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Comments on: Two tools to add cool people on Twitter

New Twitter services Mr. Tweet and AutoPack help you find people you should be following.

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by rhyscampbell January 4, 2009 10:16 AM PST
I recently blogged about how to do this with my Twitter app Tweet-SQL

http://sqlclrnews.blogspot.com/2008/11/making-friends-with-tweet-sql.html

I'm sure twitter will restrict this soon due to abuse by spammers.
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by stiennon January 4, 2009 10:19 AM PST
DO NOT EVER GIVE YOUR user NAME and Password to a Twitter application. Are you crazy? Would you give up your banking ID to a money manager site? If you value Twitter and your social network do not give up you credentials, or for that matter recommend sites that require you to give up your credentials.

Sheesh.

-RS
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by JasonGooljar January 4, 2009 10:26 AM PST
Most sites that are genuine (like Tweetree and Twitpic) are going to ask for Twitter credentials. It's like Facebook Connect that's how it works. You just have to be aware of the good and bad.
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by mndanielscnet January 4, 2009 10:31 AM PST
I've tried MrTweet and it's fantastic, though there is a big lull on the amount of time it takes for them to get back to you with your recommendations. (I've heard that they're upping their team/abilities to meet the demands though so that's good for new/potential users, as my wait time was between 3 and 5 days)

With all of the phishing scams going on I'm weary of any site that asks for my login credentials and would probably have stayed away from AutoPack or TwitterPack but might give them a second thought now.

Come on Twitter, let's monetize the site AND implement things like OAuth. It's good for the people and it's good for business. :)

@mndaniels
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by bethesdafrog January 4, 2009 10:34 AM PST
would love to use these sites, but will have to see tighter security features before i give my user id and password on twitter, and with tighter security features twitter may also force these third party apps to change their own features and functionality.. probably in the near future what with the uproar re. phishing and spam on twitter lately.

pascal
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by rhyscampbell January 4, 2009 3:21 PM PST
Twitter are working on OAuth. Sounds like it might be coming in the not too distance future.
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by defining January 5, 2009 5:51 AM PST
Thank you for this article. Glad you touched on twitter security, it's been bugging (no pun intended) me for a while.

How does one verify that a site asking for a twitter "credentia"l is genuine? Twitter need to communicate this its users.

From one comment above I now know that Tweetree and Twitpic are genuine, but when registering for Twitpic and it asked asked for my twitter "credential" I supplied the information with trepidation.
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by sperlingreich January 5, 2009 9:02 AM PST
Could Mr. Tweet or AutoPack be the reason I have received dozens of followers in the last 24 hours. I am setting a personal record for number of new followers in a single day. And I agree with Rafe, be very careful who you give any of your social networking or blogging passwords out to.

http://twitter.com/sperling
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by Jayphen January 5, 2009 7:00 PM PST
AutoPack automatically lists Twitter users who have added themselves to the 'Twitter Pack' wiki. These Twitterers could be anyone - not necessary 'cool people'. I won't link to that wiki since this has hit the Digg frontpage, but it's not hard to find.
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by AndrewRich January 5, 2009 7:16 PM PST
Um, no. These services facilitate yet more Twitter spam. The point of Twitter is keeping up with people you know, not randomly following Mr Popular.
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by gary_e January 7, 2009 10:33 AM PST
After 6 months of being off the air we just re-launched http://WhoShouldiFollow.com, another site that helps you find interesting people to follow on twitter.
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by tomtodd86 September 27, 2009 7:24 PM PDT
Nice, ill be sure to use this info.
www.blogtoilet.com
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