Tag: twitter
Twitter rebellion as the company messes with @replies again
There’s a bit of a furore in the Twitter community today after a post on the company blog announced a change to the @reply system – the second in as many months, as it goes.
Until today, your account will only have been notified of @replies when both parties involved in the tweet were people you followed – unless you changed an option in the menus to allow them to appear, even if you only knew one party involved.
Now, for reasons of confusion, which that last sentence might have demonstrated, the powers that be at the microblogging service have decided to remove the option. The community is not happy. The community is rebelling.
There are channels set up like #fixreplies and #twitterfail where people are currently voicing their opinion to the point where it’s become the most discussed topic on the service today.
Already there’s been a response from Twitter CEO Evan Williams who tweeted:
“Reading people’s thoughts on the replies issue. We’re considering alternatives. Thanks for your feedback.”
Personally I’m not too fussed either way but removing options that used to exist are rarely a good thing to do, particularly when it was well hidden anyway where it would cause little confusion. Still, I’m thinking Twitter will change it’s mind on this one.
(via Twitter Blog)
Britain's top 20 tweeters by posts
Jonathan Ross is the UK’s most influential Twitterer and that Mashable’s Pete Cashmore has the biggest number of followers for a Brit (though we know he spends lot of time in San Francisco these days), but the question that I really wanted to know the answer to is who in the UK tweets the most?
Is it a very bored person in a dull job whose boss hasn’t yet got round to mastering email let alone micro blogging or a social media advocate who has to spend days following everyone and retweeting influentials cos that’s the main part of their job description?
So, some time in April, I started a on a mission to find out who the UK’s top twitterers are.
I guess I was just intrigued by how often people use Twitter and why they use it. Perhaps, most importantly, what kind of people are posting 20 plus tweets a day. Are they as immoral as the Daily Mail thinks they might be?
If you want to do a worldwide list of top tweeters this is very simple. You go to Twitterholics main list and click the tab marked Updates. You’ll then discover that, at the of writing anyhow, it is Internet Radio, which is basically using Twitter to tell its few followers what tunes various web based radio stations are playing. You then have to scroll down a long way before you reach a real person in the guise of Big Willie who has racked up an astonishing 55,000 tweets in six months. He is quite possibly cheating, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now as I can’t be bothered to spend hours combing through his many pages of tweets.
As for the UK, well the Twitter feeds for media groups like Popbitch, Q radio and The Daily Telegraph are highly popular, but they aren’t really people so I haven’t included them.
There’s also the added difficulty of there not being a single location for the UK which makes it very tricky using Twitterholic. So while I trawled through lists for most of the country’s biggest conurbations, if you are a heavy tweeter in St Neots, Lowestoft or Camspey Ash, I probably missed you.
I did think I had found a winner in Dave Pattern who had racked up over 50k tweets in a couple of years. He did DM me to confess though that many of those tweets were library codes and so he gracefully ducked out of my little poll.
So the real winner, unless you know different, is a web designer from Leeds who goes by the name of Shubox. He is likely to be the first Brit to reach 50k tweets which is a pretty amazing achievement as he needs to have been averaging an impressive 60-ish tweets a day. I DM-ed him but got no response, so I wonder too if he has been tampering with library codes, playlists or something even more sinister.
My number two, Robert Brook has agreed to a mini interview via DM which you can read here very shortly. If you have questions as to why he tweets so much and what he tweets about etc and don’t fancy wading though 35k tweets then tweet me @shinyashley
So here’s the list. I will fess up now that, although it has taken me ages to compile this list, it is quite possibly wrong on many counts, So, if I missed someone please let me know. It would be good to publish a more definitive list in a few weeks time
1 Keith Murdoch (shubox)
47,562 tweets
On Twitter 28 months
Britain’s most prolific tweeter (unless you know different) bills himself as a ‘Scouse Artist living in Leeds as a Web Designer! Occasionally known as Supasnail.’ Like many prolific tweeters he has been on Twitter a long time, but only has a comparatively small amount of followers
Mainly tweets about – Fairly serious tech stuff, Liverpool FC and Rhubarb
Sample tweet – I was often amazed that a Farm in Wakefield seemed to reject tonnes of Rhubarb each year. It’d be piled high for weeks.
