If you make iheartquotes a Twitter friend you will get three famous quotes a day at 10am, 3pm, and 8pm. Tony, who built iheartquotes.com, used the Twitter API to set this up. You can also subscribe to the iheartquotes Twitter RSS feed and if you read a quote that you really dig, you can link to it from your blog. (PS: The title of this post is a Steven Wright quote.)

Permalinks - Now every Twitter update you make gets to live on it's own spacious link-friendly page like this one.

RSS Feeds - The public timeline and public individual timelines have RSS Feeds (under the timeline) so you can subscribe in your favorite Reader.

The folks over at TikiRobot have put the Twitter API to good use. First of all, it's a group blog so they've got all three of their Twitters up there which is neat. More importantly, they've hacked our api so that an iChat status automatically publishes as a Twitter status. Thus, they have gotten right down to the roots of what Twitter is all about. Nice!

David Duchovny has been blogging about his film Trust The Man which is out in theatres now. My fiance Livy and I went and saw this film and we really enjoyed it. I'd like to add that I think Duchovny's dry wit would be a perfect match for Twitter. I would love to get his updates on my phone!

Yesterday we posted that Twitter now has an API and today I'd like to introduce you to Celly.

Celly is a little flash character that Ray whipped up. He (or maybe its she?) has got everyone from the public timeline in her back pocket. Give her a click and she just might show you a polaroid snapshot and a latest update from someone you know.

We're not quite sure what to do with Celly but she's a great example of an API project and she's really cute so there you go.

Some smart folks out there on the that series of tubes we call the Internet have been putting together interesting projects like this map and this page without any help from us so we thought it was high time to release an API.


Image found at BoingBoing
The Twitter API exposes some of our internal workings using JSON and XML. Note to developers: All of the methods (except for the public timeline) require user authentication via Basic Auth. The username is the email address you have stored on Twitter, the password, your password.

In which we highlight the greatness of Blogger's new "Add a Page Element" feature.

As much as you'd like to be sitting in front of your computer blogging all day every day there are times when you have to stand up and go outside. Maybe you need to walk to school or work. Maybe you're even out having fun and doing things that will make a good blog post later. But why wait?


You can put a little status message on your blog telling your friends and readers what you are doing right this very minute—and you can update that message by texting with your cell phone. For example, Evhead is updating his status on his blog from his phone while travelling in Morocco. Blogger's new "Add a Page Element" makes it super easy to display your current Twitter as a status message on your blog.

How to Put Twitter on Your Beta Blog

Adding Twitter to your beta blog is as easy as adding any new page element to your layout. You will of course need to get a free Twitter account first (they only ask for your phone number for texting purposes and they never reveal it to anyone). Once you decide which blog you want to edit, do the following:

1. From the Dashboard click "Layout"
2. Click "Add a Page Element"
3. Choose the HTML/JavaScript element
4. Visit http://twitter.com/t/account/badge
5. Copy the Twitter code
6. Paste code into Blogger element box and save

Now whenever you're out in the world doing stuff you can text what you're doing to 40404 (the Twitter shortcode) and that update will show up on your blog in the little Twitter widget thingy. You can also update it from the web at Twitter.com and if you add friends they can get your updates sent to their phones. If you have questions visit Twitter Help or contact help@twitter.com.

Note: Non Beta-Blogger folks can place the Twitter code directly in their template like any other blog add-on. There's more about template tweaking at Blogger Help.

Derek Powazek of JPG Magazine is on a trip to Denmark and he's inviting folks to follow him in a fun new way. He's included his latest flickr photos and his latest twitter updates in one blog post. Here's all Derek's twitters and all his photographs.

In case you didn't know, September 19 is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. So feel free to Twitter like a pirate, um, me hearties.

Xanga, Blogger, Google, Odeo, and Twitter. Of all the web products I've worked on, Twitter is the first one with a name that was already in the dictionary when we launched.
According to Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English Google is a verb which means "to search for information about a specific person through the Google search engine" and a Blogger is "a person who keeps a Web log (blog) or publish an online diary." Those words didn't get official definitions untill well after they'd made it into the public lexicon.

Xanga and Odeo will have to wait to get into the big book but Twitter has been rocking it in one form or another since the 1300's!

Twitter was in part created because we thought the increasing amount of folks using the status message field in their IM client to indirectly communicate with friends indicated a potential need or market for a service built around that sort of use case. Check out the Wikipedia entry on Status message (IM):

A status message is a function of some instant messaging applications whereby a user may post a message that appears automatically to other users if they attempt to make contact. It is analogous to the voice message in an answering machine or voice mail system. However, status messages may be displayed even if the person is present. They are often updated much more frequently than messages in answering machines, and thus may serve as a means of instant, limited "publication" or indirect communication.

