A new study by USC’s Annenberg Center for Communication and Journalism finds that O% of Twitter users would pay for the service. Pretty remarkable ramifications for social media paywalls, especially since 49% of those polled said that they have used microblogging services like Twitter. The study also finds that 50% of respondents never click on Internet advertising and that 70% find it annoying.  Who’s going to pay the piper.

Twitter settles it’s suit with the FTC. Among the embarrassments was the disclosure that President Obama’s account was hijacked and 150,000 follower received an offer to win $500 in free gasoline.

Twitter Settles Charges that it Failed to Protect Consumers’ Personal Information; Company Will Establish Independently Audited Information Security Program.

If you’ve spent any appreciable amount of time on Twitter, the term “TweetUp” should be pretty familiar to you. In Twitterspeak, it means a gathering of all connected tweeters in a particular city – not on Twitter, but in actual three dimensional space (hard to believe people still like to interact with each other in the flesh, isn’t it?). But as of this week, “TweetUp” has new meaning now that a new service has emerged which has chosen the term as its namesake.

It’s being widely billed as a Google for tweets, so it should come as no surprise when I tell you that it’s essentially a search engine for Twitter with a twist. That twist being that 1) it uses an algorithm to find the “best” and “most relevant” tweets for a given search, which will be displayed at the top of the results, and 2) it will allow users to pay to be listed at the top of the results for a given TweetUp search.

So first of all, it’s designed to help you search Twitter without having to sift the through piles of garbage tweets you and I see every day. This sounds great in theory, but I have to admit, saying that one of its searches displays the “best” results sounds like an awfully subjective judgment for something that uses an algorithm to determine what’s best. The algorithm seems to analyze the “authority” of a Twitter user who sends a particular tweet, along with metrics from URL shortening outfits like bit.ly to determine what’s best and most relevant.

But the other, and more important aspect is the idea of sponsored results. As you might have guessed, this is a Google Adwords type model, and indeed those who pay to have their tweets (or their Twitter profile itself) appear atop certain search results will bid on the keywords in conjunction with which they would like their tweets to appear. Now, being an avid tweeter and just generally aware of social media marketing, I can see many companies being interested in this type of thing. As for individual tweeters, I’m not so sure there will be much interest. But I guess anyone looking to “build their brand” through social media, whether it’s a company of 500+ or just a freelance professional, might be intrigued by the prospect.

In addition, TweetUp has deals in place with Twitter application developers like Seesmic, which will use the TweetUp’s search in their applications.

The natural question to me here is not who will pay for this service (at least in the short term), it’s – will it have any effect on those searching Twitter. Because TweetUp offers this pay model, in addition to its natural search offering, users may end up encountering not the best and most relevant tweets related to their search, but rather tweets that might not be related at all. Further, even if they are relevant, they may not be anything you’d really want to read.

And in all honesty, I don’t know how often users really even search Twitter. Very rarely do I myself search, and if I do, it’s usually just clicking on a hashtag that’s popped up in my Twitter feed. Plus, obviously I can still use Twitter’s normal search function if I really want to find certain content-specific tweets.

I guess like anything else it comes down to how well the service functions. If it truly plugs a whole that Twitter users have been looking to fill, then I’d expect it to be at least a relative success. But if it’s just a whole bunch of paid tweets that don’t offer the quality users are expecting, then I’m not so sure. I can’t say it enough – content is king, my friends. So I guess I’ll just have to give it a shot and decide.

A while back, Facebook recognized an opportunity that would both help it grow, and help bolster relationships with its fellow website operators, and Facebook Connect was born. And by now, if you haven’t seen the little Facebook Connect button on a web site, you must live a very limited digital existence. Connect is a website add-on that Facebook users can use to sign into sites other than Facebook, using their Facebook login. Then, once they are logged in, users can then share articles, videos and more with their Facebook friends just by clicking a button.

Obviously recognizing the value this type of feature could bring to its service, Twitter announced something relatively similar on its Blog on Monday and at SXSW this week.

