Twitter Tips: Sharing videos

Although photo sharing is the type of media most often shared by tweeters, video is right up there, as well. That’s not surprising given the immense popularity of YouTube and other video sharing sites. Here are four Web sites that make it easy to share video with your Twitter tribe:

  

1: ffwd (www.ffwd.com). This interesting site lets you build a personal list of channels , which can be TV shows, Web-based video shows, and more. Once you add achannel to your account, you browse through its video offerings, and when you come across something you want to share, you click the Share on Twitter icon, sign in to your Twitter account, and then post the update. For faster service, you can add your Twitter credentials to your profile (click Profile and then click Account).

2:  TweeTube  (http://tweetube.com/). This site is designed to help you easily share YouTube videos with your Twitter posse. The home page includes a text box that you use to paste the address of the YouTube video you want to feature (you can also use the TweeTube site to search for YouTube videos). Click Get Video and TweeTube retrieves the video, as shown in figure 9.7. Type a message, type your Twitter account username and password, and then click Share this video.

  

3: Twiddeo  (http://twiddeo.com/). This new service lets you upload and share your own video with your tweeps. You can upload a video file from your computer, beam in a video captured on your phone, or even record a video straight from your Web cam. 

4: TwitWall  (http://twitwall.com/). This site enables you to share not only videos, but also images and music files. Log in with your Twitter account credentials, click Add an Entry, and then specify a message and your video specifics. For the latter, click the Embed Tags tab and then your video code (such as the <object> tag code associated with a YouTube video).

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Twitter Tips: Sharing music

Got a favorite song you’d like to share? That’s awfully nice of you. Fortunately, sharing a tune on Twitter is easy if you use any of the following music sharing sites:

  

1: Blip.fm (http://blip.fm/). This site lets you set up your own broadcast station. Create an account and then configure it to share with Twitter by typing your Twitter credentials. Locate a song from the Blip.FM archives, click Blip, type some text to appear in your tweet, and then click OK.

2: Song.ly (http://song.ly/). This site is a combination music search service and music sharing service. Type an artist or song title and click Search, and Song.ly looks for matching music on the Web. In the results (see figure 9.8), if you see the song you want to share, click the Tweet icon, sign in to your Twitter account, and then post the tweet.

3:  Twiturm  (http:/twiturm.com/). You can use this site to share your own music by uploading an MP3 file, or to share Web-based MP3s by specifying a song’s Web address. Log in with your Twitter username and password, and then click Upload. Specify a local file or a Web address, type a message for the tweet, and then click Upload.

4: twt.fm  (http://.twt.fm/). This site is by far the most popular music sharing service among Twitter users. Twt.fm associated with IMEEM (http://imeem.com/), so it has access to the millions of songs in the IMEEM database, but twt.fm can also locate music streams on the Web or share your MP3 links. The home page asks for your Twitter username, an artist name, and a track name. Click Preview and, if twt.fm finds 

the track (see figure 9.9), click Yes! Tweet It to switch to Twitter where you can post the tweet.

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Twitter Tips: Using TwitPic

The gold standard in photo sharing for Twitter is TwitPic (http://twitpic.com/), which is by far the most popular photo sharing service for tweeters. This is partly because almost every Twitter application that comes with some sort of “Share a photo” feature uses TwitPic to handle the dirty work of uploading the photo and shortening the URL. However, the TwitPic site itself is really easy to use, and you can even use TwitPic to upload photos by e-mail (from your camera phone, for example).

Here’s the procedure to follow to upload a photo and post a tweet using the TwitPic site:

1.  Navigate to http://twitpic.com/ and type your Twitter account username and password. Your TwitPic home page appears. The photos you post will appear here.

2.  Click Upload photo.  The Upload and post a photo page appears.

3.  Click Browse.  (If you’re using a Mac, click Choose File.) The Choose File to Upload dialog box appears.

4.  Choose the photo you want to upload and then click Open (or click Choose on your Mac).

5.  Type a message to go along with your photo, as shown in figure 9.3.

6.  Click Upload.  TwitPic uploads the photo, shortens the photo’s URL, and then posts that address and your message as a tweet (see figure 9.4).

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Twitter Tips: Sharing Photos, Videos, and Music

Facebook users get to share photos and videos with their friends, and MySpace users also get to share their favorite MySpace bands with their peeps. Twitter is, obviously, a text-only medium, so sharing media with your tweeps is out, right? True, you can’t embed media directly into a tweet, but you can embed links to any media that you’ve added to other sites, such as Flickr and 

YouTube.

