Twitter

Eight Firefox extensions for the Twitter fanatic

Since Twitter has become such an important part of the social-networking world, it only makes sense that developers would create a variety of browser extensions that give you access to the microblogging service's features.

If you don't like extensions, or you want to be more social with your browser, downloading the Flock browser could naturally be your answer. Built on Firefox, Flock provides a variety of cool social features while also supporting most Firefox extensions. But for those sticking with the Mozilla browser, the Twitter-based extensions in this roundup are impressive.

Twitter extensions

InstantTweets InstantTweets lets you quickly update your status, add images, or share links by entering tweets into your Firefox address bar. You can also click on pictures, and you have the option of automatically updating your status with that image. I had some trouble with that feature. Sometimes it worked, and other times it didn't, so beware. InstantTweets is a neat app, but it's not perfect.

Power Twitter Power Twitter adds some neat features to your Twitter page. After installing it, you'll find a photo-uploading option, a tab to help you shorten a link, and more. I found it that worked really well and made it quite easy to perform basic Twitter functions. It's a great extension.

Twitbin Twitbin is installed in your Firefox sidebar. Once there, the extension enables you to send and receive messages. It works well, and I've found that it provides an easy way to monitor my conversations with others. It's worth having.… Read more

YouTube hoops star accepts Shaq's Twitter challenge

It's one thing to go and play with LeBron James. It's quite another to face Bruce Manley.

Perhaps you are not yet familiar with the name. Manley is something of a YouTube cult hero for his rather picturesque basketball trick shot skills.

Somehow, Shaquille O'Neal, the newest Cleveland Cavalier, saw the video. Apparently, his ego was piqued even more than when he saw Orlando's Dwight Howard claim to be Superman.

So what did the NBA's king of social networking do? He Twittered a challenge to a HORSEing duel.

"i wanna play this guy n … Read more

The 404 remembers the King of Pop, Michael Jackson

In a very special, and very serious, episode of The 404, we sit down to reflect on the many ways Michael Jackson changed the world. From his music to his dance and music videos, MJ's ubiquity is undeniable. Heroes come and go, but legends never die! Rest in peace, Mike!

We've never done this before, but Michael Jackson had such a positive effect on all of our lives that we felt the need to take a moment and show him our appreciation. Obviously, we're not the only ones numbed by his passing--news sites across the Internet couldn't keep up with the hordes of people desperately trying to hear the news. Like so many people, Wilson and I spent hours poring over Michael's fantastic career, but there's something so edifying in knowing that the entire world shares this loss.

The real testament to MJ's success is the love from his fans--his live shows drew tons of people, many of whom often fainted at the sight of their favorite musician onstage.

Michael was also famous for bringing his most adoring fans up onstage for a quick hug before getting aggressively taken off the stage kicking and screaming for another chance to hug their hero. Isn't it weird to think about how many people have enjoyed his music? We all have our stories, whether it's dancing to "Thriller" at a prom, or singing karaoke to "Never Can Say Goodbye." Check out this episode and help us pay tribute to the King of Pop.

The 404 remembers the King of Pop, Michael Jackson Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Social media will not get me to eat your gross pizza

I smell a trend, and it smells like greasy pepperoni: Pizza chains Domino's and Pizza Hut both put out announcements on Thursday concerning their new social-media publicity strategies. In other words, there are new ways to bring the habit of stuffing one's face with mediocre pizza into one's ever-increasingly digital lifestyle.

Pizza Hut, for one, will be giving away free orders of "Stuffed Pizza Rolls" (Did you just hear that little cry? It was my arteries screaming for mercy at the mere thought of this) on July 4 to its Facebook fans and Twitter followers … Read more

Finjan offers free SecureTweets browser plug-in

Updated October 30 at 9:58 a.m. PDT: The software was called SecureTwitter when this article was first published. The name was later changed to SecureTweets and the article has been updated to reflect that.

