Twitter

I know every man and his dog has blogged about Twitter by now but I just want to do a quick post with my thoughts on the hottest Web 2.0 topic of the moment.

I took a while to get in to Twitter. I’d tried  a few times but thought it was boring, pointless and vain and then around November 2008 I finally got it I saw the potential within Twitter for increasing/creating business contacts as well as discovering and learning about new things-and that’s how I use it.

You may have seen my “Windows 7 Diary” on the MS Technet letter a few weeks back…I found out about that through Twitter. I’ve got the Royal Institute Xmas Lectures on DVD…got that through Twitter. Got an early invite to Spotify…through Twitter. There are plenty more. too. It’s also great for connecting with people for work (I follow, and am followed by, a number of MS people) and strengthening relationships etc. For things like this I think Twitter is great and invaluable but there are 2 things I don’t get at all:

1) Following “celebs” for the sake of it. These can be media celebs such as Stephen Fry, Wossy, Russell Brand, Lily Allen and the 100’s others and/or “web celebs” such as Scobelizer, Loic etc. I follow Mr Fry as his tweets are for the most part interesting and pertinent while most, if not all, other celebs are amazingly bland and boring; however they still have 1000’s/10,000’s of followers for no real reason. I found particularly “Wossy” was very boiring and irritating!

2) Tweeting about what you’re doing: doesn’t that mean you’re not doing it?! I often see tweets such as “Am having lovely meal with family-great night”…really? If it’s that good why have you got your phone out and started Tweeting? Surely if it was that good, you’d be too busy enjoying yourself?! Another one you see is “Am really enjoying being with the kids”…do the kids really enjoy watching you type?!

I don’t want to sound too militant about it but certainly number 2 really strikes me as being odd! That said it’s each to their own and Twitter is great

Flutter-The New Twitter?

Are Tweets too long for you? Do Twitters 140 characters weigh you down? Would you rather Flap than Tweet?

If so-Flutter could be the hot new thing for you:

 

Although just a joke, this does say something about the way things are going…and certainly how people not “with it” perceive sites like Twitter.

The big question is-how long until this becomes real?!

Blip.fm-Twitter for Music

Blip.fm rocks-big time.

That is my new statement of choice and I might even get it put on a T-shirt!

Blip.fm is simply Twitter for music, you search through the pretty extensive database for songs and then you “blip” them. This puts the song into your playlist along with a short, up to 140 character message (seem familiar?) for others to see.

You can give people “props” for specific songs they’ve chosen and even “re-blip” them through your feed if you so wish. You can also add the songs to your playlist and give other users “props” for specific songs in their blip-feed. This adds a litle more social interaction than is available on Twitter which I like, and the “Following”/”Followers” are here on blip.fm too, just as “Favorite DJ’s”/”Listeners” to keep with the music theme.

You can link it to your Twitter* account so it will post a “Tweet” each time you “Blip” and it has a nice n easy feature to import/invite people from yout Twitter account too. 

*This also works with Friend Feed, Tumblr, Livejournal, Jaiku & Audio Scrobbler.

Come listen at @ http://blip.fm/tiresiastheseer

I find Blip.fm to feel more purposeful than Twitter, which is certainly a good thing. With Twitter, I sometimes find myself logged in wondering what to write, thinking ”is there any point to write anything at all?” and I’m sure I’m not alone in that; but with this I’m always thinking of new songs/old songs I’d forgotten to be blipped. If nothing else it serves as easily accessible background music for when I’m online.

All in all I think this is a great addition to the rich tapestry of Web 2.o sites that is currently being weaved around us.

Twitter in Outlook

Twitter in Outlook: Pointless-maybe, useful-yes, easy to do-certainly sir!

I could never see the fuss around Twitter until recently. All of a sudden I found myself checking the twitter site again and again to see what updates had been posted or if I had something to say myself. That quickly became annoying and impractical, so I had a look around and found OutWit from TechHit.

This allows you to receive the twitters of others directly to a folder in Outlook and best of all, gives you a text box in the top menu that lets you update your status directly from your desktop client!

Download it here:

http://www.techhit.com/OutTwit/

It’s a tiny 520Kb file, installs in minutes and is great to use!

Have fun and feel free to add me on Twitter (RichG_Bechtle)

Cheers

Rich