Screenshot of the Twitter Trends gadget

I’ve put the final touches on a simple Twitter Trends gadget for iGoogle pages.

The gadget allows you to see at a glance what the current Twitter trends are, as well as trends for yesterday and the day before (in case you missed them).

Have a look at the gadget information page to learn more and add to your iGoogle page.

Enjoy!

Recently Mark Pavlidis of Pavlidis Consulting contacted me to let me know he has released a suite of iPhone applications to help you battle traffic delays. I have been playing with the Calgary Traffic App for some time now and it’s been a great tool to see what is happening on the roads in my city.

Also available in Vancouver, Toronto, Quebec City and Montreal flavours, the gadgets allow you to see the traffic situation throughout your city from anywhere using current traffic camera images. You can add multiple cameras to your cameras list and then scroll through them with a swipe of your finger. Check out the demo video to see all of the features.

Currently available for a limited introductory price, this is definitely a suite of apps that road warriors will find to be a trusty companion when they are out battling in the streets. Visit the Pavlidis Consulting iPhone Applications page now to learn more about the apps and purchase from the Application Store.

Update: V.1.3 will be released soon which fixes a bug in the 2.1 iPhone OS (a bug I luckily haven’t experienced) and adds the option to Select All/None of the available cameras.

Also check out some of Mark’s other projects, the Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets for Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto traffic cameras. 

James Hallen thinks so and has created a site where frustrated Canadians can petition online for Rogers to release better data rates for Apple’s iPhone, which will be released in Canada on July 11th. You can be heard by signing the petition at http://ruinediphone.com, which the creators of the site say will be submitted in a hard copy format to Rogers.

I signed the petition because I think that Canadian consumers need to speak up especially in markets where there are monopolies or a lack of consumer choice. Although the iPhone is not available through other carriers, I have lived without the iPhone long enough that I don’t need to submit to Rogers’ sub-standard data plan offerings.

“Not bad” is not a good enough offering Rogers. 

Matt Galligan, Co-Founder of SocialThing stopped by my blog the other day to leave a comment about the article I put together showcasing SocialThing and FriendFeed. In his comment he told us that a new version would be out soon and we could expect enhancements to the services offered and the stability and speed of SocialThing.

It would be great to see the ability to view one service’s updates at a time, e.g. click the Facebook icon and get Facebook statuses, click the Twitter icon and get Tweets.

Can It Replace Hahlo, Twhirl?

I have used Twhirl in the past to post and view tweets but lately I have been using Hahlo pretty exclusively. I notice that Matt is using SocialThing to post his tweets, which I don’t normally do unless I want my Facebook status set the same. I’m very interested to see if this new version of SocialThing can convince me to use SocialThing exclusively for posting tweets.

There have been two tools come out recently that take some of your accounts throughout the web and put them all in one place for you to easily peruse or share. If you are like me, you have many different tools you have signed up for on the Internet and your biggest problem is just keeping track of them all. SocialThing and FriendFeed can help.

About SocialThing

SocialThing is currently in a private beta stage of development. It takes your accounts from around the web and puts status updates and notifications on one “Lifestream” where you can review what all of your friends are doing, without them needing to create an account. The updates and notifications you would receive through Twitter or Facebook are shown in your Lifestream as they occur.

Services

Currently SocialThing supports Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, LiveJournal, Pownce and Vimeo. It isn’t an exhaustive list of tools, but there are plans to support more in the future such as Picasa Web Albums, Google Reader, StumbleUpon and many more. I like the way that they approach development on SocialThing; they present the users with a list of tools that they would like included and allow them to vote on which to get first.

About FriendFeed

FriendFeed is gaining a lot of popularity throughout the web, mostly starting with the blogging crowd. Until just recently FriendFeed’s focus has been more of an update tool to be able to let friends know what you have been doing around the web. The interaction using FriendFeed has so far been limited for myself. I join these new services everytime they crop up, but I can never convince my friends to do the same. FriendFeed is a great way to share what I am doing, but there is no community aspect to it if you don’t have any friends on FriendFeed.

Services

FriendFeed provides the option to link to a lot more tools than SocialThing curently offers, such as Last.fm, YouTube, del.icio.us as well as the services that SocialThing offer and many more.

FriendFeed just changed the way I use it by adding a “Rooms” feature where FriendFeed users can come together to share items and have discussions. It is an interesting new feature that adds a lot of social flavor to the system, but I wonder how many of these social networking sites I can be involved in fully.

The Verdict

I really see FriendFeed and SocialThing as two different tools. FriendFeed is a great way to share what you’re doing with others throughout all of your accounts on the web, but SocialThing is a great way to get updates from your friends’ accounts throughout the web without having to have them join a new service.

I usually peruse my SocialThing page in the morning to see what is new with my friends on Facebook and Twitter but I rarely even visit my FriendFeed page because most of what I see posted there I have already subscribed to in Google Reader or read on Twitter. With the new “Rooms” feature I can see myself getting more involved in what others are sharing and discussing.