2 Robert Brook (robertbrook)
35,411 tweets
On Twitter 32 months
Robert works for the UK parliament as part of skunkworks team, which, if like me you haven’t a clue what that is he defines it as: a group within an organization given a high degree of autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy.
Mainly tweets about – Descriptions about what he is up to (you get to know what he has eaten and when he goes to bed most days)and conversations with other tweeters, plus lots of stuff about getting parliamentary staff using Twitter (now there’s a good idea)
Sample tweet – Bt have sent me a letter about my wife’s death. She’s right here!
3 lo fi (infobunny) London
28,702 Tweets
On Twitter 26 months
Lo fi remains a mystery as she protects her tweets. She’s a librarian which makes me suspicious that she might be doing something with library codes. She also blogs at a cool little site at twitterapps.co.uk
4 Amanda (Hedgewytch)
28,542 Tweets
On Twitter 20 months
Hedgewytch describes herself as a ENFP Mac Support general creative wannabee. Don’t know much else about her as she protects her tweets, but 28k tweets in 20 months sounds like she is either obsessed with Twitter or has been using it for something else interesting.
5 Danie Ware (Danacea)
25,920 Tweets
On Twitter 26 months
Danie is a PR for @forbiddenplanet (dotcom!) and also a Writer, Warrior, Fitness Nut, Geek, Gamer, Art Toy Freak, Mum and Lemur!
Mainly tweets about – Lots of chat with her many followers. Also lets you know how she is faring with the book she writing.
Sample tweet – in dire need of wine. There’s a bottle of Vino Collapso in the fridge calling me – but must finish chapter and put my son to bed first…
6 Jennie (jaffne)
18,340 Tweets
On Twitter 24 months
Another Librarian, this time for a law firm. She also protects her tweets. There’s plenty of legal stuff on her blog.
7 Sizemore (sizemore)
18,163 Tweets
On Twitter 29 months
Sizemore is Mike Atherton, a London-based writer who is not only prolific but also has a lot of followers and is occasionally rather witty.
Mainly tweets about – Lots of TV-related chat with his many mates
Sample tweet – Hello Dublin. Extra points scored for listening to Come Fly With Me by Sinatra while playing FlightControl in the air.
8 Steve Lawson (solobasssteve)
16,614 tweets
On Twitter 15 months
Steve Lawson is a lovely bloke who is quite possibly the world’s best connected bass guitarist. He blogs, lectures, makes vids and from time to time still finds time to play his bass
Mainly tweets about – lovin his bass and his podcasts
Sample tweet – in a sound war of bass vs power tools, I *could* win… but today, I’ll valiantly surrender 😉
9 James Governor (monkchips)
16,405 posts
On Twitter 29 months
James Governor (yep I think that’s his real name) is an industry analyst whose Twitter feed is chocka with interesting little insights into the way he sees the tech world going.
Mainly tweets about – Big companies like IBM and Amazon and the ecosystem that surrounds them.
Sample tweet – Get Excited and Make Things. Work on Stuff That Matters. Ignore Everybody.
10 Charonqc (Charonqc)
16,392 Tweets
On twitter 11 months
Legal blogger – sometimes very funny
Mainly tweets about – getting fit and other law companies
Sample tweet – Allen & Overy is now following me… that’s nice. I wonder what they will get from the experience? They issue lots of bulletins on Twitter
11 Suw (Suw) London http://chocolateandvodka.com
14,306 Tweets
On Twitter 29 months
The original British social media guru who has a very fine and very popular blog. Twitter feed is a must.
12 PaulWalsh (Paulwalsh)
13,869 Tweets
On Twitter – 29 months
Irish entrepreneur and start up guru who spends a lot of time in London. Can be very funny.
