State of the Twittersphere – Q4 2008 Report

Hubspot has released its first-ever State of the Twitterspere report for Q4 2008.  The report summarizes the trends of Twitter users based on real data pulled from hundreds of thousands of Twitter profiles accessed through the reports generated by Twitter Grader.

I found that the report accurately reflects my Twitter profile.  For example, I currently have a Twitter grade of a 91, which based on the report, Twitter users with a score between 90-100 have an average of over 100 followers.  As of today, I have 169 followers and I’m following 180 people.

Are you on Twitter?  If not join today and connect with me.

Here is a link to the report: State of the Twittersphere – Q4 2008 Report.

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2 Tools to Analyze You Blogging Style

Have you read Adam Cohen’s post, What Does Your Blog Say About You? If not, it’s a must read.  In his post Adam ponders over the somewhat interesting analysis he received from Gender Analyzer and Typealyzer. Gender Analyzer uses artificial intelligence to determine whether a blog is authored by a man or a woman.  After submitting my blog, the results concluded that there was a 77% chance it was written by a man.  Seriously – take a look at the screen shot.  To be fair, Gender Analyzer does have a disclaimer:

We created Gender Analyzer out of curiosity and fun. It uses Artificial Intelligence to determine if a homepage is written by a man or woman.

Phew..so Gender Analyzer was developed for entertainment purposes only?  I hope so, because the algorithm seems to have a few bugs in it.   Or it could mean that 77% of the time I write like a man – it’s possible.  I do have a tendency to blog about technology  more than any other topic, and historically technology and science have been dominated by men.  What do you think?

The next tool is Typealyzer, which analyzes your writing style based on your blog posts.  Typealyzer analyzes you blog to determine the type of writer that you are -somewhat of a Myers-Briggs test for bloggers.  Typealyzer’s blog states:

For a long period of time, we have been training our system to recognize texts that characterize the different types. The system, Typealyzer, can now by itself find features that distinguishes one type from another. When all features, words and sentences, are statistically analyzed, Typealyzer is able to guess which personality type the text represents.

Typealyzer concluded that I fit into the category: INTJ – The Scientists.  The people that fit into this type are individualistic, long-range thinkers.   They are intellectually curious and daring, but might be physically hesitant to try new things.  Frankly I am very, very curious about the world around me.  I consider myself a students of life, but contrary to what Typealyzer says, I’m not afraid to physically try anything new – not at all.   Ok, except for swimming with sharks – never.  Take a look at the screen shots.

My question is, how would you use these tools to improve your blogs, writing style, or find out what makes you tick?  I’d love to hear you thoughts.

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Curious About Google? 10 Google Slideshows

Stan Shroder posted a great article of Mashable, “10 Great Google Slideshows.” I’m a big fan of Slideshare after downloading a presentation, “How to Use Twitter for Marketing and PR.”  Slideshare is a great resource for educators, marketers, and everyone in between.

Yesterday we dug out a cool slideshow which tries to tell us, in a mere 34 slides, everything there is to know about Google. It’s not the only Google-related slideshow out there, though; in fact, we’ve found dozens of them. Here’s a selection of ten we’ve found to be either very useful or interesting.

As you can see there is many presentations on varying aspects of search engine giant Google.  I especially liked the presentation “Google for Life Science Research: Searching Power and More,” since I’m constantly on the look out for research tools and resources to help me with my Doctoral work.  What resources for research do you use?

Here is a link to the article on Mashable: 10 Great Google Slideshows

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BrightKite, My New Favorite Mobile Application

I started using Brighkite two weeks ago, and I can’t stop.  For some odd reason, I enjoy using BrightKite more than I do Twitter.  Don’t get me wrong – I really, really like using Twitter.  But, BrightKite is more about me – where I’m at (GPS), and what I’m doing (ability to post pics) at any given time.  Where as Twitter is primarily a platform for short status updates.  I can tell an annotated story with BrightKite – with Twitter? No not really.  In Chris Brogan’s post, “If I Owned Brightkite”, he discusses the untapped potential for BrightKite,

I see such potential in BrightKite, after using the iPhone application. The website is nothing nearly as nuanced and obvious. In fact, it’s fat and bloated. I’d strip it now that I’ve used the iPhone app. I’d make it closer to the experience that is so simple. (I understand the difference. The iPhone, by providing location information, makes the value far more obvious.)

How do I know it’s my favorite?  Well, last week I caught myself posting a note at 5:30 am before I headed out for my morning run.  Ok, really, who cares?  No seriously, who would be up at 5:30 am, that really cared about me going for a run? But BrightKite is so darn easy to use, why not post GPS-tagged photos about my drive to work, eating dinner at a restaurant, or reading a magazine at Barnes and Noble?  Which I did, with ease.

BrightKite used my Twitter profile to connect me with my friends from Twitter, who also used Brightkite.  Two were listed, Wayne Sutton and Chris Brogan, who both graciously accepted my invitation to connect on BrightKite.  (Thanks Wayne and Chris!)  To my delight I was able to see Wayne ride a Segway in an X-Mas parade, and Chris’ airport adventures in Arizona.  Both were like watching a movie in 3D, as opposed to Twitter, which is like watching it on tv – two totally different experiences.

Do you use BrightKite more than Twitter?

Add me to your friend list on BrightKite and Twitter!

200 Tools for Surviving the Economic Crisis

Image provided by Marcopoulos via Flickr

Mashable has compiled a list of over 200 useful tools that are sure to come in handy during this – shall I say it? – “recession.”  The tools fall under categories such as:

• budgeting
• job search
• transportation
• travel.

They are all neatly assembled in one blog post.  Here are 10 of my favorite tools from the list:

TheCorporatePlaybook.com – A site that helps college athletes make the transition from school to the corporate world. The jobs range from everyday jobs to those in the sports field.

Mint.com – A completely free financial management tool that offers nice perks like integration with numerous banks, retrieves new transactions daily and even puts them into categories for you automatically, sets budgets that will warn you when you’re close to going over and much more.

eRideShare.com – Assists you in finding rides for daily carpooling, cross-country travel, running errands, or even to special events & club meetings.

RideAmigos.com – Use the RideAmigo’s RideMatcher system to enter your trip or commute, and find people with a matching schedule that you can share a ride with. The service also shows the environmental impact reduction of the people sharing a ride. Also offers a corporate version, which restricts results to people within your company.

RepairPal.com – RepairPal assists you with getting estimates for repairs, finding well reviewed shops and keeping track of your car’s maintenance.

FuelMeUp.com – 82,000 gas stations around the United States, and their prices are updated three times a day to reflect the latest information.

.MyCoupons.com – Has over 4,000 stores you can look up by name. Also has message boards for sharing more codes, rates how well codes have worked, and a whole lot more.

Farecast.Live.com – Microsoft powered service to search multiple sellers and predict for you if you should buy your ticket now or hold off for a possible price drop.

HotelsCombined.com – Search over 30 hotel reservation sites in 12 languages from one convenient interface.

AgentBoost.com – You post a listing for a property you plan to sell and agents have five days to bid for your listing.