Chat Catcher by Shannon Whitley was one of my favorite WordPress plugins in capturing Twitter messages and beautifully displaying them as blog comments.  There was also a great support module on Drupal.

I had announced earlier this month that Chat Catcher was shutting down due to high upkeep costs and lack of funding.

May 15th 2009, I received a teaser e-mail from Shannon explaining that Chat Catcher is not shutting down and there was more exciting announcements to come soon.

This was great news indeed and I was very curious to see what else was in store. 

Earlier today I recieved a message on Twitter from Shannon.

Ocasta Labs have injected both funds and resources to extend the Chat Catcher team and to accelerate development of the service thus keeping Chat Catcher alive!!  Hooray!

I have been using BackType Connect plugin to replace Chat Catcher but for some reason due to my blog theme, I was not able to make the plugin show the beautiful avatars on Twitter but the replacement plugin still worked nonetheless which doubled my comment count because I still had Chat Catcher on while waiting for the service to shut down.

Now that Chat Catcher is up and running I am going to keep Chat Catcher and also still use BackType connect because its customizable where I can filter out the Twitter messages and keep the other messages like “Blog comments” and “Digg” scans which Chat Catcher doesn’t support.

So in essence both plugins will compliment each other for my blog and I love it!

Thank you Shannon and Good luck with the funding!

P.S – The founder of Backtype Connect - Christopher Golda, was very helpful in reaching out in providing support to me about trying to fix my avatar problem, I was impressed and greatly appreciated his help.

Post from: Social Media Vision

Chat Catcher Plugin Revives With Funding

What is Chat Catcher? (http://www.chatcatcher.com) (creator Shannon Whitley)

Chat Catcher is a simple Blog Plug-in Application that scans Twitter and FriendFeed for references to your blog posts. When someone links to your blog, their post will be published to your blog’s comments.

What stood out Chat Catcher the most in my eyes is the sheer ability to scan all URL Shortners instead of just one URL Shortner like Dan Zarrella’s Tweetsuite which only scans Tinyurl.  Another great feature was the amazing filter option where others lacked in only filtering one username.

Also Chat Catcher was more efficient and faster than the other competition because Chat Catcher posted the Twitter comments directly to your Blog comments section.  Feedback from the Tweetsuite was that it sometimes was a bit laggy.

• TweetBacks – Yoast’s Plugin

• Tweetsuite – Dan Zarella’s Plugin

I actually have used Chat Catcher just for a short while but as you can see in my previous posts it works amazingly and increases post comment count

The Bad News…

Just as quickly as Chat Catcher was released and became increasingly popular, Shannon Whitley the creator has announced the shut down of Chat Catcher.

Via Twitter – Shannon has admitted that the cost of running Chat Catcher was a burden.

Having only 3 donations…..

Expensive costs of $10 dollars a day

This is indeed sad news especially with the release of a Drupal plugin.  It has however sparked some interest if the funding was there the plugin might stay.  Fellow competitor Dan Zarella seems to be engaging in conversation with the idea and who knows maybe Chat Catcher will be revived down the road…

Below is the actual E-mail sent out

“As Twitter has grown, so has the volume of data that needs to be processed by Chat Catcher.  I don’t have the resources to keep up with it any longer.

Post from: Social Media Vision

Chat Catcher Twitter Plugin Shuts Down

Seesmic Desktop Launches

Twhirl was pretty much the only competition for Tweetdeck and was naturally crushed by Tweetdeck’s great organizational columns and clean interface.  Twhirl was purchased by Seesmic last year and just couldn’t find a way to catch up to Tweetdeck’s success until now, maybe…

Seesmic just launched a new third party Twitter client called Seesmic Desktop which is only in “Desktop Preview” which basically means beta or alpha stage still.  Go to Seesmics website http://desktop.seesmic.com/ and input your e-mail address to get an invite.    

Keep in mind this is a Desktop Preview, so there is many bugs and issues to be resolved still.

The main focus is having Multiple Accounts     

Seesmic has seemed to answer out Twitter prayers by providing a client that can handle multiple accounts at the same time!  I love this feature and I have been following the TweetDeck suggestion boards for a while and I am surprised TweetDeck has never implemented this highly sought out feature.

It is so simple to switch accounts and manage all your replies, main streams and even direct messages.  You can even reply in which ever account you want to display in the client.

Why have multiple accounts?

Most users have multiple accounts to fill in different niches.  For example myself, I have a business and a personal Twitter account.  I of course Tweet my business updates via my Twitter business profile and my personal tweets via my personal Twitter profile.

Now instead of logging off Tweetdeck everytime I want to Tweet in my business profile, I can seamlessly switch to either account on the fly.

