English Word of the Year 2009

The Global Language Monitor has announced that Twitter is the Top Word of 2009 in its annual global survey of the English language. Twittered was followed by Obama, H1N1, Stimulus, and Vampire. The near-ubiquitous suffix, 2.0, was No. 6, with Deficit, Hadron the object of study of CERN’s new atom smasher, Healthcare, and Transparency rounded out the Top 10.

“In a year dominated by world-shaking political events, a pandemic, the after effects of a financial tsunami and the death of a revered pop icon, the word Twitter stands above all the other words. Twitter represents a new form of social interaction, where all communication is reduced to 140 characters,” said Paul JJ Payack, President of The Global Language Monitor. “Being limited to strict formats did wonders for the sonnet and haiku. One wonders where this highly impractical word-limit will lead as the future unfolds.”

The Top Words are culled from throughout the English-speaking world, which now numbers more than 1.58 billion speakers.

Global Warming,” “9/11″ and “Obama” are Top Words, “Climate Change” is top phrase.

Blog, Tweet, Update Facebook at Work

Blog, tweet, update Facebook -- that's the message the Australian government is sending its bureaucrats as part of a push to break down barriers between public servants and ordinary people. Instead of seeing the social networking tools as time-wasting diversions, a government-commissioned draft report on new media wants them used to discuss ideas and gather feedback.

The report says public agencies should engage "more energetically" with Web 2.0 applications, examples of which include Facebook, the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia and video-sharing site YouTube.

The report said interactive media provided "unprecedented opportunities to open up government decision-making to the community". But it acknowledged the greatest impediment to its broader use was the culture of government, which can tend towards secrecy and which was protective of the copyright on policy.

"Access to work tools like web-based email, collaborative work spaces and instant messaging create powerful new possibilities for collaboration particularly where collaborators are physically apart," it said.

"Likewise Twitter, Facebook and blogs provide access to professional information and conversation. Yet not enough public servants have work access to these building blocks of Government 2.0."

Indeed, none of the public servants on the taskforce preparing the 'Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0' report had access to instant messaging despite the fact that it was an important tool for other task force members, it said.

The report also noted that one public servant responded to a call for colleagues to engage in robust work discussion online with: "Ha -- we can't get to FaceBook, YouTube, Flickr, or most common discussion forums where I work."

Pulse of the Online World

This article appeared in the daily Nation

Twitter now disseminate information, interpret them for us as per tweets writers? perceptions and initiate debates. Surf some and one can finds tweets of any kind and type: subject oriented, complimenting or criticizing perspectives, incisive observations, or deeply personal lascivious thoughts and very intimate details of personal life (some give these details staying behind the walls of anonymity while some do it overtly and even solicit comments and call it freedom of choice). Early adopters of the twitter practices, who are in the middle of enjoying an evolution of information technologies, think that form of Tweets will keep changing over time as tools improve and technology matures.

What is a Twitter

This article appeared in monthly Techno Biz, Aug 2009 issue

What is a Twitter? Well, it depends on whom the question is asked. For millions of ordinary people with access to a computer and an Internet connection, Twitter is an easy way to self publish their thoughts, concerns, and feelings or a means of talking to each other and sharing whatever they want to. To some Twitter still is a place to answer simple question; What are you doing? Some others say it is a voice that is being heard in this din. Twitter is an outlet on so many levels for so many people and a real time media (it is not about something that happened yesterday rather it is about what is happening now). Dubbed as microblogging or moblogging, Twitter may be vanity site and a short cut to fame for many as Tweets are ego gratifying sometime. For e-marketers Twitter is a quick tool for building businesses and brands.

Google Accounts on Twitter

twitter.com/Google - our central account
twitter.com/Blogger - for Blogger fans
twitter.com/GoogleCalendar - user tips & updates
twitter.com/GoogleImages - news, tips, tricks on our visual image search
twitter.com/GoogleNews - latest headlines via Google News
twitter.com/GoogleReader - from our feed reader team
twitter.com/iGoogle - news & notes from Google's personalized homepage
twitter.com/GoogleStudents - news of interest to students using Google
twitter.com/YouTube - for YouTube fans
twitter.com/YouTubeES - en Espanol
twitter.com/GoogleAtWork - solutions for IT and workplace productivity

Geo-related
twitter.com/SketchUp - Google SketchUp news
twitter.com/3DWH - SketchUp's 3D Warehouse
twitter.com/Modelyourtown - 3D modeling to build your favorite places
twitter.com/EarthOutreach - Earth & Maps tools for nonprofits & orgs
twitter.com/GoogleMaps - uses, tips, mashups
twitter.com/GoogleSkyMap -Android app for the night sky

Ads-related
twitter.com/AdSense - for online publishers
twitter.com/AdWordsHelper - looking out for AdWords questions and tech issues
twitter.com/AdWordsProSarah - Google Guide for AdWords Help Forum
twitter.com/GoogleAnalytics - insights for website effectiveness
twitter.com/GoogleAdBuilder - re building display ads
twitter.com/GoogleRetail - for retail advertisers
twitter.com/TechnologyUK - for U.K. tech advertisers
twitter.com/InsideAdWordsDE - for German AdWords customers
twitter.com/GoogleAgencyDE - for German ad agencies
twitter.com/AdSensePT - info for Portuguese-language publishers
twitter.com/AdWordsRussia - AdWords news & tips in Russian
twitter.com/DentroDeAdWords - Spanish updates from the Inside AdWords blog
twitter.com/AdWordsAPI - AdWords API tips