Whereas answering machine or voice mail messages often have a generic greeting to leave a message, status messages more often contain a description of where the person is at the moment or what they are doing. Because most instant messaging clients indicate to users when their online contacts are away before they send a message, more often than not away messages are meant to be read in lieu of sending a message, rather than a response. Away messages are not to be confused with idle messages, which is an automatic reply to a message when the messaging client has determined that the replier is not at his or her computer.

Particularly among younger users, status messages are likely to contain a joke, song lyrics, or an adage instead of an actual description of where the user is. And sometimes the user will mock the reader to make him feel stupid. This is done so that potential contacters will have something to read more entertaining than the dry and uninteresting "I am away from my computer right now" which is often the default message on popular instant messaging clients.

Do you see how we are right about that? Well, not everyone carries their laptop around with them wherever they go which is why we built Twitter to work over SMS. Nevertheless, when we started building Twitter, I remembered an old screenshot that blogger Matt Haughey posted in December of 2004.


In the caption, Haughey noted the interestingness of his cumulative status messages: "We also use status as a presence monitor and I noticed today I have racked up a story of my life over the past six months, in statuses."

He's not kidding. Since building Twitter, I have published almost 12,000 words through the system either through SMS messages or the web UI. That's roughly the equivalent of six months of blogging at Biz Stone, Genius. That's a lot of tiny little updates. Google's Chris Wetherell also says, he's "blogging with Twitter more than with any other service" and Tony Stubblebine insists that Twitter "is now the ONLY way I keep in contact with people."

Tony's remark is important because it aptly describes Twitter as an effortless way to stay connected that works with his life on his schedule. Now if I can just get my little sister out in Maine to sign up, I think we'll really have something here.

His name is Sam and he draws pictures from your titles. Things like can't seem to sleep these days and i am drawing a cat. You know what those sound like? Twitters!

I'd like to see Sam illustrate any one of the updates on the Twitter Public Timeline. That would be great. There's one on there now by Nate that would be perfect: "Omg! Is that coming out of your wallet?!"

Today California joins New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, and 20 other countries around the world in outlawing hand-held mobiles while we drive.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will sign a bill today making California the fourth state in the nation to outlaw speaking on cell phones while driving unless the driver is using a headset or other hands-free device, his office announced Thursday.

Cells phones are apparently the leading cause of distracted-driving accidents in California. This new law begins January 1, 2008 and will carry with it a $20 fine for the first infraction and $50 for subsequent violations. This article, however, doesn't mention texting which can be even more dangerous while driving.

Some of us from Odeo and Twitter were at The Future of Web Apps conference at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco today and yesterday. Evan gave a talk in which he mentioned Twitter.


Photo: Scott Beale Laughing Squid
It wasn't the only time Twitter was mentioned. Dogster Daddy Ted Rheingold is also a Twitter fan and gave us some nice props on stage during his talk on passion-centric communities. There were some great talks at this conference, I hope they do it again next year.

Check out this mirror that displays text messages. It's a design by Robert Stadler. You could check out your Twitters while brushing your teeth in the morning.
Maybe that's a bad idea. Anyway it works on proximity, get close enough to the mirror and you see the text messages recently sent to your phone. Must be bluetooth or some-such.

Patrick has done it again with Twittermap, a Google Maps and Twitter mashup that displays the latest Twitters from participants around the world.
To include yourself in the project, you need to include your latitude and longitude coordinates in your next Twitter update. Find your latitude and longitude coordinates here (make sure you check the latitude and longitude box before searching).

Twitter Syntax on the Microformats wiki. Send these commands to 40404 and interact with Twitter on your mobile phone.

Designed for humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards. Instead of throwing away what works today, microformats intend to solve simpler problems first by adapting to current behaviors and usage patterns.

If you are interested in such things, there's more information and examples at Microformats.org.

Cool, Twitter Blog showed up in the coveted Blogs of Note sidebar much to our surprise. Thanks for that, Blogger team.
By the way, did you know Blogs of Note has its own blog and you can subscribe to the feed? Here is how you can subscribe to Blogs of Note (or any blog) in Google Reader:

How to Use a Feed Reader
1. Go to http://google.com/reader (sign in or get account)
2. Search for "blogs of note" in the search box
3. Click the "Subscribe" button for Blogs of Note

Do the same thing for other blogs, podcasts, photo sites, and news sites and before you know it you will be catching up on tons of stuff every morning and all day long. (Warning: It's a blessing and a curse.)

Techcrunch: "The future of computing is definitely going to be heavily impacted by hand held mobile devices, so show me something that resembles IM, mobile blogging and group SMS mashed up and I'm interested."

This Italian Cellular Magazine reports that Ben Affleck, unable to attend an awards show in which he won best actor, texted his thanks via SMS and the crowd went nuts. We should get that kid on Twitter. Here's the article roughly translated with Google.

