Archive for: twitter
TwitFlink is a simple but very useful web app created for those who keep losing track for their friends links, shared in Twitter.
This web app is completely free and does not need any registration nor connection with your Twitter account, just enter the Twitter username and you will find the latest links shared by this user.
But here’s even more, TwitFlink also facilitates you the work on finding the exact link you were looking for by adding the “Keyword Filter” possibility. With that, if you didn’t fav a previous tweet, you just need to remember the user name to find it.
Seems that people just can’t get enough about Twitter apps, and now TwitDates offers the dating service to all Twitter users.
There’s one thing for sure, wherever a lot of people gather around, a dating app appears. TwitDates is a free service where you just need to login with your Twitter account, add a few more data about you and that’s it, you can start find your date in Twitter.
Even more, before login in with your Twitter account you can make a quick search using the desired criteria from age and country. The site does not have many users just yet, but I guess there’s only a matter of time.
The service also provides you the way to exchange messages with other users, including photos, videos, links and etc.
eBoobs is probably one of the useless but funniest web apps available related to Twitter. It measures your popularity using cup size.
Using only US sizes to compare your popularity, this web app tells you immediately how popular you are just by entering your Twitter user name.
Ok, those aren’t mine; those are from @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher), no surprise there I guess. This is the result for mine:
Anyway, they say those are nice boobies! So that means… what?
Ok, finally the female twitter users can access a web app with a crucial answer about a very important concern: Find out how many calories do you spend on tweeting using Tweetcalories.
This Brazilian site (with an English version) provides us a simple way to understand how much calories do we spent over the day by tweeting. The test runs separately for men and women, just insert your username and you’ll get the results:
How does it work? Taking a few average data about typing and calories: Average word length, average typing speed, average person burns about 2.65 calories per minute, 23 seconds per tweet gives us an average of 1.03 calories per tweet.
The analysis takes a closer look to the number of tweets, letters used, words, cursing (?) and retweets. Pretty neat.
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.
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.”
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?
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.
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?
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.
