Creative SEO News UK, Search Engine Optimisation & Search Marketing News » twitter

Twitter Launches Geo Tagging Update, Expanding its Location sharing service.

Creative SEO — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:03:27 +0000

Last August Twitter announced the launch of a new location sharing feature which allowed users to tag there Tweets with their Geographical location, this was only available as part of the API, until now.
Twitter will be adding the new functionality to its website, allowing Twitter users to tag their Tweets with their location, so what does this mean? Well on the one hand the prospect of real time search results which are based on location does seem very exciting. To be able to monitor and predict trends and public opinion based on location could offer some extremely valuable data. But is this new technology opening up a “Can of Worms”, with personal security potentially at stake, will 2010 be the year of the Stalker? Luckily the new service can only be enabled by physically opting in to location sharing. This will naturally police the situation and should hopefully prevent any potential security issues with location sharing and privacy.
Quite interestingly IE and Safari Users will be disappointed as the new location feature will only work on Firefox and Google Chrome at this time.
“Let’s say I’m at my office and I hear a loud boom. It sounded serious, so I search Twitter for “boom.” Among the first results could be someone who tweeted “Boom go the fireworks!” This could be anywhere in the world. However, if that person had activated the new tweet location feature then the neighbourhood data under the tweet would read, “SoMa.”

Now I know it’s just fireworks going off in my neighbourhood. Boom! Plus, the word “SoMa” is linked to a Google map so I can explore a bit more. There are many ways location data can be useful when paired with tweets.” Taken from the official Twitter blog.

It’s an interesting new technology and we would love to hear your thoughts?
Article by Creative SEO

Twitter Adds Its own URL Shortener

Creative SEO — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:43:33 +0000

There has been an ongoing issue which has affected a large proportion of twitter users. Twitter users have been victimised by phishing scams through links in direct messages. In order to protect its users and to combat the issue Twitter has announced the launch of its very own URL shortener.

“Today, we’re launching a new service to protect users that strikes a major blow against phishing and other deceitful attacks. By routing all links submitted to Twitter through this new service, we can detect, intercept, and prevent the spread of bad links across all of Twitter. Even if a bad link is already sent out in an email notification and somebody clicks on it, we’ll be able to keep that user safe.” Twitter said.

Twitter will be initially focusing on Direct messages and notifications but its believed the new service will be rolled out to all areas of Twitter.

Author: Creative SEO

Commercial Twitter Accounts with Premium services and Business Tools to be launched.

Creative SEO — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:29:46 +0000

Twitter is preparing to launch commercial accounts designed specifically for business users, could this be the long awaited introduction of Twitters new Revenue generation model and what services will be available on premium business accounts?

Twitter, the Micro-Blogging phenomenon, has grown to massive proportions over the last 12 months. Real Time search has become a key new player in online marketing and Twitter continues to pioneer the technology. It seems that Twitter was looking to establish the micro-blogging service with high user levels and popularity before considering the introduction of an advertising model to start generating revenue. The introduction of Business Tools and Premium accounts is the first sign of Commercial Monetization of the business.

During an interview with VentureBeat, Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone is reported to have discussed the first phase of rolling out commercial accounts and the introduction of business-orientated applications, API’s, which would add a “commercial layer” to the social network. Biz Stone said:

“Twitter will still be free for everybody and we’ll still tell them to go crazy with it.”
“But we’ve identified a selection of things that businesses say are helping to make them more profit.”

Last month some important Twitter documents were leaked to the public, they included detailed information and concepts about the monetization of Twitter which included; search ads, integrated Adsense, sponsored tweets and an analytics suite of tools. Twitter also announced the launch last week of a new Twitter Geo-tagging feature which will allow users to configure their Twitter account to display their exact Tweeting location. It’s evident that the new Twitter premium accounts will be extremely feature rich, it’s still unclear when the new service will be launched as no formal launch date has been released.

Article by Creative SEO

Twitter Makes Inglourious Basterds a Box Office Hit.

