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Hometalk

Home improvement is something most home owners get excited about. There are so many ideas ranging from crafting and building to shopping and construction. Through social networking sites, homeowners are able to broaden their knowledge and get help with projects without spending thousands on professionals. Along comes Hometalk to gather those homeowners and their ideas in one place. Continue..Read more about Hometalk.

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Pluggio

There are a plethora of tools available for managing and administrating Twitter accounts. Popular services like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite have loyal followings while other niche apps target specific uses. The benefit is that Twitter transforms from a simple nugget sharing service to a robust platform. Pluggio is a time saving tool designed to handle scheduling and search tasks. Continue..Read more about Pluggio.

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Kippt

Ever try to find a bookmark you made a week ago, only to realize there are too many to sort through? Even if you haven’t, you probably desire a more organized purposeful way to save online information. Kippt is to information what Pinterest is to images. Continue..Read more about Kippt.

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Flup

If you have a lot of contacts spread across different resources, then you know how inconvenient it can be when you need to search multiple locations for contact information. A new option is Flup. Flup combines all your different contact lists and creates one unified master list. Continue..Read more about Flup.

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The post Nifty Websites Collection [July 8-14, 2012] first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

There are a plethora of tools available for managing and administrating Twitter accounts. Popular services like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite have loyal followings while other niche apps target specific uses. The benefit is that Twitter transforms from a simple nugget sharing service to a robust platform. Pluggio is a time saving tool designed to handle scheduling and search tasks.

Service Features

Information is delivered through streams. Whether it be saved hashtags, users, searches, lists or other information, Pluggio keeps them all stored for easy reference. In many ways Pluggio accomplishes what users expect from a Twitter app. It can be used to create streams of information, schedule posts and find friends or other users.

Pluggio goes beyond the basics with automation and Dripfeed. Automation allows for automatic posting of content from sources such as RSS feeds or Twitter searches. The benefit is that users who normally Tweet out blog postings or news updates can set the automation and forget about wasting time adding tweets to a queue. Similar in nature is Dripfeed. Dripfeed is a unique way to schedule tweets by adding them to a buffer for release on a schedule.

Additionally, those who want to track link stats can associate a bit.ly account with Pluggio and see just how often links are clicked and which links they were.

Interface

We especially like the way Pluggio stands apart from other Twitter management tools. While others align the streams across the screen in what can be described as an always open view, Pluggio prefers to list the streams in a navigation pane. Clicking an item from the list pops out the stream and focuses attention to that single stream.

For those with many lists, saved searches and other streams, the list view may feel more comfortable than scrolling around the browser window.

Other Notes

The Pluggio service is free with paid plans available. The free plan is sufficient with one exception. Users can only schedule 10 tweets/Dripfeed tweets. Most power users will want to upgrade to the Professional or Social Guru plans which start at $12.95/month.

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The post Pluggio Is Making Waves Out Of Streams [Twitter] first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

Make Your Website Part Of The Nifty Collection

The Social Radio

The Social Radio is an app that audibly reads Tweets from your Twitter timeline. The hands-free technology allows Twitter users to catch up on their stream without having to stop what they’re doing to swipe and read through all the updates. Continue..Read more about The Social Radio.

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Spark Hire

Looking for a job? Many are and the pickings are slim. Getting your resume out there is one thing, having it noticed is another. Spark Hire works in place of or in conjunction with your existing resume to put a face with the qualifications. Continue..Read more about Spark Hire.

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Doodle

Are you a busy person that has to schedule many things, but find it hard to commit because of scheduling conflicts? Doodle might be a way for you to eliminate a lot of confusion and in the process inform everyone of your availability. Continue..Read more about Doodle.

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Yarny

Ever get the urge to write or struck by inspiration while in the middle of something other than writing? It happens and what usually results is a loss in theory or idea and so they never get heard. Yarny might be the solution. Continue..Read more about Yarny.

