Weekend Reads - 06/20/2009

Tweetpsych - The details about this Tweet-alyzer claims:

Communication is a window into a person’s mind, and the way a person talks can tell you a lot about how they think. Linguists have developed two methods to decoding the written word into a meaningful profile of a person’s cognitive processes.

Using a Regressive Imagery Dictionary (RID) and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) to "build a psychological profile of a person based on the content of their Tweets." Put in any Twitter user name, and it will provide a "score" of various psychological factors, such as Cognitive Content (e.g., Social Processes, Sensations, Cognitive Processes) and Primordial, Conceptual and Emotional Content (e.g., Concreteness, Social behavior, abstract thought). My analysis is here.
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Search Engine Wars - Unless you've been living under a technological rock these days, you've probably heard about the launch of two new online search engines. (And, if you've really been paying attention, you'll know that they don't claim to be search engines -- rather, a "decision engine" and a "computational knowledge engine". Bonus points if you know which one is which.) Microsoft launched Bing and the Wolfram team launched Wolfram Alpha.

I overheard a colleague talking about Bing's launch. He was very impressed with the high-quality images that grace the home screen. When you loaded the page, you may have noticed a few flashing squares in the image. As you move the mouse around, they'll re-appear, and you can hover over the squares and they provide additional information about the image, complete with links to even more info. To be honest, I noticed the picture (it's quite the contrast from the nearly all-white Google background), but I don't think I would have touted the image while describing the new decision engine from Microsoft... Anyway, the background images are cool -- and they change. I've only used Bing a few times so far; I've read a lot about it. After what appeared to be a successful launch, Bing started having problems with it search results -- explicit images and videos were getting included, and Norton's porn filter couldn't block them. Big no-no -- you don't want to be the "decision engine" that's NSFW or for your kids to use ... Microsoft changed a few things about how Bing works, and apparently has found a work-around. Keep an eye out for that if you use Bing; I'm sure they'll get the problem sorted out some more. Tough set-back for the launch, though.

Another recent launch was the Wolfram|Alpha "computational knowledge engine." The admittedly not-a-Google-killer engine, Wolfram|Alpha attempts to use semantic language processing to take your query and to create an output based on the data stored inside Wolfram|Alpha's brain. Good ol' W|A is self-aware--it knows who it is and how old it is. Initial complaints by users charged that (1) it didn't have the answers to their queries (granted, the search syntax is a little different from Google/Yahoo, and the system is "still learning") or (2) they couldn't see a reason to use the service. Then, perhaps as a precursor to Bing's porn woes, Wolfram|Alpha users pushed back when they took a moment to really read through W|A's Terms of Service. A CNET contributor discussed W|A's "mind-boggingly backward at best, and troubling at worst" Terms of Service:

Wolfram Alpha requires: "If you make results from Wolfram Alpha available to anyone else, or incorporate those results into your own documents or presentations, you must include attribution indicating that the results and/or the presentation of the results came from Wolfram Alpha." It's a fair request, but it may not be a reasonable request. Not if Wolfram Alpha wants people to actually make widespread use of the service.

Something to be aware of if you consider using Wolfram|Alpha for any projects...

Not to be left out of the headlines, Google made sure that people remembered how cool it still was, and updated some services, like its Contact manager. I'm still a fan of all of the Google services: GMail, Blogger, Reader, Search, Docs ...
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Something for the security conscious ComputerWorld did a review of an interesting software called Safe Calculator. The article says:

It doesn't even require installation. All you do is enter the password at any time and click MS, and "safe mode" appears, changing all the calculator buttons to ones that would be useful for an app like this. Then, click on + to store and = to confirm. After that, you can execute the file, bring it back from hiding, or delete it.

Interesting application - but why a goofy calculator? Does anyone actually use that application anymore?
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THE URL Shortener Tracker I stumbled upon this the other day. Many of you have seen the bit.ly or ow.ly or tinyurl.com links floating around the Internet / Blogosphere. These services have exploded, especially with the need to share links via social networking sites/services like Twitter and Facebook. Someone is keeping a list of all the services available at this Google Docs spreadsheet.
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More on Bing's launch Some other reads:

• Wired: Bing hides its best features
• CNET review
• CW review
• a funny picture of Google vs. Bing suggested search terms related to Linux

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More on Wolfram|Alpha I had been waiting for W|A to launch for some time [I waited for Bing too] before the day actually came. I missed the live web video of the launch (delayed from some glitches). Since the launch, I collected some links about W|A and am now finally getting around to posting the:

• Easter Egg #1
• Easter Egg #2
• Wired article about W|A and the secret of time travel
• ComputerWorld article
• CNET review
• CW "answer engine vs. search engine"
• W|A already has ads
• Read the fine print
• Another reader perhaps summed it up best: "It looks like it'll be good for something, but I'm not yet sure how it will serve me, an ordinary person. It's not readily apparent how to use it most effectively. It may just be a matter of a learning curve for a new way of thinking about inquiries."