Finally, there's a tool that can help prevent people from clicking on URLs that appear to come from friends on Twitter and other social media sites but which lead to sites hosting malware.

Web security firm Finjan began offering this week a free browser plug-in dubbed SecureTweets that warns users when they encounter a malicious URL in Twitter, as well as in Gmail, … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: Best tools for real-time search

CNET News intern Mats Lewan checks in with editor Rafe Needleman, who recently tested out a whole bunch of tools for getting information in real time and came up with some favorites.

Plus, Carol Bartz's first shareholder meeting as Yahoo CEO, and other headlines of the day.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Microsoft sets Windows 7 pricing, upgrade programs

MPAA says Real's patent attempt saps RealDVD argument

Showtime for Yahoo's Bartz

Yahoo shareholders content to wait and see

VC's automated Twitter feed spreads malware

Twitter search sites: The three best, and all the rest… Read more

Twitter search sites: The three best, and all the rest

To follow what's happening in the real world, you need real-time search. Google doesn't have it (yet). Neither do Bing nor Yahoo. But a number--a large, growing number --of new search services scan Twitter and other sites in nearly real time, and will find for you the absolute latest update from the real-time social Web. I looked at more than two dozen products that search Twitter (and other sources) to find the best tools for uncovering the beating pulse of whatever topic you may be interested in.

To set the stage, let's look at Twitter's own search service. It's not bad. It's simple to use, presents results in a very clear way, and does a good job of balancing users' needs to see results in real-time with their inability to actually read the stream of tweets flying by: It updates a counter at the top of the page as new tweets that match your search come in, but you have to hit a link to actually see the updates.

Twitter Search also has an extremely good advanced query builder, and you can subscribe to search results via RSS.

The downside to Twitter search is that it's dumb, at least for now. Results are only sorted chronologically. There's no algorithm to give you the most read, most authoritative, most linked-to, or most re-tweeted items. And it only searches Twitter.

There are three services that do a much better job than Twitter Search, and several others are also worth looking at for special cases. Here are the top three:

Best three real-time search services

Twazzup: As I've said before, Twazzup is a very useful and flexible Twitter search tool that provides almost all of what Twitter Search does itself, plus a few columns of algorithmically generated results such as most influential tweeters on a topic, related photos, and a great list of keywords based on your search results that you can use to refine your query.

Unfortunately, the Twazzup results page can be overwhelming to read, and it only searches Twitter (excusable for Twitter Search, not for other services).

… Read more

Road Trip meetup goes off without a hitch

BOULDER, Colo.--When I polled a series of social-media experts about how best to build buzz for my Road Trip 2009 project, one of the strongest suggestions was to host meetups along the way.

I'd thought to do that last year, on Road Trip 2008, but never felt like I had enough time to do so. Or, frankly, the network to organize anything worthwhile.

This time, however, I knew I had to do it. So as the trip got close, I reached out to some folks who seemed well connected in Boulder, told them I was coming to town, … Read more

VC's automated Twitter feed spreads malware

Updated June 25 at 9:00 a.m. PDT with Trend Micro saying the Trojan is harmful to Macs and PCs.

Venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki got more than he bargained for from an automated feed he set up on his Twitter account.

Some of Kawasaki's more than 139,000 Twitter followers noticed something strange when they saw a particular non-VC-related tweet sent from his account on Tuesday.

The update advertised a sexy video of "Gossip Girl" star Leighton Meester and had a link leading to a site where, if the visitor clicked to view the video (and … Read more

Facebook wants you to do it live

When Facebook launched its latest redesign, it became evident that the company was putting a lot of emphasis on real-time information--inspired, undoubtedly, by the runaway success of Twitter. Now the company's rolled out two small but crucial new features that put instant updates even more front and center.

First, Facebook is aiming to use the "publisher" tool--formerly known as the status update box--as members' gateway to the Web at large. Starting Wednesday and rolling out gradually, according to a post on the company blog, a beta version of the new content-sharing box will allow members to select … Read more