Twitter Gets a Facelift

Twitter, one of the fastest growing social networks around, is getting a full redesign of its website.

The new changes make the site look and function very similar to the iPad version, which has received positive reviews. Admittedly, I have often used other third-party websites and applications such as Seesmic, Hootsuite, Brizzly, and Metrotwit for my Twitter needs, due to lack of features and functionality on the Twitter homepage. But, these recent changes have me interested in checking out the new interface as it appears to be very functional, attractive, and overall nicely laid out.

Some of the highlights of the new interface have been highlighted in the fun, short video below, courtesy of Twitter:



The new interface is rolling out over the next week, so check your Twitter account to see if you have access to the #newtwitter!

Erase Your Virtual Life

Are you tired of condensing all your wit and wisdom into 140-character tweets?

Are you frustrated with friending family you haven’t seen in years?

Are you worn out on waving? Miserable with being mashed up, linked in, street viewed and RSS fed?

Here might be your answer. Techcrunch reports that Moddr, a Netherlands-based new media lab, will help you delete enough of your social network accounts to render you a virtual non-person.

The site runs a python script which launches a browser session and automates the process of disconnecting you from social networks On Facebook, for instance, it removes all your friends and groups. On Twitter, it deletes all of your tweets, and removes all the people you follow and your followers. It does not actually delete these accounts, it just puts them to rest. (Here is a video showing how this works with Twitter).

Note Techcrunch’s warning: “This will really delete your online presence and is irrevocable."

Tweet us... er, phone us... if you give this a try at 248.524.3542.

Another First for Twitter

Social network site and Internet darling Twitter achieved another milestone "first" when it broadcast the launch of the new Troy Public Library website -- troylibrary.info -- just after midnight on September 29.

The tweet hear 'round the world, penned by Technology librarian John Robertson, is below:

Visit troylibrary.info and let us know what you think.

To read more about our new site's features, take a Sneak Peek at the Library's New Website.

On Twitter? Follow John @jrr1234, or The Tech Desk @tpltechnology.

Woofer vs. Twitter

Recently Twitter, the popular microblogging site, has amassed a great deal of hype. After being promoted by celebrities and featured on numerous talk shows, including the Oprah Winfrey Show, Twitter has become a household name.

But in spite of the publicity, there are still many people who dislike Twitter both for its limitations and the connotation that all Twitter posts are as inane as what I had for breakfast this morning.

If you are a Twitter Doubter, or just prone to long-windedness, you might enjoy Woofer -- the macroblogging site that requires users to post a minimum of 1,400 characters.

So far nearly eight thousand people have joined Woofer and have made over nine thousand woofs. However, the woof content is not what you might expect of bloggers. Some of the more popular woofs are copied from works such as The Gettysburg Address, A Tale of Two Cities, and Moby Dick. Unfortunately from what I've seen so far the average woof is random words and characters akin to the dreaded spam email.

Clearly, Woofer is not a tool that will replace or even rival Twitter, but it should make for some interesting reading. And even I, a strong microblogging advocate, can enjoy this homage to Twitter.

You can follow The Tech Desk on Twitter @tpltechnology and follow the Troy Public Library @troylib.

And there you have it: 1,400 characters (punctuation and spaces included, of course).

Twitter 101 for Businesses

Twitter, the popular microblogging site, is not just for individual communication. Businesses, such as Home Depot, Southwest Airlines, and Whole Foods Market use Twitter to promote their products and provide customer service.

At its core, Twitter is simple: type a short message of up to 140 characters to tell people what you are doing. However, it does have its own unique language that can take some time to learn.

To help businesses use Twitter, Twitter has published Twitter 101. This site shows how to create a Twitter account, how to follow other users, and how to create posts. It features a very helpful guide to Twitter best practices, and most importantly, a list of case studies showing how companies actually use Twitter.

In today's business environment, having a presence on social networking sites is becoming just as important as having your own website. Twitter 101 is an excellent tool to get started.

Tenant Sued for Tweeting about Moldy Apartment

An apartment management company is suing a Chicago woman for tweeting that her apartment contained mold.

According to Mai Ling, writing on the MSN Real Estate blog, tenant Amanda Bonnen’s tweet – “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it's okay." – is being challenged in court by the Horizon Group Management, which said Bonnen’s post "maliciously and wrongfully" criticized her apartment.

The company is seeking $50,000 in damages in one of the first libel lawsuits involving the social networking site Twitter.

Writes Ling:

"Unfortunately for Horizon, the damage that Bonnen's tweet to her 20 followers would have caused the company is probably much less than the effect of this lawsuit. Now the company will forever be linked to a tenant's comment about her alleged moldy apartment, regardless of whether Horizon can prove the statement was false."