That works, but the entire process is a bit on the exhausting side, particularly if you want to share 

lots of stuff:

1.  Go to the site where your media is hosted.

 2.  Upload the media to the site.

 3.  Copy the address of the page that displays the media.

 4.  Go to a URL-shortening service and shorten the address from step 3.

 5.  Go to Twitter or load your favorite Twitter application.

 6.  Compose a tweet about the media, paste the shortened URL, and then fire away.

My but that’s an awfully roundabout way to perform a task that takes only a few mouse clicks on Facebook or MySpace. Ah, but the Twitterverse can be remarkably resourceful when it senses something missing from its vast toolbox. So now there are special Twitter-friendly sites where you can perform all of these steps in one place. It’s the civilized way to share photos, videos, and music. 

The next few sections tell you about a few of these sites.Sharing photos If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a single photo is the equivalent of about seven tweets! 

Fortunately, you only have to post a single tweet to share a photo using any of the many photo-sharing services that support Twitter. In the next section, I show you how to TwitPic and later I give you some info about a few other photo-sharing sites.

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Twitter Tips: Adding a Twitter gadget to your iGoogle page

If you’ve got a customized iGoogle page loaded with gadgets, why not add a Twitter gadget into the mix.

 Here’s how:

1.  Head directly to your iGoogle page by surfing to www.google.com/ig.

2.  If you don’t have an automatic sign-in, click Sign In, type your Google e-mail address and password, and then click Sign in.

3.  Click the Add stuff link. Google displays the Gadgets tab.

4.  In the Search for gadgets text box, type twitter and click Search. Google displays a list of Twitter gadgets.

5.  Check out the gadgets by clicking the link for each gadget.  In the page that appears, you see a screen shot, a description of the gadget, user reviews, the number of downloads, and more. Use this information to select a gadget that suits you.

6.  Display the page for your preferred gadget and then click Add it now.  Google adds the gadget to your iGoogle home page.

7.  Click Back to iGoogle home.

8.  Use the gadget to log in to your Twitter account. Figure 8.21 shows Twitter Gadget in my iGoogle home page.

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Twitter Tips: Displaying tweets in Firefox

If you’re a Firefox fan, you probably won’t be surprised to know that you can customize the browser with Twitter-related extensions. These are mostly simple apps that show your friends’ tweets and let you post updates. Here are the three most popular Twitter extensions for Firefox.

1: TwitterFox- This extension (available from http://twitterfox.net/) adds a Twitter icon in the bottom-left corner of the Firefox window. After installing, click the icon to type your Twitter account credentials. Twitter Fox looks for new tweets every five minutes and then lets you know when new updates arrive. Click the Twitter Fox icon to see the tweets or post one of your own (see figure 8.22).

2: Power Twitter- This extension (get it directly from the Mozilla Downloads page at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9591) is actually designed to enhance the Twitter.com site. Power Twitter adds new features to Twitter such as converting shortened URLs to their original addresses, showing images and videos within the tweet (see figure 8.23), adding buttons to share a photo and shorten a URL to the update box, adding a Search box in your sidebar, adding a retweet icon to each update, and integrating Twitter with Facebook.

TwitKit. This extension (get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6845) adds a sidebar to Firebox, as you can see in figure 8.24. It’s a pretty standard Twitter client that enables you to post updates, see your friends’ tweets (updated automatically; yes!); reply and favorite those tweets; and view lists of your 

friends, followers, replies, and tweets.

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Twitter Tips: Adding a Twitter widget to your Mac dashboard

If you want to do the Twitter thing using your Mac’s Dashboard application, there’s a widget called (not even remotely surprising) Twidget that’s worth the download. Here’s how to get it:

1.  Open Safari (or whatever Web browser you prefer) and direct it to www.apple.com/downloads/ dashboard/. The Dashboard Widgets page appears.

2.  In the Search box, type twidget. The page displays a link to the Twidget widget.

3.  Click Twidget. The download page for Twidget appears.

4.  Click Download. Your browser downloads the widget and the Widget Installer appears.

5.  Click Install. Within seconds, the Dashboard opens and you see Twidget ready and raring to go.

6.  Type your Twitter username and password and choose My Friends in the Timeline Display pop-up 

menu.

7.  Click Done.

8.  Click Keep.  Figure 8.20 shows the Twidget widget running in the dashboard.

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Twitter Tips: Adding a Twitter gadget to your Windows Sidebar or desktop

Working with Twitter Gadgets and Widgets

If your desktop Twittering needs are fairly simple  you want to watch your friend’s tweets go flying by, post an update every so often, and perhaps fire off the odd reply  then a big, fat desktop program or slow-to-load Web application isn’t for you. Instead, you should consider a Twitter gadget or widget, a low-calorie application that lets you perform the basic Twitter tasks without getting in the way of your other activities.