@anywhere is the service’s name, and it will have a couple of significant facets.

Number one – Any businesses or people mentioned in a news article or within the content of any participating site will be hyperlinked so that you can click on their name and follow them on Twitter. But according to TechCrunch, the business or person’s name won’t just be hyperlinked. Actually, if you hover over the hyperlink, a small box will show up with all of their Twitter profile info (username, bio, location) and their latest Tweet. Then, just one click and boom, you’ve followed your favorite NY Times editor, your favorite celebrity, your favorite consumer tech company and/or anyone else mentioned on a participating site who has a Twitter account.

Number two – This probably happens to you all the time – You’re reading a really interesting or even amusing article or blog post, or you’re watching some two-minute-long stroke of cinematic genius on YouTube, and you want to share it with your Twitter followers. Once @anywhere launches, you’ll be able to share those items with just one click, without even leaving the participating site. Unfortunately, we still have no idea what this will look like, but frankly, I don’t need to in order to determine that it’s cool. It certainly doesn’t take very long to post a link on Twitter to something you’ve read and liked, but if they can cut out the work in the middle, even better, right?

Per the Twitter blog, the participating sites at launch will include – Amazon, AdAge, Bing, Citysearch, Digg, eBay, The Huffington Post, Meebo, MSNBC.com, The New York Times, Salesforce.com, Yahoo!, and YouTube. So basically most of those you’d expect, and some wild cards. The one major absence is Google. While Yahoo! and Bing were apparently happy to sign on to use @anywhere, in keeping with it’s most recent M.O., Google apparently thinks Buzz may actually become relevant and thus has remained on the sidelines. Which I suppose is their prerogative.

Anyway, it sounds like any other site that wishes to integrate @anywhere just needs to add a few lines of javascript to their site. I’m not totally sure if this really means ANYONE, nor whether you’ll be able to grab the javascript right after @anywhere’s official launch. Nevertheless, eventually you should be able to turn your own site into a well-oiled Twittering machine.

So, when can we expect to begin reaping the benefits of this latest advance in Twitter technology? That, unfortunately, is unclear. Twitter only says “soon,” and no one else seems to have any better idea. Either way, “soon” in internet terms can’t mean more than a month. So keep your eyes peeled, and your ear to the Interweb ground – @anywhere is coming soon.

Better late than never, as the phrase goes. As Yahoo! has stood by and watched, other major web players have embraced Twitter, and Google has clumsily introduced it’s own “micro-blogging” hybrid. But apparently, they will no longer stand in the corner while everyone else revels in the Twitter party, as today, Yahoo! announced a partnership with Twitter that should integrate Twitter into a number of Yahoo! services.

According to the New York Times, the most immediate impact will be that users will see “real time Twitter results” in Yahoo! search (no idea why they didn’t do this sooner). But down the road (“coming soon”) Yahoo! users will be able to integrate their personal Twitter feeds (in other words tweets from all the people they follow) into Yahoo!’s homepage, Yahoo! Sports, their Yahoo! mail (which beats the hell out of Buzz in your Gmail), and some other Yahoo! properties to be named later. Users will also allegedly be able to share Yahoo! content easily with their followers on Twitter (which they could pretty much do already, but I suppose this just skips the middleman). And eventually, Yahoo! plans to integrate topically relevant [and potentially curated] Twitter feeds into it’s media properties including Yahoo! News, Entertainment, Finance, etc.

But what might be the “coolest” (or perhaps least obvious) outcome of this partnership is the ability to automatically share any “social actions” you’ve taken on any website you’ve allowed to appear in your Yahoo! updates with your Twitter followers. So any time you comment on or rate a Yahoo! article (for example), that news will (or can) be shared with your Twitter friends automatically. Of course, this is by no means unique or progressive, but it is a nice added bonus to be able to share your social interactions with people on Twitter without any real effort.

