New Twitter

One has to wonder if it’s a bit too late.

Chances are if your reading this your probably already a twitter user. But for those that aren’t familiar with Twitter, Twitter is essentially a social networking site were users share everything from what they are thinking to what they are doing at the moment, all in 140 characters. The 140 characters limit by the way first started with the notion that users would be updating their feeds via text messages from their cell phones which had a limit of 140 characters per text message.

Since the launch of Twitter back in July of 2006, Twitter always seemed to embrace the idea of being simple and easy to use, and thus resisted the impulse to add new features. In many cases, Twitter has simply been a backbone for third party applications. Because of this, many people access Twitter via their cell phones. I know that I mostly see Twitter via my Blackberry. If I wasn’t blogging I don’t think I would ever go to the website via my computer, but I know that there are a lot of people that still do, so perhaps it’s a good idea for Twitter to start to do something to keep people coming to their main page.

The new Twitter is coming pretty loaded. Some of the new features are the ability to embed pictures and video in your feed, as well as, a customizable side bar that you can create for your followers, mini profiles so you can click on a user and see his profile, and an ability to find related content by clicking on an author or story.

Personally, I’m excited by Twitters new emphasis on their main page since I always wonder how these guys ever plan on making money. When I log into Twitter I don’t see ads of any kind. Sure they have those sponsored tweets, but I don’t see them too often. And so my question over the years, as the site literally started falling over because of its mass amount of users, how will these guys ever make money. The New Twitter looks like it could possibly answer that question. Well at least I hope it does. So what do you guys think of the new Twitter?

*** By the way, those interested in seeing Twitters new ad just view the video below.

 

Anyone Want an iPad?

I do. Ok maybe not.

But for those of you that are just itching for an iPad you might be in luck. On this week’s Twit podcast, Leo Laporte decided to pick someone at random on twitter and had everyone watching the show follow this random person (Lisa Etheridge (@LisaTickledPick)) in a bid to beat the number of followers that Sarah Killen (@LovelyButton) received after Conan O’Brien decided to follow her.

To those that help in Leo’s effort to beat Sarah’s number of followers, he has decided to randomly select one of Lisa’s followers before the next Twit Podcast and give them an Apple iPad. So, if you’re just curious about the device or really desire one, this could be your opportunity to get one, especially if you live outside the US.

Whether or not Leo will be able to beat Sarah’s number of followers is uncertain. As of the writing of this post Sarah has 19, 459 followers, while Lisa has 14, 795. Whatever the case, Lisa and a luckily follower will be walking away with an iPad.

Well, that’s assuming that anyone with an iPad is lucky.

Through Kevin Smith From the Plane

Sorry I couldn't help the obvious movie reference in my title.

CBS is reporting that Kevin Smith was thrown off of a South Western Airlines flight from Oakland due to his weight.  That's right they throw a famous director from a plane because of his weight.  Apparently, they considered Kevin Smiths weight to be some kind of safety hazard and ask for him to leave the flight.

I think its really unreasonable what Southwestern did to Kevin Smith (assuming the allegations are true). I have to wonder if they thought that some how it wouldn't get out what happened.  Its one thing to throw off us normal citizens, but in the Internet age its pretty well impossible for news like this not to get out.



Last year, many of you may remember the above video from a group of musicians who witnessed United Airlines break their guitars while they took a flight with them.  In this case, the group were a bunch of average guys,  they weren't really famous or anything,  but they were still able to get there message out about the way they were treated by United.  But with Kevin Smith, who is high profile enough to speak directly to the media, its kind of interesting to see him to opt for a different approach.

Kevin Smith for the last day, has been bashing Southwest Airlines through Twitter.  For those that are interested you can follow all of the Southwest Airlines bashing on his twitter page at @ThatKevinSmith.
From his tweets, its pretty clear that Kevin isn't very happy with the way that he was treated and apparently isn't to happy with the fact that Southwest still hasn't called him to investigate what happened.  Mashable published an article which stated that Southwest had attempted to call Kevin Smith, but Kevin Smith has refuted that, as he wrote,

Hey @mashable: Just cause @SouthwestAir BLOGS they tried to call, doesn't make it true: http://bit.ly/b9O0GO 24hrs AND STILL NO PHONE CALL.

So its kind of becoming he said she said kind of an affair, but its still interesting to watch.  But seriously, I hope that there is a good explanation for what happened.  Being a slightly larger person myself, I find it disappointing that someone could be thrown off of a plane so randomly like that.  I just hope it doesn't happen to anyone else.

Drunk Drivers to be Published on Twitter

Well, that is if you live in Texas.

ComputerWorld is reporting that the district attorney of Montgomery County, Texas has come up with an idea to publish drinking and driving offenders names via twitter.  The plan is to publish the names of anyone found drinking and driving between Christmas and New Years in order to discourage people from driving drunk during the holiday season.

This move to publish drunk drivers names via twitter follows Houston area county’s decision to publish drunk driver offenders names during holiday weekends.  And, just in case anyone was wondering as to the legality of all of this, drunk drivers are already a part of public record and so this is just another avenue that their names will be published.

As for if this will work?  I’m not sure.  I remember learning in Psychology that people are not deterred by penalties, but I personally think that it would work on some.   Truth be told anything that would stop just one person from drunk driving I think is worth it.  Its a real same that many people are still being irresponsible when it comes to drinking and driving.  Lets all just hope this works.