TwitsMag Canada

Remember when we thought Twitter was going to crush all the third party Twitter applications? Hasn’t happened.

The most popular Twitter client going is UberTwitter for BlackBerry, according to a sampling of Twitter’s API done by coder Ed Finkler.

Almost 9% of Tweets sent out each day come from UberTwitter. The next most popular is Tweetdeck at 5%. Twitter for BlackBerry comes in at 4%.

It’s interesting that Twitter’s official app for BlackBerry hasn’t killed the upstart UberTwitter. And it’s also interesting that while Tweetdeck gets the majority of attention from the tech press, it’s not the most popular Twitter client.

BlackBerry Twitter clients are likely the most popular because BlackBerry is the most popular smartphone OS out there.

Article Source: sfgate.com

WASHINGTON — Twitter wants to help you build your network.

The micro-blogging service began rolling out a new feature Friday called “Suggestions for You” which directs users to other Twitter accounts they may find interesting.

“With more than a hundred million users on Twitter, there are sure to be at least dozens of accounts out there that will reflect your interests,” Twitter said on its official blog.

“The trouble is finding all of them,” it said. “Today we’re beginning to roll out a simple, but powerful new feature to help address that.”

Twitter said the “Suggestions for You” algorithms find other accounts of potential interest using various factors, including “people you follow and the people they follow.”

A Twitter user who clicks on the “Who to Follow” link on the Twitter homepage sees a list of suggested accounts to follow.

Twitter, which combines the strengths of blogs and instant messaging services, enables users to send and receive short messages of up to 140 characters on personal computers and mobile devices.

Twitter said it planned to make the suggestions feature available to developers of desktop and mobile applications for Twitter.

Social network Facebook already offers a similar feature called “People You May Know” which suggests possible new friends to members.

Article Source: AFP

Article Source: Financial Post

The popular micro-blogging social network known as Twitter is not actually a social network.

“That has been the myth since the beginning,” twitter co-founder Biz Stone told the World Innovation Forum in June. “We’re much more like an information network or a source of news.”

Indeed, more and more people are using Twitter to find live updates on current events faster than with other search engines. When the National Post covered the G20 protests in Toronto live, it was Twitter that informed our reporters of riots forming elsewhere while other media was still covering what appeared to be peaceful protests. When an earthquake shook central Canada in late June, Canadians turned chiefly to Twitter to share information.

Last June, Twitter was a primary source for news on the Iranian election as traditional media failed to gain access. Facebook has also been trying to become a social network-search engine hybrid, but those efforts have not been going very well for them.

So it should come as no surprise that since April 2009, search queries through twitter saw a 33% increase in total volume. While that statistic may not sound impressive by itself, consider Microsoft Corp’s Bing search engine saw its total number of searches increase by 22% last year. Subsequently, reputed pollster Nielsen declared Bing the fastest-growing search engine in the United States.

With twitter’s latest bump substantially higher, that title now belongs to them.

More than 800 million twitter search queries are processed every day, making for a monthly total of 24 billion searches. According to FastCompany, Microsoft Bing only hosts 4.1 billion searches per month and Yahoo search hosts 9.4 billion monthly queries. That means more searches are now processed by twitter every month than by two leading global search providers combined.

Good thing FP Tech Desk is also on twitter.

what's happening?

The micro-blogging social network Twitter has launched a New FIFA World Cup fan website. It allows you to connect with the players, teams and gets you the newest updates by joining the real-time tweets.

Characteristics:

• Show the real-time tweets.
• Top tweets
• Upcoming Matches
• Flags of all countries

Not only that, but have fun supporting your team by adding the flag of the country with each tweet. HOW?!! Type hashtags and the symbol. Example: If you are a fan of Spain type #ESP, Brasil #BRA, England #ENG and so on… Show your support and have fun tweeting!

Here is a screen shot of how the website looks like :

FIFA World Cup 2010

4 Tips for Reducing Social Media Stress

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Article Source: civilsociety.co.uk

Twitter sceptics will this morning be rubbing their heads, as yesterday’s Twestival continues to rake in donations from around the world. So far the event has raised more than $306,000

This morning’s count is already significantly higher than for the debut event last year, which raised $250,000 for charity: water.

Twestival involves the coordination of real-life events in 175 cities around the world in which Twitter users come together to socialise and raise money for charity. This year the global beneficiary is Concern Worldwide.

