Bill Gates recently launched a Twitter account and began tweeting his thoughts to the masses.
Like the majority of Twitter account holders, Gates uses the Bit.ly URL shortener to Tweet web pages addresses too long for inclusion along with his Tweets.
Bill Gates Bit.ly
Mr. Gates apparently still isn’t aware of his old company Microsoft’s recently launched URL shortener – Binged.it.
You’d think if we was aware of it, he would be using it to bring Binged.it to the attention of his Twitter followers.
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
Recently WordPress added a “Publicize” button to their blogs so publishers could Tweet their posts directly to their Twitter accounts.
Isn’t it now time for WordPress to add a “Socialize” button to their bloggers dashboards?
Self hosted WordPress publishers can add plugins like those from Tweetmeme to let their visitors Tweet blog links to the Twitter audience.
Tweetmeme WordPress Plugin
However, WordPress hosted blogs lack any type of plugin tools for bloggers who want to enable their visitors to share their discoveries via Tweets beyond the WordPress walls.
Adding a Tweetmeme feature to WordPress bloggers dashboards and in turn their blogs would surely have a network doubling effect on the WordPress.com audience.
Wordpress Plugin
The fifth year of the Web 2.0 Summit was held in San Francisco over the last several days.
This year the Web 2.0 conference theme was Web Squared.
About the 2009 Web 2.0 Summit:
We believe that nothing is going to get better if the world collectively hides under its desk. It’s time for the Web to step up and step into its role as a platform for positive change—be it in our economy, our culture, or our society.
Last year we focused on where the Web met the world. This year, the Web is the world. And we’ve got a lot of work to do.
Entire industries are in the process of painful rebirth—finance and energy, to be sure, but also information technology, media and communications, healthcare, retail—nearly every major sector, in every major region of the world. And while these changes have been ongoing for more than a decade, the global financial crisis has accelerated and clarified this shift. It’s the end of one era, and the beginning of another.
At the center of both the destruction and creation is the World Wide Web. For this year, we are focusing on demonstrating proofs: showing how the founding principles of Web 2.0 have been put into practice to address the world’s most pressing problems.
Although I wasn’t able to attend in person this year, I have captured all of the Tweets that came out of the conference and posted the Top 50 Twitter Tweets (in no particular order) I found most insightful below.
RT typos – can’t edit multiple Tweets?
RT@Ross I have to say that Sean Parker’s preso was at first too basic and then made leaps beyond reason #w2s
RT@kajbouic Well, they sure do own the behaviour RT @fzanni RT Sean Parker: “Google doesn’t own Networks, they own Info Services.” #w2s
RT@marcedavis Teen Panel at #w2s love Facebook cuz?”that’s where their friends are.”
RT@lwaldal Why pay if I can get it somewhere else for free? (teens on panel) #w2s
RT@alparker To teen panel at #w2s Q: “If Bing paid you to search, would you use it?” A: “Oh, yeah!!!” But would advertisers continue to?
RT@ptoboley Hurrah for Twitter! RT @RodCrawford: Teens don’t use Twitter #w2s #web2 – …because it requires thinking.
RT@mtanne: teens: “if Facebook charged $0.99 a month I would go back to MySpace” #w2s
@benphoster Teen Panel at Web 2.0: Not a single kid could name the company behind Bing #w2s Maybe that’s good for MSFT.
RT@LorenDavie Kids: would rather text than talk. Maybe you should drop the phone part, manufacturers. #w2s
RT@samj putting high school kids on the stage at #w2s is either incredibly insightful or idiotic. which is it? SF kids not stat sample
@sradick: “when you search on Google, do you see any ads on Google?” – Teens answer “Nope” #w2s
@sradick “The iPhone can’t do picture messaging – like, isn’t this supposed to be sophisicated?” – teen at #w2s
@sradick: Teens pay for CDs & music, but only for artists they “want to support” #w2s | All about Trust & Engagement – !ndeed
Have the television viewing habits of teens decoupled from regular televised programming?
