TwitterKnol

The Evolving Ecosystem

Ev — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:28:25 +0000

Just over four months ago, at Chirp, our Twitter developer conference, I talked about how "Twitter is too hard" and what we're doing to address that.

One major area of difficulty I highlighted was getting Twitter on your phone. We did iPhone user tests and confirmed that even though there was a plethora of third-party Twitter apps, people were having trouble finding and selecting one because none were called “Twitter.” This kept them from using Twitter at all. For this reason, we acquired Tweetie and turned it into Twitter for iPhone, complete with a new user sign-up experience.

Mobile apps – Everywhere
We quickly understood that we were doing users a disservice by not having a great client on each of the major mobile platforms. So, we took a similar approach with Twitter for BlackBerry (developed by RIM) and Twitter for Android, which launched a new version this week.

This strategy has been quite successful. Total mobile users has jumped 62 percent since mid-April, and, remarkably, 16 percent of all new users to Twitter start on mobile now, as opposed to the five percent before we launched our first Twitter-branded mobile client. As we had hoped in April, these clients are bringing more people into Twitter, and, even better, they are attracting and retaining active users. Indeed, 46 percent of active users make mobile a regular part of their Twitter experience.

How people are using Twitter
Our Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for BlackBerry clients are now two of the most popular ways to use Twitter. This may not be surprising. What may be more surprising are the other top ways people use the service. The following chart shows the top ten applications people have used to access Twitter in the last 30 days. This is based on number of unique users. That is, out of all the people who logged into their Twitter account during the month, what percentage did so via each service. (The total is more than 100% because people often use more than one app.)

As this data shows, while smart phone clients are important, there are even more people who use the mobile Twitter web site and/or SMS. We've been seeing strong growth in both of these areas.

You'll also note that third-party clients continue to play an important role for many people. And, it should be underscored that users of programs like TweetDeck are some of the most active and frequent users—which is why, along with the nature of how these clients work, a disproportionate amount of the traffic from Twitter runs through such tools.

And, while the percentage of overall users drops off pretty sharply after the few listed here, there are a tremendous number of other apps that people are using, not necessarily as their main Twitter client, but as an alternative way to create or view Tweets. The number of registered OAuth applications is now at almost 300,000—this number has nearly tripled since Chirp. (This can include multiple instances of the same software.)

It’s great to see this kind of variety and growth in the ecosystem as it moves beyond basic Twitter clients. These new services help people get the most out of Twitter, contributing to user growth and new business opportunities—both of which are critical to the long-term viability of the ecosystem. We’re making great progress in these areas—we currently have more than 145 million registered users and the performance of our Promoted Products has exceeded our expectations. But we still have lots of room to grow and improve. We look forward to seeing what’s next.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-09-05

Egon — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:50:00 +0000

The Evolving Ecosystem: Just over four months ago, at Chirp, our Twitter developer conference, I talked about how … http://bit.ly/cOnX20 #
Twitter for iPad: Sharing content in Tweets: People are increasingly sharing different types of information on Twi… http://bit.ly/anOrBd #
Twitter for iPad: Sharing content in Tweets: People are increasingly sharing different types of information on Twi… http://bit.ly/9mL3EO #
We have vacant 125×125 ad spot to promote your related services/products. #

Twitter for iPad: Sharing content in Tweets

Leland — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:33:20 +0000

People are increasingly sharing different types of information on Twitter. For example, Tweets point to web pages, photos, videos, hashtags, people, check-ins, and more. Exploring Tweets is a great way to discover new and interesting information. And with devices of all shapes and sizes connecting to the Internet, we’re constantly looking for new ways to make this easier. To date, we’ve created applications for a variety of mobile phones, giving you instant access to Tweets and great content when you’re on the go. Today we are bringing Tweets to a device that really lets content shine - the iPad. Twitter for iPad takes advantage of the iPad’s fluid touch interface, letting you move lots of information around smoothly and quickly – without needing to open and close windows or click buttons. There are a few things we want to point out that make this app a really fast and fun way to read real-time content. Panes: Tapping on a Tweet opens a pane to the right. Depending on the content in that Tweet, you’ll see a video or photo, or maybe a news story, or perhaps another Tweet. You can continue tapping on Tweets, opening new panes, and getting new content as long as you’d like to. And, it’s really easy to move between panes by swiping to the right or left.

Media: When you tap a video link or open a web page with an embedded video, you can play that video inline. And, let’s be honest, video is great but sometimes it can take some time to load. The panes in Twitter for iPad let you look through your timeline while a video is loading, and then you can just swipe back to the video when it’s ready to play. You can also pinch on a video to watch it fullscreen.

