Request for Twitter: add all followers
I have 469 followers on Twitter. Very amazing service growth. Many of the world’s technologists are on it. Interestingly enough, the guy who started the company (Obvious) that made Twitter only has 578 followers.
Twitter is like the weird offspring that would happen if blogging mated with IM. It lets me write very short blog entries to my friends, letting them know what I’m doing. It’s addictive, especially when you get friends of your own, cause then you can follow them.
Anyway, I have a few problems with Twitter. First, I’d like to add all my followers to my list so I can follow their lives. Instead I have to add them one-by-one, which, makes my job 469 times more difficult. I can understand that they don’t want to see n*n growth, though. Makes scalability a much worse problem than it is.
On the Followers Page, I can’t see which ones I’ve already added as friends. It would be really neat to put a little icon next to each of my followers saying “add as friend.”
Also, I keep forgetting to use Twitter. I set it to automatically SMS me if I forget for 24 hours, but I’d like a toolbar app or something that lets me enter right from the desktop. I know some developers have been working on such Twitter apps, anyone know which one is the best? Since I use Mac and PCs now, which is the best on either platform?
Anyway, I find I keep coming back to Twitter. It’s an interesting way to keep in touch with the lives of your friends, or followers, as it were.
Powered By 
February 18th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
For the Mac, Twitterrific has worked well for me: http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific
February 18th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
I think the IM interface works best. Getting friend updates through the IM window is great and if you use IM as a regular part of your communications set, nothing is easier than just replying back in the Twitter window.
February 18th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
I must agree on the IM thing. It’s the easiest way :)
February 18th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
I agree with greghaspants. use twitterrific for the mac
February 18th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Now you have 479 followers. ;)
February 18th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
If you use Quicksilver on the Mac, nothing is easier to use than Tweet:
http://blog.codahale.com/2007/01/15/tweet-twitter-quicksilver/
February 18th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
I second Twitteriffic, nice little app for the Mac.
February 18th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
I also tend to use the IM bots often. Google Talk on my desktop and Tablet, and imov Messenger on my smartphone work great.
Twitterrific for OS X and Twitteroo for Windows are both standalone apps if you prefer those over IM.
You should check out the Twitter fan wiki for a list of apps and scripts that developers are writing. Lots of good stuff there.
http://twitter.pbwiki.com/
I also wrote an add-in for Windows Live Messenger that automatically sets your personal message to your latest tweet. It’s convenient because it essentially makes Twitter a sort of universal status message service. Plus, it also means you can change your Messenger status remotely. :)
http://kunal.kundaje.net/twessenger/
February 18th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
“Many of the world’s technologists are on it.”
uh.. really? C’mon, it’s neat, but is it really that big a deal??
February 18th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Another vote for Twitterific on the Mac, I like being able to just click the icon in the menu to bring it to the foreground to post and check on friends then just send it to the background by pressing the icon again or you can just leave it open and get reminded to use it when you see it in Expose. I was using the Twitterlex dashboard widget but I found having to load the whole dashboard o use it was a bit of a pain and din’t really suit my workflow.
Twitter is starting to get me back into the mood for blogging again as it is much easier just to post a quick update to Twitter than doing a whole blog post but the process of doing that is getting me back into the habit.
btw I’m jaseone on Twitter and one of your followers ;)
February 18th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Jeremy: it’s a small deal. But one that I like a lot.
February 18th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
[...] Robert asked for it, and I was bored, so here's my first attempt at a Greasemonkey script. It basically adds "[Add]" next to your followers list so you can easily add followers as friends. You can find the script here. Let me know of any suggestions/improvements in the comments: [...]
February 18th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
I still don’t quite get twitter but then again I don’t really *want* to know what anyone is doing. I prefer the suprise of talking to a friend and learning that they went to the new sushi place or that they saw a sneak preview for “300″. That’s what makes good conversations with friends.
