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    The Reveal: Killer Apps for A Successful Twitter Network (Pt.2)

    Posted by Ching Ya | Posted in Social Media Tool, Social Networking, Twitter, Twitter Search Tools | Posted on 20-03-2009

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    I hope you’ve already embarked on a Twitter-search journey since the clickable chart. If not, then hopefully this post could prompt you to actually utilize some of them, as we’ll be digging a little deeper into these Killer Apps.

    Let The FUN Begins!
    Take a look at the overall structures of each application, what can you conclude from it?

    softwares-done3

    **Click the image for Enlarged Version**

    Obviously, there’s no such thing as the PERFECT Search App ! Sorry to disappoint you but that’s the truth. Each application is built up to meet certain demands from users. By understanding their features respectively, you’ll stand a better chance of MAXIMIZING their uses in finding the results you need, in conjunction of enhancing your Twitter network.

    Up Close & Personal, With The Apps…
    Let me pre-warn you, there is no ‘definite’ answer of which is the best app to be used. I’m only providing you A REFERENCE~ my personal experience after utilizing them for couple of weeks, the score given is more to own-preference, not to discourage you to try them though. The search results displayed would differ from one to another, depending on their capabilities of capturing real-time tweets.

    Here’s another table that categorized the applications according to their abilities, and Yes, of course it’s clickable! Go ahead !


    ~Click     here for enlarged image. Icons only worked within this blog post~

    Cautions: You should always be careful whenever a site is requesting you to login via Twitter username/password. Frankly, I haven’t really log in to any of these twitter searching sites to change my Twitter settings except the main site itself. Whether or not to take the risk, it’s up to the users; but I would avoid to do so unless it’s really necessary.


    Meet The Killer Apps! Introducing…


    People & Keyword Search
    1. Twitter Official Search

    Score: ????

    Specialty:
    -Ease to use with (almost the best) real-time results. Refresh option available.

    Lacking:
    Simplicity? (Truth is, I can’t think of any)


    2. Flaptor Twitter Search

    Score: ??

    Specialty:
    -Nice sky-blue background (for those who’s fed up with plain white backgrounds).
    -Equipped with web plugin to be installed to browsers.

    Lacking:
    Results definitely NOT as updated as Twitter Search. No Refresh (for result) option provided.


    3.

    Score: ???

    Specialty:
    -Track conversations from a particular user based on keyword search in both Twitter @ Identi.ca.
    -Auto @ manual refresh option available.
    -Extra service: Provide Archive download & Email Alert (Login required)
    -Web plugin for browser.

    Lacking:
    Require ‘search further’ to trace back old results, sometimes untraceable. Popular topics show better real time results but inconsistent for not-so-popular keywords.

    Search People On Twitter

    4. (Yellow Pages of Twitter)
    twellow
    Score: ????

    Specialty:
    -Categories search that uses keywords from user’s BIO.
    -Search results including name, bio, website and location.
    -By creating a login for Twellow, you get to edit your details such as excluding some of your categories listed; or add up to 10 personally verified categories.
    -Search results sorted based on the amount of Followers. (top search = users with the most followers)
    -Twellow Hood: Map available to locate twitter users around your region, limited to US & Canada currently.

    Lacking:
    The ranking (amount of followers displayed) is not up to date, so is the given ‘tweet’.

    (Tips: To see the latest tweet of a particular user, click ‘View Latest’ to be updated from Twitter Search.)


    5.

    Score: ???

    Specialty:
    -Dedicated to people-search only (works for keyword/username/location search).
    -Result displaying user’s Bio, Location, website URL.
    -Followers-Tracking ability: by typing @username to have a complete list of your followers with personal details.

    Lacking:
    Not showing any tweet content.

    Location Search
    6.

    Score: ??

    Specialty:
    -Shows up to 100 results for your input of location (for example: New York, US; Melbourne, AUS) & keyword.
    -Refresh option available.

    Lacking:
    Region name needed for a better search result (narrow down the search) instead of a country name; sometimes return with ‘0’ results. Hashtags doesn’t affect much in keyword search.

    Real Time Conversation
    7.

    Score: ????

    Specialty:
    -Real-Time Conversation based on Trends.
    -Customization is available for trend, text & chat-board layouts, and the frequency of tweet updates according to your likings.
    -You can pause the tweet, add a search/ local custom results by ‘Geolocation’ to display new results.
    -RT control (whether or not to show up)
    -Quick reply to the displayed members after login.