According to Yahoo!, this partnership is the next step in its strategy to “make the web smaller” for its users. Back in December, Yahoo! partnered with Facebook to integrate Facebook feeds and allow Yahoo! users to share content from Yahoo! easily on the uber-social network. Twitter was just naturally next in line. And say what you will about what isn’t altogether a mind blowing strategic move, at least Yahoo! isn’t trying to thrust it’s own social network or social platform on you like Google has with Buzz (though apparently it has been trying to develop some type of “micro blogging service” since last fall). It seems that like some other players who used to dominate the web in the late 90s, Yahoo! has realized it needs to live in the now, or at least in 2009 (if they were really up with 2010, they’d be talking to Foursquare).

So if you’re still loyal to Yahoo!’s services, you’ve got that going for you…which is nice.

Meanwhile, not that it’s at all related to this partnership, but it looks like Twitter’s about to finally get into the advertising game…

Click to enlarge

Don’t look now, but thanks to a new collaboration between the makers of TweetDeck and TwitJobSearch, Twitter may actually help you get a job, which oughta prove pretty handy when lose your current one by Tweeting when you should be working.

TechCrunch describes the cleverly-titled, “JobDeck” as “basically just a custom branded TweetDeck client that comes with two additional default columns: ‘Job Search Experts’ and ‘TwitJobSearch’.” And that’s pretty much accurate. The two additional columns are just a feed of Tweets from a number of Tweeters that TwitJobSearch has deemed “job search experts,” and a feed of TwitJobSearch’s own Tweets (a mixture of company news, jobs users have tweeted, and jobs that recruiters have requested TwitJobSearch post).  But, you can add a column for your Facebook and/or LinkedIn feeds, which can also help, and as with the traditional TweetDeck, you can always create a custom Twitter search for the type of job you’re seeking.

Just as an aside, the JobDeck app is new, but TwitJobSearch is not. If you’re currently in the market, you may want to check out their web offering as well. There you’ll find the most salient feature, which is the ability to search the vast depths of the Twittersphere for whatever job you desire, as well as a pretty cool “Job Map” that shows the locations of all jobs Tweeted within the previous 72 hours (which are clickable – providing the ability to search by location as well as by keyword).

It also gives you the ability to refine any searches you perform by location (city or country), salary, and job type (full time, part time, contract, etc.), and aggregates Tweets from a number of “sponsors” (including Adidas, KFC, and Ernst and Young) who are all offering jobs.

They even have an iPhone app you can download, which I can’t really vouch for since I’ve yet to give it a whirl, myself.

Anyways, if you’re already using TweetDeck anyway, what have you got to lose, right? JobDeck is out now and should be available for both Mac and PC users. So go forth, try it for yourself and let us know what you think!

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• TwitJobSearch the Latest HR Tool to Use Social Media (marketingvox.com)
• Twitter Could Become the Unemployed’s Best Friend (bits.blogs.nytimes.com)

Over the past year or so, Twitter has been arguably the hottest thing in social media. Celebrities are using it as their personal electronic playgrounds, it has been the subject of segments and even entire episodes of network TV shows, and it has effectively become at least a breaking news source for many, many people. So usually, any news involving Twitter is sunnier than South Beach in July.

But, per Hubspot’s latest “State of the Twittersphere” report, Twitter’s growth has slowed over the last few months. In fact, it has waned from double digit growth (13%) back in March of 2009, to 3.5% between October and November.

Of course, it’s kind of natural that after a period of significant growth, things will take a dip. If you think about it, with 13% growth, where they were adding users hand over fist, judging growth rate against a higher user base naturally isn’t going to be as awe-inspiring (or however you want to sensationalize it). Not to mention, Hubspot only sampled 5 million accounts, using the accounts’ creation dates to gauge month-over-month growth (though slowing growth has been the popular finding for most over the past few months).

Either way, it’s perhaps more interesting to see users’ increased engagement with Twitter.