Fun Friday: Kevin Spacey Teaches Dave Letterman about Twitter

Actor Kevin Spacey introduced Dave Letterman to Twitter on July 21. Letterman, in his usual way, dismissed Twitter as "a waste of time." Writes Twitter founder Biz Stone on the Twitter blog: "That's generally how Twitter was characterized in 2007 so Dave's only two years behind — we'll give him a little more time to catch up."

Watch it here:

Library Journal is Tweeting

Technology is bringing the world together. There is no doubt in it. Did you know that the Library Journal is using Twitter? If you want to know latest updates in the library world, follow Library Journal.

Twitter Guide Book

Mashable.com, a blog dedicated to covering Web 2.0 and social media, has created a page aggregating their articles about Twitter. Called The Twitter Guide Book, this page provides links to a wealth of information about Twitter, from basics (retweets, hashtags, changing backgrounds), to more advanced topics (Twitter for business, sharing items on Twitter). This is an excellent resource to help you get the most out of Twitter.

[via iLibrarian]

Fun Friday: Twitter in 1935

"Robot Messenger Displays Person-to-Person Notes In Public

To aid persons who wish to make or cancel appointments or inform friends of their whereabouts, a robot message carrier has been introduced in London, England.

Known as the “notificator,” the new machine is installed in streets, stores, railroad stations or other public places where individuals may leave messages for friends.

The user walks up on a small platform in front of the machine, writes a brief message on a continuous strip of paper and drops a coin in the slot. The inscription moves up behind a glass panel where it remains in public view for at least two hours so that the person for whom it is intended may have sufficient time to observe the note at the appointed place. The machine is similar in appearance to a candy-vending device."

[via BoingBoing]

News of Jackson's Death First Spread Online; Traditional News Sources Lag

From Yahoo! News:

It was a where-were-you moment in a digital age. Michael Jackson's death was not learned from a fatherly TV news anchor. Instead, the news first spread online…

The celebrity website TMZ.com broke the news of Jackson's death at 5:20 p.m.

It was a huge scoop for the AOL-owned TMZ, though many did not believe TMZ's report until it was matched by more established news organizations…

Jackson dominated the discussion on Twitter, generating the most tweets per second since Barack Obama was elected president in November.

"We saw over twice the normal tweets per second the moment the story broke as people shared their grief and memories," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in an e-mail.

The tweeting tripped up Twitter briefly, but engineers quickly responded to keep the service running. At times, Jackson-related search topics were the most popular on the site.

Celebrity users on Twitter — including Lindsay Lohan, Ashton Kutcher, John Mayer, Ryan Seacrest and ?uestlove of the Roots — posted their remembrances…

So many people wanted to verify the early reports of Jackson's death that the computers running Google's news section interpreted the fusillade of "Michael Jackson" requests as an automated attack from about 5:40 p.m. through 6:15 p.m.

As a defense mechanism, Google's news section responded to requests for information about Michael Jackson with squiggly letters known as a "captcha." Just as online ticket buyers regularly do to complete their purchases, the Michael Jackson searchers had to enter the letters correctly to see Google's new results…

On YouTube, traffic flowed to music videos of Jackson, while thousands posted videos of themselves sharing their thoughts on Jackson.

Others were using Facebook to organize vigils and celebrations of Jackson. One in San Francisco with nearly 50 confirmed guests hoped to recreate the "Thriller" dance.

Within a few hours of the news of Jackson's death, his 1982 album "Thriller" was the No. 1 album on iTunes. Several of his discs were also in the top 10 of the digital store.

Libraries Using Twitter to Engage Readers

Today, I was glancing through the Guardian, and came across an interesting article about how libraries in the United Kingdom are using Twitter to spread information to readers. Here's a piece from the article:

"Libraries throughout the UK are testing the waters of Twitter as a way to both engage with their readers and dispel their image as fusty, silent enclaves staffed by old-fashioned introverts.

At the British Library (@britishlibrary), they're talking about riding on John Berger's motorbike; "about as good as it gets I think." Aberdeenshire's libraries (@onceuponashire) are recommending books – "Katherine by Anya Seton is a great romp through the 14th century, well worth a read" – while the John Rylands University of Manchester library (@jrul) informs us that it has just made a 14th century cookbook available online, complete with recipes for porpoise, pike and blancmange.