The clone is missing the Facebook feature

Yes Seesmic Desktop has pretty much copied Tweetdecks main features the one feature that Seesmic did not take as of yet is the Facebook feature which TweetDeck has.  TweetDeck just recently came out with a new update just in the nick of time when Seesmic launched, coincidence?

Other Cons

Like I mentioned before, not to be too harsh on Seesmic because they are still in preview mode….below are some cons I am frustrated with

• The interface is really ugly and the fonts are not clean compared to TweetDeck.  It’s really hard to read sometimes Twitter users profiles and other messages because of this.  They really need to get a good graphic artist to kick this up a notch.
• Adding people to groups is really a pain because unlike Tweetdeck you can only add people by finding the people you want to add in your Twitter Stream Archive or using the search feature.  There is no master user list where it populates all the Twitter usernames in your follow list so that way you can just check off the ones you want to include.  This is very frustrating and I hope they fix this soon.
• Errors…Errors…Errors….I really hate when I shut down the client it does not save my groups and I get this annoying error window.

Fullfillment

Bottom line is that for users who were craving for the multiple account feature, well now you can fullfill that with Seesmic and I am pretty sure that the final released version should hopefully clear up these issues before then….

Post from: Social Media Vision

Seesmic Desktop Replaces TweetDeck For The Multiple Account Twitter Client

Updated ShareThis (http://sharethis.com/)

People know that I love ShareThis widget because it’s so easy to add to your blog and the many links they provide lightning fast.

They have been growing increasingly popular with all the awards they have been recently receiving and growing a stronger base more and more everyday.

Today ShareThis announced the latest release of the ShareThis widget.  The biggest and most exciting change that I saw was that they are going Tab-Free which was the biggest complaint of most ShareThis users.  Simplicity is key and they simplified the tabs to one section making it more convenient for us bloggers.

The other updated changes focus more on the Social Media content of improving ways to share your links and importing contacts.  These are also great simplified changes that improve performance time and time consumption.

Below is the official press release of the update…

Here is what you can expect:

• No tabs!  We listened to your feedback and redesigned the widget to be tab-free.  We have merged the Social Web and Post tabs into one section, making the experience more intuitive and manageable for the user.

• Smarter Widget.  Whenever registered ShareThis users share content to their contacts, we will display the last three addresses used.  Reducing time searching for most used contacts encourages users to share more frequently.

• ShareBox v2.0.  Users can now save content directly to their ShareBox through a link in the widget.  We had several requests for this feature so we are excited to announce it is now available!

• Contact Manager. ShareThis users will now be able to access and import their contacts from within the widget.  This allows your users to gain access to their address books without leaving your site.

Common questions:

Q. Do I need to make any changes to my existing code?
No, we will automatically push the new design to your site as well as maintain your current customization, such as link colors and the order/selection of the social web services.

Q. When is the new design going to go live on my site?
We plan on doing a full release across all publishers starting later this week.

Q. Will my reporting still work after the new design is released?
Yes, all data will be intact and viewable from your ShareThis Reporting Dashboard.

Q. Can I change the customization of the new widget?
Yes, in order to change the look and feel as well as reorder the services, you can do so by using the new ShareThis Widget Configurator (available when the new widget is on your site).  You will find some new customization options, such as the ability to allow the widget to open on click or on hover.

Q. Will my offset settings migrate over to the new widget?
Yes, your offset parameters will migrate, however, since the new widget is much smaller, please check your settings to make sure the widget appears in the right location on the page. 

 

Great update ShareThis team and keep those updates coming!

Post from: Social Media Vision

New Updates with Social Media Widget ShareThis

Qwitter Tool

Qwitter is a Twitter tool that e-mails you whenever someone un-follows you on Twitter.  The e-mail will tell you what your last tweet post was when the follower last followed you.

The Pros of Qwitter

Before I get into the reasons why you should not use Qwitter, let me just point at the developers over at Qwitter (Contrast I.E) are brilliantly smart and have developed other web apps like ReallyTinyUrl & Exceptional.

Below are some reason why you may want to use Qwitter…

• Qwitter is for you… if are manically obsessed with your social status and have a fear of not being popular.
• Qwitter is for you… if you are anal about measuring results even if they are useless statistics.
• Qwitter is for you…if you have been called Vane, Conceited, Big Ego and Narcissistic.
• Qwitter is for you…if you live for Drama & Negativity.
• Qwitter is for you…if you want to be dangerously self conscious on what to write about, thus preventing you from being you.

As you can see Qwitter is not for everyone….

The Cons of Qwitter

• Qwitter is not a good measuring tool.  There are many other reasons why a person may unfollow you and to always 100% assume that they stopped following after a certain tweet is a little far-fetched.

• Qwitter is not to be used as a guideline to become a better Twitter user.  You may use Qwitter to measure on what not to do in the Twitter world but I have a better solution.  Read the The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook by Tamar Weinberg.