Check them both out! I have 11 beta invites for SocialThing currently and would love to send one to you if you are interested. Drop me a line in the comments to request an invite.

I am a firm believer in word-of-mouth referrals. Word-of-mouth referrals are worth far more than their weight in gold and they can put you in contact with interesting and influential people. When I am looking to buy a house or car or even a coffee, I want to buy it from someone I know or from someone who comes recommended by someone I know.

To get this type of exposure is really fairly straight forward and easy, it is an organic and natural flow that does not need to be rushed or pushed.

Be a Person, Not a Robot

Just be yourself. Reply to tweets that interest you, post links to articles or websites you find funny or informative. Post your thoughts throughout the day, tweet about who you are going out to meet and where you’re going. Whatever you do, just be yourself, not a plugged-in corporate megaphone that spits out tweets solely to promote yourself. As I mentioned before, Twitter is a communication tool.

There is an exception to the above. That exception is that you are an established service or personality that people already find value in, and those people would like to follow you on Twitter as well. But don’t force it on them. Simply linking to your Twitter account from your blog or inviting people to follow you on Twitter allows people the opportunity to follow you if they would like to get updates to what you are doing, saying or thinking.

Incorporate Your Blog Into Twitter

The only tool I use for promotion through Twitter outside of communication and networking is twitterfeed. It will scan my blog’s RSS feed every 30 minutes for new posts and then link to them via a tweet. There are many people who use this and I have had Twitter friends read and then comment on posts that twitterfeed tweeted for me. I am thinking of personally writing an introduction for my posts in the future, to lend a little bit more of a human feel to these tweets. It’s very easy and convenient to let twitterfeed take care of it automatically however.

Meet New People on Twitter

Twitter is about communicating with people. The best way to get exposure on Twitter is to meet people who are interested in the same things as you are, or interested in the topics in your blog or on your website.

Here are some tips and tools for finding interesting people on Twitter:

• Use Twitter’s search feature at the top of the page. Enter a location, name or keyword. The search will go through Twitterers that have the keyword you entered in their profile.
• Using Google Talk or text messaging you can “track” certain keywords. I use tracking on topics that I am interested in and receive any tweets that are posted publicly containing my keywords.
• You can check out Twitter’s Blocks tool to find people who are communicating with the people you follow.
• Check out @hashtag’s site using an area, interest or event in the form of http://hashtags.org/tag/taghere. For example, if you want to check out Calgary you can enter http://hashtags.org/tag/calgary. Learn more about Hashtags in the Twitter Fan Wiki.
• Create a feed on TwitterLocal. You can enter your city and a search radius and you will be given an RSS feed you can subscribe to that shows public tweets from people within your search radius.
• Follow what the Twitter Fan Wiki calls “Minor Celebrities” and other personalities.
• There are many other Tools on the Twitter Fan Wiki that you can use to find interesting people.

Just be yourself, get involved and have fun! You will meet new interesting people and learn more about fascinating subjects. As you go people will take notice and get to know you on a more personal level.

Do you know of any tools to find interesting people or to promote yourself on Twitter that aren’t listed here? Share a description and link in the comments.

How Twitter Users Identify Twitter Spam

I checked out funnyfest’s profile on the web and found that every second post, or more, contains a link to his website promoting a local comedy festival. Nothing interesting to say at all.

He also had 0 followers, although he was following 150+ people.

At that point it is registered in my brain as Twitter spam. It’s really that simple, it takes me 30 seconds to decide whether or not this is an interesting person who I would like to follow. His link-ridden tweets told me that this person has absolutely nothing to say, apart from proliferating links throughout Twitter to — well, no one, no one follows him. His very high following:follower ratio showed me that he was following people in hopes that they would follow back and create an audience for his promotional efforts.

Twitter Spammer Tactics to Avoid

These are some common practices that Twitter Spammers use to get their message across. Unfortunately they are not successful. Avoid these practices to ensure that the Twitterverse does not see you as a spammer.

• Twitter is a great tool to use to meet and communicate with people. Start with that in mind.
• Deciding to follow a small town worth of people, hoping that they will follow you back is not the best way to get exposure on Twitter. They may see you as a spammer due to a high following:follower ratio.
• Be personal. Be you, tweet about interesting things that are happening in your life. Local events you attend, your thoughts, your experiences. Don’t be a robot, tweeting only about your website or blog posts.
• Twitter provides an area for you to post a link to your site in your profile. People will click on that link if they want to know more about you or what you have to offer. Keep it that way; don’t post a link to your site every second tweet.

People on Twitter have a hyper-sensitive nose when it comes to smelling out a spammer. If they suspect you to be one they will probably tweet about it to others and your credibility could easily be lost in a matter of minutes for hundreds of people. There are also now tools out there to help people evaluate what type of Twitterer you are, such as @followinger and the Twitter Blacklist (Thanks to @doshdosh for the link to the blacklist).

