TwitNine

A lot of us have awesome ideas about creating a Twitter application. Ideas involving Twitter is picking up a lot. But not every idea has a great potential for development. Some of the ideas are simply worthless; either they are no use for the followers or they don’t have the potential for future development.

I was surprised how people go so crazy about Twitpic instead of TweetPhoto. They both serve the same purpose and do not really have any differences in features. But if you look at the stats for both sites, Twitpic is way ahead of its competitors.

Isn’t it weird? I think so. But there might be a good opportunity for you to create a Twitter app or website if you got some awesome ideas about it. But one important question you must ask yourself when creating a Twitter app or website is: Is this new invention will be useful to the users?

Some of the great Twitter ideas would be something like a niche twittering application, where you create a platform only for school where teachers and student keep each other up-to-date about the latest trends.

Like the website fmylife.com, this is brilliant idea. They are not linking themselves directly to Twitter but the idea is somewhat similar and with some advanced features. A great idea would be to mix Twitter with entertainment such as music, video and etc.

A Twitter music search engine may work at some point. But before creating any platform, you must do your market research. You must know that you will have enough users for your product. As well as make sure your apps or website is user-friendly.

One thing Twitter followers hate if the app is not user-friendly. They always want an app that has great features and easy to use. Some of the time, even great features are not as required but easy use is a must.

But instead of creating something with web, you may try to do something with the phone. Smart phones are widely used nowadays, by 2014, 60% of U.S. population will have access to it. So it is a good idea to start working on it now when there aren’t many apps on smart phone rather then everyone is coming up with an idea.

Most of the time, people create mobile applications for Iphone but they forget the other major markets like BlackBerry, Nokia, Windows Mobile Platforms and etc. Try the other market as well as Iphone, things might work out better.

You can use Twitter on your mobile device in three ways:

• SMS (text messages) to and from 40404 (or your country’s short code)

• Twitter’s mobile Web site (http://m.twitter.com) if you have a Web

browser on your cellphone

• Downloadable applications for smartphones such as the BlackBerry or

iPhone

Literally dozens of applications come out for Twitter every couple of months. For more information, and to find the latest Twitter tools, check out Laura’s startup Twitter directory and marketplace oneforty (www.oneforty.com).

Via text messaging

Although text messaging (or SMS) is the most basic way to access Twitter via your cellphone, you need to first make sure that your cellphone plan encompasses unlimited texting. Otherwise, your monthly bill may end up skyrocketing.
Check before you enable SMS updates! After you make sure that you can afford your mobile texting plan, you can easily use SMS to update Twitter on the go. (Turn to Chapter 2 for instructions on how to associate your cellphone with your Twitter account.) One caveat: The maximum length for a standard text message is 160 characters, but Twitter’s maximum is 140 characters. You have to manually verify
that you aren’t going over the Twitter limit because otherwise, Twitter cuts off your SMS tweet at 140 characters.
In addition to sending tweets as SMS messages from your phone, you can receive your contacts’ tweets on your phone via SMS. Setting this up takes a little more work. First, think long and hard about how noisy you want your phone to be each day. Most Twitter users find that they can handle between 10 and 20 peoples’ tweets being sent to their phone before the constant incoming text stream becomes overwhelming. Luckily, even power users like iJustine (@iJustine) have discovered that they can take advantage of SMS tweets to their phone by being really selective about whose actual tweets they get via SMS. It’s not all-or-nothing.

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:
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.

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. If you see the song you want
to share, click the Tweet icon, sign in to your Twitter account, and then post the tweet.

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 user name, an artist name, and a track name.

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 Websites that make it easy to share video with your Twitter tribe:

• ffwd (www.ffwd.com). This interesting site lets you build a personal list ofchannels, which can be TV shows, Web-based video shows, and more. Once you add a channel 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 Profileand then click Account).

• 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, Type a message, type your Twitter account username and password, and then click Share this video.

TwitPic may be the most common of Twitter photo-sharing services, but it’s not the only game in that particular town.Here are a few others to check out:
Mobypicture (http://mobypicture.com/). This service lets you share photos not only with Twitter, but with a wide variety of sites, including Facebook, Flickr, Jaiku, and blogging platforms such as WordPress and Blogger. For these other sites you have to create a Mobypicture account, but for Twitter, you don’t need to create a new account unless you are using your Twitter credentials.
Pikchur (http://pikchur.com/). This site also supports a wide variety of sites, including Facebook, FriendFeed, identi.ca, tumblr, and many more. On the login page, be sure to choose Twitter from the list, and then type your Twitter account credentials. Once you’re in, you can upload via the Web site or set up an e-mail address to post from your phone using e-mail or MMS.
SnapTweet (http://snaptweet.com/). If you have a Flickr (www.flickr.com) account, you can use SnapTweet to post tweets that link to your Flickr photos. Sign in to SnapTweet using your Twitter account username and password, along with your Flickr address.you’ll see your latest Flickr photo, and you can start uploading.
yfrog (http://yfrog.com/). This site presents a simple interface that lets you upload either a local photo or a photo on the Web. Type a message, enter your
Twitter username and password, and then click Post it! to send the tweet. One of the nice features of yfrog is that when people click the link to load your photo, the yfrog page include a (Re)Tweet this image link that enables tweeters to easily retweet your photo.

Using ”TwitPic”
The standard in photo sharing for Twitter is TwitPic (http://twitpic.com/), which is by far the most popular photo sharing service for tweeters.Twitter application that comes with some sort of “Share a photo” feature uses TwitPic to handle the uploading, 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.

Snitter is “Snook’s Twitter” an Adobe AIR-powered application for twittering. Twitter let’s you post small 140 character messages letting people know what you are up to. Snitter is made on the Adobe AIR platform which is both MacOSX and Microsoft Windows compatible. There is currently a Linux version of Adobe AIR in alpha testing but some functionality is likely missing. Snitter doesn’t have all the fancy add-ons of Twhirl or TweetDeck, and so is simpler to use and learn, however of course this means it’ also less powerful.

Like Twhirl, TweetDeck is based on Adobe Air, and therefore it is cross-platform, the major benefits by using the TweetDeck is that it personalizes the browser to stay in touch and also connecting to your contacts across Twitter, facebook, MySpace any many more.

The founders of Twitter made a decision that has helped to make twitter the success it is, they wrote special functions that allowed outside programs (websites and desktop applications) to Access Twitter.These API’s (Application Program Interfaces) meant that people could write widgets that allowed people to automatic post links to blogs on Twitter, or access Twitter from a desktop program rather than a website.
On of the application is “Twhirl” which is a desktop client for the platform Twitter that builds on the very cool Adobe Air. It uses the technique like XHTML/CSS or Flash/Flex.

In my opinion, Twitter is an excellent site to get involved with because of its ability to provide real time information from real people.
• Being used by friends & family to “follow” each other: Twitter makes an excellent tool for keeping in touch and finding out what your family and friends are up to and what they are thinking at that particular moment.
• Real Time Event Search Engine: Twitter can be considered as real time, powered by real people it can easily be check what people is saying about currently unfolding events.
• Being able to get the resources you need: Twitter has also been used if a user needs something or has something to offer. Then Twitter can be used as your interactive classified ads column. No more placing ads in the newspaper.