows, site downtime and exposure to security vulnerabilities,” Klinker added. Although Klinker speaks about “collaboration” with Twitter it is not clear what role BitTorrent Inc. will play in the Murder project.

At this point it is still unclear when Murder will be implemented or released to the public but Twitter is expected to release more details on the upcoming project in the weeks to come.

Twitter Introduces Hovercards to Make Twitter More Social

Dean Sherwin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:23:16 +0000

Over the past few months Twitter has made several changes such as the introduction of Lists which means that we see tweets from people we don’t directly follow. This annoyed me for quite some time as I was never really bothered to see who the person was, but still had them congesting my Twitter page. Now, Twitter aims to solve that problem by introducing ‘Hovercards’.

This means, that when you hover your cursor over someone username or avatar, information will be displayed about them as well as other options such as Reply, DM or Retweet. All of which don’t load another page, it’s done there and then.

“On any timeline, as its namesake suggests, Hovercards are cards which appear when you hover over a username or avatar. The cards display additional information about the person and allow you to interact with them while staying within the context of your page.” say Twitter on their blog. ”

“One way we’ve found these cards to be useful is to find out more about retweeted people and follow them right there. You can also see more information with an expanded view of the card. Sending direct messages to people you follow will also be possible with Hovercards so you can interact with tweeters without having to move off the page.”

This feature is currently in the process of being rolled out so we won’t all have it right away. However, within the coming days and weeks it will be the standard for all Twitter users.

Google Launch Google Buzz: But Its a Bit of a Buzz Kill

Steven Finch — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:38:41 +0000

Google announced Google Buzz today — the search engine’s answer to Twitter and Facebook.

We weren’t impressed. Reasons:

The product idea itself isnt new. Lots of other sites already do this!
400 million people are already happily using Facebook. Why switch?
The people who are our Gmail contacts are not the same people we’re friends with on Facebook.
We hate the name, a ripoff from Yahoo.

Others talking about Buzz: The Next Web, Daily Tech, Mashable, Venturebeat, Seeking Alpha, Technologizer, Lifehacker and more.

Captain Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart) on Why Twitter Isn’t For Him.

Steven Finch — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:57:39 +0000

Twitter De-stablizing Celebrity Presence

Luis Sandoval — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:15:56 +0000

For those of us who are heavy Twitter users, we can remember the day when we signed up for an account and were offered suggestions of people to follow. Typically that list featured heavy hitter news agencies, a number of celebrities of varying backgrounds, and perhaps some large tech companies or sites. Chances are a few of these interested us, but for the vast majority it meant very little. Online networking has transcended more into a place for relevant conversation with people we feel we have common bonds with, rather than just a chat forum of open ended conversations. While others may comment in the public stream or friends us based on who we have friended, more of us are looking for real conversations as opposed to connecting with the likes of Ashton Kutcher who more than likely does not respond to his 1 million plus fans.

How do you follow people on Twitter?

So you can imagine it was interesting when I read an article on CNN from founder of Mashable, Pete Cashmore, on this very topic. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Pete at a variety of tech events, and a celebrity in his own right, is naturally a down to earth guy. Nevertheless, the article he wrote discusses how Twitter has altered the focus on specific celebrities and news agencies in their suggestion methods and now offers up categorized lists based on general interests.

Does this work any better?

Pete Cashmore seems to think it’s a step in the right direction. I’m inclined to agree, but I still feel like the suggestions are not people I would communicate with on a regular basis. More than likely I’m going to seek out local thought leaders and conversation instigators. Why should third party developers be the ones I turn to for niche suggestions, I think Twitter could be of great service if they did that from the start. Many new Twitter users are not typically well versed in the world of social networking, so third party developers are foreign to them. They make not seek out the latest Twi-(put your own ending, everyone else is) that can help them find specific people. Their only base of reference will be the suggestion lists.

