Kicking off Chirp, Twitter’s developers conference, co-founder Biz Stone took the stage this morning and revealed some surprising statistics about the company and its growth. Take a look at some of those statistics listed below.
Tag: twitter
TwitPic Implements OAuth and Gets a New Look
TwitPic, the largest photo sharing service on Twitter, posted a tweet to their Twitter account tonight announcing that they had just implemented OAuth as the new login method for their site. If you’re not familiar with the OAuth protocol, how it works, or how it affects you as a user, here is the short version.
OAuth is an open protocol that allows a user to share content stored on one site with another site without having to fork over the login credentials. In other words, you no longer have to provide TwitPic with your username and password to login to their site. Instead, you will need to click the “Sign in with Twitter” button located in the top right corner, when prompted enter your username and password on Twitter.com, and then click the “Allow” button to grant access to TwitPic. This allows TwitPic to connect to your Twitter account so it can access your data, but at no time will TwitPic receive your username and password. To learn more about OAuth visit their Web site here.
Does the Twitter for BlackBerry App Still Need Work?
Now that the official Twitter for BlackBerry® app has been officially released to the public it’s worth revisiting this topic to tackle some of the features that need improvement. In February I reviewed the first Twitter for BlackBerry® beta and shared my thoughts about some of the nice features it possessed as well as some of the features that needed improvement. When the second beta was released in early April it was apparent that Twitter and RIM put their heads together to develop an amazing app. The app included new features, improvements to existing features, and the overall speed of the app was superb. However, while the latest beta was very impressive, there were still existing features that were untouched such as the retweet (RT) feature and photo service options.
Will these two features see any improvement?
Who Will Twitter Acquire Next, TwitPic?
Twitter was quite busy today making a huge splash in mobile. Early this morning Twitter announced that the hotly anticipated Twitter for BlackBerry app was available for download. This was great news for BlackBerry users, but Twitter didn’t stop there with the good news. Twitter made their way back to the podium tonight to announce they have just agreed to acquire Atebits, the company responsible for developing the popular Tweetie iPhone app and Mac desktop client. According to Twitter CEO Evan Williams, Tweetie will be renamed “Twitter for iPhone” and will be available free of charge in the iTunes AppStore in the coming weeks.
While Twitter has been working closely with RIM over the last year to deliver the official Twitter for BlackBerry app, the move to acquire Atebis comes as a surprise and only two days after Twitter investor and Union Square Ventures principal, Fred Wilson, made a controversial blog post. In short, Wilson stated that he would like to see less apps that fill holes in the Twitter platform and more killer apps emerge in areas such as social gaming, verticals, enterprise, discovery, and analytics. Wilson’s blog post raised concerns among third-party developers because some felt that Twitter would now become their biggest competitor in mobile and desktop application development. Shortly after Wilson posted, he felt it was necessary to respond to an article written by Silicon Alley Insider that summarized his blog post. Wilson wanted to clarify a few things he had written in his post so in a response to the article he said, “that post was my work, not Twitter’s work. While I am on the board of Twitter, I don’t work there and I don’t speak for them.” It’s pure speculation at this point whether or not Twitter was aware of Wilson’s post prior to its release, but after the acquisition of Atebits it sure seems like Fred Wilson knows the game plan at Twitter.
Parker Liautaud Skis to the North Pole to Snag Mayor on Foursquare
On Friday, 15-year-old Parker Liautaud began an extraordinary expedition to become one of the youngest people to ski the Last Degree of the North Pole. The ultimate goal of this expedition is to help young people become more environmentally aware. With the help of GE Ecomagination, the quest is interactive with a social media twist. Fans can track Parker’s progress by visiting his social media sites which include Twitter, Facebook, flickr, YouTube, Google Earth, and Foursquare. While you can visit each site individually, Facebook is the hub for the interactive experience. Those who follow Parker have the opportunity to share their ideas and videos on how they are reducing their carbon footprint to improve the environment. According to Outside Online, the best ideas and videos submitted will be turned over to the delegates at the 2010 United Nations Environmental Conference in Bonn, Germany.
You might be asking yourself how Foursquare plays into this expedition. Foursquare is one of the many social media tools Parker is using as he makes his way to the North Pole. Although he will be checking in to various places along the way, he will most likely be creating new venues since it’s doubtful there will be a lot of venues to choose from at this point. Unlike Jim Bumgardne, aka “KrazyDad,” who never really became Mayor of the North Pole, Parker Liautaud will not only become the first Mayor of the North Pole on Foursquare, he has an excellent chance to hold down the North Pole mayorship for a very long time.
TweetDeck Develops an App for BlackBerry
I’ve been using TweetDeck as my desktop client for quite a while now, and in my opinion, it is by far the best social media client on the market. The ability to manage multiple social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more all within one desktop client makes the social media experience a dream.
Although I’m not an iPhone user, I had the luxury of playing around with TweetDeck for iPhone and I believe it trumps any other social media app available for iPhone. Unfortunately, BlackBerry users have not had the luxury of enjoying the TweetDeck experience, but hopefully that will change shortly.