“Organizing online and gathering offline allows Twestival to harness the incredible communication power of Twitter to propel participation in real events around the world,” said Amanda Rose, founder of Twestival.

“There is no shortage of people who are passionate and want to help. The challenge is coordination, not participation. By using social media platforms such as Twitter, Twestival is able to connect hundreds of independent local events into a powerful global initiative.”

Article Source: erictric.com

Good news, crackberry addicts! Research In Motion has announced that it will begin rolling out the native Twitter application for BlackBerry smartphones next week on Wednesday, March 31. The information comes directly from the RIM/BlackBerry booth at the international Cellular Telephone Industries Association [CTIA] Wireless 2010 convention in Las Vegas. It wasn’t too long ago that RIM promised that the Twitter app was going to be released soon, and this time it appears that the Waterloo-based company kept its word.

We first learned about the native Twitter app for BlackBerry back in September of last year. Then on February 11, Research In Motion released an invite-only beta of the application to a group of selected bloggers and users.

The application looks very similar to the current native Facebook app for the BlackBerry platform. Early reviewers have mixed opinions about it. Though the most important opinion is that of the end-users. Those who use Twitter and BlackBerry smartphones will not have to wait long to give the application a try.

Erictric will let you know once the Twitter app for BlackBerry starts rolling out with the respective download information.

Article Source: Los Angeles Times

As most Twitter users know, a significant portion of the social network’s value comes from all the interesting links that send users from one part of the Web to another.

Market-research firm Hitwise recently decided to see where all those Twitter users go when they leave Twitter.com. The firm found that most folks go to entertainment sites and other social networks.

According to Hitwise, about 60% of Twitter users go to entertainment sites or social networks after leaving Twitter.com. Out of that group, the majority of folks visit photo- or video-sharing sites.

That won’t surprise hard-core Twitter users. The social network is inundated with links directing users to a person’s images on photo-sharing services such as TwitPic, Tweetphoto and YFrog. YouTube is also a popular video destination link on Twitter.

After social networks, Hitwise found that about 7% of Twitter users surf to search engines, while 5% go to lifestyle sites. Just under 5% of users head to news sites.

All told, Hitwise found that destination sites are seeing a 138% uptick in visitors from Twitter.com compared with the same period last year.

Article Source: Reuters

TORONTO (Reuters) – For tech-savvy singles who are unlucky in love, shy or just looking for a new way to meet people, Flitter could be the answer.

Hundreds of singles attended the first Flitter parties across Canada last week in the latest dating game which is a play on words of the microblogging site Twitter and flirting.

Each guest wore a white sticker with a number and gazed closely at their iPhones and Blackberrys in a dimly lit room in Toronto, their thumbs tapping away at their mobile devices on Twitter.

They were Flittering and trying to catch the attention of other tweeters who were flying solo on the eve of Valentine’s Day.

“#129, you’re so fine, but #152, you’re hot too. Man oh man, what will #72 do?” tweeted one guest as the comment showed up on a giant projector screen set up inside the venue.

Will Lam, a 27-year old banking professional and Twitter fanatic, attended the event because he was interested in seeing how Flitter worked.

“I was just wondering how they would leverage Twitter and facilitate interaction between people,” said Lam, who found the tweeting to be awkward and distracting in his attempts to strike up conversations with women.

“I actually tweeted #19 was really cute, but I can’t even find her anymore,” he said.

But Halley Trusler, a 23-year old event co-ordinator who recently moved to Toronto, found Flittering to be a great way to meet people.

“It allows people who are a little more shy to put themselves out there,” she said.

Trusler received plenty of tweets offering to buy her drinks and revealed she may have someone in mind by the end of the night.

The tweeter can choose to sign off with his, or her, assigned number or send an anonymous message or compliment. The recipient can respond and meet the tweeter if interested, or just read the anonymous compliment and move on.

All senders must end the tweet with the word “Flitterme.”

Justin Parfitt, founder and CEO of Fastlife, the Canadian-based dating service provider, originated Flitter singles events in Australia and introduced them to North America.

He thought there must be some way of getting people to interact using work devices, such as their Blackberrys or iPhones, to make people feel social as oppose to anti-social.

The Flitter parties, which were also held in Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal, were advertised on the Internet.