twitter

As an avid Twitter user, I'm constantly trying to find ways to extend its functionality and make it more than a place to converse with friends and discuss what's going on in my life.

Doing that can be quite simple. More often than not, I'll employ "Remember the Milk" or a similar tool that lets me use Twitter to manage my tasks. These tools typically work well and help me achieve my single desire: to fully exploit Twitter and get everything I can out of it.

But in recent weeks, I've realized that I've been missing the boat in a very big way. In the past I've used sites like Bloglines, Google Reader, and others to track prominent sites, and find out what kind of stories they're covering each day. Some are related to technology, while others focus solely on sports. No matter the topic, the RSS reader made it easy to find out what's going on in the world without being forced to go to all the different sites individually.

But in recent weeks, I've realized that each day I use the best feed reader of them all and I didn't even know it: Twitter. Since then, I've used it exclusively as a replacement to my RSS reader and I couldn't be happier. Believe it or not, Twitter is the best way to find all the best news.

People, people, people I'm a firm believer that you should follow everyone who follows you on Twitter. I think it would make the community a better place and by doing so, you actually get more out of the service than by only following a select group of friends.

But I've realized now that it goes beyond just knowing other people. I now know that by following other people, your chances of getting more news, and getting it faster goes way up. And that's precisely why Twitter users have kept me from having to rely on my RSS reader for news.

Remember when US Airways flight 1549 landed safely in the Hudson River? I didn't hear about it in my RSS reader and I didn't even see it on TV. No, first I heard about it from folks on Twitter.

I simply checked Twitter to see what some of my followers were up to and almost immediately, a deluge of discussions on Flight 1549 cropped up. I immediately went to my RSS reader and discovered something I didn't expect:… Read more

As it has in years past, Microsoft is meeting this week with some of its hardcore enthusiasts--the Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) that serve in many ways as unpaid ambassadors for the company's products.

This year, though, the gathering with tech enthusiasts is completely closed to reporters and is also covered by nondisclosure agreements (NDA). However, that hasn't stopped the chatter, particularly because of the heavy use of Twitter to discuss the event. (For the latest discussion, simply click on this link.)

There are dozens of postings every few minutes, ranging from talk about meals and the weather to … Read more

Every once in a while, you read something on Twitter that's just pitch-perfect, despite (or maybe because of) the microblogging service's 140-character limit.

Today's honor is bestowed upon numbers guru and "Web Analytics: An Hour A Day" author Avinash Kaushik, currently employed as Google's analytics evangelist.

On Monday, he posted a total zinger, framing it as an "OH," or overheard, indicating that he wasn't the one who actually came up with the contents of the Twitter message (or "tweet") but didn't want to openly quote the person who … Read more

The murkiness surrounding Facebook's valuation got in the way of its attempt to acquire Twitter last year, according to a BusinessWeek article posted Sunday.

Early Facebook investor Peter Thiel's interview with BusinessWeek make it sound like while the talks were serious, they simply didn't go that far: "It became pretty clear it wasn't going to happen...The deal would have to be done with Facebook stock. And then you have to figure out how much the stock is worth." Twitter, according to an anonymous source, was told that the social network's valuation was … Read more

Update with comment from Biz Stone at the bottom.

In a presentation to a group of TV executives, Fred Wilson (an investment analyst at Union Square Ventures, one of Twitter's investors) showed off what appears to be integrated search in Twitter.

As seen on slide 22 of Wilson's presentation, this new version of Twitter features a whole page, framed in the Twitter user interface, that shows real-time search results and trending topics, such as those currently seen on Search.twitter.com along with a brand-new "featured user" element on the right.

We have known that integrated … Read more

I wrote yesterday about the case against enterprise micro-blogging. And while many people agreed with my suggestion that Yammer may not be ideal for my situation, we all agree that there is something to the notion of short-message style communications in the enterprise.

In Twitters' consumer setting, we tend to want the instant gratification with little to no follow-up on the discussion. In the business world we are looking for everything to have a meaning to our team/company and so on.

In the business world content is king, but context matters.

Besides the act of communicating, most people want … Read more

As a consistent Twitter user, I've found the service to be a valuable marketing tool, as well as an entertaining activity for my friends to shoot one-liners at each other.

Last week, I started experimenting with Yammer, a Twitter clone that facilitates private microblog user groups, a feature that Twitter not only doesn't have but refuses to say if it will ever offer.

My team of five started using Yammer on a Monday, and by Friday, we decided that it was pointless. First, it's not integrated with anything else we use--Twitter, IM, Skype, e-mail, etc. What's … Read more

Did Missouri's U.S. senator, Claire McCaskill, just use Twitter to blab the timing of President Barack Obama's choice to run the Department of Health and Human Services?

On Saturday afternoon, McCaskill left this post on the microblogging site: "A little anxious about the announcement of HHS Sec. Hopeful that my pal Gov of Kansas will get the call. It should happen today or tomorrow."

Obama's initial choice for the post, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, withdrew his candidacy after he acknowledged failing to pay $140,000 in taxes and interest.

Actually, the announcement--whenever … Read more

You will, along with many millions of others, likely make an emergency appointment with your psychologist this week.

After all, the words of Lady Greenfield, professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln College in Oxford, England, have probably slapped their syllables against your very core. Social-networking sites, she said, like Facebook (it's interesting how Facebook seems to have come to symbolize all social networking), are infantilizing the human mind.

The definition of infantile behavior appears to span such horrific traits as sensationalism, short attention spans, and a need to urinate in the middle of shopping malls. (Perhaps I inadvertently slipped … Read more