Words About Things

Twitter have recently announced that they will soon offer the ability to include location data with tweets. Users will be able to have their approximate location shown alongside each tweet and have this data mapped. The feature will be entirely opt-in so users need not worry that their whereabouts will be broadcast without their knowledge.

One the data about tweet locations is collected users will presumably be able to see new tweets on interactive maps as well as browse by location. Being able to see what people in specific places are saying will be useful for keeping up to date with unfolding news events. It might also help us to become more involved in local events and see what is actually going on in our neighborhoods rather than online.

A possible negative aspect (or positive depending on your point of view) would be the ability of small businesses to reach out to those nearby. This could be a problem as marketers seem to be all over Twitter at the moment, although if this becomes a problem opting out is always an option.

Read about the changes on the Twitter blog here.

Somebody at Habitat head office must have heard about this new thing called ‘Twitter’ that all the kids are going on about. They decided that what their company needed was to ‘engage’ with customers and ‘join the conversation’ in order to ‘sell some over-priced furniture’. Unfortunately it doesn’t end there, unlike other companies who jump on the bandwagon Habitat went a bit too far.

“This was a mistake and it is important to us that we always listen, take on board observations and welcome constructive criticism. We will do our utmost to ensure any mistakes are never repeated.”

Whoever was doing the tweeting (whichever twit twated) got a bit spammy and decided to include completely irrelevant hashtags. If you have managed to avoid Twitter thus far hashtags are keywords included to signal the subject of the tweet so that you could search for #Wimbledon and see all the updates about the Tennis. The person operating Habitat’s Twitter account included hashtags including #iPhone and #Apple in tweets about their sale. Even worse than this they used #Mousavi and #Iranelection which are being used to get information out of Iran about the events unfolding there.

This shows either a complete lack of understanding on Habitats part or a complete disregard for Twitter users. It must have created a lot of negative publicity and it will take a while for this to be forgotten. I feel a little bit sorry for whoever was running the account as they clearly got a bit carried away and couldn’t have anticipated the reaction they recieved. Then I think about somebody in Iran searching for #Mousavi and reading about Habitat’s great offers and suddenly I don’t feel so sorry for them anymore!

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.