Words About Things

Online music streaming service Spotify has reverted back to it’s original invite-only membership setup. On their blog Spotify said that the changes were only a temporary messure brought about by a large increase in the amount of new sign ups. The recent launch of Spotify’s iPhone/Android app has bought the service a considerable amount of publicity which has no doubt lead to the increase in those signing up.

There is a way to sign up without using an invite: get a premium account. A premium account is needed to install the mobile app and costs £10 per month. Premium users don’t have to listen to adverts although most Spotify users I’ve spoken to don’t seem to mind the ads too much.

The Register reports that every song streamed costs Spotify around 1p so selling their preimum account and mobile app is clearly vital for the service to survive.

Five sites which allow you to see what people are Tweeting about and what is going on around the world.

1. Cursebird.

Live updates of tweets featuring swearwords. Sit back and watch the world curse and swear, updated in real time. Also features a list of the top 5 swearwords of the last seven days.

2. Twittervision.

Live updates in realtime again but this time displayed on a world map. Tweets pop up from all different countries so you can see what the world in inanely blathering on about.

3. Twitscoop.

See what trends are ‘buzzing right now’ (dude!) and search by keyword.

4. TweetStats.

Features ‘Today’s Twitter TrendCloud’ and the top 50 trends of all time. Also has a graph of the most replied to Twitterers who mostly seem to be celebrities.

5. Tweetburner.

Allows you to shorten links in order to share them via Twitter. Also lists the 10 URLS with the most clicks in the last hour.

For more Twitter applications and remix sites visit MoMB Labs Twitter 100.