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The post Nifty Websites Collection [July 1-7, 2012] first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

The Social Radio is an app that audibly reads Tweets from your Twitter timeline. The hands-free technology allows Twitter users to catch up on their stream without having to stop what they’re doing to swipe and read through all the updates.

The app is both mobile and web based with the webapp being invite only at this time. Tweets are read aloud with Twitter user name followed by the tweet itself and finally a reference to accompanying link if applicable.

Tweets are clear and concise. We had no trouble hearing the tweet or understanding the dialogue, but there was minimal mispronunciation of proper names. There are multiple voices, both male and female, though there doesn’t appear to be a way to choose a permanent voice. Volume seemed to be in line with traditional music/radio apps so adjusting through the phone volume buttons was adequate control. The Social Radio does have audio settings which can be set to Headphone/Bluetooth Mode and Speaker Mode.

Through regular use, it becomes apparent that having a lot of followers is detrimental to digesting all the Tweets. We found that using a custom list to segregate the Twitter accounts with highest priority and then directing The Social Radio to read the Tweets from that list was more beneficial. Users get the Tweets of most interest read to them and filter out much of the noise associated with Twitter without having to cut down on followings.

Along with separation of Tweet reading through lists, The Social Radio can read through trends from 24 different countries or worldwide allowing users to keep up to date with a hot topic. There’s also the option to search for a specific topic. Marketers or customer support professionals who want to stay on top of tweets about their company can punch in their brand name and listen to Tweets about their company.

One of The Social Radios’ largest bragging features is that of music integration. Users can listen to music playlists while listening to their Tweets. The idea at first can seem a little excessive, but listening to music while hearing the Tweets read isn’t really bothersome. It’s more of a personal preference and having the feature built-in is nice.

The Social Radio is truly a wonderful tool. The benefits extend beyond the reading of Tweets with aid for the blind or otherwise visually impaired, hands-free access for driver safety, headphone/bluetooth capability during fitness workouts or commuting along with other real world uses. The Social Radio supports multiple languages and reads common emoticons. The Android and iOS apps are currently free, although The Social Radio acknowledges they won’t be forever.

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The post The Social Radio Turns Twitter Streams Into Audio first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

Twitter users produce a vast amount of information on a daily basis. The information shared is spread across the world wide web in every reach of the planet, but with all that data being sent through the tubes where is it stored? Fact is, Twitter can’t store everything forever. That’s where Tweetake comes in.

Tweetake is a backup for Twitter. All followers, tweets and those you follow are backed up by Tweetake when you use the service. The service is relatively simple, just login with your Twitter account and decide which Twitter items you want preserved in a backup.

There are a number of reasons why someone would want to backup their Twitter data, but in particular, tweets often need to be referenced after the fact and there really is no way of finding extremely old tweets unless they’re backed up. Tweetake will backup those tweets so you never have to worry about finding what you tweeted in the past. Those favorite tweets will be easily found and if your username ever changes you’ll have a list of all followers etc. Tweetake is a free service.

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Twitter to RSS is a way to follow a Twitter stream without logging in or using any Twitter apps.

Twitter to RSS

Simply input the Twitter username you want to follow and Twittertorss creates the feed and supplies multiple options for subscribing to the RSS.

Google Reader, Netvibes, Bloglines, Yahoo, Newsgator and traditional RSS feeds are all supported.

While it may seem a bit out of the norm to strip out content from one source and display it in another, the separation and quick access of RSS makes it a convenient option when following specific Twitter accounts. Another benefit from Twittertorss is the ability for Twitter users to follow their own tweets for easy access to all posts. Remembering which content was posted becomes slightly less difficult with it listed in an RSS feed.

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Trendsmap is a real time tracker for Twitter trending topics. Twitter themselves provide trending topics and hashtags, but it’s very minimal. Trendsmap extends the trending on a global scale with hundreds and thousands of trending topics all separated by area.

