my head chirps...

...when I least expect it to.. or perhaps it's just my Twitter overdosing that has caused my latest infliction... yes I am still addicted to Twitter and while I've coined a phrase for it "Twitiction" I'm not a dead duck just yet, thankfully I have twitterholic on hand to reasure me I'm not even close to having a full blown addiction...at least not yet

I've learnt a few things along the Twitter path
1. there are looooooads of ppl addicted to Twitter
2. some ppl just don't get e.g Andy *cough*
3. there are some seriously cool ppl on Twitter!
4. there are oodles of Twitter applications around that you can pick and choose from at any given time
5. there are loads of Twitter tools and websites that spring up more often than the bottom of my coffee bucket (which is saying something!)
6. searching Twitter can be a mission.. unless you know where to look

For now I'm just going to address 4, 5 and 6...

4. Updating Twitter (Twitter Applications):
I've played around with quite a few Twitter applications too many to list

At the moment Twitterrific by IconFactory is my favourite Mac application for updating my twitter and keeping an eye on the comings and goings of my twitter friends. I love the user friendly, intuitive interface, it's really slick and everything you could ever need or want is just a click away, and also appreciate how it tucks away nicely on my desktop with a resizeable footprint. The sound alert (a brief bird twitter noise) on new tweets is brilliant as it catches my attention although this can be disabled if you find this distracting, and if you prefer there is also an option to have a notification window display instead of or as well as. The character down is timely, auto refresh is great as you can set your own intervals (never, every minute, every 5 minutes, 15 minutes, half hour, hour) and some of my much loved key board shortcuts are R - Refresh list of tweets, K - Mark all as read 2 - Reply using @name and D - Send a direct message and if you add Twitterrific to your Twitter friends list you can keep up to date with the latest offerings and issues. For my Mac Twitterrific is a sure fire keeper but when it comes to finding a Windows application that suits 'm still on the prowl although at the moment I think I'll be settling on a FireFox extension as desktop real estate is at a premium and my system tray is constantly overflowing.

Before hitting some of the Twitter FireFox extension currently on offer over at Mozilla I tried out Twitteroo which is seriously cool.. but at the moment it doesn't suit me, although I haven't uninstalled it as I have a felling that I will come back to it and I have added Twitteroo to my friends list so I can keep an eye on what's going on with it. I've also downloaded, and have kept, TwitBox by WinExtra (Twitter Profile for Twitbox) although at the moment it doesn't suit me either... but it's close.. hence the "keep". I've heard that Twitterlicious is the next best thing to Twitterrific but for Windows users so at some stage I will install it and take it for a spin along with tweetr which swings across both the Mac and Windows platforms which is appealing but back to FireFox extensions....

I'm also using TwitBin (on Windows), it's an extension for FireFox that really does "bring the power of Twitter right in your browser" and works on both Mac and PC versions which is a dream. What I love about TwitBin is that it is intergrated into FireFox which I always have open so it's really handy to use for updates and to keep an eye on my friends tweets as they come through, what I do struggle with though is that it sits, logically I might add, in my sidebar which is handy but also a pain when it comes to pulling up my bookmarks, history, DOM Inspector etc. I also have the Twitter Toolbox by CaptSolo at captsolo.net which at the moment doesn't appear to have a listing in the FireFox extensions directory, don't let that deter you, while the GUI isn't as slick as TwitBin it's nonetheless still a must have extension for easy access to Friends, Followers and list comparison. Music lovers might want to check out Twitty Tunes by FoxyTunes, which is listed in the FireFox Directory, Twitty Tunes "Allows to post your currently playing songs to Twitter with a click. As a bonus, you can also post the websites you're visiting, videos you're watching and more!" right from in FireFox which would be kinda cool... but I tend to listen to music on Mac (rather than Windows) and as before I'm more than happy with Twitterrific so don't intend to try this one just yet.. but oodles of ppl rave about it :)

TwitterFox is an another FireFox extension that I've only just started hearing about, I haven't tried it but it's on my to-do list along with Power Twitter by 30 Boxes which I hope to get around to plonking with... one day

5. Twitter Tools:
There are two twitter tools that I just love to bits, TwitterFeed and TwitThis, my tweet filled days just wouldn't be the same without them.