Developer & technical
twitter.com/GoogleResearch - from our research scientists
twitter.com/GoogleWMC - Google Webmaster Central
twitter.com/GoogleCode - latest updates for Google developer products
twitter.com/GoogleData - Data APIs provide a standard protocol for reading and writing web data
twitter.com/app_engine - web apps run on Google infrastructure
twitter.com/DataLiberation - our initiative for complete import/export of all data
twitter.com/GoogleMapsAPI - about using Google Maps embedded in websites
twitter.com/GoogleIO - Google's largest annual developer event

Culture, People
twitter.com/googletalks - notes from our @Google speaker series
twitter.com/googlejobs - the voice of Google recruiters

Country or Region
twitter.com/googlearabia - news from the Google Arabia Blog*

twitter.com/googledownunder - Google activities in Australia & New Zealand
twitter.com/GoogleDE - Google in Germany
twitter.com/GoogleKorea - News & notes in Korean*

twitter.com/GoogleLatAm - Latin America (en Espanol)
twitter.com/GooglePolicyIt - Notes on Google policy issues in Italy

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Twitter to TweetMondo

If you want to find Twitter users near your location, try TweetMondo. Your results will depend on the location you enter – whether it be a broad or precise location. Once you login with your Twitter username and password you can enter your location in the Where are you? box. You can also select a location from the “Tweetcloud” located at the bottom of the page. Try!

Follow Me on Twitter

Twitter unleashes the diarist in its 14 million users, who visited its site 99 million times last month to read posts tapped out with cellphones and computers. Individually, many of those 140-character “tweets” seem inane. But taken collectively, the stream of messages can turn Twitter into a surprisingly useful tool for solving problems and providing insights into the digital mood. By tapping into the world’s collective brain, researchers of all kinds have found that if they make the effort to dig through the mundane comments, the live conversations offer an early glimpse into public sentiment — and even help them shape it. Read here! Most interesting is the story of Corey and Ellen Menscher who had developed a device that would alert Twitter each time the baby kicked when she was pregnant with Tyler.

Follow me if, in any case you need to know, What I am doing.

Be My Friend?

My friend must be a Bird-
Because it flies!
Mortal, my friend must be,
Because it dies!
Barbs has it,
like a Bee!
Ah, curious friend!
Thou puzzlest me!

Emily Dickinson

I came across Emily Dickinson's take on friendship while exploring my 'notes' on Facebook – site earlier dedicated for students alone that now has been opened for every one. Are you on it?

Tags: Social Networking, Friends, Cyber Society, Facebook

On Twitter

Mediating about security situation and threat perceptions...

What Am I Doing

I'm busy meditating on a mountain...

My Status at Twitter and Facebook Reads...

Continuous blogging, when you are maintaining multiple blogs, is tough. But, hi people, real life is tougher. No?

Power of Twitter

We have already heard bloggers being fired for blogging. Now Twitter messages are are also leading to arrests. News is and it says that Guatemalan Twitter user 'Jeanfer', was arrested and accused of causing financial panic because of his opinion posted on the social networking site. "Jean Ramses Anleu Fernandez urged people in Guatemala to boycott a bank in the aftermath of a political scandal. He was arrested at his home in Guatemala City and had his computer seized. In his tweet under his twitter name '@jeanfer' he proposed that people "withdraw cash from Banrural and break the bank of the corrupt". He tagged the message with '#escandalogt' - referring to the alleged murder of prominent lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg," it reads.

Ahead of Time

One disadvantage of going ahead of time is that you are left alone. Alone!

I Have Been On Twitter For, Like, EVAR! Follow Me!

So like yea. I have been on Twitter forever and I like it. I find leads. I find insight. I share ideas. I even offer opinion. I discuss a lot of stuff. I find out who's saying what (at my back). And I hang with the bloggers.

So follow me. Yes, follow me and find out just what the hell I do all day long.

I am @sajshirazi.

Twitter Tips

Rumors are thet Twitter is being acquired by Apple after Google could not get it. This and more reasons, "Twitter is so red-hot right now that it's united Shaq and Oprah. It's also so good at attracting buzzwords that I can't decide whether to call it a microblogging service or a social-networking Web site. But it doesn't really matter what you call it, or whether you prefer to follow Ashton Kutcher or Britney Spears. What matters is that users are taking to Twitter in massive numbers. And your business should be there, too. Here are Nine Twitter Tips for Business:

Don't automate it
Be conversational
Follow people who are relevant
Make sure your people are on Twitter, and refer to them
Answer your mentions
Search for your name
Follow people who are relevant
Make sure your people are on Twitter, and refer to them
Answer your mentions

(Via}

Write Better Tweets; Or Don't

Twitter is 140 character message format that demands concise, engaging and pithy writing. If you can engage your followers with well written tweets, you are a winner. And if you can't, you are one of those 14 millions that do not matter to anyone.In that case better don't tweet.

Tweety Twitter Tests

eMarketer estimates there were roughly 6 million Twitter users in the US in 2008, or 3.8% of Internet users.

eMarketer projects that the number of Twitter users will jump to 18.1 million in 2010, representing 10.8% of Internet users.

comScore reported that Twitter.com drew 4 million unique visitors from home, work and college/university locations in February 2009, up from 340,000 a year earlier—a 1,086% increase.

Nielsen Online reported 7 million unique visitors to Twitter.com during the month, up even higher—1,381%—from 475,000 the prior year.

comScore also reported a surge in March. After months of double-digit growth, traffic to Twitter.com accelerated 131% to 9.3 million visitors for the month.

And the number of Twitter users is considerably greater than the number of visitors to Twitter.com, as a result of the multiple access points for the service (for example, mobile devices and desktop apps).

A survey of Twitter users from MarketingProfs backs Mr. Williams’ views. On a scale from 1 to 5 (with 1 for strongly disagree and 5 and for strongly agree), the phrase “I find it exciting to learn new things from people” averaged a score of 4.65 and “I value getting information in a timely manner” averaged 4.58.