Trendsmap at first glance seems incredibly complicated, what with all the trends displayed as bubbles across the screen. However, the trends overlay a map which shows just what topics are trending the most and where the trends are occurring. After a brief period of examination the screen becomes a source of boundless information and quite easy to navigate.

Along with the usual global trends, the information can be broken down by region, city or specific location. For instance, if we choose region and view North America, the trending topics are exposed for not only the entire continent, but also specific areas such as the Midwest United States or New York City. In addtion to Twitter topic trends, Trendsmap provides a list of globally trending users and videos. Trendsmap gives you great insight on trending topics with specifics related to the areas you’re targeting, making it a great tool for Twitterholics or anyone focused on area specific trends.

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The post Trendsmap Shows Twitter Trends From Across The Globe first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

Twitter is a place for sharing and discovering new things from all types of people and sources.  However, there are times when the sharing is less than quality and at times inane.  Here’s my personal list of twitter updates that drive me insane.

5. Repeating Others Tweets Verbatim And Claiming It As Your Own

There are a lot of Twitter users who for lack of a better term, copy and paste other user’s tweets, then tweet it as their own. I’m not talking about re-tweeting, that is fine. In fact, I encourage others to re-tweet, it’s a productive use of the feature and spreads relevant or interesting content out to as many individuals as possible. I’m talking about the users who copy word for word the exact same tweet content as the original tweeter.

It makes me insane for a couple of reasons. First, it’s pointless. It’s hard to believe those users have nothing better to do or contribute than to copy and paste tweets from other users. Second, it clutters up the timeline/feed. I don’t need to see the same tweet 20 times within an hour period from 20 different users. Third, the users guilty of this offense are adding white noise to Twitter, meaning people stop reading and paying attention to tweets. Eventually that kind of thing hurts the overall product. If you want to share a story or tweet, then re-tweet it.

4. Any And All Foursquare Updates

This one is like nails scratching on a chalkboard. I could care less who ousted who as Mayor of somestupidplaceville. The words ousted and Mayor were gradually gravitating to my list of hated words when I started to wonder why. Then it hit me, the constant, unending, ridiculous Foursquare updates. Who is this update for? Do other Foursquare users even care? I can’t believe anyone wants to hear those updates or even cares about them and frankly if you do, then you’re part of the problem. Enough with the Foursquare updates, please!

As a side note, the EmpireAvenue updates are grating my nerves as well.

3. The Shove It Down Your Throat Post Method

Most of us have seen it. There are some users who crave attention so bad, that they need to flood the feed with posts so that they are the only ones noticed for a split second or two. They send out multiple tweets all at the same time so you’re left with a feed full of only their tweets. Other than this being annoying, I have a bit of news for users who do this — you’re probably being ignored. Everytime I see this come across my feed, I just scroll by it as though it’s spam. Now certainly I could un-follow the users in question and many times I have, but the responsibility falls on the Twitter user to control their tweets.

2. Private Conversations

Twitter has been around long enough for users to know it’s not private. Anything and everything is seen publicly unless it’s sent in a direct message. Yet, there are still those that converse back and forth as though they are the only ones reading it and treat Twitter as their own personal SMS service.

Listen up those of you guilty of this. Other people are reading your tweets and ALL of your tweets are public. If you ever wonder why someone replied to you or how they found you on Twitter, then you aren’t getting it. If you live in east-ja-bip, I and everyone else can see your tweets and we can and may reply to them. Try to come to grips with that.

1. The My Agenda Or No Agenda Tweets

This one really bothers me. Twitter is what it is and each user will define their roll in it on their own and within their own guidelines. The last thing anyone needs on Twitter is someone on a soapbox proclaiming Twitter should be used like this or like that. The audacity to tell or encourage others to un-follow if a user hasn’t tweeted in a couple days or to tweet only on specific topics or whatever other agenda they’re pushing.

