Twitter Mad

Twitter Worm Runs Riot

Earlier today news broke of a worm running riots on twitter. The virus is spread through a url linking to stalkdaily.com.(WARNING:DO NOT VISIT) While it is unclear at this moment how the virus works, it appears that the worm takes control of your twitter account, changes password and adds the stalkdaily.com link in your bio. Your profile then tweets constantly, linking to the stalkdaily.com site thus spreading the problem further and further.(However, the tweets do not appear on your profile for some reason)

The Twitter community has come together and everyone is notifying their followers of the virus. A quick twitter search for stalkdaily would reveal how communal twitter is at a time like this.

Official @spam moderator has warned people not to click on the link nor link to the site.

Somehow the stalkdaily link works without the http:// prefix. For this reason tweeters are asked not to include “www.stalkdaily.com in their alerting tweets.

How to Remove The Virus.

1) Clear Cache and cookies from your Browser

2) Log out of any twitter related apps, clients or sites.

3) Change your Password

4) Check all fields in your profile settings for hidden codes or links.

5) delete the stalkdaily.com link from your bio.

6) Remove your tweets and notify your followers of the virus.

Users are asked not to visit the site or link to it in anyway shape or form. If you have any questions regarding the virus please send me a message or @reply at @tweetingmad Please report any information of the virus to @spam

Update: According to StalkDaily and several other sources stalkdaily.com has nothing to do with the worm. It is believed that an infected profile contained code and when visited it would spread further. However, the message is unclear and nothing is confirmed about how this worm operated. Users are still advised to stay clear from stalkdaily.com.

For everyone wondering, I did NOT promote and/or was involved with the spamming ON Twitter. All bad things you are hearing about this site is not true. Please reconsider as I am not the person who did this…StalkDaily is a website that follows the same functions as Twitter, except more advanced How? Well, instead of just adding an “update status”, people can add pictures and videos. Then you can stalk them, so when they upload a video or picture, or comment someone, you’ll know!

From Stalkdaily.com

UPDATE 2

The situation is under control and twitter have realeased a status statement reasurring users that all their details are safe and the necessary stops to prevent the attack have been taken

Earlier today we were informed of a malicious site that was spreading links to StalkDaily.com on Twitter without user consent via a cross-site scripting vulnerability. We’ve taken steps to remove the offending updates, and to close the holes that allowed this “worm” to spread.

No passwords, phone numbers, or other sensitive information were compromised as part of this attack.

From Status.twitter.com

Update 3:

Stalkdaily.com’s operater, mickeyy Mooney(17) has confessed to being behind the rampant worm on twitter. In an article with bnonews.com, he revealed that the act was motviated by boredom and the desire for money. From the article;

“I am the person who coded the XSS which then acted as a worm when it auto updated a users profile and status, which then infected other users who viewed their profile. I did this out of boredom, to be honest. I usually like to find vulnerabilities within websites and try not to cause too much damage, but start a worm or something to give the developers an insight on the problem and while doing so, promoting myself or my website.”

From bnonews.com,To read the whole article Click Here

Being a magpie vs Being a human

With many programs emerging that claim to help you make money from your tweets, I have decided to take an eagle eye look at the Be-a-magpie program.

The be-a-magpie system is a program that allows tweeters to “profit” from their tweets. The tweeter signs-up, approves some “ads” to be tweeted, Selects his/her frequency (1 magpie tweet for every 10 tweets etc) and hey presto be-a-magpie updates your tweets for you automatically and then your rollin’ in it. (or so it seems)

Across the web, bloggers and twitter fans have raised the ethical and moral issue behind selling your tweets (read more at readwriteweb.com) That is, like most issues, dependent on your moral beliefs.  I believe that almost everyone is marketing on twitter (their own products, other peoples’ products, their websites or indeed themselves!). While I think the be-a-magpie program is flawed, I say “If I can advertise in my blog post, why can’t I advertise in my micro-blog post?”.

Advertisers

Among the advertisers there are skype, Apple, roxio, adobe and box.net. Now I seriously doubt that apple or any other companies are advertising with Be-a-Magpie. Some have suggested it could be affiliates. I doubt that also.

I think the people behind be-a-magpie are throwing up these “ads” as a demonstration or an example for the advertisers. I doubt they have any advertisers at all.

Now I could be wrong on that  but I highly doubt that serious multinational companies are advertising with them.It would be a foolish move on their behalfs.

And Here is why I wouldn’t advertise with this fundamentally flawed program;

1) All tweet-ads are the same.

I imagine the purpose behind these ads is that they feel like recommendations or testimonial type. Word of tweet almost. This is exceptionally flawed by the simple fact that all tweets are the same. The recommendations and word-of-mouth type of approach will go seriously unnoticed.

2) Twitter is a community based chat.

Imagine having a chat in real life where after every ten sentences your friend spurts out some random ad right there in the middle of your conversation. You’d simply walk away and not listen.  In twittersphere, your followers will unfollow you and the ad will see less screens.

3) Why pay for it?

Just get a twitter account (free) and tweet yourself (also free).

4) You don’t know who is tweeting about it.

What if some racist,sexist or nazi is tweeting and suddently he’s promoting your product?

Tweeters- Using be-a-magpie as a tweeter-

As someone who has an interest in all things twitter, I felt I had a responsibility to test it. And here is my verdict: Poor. (in other words; FAIL). While the site is clean and neat looking. Under the hood lies problems, and many of them.

There is a considerable lack of required information for the tweeters. The FAQ is targeted more towards the advertiser and by doing so neglects the tweeter. It took me ages to actually know what’s going to happen and when. On top of that, I have no idea of what time the tweet will go out,

The Account information is virtually non-existent: I’ve been on the program now for a week and I have tweeted several times with the service and nothing is displaying in my account activity.