The thing I find interesting about twitter is that it’s a way for people to feel like they’re being heard. Everyone wants to feel unique and to feel like they matter, that they’re being noticed. Blog’s are a great way to do that but now that there is more pressure to make your blog actually mean something instead of just an online diary people are looking for an easier way to still be digitally heard.
Twitter is simply the quicker form of MySpace for geek adults. It’s real value is not in what it does for others, it’s in how it makes you feel. Sure, you can stretch some use out of it if *all* your friends and co-workers happen to use it but if even one doesn’t then it’s use for any other reason than self-defining drops drastically.
February 18th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
I just whipped something up that adds an “Add” button to the followers page. Details are here:
http://www.martingordon.org/blog/2007/02/18/twitter-reciprocate-for-greasemonkey-02/
It requires Firefox and Greasemonkey. Let me know what you think.
February 19th, 2007 at 6:25 am
I find that alot of people use Twitter. However, there seems to be a better application out there called Jaiku. (Jaiku.com) It seems to work with Twitter somehow but I cant figure that out. Give it a look.
-Ethan Bodnar
February 19th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
[...] a few weeks ago, I decided to give Twitter a whirl. I have to say, it’s pretty fun. As Scoble said, it’s kind of like mini-blogging: just a short little blurb about what you’re [...]
February 19th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Follow me on my world travels ! http://twitter.com/monkeyleader
February 21st, 2007 at 9:46 am
> Also, I keep forgetting to use Twitter.
If that’s the case, then it’s doing something wrong. Its value should be enough to keep it in your mind at the appropriate times and places.
February 22nd, 2007 at 2:17 pm
wow, ask and you shall receive! i’m checking out the two greasemonkey scripts now.
as for a PC twitter platform, i’ll second Twitteroo. it’s simple, fast and pretty.
and ditto to checking out the Twitter PBwiki.
March 13th, 2007 at 3:54 am
[...] Twitter, but didn’t pay much attention, then I saw Robert Scoble talking about Twitter, in this post and this [...]
March 16th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
[...] time we put in a word or two about Twitter, the hyped-to-the-death flavor of the week. Uberblogger Robert Scoble calls it “blogging mated with IM”; Forrester’s Charlene Li takes a more hedged [...]
March 18th, 2007 at 5:23 am
Just stumbled onto your post via Fred Stutzman’s thoughts on twitter and youth adoption. I agree with it being an amazing service, but I’d like to second the recommendation for Jaiku as an alternative. Call it tweet on speed, but I like it way better.
How does it differ from twitter? If find it less interruptive, more relevant, and easier to use. There’s no need to add all your followers on jaiku as they can simply comment on any of your entries and vice versa. Can also recommend twitterific and twitter IM on top of that.
March 22nd, 2007 at 2:16 pm
[...] Scobleizer. If you’re not using Twitter yet, you may feel as if you’ve missed out. Twitter has [...]
April 24th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
[...] adopters — Hitwise has some data on Twitter’s growth. Robert Scoble calls it "blogging mated with IM" and is a frequent user. I’ve set up an account too, but I find it darn hard to remember [...]
April 30th, 2007 at 2:04 am
[...] the homepage would probably leave the uninitiated rather unimpressed. Robert Scoble calls it “blogging mated with IM” and is a frequent user. While some say that it will be dead pretty soon - I do agree that at [...]
April 30th, 2007 at 6:38 am
Woof! I’m having tons more fun on Jaiku. I think techie bloggers viewing both services are opting for Jaiku if only for features. You got threaded conversations and I can stream all my online webfeeds into Jaiku. One online home, baby. Thats cool.
May 10th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
I have to agree with Cap’n Ken, the IM interface definitely works best. I love the SMS idea of getting notified to use twitter, though.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
The only way i get use out of Twitter is using my cell to txt in my tweets.
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:06 am
[...] And for bloggers who don’t have a robust buddy list, and don’t write wall messages, Twitter may seem revolutionary. However, in the youth market, they already have a place for these practices, and the process of [...]