So yes it’s a good first step, but perhaps more can be done. Pete Cashmore states that celebrities might see their follower numbers start to slow down due to this categorizing done by Twitter, and perhaps they will. Ultimately if people want to follow celebrities they will seek them out anyways. Personally, as much as I love celebrities, I’m looking to connect with real people that I can carry real conversations with.

What are your thoughts?

Share Your Body’s Information with Social Networking Body Scale

Luis Sandoval — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:46:21 +0000

You read that correctly. Now you can share your weight with the world. Think that’s odd? Well so did I when I first read about it. It was brought to my attention on the podcast TWiT, where the host Leo Laporte was discussing how social the scale really is. His passion and love for it didn’t

Send your body's information to Google Health and Twitter.

persuade me to want it until I started seeing the implications of accountability, and now my interest is piqued.

The Withings WiFi Body Scale is the first of its kind, as far as I know, but allowing users to not just take their daily body measurements, but also have that data connect with their Google Health account as well as Tweet messages out to people. It does all in real time with the built in WiFi connection, relieving you of having to write down numbers and manually input them. Now you can avoid the settings all together and not have it post to Google Health or Twitter, but then again, why did you buy it?

If you’re willing to share it with the world, and be accountable for your efforts, then you’re looking at dropping about $159 bones for it. Seems expensive for a body scale, but for some it’s worth it. Many think the medical industry could help as doctors might appreciate having their patients document and track their own health numbers with the ability of their doctor to see the numbers and work with them to achieve their goals. Ultimately though, internet enabled appliances have not taken the world by storm, so only time will tell if this does any better.

Will AT&T’s Buzz Search be a Success?

Dean Sherwin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:39:49 +0000

Back when the internet was gaining huge amounts of users at the turn of the millennium, everything was about the World Wide aspect. But now, it’s worn a little thin. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still useful and connects people and companies all over the planet. But local search is where there are big bucks to be made. Think about it, aren’t you more likely to click on an advertisement when it’s a 20% discount for the Chinese restaurant around the corner, instead of an offer for the Chinese HiPhone?

All the major online services have caught on with Twitter being the latest having launched Local Trends. Now, Buzz.com looks to catch in on the local .com boom. At the minute it’s still in Beta testing. But more and more tech blogs are talking about it.

While Buzz.com will rely heavily on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, At&T have stressed that they have not built a social networking site, although you will be able to share many things with friends and family. By indexing what people are talking about as well as working with companies and advertisers, buzz.com will provide people will accurate search results for things like clubs, restaurants, shops, deals and much more. It’s like social media for local businesses.

I can’t wait until Buzz comes out of private Beta. It sounds like a great service to get the skinny on what’s going on in your locale. If you want to try your luck at getting a private invitation, click here.

Want to know the best places to go or businesses to call? Let buzz.com help you tap your social net for business recommendations from the people you trust most – your friends and family. – Buzz.com

Top Five Astronauts Using Twitter From Space

Dean Sherwin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:40:25 +0000

In May of last year, Twitter history was made when Astro_Mike (or Mike Massimino – an American astronaut) made the first ever tweet from space after the launch of the Atlantis space shuttle. It read “From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!”.

History has once again been made when the first ever tweet from the International Space Station made it onto Twitter a few days ago, made by TJ Creamer.

“Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station — the 1st live tweet from Space! More soon, send your ?s”

This tweeting from space seems to be getting very popular. There are now quite a few astronauts tweeting from space. Some have hundreds of thousands of followers accumulated in just a few days So here are a few of the best ‘out-of-this-world- tweeters at the minute. I’ll add to this list as more space explorers come into the ‘Twitterverse’

@Astro_Tj – TJ Creamer, NASA

@Astro_Soichi – Soichi, CNSA

@Astro_Mike – Mike Massimino, NASA

@Astro_127 – Mark Polansky, NASA

@Astro_Naoko – Naoko Yamazaki, CNSA

Twitter: Local Trends Go Live!

Dean Sherwin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:52:57 +0000

More and more people around the world are signing up to Twitter. The service is constantly updating and releasing new features. ‘Lists’ which launched towards the end of 2009 hasn’t really taken off that much but I think Local Trends might just.