• Are you worried about your popularity and want to gain more Twitter followers? Well take the advice from Lisa Hoffmann with her article Want more twitter followers? Fuhgetaboutit.  The art is to not focus on the past but to focus on the future.  Don’t worry so much on the formula on gaining new followers, success will come in time if you keep doing what your doing, which should be interacting.

• Negativity is a poison that spreads.  Stop surrounding yourself in negative news and focus on the positive things like being more active in replies, link recommendations and having great conversations.  Allowing yourself to be always remind of negative news will put you in a negative mood and rename your Twitter handle Negative Nancy or Debbie Downer.

The last testament to the reason on why not to utilize the Twitter tool Qwitter is from a famous poem  quote by the late Thomas Gray

IGNORANCE IS BLISS

Post from: Social Media Vision

Why You Should Drop Twitter Tool Qwitter Like A Bad Habit

ShareThis Announces Upgrade

I received an e-mail yesterday announcing a recent change with the ShareThis plugin.  

ShareThis is the self proclaimed next next generation of sharing technology.   If you notice on each of my blog posts and many other blog posts out there, you will see a green button that can be expanded by clicking on it to show a plethora of Social Media networks and content to share online.

Before, when expanding the menu of Social Media content, you sometimes felt a lag or a bit of delay.  Now, ShareThis has just completed a fully optimized redesign in making the plugin lightning fast with a click.  The new design has cut down the load time without sacrificing any of the benefits and automatic updates.

As you can see I personally love Sharethis plugin as it’s a simple and easy plugin that accommodates my needs in having a great platform to share in Social Media.  The ShareThis plugin is very customizable and has post & e-mail options along with the social web options.  The ShareThis team is constantly adding in new social web links and most notably they just added my favorite social bookmark, Sphinn.

By the way….

The team over at ShareThis has been chosen as Mashable’s Open Web Award winner for the Blogger’s Choice and People’s Choice Awards in the Blog Plugins category.   Talk about perfect timing, Congrats to the ShareThis team!  You guys well deserve these 2 amazing rewards and I am looking forward to the new changes in the future.

Post from: Social Media Vision

ShareThis Optimizes Lightning Quick

What is a Twitter SeeSaw

A Twitter SeeSaw is when you have a lop-side count of either Following or Followers.  This affect tends to happen due to these four stages.

1. Twitter Rockstar
2. Twitter Peoples Champ
3. Twitter Spam Follow
4. Twitter Snob

The most known Twitter SeeSaw reason is the Twitter RockStars or the Twitter Celebrities.  The most notorious Twitter Celeb right now besides Barack Obama is Kevin Rose; founder of Digg.com.

As you can see Kevin has a high Follower count compared to his Following count.  Now I don’t know 100% why Kevin chose not to follow people back but most famous Twitter profiles choose not to follow back due to a high demand of people following them. 

The Twitter People’s Champ is when you have a good balance ratio of Followers and Following.  Most famous example of this scenario is Guy kawasaki; Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures.  Guy exemplifies fantastic Twitter Balance and Recriprocation.  His ratio is almost a dead even 50/50 ratio with room to spare of not following Spammers.  This status shows Follow-back love and openness to interaction.

This Stage is the very best stage to have on Twitter due to the power of connection and engagement of Social Media.  This is what Social Media is all about, without interaction then it’s like just reading the news on a website with no social interaction.  This stage is highly encouraged to practice and will reap the best rewards.  This does not mean follow back everyone who follows you, still weed out the scammers, spammers and fake profiles to maximize effectiveness.

The Twitter Spam Follow is a no brainer where they become lopsided in trying to follow as many Twitter accounts as possible in trying to gain a follow back.  Twitter had recently put a cap on the follow limit you could have in a short time frame without having a the same number of follow backs; 2,000 is the ceiling limit.  Now the Spammer have found a way around this by doing a mass follow, relying on Twitter to notify you by e-mail that you have a new follower, the spammer will then mass remove follow to stay under the 2,000 limit.

The Twitter Snob stage goes hand in hand with the Twitter Rockstar.  You may not be a Twitter Rockstar but you may have more Followers than Following.  This is due to the reason because you don’t want to clutter your Twitter stream with an overload of Tweets of people you may not know too well so therefore you a become very selective in choosing who to follow so your Twitter stream will always be filled with the Tweets you want to see.

You may not want to clutter your Twitter stream but there are better reason whys to have a great follow back ratio.  The main reason is due to the power of utilizing Social Media effectively. Another reason is because you can still have a clean Twitter stream by using great Twitter tools to organize groups where you can focus on the ones you want without sacrificing your Following.  