Adding a Twitter gadget to your Windows Sidebar or desktop

If you’re running Windows Vista, you may have the Windows Sidebar tucked into the right side of your monitor. Sidebar displays gadgets, which are mini-applications dedicated to some small task, such as displaying the weather. There are a few Twitter gadgets out there for Windows, so if you want to use one of them on your PC, follow these steps to download one:

1.  First, make sure the Sidebar is displayed by choosing Start  : All Programs  :  : Accessories Windows Sidebar.

 2.  Launch your favorite Web browser and use it to navigate to http://gallery.live.com/.  The Windows Live Gallery page appears.

3.  In the search box, type twitter and press Enter.  Windows Live Gallery displays all the gadgets that match your search term.

4.  Click the Sidebar gadgets link. Windows Live Gallery displays all the Twitter gadgets, as shown in figure 8.18.

5.  Check out the gadgets by clicking the link under each gadget thumbnail. In the page that appears, you see a description of the gadget, user reviews, the number of downloads, and more. Use this information to select a gadget that suits you.

6.  Display the page for your gadget of choice and click Download.  Windows Live Gallery displays a warning that you should only install gadgets from developers you trust.

7.  Click Install. The File Download dialog box appears.

8.  Click Open. The Internet Explorer Security dialog box appears.

9.  Click Allow. The Windows Sidebar - Security Alert dialog box appears. Grrr!

10.  Click Install. Finally, your gadget appears in the Sidebar (or on the desktop in Windows 7).

11.  Configure your gadget with your Twitter credentials and whatever other options the gadget offers. To 

configure a gadget, move the mouse pointer over the gadget, and then click the wrench icon (see figure 8.19).

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Twitter Tips: Tweetvisor Web based Twitter

Tweetvisor (http://tweetvisor.com/) is probably the most ambitious of the Web-based Twitter applications in that it doesn’t compromise on features. Almost every bauble and bangle that you get on even the best desktop clients is available with Tweetvisor. 

The downside is that the interface is awfully busy, as you can see in figure 8.17.Your Tweetvisor home page is chock full of stuff, so I’ll just hit the highlights:

A: Your Replies.  This is the left column and it shows the reply tweets that folks have sent you. Click and drag the Set refresh rate slider to specify how often you want Tweetvisor to check for new replies.

B: Update box. You use this box to send a tweet. It comes with a built-in URL shortener, and clicking the Tools link enables you to create tasks and shrink tweet text.

C: Tabs. These are the buttons below the update box, and Tweetvisor offers nine in all, including Friends Timeline, Me (your tweets), Favorites, and Followers List. Click the Groups tab to create subsets of your friends. Click Search to run a Twitter search, which you can then save the search to the Favorite Searches tab by clicking the Save this topic and  track the updates link. You can also click the Tweets About You tab to view a list of updates that mention you, or the RTs tab to see a list of updates that have retweeted your tweets.

D: Your Hot Topic.  This section is designed to show you the results of a Twitter search. If there’s a topic you’re particularly interested in monitoring, run a search using the Search tab, and then click the Make topic HOT link. This displays the result in the Your Hot Topic section, where Tweetvisor will update the results automatically every few minutes.

E: Friends Timeline.  This middle column shows your friends’ tweets. Click Refresh to see more, or select the Real-time check box to have Tweetvisor refresh the timeline automatically. Hover your mouse over a tweet to see icons for replying, retweeting, sending a direct message, and marking the tweet as a favorite.

F: Your Direct Messages.  This column shows the direct messages that you’ve received.

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Twitter tips: Tweetree Twitter replacement

Tweetree (http://tweetree.com/) isn’t a full-featured Twitter replacement, but that’s okay because it offers a few features that you won’t find anywhere else.To see what I mean, log in using your Twitter username and password to get to your Tweetree home page, as shown in figure 8.15. You get the usual update text box at the top, followed by your friends’ tweetstream. Each tweet has icons that enable you to reply, retweet, or mark the update as a favorite.

Here’s where you notice the first of Tweetree’s unique features (see the first tweet shown in figure 8.15). If a tweet includes a shortened URL, Tweetree automatically ferrets out the original Web address and displays the page title (as a link) and the domain where the page resides. Why bother? Two reasons:

A: Many tweets introduce a shortened URL with only the barest of barebones descriptions: “Check this out doodz!!” or “This is funny LOL”. Clicking the link more often than not wastes a few minutes of your precious time. By expanding the address automatically and showing the page title, you get a much better sense of what you’re in for on the other side of the link.