RT@kristathomas Social networks as still more walled gardens. -TBL @ #w2s
RT @mtanne: Sergey Brin says we can use Chrome for Mac by going to http://bit.ly/DUqUc pre-beta. #Chrome #w2s
RT @moyalynne: Berners-Lee – “Semantic Web is not about adding meaning – it’s about where you’ve already got meaning” #w2s
RT@ginablaber Berners-Lee: it’s most important to just get data out there. put yr data out there, & let people link to it. linked data #w2s
RT@jhagel @fzanni: Tim Berners-Lee: the original idea back in 1990 was creating together. That was lost for some time #w2s
RT@moyalynne The idea that links can break is key to scalability of the Web. “404 the most important invention on the Web” #w2s
RT@dberlind Sir Tim Berners-Lee @ #w2s: One of the gating factors for the whole world of Web apps to take of is trust.
RT @hetavs@davemcclure: Sean Parker: “Friendster lost due to infrastructure probs, but MySpace lost to Facebook due to CAMPUS WARFARE.” #w2s
Web 2.0 Summit 2009 http://bit.ly/Web2_0Videosabout 3 hours ago from bit.ly
RT@jwoolson what is most exciting to you on web right now – Berners-Lee: HTML5, GeoLocation, move from web pages to mobile and apps. #w2s
RT@mworrell @mager “A set of connected social networks will defeat a lone, unconnected one.” Sir Tim Berners-Lee @ #w2s (via @dberlind)
RT@rlavigne42 @stumm :17 cents of every dollar in health care spent on billing. –Aneesh Chopra #w2s A simply astonishing number.
RT@yago1 “Only 20-25% of humanity actually uses the Web at all.” Tim Berners-Lee #w2s (via RT @rww)
RT @the_standard VentureBeat has a #w2s photo gallery. http://bit.ly/Av9IU
Pretty cool free video chat and video messaging http://bit.ly/Tokboxabout 3 hours ago from bit.ly
KoolAid Alert! “We’re moving from information economy to social economy.” – Sheryl Sandberg #w2s
RT @katiemoffat @thenextwomen: Cool! via @LATimesNystrom “The very 1st website can be found here” http://j.mp/TIqiI re #w2s @timoreilly
RT @onlythoughtwork @web2summit: “HTML5 is a computing platform” – @timberners_lee #w2s !mportant Web 2.0
What problem couldn’t you solve if spent 8 hours a day of concentrated effort focused on solving it?
RT @onlythoughtwork Location is THE input to rule them all. Location has the potential to change all outputs #mobile #life #quotes
Great idea from #w2s: What associations does an audience have with your brand? http://bit.ly/BrandAssociat…
Advice To Marketers: Advertising Accountability: http://wp.me/p4KvI-eAabout 4 hours ago from WordPress.com
RT@BertVanKets @makerbot @doucet: $750 DIY 3D printer @makerbot explained and demonstrated (video) http://bit.ly/3omyls #w2s
RT@psael HP @Web2Summit: 2.3 billion magazines are shipped to newstands & never read; HP answers with print-on-demand service @MagCloud #w2s
RT @andrescatalan What Do Teens Want? Their Moms Off #Facebook http://bit.ly/2gdbkC #w2s (via @alexiatsotsis)
@timberners_lee is on Twitter.
RT @moyalynne Tim Armstrong / AOL drops teaser about significant shift in their tech emerging next few months around content creation #w2s
RT @simeons Brin: excited by hardware (Moore’s Law persisting). #Google is about figuring out what we can do with what the HW can do. #w2s
RT @web2summit Google founder sergey brinn @ #w2s: “Please forgive Chrome for Mac if it crashes, it is not even in the beta stage yet.”