Gestures: You can pinch on a Tweet to quickly view details about the author and to take actions on a Tweet, such as reply or retweet. Put two fingers together and pull down on a Tweet to peek at the replies, showing the entire conversation leading to that Tweet.

No need to login: You don’t even need to sign up to get started with Twitter for iPad. We’ve selected great Twitter accounts that you can see in various categories, such as Art & Design, Sports, and News. You can also search, view trends, and find breaking news. Sign up at any time to create your own timeline and start tweeting.

Twitter for iPad is available worldwide from the App Store. Try it out and let me, @lorenb, and @bhaggs know what you think.

Twitter Applications and OAuth

Egon — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:06:34 +0000

If you are like most Twitter users, you have used use a third-party Twitter application to read or send Tweets. As of August 31, Twitter applications will all use OAuth, an authentication method that lets you use apps without them storing your password.

What does this mean for me?
The move to OAuth will mean increased security and a better experience. Applications won’t store your username and password, and if you change your password, applications will continue to work.

With OAuth, you still individually approve each application before using it, and you can revoke access at any time. To see which applications you have authorized or to revoke access, just go to the Connections section under Settings.

One thing to note - to continue to use your favorite applications, you should make sure you are running the latest version of the app. Otherwise, you may soon find that it doesn’t work anymore.

Tell me more about OAuth
In order for Twitter applications to access your account, developers have been able to choose one of two authentication methods: Basic Authentication or OAuth. Both require your permission, but there is an important difference. With Basic Auth, you provide your username and password for the app to access Twitter, and the application has to store and send this information over the Internet each time you use the app. With OAuth, this isn’t the case. Instead, you approve an application to access Twitter, and the application doesn’t store your password.

Fortunately, developers have known about our transition to OAuth since last December, so they’ve had time to update their apps. And many apps, including Echofon, TweetDeck, Twitterrific, Seesmic, and Twitter for Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry, are already using OAuth. We appreciate the work and time that developers have invested in this update in order to keep you safe.

Start a food diary with the ‘Tweet What You Eat’ application

Sharon — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:53:20 +0000

Tweet What You Eat (TWYE) is an online food diary that helps individuals keep track of what they eat.

Jotting down what you eat and how many calories you consume is one of the best ways to lose weight and lead a healthier lifestyle.

To start your diary, create a Tweet What you Eat account. Once your account is created you can begin keeping your personal food diary.

Registered users will automatically begin following TWYE on Twitter. You must follow TWYE in order to update your food diary from Twitter.

To update your food diary from Twitter, send a direct message to @TWYE on Twitter. Type the name of the food followed by the number of calories that food has. Food and calories should always be separated by a colon. More than one food item should be separated by a comma.

Tweet What You Eat updates your diary almost automatically with the time and date you ate the items you listed. The application also has a list of what other people have been eating. Some individuals use TWYE to help them lose weight while others use it as a reference.

TWYE also has a forums section. This is a great way to interact with other users on their food journey. If you are trying to lose weight, it’s always good to have some support along the way.

Overall, TWYE is the first step in leading a healthier lifestyle. Instead of battling the bulge on your own, create a food diary and meet like-minded people on Tweet What You Eat!

Website: (Tweet What You Eat!)

Twitter: @TWYE

See what’s trending on Twitter with TweetPeck

Sharon — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:04:38 +0000

TweetPeck is a unique web-based application that lets individuals see what’s trending worldwide.

Participating in tweets/discussions based on trending topics is one of the best ways to make more friends on Twitter. TweetPeck makes your Twitter experience better by allowing you to search for trending topics by cities.

One of the best things about TweePeck is that the application recognizes your location as soon as the page loads. The homepage displays the ten most talked about topics, a map pinpointing your location, recent tweets from your area and the current temperature.

The tweets that are displayed on the homepage are from Twitter users closest to you. It would be ideal to follow these users since they are in your area and they might have the same interests as you.

Another great aspect of TweetPeck is the ability to search both Twitter and Google at once. Instead of closing out TweetPeck to find what you need, you can do so directly from TweetPeck.com.

If a user wants to expand their horizons and see what other countries/cities are talking about, they are more than welcome to. To view the trending topics in other cities, simply type the desired location in the search bar near the top of the page.

Instead of limiting yourself to see what’s trending in one area, check out TweetPeck to see what’s going on in the rest of the world.