TwitterFeed by mario is a gem for website / blog owners, in fact anyone that likes, loves or uses RSS feeds. You can quickly login to TwitterFeed via your OpenID (or Yahoo!), enter the RSS feeds you'd like to be associated with your Twitter account, set up a time frame for each feed (very handy if one feed is more active than another) then sit back and let TwitterFeed take care of the rest. When a feed update is detected TwitterFeed will send this out as a "tweet" to your profile page, friends and followers... what a gem of an idea!

TwitThis is another little gem "TwitThis is an easy way for people to send Twitter messages about your blog post or website. When visitors to your website click on the TwitThis button or link, it takes the URL of the webpage and creates a shorter URL using TinyURL. Then visitors can send this shortened URL and a description of the web page to all of their friends on Twitter." If you're a fan of sharing sites that you think are drop dead cool (or weird!) then you might want to consider getting the TwitThis bookmarklet which you can add to your browser tool bar for a TwitThis button that you carry with you. What Ireally like about TwitThis is that you aren't limited to a plain old "check out this link" blurb... you get to choose from Reading, Looking At, Listening to, Laughing At, Responding to, Waiting for, Looking Forward to, at, @.. there is something for just about every situation.

Timer by retweet is one of the many twitter bots spring up all over the place, some of the bots are useful, some are quirky and some are just plain old weird, Timer is a not only useful it's also very handy and oh so reliable. Timer "helps you set an alarm for things you need to remember", simply add Timer as your friend, send a direct message (not a general tweet) via your Twitter App using the format:
d timer [# of minutes until reminder] [your message]
so if I wanted a reminder to make coffee in 30 minutes I would DM:
d timer 30 coffee intake time
and in 30 minutes Timer will tweet me back with a reminder.. pretty dang cool :)

5. ctd Twitter Web Sites:
For me there really is only ONE website that is the be all and end all of Twitter and that's the Twitter Fan Wiki which is located at http://twitter.pbwiki.com, if you have any doubts, questions or are seeking Twitter news or applications then head directly to the Twitter Fan Wiki where you will find all the above and more! Apps a huge resource that you can whittle away quite a few hours in as it covers everything you could ever want or need from Windows to Mac to Multi-Platform, including Mobile and Browser Add-ons, it also has listings for Badges and Widgets, Search Engines and the "other" category shouldn't be overlooked as there are some true gems tucked away in there.

If you are not twittered out after that then head over to TwitterHacks which is well worth poking around along with wtips.blogspot.com ~ twitter-tools which has a list of resources, also the Flickr Twitter Group is proving to be a handy resource and a great place to meet other like minded souls :)

Speaking of meeting new friends or tracking down old... searching for Twitter freinds is not as easy as it would first appear...

6. Searching Twitter:
Searching Twitter for friends or information is a real mission and the Twitter homepage offers little in the way of search facilities so you have to venture outside the think tank but fortunately it didn't take me too long to hit gold in the form of Twitter Search (Google Based) Steve Rubel from micropersuasion. If I'm in a hurry or need twitter results "Now!" then Steve Rubel has without doubt come up with the perfect solution, Twitter Search (Google Based) is brilliant. I guess in part it's because I'm a bit of a Google fan and like the simplicity of it and the familiarity that it brings but it hasn't failed me yet and I'm loving every minute of it. There is also TwitterSearch by Dave Troy (the creator and passion behind TwitterMap and TwitterVision) which is the Search (engine) that Twitter will point you in the direction of (Twitter Help: How do I search for Twitter friends) but I've never quite got the hang of this one.

If you're after something with a little more zing or a dash of quirk then tweetVolume is a really polished looking website that lets you search a word (or phrase) and it will report back how often it has actually appeared in user tweets, but I think I'm missing something here because all it appears to do is give you a number of uses, I was expecting to see a reference to the actual tweets that contained the search term but I was out of luck... which is where TwitterTroll by Brad Williams steps in. TwitterTroll is right on the ball offering up real time results that are spot on and they include the users avatar, linked to their profile page, and a summary of their tweet which is also linked because of this TwitterTroll is great way to search for friends that have similar interests and / or personalities that you instantly have one click access to.