Creative SEO — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:31:51 +0000

Quentin Tarantino’s new war epic took over $64.1 million in the opening weekend making it Tarantino’s most successful movie to date. Hollywood industry experts have concluded that Twitter massively contributed to the success of the film in its opening weekend.
The first people to see the film we quick to Tweet feedback about the movie which created a Twitter buzz about the film. Positive feedback flooded Twitter as the weekend progressed. Feedback about the Second World War epic quickly grew in momentum which maintained a massive level of interest and excitement about the film.

“the movie actually held its ground and even picked up steam as the weekend went on, as even Saturday twitterers enthusiastically tweeted and re-tweeted their approval… Finally, a Twitter effect that benefits a movie instead of hurts it.” Taken from the Hollywood Reporter.

This is another example of the power of real time search and social networking, it’s clear that based on the success of this film more emphasis will be placed, by movie promoters, on marketing Twitter audiences in the future.

Article by Creative SEO

Twitter add Geo-Tagging, Tweets searchable by location, Local Community Twitter.

Creative SEO — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:00:42 +0000

Twitter is the king of social media, a micro-blogging wonder that has swept the world leaving even the most ardent sceptic interested in how such a simple concept has become so addictive to such a large number of online users. Twitter has now acknowledged the launch of a new Geo-Tagging feature that will allow accounts to be filtered by location. Is this the beginning of a more community based Twitter experience? Could Twitter communities be based around local areas?

Twitter is adding an easy to use Geo-Tagging option to all Twitter accounts. Users will be able to update their location via an API. Developers will be able to tag latitude and longitude coordinates to all posts allowing real time, location based blogging.
“We’re gearing up to launch a new feature which makes Twitter truly location-aware. A new API will allow developers to add latitude and longitude to any tweet. Folks will need to activate this new feature by choice because it will be off by default and the exact location data won’t be stored for an extended period of time. However, if people do opt-in to sharing location on a tweet-by-tweet basis, compelling context will be added to each burst of information. “ Wrote Biz Stone on the Twitter Blog.

I think what is particularly exciting is the possibility of generating real time opinion based content, which is not only current and user generated but also is based on a location. Imagine the possibilities, trending public opinion based on location, country and subject, simply amazing. The main issue is Privacy. Twitter have addressed this with the option to enable the service from within the user settings and all accounts will have the service turned off by default.

Potentially Twitter could bring back the voice of local communities, a modern day equivalent of a town meeting place. We have lost a key element of social living which made the UK great, maybe social networking could potentially reintroduce the concept of localised communities?

We will have to wait and see what amazing mobile applications are launched on the back of this new service. You have to wonder, will Google Latitude come into the equation and is this the first sign of a Twitter Google collaboration? We will have to see, but the prospects are very exciting.

Article by Creative SEO

Twitter, Google & Facebook Denial of Service Attacks part of Russia-Georgia crisis.

Creative SEO — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:52:07 +0000

A Facebook executive has confirmed that the recent downtime issues and Denial of Service Attacks on Facebook, LiveJournal, YouTube, Google and Blogger were all part of the Russia-Georgia crisis and were targeted at silencing one man from reporting.
A blogger, based in the Republic of Georgia, with username Cyxymu, was the victim of a simultaneous attack on the bloggers personal Social Networking accounts, according to Facebook’s chief security officer Max Kelly. The claim reinforces reports that social networking sites are being dragged into the Georgia-Russia crisis for allowing users to report on the issues.

Max Kelly told CNet. “It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard. We’re actively investigating the source of the attacks and we hope to be able to find out the individuals involved in the back end and to take action against them if we can.”

Google, whose infrastructure protect its sites from being taken down by the recent activity are quoted as saying:
“We are aware that a handful of non-Google sites were impacted by a DOS attack this morning, and are in contact with some affected companies to help investigate this attack. Google systems prevented substantive impact to our services.”

