TWITT 4 EVER

NASA is inviting the public to send questions for its astronauts via Twitter during the space shuttle Endeavour’s upcoming mission to the International Space Station.

Astronaut Mike Massimino will take questions for the crew from the public via his Twitter account until Thursday, February 11. Massimino will be a spacecraft communicator, at NASA’s Mission Control in Huston during Endeavour’s flight, scheduled for launch February 7.

At 2:24 a.m. CST on February 11, Massimino will host the event with the crew from his console in Mission Control. He will ask the astronauts as many submitted and live questions as possible during the 20-minute time period. The shuttle will be docked to the station during the live question and answer session. The event with Endeavour’s crew will be broadcast live online and NASA Television.

The public can start tweeting questions for the Endeavour’s crew today to Massimino’s Twitter account, @Astro_Mike, or add the hashtag  #askastro to their tweets.

The time and day of the Twitter session are subject to change due to mission priorities.
 

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By Mike Sachoff
Yaab

Twitter has introduced a new feature for Twitter.com called Hovercards. These are simply little windows that pop up when you hover over any name on your timeline.

It’s important to note that a lot of people use Twitter through different applications and never even see Twitter’s actual site. It is nice to see that Twitter recognizes that people do still use Twitter.com.

Hovercards display information like name, profile pic, location, whether or not you follow them, verified user info, etc.

“One way we’ve found these cards to be useful is to find out more about retweeted people and follow them right there. You can also see more information with an expanded view of the card,” says Twitter’s @jennadawn. “Sending direct messages to people you follow will also be possible with Hovercards so you can interact with tweeters without having to move off the page.”

The feature is in the process of being rolled out in stages. Users may not have access to Hovercards just yet, but rest assured, they’re coming soon enough.
 

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By Chris Crum
Yaab

In what might be record time, Twitter has made some enemies in Mexico.  The site became available in Spanish only three months ago, and now, certain authorities are looking to regulate it because delinquents and criminals have become heavy users.

Michael E. Miller reports that Mexico City officials were originally interested in prosecuting Twitter users who broadcast the location of police alcohol checkpoints.  Public outcry and the objections of free speech advocates caused them to back down a bit.

Nazario Norberto, who belongs to the Party of the Democratic Revolution (one of three major political parties in Mexico), has stuck by the general idea, though, and is worried about a few things besides drunk driving.  “We have to regulate these websites to make sure there aren’t people breaking the law, making death threats or committing crimes via electronic means,” he told Miller.

So Norberto is drafting a bill that, along with introducing more penalties for individuals, could give judges the power to shut down whole sites.

The good news for Twitter is that Norberto and his bill aren’t enjoying universal support.  Some people believe law enforcement officers can gain an edge by monitoring social networks, while other folks just want to leave Twitter alone.

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By Doug Caverly
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Twitter initiated a password reset to a bunch of user accounts who were suddenly following a couple of suspicious accounts. These accounts were determined to be involved in phishing scams related to torrent sites.

“It appears that for a number of years, a person has been creating torrent sites that require a login and password as well as creating forums set up for torrent site usage and then selling these purportedly well-crafted sites and forums to other people innocently looking to start a download site of their very own,” explains Twitter’s Director of Trust and Safety, Del Harvey. “However, these sites came with a little extra — security exploits and backdoors throughout the system.  This person then waited for the forums and sites to get popular and then used those exploits to get access to the username, email address, and password of every person who had signed up.”

People commonly use the same password across multiple sites, which is essentially how they were able to get access to Twitter accounts, and why Twitter is reiterating a rule screamed by security experts for years: don’t use the same password for all of your accounts. 

“The takeaway from this is that people are continuing to use the same email address and password (or a variant) on multiple sites,” says Harvey. “Through our discussions with affected users, we’ve discovered a high correlation between folks who have used third party forums and download sites and folks who were on our list of possibly affected accounts.  While not all users who were sent a password reset request fall into this category, we felt that it was important to put this knowledge out there so that users would know of the possibility of compromise of their data by a third party unrelated to their Twitter account.”

Twitter is not considered as big of a security threat as Facebook by many companies according to a recent study, but that’s only because more people use Facebook. Any site that has a large userbase (and Twitter’s is growing), means there are likely more crooks and scammers too.

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By Chris Crum
Yaab

Is the world really ready for geo-location? That’s a question that a lot of companies are answering with a resounding “yes.” The rise of smartphones has led to a variety of businesses looking to cash in on your whereabouts. Smartphone users have their devices on them all day long, wherever they go. Naturally, these companies can find ways to capitalize on this.

Will location sharing become mainstream practice? Share your thoughts.