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There's computer hacking, and then there's social engineering hacking.
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A cell-phone for Ashley [W.] B: a shock- and water-resistant phone.
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"Charging Gadget redefines power-walking" -- a portable power charger/generator for small devices

Twitt-o-Scope

Found this cool visualization tool online called Twittoscope from this guy, Quasimondo.

As the site explains:

This little widget analyzes the lengths of a Twitter user's tweets and maps them in the form of a histogram. [...] The interesting result is that there are indeed different patterns of user types to be found. Many have a peak of lengths around the right side which is the 140 character limit of Twitter. Others have a peak rather on the left side which marks short tweets with just a few words. Robots or automated news services often have a very small distribution of different lengths. People who have just a few tweets will show a rather erratic pattern with many holes whilst oldtimers or people who tweet a lot will have a more continouus look.

As an additional info I've added the follower/following ratio as a horizontal bar below the histogram. The bigger the left yellow bar is the more followers a user has compared to the users he or she is following.

I thought it was pretty cool - here's our results:


Interesting, eh?

3D Search Results and Re-Tweet Me Button

Search Cube provides an interesting take on how search results are displayed, creating a cube that you can rotate and select your search results from. Right now, I'd say this isn't much good for anything except for graphical searches - how can you tell what's on the page that made up one of the spots on the cube? Maybe someone out there can help me understand how to use this better ... but for now, it's just a fun way to display results, but it doesn't help me search any better.

For all you Twitter fans out there, add some simple script language to your blog or webpage and let people easily "retweet" your stuff. And- the site says there's some tracking features. Cool. I'll have to let you know how some trials go. Check out ReTweet Me HERE.

More Twitter

A while back I read a post about why you should follow everyone on Twitter who follows you. I thought it was an interesting argument, but I was not convinced. I like to keep things organized and sorted and I didn't want to have to scroll through dozens of posts that I just didn't care about... That's why, although I daily have 500-1000 new items in my Google Reader account, I can pick and choose what I want to read through the navigation panel - scrolling through my folders/categories, or even selecting individual authors/RSS feeds.

But I can't do that with Twitter. And with only the last 25, or whatever it is, tweets showing on the home page, it's a pain to scroll back and see if you missed something from someone you really care about hearing from ... you have to get past the dozen @replies that some twitterfiend just spouted off in the last 5 minutes. Can I get a temporary gag order on some of them? I mean, I've tried to only follow people who had interesting prior tweets and/or interesting blogs/websites listed on their twitter profile. Others I've added for informational services, such as @RedCross for weather/disaster updates or @NTARC for national terrorism alerts, or for fun, like @DarthVader.

For a few days, I was inundated with requests to follow from "new media" marketers. They probably noticed that I followed someone from their "crowd." At first, I followed most of them back. But then I realized that that first follow gave me something these follow-up follows didn't have: real substance. For example, one guy is constantly "mad as ----" or some variation on madness and constantly spits out the same URL to drive people to his blog so that they can read about his critique about all the marketer posers out there who don't know what they're talking about, and to sign up for a webinar to learn about how he built his 5-figures-a-month-business. I swear he has his tweets scheduled to tweet recurrently. It's the same stuff, spread out throughout the day, always using some hyperbole to try to get people to click on his stock group of 2-3 links. Yawn. I continue to scroll right past his tweets, and really couldn't tell you if he's posted something new or interesting. I've considered unfollowing, but, sometimes out of vanity (got to keep my meager follower count high!) or out of laziness (when I'm just thinking about how annoying he is but don't want to get on Twitter to fix it), I haven't done it yet.

That doesn't mean I haven't ever unfollowed anyone. In fact, some follows were instant regrets and unfollowed, and others came down the road in our Twitterverse "relationship."

