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
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
MySpace has acquired photo-sharing site Photobucket, according to a report on the Valleywag blog.
The deal could be announced as early as Monday afternoon, according to the blog.
Photobucket, the largest photo-sharing site on the Web with more than 40 million registered users, engaged in a public relations battle recently with MySpace.
MySpace accused Photobucket of violating its terms of agreement by "encouraging" its users to post advertisements in the photo slide shows they posted to MySpace.
Note: This post was cross-posted from a CNET News.com story.
Update: The deal has been confirmed, and is now set to close at around $300 million dollars. An official announcement from the two sides won't take place until an agreement is made.
Photobucket currently gets about 45,000 new video submissions a day, many of which are hosted on the MySpace member profiles. Despite being at odds with MySpace's own video hosting and sharing service, the Photobucket acquisition has the potential to strengthen MySpace's current photo sharing features.
More details can be found on CNET New.com.
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