13 dominiccampbell (dominiccampbell)
13,621 tweets
On Twitter 22 months
Works on developing social media strategies for governments.
14 amypalko (amypalko)
Tweets 13,496
On Twitter 15 months
Bio says – ‘Fascinated in everything with a limitless curiosity – I live in a state of constant intrigue. ‘ Works in social media then.
15 joannayoung (joannayoung)
13,091 Tweets
On Twitter 20 months
Writing coach who has an interesting blog. Lots of details about her daily life.
16 Ram Solanki (jun6lee) London http://blog.ramchandra.me.uk
12,626 Tweets
On Twitter 22 months
Aspiring screenwriter. Lots of stuff about veggie food.
17 adamjones (applemacbookpro) London http://macbookismydream.blogs…
11,605 Tweets
On twitter 15 months ago
Given the title of his feed no surprise to find he has lots of followers. Lots of tech stuff and many retweets
18 Chris Leydon (chrisleydon) london http://www.chrisleydon.com/blog
11,440 Tweets
On Twitter 13 months ago
Astonishing tweet ratio from this 20-year-old who actually went cold turkey on Twitter a couple of months ago.
19 James Whatley (Whatleydude) London http://whatleydude.com
11,390 Tweets
On Twitter 25 months
Social media for voice to text people Spinvox
20 Phil O’Kane (icedcoffee)
Tweets 11,066
On twitter 26 months
Belfast-based photographer
RUMOUR: Apple to buy Twitter for $700m
First Facebook had a go, then the word was that Google made an offer and now the rumour is that Apple plans to buy Twitter and announce it in time for WWDC on 9th June.
The mooted price has jumped a mile from the last supposed offer of $250 million to a far healthier $700 million and according to the quote from an insider, “Apple is in late stage negotiations”.
Hard to know how much truth there is in this one. Last time it was just a meeting about advertising, apparently, so if there even is some talking between the two companies, then it could have been about a whole bunch of things. If it is about a deal, then that represents a very interesting move for what is, essentially, a hardware and software company into the world of services.
Google is fast becoming the giant of the tech world and it’s their take over of the internet that the waning Microsoft covets. Is this Apple’s first steps towards ensuring long term growth or is it just the next big company on the list to be linked with the microblogging darling. A fiver says it’ll be Twitter to buy Yahoo! next.
(via @Zee Tech Crunch)
Twitter bring search to its pages
Twitter has added a proper search bar to its pages now so that you, me and everyone we know can perform real-time searches as to what people are talking about. The move might actually give people a reason to go back to the main site whose overwhelming traffic goes only to the Twitter API with programs like twhirl and twibble and all other things generally with blue icons and beginning with tw.
The trouble is that are a plenty of services out there that already provide a real-time search of Twitter, so will it make any difference that the mother site has now got its act together?
If you can’t think of anything to search Twitter for, then the sidebar will display the most popular terms that people are talking about at the moment with Swine Flu and Wolverine on top at the moment. Not sure which of those I’d rather sit through.
(via Twitter blog)
Tech Digest Podcast #5
We are not infected. Actually, I can’t say that for certain. Duncan has a cold and I travelled in on the Tube before we started talking about all the Swine Flu panic on Twitter, the internet maps and the spread of the virus.
Thankfully, Swine Flu cannot be transmitted over podcast and, at the least, we’ve had time to talk about the imminent release of the Palm Pre; Cupcake on the second UK Google Android phone, the HTC Magic; holographic storage and the one billionth iPhone app download.
This week in, er, hard/soft (please help us) it’s all about the cloud-based antivirus program Panda and I try to persuade Duncan to run down to Aldi and buy a Medion laptop. Easier than it sounds actually.
I think we’ve managed to sort out the buzzing problem but the new issue this week is that I’m a lot louder than Duncan. As it goes, I am, but even trying to balance the inputs and some levelling software doesn’t seem to have solved the trouble. Next time. We’re getting there.