In the past, Twitter had struggled to retain users, but it seems that now, the average user follows more people (329% increase from July 2009), is followed by more people (268% increase from July 2009), and has posted more updates (253% increase from July 2009) than ever before. In addition, Hubspot found that more users are filling out their Twitter profiles – including their bios, locations and website addresses. Plus, just over a week ago, Twitter saw its highest usage day ever. And not one celebrity even died, to boot!

So while Hubspot’s report found slowed user growth (something that similar studies have also found), the usage numbers are at least a promising sign for Twitter.

The “capitalist’s Twitter” (ps – that’s not their sales language, I just made that term up), new social platform Blippy got play on just about every digital/tech blog worthy of mention yesterday.

It’s kind of a controversial concept. It’s been in the hopper, available in beta to some 5,000 invitee users for about the last month, but just yesterday opened its doors to the masses. What Blippy is all about is basically Twitter for your purchases. As a user, you can share details on any of your purchases from Blippys partners (Amazon, iTunes, NetFlix, Zappos, StubHub, etc.) including how much you spent and what you bought, with your “followers.”

It seems that Blippy’s braintrust, and apparently plenty of investors (enough to generate $1.6 million in funding) believe that we want to share EVERYTHING with each other.

But do we, really?

I hate to be skeptical of any new link in the web’s social evolution chain, but one of things (if not THE thing) people have always been guarded about on the web is credit card and bank account information – basically anything that if stolen, would allow the thief to put them in the poor house. And while no one would be sharing credit card numbers on Blippy, I’m still not sure I want the world to know that I spent $1.29 on “Who Let The Dogs Out” by the Baja Men (who am I kidding, of course I want the world to know that).

I suppose at the end of the day, it’s up to us as users to protect ourselves and not divulge enough to expose ourselves to financial harm. And really, if most Americans have two or three credit cards, only one of which is linked to Blippy, it’s not like we’re talking about the kind of thing that could make you lose your house. Plus, you can make your account private, just like you can on Twitter. So at least you can pick and choose with whom you want to share this “sensitive” personal information. Not to mention, Blippy provides a feed of all your most recent purchases from participating companies, so it might even help you figure out if your card info has been jacked.

Still, I’ll be interested to see how many people get on board with the concept over the next 12 months or so. And as a known cynic, I’ll be even more interested to see if I start getting into it. I know for sure I like the ability to comment on (and “like,” just as on Facebook) peoples purchases. I foresee myself using that feature with some regularity.

Either way, I’m sure there won’t be any shortage of participating companies. As users spend and other users see them spend and on what they’re spending, those other users are likely to go, “Hey, I wanna go buy ‘Who Let The Dogs Out’ from iTunes too!” Or maybe not, but there’s really no disadvantage for companies to come on board (says the guy who knows nothing about how Blippy facilitates companies’ participation) and the potential for generating business seems strong.

So keep an eye out for Blippy’s growth and popularity in the future, and if you are so bold as to try it out, let us know what you think!

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• Blippy Shows Its Own Funding On Blippy. And Now Everyone Can See. (techcrunch.com)
• Introducing Blippy, the Shopaholic Social Network! (sitepoint.com)
• Are You Ready to Tweet Credit and Debit Card Purchases? (blogs.wsj.com)

First things first – Yes, I really did just use the title of a Huey Lewis and the News song as this post’s title. I’d say that editorial choice made me lose a little respect for myself, but I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t love me a little Huey Lewis from time to time.

Anyways, this post does serve a purpose other than allowing me to proclaim my affinity for catchy 80′s pop music. And that is to tell you about Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey’s new endeavor called, drumroll please…Square.

As you’ll see in the video below (which we gratefully jacked from TechCrunch), the basic idea behind Square is that with a little dongle that attaches to any iPhone, iPod Touch or Droid, anyone can accept credit card payments from anyone else.