B: There’s an inherent danger in a shortened URL because you simply don’t know for sure where it will take you. Malicious users routinely use shortened URLs because they effectively hide the destination domain. With Tweetree, you not only see the domain, but you can hover your mouse over the link to see the full page 

address in the browser’s status bar.

Either way, there’s no more crossing of the fingers when you click a shortened URL.I should mention, too, that Tweetree also looks for links to images on sites such as TwitPic and to videos on sites such as ffwd, and it automatically displays the media within the tweet, so you don’t have to click yet another link to see yet another baby picture.

Finally, we come to the “tree” part of the Tweetree name. Tweetree examines your friends’ tweets, and if it finds a reply, it grabs the original tweets and displays them using a tree-like format, as shown in figure 8.16. It’s a nice way to listen in on a Twitter conversation.

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Twitter Tips: Twittering on the Web -Twitter Web Sites

In the Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better Department, a number of Web sites have sprung up out of the ether in recent times to handle your tweeting chores, and their aim is to out-Twitter 

Twitter. They do that by offering useful features that tweeters crave, such as URL shortening, image sharing, and real-time updates. Toss in the advantage that you can use these sites to manipulate your Twitter world from any remote location where you have Web access, and Web site-based tweeting becomes a viable alternative to the desktop variety.

iTweet

iTweet (http://itweet.net/) is a full-featured Twitter interface with enough e-bells and e-whistles to keep most Twitterers tweeting contentedly. After you log on with your Twitter username and password, you see the main iTweet interface, as shown in figure 8.13. The page is divided into two vertical sections:

1: The left column includes a posting area at the top, and your friends’ tweets below. The timeline is updated automatically (a feature that iTweet calls Autorefresh), so right off the bat iTweet is a step ahead of the Twitter site.

2: The right column shows your profile info, your most recent tweet, and boxes for searching Twitter, configuring iTweet settings, and learning iTweet.

You work with the tweets by using the icons that appear on the right side of each update:

1: Retweet.  Click the RT icon to retweet the message to your followers.

2: Favorite.  Click the star icon to mark the tweet as a favorite.

3: Reply.  Click the @ icon to send a reply to the tweeter.

4: In reply to.  If the update is a reply, click this text to see the original tweet that the update is in reply to. This is a really nice feature, and it’s often indispensable in letting you figure out what the heck someone’s talking about.

When you get the urge to share, click inside the text box at the top of the page and type your missive. iTweet has three tweeting tools that you’ll want to get to know:

1: URL shortener. Click this tool, type a Web address in the Enter a URL to shorten text box, and then click Shorten. (See Chapter 9 for more about URL shortening.)

2: TwitPic. Click this tool to share a photo with your followers using the TwitPic service. Type a description in the text box that appears, click Upload, and then choose the picture you want to share. iTweet uploads the image to TwitPic and posts the tweet.

 3: Symbols. Click this tool to display a collection of characters (see figure 8.14). If you see a 

symbol that would go well with your tweet text, copy the symbol and paste into your tweet.

If you want your tweet to be a direct message, click the Send direct button, type the username in the Direct Message to text box, and then click Send DM.

To check out iTweet’s other sections, click the links at the top of the page:

  1: Home.  Click to see your friend timeline.

  2: Replies.  Click to see the replies sent to you.

  3: Direct. Click to see the direct messages sent to you.

1:Favs. Click to see the tweets you’ve marked as favorites.

2: Followers.  Click to see the people who follow you.

3: Following.  Click to see the users you follow.

4: Public. Click to see what’s happening in Twitter’s public timeline.

5: Archive.  Click to see the tweets you’ve sent.

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Twitter Tips: Controlling Twitter with twhirl

After TweetDeck, the next most popular Twitter desktop client (at least as I write this) is twhirl, and this popularity is well-founded. twhirl is a solid Twitter client that performs all the basic tweeting chores with ease, throws in a couple of extra goodies to sweeten the pot, and offers one thing that even the mighty TweetDeck can’t do.

 It can handle multiple Twitter accounts.Giving twhirl a whirltwhirl is an AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) application, so it runs on multiple operating systems, including (as I write) Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X. (I expect you’ll see support for Windows 7 added soon after Microsoft’s latest operating system ships.) Point your favorite Web browser at the twhirl site (www.twhirl.org), and click Install Now. 

The installation program first installs the AIR runtime files (if your computer doesn’t already have them), and then it installs twhirl.