Basically, you have the option to take the current trending topics and make it more localised. So if there’s something happening in America which is of no relevance to your area, it won’t be displayed in your Trending Topics because people from your area won’t be tweeting about it. Obviously, big global events such as the Haiti disaster or G8 meetings will attract attention from all over the world, but localised Trending topics can get quite annoying. Twitter sums it up as follows:

“Twitter trends began as a way to shed light on popular conversations. It’s interesting to know that one topic can now spread across the world in real-time, and Trends help us discover which of those topics are paramount on a global scale.”

“The big events that come up around the world will always become a global conversation, but what about the big events that only happen in your world that only matter to those around you? Or the slight differences in the way Californians perceive an event, like Obama’s election victory, versus those São Paulo, Brazil?” said @jennadawn on the Twitter blog. today.

They also say that the new feature will be monitored and improved through their API and via feedback. Nice to know Twitter cares about small European and Asian countries, as well as the North American market. Also, if you happen to live in a big country such as the US or France, you can localise the feature further by selecting cities instead of countries!

Best Sites To Look For Free and Stunning Twitter Backgrounds

Steven Finch — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:45:58 +0000

Twitter has become one of the worlds largest sites overnight and a lot of people are trying to jump on the bandwagon. Here is a collection of the best free sites that focus on Twitter backgrounds. Im sure that out of this list you will find the right Twitter background for you.

1. Twitter Patterns

2. TwitterBacks

3. TwitBacks

4. Twitter Gallery

5. Tweet Style

6. Twitter Backgrounds From LimeShot Designs

7. My Tweet Space

8. Twitter Image

9. Twitter Backgrounds from Webdistortion

10. Tile Backgrounds from Colorlovers

11. Create your own check tile background for twitter with TartanMaker

12. Some cool tile backgrounds from BGpatterns!

Trendsmap: Real Time Mapping of Twitter Trends Across the World using Google Maps

Steven Finch — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:43:50 +0000

Trendsmap is a real-time mapping of Twitter trends across the world. See what the global, collective mass of humanity are discussing right now.

Trendsmap is built upon the Google Maps API which then allows the user to search the world to see what keywords are trending on Twitter. For example in the picture below a lot of people are talking about the word “tablet” in the UK.

Users can quickly zoom all the way down till they find their town and even find out what other locals are talking about. This website is great to use with an amazing design. Additionally, its very interesting to see what topics are currently trending in what regions.

Im not exactly too sure if Trendsmap will grow to become something everyone uses on a daily basis, but it has a lot of potential and could be integrated nicely with a much broader Twitter service. I love seeing interesting ideas like this become reality.

Manchester United and City Both Ban Players from Using Twitter and Facebook

Steven Finch — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:41:35 +0000

In what must be the biggest social media own goal this year, British football clubs Manchester United and Manchester City have both banned their players from using Twitter.

The Manchester Evening News reports that players were told to stay away from social media services after a number of fake accounts were uncovered recently.

Manchester United issued a statement yesterday confirming that none of its players had accounts, while the club’s rivals Manchester City confirmed to the Manchester Evening News that they had the same policy.

I find this crazy, especially when Manchester United is in so much debt! Social media could be leverage to increase their current revenue streams and even develop new revenue streams such as YouTube channels with more activity, Official twitter account with targeted ads, etc.

@BillGates Finally at Twitter

Augusto Alvarez — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:23:16 +0000

Yeap, former Microsoft’s chairman just opened his Twitter account and already made a few comments. Well, most of them are replies for @aplusk and @ryansearcrest.

And what was the first tweet for @BillGates? “Hello World”

Seems that most of his activity will be related to the Foundation he owns, so we should expect a lot of comments about Haiti and found raising events. All of that sounds great by me.

We can assume also that he will not have the same problem when he joined Facebook, when he needed to close down that account for having an excessive number of friends.

Oh and in case you are having your doubts about if this is the real Bill Gates, the Twitter account is verified.