Hi guys, sorry I’ve been absent the past few days. Don’t worry, I’m not blogfading— we went to Ankara, and then things got a bit hectic around here on a personal front. I’m sure you know how it is. In any case, I’m back now, and it’s time to get caught up on stuff.
First off, there’s a small addition to the site. If you look at the social bookmarking links at the bottom of each post, you’ll notice there’s a new button there on the far left side that says “TwitThis.” I know some of you are savvy and are already thinking about the possibilities and don’t need any further explanation. But for those of you who either don’t twit yet, or have a twitter account but haven’t really explored its potential, here’s the Reader’s Digest version:
Twitter is a combination web site/public instant messaging forum whereby users (who register for free) answer the simple question, “what are you doing right now?” I joined back in January when twitter was still in the nest, but ever since SXSW, twitter seems to have taken full flight, and I for one am excited about what that means for bloggers like me and for cool people who want to get connected with other cool people in a simple way. If you don’t have a twitter account yet, you can get one here, and if you already have an account you can add me as a twitter friend (just click on the “add” link on the right sidebar).
TwitThis is a service whereby twitter users can take blog posts they find interesting and share them with the twittersphere. If you read something on this blog (or any other TwitThis-enabled blog) that you think needs to be shared with the world, just click on the “TwitThis” button at the bottom of the relevant post, and follow the pop-up instructions. It’s as simple as that. You can try it out on this post if you want to see how it works.
Twitter is not for everyone, and for those of you dead set against it, no worries— the TwitThis button is only there if you want it, and if you choose to ignore it, that’s cool too. But if you want in on the action, here are a few links to get you started:
Learn more or get a twitter account
Follow my twitter
Twitterrific (awesome Mac twitter client)
Twitteroo (client for the Windows people)
TwitThis (for the bloggers who want to plug in)
Twitter is specifically designed to be friendly to third-party applications and scripts, so if you’re the curious type, I’m sure you’ll quickly find hundreds of other twitter goodies on Google (my current favourite is twittervision).
As for this blog, I’ll get some new content up later today, I promise. In the mean time, I’ll see you on twitter, or if you’d rather start your day with a laugh, check out the bazaar library (new episode tomorrow!).
Update: I’ve noticed that if you want to twit a specific post, the TwitThis button only works correctly if you’re on the post’s permalink page; otherwise it just twits the main site url (which isn’t the end of the world, but still should be able to work either way). I’ve e-mailed the developer and hopefully things will be fixed soon. I love beta testing. Meanwhile sit tight and use permalinks if you want to twit a specific post.