Showing posts with label microblogging. Show all posts

Friday, January 28, 2011

Keep Twitter Group Discussions Private with Privately

If you’ve ever wanted to have a private conversation on Twitter with just a group of people (instead of the whole world) then Privately is for you. Privately is a mixture of threaded group conversations and DMs. Conversations can only be seen by users who have been invited and replies are displayed chronological order.

Start a private Twitter conversation on Privately.

Once you sign in via your Twitter account, you’ll want to set your preferences. You can enter your email so that you can receive notifications and use your Gravatar. Using your Gravatar is optional, if not selected Privately will use your Twitter avatar instead. You can also set your notification frequency preference. If you want to know ASAP when new messages arrive, then it’s best to choose every hour.

There are no special features about the site, you simply enter the username(s) that you want to start a conversation with and enter your message. Once started, you can add replies just by entering your message (no need for @mentions). You can also mute conversations that may be getting on your nerves.

Privately is currently an invite-only beta site, but it doesn’t take long to receive an invite. Another way to get an invite is to have a registered user start a conversation with you. Once registered, you will receive 10 invites and for every unregistered user that you start a conversation with, it will use up one of your invitations. When you start a conversation, a DM is sent out from your Twitter account to the user(s) with a link to it.

I love the simplicity of Privately. It eliminates the need to join yet another site just to have private conversations with your Twitter friends. It will be nice to see how the site is improved in the future.

If you would like to give Privately a try, you can send me an @mention and I’ll start a conversation with you; currently I have 7 invites left.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Share and Tweet Your Emotions with Smood.it

There’s a new microblogging platform in town and it’s called Smood.it. On the site you can share your smood with the world; the word smood is “a syneresis of two words: smile and mood.” Smood.it calls itself a “micro(emo)blogging” services since it’s more focused on letting you share your emotions rather than a simple status message.

Smood.it offers all of the basic features like a profile, the ability to invite and search for friends as well as a timeline view that showcases the smoods of those you follow. In addition you can keep up with your weekly mood (that is if you use the site consistently).

There are two simple steps to sharing your smood:

1. Pick one of six emoticons that describes your mood. The choices are: joy, surprise, love, anger, fear and sadness.

2. Tag your mood with words that describe why you’re feeling that way; you can also use URLs here. Previous used tags from the community will appear below the text box as you type.

Once your done, your smood will appear as picture below, with the emoticon and tags. Clicking on each tag will, as expected, take you to a page where you can see others who have used the same tag.

Connect Your Twitter Account

Smood is tightly integrated with Twitter. When you first sign up, you have the option of signing up via Twitter OAuth. Be aware that by default, your smoods will be set to auto-post to Twitter. You can, however, turn this off under settings. You can also customize how your tweet will look when it posts, which is a nice addition that not many sites offer.

Alternately and also in addition, you can have your tweets post as smoods to Smood.it. This is also something that is set by default, but can be changed under settings. It seems as though Smood.it scans your tweets, gets a feel for the mood of them and then automatically sets one of the six emoticon for them. As for that tags, it uses the URL in your tweet (if one is included), the users mentioned (if you @mention anyone) and hashtags that you may have used.

I do like being able to quickly share how I’m feeling on Smood.it. Sometimes a simple emoticon (as opposed to a text status message) is the best way to describe my current mood and Smood.it makes this possible.

While the community does not seem very active, it may just be because it is hard to find other users (besides clicking on tags). Also, there doesn’t seem to be a way to “like,” comment or reply to others’ smoods. Of course, these are just some of the missing functionalities that come with an early beta site, so I’m anxious to see how Smood.it progresses.

Once again, here’s another site that I’d really love to use often and hope that I will remember to do so. What are your thoughts?

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Group Collaborations Made Easy with Micromobs

In short, Group collaborations made easy with Micromobs. Micromobs is like Twitter or Yammer for family, friends and classmates. The service lets you create groups, which can be public or private. Each mob is set up like a mini microblogging service with status updates, replies, search, etc. If you’re looking for a simple collaboration tool for school, groups of friends or a way to keep in touch with family then this tool is perfect. It only takes a few minutes to set up your mob, and you can login via Facebook or Twitter.

Create A Mob

You’ll need a name for your mob. The name you choose will also be attached to your custom domain, so make sure it’s not too long. You’ll have the option to invite friends via email or by sharing a short URL (supplied by the site). You can also share your mob on Facebook and/or Twitter with the click of a button. It’s also a good idea to go into the settings and add a description and image to your mob. Here you can also set your mob as public or private. If your mob is private, no one will be able to see anything going on in the mob unless they are a member.

Update your status on Micromobs.

Participate In Your Mob

Being active in your mob is easy. Like Twitter, there is a status update box; you can attach an image to your post and even share it on Facebook. What’s nice about Micrombos is that there is no character counter and no limitations to worry about. Like Facebook if you add a link, a description (and sometimes a thumbnail) will be attached to your post (see below).

Share a link on Micromobs.

There is no way to edit your posts, but you can delete them. Others can reply to you in Twitter-like fashion using the “@” symbol. When you click on “reply” below a post, the @username is automatically entered into the text box. You and others can also share posts on Twitter with the click of a tiny icon. All of these options appear only when you scroll your mouse over a specific post.

If you are on the page when a new reply or post is made, a notification will appear at the top of the timeline letting you know. Once you refresh the page you’ll be able to see it.

Popular Users

You can also see who the three most active members of the mob. The most active/top user will have the title “chief” displayed next to them.

Quick Reply Methods

Micromobs also has a mobile version, which is great for keeping up with your mob on the go. Alternately, you can also reply by email. You can choose to receive an email whenever someone mentions you or responds to a post you’ve made or commented on. It’s a good idea to enable this because you can just reply to the email notice in order to reply back.

You’ll also get weekly digests sent to your email so that you can keep up with what’s going on with your mobs. You can, of course, choose which mobs to receive email digests for (if any at all).

I have been using Micromobs for a few months now and I have four mobs that I’ve created myself. I’m very happy with the service and how easy it is to use. Even if you have family members who are not very computer literate, they should have no issues with Micromobs as it’s very easy to catch on to. Micromobs has made it fun and easy for me to keep in touch with classmates as well as online friends.

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