Tretakoff Musings
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Melodic Birdsong
Twitter continues to impress me. Not the service, per se, but the ways it is used, how it's connected, and so on. For instance:
- Want to track a package? Sure, you can use the web, and "pull" from a page to find out the status of your package. But what if you could get a Twitter message (a "tweet") at every step of the package's journey? You'd know if you need to be home to accept a package the next day, without having to remember to visit a webpage in advance. Just send a Direct Message to TrackThis with the tracking number (any carrier) and a name you want to refer to the package by, and you'll get updates on every movement of the package.
- The Bay Area is famous for the weather phenomena of microclimates. Up in San Rafael, for instance, I can get an update every 30 minutes on the weather.
- Twitter is actually useful for discovering new people, as well. For instance, MistyKhan saw I was struggling with some Microsoft Outlook issues, and offered her help, unsolicited, along with pointing me to a fabulous resource for more, her own site.
- Courtesy of tweets from the same MistyKhan, check out TwitterLocal. Type in your ZIP code, choose a radius, and see all the people nearby twittering. Fun to see how common the ailments are from folks as the heat warms us all up!
- Ever wished there was a direct connection to a resource at an airline who you could reach out to and ask for help, or get information on possible delays or specials as they come up? JetBlue has embraced Twitter with a passion for just that.
- And, of course, what better way to know the hottest daily online deal than by having Woot let you know via Twitter.
All this, and free? Tweet, tweet!
- Want to track a package? Sure, you can use the web, and "pull" from a page to find out the status of your package. But what if you could get a Twitter message (a "tweet") at every step of the package's journey? You'd know if you need to be home to accept a package the next day, without having to remember to visit a webpage in advance. Just send a Direct Message to TrackThis with the tracking number (any carrier) and a name you want to refer to the package by, and you'll get updates on every movement of the package.
- The Bay Area is famous for the weather phenomena of microclimates. Up in San Rafael, for instance, I can get an update every 30 minutes on the weather.
- Twitter is actually useful for discovering new people, as well. For instance, MistyKhan saw I was struggling with some Microsoft Outlook issues, and offered her help, unsolicited, along with pointing me to a fabulous resource for more, her own site.
- Courtesy of tweets from the same MistyKhan, check out TwitterLocal. Type in your ZIP code, choose a radius, and see all the people nearby twittering. Fun to see how common the ailments are from folks as the heat warms us all up!
- Ever wished there was a direct connection to a resource at an airline who you could reach out to and ask for help, or get information on possible delays or specials as they come up? JetBlue has embraced Twitter with a passion for just that.
- And, of course, what better way to know the hottest daily online deal than by having Woot let you know via Twitter.
All this, and free? Tweet, tweet!
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