Why Google's new URL shortening service is important...

When using Twitter (and other social media), every character space is precious, so they all use URL-shortening services, like tinyURL. For those confused, this simply takes a long website address and shortens it to something much smaller.

The problem with those services is simple: There is no security check of where that shortened URL takes you... it could be a phishing ploy to a fake bank site to get your sensitive data, or asking for personal information or worse, taking you to an automatic download and, boom! You've got the equivalent of Swine flu for your PC...

Enter Google.

Yesterday, Google launched its own URL shortening service, simply named "the Google URL Shortener." Because of its resulting URL, you see a URL that is something like this: http://goo.gl/az123. You can quickly see that it is the Google service, given its name.

Why is this important?

Google will do something differently than the others... it will actually go that site, check that it actually exists, and then scan it for legitimacy, and security issues such as malware and phishing.

Note: At the time of this writing, you cannot simply go to the site and convert your address to a Google-shortened URL. You must use it in conjuction with other Google services, such as an integrated feature using the Google toolbar. As they say on their site, "Google URL Shortener is currently available for Google products and not for broader consumer use."

Google continues to innovate, almost to a fault, with as many failed ideas as successful ones. But, looking at Edison's best-known inventions, I believe each one came after many other failures. It's nice to know that Google is willing to take risk to find ideas that work.

Conclusion: This new Google service will likely takeover as the new trusted standard (and most popular) URL shortener service, given its security benefits.

Twitter, LinkedIn, and FaceBook...

It has been said recently, in the major newspapers and elsewhere, that people are simply confused as to why to use social media sites.

One quick response was pretty good... LinkedIn is where you've worked... Twitter is what you're doing... and FaceBook is who you are.

The "Where" and "When of using Twitter...

This is very simple.

When:   This is where the growing pains come in.  You'd probably think that I'd say "anytime!" without a caveat, but be aware that Twitter is experiencing some growing pains, frequently displaying its page, "Twitter is over capacity.  Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again."...  I'm sure that this will become less and less frequent, but it is a minor issue now.

Where:   Anywhere.  Twitter makes it easy to post from your computer, via standard webrowser, or via mobile posts via just about every kind of web-enabled cell phone.

A great example of this comes from two TFolks that I follow:  chobson (Christine) and Kimioko (Rosa).   Christine is a Structural Engineer in between jobs, and she frequents the outdoors around West Haven, CT, and snaps photos from her Blackberry and immediately uploads them in her Tweets... pictures of views from high places, etc.  Pretty neat.   She is very open about her frustrations with finding new employment as I learned that she has been published in her industry and has worked on the development of 50+ buildings.  I happen to click on my "Nearby" button using my iPhone app, Tweetie, and found her close my Fairfield, CT location.  As it turns out, I happen to know someone in her industry, and I read her blog a little more, liked her writing style ("personality" online), and arranged for her to have an informational interview with my friend, who runs a large department in a major hospital system.  How's that for a reason to be out there posting tweets?!

Rosa is 21 (tomorrow! she posts) and married and makes no apologies for it! (as she states in her blog)...  She is from the Rockville, MD area and posts several times a day.  She is very tuned in, utilizing videos and "channels" to put out her message.  But, on Twitter, she posts photos directly from her iPhone (I also have an iPhone and I still can't figure it out.  I'll have to tweet her to ask!)... 

Christine and Rosa are two examples of how Twitter is interesting.  In the age of popular reality television topping the ratings, this is a way to tune into the comings and goings of individuals who may be very different from you, or maybe similar and you can connect with...   In any case, it does break us out of our own microcosms in life, and helps us (I know it helps me) to think in new ways.  And, in this amazingly changing technoworld, I embrace that and find it pretty exciting.

Now, more on the why...  Why should people use Twitter?... 

Follow (almost) everyone!

Hey, there is spam everywhere...

What is the defnition of "spam" anyway...   One word sums it up:  "unwanted"...

Now, there are those that don't want any unsolicited information.  Then quit Twitter now...  That's the very nature of Twitter.   

The difference between Twitterers that are "open" to new ideas and have subscribed to those contributers (i.e., by following), and those who don't want to get slammed by clearly solicitous posts is simple...  Those that post those car-salesman-like infolinks... "get thinner this morning!"... "eat healthy, have sex hourly"...  are pretty much scum... but they work with metrics.  Twitter is free, and they can get some very small percentage of takers, so it's worth it to them.

Here's where your power comes in:     "STOP FOLLOWING"...  

That's it.  If you see a post that fits this profile, click on its username and then click that excellent button... 

That's it!

Okay, but here's my take on them.   Don't look for them now, look for (and "Stop Following") later, after you notice their irritating posts.  

It is much more efficient to grow your followers to simply follow the many, and then go back and weed out the few...

Follow Friday tradition every Friday on Twitter...

The second tool is that "Follow Friday" was created as an idea born out of Twitter usage by username:  micah.  See complete description of this, posted by username:  mashable (ranked #23, a.k.a. Pete Cashmore) here.

In addition to creating popular posts and content on your own site to attract Twitter "followers," there is a Friday tradition to recommend and pass along other Twitterers... called "Follow Friday."

The link above describes this well but, in a nutshell, you simply start a post with the hashmark, or tic-tac-toe symbol above your 3 key, and type the following   #follow friday...   This indicates to the Twitter system that you have created, or contributed to, a Twitter "topic" and it then is categorized for search and trending in a way that allows people to find it quickly... to find yours, and others', recommendations.