Google can use your location to deliver you “more relevant” search results on your phone. It can let you and your friends let each other know your respective locations. It can point you to local stores competing for your attention and ultimately your business. Google can serve you ads based on your location. Just last week, the company introduced mobile ads with phone numbers you can click to call.

“The ads and phone numbers you see are based on your location,” the company says. “So, if a store or restaurant has multiple locations, you’ll be calling the nearest one, and not making reservations in some other city.”

A couple months ago, Twitter made it possible to geotag tweets, and will likely expand its geo-related capabilities as the new year progresses.

“The added information provides valuable context when reading your friends tweets and allows you to better focus in on local conversations,” Twitter said, when it announced geotagging. “Now you can find out what live music is playing right now in your neighborhood or what people visiting Checkpoint Charlie are saying today about the anniversary of the Berlin Wall. These are only the beginning and we are really looking forward to seeing the creative uses emerge from the developer community.”

The world is still waiting on Twitter to really get into the monetization side of things, but that will happen sooner or later. It will be quite interesting to see what role geo-location plays in that.

Meanwhile, Facebook, the world’s most popular mobile social site, has recently updated its privacy policy in a way that allows for location-based features, and is rumored to be working on its own “Foursquare killer”. Some think once Facebook gets going on geo-location, there will be no stopping it, and no hope for currently popular mobile geo-apps like Foursquare and Gowalla (the former having just gotten involved with perhaps its most mainstream effort yet in a deal with cable network Bravo).

“The popularity of the apps has attracted notice from other Web startups that rely on local advertising,” says BusinessWeek’s Aaron Ricadela. “Foursquare boasts nearly 300,000 users, and Gowalla has more than 100,000. On Jan. 15, Yelp—a Web site that reviews shops, restaurants, and night spots and that on Jan. 27 announced a round of funding worth up to $100 million—introduced the ability for users of its iPhone app to check in at businesses.”

“Now, as tech industry heavyweights such as Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Twitter, and IAC/Interactive (IACI) try to capitalize on the smart phone explosion with mobile ads that target people where they congregate, startups compiling a trove of data about users’ migratory habits could make attractive acquisition targets for those companies,” adds Ricadela. “At one point in January, a Foursquare user was checking into a location every second, the company said.”

That’s a sign that the people who are into sharing their location are really into it. But is the number of people willing a majority? Does it have the potential to become one? With so many privacy concerns frequently voiced around the web each day, it is hard to imagine, but that’s not to say that geo-location-related businesses have to secure a majority of the public to be successful. There are plenty of people left in this world who are still leery of even social media for privacy and reputation reaons, let alone a service that lets people know exactly where they are.

But obviously there are plenty of people up for this kind of thing, and enough so that businesses everywhere should take note. Many aready have, but the public’s willingness to share their location is still uncharted territory for many small businesses that could be taking advantage of this phenomenon.

So what can a business do? Here are a few things:

1. Keep up with what mobile apps are popular on the most popular devices

2. Study what makes these apps and their respective users tick.

3. Determine which of these has a functionality that your business can directly take advantage of

4. Verify your business at Google’s Local Business Center

5. Keep a close eye on what Google is doing in the local search space (there are frequent announcements that directly relate to this)

6. Keep a close eye on how Twitter users interact with geo features, particularly those who follow you

7. Definitely keep a close eye on Facebook announcements, looking for geo-related tidbits to drop

8. When using social media, include your business location in updates when appropriate, and promote offers (time-sensitive perhaps) that encourage nearby people to stop in (if you have a brick and mortar store) or meet for a quote at a nearby restaurant for example (be creative…without being too stalkerish)

Share other ideas here.

It’s important to consider that people who are sharing their location are opting in to do so. Google users have to share their location with Google to get the benefits Google has to offer from this information. If they are showing their location with the public on Twitter, they must be comfortable with anybody knowing that location. Apps like Foursquare make games out of location, and even offer ideas for businesses to get directly involved.

What ways have you used customer location in your business strategy? Discuss here.

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By Chris Crum
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TurboTax said today taxpayers on Twitter can tweet questions to @TeamTurboTax and get free answers from a team of tax, tech and product experts to help make tax time easier.

TurboTax said it created @TurboTax in response to the growing use of Twitter by its customers.

@TeamTurboTax will cover everything from tax matters to product questions and technical support, the team will answer product questions, troubleshoot problems, and resolve customer service issues.

“People are increasingly going online to file their taxes. Now they can just as easily go online to get answers from @TeamTurboTax on Twitter,” said Scott Gulbransen, lead for @TeamTurboTax.

