Most Twitter users are back online after the DoS attack that brought the microblogging site to its knees. Notice how I used the word "most"? Blackberry users who use the popular ÜberTwitter app are still having some major issues.
Do you use Übertwitter? Let us know.
ÜberTwitter acknowledged they're still having Twitter service issues on their site:
"The Twitter service and in particular Twitter's interface which third party clients like ÜberTwitter use to talk to Twitter is still experiencing slowness and occasional timeouts. Until Twitter can resolve the issue you will continue to experience problems retrieving timelines and posting tweets using ÜberTwitter and any other clients."
You may notice that ÜberTwitter is saying that ALL third party clients are experiencing the same issues as them. So we decided to do a little testing with other 3rd party clients. Below you'll see tweets from Mike McDonald, sent from his myTouch 3G with twidroid, and Susan Coppersmith, sent from her iPhone with TweetDeck. Neither of them experienced problems reading or sending tweets. We're not saying ÜberTwitter is incorrect, but it does seem more like an isolated issue.
In fact so many Twitterers are having issues with the Blackberry app that ÜberTwitter is a trending topic. A search on Twitter will show you that most people are incredibly unhappy with Übertwitter, some are even turning to other apps to get them through this downtime.
Soon to be ESPN NFL analyst, Adam Schefter, seems to be taking the ÜberTwitter service issues really hard. He even equates the apps downtime to a "smoker tyring to quit".
It should be noted that Schefter is currently in Canton, Ohio for the NFL Hall-of-Fame game, which will be held this coming Sunday. So he'll be relying on ÜberTwitter to relay news to his loyal followers.
Is the Übertwitter downtime causing you any grief? Let us know.
Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’
ÃœberTwitter Still Busted – That’s ÃœberLame
Sunday, August 9th, 2009Search Engine and Social Traffic from Press Releases
Saturday, August 8th, 2009Press releases are a form of online marketing that we don't discuss very often. They don't have the new and exciting appeal of social media or even search engine marketing, but they've been around a lot longer and are still working. In fact, they can play right into those other forms.
"Search engine rankings are arguably the most important small business marketing tool available today because it drives Web traffic -- and potential prospects -- to a small business' Web site," a PRWeb spokesperson tells WebProNews. "However, because improving search rankings is desirable, achieving results can be both challenging and highly competitive."
PRWeb shared a case study with us, involving a firm that typically sees a boost in search engine rankings and a 50% spike in web traffic after they issue a release. In fact, for one release in particular, the firm saw a spike of 400% on two different Web sites, and the firm doesn't believe they were from the same users. They also incorporate social media tools like Twitter to extend the "shelf life" of press releases, and say that drives additional traffic.
"If you want a release to rank highly in search engines you have to use key words and link those to your Web site," says Peter Figueredo, CEO of NETexponent, the subject of the case study. "In addition, you need to put them in the release a few of times, for example in the headline, the sub-headline and again in the body. This is different from a traditional news release with a catchy headline where you may not have your key words included."
"When we included a link to our press releases on Twitter and other social media networks, we saw these both expanded the scope of distribution and the extended the longevity of the announcement," adds Figueredo. "With other news releases we saw an initial spike in Web site traffic on the first two days and then it dropped off. With these features we've seen increases in traffic up to five days after the news release was issued."
Some have suggested that Twitter could actually replace the press release. I wouldn't go that far, but it provides a complimentary service for announcing news quickly. The press release just has much broader potential. That hasn't stopped at least one company from offering a service that provides one line "Twitter-style" press releases.
When we think of press releases, we often think of distribution, which is a huge part of it definitely. But when using a newswire service like PRWeb, BusinessWire, PRNewswire, etc., don't forget about your own website as well. Earlier this year I discussed how some companies' own press centers are holding back some marketing opportunities for them.
Your site should have a section for press releases, and that should be up to date with the latest release when it goes out. You'd be surprised at how often these go without being updated even when a press release has been spotted elsewhere. It is also a good idea to link to any company blogs, Twitter accounts, or any other place where company announcements are made.
Another thing I notice is that many company press pages also do not have RSS feeds set up. Some offer different kinds of press alerts, but otherwise, they are relying on people to frequently check back to see what is happening. Google does this well. They announce a lot of their news via their wide range of blogs (which is a great strategy in itself), and while their press release section doesn't get nearly as many updates, they offer a feed so that users know when it has been updated. They also provide links to other press-related resources where their latest info can be obtained.
