Twitter now offers features that are unknown to many. These tips combined with a few easy hacks and cross-platform apps will show you Twitter in an entirely new light
Twitter, the minimalist-format social network that claims to have 100 million users, has built its reputation around its simplicity. Members can post to the service only in text messages of 140 characters or less. They can include a link to another site, or to a photo or video. They can repost other users’ messages on their own pages. They can send each other equally spartan private messages. That’s about it — or so it seems. Look more closely, and you’ll find that Twitter has been augmented, by the company and by other Internet toolmakers, with a virtual appliance store of simple, utilitarian features, widgets and services that let users find interesting posts, create photo albums or search more efficiently. Yet unlike, say, Facebook or Microsoft Office, Twitter’s power tools are easy to find & figure out.
1 MAKE A GALLERY
TWITTER CREATES a photo gallery page that displays each user’s last 100 uploaded images. (There’s no similar feature for video.) An independent site, Hashalbum, automatically groups Twitter users’ images into separate albums based on any hashtags included in the post to Twitter. For example, http://hashalbum. com/aquapets displays all the images whose URLs were posted to Twitter with the hashtag #aquapets.
2 DO POWER SEARCHES
TWITTER’S DEFAULT search box often returns too many results, mostly from the last few hours, for just about any popular keyword. To zero in on a specific entry, click Refine Results near the top center of a search results page. This will take you to Twitter’s advanced search page. Here, you can specify further search filters, like a specific Twitter username or hashtag. The separate Web site Topsy indexes Twitter updates with additional information that can be searched, like a date range for finding older posts. On Topsy, you can also filter out specific keywords, for example, posts that include the word 'lady' but not the word 'gaga.'
3 JUMP TO THE INTERESTING STUFF
TWITTER HAS created two new buttons that appear next to the Home button atop the page: Connect and Discover. Connect is a one-click way to see everyone who is interacting with you on the network. It displays a list of members who have recently followed you, mentioned you, retweeted one of your posts or added one to their favorites list. Discover tries to figure out your personal interests based on your location, who you follow and what topics are hot, much the way Facebook’s Top Stories section tries to guess which status updates you most likely want to read. The company is still improving Discover, so it should gradually get better at picking the right posts.
4 FIND SOMETHING LONGER TO READ
DOES SCROLLING through one-line status updates feel like listening to dogs bark? For those wanting a more intellectual experience, Twitter users have created an ad hoc hashtag, #longreads, for posts that link to longer articles, engaging blog posts and unusually fascinating PDF documents. Sometimes you can find in-depth information on current events by, say, searching for #longreads or #longreads followed by a specific word. With the time you’ll save with these tricks, you’ll be able to grab something a lot longer than 140 characters to read.
5 USE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
INSTEAD OF clicking around with your mouse, you can operate Twitter by using your keyboard. Type a question mark at Twitter’s Web interface to pop up a panel with a list of the available keyboard commands. There are nearly 20 listed, including 'r' to retweet a post, or '/' to jump to the search box. Some of the commands require two keystrokes, like 'g p' to go to your profile page. There are two more commands not listed on that pop-up panel. Typing 's p' will pop up a box to search only posts that include links to photos, and 's v' will initiate a similar search for videos.
6 CROSS-POST TO FACEBOOK
YOU HAVE the option to cross-post a Twitter status update to your Facebook Wall by logging into Facebook and installing the Selective Tweets app. The app will prompt you for your Twitter username. Anytime you end a Twitter update with #fb, that post will also be sent to your Facebook page (as long as you’re logged into both Twitter and Facebook in your browser).
Twitter hacks
Send tweets directly from Google Talk
You can send tweets directly from Google Talk by using chitter.im. Go to www.chitter.im, sign-in using your Google ID and then to Twitter for the app to get access. You will see a friend request from chitter. im which you need to accept. Now, any chat message you send to chitter.im in your Gtalk window will be tweeted on your behalf.
Send tweets longer than 140 characters
Twitter limits you to 140 characters per tweet, but sometimes the need might arise to say something longer than 140 characters. Just head over to www.twitlonger.com and login to Twitter. Now just type your tweet in the text box and post it. It will show half your tweet followed by a link. Clicking on the link will open a webpage where anyone can read the entire tweet.
Find out if someone unfollows you
The number of followers you have may not always increase, mainly because people unfollow tweets that they do not find interesting. To see who has unfollowed you, head over to http://twunfollow. com and sign in with your Twitter account. Enter your email ID and the service will notify you when someone unfollows you. You can also start following the Twitter account 'unfollowr' which will send you a direct message on Twitter when someone unfollows you.
Get custom Twitter backgrounds
Twitter offers basic 12 background designs to choose from but you don't need to stick with the default ones. You can go to www. freetwitterdesigner.com and create a personalised twitter background with your own text, images and colors. You can also head to www.tweetstyle.com to browse through a huge selection of free Twitter backgrounds. Cool Twitter Clients
Tweetdeck
This is one of the most versatile multi platform dashboard applications that works not only for Twitter, but other social networks as well. Tweetdeck also offers its own service to send long tweets.
Seesmic
Seesmic allows users to manage Twitter and Facebook. It offers apps for mobile and desktop. There is also a web-based interface to use in your browser if you are on a shared computer or cannot install programs.
Twitterific
This is a Mac OSX and iOS exclusive Twitter client. It offers timeline control via the keyboard, a unified timeline as well as timeline sync between multiple devices.
Twitter's own
Twitter's own app is available for all mobile platforms. Desktop users can use the web-based interface that offers a streamlined experience and has recently been revamped.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite works across multiple social networks and offers apps that enable posting to sites like YouTube and Flickr. It even offers a free add-on for Firefox that makes it easy to send a tweet directly from the address bar
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