7 Twitter Firefox Add-Ons for Tweet Junkies
Unless you have been using Internet Explorer for the past few years, you probably know that there is more to your browser than meets the eye. Almost all modern browsers come with additional enhancements that enable you to get more done on the Internet without too much hassle. If you happen to be using Firefox to surf the Internet, it’s even better. There are plenty of add-ons to choose from, and some truly can save you time and effort with your social media efforts.
If you are hoping to use Firefox to tweet more effectively, here are 7 Twitter Add-ons for Firefox that you should try:
EchoFon: makes it easy to keep up with your friends posts and updates on Twitter. You can also use it to post your own tweets.
Yoono: lets you access all your social networks and instant messaging on your sidebar. Great way to stay in touch if you happen to be active on multiple social networks.
Twinbin: adds Twitter to your sidebar and lets you keep in touch with your friends and followers on Twitter. You can reply, favorite, and more without having to open up Twitter.
Power Twitter: makes reading tweets on your browser a more dynamic experience. It puts your Twitter web interface on steroids. (more…)
Google Social Search: Where Search Meets Social Media
Google may be the top dog when it comes to web search, but the company has not used the power of the social media to provide more useful information to online searchers in the past. Not until now anyway. Google has announced that it will introduce a new Google Labs feature called “Social Search” that will integrate your favorite social media sites into Google search page to help you stay connected with your friends and followers.
Google is now going to start grabbing information from your favorite social networking sites that you have listed on your Google Profile. This is exciting on two fronts. On the one hand, you are going to be able to keep up with the latest developments in the world of social media. So you can catch the latest news and developments faster through Google Search. On the other hand, your results are going to be somewhat customized for you. It’s not personalized search just yet, but it’s a very good start.
In case you missed it, Microsoft is also trying hard to get a lead in this department to put pressure on Google. But the latest announcement by Google should stop a bit of momentum that Microsoft was going to make by taking Bing social. The move will certainly marry social media optimization and search engine optimization. Now you can share images, videos, text blogs, and so on across multiple networks and gain a lot more traffic from Google as well.
The future of search is social. It’s all about user generated content mixed with corporate content. It’s about time Google and Microsoft paid attention to all the content created by social media users on a daily basis. We are still in the early days of true social search. But too hard not to get excited about it all.
SketchFu: Social Sketching
Sketching is one of the best ways to ideate and come up with new approaches for your business. There are a lot of things that you can’t capture effectively with your notes but can with sketches. So whether you are trying to have fun with your sketch or just want to map out a strategy for your business, sketching it all is very effective. The best way to sketch on the go and capture it all is by using a product such as LiveScribe Pen. But if you are not into spending $150 or so for a digital pen, you can always use SketchFu.
SketchFu is a very simple sketching service that lets you create and share your sketches with friends and colleagues online. They can then vote on your work and give you feedback on your work. The service is not created for heavy duty work, but it does handle simple sketching quite well, especially if you have a mouse that is pretty flexible to work.
Drawing using a digital tablet is obviously much easier. The service by itself is not earth shattering, but the concept is something to think about. I have seen a few bloggers that do use sketches to communicate more effectively with their readers, so it’s certainly something work looking at. The fact that you can share your work with others and get their feedback certainly makes SketchFu interesting. If you can draw well with the service, you may be get away with not owning a digital tablet. Otherwise, you may want to pass on SketchFu and get a Livescribe pen or other tablet solutions available on the market. Sketching is fun and a great way to capture ideas right at the exact time they come to you.
Gelato: a new kind of dating
I have to admit. I have never tried dating, and I am not so tempted by services such as eHarmony and Chemistry. But there are people who have used these services to find a date and even start a serious, long-term relationship. But when I first hear of gelato, I thought it’d be interesting to see what it’s all about. gelato is not your everyday dating site. It’s a social-media based dating service that lets you find people based on their information on Twitter and Facebook. So unlike eHarmony and other top dating sites, gealto lets you figure out what people really talk about. The system can probably be gamed but that is the case with other dating sites as well.
In order to get gelato to work, you will need fill out a short information sheet. You basically let others know what you are interested in and what you want gelato to pull from your social networking accounts.