Librarians as a group are very spread out around the country, and they are really seizing on Twitter as a great way to network and spread information among themselves. They are also trying it out to give information about author events and closing times to their users," said Benedicte Page, libraries expert at the Bookseller. From Milton Keynes (@mklibraries) to Devon (@devonlibraries), Plymouth (@plymlibraries) to Newcastle (@toonlibraries), over 40 UK libraries are now using Twitter, and a "Twitter for librarians" course will be held by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) in September to encourage more to take it up.

The article notes later that the UK is behind the United States when it comes to Twittering. If you are interested, you can read the rest of the article here.

Speaking of Twittering, you can follow the Troy Public Library on Twitter @troylib or The Tech Desk at @tpltechnology.

Twitter v. CNN: Round 2

Rick Sanchez of CNN responded to criticism from social media sites that the news organization failed to adequately cover the events after the Iranian election. The response – below via youtube – pieces together CNN reports to convince critics that the station's coverage was more extensive than users on social media sites claimed.

Not all youtube’s commenters seem convinced. However, others argue that CNN did a good job of covering the events in Iran.

An interesting debate, as social media muscles into journalism. Watch it:



[via Mashable]

Twitter v. CNN: A New Media Watchdog

Twitter users blasted cable and Internet news organization CNN the past two days for a lack of coverage of the Tehran protests, which began after the election in Iran, reports Mashable:

“Twitter… has… taken on the role of media watchdog: thousands of Twitter users adopted the hashtag #CNNfail to highlight a lack of Iran coverage from the... organization.”

As a result, CNN quickly stepped up TV coverage of the Iranian election and the CNN.com homepage now lists the protests as its top story.

San Francisco Uses Twitter for Residents' Complaints

According to TechChrunch, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone announced recently that San Francisco residents can now send direct messages via Twitter to the City @SF311, to complain about street cleanings, graffiti, potholes, abandoned vehicles, garbage issues, noise complaints and more. The useful part of the new service is the ability to send pictures or video of various offenses.

Once a resident submits a direct message to @SF311, he or she will receive a service request number. Apparently, there is a city staff member devoted to handling and responding to @SF311 Tweets.

Will Twitter helps make the city’s response more speedy? Mayor Newsom is a big fan of Twitter and even announced his bid for governor of California via the microblog site.

You can send your thoughts, questions and complaints via Twitter to the Library @troylib, or to the Technology Department @tpltechnology.

More People Follow than Lead on Twitter

According to a study from Purewire, reported by TechCrunch, most people on Twitter are followers, rather than leaders. A full 80% of Twitter accounts have fewer than 10 followers, according to the analysis of seven million Twitter accounts. What’s more, 30% have zero followers.

Writes TechCrunch: “People who bother to Tweet on a regular basis will attract more followers than people who prefer to sit back and read. Twitter is no different than any other form of participatory media. A small fraction of users produce the overwhelming amount of content, even if it is just 140 characters at a time.”

Read more at On Twitter, Most People Are Sheep.

How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live

Time Magazine has published a feature article on How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live written by Steven Johnson.

“The one thing you can say for certain about Twitter is that it makes a terrible first impression. You hear about this new service that lets you send 140-character updates to your “followers,” and you think, Why does the world need this, exactly? It’s not as if we were all sitting around four years ago scratching our heads and saying, “If only there were a technology that would allow me to send a message to my 50 friends, alerting them in real time about my choice of breakfast cereal.”

[via iLibrarian]

Harvard Business on Twitter

According to the Harvard Business, new Twitter research finds that men follow men and nobody tweets.

[thanks to Natalie Zebula (@nzebula) at Lawrence Tech for this link)

Did Twitter Save A Life -- Again?

While driving home recently, Atlanta Councilmember Kwanza Hall came upon an unconscious woman who needed medical attention. He asked those around the woman if they had called 911 – the emergency number. They had, but were unable to get through.

So Counselor Hall turned to Twitter to help summon aide. Here’s the story, as reported by Wired:


Did Twitter help save a life? In this instance – as in the instance when actress Demi Moore’s tweeted a fan’s suicide message – it is impossible to tell for certain. But it is clear that Twitter has not only leapt past email but is challenging the phone as a real time communication tool.

Troy Library Now on Facebook

Thanks to Technology Librarian Lauren Henderson, the Library now has a Facebook page. Drop by for a visit and become a fan. Since we are just starting, there is not much there, yet, so let us know what you would like to see. Write it on our wall.

Here at The Tech Desk, we have been working hard beefing up the Library's Internet presence. As I mentioned in a post about a technology unconference I attended, you can now follow us on Twitter (@tpltechnology). Soon you'll be able to find us on Flickr, too.

And we are getting ready to roll out our brand new website -- complete with gadgets and gizmos and all other cool stuff. Stay tuned.