Video: Twitter Changes
The link I’ve highlighted today is to a site that could really have been named something else and it still would have been a humorous way of using a Twitter feed. Instead it uses a name which the site owners thought would add to the humour of the product being produced. I’m sure a majority of people would see it as just a fun site with a fun name. I’d have preferred a different name, but the product produced by the site is an amusing one and it gave me a laugh. This is a site to go to if you would like to print a Twitter feed onto a few rolls of toilet paper.
I am about to start using a new web application called BookYap. Put simply, BookYap is an application that recommends books based on criteria you enter. There are over 650 000 books in its database, so chances are it will find a book for you.
You can search for a book by using keywords or the filters it has available (based on personality types). By becoming a registered user, the application learns more and more about you and your reading habits, improving the recommendations it makes for you.
Books appear with thumbnails of their covers and book ratings. A brief description appears by hovering over the thumbnail. You are able to interact with the application and associated community by sharing books you have read and your reviews of them. There is connectivity with both Facebook and Twitter also.
You are also able to add books to a reading wishlist if you like. Books can be purchased from Amazon when you choose a book to read.
Visit BookYap at:
http://bookyap.com/
Today’s link is to a site called ‘FullyFollowMe.’ This is a new start up and is seeking to become a site where contacts/friends/visitors can follow you on whatever site you are connected to via FullyFollowMe. So far I am connected to Facebook and Twitter on FullyFollowMe and these are the only sites (apart from LinkedIn – which I am not on) I am currently connected to via FullyFollowMe. It is only new, so it will be interesting to see where it goes with this idea.
Fore more, visit:
http://www.fullyfollow.me/
Friendshuffle is somewhat like StumbleUpon, except Friendshuffle is for following what your friends on Facebook or Twitter have been looking at via their links and likes. It allows you to share in the web surfing activities of your friends, via what they post on either Facebook and/or Twitter. Whereas StumbleUpon learns what you like by what you click on as being liked, FriendShuffle merely adds what you like to your profile, so that you can share it with further friends.
Friendshuffle can be a fun way of entering into what your friends are discovering on the web and then sharing that with others. It is also an easy tool to use. You simply log in with your Twitter/Facebook accounts and you can then start shuffling through what your friends have been looking at.
For more visit FriendShuffle at:
http://www.friendshuffle.com/
As I try to get back into Blogging on a regular basis again (yeah, I seem to be struggling with that at the moment), I thought I might use my daily posts on this Blog to offer up some links to some more web applications and social networking sites. I generally think that most of these are applications of some type or another, even though some of them will have a social aspect to them.
The first is skinnyo. Skinnyo, as the name probably suggests, is about getting ‘skinnier.’ It is an application to assist the user in loosing weight. Skinnyo gives you a personal weight loss diary that includes embeddable graphs and a photo history for tracking weight loss – which also includes a target goal that you can set and aim at.
If however you are unable to find the motivation to stay on track by being a private user of the application, you can also pull in friends and other users to assist in your weight loss efforts. This is done by setting challenges and/or joining other challenges set by others. This is where the social side of the application and community comes in. Of course there is also a status and news feed of others within your circle of skinnyo friends, so you can keep track of your friends weight loss efforts and share your own with them – setting up something of a support network.
As for showing others your weight – that doesn’t happen. Skinnyo will only show your differences in weight (that which has been lost – or perhaps gained). So no need to be too embarrassed by it all.
There is interaction available with both Facebook and Twitter accounts as well – should you wish to do so.
There is also a widget that is available allowing you to embed your weight loss efforts in a website or Blog (only showing the weight loss – not your weight).
Did I mention it is free to use?
Me? Well, I’m on my way loosing weight and to reaching my goal.
Check out the site at:
http://www.skinnyo.com/
It’s no secret that I use wordpress.com a lot for Blogging. I have close to 10 Blogs/sites hosted at wordpress.com. These days there are a large number of Blogging platforms to choose from – many of which provide a very easy and simple user experience. My platform of choice remains wordpress.com, though coming in at a very close second is tumblr. I do have a tumblr Blog which is called ‘Daily Dribble,’ which is a Blog that captures posts that I don’t post elsewhere. I love to Blog and often find myself thinking that I’d like to post that website/article/thing somewhere, but it doesn’t quite fit into what I’m doing on any particular Blog that I have set up – this is where my tumblr Blog fits. It captures this overflow if you like.
There are many things to like about tumblr, apart from the fact that is very simple to use. You don’t need to be a HTML expert to use it, though you can use HTML for your posts should you choose to do so. Since I like a certain formatting appearance I choose HTML mode for my posts and it really is quite simple to do (if you know a little HTML of course). If you don’t know HTML tumblr remains very easy to use and is one of the very simple Blogging platforms out there for people just getting started in Blogging or for those with more experience.
I also use the Chrome browser from Google and the little Chrome Extension I have for posting URLs straight into tumblr (with the post) is a fantastic way to add content to my Blog. You can also set up your tumblr Blog to post straight to your Twitter account or to Facebook, which is all very convenient.
There is so much more to having a tumblr account – all worth checking out at:
My tumblr Blog is at:
This is another social networking type of site. Here a person can either post a question and wait for a reply, or they can reply to another person’s question. Replyz works with Twitter.
Have a look at:
If you’re not happy with your twitter background you can make your own. An easy way to do this is to use freetwitterdesigner.com and upload your own photos, make your own text, etc. It is quite easy to use, but I would suggest you have your twitter profile open in another tab/window when you upload your background as you may need to tweak the background a bit to get looking just right – so don’t delete your work until such time as you are happy with the background as it appears on your profile.
Visit:
http://www.freetwitterdesigner.com/
See mine at:
Wow, it has been almost two months since my last post on this Blog. Time has gone by quickly as I have struggled to keep up with the demands of running a number of different Blogs and websites. In fact, I have done very little with many of them – just been too busy and too tired. Hopefully that will change a little now. I’m trying to become a little more disciplined with my time in order to allow myself to get on with the task of maintaining the various websites I own.
Today’s ‘daily’ is a website called ‘Topsy.’ Topsy is a search engine for Twitter posts or tweets as they are often called. If you would like to search Twitter for a particular topic or even a username, Topsy could be just the place you are looking for. I found it today and experimented a little with it – a very good little site I thought (for Twitter). Just another of the seemingly countless Twitter applications that are out there.
Visit Topsy at: