Posts tagged twitter
Facebook ≠ Skype
Given that Ben Brooks writes regularly about tech topics, and that he usually makes astute observations, I was quite surprised to read his reaction to the rumor that Microsoft will be acquiring Skype for at least $7 billion:
It’s the same problem that Facebook and Twitter face — massive user base with no idea how to profit from it.
Such a bold statement, yet so wrong. It took me less than a minute to find this key paragraph in a New York Times DealBook article from January:
Last year, Facebook recorded revenue of approximately $2 billion, with roughly $400 million in profit, according to people briefed on the company’s results. That is up from $220 million in earnings on $770 million in sales in 2009.
Here are more Google search results, Ben.
@queuenoodle lets you know when movies expire from Netflix Watch Instantly
You may not know this—I certainly didn’t—but every day, Netflix retires movies from the Watch Instantly section. @queuenoodle is a Twitter account created by Robin Sloan that lets you know in advance which movies will be expiring and when.
Twitter Chatbot Debunks Climate Change Skeptics Without Tiring
Every five minutes, AI_AGW searches Twitter for tweets that feature common, debunked arguments against man-made climate change. It then responds with its own Tweet, countering the faulty argument in question, and providing a link to published information from groups like NASA that backs up its case.
Did you know that you can use AIM and AOL Lifestream on your iPhone to post to Twitter, Facebook, foursquare, and MySpace all at once? If you’re looking for some cool icons to spice up those status messages, check out the free Glyphboard by Neven Mrgan. To install it, just visit this site on your iPhone and follow the instructions: http://mrgan.com/gb/
(via iPhone J.D. and Daring Fireball)
Illustration parodying Twitter conversations. Unfortunately, the artist is not credited. If anyone knows who drew this, please let me know.
Speaking of Twitter, check out the compilation of apps on Tweerrific. Inspired Magazine also features a list of useful apps.
BackTweets searches short URLs on Twitter
BackTweets is a great service that lets you search links on Twitter. If you use the default search on twitter.com to look for “chezmoncef”, for example, you won’t get any results. However, if you do the same search on BackTweets, you see all the tweets that point to my site, even if those URLs were shortened.
(via ReadWriteWeb)
Recipes in 140 characters or less
Maureen Evans (@cookbook) has been offering short recipes on Twitter since 2007. I don’t remember where I first read about this, but here’s a nice NYTimes.com article that just popped up in my feed reader: The Challenge of Recipes on Twitter.
Selective Twitter lets you update your Facebook status with only the tweets you choose!
The first time I tried this app, it didn’t work. To make it work on the second try, I went back to the Selective Twitter app page, I entered my Twitter user name again and clicked Save.
(via Jesse Newhart on Twitter)
Nambu: 12 - TweetDeck: 2
Earlier this week, I decided to try 2 Twitter desktop clients: TweetDeck (the most popular) and Nambu (brand new OS X app). In my book, Nambu is the clear winner. Here are the winning points for each:
TweetDeck:
- Facebook integration (coming soon in Nambu - it’s #1 on their new features list).
- ability to move columns in the wide view (Nambu is working on it).
Nambu:
- Growl notification, so you can actually see the sender and content of the message, rather than the generic message that TweetDeck displays in its notification system.
- conversation threading, even for those you don’t participate in (as long as you are following both users).
- autocomplete of users you follow when composing a new tweet.
- support for more than one Twitter account.
- you can add a user to an existing group as well as create a new group for that user all via the same right-click. In TweetDeck, adding a user to an existing group requires 3 clicks. Adding a user to a new group requires a totally separate set of actions.
- speaking of usability and design, I cannot for the life of me understand TweetDeck’s implementation of column closing. When you click the “X” at the top right of any column, you are presented with the following prompt: “Do you really want to delete [column name] column? (this action cannot be undone - choose wisely)”. That’s three warnings in one. Do they not know the meaning of the word ”undone”? Why would they make it sound like you’re gonna lose that column forever when all you have to do to bring it back is click on its corresponding icon in the top left menu? That prompt should not even exist in the first place. You can’t click on the “X” by accident. If I click it, it’s because I want to close the column. And that’s exactly what Nambu does.
- native OS X app.
- very low memory consumption: about 6 times less than TweetDeck (26.6 MB vs 162.2 MB as I’m writing this).
- launches and displays all your columns in 2 seconds vs. 5 seconds for TweetDeck. And that’s if TweetDeck actually displays the content. I just quit and relaunched the app twice and it’s not displaying anything inside the columns. There’s a message at the bottom right that reads: “Twitter Status: Rate limit exceeded”.
- FriendFeed, identi.ca and Ping.fm integration.
- 3 views vs. 2 for TweetDeck.
- a feedback forum on their site where users can request features. The Nambu folks actually read those suggestions and report back with the status, such as “planned” and “under review”.
