TWITTER

Ever since SXSW back in March, Twitter has been on fire, becoming the API de Jour for hobbyists to tinker around with. A lot of fresh data to munch on, a reckless disregard for the use of it’s trademark, and enough hype to launch a second moon landing are certainly helping the Twitter forge ahead. Here’s a look at some of the uses people have put the service to.

Tracking the Twittosphere

• Twiterment - A Twitter search engine that lets you find out the most popular Twitters by keyword along with a histogram of the terms frequency and map of the Tweets locations. You can also do a search comparing the relative frequency of two terms on Twitter. A simple comparison of a search for “work” compared with “beer” seems to explain the productivity drop on Fridays.
• Twitterholic - It’s the site that tracks the who’s who of the Twitterati. The site ranks users based on their number of follows, displaying their number of updates, friends, handle, location, and URL. Currently Twitter’s founder, Evan Williams, is being beaten out by the likes of Darth Vader and his relentless pursuit of Luke Skywalker (who thankfully doesn’t Twitter).
• Twitter Vision - A Google-maps-powered voyeuristic romp through Tweets from around the globe, Twitter Vision maps the latest random Tweets by location and lets you vote on the quality of the post.
• Twitter Atlas - Twitter Atlas is a Live Maps powered version of Twitter Vision that both lets you see Tweets as they appear, but also discover more about the area around the Tweet you’re stalking. TA can get directions to a Tweet, gas prices, traffic, blogs in the area, movies, events, photos, people, and even Wifi so you don’t have to stop Twittering along the way.

Twitter Anywhere

• In Your Browser
  TwitBin - We wrote about this Firefox plugin, and it’s worth another mention here. TwitBin sits in your sidebar, updating you on your friend’s latest Tweets and letting you broadcast your own.
• On a Mac
  Twitterific - It’s the most talked about Twitter client for Mac. The application lets you follow your friends Tweets, marking the unread, and post your own Tweets from you Mac’s desktop with some simple keyboard shortcuts.
• On Windows
  Twitteroo - A Windows client that lets you do the usual tracking and posting for your Twitter account, Twitteroo optimizes its load time through caching and also shortens URLs using rurl.org, so Twitter’s character limit doesn’t keep you from spamming deep links to your friends.
• On Apollo
  Apollo Twitter - Pretty graphics + Apollo makes for a simple Twitter reader and poster that can sit on you desktop an refresh on command.
• On Your Xbox
  Xbox Twitter - Want to let your Halo clan you’re honing your plasma sword skills? This blog entry describes how to auto Tweet what game you’re currently playing on your Xbox for anyone who actually cares to see.
• On Your Phone
  Tiny Twitter - If you want a better interface than SMS for Twitter on your phone, Tiny Twitter serves it up for any J2ME compatible phone. See screen shots here.
• On Your Blog
  Twit this - It’s a tiny embeddable badge that lets any of your readers Tweet your links to their friends, like a real time Delicious.

Twitter Powered Apps

• Confessr - It may be simple and it may not be pretty, but Confessr Twitterizes sites like Post Secret and i4giveu by providing a Twitter channel to unload your sins anonymously.
• 30 Boxes - 30 Boxes incorporated Twitter into their application, letting Twitter users track their friend’s Tweets and other content like blog posts, flickr photos, del.icio.us links.
• Pluggd - Plugged user can now log into Twitter while listening to podcasts and tell their Twitter friends what they’re listening to. Useful? You be the judge.

Note: A lot of these services are listed on the Twitter Fan Site hosted by PB Wikki.

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