The First Impression is Important

I think that funnyfest08 just doesn’t understand these points, being new to Twitter. I am fairly confident that most people will see him (or already have seen him) as a Twitter spammer. I really hope that he reads this post and either reconsiders his involvement in Twitter or decides to become a member of the community. Unfortunately his Twitter market was fairly small, being that he is promoting a Calgary comedy festival, and he may have already lost a lot of opportunities to promote to Calgary twitterers. It may be a long battle uphill to get his name cleared of the “Twitter Spammer” label.

In a post to follow I will give you some tips as to how you can use Twitter to promote yourself, your blog, website, services, art or event without being seen as a Twitter Spammer.

Note: Before I posted this I had a look at funnyfest’s profile to ensure the link in my post worked. It looks like he has figured some of this out. Best of luck to you funnyfest, it looks like you put in a lot of work to get this comedy festival running. If you come across this post please get in touch.

Do you have any advice for new Twitterers? Let them know in the comments.

I recently came across a reference to Aviary on Amber Mac’s blog and thought I should check it out. Since buying a MacBook I have been sans-Photoshop as I can’t really justify the cost for a Mac version of the software I have been using to create layouts and website designs for years. I have never been able to embrace GIMP, running it through the X11 windowing system on my MacBook frustrates me and I haven’t found a decent image editor that can replace Photoshop. Could a free online image editor be the solution I’ve been looking for?

What is Aviary?

Aviary is developing a suite of free online creative tools, each given the moniker of a bird all housed within the… er… Aviary. Included in the flock are tools for many different creative-types. Image, video and sound editors. Pattern generators, desktop publishing tools, layout tools and an interesting take on content licensing. By requesting a beta invite and stating in my request that I was focused on image editing I received access to Phoenix, an online raster image editor (à la Photoshop), and Peacock, an online algorithm-based pattern generator.

What Makes Aviary Different?

The philosophy behind Aviary is enabling “rich content creation and distribution”. You will be able to create a vector image in Raven, import it into the Phoenix raster editor and take the result to the Owl desktop publishing layout editor. From beginning to end you can generate a creative peice and take it straight to market, all without opening a hard drive-based program to do it. You can also choose to allow other Aviary users to edit your work to end up with a collaborative masterpiece. Each week Aviary features a “Collaboration of the Week”, where a starter image is posted and the Aviary users are given free range to create their own image using the original, or using another user’s derivative of the original.

Free, Online, Downloadable

Aviary plans to make these free online tools available as Adobe AIR downloads, which will no doubt make the programs faster than the web-only versions as well as cross-platform compatible. There are a lot of exciting things happening at Aviary.

Currently I have 5 invites to Aviary. If you would like to try it drop me a line in the comments!

I came across an advertisement for Flock, The Social Web Browser and decided to check it out. With all the accounts I have strewn across the web I hoped that Flock would be able to manage some of them easily for me, all in once place. So far it is doing that for me pretty well.

Flock is powered by Mozilla, so the interface and use is pretty familiar if you have used Firefox before. The browser shares security updates with Firefox and renders web pages the same as Firefox. This browser really isn’t hard to get used to and should be as secure as Firefox. You can also use a lot of the Firefox extensions available with Flock plus an assortment of extensions specifically baked for Flock.

Flock manages to present a lot of information on the screen without making it look too cluttered or busy and the interface is very clean and straight-forward.

Instead of logging in to my Gmail, Twitter, Facebook and Picasa accounts, I can now access updates and details from all of my services on a small sidebar. Clicking the people icon brings up a sidebar showing my Twitter and Facebook friends and their recent updates to either service. For more information I can click a site-specific tab to see my new invites, pokes, messages and tweets, all from the same area without having to log in to each site every time.

Flock supports many different services currently, such as Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, Blogger, WordPress.com, Gmail, del.icio.us and others. You can post straight to your blog, write a message to a friend on Facebook or post a tweet from the sidebar of the Flock browser. You can also open the media bar and view your friend’s recent pictures posted to Facebook, Picasa, Flickr and other photo sharing sites. Currently they don’t have Google Bookmarks support (which I use) but in reading through a Flock forum, it won’t be too long before it is.

What would make Flock amazing? Google Bookmarks, and some instant messaging clients so I could post to twitter through Google Talk or chat with friends on MSN while I put new designs together. Flock would be amazing and I would be even more hyper-connected than I currently am, which probably isn’t something I should wish for.

You should definitely check out Flock if you have more than a Facebook account to track. If you already use Firefox, you’ll find Flock pretty much the same, a little better looking and able to keep your accounts within a glance.

http://www.flock.com – Available for Mac, Linux and Windows

Hurry up with the iPhone Apple/Rogers!

(They look too much alike)