The internet is a portal for free speech and allows bloggers to share their opinions without restriction of content. Political propaganda and crisis information is freely available to view and publish on the internet without political censorship, but this obviously poses a threat to political activists. Are we seeing the start of a new wave of Cyber Warfare and will social networking sites need to offer more hardened security to protect against such attacks?

Article by Creative SEO – Search engine consultant

Twitter Denial of Service Update, Twitter Website still down.

Creative SEO — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:22:54 +0000

Twitter has now been down for nearly 3 hours, a denial of service attack has been blamed for the downtime and the Twitter team are still battling to bring the site back online. Twitter services appear to be running again, so if you use an API or desktop Twitter application you should be able to start Tweeting again. We are currently using Tweet Deck with no downtime.

The issue has caused waves all over the internet, Facebook reportedly slowed right down with some users receiving error messages when trying to view there profiles. Other social network displayed error messages as social user’s flooded servers. One report even acknowledged that work productivity was up as a result of the downtime.

The Twitter website is still down and we will keep you informed of the issue as we find out more details.

Twitter Down, Facebook is Running Slow as Twitter users flood server

Creative SEO — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:38:25 +0000

Well this is turning out to be a very strange day, Twitter is currently down as a result of a denial of service attack. The team are currently fighting the issue as we speak. So there are millions of bored Twitter users with nothing better to do, where do they all go, Facebook!!

One problem with this tactic, Facebook is grinding under the pressure and yes you guessed it, its up and down more times than a yoyo at a pro yoyo convention. Facebook is struggling under the pressure and we have been receiving reports of error pages and very slow loading content.

Wow it goes to show how amazing powerful Twitter is!! We will keep you informed as we find out more.

Twitter is Down, Twitter can’t find the problem?

Creative SEO — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:51:17 +0000

Twitter is down, yes you heard correctly, Twitter services and the main website are experiencing serious downtime issues. It’s been over an hour and the site is still not coming up. The last time Twitter experienced this level of downtime was back in 2007 and 2008, at that time it was a regular occurrence so what is the problem?

Twitter has just acknowledged the problem on the Twitter Status Blog but shockingly they do not know what is causing the problem.

“Site is down. We are determining the cause and will provide an update shortly.”

We will keep you updated of any changes in the service, Let’s hope it’s nothing serious.

In the mean time I’m going to call my sponsor, I’m going cold turkey. My names Creative SEO and I’m a “Twitterholic!”

UPDATE: Twitter is currently fighting against a denial of service attack, more details as they come!

Twitter updates its homepage, it’s funky but what was the point?

Creative SEO — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:53:09 +0000

Cofounder, Biz Stone wants to make Twitter more user friendly, to appeal to a larger audience and to become a valuable business tool. The whole point of updating the homepage was to give new users the ability to understand the concept. So why is the new design so minimal?

Everyone is baffled by the changes; the new design looks great and suits the brand, but surely a more “new user” friendly approach would have ensured an increased level of user growth? Let’s face it a lot of people just don’t get Twitter, “why would I want to talk about my cat or tell people that I’ve hung out the washing?” The problem is Twitter is so much more than this, it’s a powerful social network and communication tool, a real time information portal.

“Defining a “tweet” for the uninitiated and explaining how to create an account doesn’t resonate with everyone. “Why would I want to do that?” is a common reaction. However, demonstrating the power of Twitter as a discovery engine for what is happening right now through our Search and Trends often awakens a sense of wonder which inevitably leads to a much more compelling question, “How do I get involved?” Biz Stone.

Twitter has approached the new homepage not as a place to share updates about the lives of the users, but as a real-time information and search portal. This I think is a work of genius, yes the concept and use of Twitter is still hard to explain to a new user but the data that is being accrued by Twitter users is priceless. Real time topic and opinion based news and information which can be shared within the community. No wonder Google is looking to broker a deal with Twitter.

I still think it’s a shame that Twitter did not embrace both areas, a more user friendly approach, with user guides etc. Would have been a nice touch. But let’s face it, Twitter can’t really do much wrong at the moment.

Article by Creative SEO – Search Engine Optimisation