Website: (TweetPeck)

Twitter: @Tweet_peck

Mixero 0.57

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:46:41 +0000

Today we are happy to introduce the new version of Mixero, 0.57.
For several months we’ve been busy working not only on
Mixero, but other exciting projects that are soon to be released. So you may probably find the changes not so significant.
Anyway, a lot of work has been done. So, what’s new?

OAuth support

We implemented OAuth authentication with Twitter. Your username and password are no longer saved on your computer, only on twitter.com. The other good thing is that there are 350 API calls are available to OAuth-empowered clients instead of 150 before.

Memory optimizations

We have significantly optimized Mixero source code so that it is now more stable, especially under Adobe AIR 2 (http://get.adobe.com/air/).
Under AIR 2 Mixero uses much less memory, up to 1.5-2 times less than before. In our tests Mixero with 1-2 accounts active with 10k followers used only 80-100Mb!

Improved Avatars mode

We’ve done a lot of work on improving one of the most interesting features of Mixero – the Avatars mode. Many users
asked for more features in this mode. Here’s what we’ve added:

ability to view more than one message at a time
ability to mark tweets as read fom the Avatars mode window
replies, DMs, retweets can now be sent directly from Avatars mode

Now you are able to get full power of Mixero without leaving the Avatars mode, which drastically improves efficiency. We’ve created a small screencast with the new features of the Avatars mode:

As always, there are a lot of bugs fixed thanks to your feedback. We love to make your Twitter life less disturbing

Download Mixero

Gain followers with Follo

Sharon — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:15:28 +0000

Follo helps tweeters increase their Twitter following in just a few steps.

Some Twitter applications require hundreds of dollars to help users increase the number of followers they have. The Follo application differs from those other apps because its absolutely free.

To use Follo, authenticate your account through the oAuth method.

Earning points is the key to obtaining Twitter followers. The more points you have, the more followers you will get in return. Users with the most points are displayed on the front page.

Twitter users gain one point for each user they follow. Follo also allows individuals to purchase points through Paypal. For $1, you will receive 250 points, $3 will get you 1000 points and $5 will get you 2000 points.

Follo also has a VIP section. VIPs are individuals with loads of points and have a reputation of following a substantial amount of users. If you follow a VIP, or featured user, you will automatically get 10 points.

Make the most out of all the points you acquire. According to Follo, all points will expire after 24 hours.

Follo is a great way to network and increase your circle of friends. The follow for followers method works every time, try it out and see for yourself.

Website: (Follo)

Give yourself a chuckle with TwitLOL

Sharon — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:55:56 +0000

TwitLOL supplies individuals with the funny jokes, sayings and phrases.

There’s nothing better than a funny joke to turn a frown upside down. The TwitLOL application is guaranteed to make any Gloomy Gus feel better.

TwitLOL is a database of funny sayings in 140 characters or less. Individuals can opt to browse the jokes or they can submit their own joke for consideration.

Jokes are divided into 3 categories. Those categories – Hot Today, New and Alltime Favs- can be found at the top of the page.

Each joke is equipped with social networking buttons to make submission and sharing easier. You must connect your account before you will be able to share any of the jokes. MySpace, Twitter and Facebook are currently the only buttons on the site, but users can always manually submit a joke to their social networking accounts.

TwitLOL’s interface is one of the best aspects of the application. Just looking at the homepage is enough to make you want to laugh or smile.

The jokes on TwitLOL will definitely bring a little more attention your way. You can go from a regular Joc Schmoe to the next Jerry Seinfeld overnight.

Website: (TwitLOL)

Twitter: @twitlol

Get rid of non-followers with Tweetelity

Sharon — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 14:36:18 +0000

Tweetelity searches your profile for users who that aren’t following you.

It’s always a nice gesture to follow the people that are following you on Twitter. If you find yourself in a position where you’re following more people than you have as follower, then Tweetelity just might be for you.

Tweetelity not only finds the people that aren’t following you, but the application also alerts those users that they’re being removed.

To get started with Tweetelity, authenticate your account using the oAuth method. As soon as your account is linked, click on the ‘Show non followers l button. The application will then search your account for users who aren’t following you.

Searching your account may take some time, so be patient and try not to reload the page. Once the app has found all of your non-followers you will be allowed to remove all of these users. Removing these users cannot be undone once you have clicked that magical button.

It would be best not to use this application every day. Following and un-following a lot of people in a short period of time may get your account suspended.

Try Tweetelity today and rid yourself of users who don’t show loyalty.

Website: (Tweetelity)

Twitter: @Tweetelity