The bottom line is that press releases inform interested parties of what is going on with your business. Despite their name, they're not just about the press anymore. The web has made them available to anyone. Social media is an extension of this, and opens up the opportunity for sharing. Search engine rankings of course bring releases right to searchers. Make your releases good.
Do you get good boosts in traffic from press releases? Tell us about it.
Delicious Shows Off New Sharing Features
Friday, August 7th, 2009Earlier this week, Delicious launched a new redesign of its homepage and some new search features. Yesterday they showed off the details of the search features, which included time filters, a trends graph, tag filters, enhanced results, and suggestions.
Today they are elaborating on the new sharing features. Instead of copying and pasting URLs, you can now email or tweet bookmarks directly from Delicious. To do this, just add recipients in the new Send field when you save or edit bookmarks. Then click the Send field and you'll see the Send tab with social network options.
Delicious highlights the types of recipients you can add in the send field:
- Email address. Enter any valid email address. We’ve included an auto-complete feature for email addresses you’ve previously entered to make sending emails easier.
- Delicious user name Enter any valid user name. We’ve include an auto-complete feature for Delicious users in your network.
- Twitter. Type Twitter to share the bookmark on your Twitter feed. Associate a Twitter account by logging into Twitter under the Twitter panel in the Send tab.
Twitter users can associate a Twitter account and send all saved bookmarks to Twitter by selecting "Tweet all bookmarks unless private" when adding the account. Users can also attach a 116 character message with them.
More information on the new sharing features as well as some on Delicious shortened URLs can be found here. Read this article for more about the redesign.
Social Media Tapped to Find Missing Louisville Man
Friday, August 7th, 2009Update: A Twitter account has now been set up specifically for finding Robert Botts: @FindRobertBotts.
Original Article: A man named Robert Botts from Louisville, Kentucky has gone missing, and those who know him have taken to social media to help them find him. He's been missing since Thursday, July 30. His car was found abandoned at an intersection in Louisville.
A photo and physical description have been posted on the social publishing site Scribd.
This is being shared around other social networks like Facebook and Twitter in hopes that someone will be able to help find him.
They have posted the story to iReport, the citizen reporter site that CNN uses stories from, although CNN has not picked this one up yet.
We often talk about the marketing and business benefits that users can get out of social media, but stories like this remind us that there are far more valuable uses.
This is not the first time social media has been called upon to find missing persons. For example, earlier this year, a father began using it to try and find his missing daughter after 20 whole years. She had disappeared from Gainesville, Florida in 1989. There were no amber alerts or web sites displaying her picture or anything, but he set up a site at TiffanySessions.com. He counts YouTube among his social media resources.
The viral nature of social media provides hope for friends and family of missing persons, and if it can work for marketing products, there is reason to believe it can provide value for something of real importance. Spreading the word is crucial though. You'll find some sharing options below. Share where you have friends/followers.
When Irrelevant Ads Cost You Money
Friday, August 7th, 2009Digg is putting a new spin on targeted advertising. It is always the goal of advertisers to target their ads as well as they can, but when you advertise with Digg, it will cost you if they're not relevant enough.
Digg announced earlier this year that it would be introducing ads. It was hard to tell if users would find this to be a good idea or not, but the concept behind the ads seems quite user friendly. The ads are clearly marked as such, and users get to vote them up or down just like regular Digg content. Digg explains how it works to Digg users:
Your Diggs, buries and clicks influence a quality score that determines how often the ad gets displayed, and ultimately how much the advertiser pays per click. The more you Digg an ad, the less the advertiser will have to pay; the more an ad is buried, the more the advertiser is charged, eventually pricing it out of the system. The success of this system depends on your participation and feedback, as it will help advertisers to create the best possible experience for the Digg community. Our goal with Digg Ads is to encourage advertisers to create content as compelling as organic Digg stories, and to give you more control over which ads you see on Digg.
Advertisers pay less, the more popular their ad is. The less popular it is, the more they pay. To be successful with Digg's new advertising program, you're really going to have to offer what Digg users want. That means knowing what Digg users really like. So basically, you have to offer some kind of Digg-related product. After all, Digg stories are usually the ones that get dugg the most. I'm kidding (at least half kidding).
Either way, it will pay to really get to know the Digg community before just going for it and advertising your product. Study what kinds of stories are most popular. Get a feel for the kinds of content Diggers like. Then evaluate your product against that. Is it something that is really going to get votes with this crowd? If not, you're going to be better off spending your advertising dollars elsewhere. The less the Digg community likes your ad (or product), the more you're going to have to pay to advertise it there. There's not a whole lot of point to paying more for less enthusiasm.
