Top 10 Twitter Tools

I love micro-blogging. More directly I love twitter. Beyond connecting with fellow tweeters, I love using the third party tools that others have created using the twitter API. Here are my Top 10. What additional ones do you know of?

1. Twitscoop.com - http://www.twitscoop.com 
2. Summize - http://search.twitter.com 
3. Twellow - http://twellow.com 
4. Twitsig.com - http://twitsig.com 
5. Tweetscan - http://www.tweetscan.com 
6. Tweetlater - http://tweetlater.com 
7. Twannabe - http://twannabe.com 
8. Tweenky - http://tweenky.com 
9. Twittercounter - http://twittercounter.com 
10. Twitterise - http://twitterise.com

For everyone who doesn’t use this Twitter Firefox extension. It’s a MUST have to have:

1. Twitterfox - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5081

I have following from a macro level on what Twitter is and the pros and cons of using Twitter as a social media tool. So far the results have been promising.

I recently told a few active friends from within my social network circle about my participation with Twitter and to my surprise many still were unfamiliar and actually never heard of it. When I tell them that it is a “Micro Blogging” tool, instantly they reply, “I do not blog or do not have time to blog. I like to stay connected”.

That is the answer.

Twitter seems to be a radical new way to stay connected in bite size chunks with your friends that you are following and those people who wish to follow you without the clutter of all of the other modules that come along with the larger social networks like Facebook and MySpace. Who has the attention span for that?

More to come on the Social Media use of Twitter and other Micro Blogging or should I say Micro Communication tools.

I must admit it is rare I get excited about a new web application that hits the market. There have literally been thousands of startup web 2.0 companies the past year in 2007. Now for 2008 I have been waiting to see an application that will hit the marketplace that will make a splash.

I think I might have just discovered the darling web application for 2008. Its called: Xobni (yes, thats “inbox” spelled backwards).

I, like others, have used Outlook since its heyday when it was introduced what seems to be eons ago. One  thing that always bothered my was its inherent inability to make finding something easily. Of course you power users must be rolling your eyes at my lack of knowledge of Outlook, but lets be honest. This isn’t documented but over 90% of Outlook users use Outlook for its basic email features that they learned using those free email websites that introduced them to email in the first place like Hotmail, Yahoo Email, AOL and others that have come and gone.

Once they are introduced to Outlook and understand the concept of how to setup a POP email account they feel like they have conquered the email world. But wait. Outlook is much more than that! Before you know it, the novice user settled in their conditioning of how to send and recieve emails and they never get into the advanced features of Outlook, why should they when everything seems so complex. When they have to actually “learn” Outlook.

Introducing, Xobni.

Basically it is an easy to install application that plugs into Outlook seamlessly and appears as a tab on the right side. After an easy install, and a mild synchronization effort (it took about 8 minutes to synchronize my entire Outlook data), I was instantly exposed to a tool that now does everything for me when it comes to organizing my Outlook data!

There are a few key features that are so cool you wonder, “why didnt Microsoft think of this first!”? Lets name a few from the current features on Xobni’s website:

1. Lightning fast email search.

2. Phone Numbers Extracted from Emails

3. Quick Attachment Discovery

4. Email Analytics

Of course my favorite feature is the Position Ranking of your contact based on the total In and Out emails over the span of the user. Instantly now I was viewing and sharing with my friends who was in my Top 10.

Currently Xobni is giving out Beta Invites. Get yours now by clicking here.

Great job Xobni folks!

If you don’t understand what that means then you haven’t heard of ‘micro-blogging’. According to Wikipedia, micro-blogging is:

“Micro-blogging is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually less than 200 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, MP3 or the web.”

In other words, it is a new tool that allows you to write as it is known “micro blog” posts. The truth is, many people start blogs, but few actually have the patience and content to write consistent posts with quality content. Also, due to the fact that people for the most part need to access the internet to view your blog post be it directly or via an RSS feed, micro-blogging takes the blog to the cell phone which I am sure you are like myself it is always in your hand!

So to like all new technologies there are a few participants in this niche that provides a service (of course what is nice it always starts off ‘free’).

Let’s begin by giving you the Top 5 Micro Blog Websites so you can create an account and take micro-blogging for a test drive:

 1. Twitter - This is the main player according to the industry currently. It was started in July 2006 and has been growing rapdily ever since. This free service gives you the options to post status updates via Text Messaging (SMS), e-mail, or web browser. The great thing about Twitter is the fact that it has opened its platform to allow third party developers to build applications on top of it! Take a look at my cosmin ghiu twitter account.

 

2. Jaiku – Jaiku is considered the main competitor to Twitter. Most features are similar to Twitter as well. We already seem to have the Google / Yahoo competition brewing!

 

 

  3. Tumblr - My personal favorite due to the fact that it inlcudes a variety of features. Text is a staple, but also photos, quotes, links, chats, videos, and what is nice is the fact that you can select different templates for your micro blog along with being given the option for a ‘custom’ template if you want to get into the CSS of your template.

I also love the clean and elegant design of the site and the great usability factors throughout the website. Of course take a look at my cosmin ghiu tumblr account.

 

 4. Pownce - Pownce is one of the latest entries into this space. It was started by Kevin Rose (Digg.com founder). Besides text messaging, it allows users the ability to share links, files, and events with anyone on their contact list. It has a nice Web 2.0 design and feel to the website. Should be interesting how they continue to grow.

 

5. Frazr – Last but certainly not least is the international entry known as Frazr. This is the Twitter of the French and German markets. Of course it is very similar to twitter in its functionality.

The main reason I put this one last is to highlight the fact that micro-blogging is here to stay! It is not just an American niche but one that is expanding globally as well. According to Wikipedia since May 2007 there are over 110 international micro-blogging websites services. All have similar features with a few bells and whistles extra.

Now only to find a way to penetrate the micro blog directly to mainstream internet users and bloggers. Whatever that formula is, I will be on the lookout.

This new buzzword has been placed on something that has been going on a lot since the web 2.0 explosion the past year and a half now. According to bNET Crowdsourcing is simply put: “the basic idea is to tap into the collective intelligence of the public at large to complete business-related tasks that a company would normally either perform itself or outsource to a third-party provider. Yet free labor is only a narrow part of crowdsourcing’s appeal. More importantly, it enables managers to expand the size of their talent pool while also gaining deeper insight into what customers really want.”

One web company that has launched that tackles crowdsourcing exclusively is: CrowdSpirit.org . CrowdSpirit basically applies crowdsourcing to products. Products have been using crowdsourcing since the introduction of “reviews” and “comments” for websites that sold products or allowed such feedback from users and visitors.

Truthfully many times when I would comparison shop I would look at the reviews and/or comments for a particular product and in many times use that as the trump card to make a purchase on a specific brand or model. CrowdSpirit takes crowdsourcing and placed it in a nice schema:

Of course crowdsourcing as originally mentioned is just a buzzword currently. This idea can be applied to various other buzzwords such as:

• Fansourcing
• Crowdcasting
• Open sourcing
• Open innovation
• Crowdfunding
• Mass collaboration
• Collective customer commitment
• Wikinomics

Some enablers of crowdsourcing can be used such as:

• Email
• Blogs
• Wikis
• Online forums and mailing lists
• Internet services such as YouTube and MySpace

So we may be witnessing the beginning of a new phenomenon in marketing and enabling of success online. One thing is for certain, crowdsourcing is officially here.