“This expands the options people have to get answers – whether it’s on Twitter, on the Web or on the phone.”
Twitter users can also follow the site to see what questions have previously been asked and answered.
 

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By Mike Sachoff
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We recently discussed how social media complements the news industry, and how a study has even found news to be a top priority of Twitter users. Facebook wants to let users know that it can also be used to keep track of news, when you set up a news list.

This isn’t so much a new feature, as it is a way to use the social network that you may or may not have thought of. Basically, Facebook is encouraging users to set up a list for news, as if they were setting up a list of co-workers, or a list of friends from high school.

“You can even create a ‘News’ list to filter news-oriented Pages into one view on your News Feed,” says Facebook’s Malorie Lucich. “Simply add relevant Pages to the list, just as you would with a friends list. The next time you sign on to Facebook, you can click the ‘News’ filter to see stories from all of the news outlets of which you’ve become a fan.”

“In addition to reading news on Facebook, you can share news with your friends on external sites with Facebook Connect,” says Lurich. “Outlets like The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, USA Today and countless blogs have become more social by adding Facebook Connect to their websites and iPhone applications. You can sign in with your Facebook login to see what articles your friends are reading and comment on articles with your authentic identity.”

The fact of that matter is that a lot of people around the world are spending a great deal of their online time (which is growing itself) on Facebook. Far more people use Facebook than use Twitter. Facebook has the reputation of being where your real friends are, but most news outlets have Facebook pages at this point, which can be followed just easily as Twitter accounts. Facebook seems to simply be reminding people that this is one use of Twitter that they can get from the larger social network as well.
 

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By Chris Crum
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Here’s are some metrics that should concern those inside of Twitter:

• The number of new users per month is down 20% since its peak in July 2009.
• The average Twitter user has just 27 followers, down from a peak of 42
• 80% of Twitter users have tweeted fewer than 10 times
• The percent of active Twitter users is down to just 17%

The data comes from RJMetrics, which analyzed 2 million tweets from about 50,000 users. You could argue that no data is accurate, unless it comes from Twitter itself, but isn’t it interesting that we never see any of these numbers come from Twitter? You’d think that if the real numbers were more encouraging, Twitter would issue a “State of the Twittersphere”–similar to Technorati’s state of the blogosphere report.

If these numbers are accurate, it shesd some light on why Twitter has chosen to find revenue from Google and Bing, before monetizing its user base. The user base is simply not active enough to generate any significant revenue!

(via)

Comments

By Andy Beal
Yaab

Twitter claims not to be taking an active role in the dispute, but it’s definitely applauding developers who try to make Twitter.com available in China and Iran.  Ev Williams endorsed workarounds and rejected compromises while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

According to John Gapper, Williams said, “We are partially blocked in China and other places and we were in Iran as well.”  He then continued, “The most productive way to fight that is not by trying to engage China and other governments whose very being is against what we are about.  I am hopeful there are technological ways around these barriers.”

Note: this doesn’t mean that Twitter’s joined any sort of free speech fight.  Williams specifically mentioned third-party developers at one point.

Still, it appears that Williams, who has said before that he’s proud of how Twitter helped Iranian protesters spread their message, won’t in any way cooperate with oppressive regimes.  And his comments could definitely equal a show of support for Google as it considers abandoning China.

Just don’t expect to hear much more about this stuff from Williams, as Gapper wrote, “Mr Williams did not want to give details of the technology being developed in order to avoid giving clues to governments that wanted to block its service.”

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By Doug Caverly
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For a week or so, some Twitter users have been seeing a new feature called Local Trends. This feature shows users things that are being heavily talked about at the city and state levels. Twitter has now announced that the feature is live for all users.

“Twitter trends began as a way to shed light on popular conversations. It’s interesting to know that one topic can now spread across the world in real-time, and Trends help us discover which of those topics are paramount on a global scale,” says Twitter’s @jennadawn. “As Twitter evolves, and more people share what’s happening in their own world, we want to provide another way for people to discover topics that may be relevant to them.”

At this point Local Trends are only available for the following areas:

“The big events that come up around the world will always become a global conversation, but what about the big events that only happen in your world that only matter to those around you? Or the slight differences in the way Californians perceive an event, like Obama’s election victory, versus those São Paulo, Brazil?” she continues. “Local Trends will allow you to learn more about the nuances in our world and discover even more relevant topics that might matter to you.”

The feature could prove especially helpful for bloggers and journalists covering local news. At the very least, it will show what people are most interested in, in any particular area.

Twitter says it will be improving the feature over time by providing more locations, languages, and data through the Twitter API. There aren’t many locations available yet, but once the feature gets built up it should present an interesting picture of what people are talking about everywhere, which could be quite interesting.

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