Send all your comments, topics that you’d like us to talk about and any requests or words of wisdom to me at [email protected] or throw us a tweet at @techdigest.
Twitter is just a passing fad, claims research
Research from Nielsen Online suggests that Twitter might have problems with ‘stickiness’ – with retaining users that give it a try. Its statistics suggest that more than 60% of Twitter users fail to return a month of using it.
In fact for most of the past twelve months, Twitter has had difficulty keeping more than 30% of its users after a month, though the entry of Oprah Winfrey has helped. Facebook and MySpace, before their explosive growth periods, had nearly double the retention rates that Twitter currently faces.
What would be interesting to see would be how many people come back later on. It’s been my experience of the site that people sign up and bag their name, then ignore it until lots of their friends are using it, at which time they return.
Still, it’s worrying news for the site which needs to start crossing over sooner, rather than later. Intense media coverage in the UK has helped, but it’s still not obvious to many new Tweeters how the site works, or its Twittiquette.
(via Nielsen Wire)
Microsoft launches Vine – Twitter for emergencies
Microsoft has a new software product called Vine that it’s beta testing with a small group of users in Seattle. It’s a location-aware social networking app that lets people share information in emergencies. As a result, the focus is on ease-of-use and robustness of the network in tough conditions.
The Windows-only program sits on your desktop and gathers data from local news sources and other users. You can post short ‘alerts’ or longer ‘reports’ to it via SMS and email, and it integrates with Facebook. Soon it’ll integrate with Twitter, too.
Emergency management officials are reportedly very excited about having a new tool to inform people in disaster situations, but Microsoft also says it could be used by football teams or schools to notify of closures or schedule changes.
If you live in Seattle and want to help Microsoft beta test it, then you can sign up at http://www.vine.net. If not, sit tight and with any luck it’ll be available in the UK within the next couple of years.
Vine (via Mashable)
Things You Should Not Twitter
People often tweet stuff they regret but beware, because it could now be preserved for posterity on a website set up exactly for the purpose. ThingsYouShouldNotTwitter.com contains screengrabs of Tweets that are a little bit on the iffy side, like people saying they’re going to cheat on their partners, or tweeting about watching porn.
Some examples include one user promising to masturbate on his roommate’s bed, a girl saying she’s going to ‘look for’ her boyfriend’s best friend, and plenty of people expressing how much they hate their boss.
The usernames are stripped out, but it’s pretty easy to track down the users responsible. The site’s creator says he made it to highlight how much personal info people share, and to try to get people to think twice about what they’re Tweeting.
Have you ever Tweeted something you’ve regretted? Send us a link at @techdigest. We won’t tell the whole world about it, promise…
What happens to your user name when you die?
User names are starting to become an issue. One’s identity online was never really a problem beyond trying to get the top result in a Google search – not an easy feat if you’re name’s John Smith but as Dan or Daniel Sung, depending upon how I’m feeling, I’ve always enjoyed the luxury of being somewhere near the top.
The trouble is, that my name’s not so rare that I always get my choice of user name on all the big services out there. Most people’s aren’t but, again, that was never really a problem when it was just about e-mail addresses, but now that Google profiles becoming all the rage and services like Twitter actually affect my career, suddenly, my juvenile choices of [email protected] and [email protected] aren’t very useful any more.
I can’t get [email protected]. It’s too late, unless I want to add a bunch of underscores and a three digit number, and because of that I can’t get the vanity URL I’m after. Regardless of whether [email protected] has actually clued up to the possbility of his http://www.google.com/profile/dansung address (and he hasn’t because the link’s dead) the fact is that I can’t have it because I don’t have the [email protected] user name in the first place. Instead, I have to be satisfied in my petty revenge that enough spambots should have picked up his credentials by now and sent a few thousand messages to clog up his account.
