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Fail whale: Twitter as a search engine

Is Twitter a search engine? It's a question a lot of people are asking, myself included.

I signed up for Twitter at the beginning of the year and even though I'm not a hardcore user and only have a modest 'following' of around 225 people, I do like the service. I've found it to be very useful in staying on top of industry trends and seeing what interesting people are talking about.

by Patricio Robles 12 March 2009 09:07am 9 comments

Enjoy the conversation while it lasts...

We live in a maelstrom of activity and invention. A new world we are evolving every day; some days more than others. We sometimes, perhaps more often than we'd like to think, get caught up in the hype or in the detail of what we do. We get stuck on definitions and fads, guidelines and best practice, manifestos and policies.

We also forget about the simple beauty of the medium we work in. This is a personal reflection, indulgent perhaps. But I make no concessions: it sometimes good to take a step backwards and reflect on what we've got now and what's in front of us.

by Guy Stephens 11 March 2009 10:25am 2 comments

Does Twitter's Million Dollar Homepage push the limits?

Most of us remember the Million Dollar Homepage. Launched by then-21-year-old Alex Tew, the idea was simple: sell a homepage containing 1 million pixels for $1/pixel.

As might be expected, the reaction to the simple yet clever idea was mixed. Some thought it was brilliant, others thought it was stupid.

by Patricio Robles 11 March 2009 10:00am 2 comments

Own generic terms on Twitter to win at SEO

Jason Calacanis, by David Sifry via Flickr I wrote a post last month called ‘Why should brands own their own social media profiles’, where I called out Coca Cola for not bothering to sign up for @coke and @dietcoke on Twitter. But there's a bit more to it than meets the eye.

Earlier today, I spotted a note on Twitter by Rory Brown that simply said: “I really like the concept behind @answers. Mahalo may have a winner there.”

Mahalo Answers was launched in mid-December 2008 as an extension of Mahalo, the human-powered search engine. It’s like Yahoo Answers and LinkedIn Answers, and it works well. It even uses Twitter as a capture and response channel: you can ask questions and receive replies via Twitter. It also automatically posts questions asked via the website to Twitter. In short, it’s excellent.

Business models aside, Mahalo might have a winner in selecting 'answers' as its Twitter username.

by Chris Lake 10 March 2009 19:05pm 1 comment

Social media beyond the buzz

I was asked the other day what I thought about Skittles' social media experiment and whether it would have lasting effects.

My response: I wasn't sure. The buzz seems to have died down. Certainly it's nowhere near the pitch that it was when we all first learned that Skittles.com had been turned into Twitter.

by Patricio Robles 10 March 2009 12:30pm 2 comments

Social media explodes past email

social media This social networking thing is gonna be big, man. Really big. Bigger than email.

A confirmation of the absolute "big bang" expansion theory of social networks came from Nielsen Online today. Its "Global Faces and Networked Places" report shows that by the end of 2008, 66.8 percent of internet users across the globe accessed “member communities” last year, compared to 65.1 percent for email.

by John Gaffney 09 March 2009 20:03pm 1 comment

Twitter: the 13 types of tweet to take notice of

Twitter has many uses for our business beyond sending us traffic and spreading word about our articles, research and events.

While it is now our fourth-largest referrer, Twitter is more than simply a people hose. By tuning in to tweets we listen to user feedback, which helps keep us on our toes. It is useful in a wide number of areas, some of which I have listed below.

Some recommendations and questions are easier to deal with than others, but we certainly take note of all of them.

by Chris Lake 06 March 2009 15:15pm 5 comments

List of UK retailers on Twitter

Having looked at the use of Twitter by charities in the UK, and being impressed by number of organisations that have used it to promote their causes, I've decided to take a look at how many retailers are using the service.

There are some great examples of companies using Twitter in the US; Zappos has used it to communicate with customers and for marketing purposes, while Dell says it has made $1m in sales from using Twitter.

So how many UK retailers have signed up for a Twitter account?

by Graham Charlton 06 March 2009 12:02pm 48 comments

Following Skittles is a state of mind

By now it's a fair assumption to say that the new Skittles social media drenched website has owned the week in internet marketing. According to the March 5 Google Trends index it spiked more than 100 percent in news reference volume this week, and more than 50 percent in actual searches.

Now that the buzz is fading just a little, we asked Mars PR Manager and spokesperson Ryan Bowling to put the launch in perspective.

by John Gaffney 05 March 2009 21:48pm 1 comment

Is Twitter a search engine?

What is Twitter? "A microblogging service" doesn't quite fit right. Maybe because that just doesn't sound as cool as Twitter.

A growing number of people are suggesting that Twitter is a search engine. As I was going through my feeds today, I came across several posts discussing just that. This is officially a meme.

by Patricio Robles 05 March 2009 16:40pm 13 comments