Tournament favourites Brazil have been knocked out by Netherlands 2-1 after being 1-0 up at half-time.
Twitter has been flooded by the tweets and it is currently down approximately 10 seconds after the final whistle.
I am lucky to be able to tweet just before that.
“Netherland wins…in the semis…. sorry Brazil“

If you think that a tweet is just 140 characters of text? Think again. The developers building tools on top of the Twitter platform know that tweets contain far more information than just whatever brief status update, or something interesting that you felt the urge to share with your friends via the microblogging network.

map-of-a-tweet

A link  to a phished page of Twitter is being sent as a direct message to followers. Most probably the tweeter, who is automatically direct messaging his followers, might have typed in his username and password in the phished page himself. Using that details the attacker can send DM’s to all the followers with the hope of getting more victims.

If you look at the url, it is linked to bzpharma.

http://commonwealthcommunications.com/?rid=http://twitter.verify.bzpharma.net/login

http://cbsi.net/?rid=http://twitter.secure.bzpharma.net/login

These are actual links that I have received. Firefox 3.6 and Chrome 4.0 will warn you about this site as Reported Web Forgery. If you visit the site you will be taken to a login page and when you enter your details you will be taken to this page http://bzpharma.net/login/err.html which has a pic of Fail Whale with the message Twitter is overcapacity. After that you will be redirected to the actual twitter homepage.

Please take care about the links you click on and where you put in your login details. Use latest browsers like FireFox 3.6 and Chrome 4.0.

We have seen some interesting twitter users and innovative applications and gadgets that make Twitter a fun service. But, this innovation is the most offbeat one.

According to CNN, world’s largest toy maker Mattel is making a gadget that will help puppies tweet their message on twitter.

Puppy Tweets is a plastic tag with a sound and motion sensor that you attach to your pet’s dog collar and connect its USB receiver to your computer. Then you create a Twitter account for your dog and enjoy updates all day from Sparky or whatever its name is on your computer or smartphone.

The tag is set with several pre-recorded tweets that are triggered by the dog’s activities. So if he’s running around, you might get a tweet that says “I finally caught that tail I’ve been chasing and…OOUUUCHH!”

You know how much some people love their dogs and how far they would go to pamper and make them feel special. From expensive Loui Vuitton bags to diamond studded collar, some dogs have all the luck. However, this gadget is not that expensive and will cost around US$ 29.

Would you buy this for your dog? If you do make sure you give me his twitter link. Woof !!!

Twitter has evolved from being just about status update to a productivity tool for many. There are several cool apps for twitter from searching from photos and video to products.

Latest is the job search application from TwitJobSearch.com. Its algorithm searches for jobs posted by recruiters in the twittersphere.

To post jobs just tweet about the job and give the link, their robots would do the rest. You can create a profile for yourself, by signing in using twitter, for finding a job. You can post jobs to find employees, too. I think you can initially only apply for 5 jobs per day.

TweetDeck and TwitJobSearch.com have launched JobDeck a desktop app to search for jobs.

Google has launched its own url shortening service Goo.gl. However, Google URL Shortener is currently available for Google products and not for broader consumer use.

There is, fortunately, a trick to get your blog url shortened using Goo.gl. You must use Feedburner for your feeds. Just go to your Feeds -> Publicize -> Socialize and add a twitter account. Whenever you write a new post in your blog, Feedburner will automatically tweet it with the url shortened using Goo.gl.

You can then just copy it from your twitter stream and share it with your friends.

Do you have any other trick? Please share it in the comments section.

Update: Here is the shortened version of this blog post – http://goo.gl/fb/crP6

Update: You can use this chrome extension to shorten urls using Goo.gl

Twitter is growing immensely. More and more people are joining twitter on daily basis. If you tweet daily you might have noticed growth in your followers. So as an unwritten Twitter etiquette, you follow them back. But for most of us, the number of followers is always less than the number of following.

So how to cut down the extra people we are following? It’s simple there are several twitter tools that let you mass unfollow those who don’t follow you. But that is not a solution as most of the time people don’t follow you back because your tweet does not interest them. You need to keep following the good and regular tweeters. Reply to their tweet and if possible retweet. This will help you maintain good relations and maybe after some time they might chose to follow you.

In order to reduce the number of following without losing out important one way or two way relations you can do the following things.

1. Unfollow your disinterested friends: Let’s face it most of the people join twitter due to its hype. Most of your friends might have joined it and then used its find friends through email feature to follow you. You return the favor by following them. But alas, your friends don’t go beyond the step 1 i.e. account creation. They have hardly tweeted and then they quit twitter. All you have to do is unfollow them but they would continue to follow you as they will never check their account. Hence, you can reduce the disparity between your followers and following.
2. Unfollow Celebrity tweeters: You might be following several celebrities’ tweeters from Ashton Kutcher to CNN. Are you really interested in their tweets? Due really care what Ashton is doing? These tweeters will never follow you back. Many online companies like Google have twitter accounts. Google has accounts for most of its services like Adsense, too. They make tweet several announcements. But it is same as the one made on their blogs. So, if you have subscribed to the RSS feed of their blogs, you don’t really have to follow them on twitter.
3. Unfollow spammers: Many people join twitter with the aim of promoting products so as to gain affiliate commissions. You follow them in the beginning after they follow you but then you realize that the person is just a spammer. If you are a good tweeter, doing it once a while, is acceptable. But these spammers just continue to tweet affiliate links. Unfollow them and you know what ,they would continue to follow you. Hence, you have managed to reduce your following keeping your followers constant.
4. Unfollow Trends tweeters: If you are following several tweeters who tweet trending topics on twitter then just unfollow them. If necessary, keep only one. But now since Twitter displays trending topics on your home page then it is not necessary.