Filed under: Utilities, Web services, Social Software, Web

We first covered Twerp Scan back in April of last year. At the time we commended it as a useful way to scan your list of followers for accounts that are simply following you as a way to get onto your list and hopefully be noticed - in other words, Twitter spam followers. Since then, Twerp Scan has gone through a rather dramatic redesign, and has added the ability not only to scan the accounts that are following you, but also to scan the accounts you are following.

Twerp Scan then gives you a very nicely laid-out grid of those you are following or your followers depending on what you chose. You can sort on any of the column headers, including number of followers, number following, ratio of followers to following, number of tweets, and time of last tweet. For your followers, for example, very low ratios (anything under about 1:5) typically indicates a spam account - these are people that nobody wants to follow, but follow others very indiscriminately.

Even if you don’t want to use Twerp Scan to eliminate spam followers because you want to hold onto all of the followers you’ve got to boost your follower numbers, it is also a useful tool for viewing and managing the Twitter accounts that you are following. You get all the same column headers, and the ability to sort the list any way you like, including sorting on multiple headings. You can also click on any row in the grid to get additional details about that Twitter account.

Twitter Twerp Scan relaunches, now better than ever originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Internet, Social Software, web 2.0, Microblogging

The Obama administration has taken a fresh, new approach to lobbying federal legislators about health insurance laws, and it comes in the form of the Twitter hashtag #hc09.

Obama’s new Tweet your Senator page provides a pre-built health insurance-related tweet directed toward one of your Senators, based on your ZIP code. Each time you hit the big blue Tweet button, a Senator will be randomly selected, as will a message telling them to help pass the health insurance laws being pushed by the President.

These items, along with a link to the Tweet your Senator page and the aforementioned hashtags, will be provided for you in a brand new Twitter window, ready for you to tweet on the spot. Also, if your randomly-selected Senator is a Twitterer themselves, their Twitter handle will be used instead of their full name in your tweet.

The White House wants you to tweet health insurance reform into law originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Internet, Photo, Social Software, web 2.0

Like a desperate boyfriend who’s just been given a one-way ticket to Splitsville by his girfriend, Facebook is going to do its best to win you back. Before you push the big red button and vaporize your account (but not your content, since Facebook can keep it locked up in the basement ’till the sun doesn’t shine) they’re giving your heartstrings a good, hard tug.

Yes, they’ve found another great way to put your friend’s photos to good (and acceptable) use. They’re going to guilt you into staying a member of the social networking goliath when you visit the deletion page. I enjoy the zinger Facebook includes, which reads: “Your [number] friends will no longer be able to keep in touch with you.” [sad trombone] Yet further down the page, there’s a great big list of opt-outs for you to peruse.

Why? “Even after you deactivate, your friends can still invite you to events, tag you in photos, or ask you to join groups.” So wait…They can’t keep in touch, but they can invite me to parties, post and tag pictures of those parties, and ask me to join groups that plan upcoming parties?

Continue reading “Baby, please don’t go!” Facebook laying it on thick when you deactivate

“Baby, please don’t go!” Facebook laying it on thick when you deactivate originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Web services, Google, Social Software, iPhone, Mobile

Google Latitude is a great tool for sharing your location with your friends, and it works on a number of different mobile devices. Until recently, though, the iPhone was left out of the Latitude loop. Because of Apple’s restrictions on iPhone apps running in the background, iPhone users didn’t have access to Latitude’s full set of features. Google and Apple have worked around that problem now, and Latitude options on Google’s mobile site are rolling out now.

The iPhone Latitude experience is pretty smooth. Adding friends, approving requests, and changing privacy settings were all extremely easy. Privacy is adjustable for each contact you add: you can show your specific location, just your city, or nothing at all. Latitude can also update your location automatically or manually, depending on your preference.

Sure, you can be sour that Latitude is web app and not a native iPhone app, but it’s a really well-done web app. Besides, a Latitude iPhone app would likely have been rejected by Apple for overlapping functionality with Apple’s built-in Maps app (which happens to serve Google’s maps).

[via CNET]

Google Latitude looks great on the iPhone originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: News, Social Software

When Facebook first announced it would be allowing users to pick vanity URLs, a lot of people rushed to claim some version of their real names, but others just picked something they thought would be funny or clever. Now that some time has passed, I’m sure some people feel like they picked a username that doesn’t sound so great anymore. To address the problem, Facebook is letting users correct their mistakes with one name change per person.

Why did Facebook wait until now to allow name changes? Perhaps the announcement that names would be permanent was a way to deter people from choose stupid names, celebrity names, or trademarked brands. The one-time change serves the same purpose. After the big Facebook land grab when usernames were first introduced, though, users switching now might find their top choices unavailable.