Digg has begun rolling out the ads and they will appear in rotation in various places around the site. Right now, they're only testing them, so many users will not see them yet.
Delicious Shows Off New Search Features
Thursday, August 6th, 2009This week Delicious launched a new redesign along with some new search features. They have now elaborated on what all is new when it comes to search.
Time Filters
One new feature is the time filter. This lets the user limit the time frame of a search so they can narrow down results on time-sensitive subjects. "For example, a search for the term tour de france will bring up bookmarks about the race in general," explains Delicious. "By limiting these results to the last month, you will display more results related to the 2009 tour, and by limiting the results to just one day you’ll find the most up-to-date news in our system."
The feature can be used by opening the panel beneath the search box on results pages and choosing "bookmarks saved From".
Trends Graph
The trends graph shows you when bookmarks in your results were saved.
Tag Filters
This simply lets you filter results by specifying only bookmarks that have been saved with or without specific tags. This can be used by opening the panel beneath the search box on a results page, and clicking a tag filter once to limit results to those bookmarks saved with that tag. You can also click it twice to limit the results to bookmarks saved without the tag.
Enhanced Results
Delicious now uses Yahoo's SearchMonkey to display some enhanced thumbnails (playable for video) for Wikipedia, YouTube, Yelp, Yahoo Local, and CitySearch results.
Suggestions
With this feature, Delicious simply incorporates search suggestions just like Yahoo Search into the search box. Start typing a query, and you will get a drop down menu of suggested queries.
There are more new features to Delicious than just search. The biggest new factor is freshness. You can read more about new features of the homepage here.
How Google Reader Sharing Contributes to Real Time Search
Thursday, August 6th, 2009Google has announced that Google Reader has begun adoption of the PubSubHubbub protocol for shared items. This is a simple, open, server-to-server web-hook based pubsub (publish/subscribe) protocol, as defined on this Google Code page.
Here's a visual overview of what that means:
"All shared item pages have feeds, and now all of those feeds will ping a hub (and there's a <link rel="hub" .../> element in them)," explains Mihai Parparita on the Google Reader Blog. "This means that if you (as a web app developer) would like to more efficiently and quickly monitor Reader shares, you just have to subscribe at the hub to be notified of changes in real-time. If you want to learn more about PubSubHubbub and how it works, see the site and protocol definition."
Google names FriendFeed specifically as a place that takes advantage of such pinging. If you have added your shared items to your FriendFeed account, you and your friends will see them there in real-time. This means they will appear in FriendFeed's real-time search engine.
Adding the PubSubHubbub support was one of the famous 20% projects of a few Googlers. They cite the project as a contributor to making the web a faster place, which of course is a big initiative of Google these days.
Twitter Goes Down, No Cute Whale to Soften the Blow
Thursday, August 6th, 2009Update: Twitter is back up and running. The Twitter Status blog informs us that Twitter has fallen victim to an ongoing Denial-of-Service attack:
Facebook is also experiencing some glitches. As someone pointed out in the comments of this article:
Twitter is not the only social networking site having problems right now. It took several attempts for me to get into my Facebook account and then I could not share a link or click on links shared by others.
I have also had trouble getting to links provided by friends.
Original Article: While researching a story, I couldn't help but notice that Twitter was not working. It was timing out. The idea of Twitter not working is certainly not a new concept. In fact, it has kind of become accepted in some strange way and to some extent even celebrated.
You've probably seen a fail whale t-shirt somewhere, a reference, of course to the whale that Twitter ordinarly displays when it is experiencing hiccups. No whale in sight this time though. Just a cold error message:
Suddenly Twitter not working doesn't seem so warm and fuzzy. Twitter Search works though. In fact, the only aspect of Twitter that doesn't work appears to be the site itself. People are still able to tweet from other devices and applications. Searching for Twitter on Twitter shows that people couldn't wait to Tweet about Twitter search not working (this is starting to sound like a tongue-twister).
Twitter has acknowledged the problem on the Twitter Status blog, but doesn't share any clues as to what has caused the issue.
From this experience, I take away two points. The first one is that people freak out when they can't tweet. The second one is that Twitter's compatibility with outside apps and devices is a great thing for the company, especially considering that it "fails" so often.
I'm not sure how long exactly Twitter has been down, but it's been at least a half hour at the time of this writing.