    Lacking:
    For low-bandwidth connection, it might drag down the speed for its multi-customized functions; also affecting the real time results.


    8.

    Score: ???

    Specialty:
    -To Explore Twitter Conversations & Sentiment.
    (Sort of an analysis about how your keyword/search is performing in the tweets. Frankly, I’m not really aware of how the ‘sentiment’ is applicable in the context, but it has something to do with word-comparisons against a dictionary of words that are associated with positive/negative sentiment. From that, the word from your search receives a score that, when combining with other scored words, it makes a guess at the overall tone of a tweet. Pretty innovative, huh? But I do enjoy the real-time tweet, simpler to view than Twitterfall.)

    Lacking:
    I’m not sure whether I’m appreciating the score that much for now.

    Trend-Tracker
    9.

    Score: ??

    Specialty:
    -Trend Cloud available & constantly updating
    -Trend-tracking results on your keyword search using graph / time range.
    -Refresh option available.

    Lacking:
    Inconsistency of displaying real time results.


    10. (Popular Links on Twitter)
    tweetmeme
    Score: ????

    Specialty:
    -Display the most Retweeted topic / links every 5 minutes; with convenient RT button.
    -Multi-results in 4 Categories blog, image, audio and video; In different time range including Most recent, Top in 24 hrs & Incoming (newly retweeted)
    -Widgets available for users to display ‘top tweets’ in their websites.

    Lacking:
    No search box provided.

    11. Twopular

    Score: ???

    Specialty:
    -Provide the list of most trendy keywords in different time range (1 hrs-8hrs-day-week-month-ever since.)
    -Trend search on : twitter search; google news; yahoo news
    -Connect to Twitter Official Search for users+tweets
    -Search and compare Trends in graph
    -Show the most RT twitterer.

    Lacking:
    Trend comparisons (>2) returned with error page; Unclear for some features yet no proper Q&A or Help page given.

    Authority/High rank people search
    12. Twidentify

    Score: ???

    Specialty:
    - 3 search types: Influence Search (main) displays results sort by people who get RT the most;Conversation search, Trend search.

    Lacking:
    Inconsistency of displaying real time results. I did a check with some of the results with retweetrank, slight dissimilarities are found in part of the results, especially in the ranking wise. I’m not sure which provides the most recent updates but to me, they serve as a reference for users, just incase they’re interested to follow people with better RT ranking, which I’m not too crazy about.


    13.

    Score: ??

    Specialty:
    -Provide rank-tracking for keyword/user search results (sorting for Top 10,000 by rank/time).
    -Multiple search results available for ‘Dynamix’ Search (web/blog/image/video).

    Lacking:
    No ranking available for newbies/little people, not even the original poster him/herself if he/she doesn’t make it to the Twitter authority, just those ranked individuals who RT the post.

    Multi-search Results
    14.

    Score: ????

    Specialty:
    -Enable search results in Blogs/Web/Twitter/MySpace/News/Images individually.
    -Choosing Big Buzz you’ll have all the recent results displayed for you in these categories: Blogs, Twitter, FreindFeed, Video, Images.
    -Displaying search results up to 40 per pages (Advanced > Preference)
    -Auto refresh available :o ff, 1 min, 3 min, or 5 min (only in Big Buzz)
    -Web plugin available.

    Lacking:
    Refresh settings (real-time results) only available for Big Buzz (overall search results), not individual search.


    15.


    Score: ??
    (basically the same thing with different names, no idea why)

    Specialty:
    -Search results covers Image/GoogleMap (location)/Text/ Video results

    Lacking:
    Google Map might slow down the speed for those using slow bandwidth. And the random Twitter users displayed on the map (based on your keyword search) keep repeating, not updated unless you refresh the page manually. Unless you’re fascinated with G
    oogle map & where (part of) the users are scattered, otherwise I would suggest you to use Twitter Search for better results.

    And my AWARDs Go To…
    ** The BEST basic search + real-time results:


    Twitter Search

    ** The BEST user-search based on location/bio only:
    TweepSearch

    ** The MOST Organized/Categorized Search :
    Twellow

    ** The BEST Multi-Search:
    Icerocket

    ** The BEST Real-Time Chatroom + Customized results:
    Twitterfall

    ** The BEST Most-Tweeted Topics:
    Tweetmeme

    So there you have it, Killer Apps with respective uniqueness & tiny bit of shortcomings. Although you don’t always get the best results you need at times, they do serve as a reference for what’s hot & current on twitter. I don’t put the ‘Best User Ranked’ search engine as I’m not always that crazy about this issue; a little controversy between the amount of followers vs Retweeted content. I probably would go for the latter, as quality tweet means more in a network to me.