Facebook allows one-time username changes originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Internet, Windows, Microsoft, Social Software, Windows x64

Live Messenger has now been around for ten years and is being used by more than 330 million people worldwide. Well done, Live Messenger team!

To celebrate, Microsoft has put together a free download containing emoticons, winks, backgrounds, and other Messenger extras. To see whether or not this was postable, I downloaded both Live Messenger and the pack and installed them.

When you click the download button for the “FREE Gift Pack,” you’ll not only get the extras, you’ll also get a pop-up advertisement pushing IE8. When you start installing the pack, you’ll get another poke in the ribs asking you to download the new browser.

And you’ll also be prompted to change your homepage to MSN and your default search provider to Bing. Unlike the recent IE8 installer change, this time the options are checked by default. Maybe you really can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

On top of all this, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of content in the pack. So what’s the real goal here? To say “thank you” to 10 years of use and 330 million users, or to capitalize on the opportunity to wrangle some more browser and search share?

Live Messenger turns 10, MS uses extras download to pimp IE8 and Bing originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Utilities, Social Software

There are a lot of pointless apps on Facebook, but occasionally some useful information turns up on the site. WeatherPoke is one app that might actually tell you something you want to know, instead of more quizzes and top five lists. You can use it to display a local weather forecast on your page, publish the weather to your profile, or get alerts when the weather in your area turns bad. If you’re a Facebook junkie, it’ll save you a trip to a separate weather site every morning.

WeatherPoke gets its info from The Weather Channel’s Weather.com, and constantly polls the weather, even when you aren’t logged in. It’s a useful app, but it’s got a couple of bad habits that disappoint me in a Facebook app. The button to invite your friends is much, much larger than the tiny “skip” link underneath it, and there are a couple of Facebook dialog boxes trying to get you to publish weather info to your profile. These aren’t dealbreakers, though, and WeatherPoke is a very usable, perfectly decent app that adds something constructive to the Facebook experience.

WeatherPoke gives you weather alerts via Facebook originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Business, Web services, Social Software, Analysis, Web

Twitter, when used correctly, is the ultimate meritocracy. You can freely follow anyone you want, and just as freely unfollow them. For most users this means following people whose tweets they perceive they are gaining value from, and not following people who waste their time. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, particularly when it comes to so many of the self-professed “Social Media Consultants” that seem to pollute my inbox when they meaninglessly follow me. But for the most part, the average Twitter user wants to get value out of what they read using the service, and provide value to their followers.

I’m puzzled then when services like Pay Me Tweets pop up, wanting you to trade your hard-earned credibility with your followers for a few measly (or should I call them weasly?) bucks. Basically, you’re trading your followers’ attention for money, something they will likely not appreciate. And what do users do on Twitter when they are not getting value any longer? They unfollow, of course!

While I think that users who choose to sell their credibility to Pay Me Tweets are making a big mistake, the people that choose to buy tweets through this service are making an even bigger one.

Continue reading Pay Me Tweets helps you ruin any credibility you have on Twitter

Pay Me Tweets helps you ruin any credibility you have on Twitter originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Social Software, web 2.0

Digg users recently noticed some interesting new behavior related to Digg’s shortURL service, the Diggbar: instead of shortlinks going directly to their destinations, logged-out users who click them will now land on the corresponding Digg.com page. Sure, that’s a lot of new traffic for Digg, but it’s problematic because the change was never announced, and users who generate Digg links might not know where they’re pointing.

Some folks are reasonably upset about the change, including Mashable’s Pete Cashmore, who posted the headline, “Digg Just Hijacked Your Twitter Links.” Mashable got confirmation from a Digg representative that the change wasn’t a glitch, but was working as intended. After the Mashable post went up, though, Digg’s Kevin Rose posted on Twitter that he had been on vacation and was not aware of the change. This story is still developing, but I suspect it will end with Digg going back to its old way of handling short links.

Diggbar links now land on Digg instead of original sources originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Security, Social Software

If you’ve ever had your Facebook account taken over and used to spam your friends, or if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of that spam, you might be happy to hear that Facebook is actually doing something about it. In a blog post on Friday, the social network announced the rollout out of new verification procedures for logging into an account that appears to be compromised. When Facebook thinks an account is being used to send spam, the owner will get an email directing him or her to a new verification page to confirm ownership of the account and log in.

The verification page serves the dual purpose of letting the user know how the account was taken over - likely through a phishing attack using a fake site that looks just like Facebook, according to the message. Moving the verification process to the Facebook site and automating it should streamline the process of getting your account back, and hopefully give you some tips to keep you from exposing it again in the future. It’s a good new feature, but I can’t help wondering about the extent of the increase in spam that probably prompted it.

Facebook adds verification procedure for compromised accounts originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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