twitter

There's a new tactic going on with Twitter. Enterprising young hackers and spammers are using bot programs to scour the web for blog and content management sites that are not locked down very well. Once found, the bot posts a "tweet" on Twitter with a few bits of text from the site's main page, along with a link to the new user account profile the bot has created on the site.

The bot also posts a bit of data in it's "bio" on the new site with various links it's wanting to increase the popularity of in Google. What's even more interesting is that there will generally be several hundred followers of the bot, but the bot follows noone. Are those people who want to make use of the accounts that the bot has rooted out?

Some bots will specifically target certain types of content management software. For instance, I've stumbled on several that will target ExpressionEngine, but others go after Drupal or Wordpress blogs that allow users to register accounts.

In most if not all cases, the users running those website don't even realize they are now host to spam fodder.

So, when both Flickr and Twitter are down are u supposed 2 post a silly 140 chr or less blog post?

I just had an epiphany. I want twitter to implement a threshold setting in my account above which I don't get notified of new followers.

For instance,

I get followed by "JennyFreeLaptop23434".

I get an email letting me know...

But, with a follower threshold setting on notifications, I could set in MY account a threshold of "10:1" and since Jenny is following 253,530 people and only has 5 followers, I can safely assume that Jenny is a spammer. And if Jenny is following more than 10 people for every follower, don't bother letting me know she's (he's?) following me too.

Just a thought...

It's amazing to me that I see so many people on Twitter who are SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts. I imagine they are a small percentage of users on twitter, but one of the most likely to randomly follow every person they can find - much like Googlebot ;-)

You will also see a lot of people who create a Twitter account simply to try to make money or drive business to themselves. You'll also find established businesses who use Twitter as a way to keep up with customer feedback.

I like to think that I'm none of the above. In fact, with the exception of the last one (thank you @fordcustservice !) I find most of those people unworthy of following. I do follow a few SEO specialists, but just the few that when I check their stream it's obvious that they have real content to share and not just regurgitated buzzwords.

Please note, this only seems to work for whichever desktop environment you are using when you install. If you install in Gnome and then try to run in KDE (or vice-versa) it may not work due to something with Air.

After much Googling and pain and suffering, I finally got TweetDeck working in my 64 bit install of Ubuntu.

If you use Twitter, have more than 20 or so followers and haven't tried TweetDeck yet, you don't know what you're missing out on. TweetDeck will help you organize the people you follow into groups, manage your direct messages, and even set up searches that watch the Twitter stream for certain topics. It's a must-have for anyone using Twitter on a regular basis.

I've used these instructions now in both Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy and 8.10 Ibex, and they worked well.

First, you'll want the getlibs package. (note, link updated 10/8/09)

If you're part of the new social media crowd and already using sites like Twitter, Facebook, Netflix and more, you can't pass up an opportunity to try out Kwiry.com.

Kwiry (sounds like query) is a nice little "Beta" Web 2.0 service that acts as your mobile gateway to all of this plus more. It looks like Kwiry itself is a mashup of Twitter and a personal note taking service, but with their additions of gateways into other web applications, Kwiry becomes the personal mobile assistant you can't do without.

Kwiry will tie in with your cellphone and allow you to SMS text messages to it to leave notes to yourself or, and this is the killer app part, actually take actions on multiple web services. Are you standing in your local Wal-Mart and happen to notice "Serenity" on DVD and realize that it's the best Sci-Fi movie ever made and you still haven't seen it? Don't just remember it, don't just leave yourself a note. Using Kwiry you can quickly add it to your Netflix queue by simply texting "netflix serenity".

Want to update your Twitter and Facebook statuses simultaneously? Simply text "status Im in ur base killin ur d00dz"

Did you forget that "Hellboy" was playing on TV and you wanted to Tivo it? Just text "tivo hellboy".

Maybe your cellphone carrier isn't supported directly, or perhaps SMS text messages cost you money on your corporate BlackBerry plan? No worries - simply add your phone's email address to your account and send emails to "save@kwiry.com" instead of text messages. Just be sure to put your message in the body and not the subject line.

Kwiry also provides a mobile optimized website you can use from your iPhone, BlackBerry or other web enabled cellphone.

I've emailed support at kwiry.com and found them to be extremely courteous and responsive - I received personal answers back within five minutes.

The only negative I can even mention is that for full features you'll need to enable pop-ups for Kwiry.com in your browser. They use this to let you attach your Netflix, Facebook and other accounts without having to leave the Kwiry website.

I look forward to what additional gateways Kwiry adds to the service. I think this is going to be a staple of the mobile Web 2.0 user. I'm not sure how I've missed this service this long.

Some weeks ago I was introduced to Twitter, which is billed as a "micro-blogging" web service. When I first saw it about a year ago I really didn't quite get what it was all about. Later I learned that many of the photographers I talked to on Flickr were into Twitter as well, so I thought I'd try it out.

It didn't take long until I was addicted. Twitter is essentially a cross between instant messaging and blogging. It's like instant messaging with an RSS feed. You don't normally select who you want to send your instant message to, but the people who are interested in what you have to say will subscribe to your twitter feed. This means that anything you say can be read by anyone else if they are so inclined.

Soon I found I was being followed by such people as Abbie Lundburg, chief editor for C.I.O. magazine and Guy Kawasaki, one of the original founders of Apple.