Then I read this article today, ironically(?) by the same author of the I'll-follow-anyone-who-follows-me post. In it, he gives several reasons why he'll unfollow you:

1. You follow me merely because I'll follow you.
2. You're a company that doesn't contribute to the community.
3. You're a music lover (to a fault).
4. You're an adult film star.
5. You're a cursing fool.
6. You're a bot.
7. You're a celebrity impostor.
8. You're a constant updater.

I agree wholeheartedly. I'd add a few others:
9. You're a conceited, self-serving twitterer. Every other tweet out of your account is "Do I add value to your network? Click here and vote for me!" If you added value to my network, I'd probably tell you and would re-tweet your stuff. If you have to ask this every day, I start to wonder if you're just in the community to build stats; it's a new "game" and you want to be a high-scorer. Sorry- you don't add value to my network. Gone!

10. You conceal your marketing status in an attempt to trick people and get more followers. For example, I got a follow request recently that had a blog address in the bio section. Visit the blog - and it has a bunch of posts...all saying the blog had moved (not that it had ever really existed) to a new page - click here! Voila! You're on their company's home page. This might not be so bad, but this particular person had blocked their updates (I have mine blocked), had a fake blogspot link, and offered no other information. Perhaps I acted too hastily, but I did not allow them to follow. I might give them a chance, but may have to repent if they start breaking some of the other things on this post. It's not that I have anything against these marketers, per se, but I think they often classify as humans violating Rule #1 - a company not contributing to the community.

11. You're boring. This one isn't as likely to get you "banned" as fast as most of the other rules above, but I can only hang in there with you so long. Surprise me sometime! I'll keep giving you chances, but at some point I'll just give up on you.

12. You're not tweeting in a language I can read. I may be multi-lingual, but I'm not omniscient nor a babel-fish. And until Twitter incorporates some Google-style auto-translate-my-tweeple functions, I'll unfollow you if I can't understand your tweets. Feel free to keep following me if you have greater linguistic ability than me, or send me some free online courses to learn your language. =)

[UPDATE] Apparently I'm not alone in this whole marketer thing. The following quotes come from Peter Cohen's "Social networking isn’t for spamming"(emphasis mine):

I've been using Twitter for a while, and have amassed a few hundred people whose Tweets I follow. [...] [T]he reasons I follow people on Twitter are varied. But one way or the other, they're all people with whom I share common interests or some kind of connection.

In the past day, I've lost count of the number of times I've seen this Tweet:
"I bought the @MacHeist 3 Bundle. 12 Top Mac apps worth $900+ for just $39 AND I just got Delicious Library 2 FREE!"

This is beyond irksome. It irritated me into a frothing rage last night, [...].

MacHeist has induced its customers to abuse relationships, personal and professional, they've developed with other Twitter users.

Let's just hope this isn't part of a larger trend to clutter up Twitter and other social networking services with advertisements disguised as personal communications. [...]

But back to my rant: I sure as ---- didn't follow anyone on Twitter to see them spam me with advertisements, and I don't suspect anyone else did, either. Make no mistake, this is spamming, pure and simple. And to that end, it's an ugly, abusive way to advertise which lowers the value of the communications medium upon which it depends.

This changed my life

Google is smarter than Twitter

(No, this isn't just equating $$$$$ to IQ ... but that probably works, too.)

Twitter gives us the bird?

I saw this the other day and meant to post something about it. Spatially Relevant takes a few paragraphs to talk about the "interesting ... business dynamics" observed regarding social (micro?)networking phenomenon, Twitter. And provides a few suggestions for improvement. We'll see if anything happens with this ol' bird.

Twitter Fun, and Governmental Twitterers

Darth Vader:

Obi-Wan once thought as you do. And he was a senile old coot.

Was scheduled to destroy a small rebel enclave this morning but I overslept. Internal chronometer didn't reset. R&D will pay dearly.

even Idaho twitters...

To see a list of US Federal, state, and local entities (as well as other public interest organizations) that Twitter, visit this great GovTwit Directory. If you know of one they're missing, please be sure to let them know!

Thanks, lljn - more Twitter stuff

lljn writes

Maybe you have a personal blog and you want to be that cool kid on the block with tons of traffic and an insanely high web hosting bill. Or perhaps you work for a company that wants to take advantage of that crazy new website for all those crazy hip young people. Either way, these are the best tools for promoting your site, your message, and yourself in the Twittersphere. (And they’re all free!)

Not only are his summaries helpful, but the links go to some other great references. Check it out (and follow the links)!