    For the coming posts, I will be sharing with you some more Twitter-related tools that worth a mention, perhaps some comparisons as well. Do stick around if you plan to go ‘deeper’ in these fascinating social media tools. Also, do share if you have other great findings that I’ve missed out along the way.

    Hope you’ll find this post resourceful ! Remember, they are only ‘Killer Apps’ if you start using them. I know I have. ^^

    Be The 1st To Twit This Post

    Copyright © 2009 by Wong Ching Ya, All Rights Reserved, “The Reveal: Killer Apps for A Successful Twitter Network (Pt.2)“

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    Comments (15)

    Rajeev Edmonds said on 21-03-2009

    What a comprehensive post. Again the graphics are so informative. A must read for every twitter user. Some of the services mentioned in the post were unknown to me. Thanks for your effort to compile all this information. You rock Ching Ya.

    Reply
    Ching Ya said on 21-03-2009

    Thanks Rajeev, I’m so glad you think so. It worths all the hard work as long the post could benefit Twitter users. I learnt alot myself too. ^^ Finally I can get some sleep this weekend. Must charged up for the coming post.

    Reply
    Miguel Wickert said on 22-03-2009

    Ching Ya,

    Amazing, it’s nuts to see what folks are doing with Twitter. Excellent review of the twitter happenings. Quite useful indeed. :) Night.

    -Mig

    Reply
    Ching Ya said on 22-03-2009

    Thanks Miguel. I think I’m a Twitter-addict now. lol.. It’s funny how a small gadget like this could get all the attention all of a sudden. And the 3rd party tools that come along with it.. wow, just how did they come up with that? ^^

    Reply
    Rose said on 22-03-2009

    I did not realize there were so many aps. A very informative post.

    Reply
    Ching Ya said on 23-03-2009

    Thanks Rose, glad you dropped by. ^^ These are the ones I mentioned earlier in the clickable chart, not even close to all the Twitter search-apps available on the net right now. They just keep coming. lol..

    Again, hope these info can assist the users on deciding which they like best.

    Reply
    Dr. Seth Greenblatt said on 23-03-2009

    Ching Ya,

    This is a great piece of work! You obviously put a lot of work into it, and it saves me a considerable amount of time.

    Thanks,

    Seth Greenblatt
    Tech Landscape:
    http://sg-techlandscape.blogspot.com

    Reply
    Ching Ya said on 23-03-2009

    Welcome Dr.Seth,
    Thanks so much for your visit and comments. Massive time was spent on it, that’s true, but its all worth it when people find them useful. I hope I could provide more insights in the coming posts for you all, so do stay tuned.

    Thanks again.

    Reply
    Salute said on 24-03-2009

    Very informative and useful. Good to know info. Thanks for sharing

    Reply
    Ching Ya said on 24-03-2009

    Hi Salute, thanks for dropping by. Appreciate your support & comment. ^^ See you around.

    Reply
    Raja said on 25-03-2009

    NHi Ching ya , Nice blog Very informative.Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    Ching Ya said on 26-03-2009

    Hi Raja. Appreciate the visit, and thank you so much for the comment.

    Reply
    Jannie Funster said on 30-03-2009

    Okay, here is just a simple little question, Lovely Social Media / guitar lady… Where do I find the code to put a “Follow Me On Twitter” cute little button for my blog’s sidebar, for a widget?

    I tried to access it from my page, but I am sooooo confused.

    :) :) :)

    Reply
    Ching Ya said on 30-03-2009

    Hi Jannie,
    No problem. I’m glad to help you with this issue. ^^

    First, I need you to find the Twitter icon/graphic you love best among these choices or anywhere you could find on the web. Save it, and upload to your site. You could have ‘Follow Lovely Social Media / guitar lady’ as the title or embed the Twitter link for your new-found graphic,for my case,

    http://www.twitter.com/wchingya

    Change the ‘wchingya’ to your own twitter username.

    You can email me if you need any assistance or having some trouble with the coding. I’ll be glad to help out. ^^

    Reply
    8 Easy Twitter Monitoring Ideas | Social Media Examiner said on 09-03-2010

    [...] Hangen’s suggestions for using Twitter tools. But as professional blogger Ching Ya says, “there’s no such thing as the perfect search tool.” Have a look at Twitter monitoring tools in the decision tree below that Ching Ya put together: [...]

    Reply

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