So say you want to sell me 10 minutes of your time…because, you know, your time is money, right? All you have to do is “ring me up” for that time, and if you have the Square dongle, I can swipe my credit card right then and there, sign for the transaction using my finger, and voila, we just made commerce happen! You could even e-mail me a receipt (and soon even send it via SMS).

Here’s a glimpse at the beast in action, along with Jack Dorsey’s marketing-speak…

I’m not entirely positive about this, but I believe the product is currently in Beta, and on Square’s site, there is a place to submit your e-mail address if you’re interested in using it. So I imagine if you’re brave enough (to put your e-mail in and hit submit), you could be part of the future before it actually becomes the future. Or something like that…I think I just confused myself.

Anyways, here are a couple of other screen shots from Square’s site, but if you want more info, I’ll paste links to related content below. I strongly urge you to check them out…get it, check them out…like, checkout…at a cash register…where you pay with a credit card…guess I shouldn’t quit my day job, huh?

For more info…
Jack Dorsey’s Square is (Almost) Open for Business [TechCrunch]
Square’s Official Website [Squareup.com]
Video: Jack Dorsey Talks Square and I Buy Him a Coffee with It [TechCrunch]
Twitter Founder Begins Trial on Squareup iPhone Credit Card Payment Service [Gizmodo]
Square iPhone Payment System Gets Itself a Website, Showcased in Public [Engadget]

First things first, if you haven’t already, live in the now, and go get yourself a Twitter account. For those of you unfamiliar with or simply unaware of Twitter’s growth, from February 2008 to February 2009, the number of Twitter users grew 1382%, and I’d expect at least a similar if not steeper growth from February 2009 to February 2010. So in other words, this isn’t just a passing trend to ignore.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, there are numerous resources that can really help boost your experience with the web application. Below are a few of these resources you may find helpful, particularly if you are a practicing attorney.

1. GothamScape.com

GothamScape.com aggregates tweets for those interested in Entertainment Law, Green Tech and Health Tech. We have indexed a number of users who focus on these areas and whenever they send a tweet, it shows up in the relevant column on GothamScape.com.

This is a great way to follow these areas easily and efficiently. Within each category, you have the option of reading tweets from all of the indexed users, or narrowing in on one specific user with the dropdown menus underneath each category heading. Additionally, if you hover over a specific tweet, you have the options to read the particular user’s Twitter bio, reply to the tweet, retweet the tweet for your followers, and follow the user who sent the tweet.

2. #sm4law

Another helpful resources is the hashtag #sm4law. If you aren’t familiar with Twitter-speak, hashtags are a practice that has developed to help users easily find tweets on a given subject. By placing a “#” in front of any word or phrase, you can tag your tweet so that anyone following or interested in that subject matter can click on the tag and see all tweets that have been identically tagged.

#sm4law is short for social media for lawyers, and as the name suggests, users tag tweets that have to do with social media and the law. Some examples of the content of recent tweets tagged #sm4law include links to podcasts on “Social Media and Jury Due Diligence” and “How to Start Great Conversations,” as well as links to blog posts regarding a recent Social Media for Lawyers conference and the Florida Bar’s decision that Web Directory Profiles are not considered Advertising.

3. TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop

Finally, there are a number of Twitter applications that provide reasonable desktop alternatives to using Twitter on the web. The two that I’ve always thought had the most robust features and user experience are TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop. Both have a similar layout in which they separate your tweets, your @ replies, your direct messages, and any searches or hashtags you are monitoring into columns.

Plus, they have URL shortening services built-in, as well as image sharing services like TwitPic and Yfrog, so you can upload your images automatically without even leaving the program (as you see in the screenshot below).

I personally use Seesmic, and have for at least six months now, having switched over from TweetDeck. While they do offer similar experiences, I happen to like the look, feel and ease of use with Seesmic over TweetDeck. But of course, that is a subjective judgment, and naturally, you should try both and decide for yourself which you like better.

Oh yes, and one more thing…

Don’t forget to follow GothamMedia!

Happy tweeting, ladies and gents!