Mister Twitter

Attention Stock holders and traders, Stocktwits may change the outlook on how you trade. A new financial micro-blogging site lets newbies learn from the pros gets advice at no charge for the time being.

A newbie can ask advice to an advanced stock trader in real time via Stocktwits. And stock traders can get investors through Stocktwits. It's a social networking site with stock exchange as their main topic.

Stocktwits is a month old site and was launched in October by Internet entrepreneurs Howard Lindzon and Soren Macbeth, StockTwits uses the same technology that runs microblogging pioneer Twitter. Lindzon notice that people were already talking about stocks on Twitter. So Macbeth came up with a way to tag stock-related Twitter messages known as Tweets and aggregate them. The two entrepreneurs created a filter to separate the chitchat and zero in on finance and trading through a simple platform that was global, lightweight, stable, and in real time.

StockTwits has become a marketplace for ideas that lets amateurs mix it up with former hedge fund managers and traders. The good thing about StockTwits is it doesn't require registration or e-mail verification and users don't need to create a portfolio of stocks to find potential matches or browse through professional portfolios for trading ideas.

Instead, with just a Twitter username and password, users are immersed in a virtual trading floor. It is like the modern version of traders shouting in the pits. Stocktwits is more efficient than chat rooms; there's no need to search through a labyrinth of stock forums that end up yielding poor and outdated information.

Having a constant stream of ideas flowing across a Stocktwits screen might seem distracting to some. But in other people's case it has saved a lot of money because it has held them back from bad trades. It's a useful tool in assessing risk.

As of today, StockTwits has more than 10,000 subscribers who spend an average of 15 minutes on the site and contribute 3,000 unique tweets per day. While these figures may seem small, StockTwits is a niche community and like Twitter or any other microblogging platform should not be subject to the same type of analytics used to measure traditional sites and blogs. Updates are made 140 characters at a time—like a short text message or instant message—and visits are brief and scattered throughout the day.

For communities like StockTwits, the key is knowing who follows whom, who posts the most and to whom. It's a new level of transparency or accountability everyone is holding themselves to.

Give you a tip. Follow a trader that you think will make it big in the future. If you think Oracle will hit big time then go ahead and follow them. And if sometime you think that Oracle is not performing well then unfollow them. That's the beauty of StockTwits.

So how will Stocktwits make a profit? Finance news is important and valuable to stock traders. They are willing to spend money to get that kind of information. Stocktwits aims to give premium content for a fee. For example, the site may charge users to learn more about why a user is trading against a particular bank, or for educational tools based on a person's investing preference.

StockTwits goal is to help newbies get the fast track of being a successful stock trader. Newbies have an advantage to learn details of trading that they never even knew it existed.

Good news to Xbox and Twitter users. Xbox 360 is now integrated with popular social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. You can chat with your friends and talk about your favorite games in Xbox. You can ask your friends on how to get game cheats by sending tweets on Twitter. Or tell your Mom that you're house chores are done with just 140 characters of Twitter tweets.

How is it done? Well Twitter comes pre-installed in Xbox 360. On the Xbox view screen look for the tab "My Community". It's user friendly and it's simple. The scrollable screen displays the last 4 updates plus your latest dispatch. You can easily search for topics, follow new accounts, tweet or retweet, reply or direct message, and favorite a tweet message.

One good thing about Microsoft is they designed the Twitter background as the way how Twitter really looks like. There are excellent displays of birds on branches and baby blue backdrops. It's like opening your Twitter account under Xbox 360 platform. Neat isn't it?

If only Xbox creators can modify the Twitter message board attached to the game screen where you don't have to exit the game just to send 140 character message. It ruins the game. It will be better if they copy it kind of like Warcraft where you can send message to your friends but don't have to leave the game at the same time. Twitter is something done quickly and it's usually a supplementary to a game or movie. Xbox is the main interface here. If you really want to use Twitter, then open your account on your computer.

But still, It's nice to have these social networking sites in your Xbox 360. It gives more interaction and features to Xbox lovers.

Twitter is planning to get bigger. But first they need to start to expand their office. The micro blogging revolution signed a deal to sublease roughly 31,000 square feet near the Yerba Buena Gardens park in downtown San Francisco. Twitter currently has only 30 employees but with their new office, the company is expecting to have 200 employees.

These employees will help the company to improve it's product and technology and they will not be active in sales. But why? Well Twitter just received $100 million in venture capital funding and it's first goal is to improve their platform. Revenue is their 2nd priority.

Twitter said revenue will follow, they just have to concentrate on maintaining their business and find more ways to improve the system. As of now, Twitter has 20.8 million users in the U.S. alone.

So how will Twitter make money? My best guess is through selling ads. Just like Google, Twitter can attract advertisers to invest in their platform. Advertisers can put links in their tweets by way of URL shortener. They can ask twitterers to promote their products or services by way of giving commissions and incentives. In that way they can save time and money.

Another option is by selling information on trending topics or selling business accounts with enhanced features. There are many things to consider and ideas will continue to pop in as Twitter moves further. Twitter's goal is not to be a fad or and in-thing and just die in a couple of years. They should maintain their customer base and look for ways to add more features that will benefit their users.

Twitter's long term goal is to reach $ 1 billion in revenue within the next 2-3 years. And with the way that they are going, I think they will make it.

Twitter has been many use to us. It helps us connects with friends and colleagues, boosting our business, promoting our websites and blogs, and can be use during emergency cases. But some people use Twitter in a bad way---spamming. Spam is unwanted mail or messages. There are different kind of Spams that are now widely used on the net's most famous micro-blogging site.

One of which is Sex Spam. Here is one case:

A Twitter email from addicty96 aka nevaeh says to follow her and you can follow her over to her ‘Personal Homepage’ where we find »»»

Age: 23
Woman seeking: Man
Between ages: 18 and 55
Location: Duncan, British Columbia
Last login: Today
Relationship status: Single
On the site for: Casual sex
Can accommodate: Yes
Can travel: Yes

About me: Well since this is an adult dating site I’ll get right to the point. I’m a woman that is horny most of the time. I don’t have the opportunity to meet many people so I thought I’d try this to see if I can meet some new friends to play with. I would love to meet some fun people that like to have sex the same way I do (hot and wild). I really like sex (naturally), I’m looking for someone that is adventurous sexually. I like to be naughty in bed and treated like a lady in public. I can be very discreet if you want me to.

Contact Info: *** In order to view contact information you must login. Click here to login or create a free account ***

I live in a small village on Vancouver Island, BC. Duncan is the nearest city and according to her ‘home page,’ that’s her home base.

But on her Twitter page, she say she’s in the US.

So is someone trawling Twitter bios to create spam lists for use by the likes of addicty96 and / or her ‘managers’?

This is a warning to all of us and must be stopped or at least minimized. Whenever you see a message like this from one of your followers, immediately block them to stop further spamming.