Here's a different take...

It reminds all of us to propogate, so to speak...

Get more followers!  Grow Twitter, grow!... 

As I posted already, there is an implied ettiquette in the Twitter community that, if you are followed, then kindly "follow back."   You do this by frequently checking your followers, and seeing if you already follow them (i.e., indicated by "STOP FOLLOWING" button), or simply use the handy button next to their username which allows you to "Follow" without even refreshing the page - nice seamless technology.

The moral of this post:  Get out there and start posting and follow (almost) everyone you can... 

The "What"... What is Twitter?

Go to the Twitter.com home page and they very aptly describe it (in 140-character limited fashion) as "a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"...

The funny thing is that it started out asking that simple question.  It has exploded as an incredible networking tool into something much more entirely.

The new question should be, "What are you experiencing (even if not directly)?  And how can that be relevant to me, and help me (or interest me)?...

For example, my experience starting out on Twitter...

You simply surf and read the "Tweets"...  Read and learn...

I quickly learned that there are the "close to the vest" Twitterers... and then there are the "wide open, full throttle" Twitterers... 

The ones who keep their Tweets limited, and their "followers" even more restricted appear to have the goal of maintaining their own world of paranoia and concern that their words will be "cast in stone" and never possibly retrievable if they let them go in a simple tweet...

Then, there are those on the other extreme that have little to hide...  

Take a celebrity.  Or take a celebrity couple like Ashton Kutcher (username:  aplusk), with 801,568 followers, and his lovely wife, Demi Moore (username:  mrskutcher), with 477,010 followers... [Note:  As I am writing this on 4/10/09, she tweets:  "just realized i'm almost to 500 thousand followers! Holy Sh*t ! Guess I need a game plan 2 get to the mark & then on 2 catch hubby! Ideas?"]

They "tweet" almost daily.  Those who tweet together, stay together...  In fact, Demi Moore made the news a week ago today on 4/3/09, after she received a tweet from a follower indicating that she intended to hurt herself, and implied that suicide may be in her future...

I actually saw this tweet live, as I was sitting in the Fairfield, CT Starbucks... 

mrskutcher reluctantly tweeted back, in a public post, that she did not think that she could ignore the woman, and urged her not to hurt herself [see Foxnews story]

Although Demi did not call the police directly, other Twitterers did, finding out that she was from San Jose, California.   The San Jose police were dispatched to the 48-year-old San Jose woman's residence, and then promptly transported her to a local hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

Celebrities are the populist examples of openess on Twitter (primarily because they are not afforded the option for privacy from the public and papparazi), so the smart ones do embrace it...  But they are not the only smart Twitterers out there.  

Take Heather B. Armstrong from Salt Lake City (who I think is not a celebrity, except for Twitter now).  She "Dooce" ranks #37 on this Twitter rankings site, just after Biz Stone "Biz" (co-founder of Twitter), and before #38, ICHCheezburger, which I perused for about 9 seconds and couldn't figure out.  I think it has something to do with Cat icons... 

Anyway, Heather, uh, "Dooce" has 347,948 followers after posting only 449 updates (she may be a celebrity afterall and I'm just not that in the know)...  Anyway, the point is that this service attracts not only eyeballs to a website but what I would call "mini subscriptions" to be "pinged" everytime she posts a new tweet... because they find her interesting.  I did.  Just take a look at her description of herself on her site, and you will be hooked...  I just went to add myself as a "follower" and found that I was already following her...  Hmm, I don't remember that... maybe that's her secret!

The point is that she has corralled almost 350K people to follow her.  If they go to her website at Dooce.com, and see an ad, placed by a company like DoubleClik, she gets PAID for that impression.  If they click a Google Adsense ad, she gets PAID.  This Salt Lake City wife and mother is getting paid to tweet and rant, and does not need to do anything else.  Pretty amazing.

Okay, back to the type of twitterers...  (there's got to be a better name!)

There are those that are secretive, on Twitter and in their outside paranoid, conspiracy-filled life I'm sure... and then there is Heather from Salt Lake City... a.k.a., "Dooce"...

The conclusion:  Openess without worry breeds success...

Okay, one more point about getting followers...

I've also learned two things...  There is a pretty steady ettiquette that, if you are followed, you go to that list, and you "follow back"...

I now believe that, based on this unwritten rule, that some TFolks (that's my new name, for now) out there are spending most of their office time (when the final four is not playing on the incognito pages) at their cubicle-surrounded screens simply adding thousands of followers at a time... 

The Who?... Who uses Twitter?

Millions of people.  This site has grown more than 700% this year alone, to more than 10 million users, and it's only April 2009 as I write this.

In fact, when trying to peg this new medium to a particular demographic (e.g., as done with Facebook), many pundits and reporters and "experts" are finding it difficult, as the trending appears to be readily shifting across all age groups and demographics.  Last week, a ComScore survey surfaced indicating that Twitter's exceptional growth could actually be attributed not to kids, but their parents... as its popularity has exploded since the crash of the US Airways flight into the Hudson River, and the subsequent (almost immediate) posting of the first photos on Twitter...

Take that great PR story for Twitter, combined with appearances of Biz Stone, co-founder, on shows like The Colbert Report and others... and tweens and 20-somethings shift to 30-50 somethings...

Okay, that's who's using Twitter.  Now what the heck is it, right?...