So, how do I go about getting my name back, aside paying the guy for it? What if it’s some kid who never uses the account? What if the owner of [email protected] is dead? Any chance then?Well, I seem to remember in the terms and conditions when I signed up to hotmail that if you don’t use your account for 60 days or so, then MSN terminates it, and, in fact, having asked around all the majors – Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail and Twitter, that does seem to be largely the case. Here’s how it runs.
Gmail
Google was very helpful on the matter, answering my question directly and then pointing me towards the supporting terms and conditions.
Google will terminate your account in accordance with the terms of service if you fail to login to your account for a period of nine months is the phrase I was looking for along with the fact that people can actively delete their accounts.
Now, the tricky part is that, although the user names will become freed up, it will only happen after an unspecified time period and I’ve no idea whether that’s a matter of days, months or years. Still, there is some hope for [email protected] to eventually arrive at its rightful owner.
Yahoo! Mail
Yahoo! was also most accommodating. The answer was very different though. It seems, with their service, that once your name has gone, it’s gone forever. As it stands, inactive accounts are not terminated and will lie idle indefinitely.
On the plus side, they did launch Ymail just last year, so I might be in for a shout at bagging that one while the service is fresh. Yep, all mine. Eat that one [email protected].
MSN
No reply back from MSN as yet but I’ll stick with that 60-day account termination I remember from back in the day. No word on whether they recycle the addresses but I’m infuriated to see that I’ve only got a choice between hotmail.co.uk and live.co.uk with all .coms presumably available to those in the States or behind proxy servers of some sort, or, in fact, those with some other way round which I have, as yet, to work out.
Accounts that are inactive for more than 6 months may be removed without further notice
That’s what Twitter has to say about things, but notice the use of “may” rather than “will”. I would assume that Twitter does recycle user names, though, because they’re hot on name squatting. Go and have a look at the whole section dedicated to it if you don’t believe me.
The catch is that I happen to know of a chap desperately trying to get his user name in full knowledge that its current owner has done sod all with the account for well over the six month period. He has petitioned Twitter but they’ve done nought about it. All mouth and no trousers it seems.
The trouble is that the internet is still young; an adolescent really. It’s only now that this kind of thing is becoming an issue and, given the surprise of most of the press officers when I called, it’s something that we the users are realising a lot faster than the big web players.
So, there’s a few ways this can go. Either they get wise to this and realise that they need to start releasing user names or they get wiser and start charging some kind of premium for them. That was Facebooks toe in the water this morning. I wonder how well that would go down if Google tried the same?
So, what happens to your user name when you die? Well, that depends. For now, it’s very possible you can take it with you to the grave. Then, it seems my choices are either begging Google for some kind of alert service for when my name is released or a cash offer to the current owner. If you’re listening [email protected], how does fifty quid grab you?
Breaking: Pirate Bay Judge biased?
This is currently a breaking story, so we don’t have a lot of detail right now, but Pirate Bay defendant Peter Sunde has accused the judge in the Pirate Bay case, Tomas Norström, of bias. He made the accusations on Twitter, claiming “the #spectrial judge seems to be working within the copyright lobby”.
Swedish news sources claim that the judge is a member of a couple of organizations that might have compromised his neutrality in the case. Firstly the Swedish Association of Copyright (SFU) and secondly, the Swedish Association for Industrial Property. The former body also counts rights holders’ lawyers Henrik Pontén, Peter Danowsky and Monique Wadsted, and the latter pushes for stronger copyright.
It’s unlikely that this could have a effect on the trial, as it’s come to light after the judgement has been passed. The Pirate Bay’s lawyers have had ample opportunity to raise this. It does mean, however, that the verdict of the promised appeal could turn out very different.
Several law sources have criticized the judge for taking the case under these circumstances, but the judge has resisted pressure, saying; “I have not felt that I am biased because of those commitments”.
Eric Bylander, Associate Professor of Procedural Law at the School of Gothenburg, disagrees, saying that in such a high-profile case the judge should have been more careful. Peter Sunde is promising more detail later on today, so keep an eye on this developing story.
via @brokep and Sveriges Radio P3 (Google translated)
