This is a Wordle. In fact, this is my Wordle. At least, it is a Wordle of my most commonly used words on Twitter. The bigger the word, the more often I use it.
There isn’t really any point to it, but in making it I discovered something that I thought was interesting. The words I use commonly are by and large positive.
Because I spend some of my professional time on Twitter (as @Orcon) dealing with customer complaints I think it is easy to forget that there are a lot of people (like me wearing my @phixx hat) for whom Twitter is about sharing what is awesome (yeah, I say awesome a lot).
Isn’t that cool?
You can also make your own Wordle if you are so inclined.
I have always been amazed at the amount mobile companies get away with charging for text messages, particularly international SMS.
But thanks to Tui’s bright idea, you don’t have to anymore. Well, at least not if you have a smartphone with a Twitter client (my weapon of choice is an iPhone loaded with TwitterFon).
How does it work? So long as you both have Twitter accounts you just need to direct message your friend, and provided they have text alerts set up for your tweets, they will get it delivered right to their phone. Obviously this only works for places where the Twitter SMS service is enabled (great for keeping in touch with my UK friends for example). You probably also want to either have a data plan enabled on your phone, or be in WiFi coverage, otherwise the savings are going to be cancelled out by the obscene casual mobile data charges.
Of course you are limited to 140 characters, rather than 160, but I am sure you can live with it for a 100% discount.
Unfortunately at the moment it is one way for New Zealanders, but that is all going to change. Apparently both Vodafone and Telecom have signed deals with Twitter, presumably meaning that soon Kiwis will be able to get free Twitter SMS alerts sent to their phones. Boo-ya.
Why not?
In my tradition of catching on to things late, I have become somewhat enamored with Twitter.
Twitter powers my little ‘I am currently..’ on the right hand side of the main page.
Basically you post updates about what you are doing/reading/eating/feeling/scratching via the Twitter site, your mobile, IM, or a desktop client. These are then circulated to your list of buddies, who can choose to get updates to their mobiles etc.
My friends list is currently embarrassingly small, so please, join the micro blogging revolution (or some equally hyperbolic statement)!
P.S. Twitter is made even better with the added goodness of Tweetr. It does lots of neat stuff, but in particular takes pictures using your webcam. I can’t wait for my new Macbook so I can join the party!
P.P.S. Twitter is officially 43% cooler than Facebook.