My suggestion would be to use TweetDeck when your on a personal computer and an application like Tiny Twitter for your Mobile connection.  Both Applications are very good in organizing your points of focus so that way you can still keep track of your main Followers while still keeping tabs of the Twitter world.

TweetDeck is great because you can create a group where you can follow only the Twitter people you want to follow and organization is key which should solve the problem of the Twitter RockStar and Twitter Snob.

Post from: Social Media Vision

The 4 Stages Of The Twitter SeeSaw

Google Friend Connect officially launched in May 12, 2008 [via Google Press Center]

Google Friend Connect is in BETA stage at the moment and requires people to register to be white-listed to use the service.  Since my blog is fairly new anyways I figured I give it a shot and find out if this is a good Social Media Tool that Google claims it to be.

*Updated* – Google Announced December 4th 2008 that it will be open to any website owner to add Friend Connect in response to Facebook Connect.

Setting up

The first thing I had to do was set up a new site to use this service.  Apparently this service will only work on self hosted sites where you would have to download 2 .html files to upload to your main server.

After setting up .html files, you are directed to choose a Gadget or Widget from the gallery.  Apparently there will be tons of open apps to be available but for now there seems to be just 3 main apps.

• Add a Member Gadget – Similar to MyBlogLog’s members widget where users can add their profile to your site.
• Wall Gadget – This gadget allows users to interact with your site by posting comments, or links to videos on your site.  Similar to a Shoutbox.
• Review/Rate Gadget - This gadget allows users to rate a page, or a section of a page. Users rate videos, articles, books, photos, songs, etc etc.   This gadget is similar to the rating plug-ins or widgets currently out there in the blog world.

Review

*12/5 Update* - I added the wall feature at the very bottom aswell, please feel free to test this new tool

Post from: Social Media Vision

Beta Testing Google Friend Connect Similiar To MyBlogLog & Rival Facebook Connect

Track Your Link Stats On Twitter and Friendfeed

Twitter is a great resource in sharing information and reading information shared by others.  The best way to do this is by posting articles your read or want to share on Twitter or Friendfriend.

To post your links mainly on Twitter, you would have to use a Shorten Url service mainly due to the character limit set forth with Twitter.

A list of sites that shorten urls below

bit.ly

bururl

eweri

hex.io

poprl

snipurl

tinyurl

twurl

ziprl

zi.ma

Measuring Results

Now that you can shorten urls to fit in Twitter, you need a way to measure results, especially if you run a business.  Measuring your link stats is a great tool in Social Media.  This helps you analyze trends, popular posts and a way to measure other results.

There are currently 2 major Link Stat Web Tools.

Budurl and Tweetburner

Tweetburner - Mainly tracks your twurl links which is associated with the Twhirl Twitter Client.  Tweetburner only tracks Twurl links and posts most clicked stats on the website while also providing you with information on who clicked on your Twurl link.

[Website] - http://tweetburner.com/

Budurls – Tracks only Budurl links in which by contrast is associated with the other top rank twitter client Tweetdeck.  Budurl is a very clean, fast and no hassle website.  Unlike Tweetburner, Budurl you don’t have to create an account to check the shorten url link stats.  Once the link is shortened to track the stats all you have to do is add /s to the end.

For example

www.longgggggposssstttt123333.com   <—–long post

www.budurl.com/23466     <—–Budurl Shortened

www.budurl.com/23466/s     <——To check stats

[website] http://budurl.com/

Tracking your links can be a  great insight in your marketing, business and social relationships.  These are great tools to use for Twitter and Friendfeed.

Post from: Social Media Vision

How To Track Your Link Stats On Twitter and Friendfeed

Social Gaming

On Facebooks Official Blog today, Shervin Pishevar is the Co-founder and CEO of the Social Gaming Network (SGN), which builds social games on both Facebook and iPhone wrote a guest post.

Social Gaming has been increasingly popular over the years especially with the launch of the Nintendo Wii.  Shervin pointed out the he thinks gaming is inherently social.  SGN’s latest application is the first application that connects your friends, the Web, Facebook and the iPhone.

The Iphone acts like Nintendo’s Wii Controllers for web-based gaming on Facebook, letting you play games with far away friends.  Just like Xbox live and PS Online you can social game play with friends all over the world and don’t have to wait on a real life friend to come over and play.

Social Gaming Network’s has four sports games to start off with.  Golf, Baseball, Basketball and Bowling pitting you against other iPhone users over the net.

It’s pretty simple to get started. Connect your iPhone to a Wi-Fi network, register for an account, download the app and start playing.

Apple has already been taking over some market share from PSP and Nintendo DS portables with portable gaming now on the Ipod Touch, looks like Apple has it’s eye on gaming this season and the competition should be careful.  

View the Demo Below

Post from: Social Media Vision

Iphone Takes On Wii With Social Gaming Ifun Games