If you have some spare time on your hands or just need a good dust bunny blow out then head directly to twitterVerse which offers an alphabetised "cloud" of popular words found in users tweets, all of which are linked to full blown search results that are quite simply brilliant. They show the actual tweet the term is referenced in and if clicked on, it takes you to the specific posting. I also really like the fact that the results show the users avatar which is linked to their twitter profile page...twitterVerse has thought of everything right to searches by time frame (1 hours, 5 hours, 10 hours) so you can quickly expand or contract your search...basically twitterVerse is a searchers dream come true and they do an excellent job providing the service :)

If you are looking for more Twitter friends then don't go past TwitDir which is a big gun when it comes to providing Twitter user information and details I was easily able to pull up both my own and Andy's twitter details...

http://twitter.com/coffee_bee

http://twitter.com/WackyB

and TwitDir also provides one click access to the Top 20 followed, Top 20 updaters, Top 20 favouriters and Top 20 followers.. dang handy if you need reassurance your Twitiction isn't out of the control

I'm now on a mission to see what Instant Messengers are supported, I know AIM and GTalk is officially supported but what about Windows Live and Yahoo! Messenger... hmm.... I smell an "Aaaandy...?" moment looming
// UPDATE: see our Yahoo Messenger Twitter Sync Plugin @ http://tiny.wackyb.net/nz/TwitterYahooSync
or read more about it in my article
Yahoo Messenger + Twitter = tweet tweet... meow?

Twitter Links:
Homepage: http://twitter.com
Public Timeline: http://twitter.com/public_timeline
Register: http://twitter.com/account/create
Blog: http://twitter.com/blog
Help: http://twitter.com/help

Twitter Applications:
Twitterrific by IconFactory: http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific
- Twitterrific's Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/Twitterrific
TwitBox by WinExtra: http://www.winextra.com/homegrown-software/twitbox-for-twitter/
- TwitBox's Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/TwitBox
Twitterlicious: http://www.ejecutive.co.uk/projects/twitterlicious
tweetr: http://tweet-r.com
- tweetr's Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/tweetr

FireFox Extensions for Twitter:
TwitBin: http://twitbin.com
- TwitBin's Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/twitbin
Twitter Toolbox by CaptSolo:
http://captsolo.net/~ twitter_toolbox
- CaptSolo's Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/CaptSolo
TwittyTunes by FoxyTunes: http://blog.foxytunes.com~ twittytunes
- Twitty Tunes Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/TwittyTunes

Twitter Tools:
TwitterFeeds: http://twitterfeed.com
- Mario's Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/mario
- TwitterFeed Blog: http://twitterfeed.wordpress.com
TwitThis: http://twitthis.com
Timer by retweet: http://retweet.com/timer
- Timer's Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/timer

other Cool Twitter Links:
Twitter Fan Wiki: http://twitter.pbwiki.com
TwitterHacks: http://www.twitterhacks.com
wtips.blogspot.com ~ twitter-tools: http://wtips.blogspot.com/2007/04/twitter-tools.html
Flickr's Twitter Group: http://flickr.com/groups/twitter

Twitter Search Links:
Twitter Search (Google Based) by Steve Rubel: http://google.com/coop/~qkzy
- Steve Rubel's Twitter Profile http://twitter.com/steverubel
TwitterSearch by Dave Troy: http://twittermap.com/search/
- Dave Troy's Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/davetroy
TwitterTroll by Brad Williams: http://www.twittertroll.com
- Brad Williams Twitter Profile: http://www.twitter.com/williamsba
TwitDir: http://twitdir.com
- TwitDir's Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/twitdir/
tweetVolume: http://www.tweetvolume.com
twitterverse: http://www.twitterverse.com

Our Yahoo Messenger Twitter Sync Plugin:
http://tiny.wackyb.net/nz/TwitterYahooSync

Need a Twitter friend?
You can add Andy via his twitter profile at: http://twitter.com/WackyB
or you can add me via my twitter profile at: http://twitter.com/coffee_bee

Comments (3)

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Twendy said:

Check this site out Thought you might be interested in this http://www.twittermosaic.com He is sooo clever! Check out the cactus and if you look carefully you can see me!

19 June 2007

bee said:

... that is so clever! I couldn't find you for ages... took andy approx 5 mins

21 June 2007

bee said:

Pwytter another twitter application for the list.. Pwytter: Twitter for Windows, Mac, Linux. The free muti-platform Twitter client written in Python http://www.pwytter.com/

28 July 2007

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