Wouldn’t it be great if you could archive all your Twitter Tweets or even print them?? That’s probably what Dutchman Thomas Ummes was thinking. When he finally roamed the internet and didn’t find any application he just created it.
And thats the story on how www.printyourtwitter.com was born. A Twitter App thats allows you to print or archive your tweets. Out of the hundreds of Twitter tools that exist these days, this tool is the only one at the moment that allows you to print or archive your tweets.
Ummels, the guy behind Tomslab.nl, gives you a few example of why this is such a handy tool:
As the popularity of Twitter is growing at a staggering pace it was inevitable that malicious activity would start to appear on the service. Graham Cluley from Sophos.com found a very nasty example on how scammers will try to steal your Twitter-account.
As said the aim is to steal your account and gain access to your personal details. In order to do this a message is sent to you that says something like, “check this out” with a TinyURL following it. You don’t know where that link leads unless, like Graham, you have a plug-in that allows you to mouse over it and find out. In this case the link is to tvvitter.com. Make sure you read that closely though, as there is no “w” instead there are two “v” characters.
Clicking the TinyURL takes you to a fake Twitter site which looks just like the real one. Logging in, however, will result in your account being compromised and used for the hacker’s gain. So don’t follow any TinyURL unless you are confident of where it leads and always double check the web page URL you think your are entering information on.
While shortening a URL is useful, short URL services like TinyURL have long been used for cloaking links to spam and malware that could harm your system.
Here are 4 easy ways to decode that short URL and make sense of it.
1. How to automatically redirect a TinyURL to a preview page
TinyURL perhaps the most famous of all URL shorters, has an inbuilt feature you can turn on which puts a cookie on your browser telling it to automatically redirect you to a preview page which reveals the true source of any TinyURL link you click on. Note that while this is useful, if you use multiple browsers, or for some reason remove your cookies, there’s still a chance you may accidentally click on something bad.
2. How to magically turn TinyURL links to original links on any webpage
Embiggen is a cool bookmarklet which you can drag and drop on your browser toolbar. Anytime you see a page with a TinyURL link, all you need to do is click the bookmarklet and it will transform the TinyURL link to the real link right there and then on the page.
3. How to check short URLs from TinyURL as well as other URL Shorteners
LongURL is a free service which decodes URLs shortened by tinyurl.com, is.gd, ping.fm, ur1.ca, bit.ly, snipurl.com, tweetburner.com, metamark.net, url.ie, x.se, 6url.com, yep.it, piurl.com, and more! If you like it, it’s also available as a Firefox extension named LongURL Mobile Expander , and a Greasemonkey script.
4. How to get a visual check on a TinyURL
While the other services above simply provides you the source URL to a TinyURL, PrevURL takes it one step further by actually combining the functionality of LongURL, and adding a thumbnail of the source page as well. Not only do you get to see the link, you now know what the page looks like before you click on the link.
In the end the Tvviter scam shown by Graham Cluley is a nasty example because it is so easy to overlook the fact it isn’t the real URL. Users don’t normally double check the site they are on via the URL. If it looks like the site they trust that it is and Tvviter is close enough to the real name that a quick glance could make you think it’s fine. The big giveaway that something is up is the fact you need to login to Twitter again, but this won’t ring alarm bells with a lot of users either.
TinyURL links are essential on a service like Twitter with limited character space, but you need to ensure that the link you are following isn’t leading you somewhere that puts your security at risk.
Social networks are successful due to their nature of bringing many real world relationships online and once online the canvas is open for other like-minded individuals to connect with the person as well. Twitter.com is a social networking site that allows a user to connect and interact with a community that they build around their “follow” and “follower” base in order to connect on a daily basis.
The key stumbling block of many twitter users is how to add new followers. To many web users growing such a network seems like a manual time intensive task. There are tools to help automate some of this growth of followers. Listed below is a set of tools that will help grow not only a targeted follower base, but a valuable community of like minded friends. Here is a step by step listing of the tools necessary to grow a network:
Step 1.
Twollow.com – This tool allows a user to input up to 5 keywords specific to a niche that one is trying to target. This is done by selecting the amount of people one wishes to follow per day based on a keyword, twollow will then automatically follow people. If twollow is set to follow 15 new people per day for all 5 keywords that is a total of 75 new targeted users per day.
Step 2.
Twannabe.com - Once one has identified a few key people in a niche, twannabe allows a user to input a key twitter username that will then automatically all people that the key twitter user is following. This allows you to follow those people. This way it ensures that there is an organic growth of like-minded twitter users therefore increasing the chance of that person following back.
Step 3.
Tweetlater – Send automated Direct Messages when someone follows an account and then one follows the user back instantly! In this way the community is growing and your account is following like-minded individuals while all on an automated process!
Step 4.
Tweepular.com – Perhaps the best tool to continue to grow your network on Twitter is the service called Tweepular. This service allows one to refine the audience. Tweepular will continue to suggest new users based on their ‘Build your Tweepularity” feature.
Step 5.
Tweepletwak.com – As your followers begin to grow automatically and organically, tracking tools come in handy to further refine your profile to be attractive to other twitter users to follow you. Tools such as Tweetstats.com and Tweepletwak.com help monitor your twitter statistics.
By following these simple tools and steps a solid foundation can be created in order to have a long lasting organic growth to your social community on Twitter.