RT @shawncunningham #w2s I just asked Sergei Brin “where is chrome for mac?” – apparently u can download a dev alpha version, he’s not happy
RT @dberlind Goog Sergey Brin #w2s: “They [the AP, Murdoch] are conflating Google with change [in their complaints that Google is stealing]”
Several months ago WordPress announced the introduction of their own url shortening service under the WP.me branded domain.
At the time, I congratulated the WordPress staff on their blog while also asking when or if I could ever Tweet WordPress blog posts directly to my Twitter account.
The Official WordPress blog approves or disapproves comments and my suggestion went – for what seemed like an eternity – without being published.
Then within the last week or two, WordPress announced their new Publicize feature which Tweets WordPress blog posts directly to Twitter accounts.
I thought – unbelievable, Are you kidding me WordPress?!
As a consultant I am used to sharing strategies and techniques for growing businesses with my clients, but I provide them because my clients reciprocate by paying my fees.
Sharing ideas freely on the web is a requisite for participating in web culture yet not giving credit where credit is due is what keeps additional ideas from flowing and then multiplying.
This morning I woke up thinking about the above process and how I was going to write about how my suggestion had been perpetually embargoed in an approval que at WordPress while they went ahead and launched their Publicize to Twitter service.
To my surprise, my comment and suggestion were actually published several weeks ago while also being acknowledged by Automattic’s User Engagement head @Wordpress – Heather.
Wordpress Listens to Their Customer Audience
Congratulations WordPress… you not only listen to your customer audience, you also act on that which you have heard.
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.
WordPress.com has announced a new feature called Publicize which let WordPress publishers tweet their blog posts directly to their Twitter account.
The feature is enabled from WordPress Dashboard’s → My Blogs admin page.
Enable WordPress.com Account To Tweet
Once enabled, WordPress users are directed through an authorization procedure to confirm that they want to connect their WordPress.com blog and their Twitter account.
Wordpress Twitter Authorization
After Twitter allows access to a WordPress blog, the blogger’s account will display a message showing a successful connection has been made.
Successful WordPress.com Connection to Twitter
I assume publishing a WordPress blog post then automatically Tweets the post and it’s WordPress shortened url (Wp.Me) to the previously selected Twitter account.
This past week, Twitter announced they were receiving a $100 million investment from both existing investors and some new ones.
Hitwise analyst Bill Tancer wrote a post suggesting Twitter’s traffic may have already peaked and leveled out.
Indeed, several online audience measurement services have suggested for a month or longer that Twitter new visitor traffic and existing traffic retention may have already peaked.
However, last week Twitter announced a new partnership with AOL’s AIM instant messaging service that may have impacted Twitter’s daily Tweet volume which appears to more than doubled at least according to GigaTweet.
Tweets Per Day
I commented on the Hitwise blog about the apparent spike in traffic and Hitwise has chosen not to add my comments.
This isn’t the first time analyst Tancer hasn’t posted my comments.
The last time was when MySpace downstream referrals indicated they would be an attractive take over target – which they became when News Corp. bought them.
Regardless of whether a commenter is right or wrong, Hitwise’s Bill Tancer is the only blogger who’s blog I have commented on who won’t post an opionion contrary to his own.
I wonder why?
The Trending Topics feature on Twitter.com still has considerable room for improvement.
Users have gamed Twitter’s search “ranking” system to promote their businesses in Twitter Trending Topics as well as inundate searchers with all sorts of spam from porn to “Get Rich Tweeting” scams.
Now comes illegal movie downloads.
With the recent release of Bruno and the upcoming release of the latest Harry Potter installment, content pirates have taken to setting up Twitter accounts and pushing their pirated movie copies via Trending Topics tweets.
Twitter Trending Topics
A Twitter search for Bruno produces the following search results:
Pirates Pushing Illegal Movie Downloads via Twitter
Spam alone may be the prevailing reason why real time search hasn’t yet become ready for prime time.
Search Marketing Communications 
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