Category: twitter

Fun with Twitter StreamGraphs

The Twitter StreamGraph shows the last 200 tweets from me (@andrewcareaga). Click to enlarge.
The Twitter StreamGraph shows the last 200 tweets from me (@andrewcareaga). Click to enlarge.
Will the creation fun new analytics toys for Twitter ever end? My latest obsession is Twitter StreamGraphs, a tweet- or term-visualization tool from Jeff Clark of Neoformix. (Hat tip: @esigler.)

Type any search term into Twitter StreamGraphs and it generates an interactive visualization of the past 200 posts on that topic. Same goes for a Twitter user’s name. At right is a thumbnail screenshot of my past 200 tweets. Click the image to enlarge.

I haven’t figure out how useful this visualization tool is. But it’s kind of fun to play around with. I’m sure it could provide some benefit to Twitter analytics, assuming Twitter ever turns into something worth analyzing.

A thousand tweets

As soon as this post is live, I will post my thousandth tweet on Twitter and direct those who follow my sporadic stream of telegraphic comments to click a link to this blog post. I’ll do this for the same reasons as many of my fellow tweeters or twitterers — to promote this blog, direct traffic this way and hope to snag a few seconds of time from other distracted technophiles.

But what’s the point, really? Is a thousand tweets a significant milestone? I’m thinking about that in the context of two things:

  1. Recent introspective “why I blog” posts from the likes of Kyle James and Karlyn Morrissette. Why not a variation on that theme: “why I tweet”?
  2. A comment @esigler made via Twitter last week when I mentioned the impending millitweet.

    3. @andrewcareaga I don’t know whether to congratulate you or put together an intervention. (“Sir, step away from the social media…”) :)

Good point.

There’s no getting around the fact that Twitter is an addictive little piece of technology. It’s mobile, it’s easy, and it’s flexible, even amorphous, in that individuals can fit it to just about any purpose, personal or vocational. It’s also fun.

I signed up for Twitter on Sept. 30, 2008 2007. (It’s true and on the record; you can look it up.) At that time, Brad J. Ward left this comment:

I’m on there, but only to secure my ‘bradjward’ login in case I ever decide to use it. As of now, I’m not sold on it.

Fast-forward to Sunday, July 27, 2008: @bradjward has recorded 2,618 tweets.

Sold yet, Brad?

Twitter is the Seinfeld of social networking: a social network about nothing. Maybe that’s why it’s so popular. We all gather around — all the Jerrys, Georges, Elaines and Kramers and, yes, even Neuman — to chit-chat about nothing. It worked for Seinfeld. Why not for Twitter?

Of course, even Seinfeld had to come to an end eventually. I wonder what will replace Twitter when it’s day passes?

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