As of yesterday, Bill Gates has officially begun Tweeting his thoughts to the world.
When I first learned of his Twitter account, 50% of his Tweets were directed to Ryan Seacrest.
Yeah right. I am pretty sure Mr. Gates and Mr. Seacrest speak often.
In the Noise Age, he who gets attention wins.
Bill Gates On Twitter
How much long will it take before the real Steve Ballmer starts Tweeting?
What About Steve
Today I read an Associated Press article on Crain’s New York Business site about the Wall Street Journal overtaking USA Today as the top circulated newspaper in America.
I thought the article was interesting and decided to Tweet it for others to see.
Only after I Tweeted the article’s link – did I notice the following Associated Press claim:
©Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Does my Tweeting their article violate the terms of their copyright claim?
Does Tweeting or Retweeting an Associated Press article constitute “broadcast” or “redistributed” material?
Does adding a url shortening link to an article’s original page address qualify as being “rewritten”?
If so, shouldn’t the Associated Press modify their copyright claim to include Tweet or ReTweet like my example below?
©Copyright 2009 Tim Cohn. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, redistributed, tweeted or retweeted.
Or are Tweet related copyright claims unnecessary?
I am not an IP attorney, however if you are an IP Attorney – feel free to tackle this question.
Today I received a direct message from my personal trainer that was out of character for two reasons.
1. The direct message was about weight loss – which neither of us are in need of.
2. My personal trainer barely knows how to use Twitter let alone direct message me.
Twitter Direct Message
Ordinarily, I would have chalked up this type of abnormal behavour as just that – abnormal.
However, my personal trainer is a pretty normal guy.
Once I received his direct message this evening I called him and asked him if he had sent it and he said no -what is it?
His response in turn made me question the series of Tweets his account posted yesterday that were also out of character.
His Tweets were about how much money he was making on Google.
Again totally out of character for my personal trainer.
Twitter Hacked
What was even more revealing about his Tweets was they were each posted via API.
API is a term my personal trainer doesn’t know the meaning of – let alone have access to or use.
I decided to search Twitter for the url embedded in his Twitter Direct Message to see if it was being widely Tweeted by other Twitter users.
Twitter Accounts Being Hacked
Yep – appears to be.
Based on the frequency and number of accounts Tweeting with this particular weight loss domain embedded in each Tweet leads me to conclude: Twitter accounts are being hacked en masse.
A search for “direct message” in Twitter search also reveals Twitter account holders asking their followers whether they sent the “weight loss” direct message or not.
The hacked accounts appear to be mostly lower Tweet volume accounts.
Google Web Alerts appears to now be reporting Twitter posts via its Google Alerts product.
Twitter Google Web Alert
I received the Google Alert above today for data gathered yesterday May 21, 2009.
This is the first Google Alert I have seen which included Twitter posts within Google Web Alerts.
What implications will this have on Search Engine Results Pages for search engine marketers and search engine optimizers – if any?
As the Twitter audience grows, the ability to reach it or be reached by the segment of the Twitter audience interested in the same topics will become more valuable both to Twitter, its audience and its potential advertisers.
For the last sixty days I have been monitoring Tweets within a 100 mile radius of my city to get a better sense of what the average Twitter user Tweets about.
I haven’t spent any of my online time on social networks because the same amount of time invested in programming a Google Adwords campaign can reach an exclusive and active audience who by definition are already interested in my products and services vis-a-vis their search query.
The same can’t be said for social media and networks like Twitter or Facebook.
Twitter users can search for keywords they are interested to identify potential audience segments to reach but this process still doesn’t separate the good Tweets from the bad, the wheat from the chaff, the Twitter signal from the Twitter noise.
A sample Tweet stream from within 100 miles of my city over the last few minutes:
A Lot of Noise, Not Much Signal
Extrapolate the same type of Tweets over millions of Twitter users and you can see how identifying the Twitter signal from the Twitter noise will only grow more challenging.
After much rumbling in the Twittersphere today about lost avatars and fail whales – Twitter has decided to get things caught up.
Twitter Down
Although I can’t grab their tweet now, someone in my Tweet stream mentioned Twitter uses Amazon servers for service.
Could Amazon be having troubles keeping up with Twitters’ growth?
The Yahoo Search Marketing team has begun posting to Twitter.
From the Yahoo Search Marketing blog:
We tweet throughout the week on our latest activities: about new products, from conference panels, and of course, with posts from the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog.
The official Yahoo corporate blogger is tweeting as well.
We’re not the only ones at Yahoo! serving up Twittery goodness. Nicki Dugan, the corporate blogger at Yodel Anecdotal, tweets on everything that the rest of Yahoo! is doing.
Follow Yahoo Search Marketing on Twitter @YahooAdBuzz
Yahoo Search Marketing Twitter
Organizing the Twitter audience will prove key for Twitter and its users to monetize their Tweets.
TweetTrail.com segments the Twitter Audience albeit through manual searches.
TweetTrail.com
TweetTrail.com is a pretty cool tool.
Search for Twitter users by the frequency of Tweets containing your market related keywords to identify and follow potential leaders in your industry’s niche.
The following Tweet Trail search produces the top twenty Twitter users whose Tweets contained Adwords.
Top 20 Adwords Tweeters
I am not sure how far back TweetTrail.com mines Tweet data for keywords.
Recently I have noticed Twitter has begun reducing the amount of search history available for some search terms.
I would guess Tweet Trails keyword histories are also constrained by the same parameters Twitter now imposes on Twitter search.
Twelve years ago, I read an article about Richard Saul Wurman the co-founder of the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference and I have been intrigued with TED ever since.
The annual TED conference is happening now in Long Beach, CA.
This year a convergence of the latest technology and new communication habits provides a rare glimpse into conferences like TED.
In this case, attendees at the TED conference who are Twitter users are Tweeting their individual impression of what is being said on stage by TED presenters.
Searching Twitter for TED effectively reverse engineers TED’s Tweeting audience which in turn provides a rich source of innovative thinkers for – those who are interested – to follow on Twitter.
For instance, 297 Tweets related to the TED conference have occurred since I began writing this post.
Ted Tweets
Most Tweets pertained to Tim Berners-Lee who just suggested to the audience they share their raw data over the web.
Many TED attendees have since provided the link to Tim Berners-Lee’s TED presentation which is here.
Searching Twitter for TED will provide any searcher with their own list of some of the world’s brightest people.
Danny Sullivan tweeted his plans for placing his Twitter address on his business cards.
Great idea.
I too have been considering ways to cross promote some of my content from one platform to another.
His tweet prompted me to follow through with several ideas I have had for extending my Twitter account’s reach.
I have added my Twitter address to my Google Adwords Professional video on YouTube.
YouTube Twitter
To me, it seems only natural for YouTube producers to add their Twitter contact details to their videos.
I am surprised YouTube hasn’t yet added Twitter as one of their sharing options.
Share YouTube with Twitter
Its not an option on YouTube yet…
Surely adding Twitter to YouTube’s share options would help both properties further develop and deepen their respective shares audience attention.
Connecting YouTube’s and Twitter’s audiences may provide further monetization opportunities as well.
Search Marketing Communications 
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