Setting up your Twitter accounts

When you first launch twhirl, you see the Accounts tab, which is where you manage your Twitter accounts. 

Here’s how to get started.

1.  Make sure the pop-up list shows Twitter.  twhirl also supports identi.ca, Iaconi.ca, Friendfeed, and Seesmic, but I’ll just stick to Twitter business here.

2.  Type your Twitter username in the text box, and then click the plus sign (+).  twhirl adds the username to the Accounts list.

3.  Repeat step 2 for each of your Twitter accounts. Figure 8.9 shows the Accounts tab with a couple of 

Twitter accounts added.

4.  Click the Twitter account you want to use.

5.  Click Connect. twhirl prompts you for your Twitter account password.

6. Type your password, and then click Login.

7. Repeat steps 4 through 6 to log in to other Twitter accounts. twhirl displays each account in a separate 

window.

Figure 8.10 shows a typical twhirl window. The default view shows your friends timeline in the bulk of the window, and an update text box, which twhirl calls the input panel, at the bottom.

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Twitter Tips: Working with tweets

To work with a tweet, move your mouse over the avatar of the person who sent the tweet. As shown in figure
8.10 (see the second tweet from the top), twhirl displays four icons:

A: Send reply. Click to send a reply to the tweeter.

B: Send direct message. Click to send a direct message to the user (as long as you follow each other, of course).

C: Favor. Click to mark the tweet as a favorite.

D: Retweet.  Click to retweet the message to your followership.

If you want to gain a bit of control over a lengthy list of tweets, click Toggle filter (it’s the funnel
icon), and then use the Filter text box to specify a filter.

A: To show only those tweets that include a particular word, type that word and press Enter or Return.

B: To hide those tweets that include a particular word,

type a minus sign (-), type the word, and then press

Enter or Return.

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Twitter Tips: Posting a tweet

As far as shipping out your own tweets goes, click inside the input panel and start typing at will. twhirl has two 

extra doohickeys that you might find useful when constructing a tweet.

A: Shorten URL.  Click this icon (it looks like a two-link chain) to open the dialog box shown in figure 8.11. Type (or paste) the address in the URL text box, select a site from the Service pop-up (some sites require a login, so fill in your credentials if needed), and then click Shorten. 

B: Share an image. Click this icon (it looks like a camera) to share a photo with your followers using the TwitPic service.Choose the picture you want to share, and then click Post image. twhirl uploads the image to 

TwitPic and inserts a link to the image in the tweet.

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Twitter Tips: Navigating twhirl

Twhirl’s interface is a simple one-thing-at-a-time affair that lets you focus on one aspect of your Twitter life. 

The friend timeline from your Twitter home page is the default view twhirl calls this a panel, but twhirl actually 

has eight panels in total, and you navigate among them by clicking the icons at the bottom of the window. Here’s a summary.

  1: Toggle input panel.  Click this (it’s the speech bubble icon) to hide or show the input.

2: panel. (This applies to all the views, so this option isn’t a separate view per se.).

3: Home.  Click this to see your friend timeline.

4: Replies.  Click this (it’s the @ icon) to see the replies sent to you.

5: Directs. Click this (it’s the envelope icon) to see the direct messages sent to you.

6:Archive.  Click this (it’s the folder icon) to see the tweets you’ve sent.

7:Favorites.  Click this (it’s the heart icon) to see the tweets you’ve marked as faves.

8: Friends/Followers. Click this (it’s the people icon) to see two lists: one for your friends and one for your 

followers.

9: Lookup.  Click this (it’s the person with a question mark icon) to look up a tweeter’s profile. In the text box that appears, type the username and then press Enter or Return. twhirl displays the 

user’s profile data and his or her recent tweets, as shown in figure 8.12.

10: Search. Click this (it’s the magnifying glass icon) to run a Twitter search. Use the text box to type your 

search query, including any of the standard Twitter search operators.

Twhirl also offers some useful keyboard shortcuts for navigating the window, which I’ve summarized in Table 8.1.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Navigating twhirl :-

Ctrl+Left arrow Move to next panel to the left Ctrl+Right arrowMove to next panel to the right

T or F1 Display the Home panel 

R or F2 Display the Replies panel

A or F3 Display the Archive panel 

D or F4 Display the Directs panel 

S or F5 Display the Favorites panel 

F or F6 Display the Friends/Followers panel 

L or F7 Display the Lookup panel 

Y or F8 Display the Search panel 

U or F12 Display the input panel and move the cursor inside the panel 

M Open the Accounts window O Open the configuration window

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