Our JSON and javascript output for the Share feature is popular with the geekier types which is just fine with us because they keep using it to demonstrate interesting ways of displaying Twitter timeles like this recent example.

massless.org: "Have you tried it? I love it - the barrier to communication is low and, better yet, nearly guaranteed to reach its intended audience." Chris also points out that he's blogging with Twitter more than with any other service. Nice!

Right now people on Twitter are surfing, sleeping, working, looking for a good mechanic, spinning, showering, blogging, waiting, wine tasting, meeting with a guy named dan, listening to adult podcasts, surrounded by sorority girls, eating chips and salsa, lunching, drinking beer, discovering things, sitting on a fat ass, testing, feeling slightly ill, preparing for karaoke, considering making tea, smoking, loathing, wishing, microblogging, quitting, thinking, photographing a wedding, applying to work at Starbucks, bringing sexy back, ordering falafel, designing a flyer, chilling with friends, getting starbucks, eating chili and garlic bread, washing the car, running errands, shopping, eating too much, being laughed at, downloading music, stuck at work, going to subway, heading out, learning perforce, wishing canadian tire sold retro sneakers, getting back into the groove, lost somewhere in southern california, going to mcdonald's, remembering, thinking, air guitaring, and eating take out.

If you live in the EU, Middle East, or Asia we now have an access number for you to use. It's not as easy to remember as the US shortcode (40404) but it works just as good.

UK Access Number
+44 778 148 8126

Text to it right now if you like. If you don't have an account, we'll set one up for you via a short volley of texts. Of course if you're reading this blog you might just want to join online.

Patrick has written a excellent post on his blog detailing How to make your own twitter-badge using our new sharing functionality (click "Share" at the top of Twitter to get the codes).

With twitter.com you have the ability to post your status message on your website. Earlier in its history they had only a flash-badge that was unconfigurable. Now there is a javascript-badge that seems to be quite extendable to me. Here is how I changed the provided script to fit my wishes.

If you are so inclined, take a look at his instructions. The end product really does make for an interesting addition to your web site or blog.

Cellular News today reports there are 2.5 Billion Mobile Phones In Use around the world.

Sometime yesterday, the total number of cellular connections in the world reached 2.5 billion, having passed through the 2 billion mark just 12 months ago, according to estimates from Wireless Intelligence - a venture between Ovum and the GSM Association.

Comscore Networks announced in May that 694 Million People Currently Use the Internet Worldwide. The point is not that there's more cell phone connections than internet connections; it's that there's lots of folks getting connected. 40 million new mobile connections per month.

Austin, Tony, and Susan are a small IT team that provides services to a bunch of physicians around town. There's lots of running around and meetings so one of their biggest complaints was, "We never know where you are!" Now they're using Twitter to text in their whereabouts. Clients can check this page (set up using our new JavaScript badge code) to see where they are and what they're up to. Brilliant!

Today we're launching new features at Twitter. Most noticeable is a visual redesign of the web site complete with trees, clouds, and waterfalls thanks to Amy Franceschini and Future Farmers. Other new features and conveniences include the following.

Easier Invitations - We made it so you can invite friends from the web or your phone. To invite a friend by phone send a text to 40404 with the word "add" and your friends phone number. To invite lots of friends at once click on "add friends" or "Invite!" at Twitter.com and enter some email addresses.

New Badges for Your Web Site - Let your myspace friends know why you're not online with one of two new, customizable Twitter badges. One badge uses Flash and you can pick a color scheme. The other badge uses JavaScript to create a simple line of text that you can apply your own design to with CSS or HTML.

More Control - You can decide which friends' updates get sent to your mobile phone and which friends you'd prefer to check online. Plus, you can decide if you want to protect your updates from the general public and just keep them among friends or put them out there for all to read.

Mobile Texting Lingo - Most of the stuff you can do at Twitter.com can also be done by texting simple commands to 40404. For example, you can update, add friends, turn mobile updates on or off--including on an individual basis, nudge another Twitter person who hasn't updated in a while and more.

Also, there's a new place in Settings for entering a link to another web site if you have one—it will show up under your name. Hope you like the new look. Let us know what you think.

This is a very creative way to display a Twitter timeline. So cool!

Narendra Rocherolle is hooked on Twitter: "My most recent fascination is with the genre of nanoblogging–new publication services centered around small bursts of information about your location, presence, mood, etc."

Spreading The Word: "Movie studios once felt confident they had at least two weekends to sell as many movie tickets as possible before toxic buzz would undermine their multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns. Hollywood executives now say that the proliferation of movie-related e-mail, Internet blogs and text messaging has reduced that window to mere hours, as the quick decline of last weekend's heavily promoted 'Snakes on a Plane' proved"