What if someone has surgery and can’t tweet for a couple days? Maybe you follow an astronaut, I’ll bet at times they are too busy to tweet for a couple of days. They deserve to be un-followed? If you’re following someone, then you must have thought they had something useful to offer. If not, un-follow them, but not for some asinine time limit.

Final Thoughts

While I may hate those five types of tweets, I’ll never call anyone out and tell them to stop posting them. You can use Twitter however you like, this is just my Rant about my distaste for specific tweets.

Your Thoughts

What are your most hated tweets?  Do you agree or disagree with any of my choices?  Let your opinion be known in the comments!

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The post Top 5 Twitter Updates That Drive Me Insane [Rant] first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

Shopseen

Shopseen lets you discover the best deals picked by people who share your tastes. With all the deals out there, ranging from good to tremendous, it’s hard to keep track of everything. Shopseen attempts to simplify the process of finding the best deals available based on what you’re interested in. You can follow sites and other users to gather deals from a variety of sources. Add filtering and you’ve got yourself an instant time-line of deals streaming to your browser. Examples of sites that Shopseen gathers deals from include Groupon, RetailMeNot and others. Deals can range anywhere from magazine subscriptions to surfing class discounts so you really get a wide range of products. Access to the site is granted via usual sign-up process or conveniently through your Facebook login. Shopseen is currently in beta and plans for the future include affiliate accounts for cash rewards. If shopping is something you love and prefer doing it from a browser instead of a crowded mall, then check Shopseen out.

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The Idea Swap

Ever have an idea for making something better or inventing something completely new, but never told anyone about it? The Idea Swap is where all those ideas get shared. Simply type your idea, in very Twitter-like fashion, of 150 characters or less on a post-it note on the screen. Click ‘Swap’ and your idea is out in the wild being received by someone else. In the meantime you receive ideas back. Either immediately or after a while, you’ll be presented with an idea that you totally agree with. It’s a fun addicting way to pass the time, but also a way to share ideas you’ve had spinning in your head.

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GigWalk

Could you use a few extra bucks? Gigwalk is offering to help you earn some by using your ability to go out and about. Gigwalk supplies a mobile app which is used to provide users with “gigs” that they can perform while out shopping, walking or wherever. Gigs are performed by fulfilling a set of requirements setup by the original gig poster. Gigs can range anywhere from clicking photos to confirm mapping directions to rating products and retail customer service. Gigwalk works off a mobile app, so you’ll need to download and install it to get the gigs. Additionally, it’s only available for iPhone at the moment, but an Android version is planned and users can sign-up to be notified when it’s ready.

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DingItsUp

If you run a website, then you know there are many factors that can bring a website down. If you run a business website, then having a site go down can be detrimental to business and cause serious disruption to profits. DingItsUp is a notification tool for webmasters and website owners which informs them when a website goes down. It’s a good way to monitor your hosts service if you’ve been having downtime trouble or if changes are causing load issues. DingItsUp also notifies when websites are back up and running. If you do a lot of online gaming, then you’ve certainly seen a site or two get overwhelmed and simply go down from overload. DingItsUp will monitor the website and let you know when its back up and running so you can get back to gaming. DingItsUp uses email, sms or @reply to inform users of changes in availability.

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TwitGram

Most would agree Twitter is great. The short blurbs of information being shared back and forth, across the globe digitally is something to behold. While all that may be true, there are times when communicating with others via Twitter can get cumbersome because of the limit on characters. That’s where Twitgram comes in. Twitgram allows Twitter users to send private messages to each other without character limitation. When email isn’t quick enough and SMS messages won’t do, using Twitgram to deliver information instantly is convenient.

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Your Thoughts

We’d love to hear what you think about our weekly ‘Nifty Websites Collection’, so drop us a note in the comments. Have any thoughts on the websites posted in this collection? Let us know in the comments!

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The post Nifty Websites Collection [November, 13-19, 2011] first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.