With the lack of information, be-a-magpie are neglecting their tweeters. Something foolish and potentially destroying. Without the tweeters they are nothing. They could have all the advertisers in the world but without tweeters there’s no point.

The be-a-magpie program is a flawed, poorly operated program that is not viable for the long term. I’m not against making money off twitter but I’m completely against flawed programs that shouldn’t have been available in such a poor, unusable condition.

Let the Tweeter Beware.

Hilariously swatted celebrity twitter profiles

Celebrites have flocked to twitter and are tweeting away their lives. However, some hilarious (and not so nice) people out there have hijacked some user names and have used their humour to entertain us all!! Check them out!

1) @Jamielynnspears

2)@Merystreep

3)@courtneycox

4) @georgebush

5) @Saddam

6) @katemoss

7) @cateblanchett

8)@jacknicholson

9)@liamneeson (sick humoured)

10) @dickcheney

Follow us @tweetingmad

A look at Seesmic Desktop Client

It seems Today is the day of twitter desktop clients. A quick glance at some top twitter searches show that tweetdeck and seesmic desktop is the topic of tweets today

One year after the purchase of twitter client, thwirl, seemsic has released the “seesmic twitter client”. The client has just released and you can get one here. Later today the most popular twitter desktop client , tweetdeck is to release its new version.

So what’s the verdict on Seesmic desktop?

While the seemic client is young there are some worrying issues. Here are some of them;

1) The way the tabs, (such as replies, DM’s etc) work is confusing and overly complicated. There is no need to complicate something as simple as tabs.

2) I find myself clicking on things left right and centre to get something done. It’s not as natural and as easy flowing as tweetdeck.

3) While I know the multiple accounts feature is going to a big plus for a lot of people it is too complicated. I find myself clicking on my second account and seeing nothing happening.

4) With tweetdeck you can view people’s profile and to follow people you click on their avatar and choose “follow”. None of this is available on seesmic. If you click on a user name you get nothing. However, they have a “userlist” feature. But I can’t imagine any reason you’d have one, maybe to put your favourite tweeters in the one place but besides from that I can’t see a use for it.

It seems to me that tweetdeck is structured in the best possible way; Simple.

Rival clients, in an effort to distinguish themselves from tweetdeck and other rivals, modify and complicate simple features that should not be tinkered with. (so not to look like a direct copy)

While seesmic offers multiple users, userlists and webcam pic upload it fails to hit home on the basic feature that tweeters want from their desktop client; ease of use.

Later today we’ll be looking at the new version of tweetdeck. Stay tuned!

Twitter Changes?

Potential changes?

A twitter friend notifited me that some changes have been made to his twitter profile. After a brief discussion he told me that the changes were there for upto half an hour. He also has the discovery search on his profile and says it is working great.

It is unclear whether this was a brief bug on the system or an actual change to the structure of the homepage

My friend has asked me to remove his last tweet for personal reasons. Has anyone else seen this changes? Hit me back at @tweetingmad

5 Twitter Firefox plugins.

Here are 5 twitter firefox plugins you can use to enhance your twitter expierence. Some worth using. Some however are pointless if you’re using a twitter desktop app.

1)Twitbin: Twitbin is a Firefoz addon that enables you to tweet, send DMs. Receive DMs and keep up with twitter conversations from your browser sidebar

My thoughts: Takes up space where I keep my bookmarks.Prefer to use desktop client of the same abilites.

2)Powertwitter: Powertwitter enhances the twitter web interface. With powertwitter you can see images, youtube videos and the true links behind shortened urls.

My opinion: Some features of this addon are useful like the inline images. However, I Do feel it really slows things down when I’m browsing through twitter.

3)Twitter bar: This plugin only allows you to tweet from your browser’s address bar. You can type your tweet in and hit the the “tweet this” button or you can just hit the “tweet this” button and it generates a tweet like “browsing; URL HERE”.

My opinion: I like this tool. Nice and easy to use and very useful if you share a lot of links on twitter

4) Twitter fox: Twitter fox allows you to check updates @replies and DMs. You can also tweet. All you need to do is click on the small “t” on your status bar. Up pops twitter fox and you can see what’s happening.

My thoughts: Cool tool but I don’t see a need for it if you’re using a desktop app such as tweetdeck or thwirl.

5)Twittytunes: Another plugin that allows you to tweet from your browser. Simply click on the logo and up it pops. You can integrate foxytunes and this will then allow you to let people know what you’re listening to.

My thoughts: Although I have it installed it is the plugin I use the least. I am not a fan of those who share what they’re listening to on twitter. It does work well. But personally I don’t see a use for it.

There you have it. What are your favourite twitter firefox plugins?

URL shortening for twitter: Bit.ly

If you frequently share links on twitter you’re probably aware of URL shortening sites like TinyURL.com. some more include:

Budurl, eweri, hex.io, indek.net, is.gd, lin.cr, POPrl, snipurl, twurl,urlborg, zi.ma.

Here is bit.ly; my favourite URL shortening service. (it’s even shorter then tinyurl!) One of the reasons I prefer bit.ly is that it allows you to create an account and track your urls. You can also tweet directly from the site.

For example: I create a shortened url from my blog. I tweet it! I can then click on stats to see how many people are clicking on it. It also shows me where they are clicking from and it traces where the link is begin tweeted.

If you’re using twitter to promote your website/blog or even do business bit.ly tracking is ideal to learn about the habits of your followers.

Clicks can be tracked either: Live, daily, weekly, monthly and all time.

I conducted a few tests using tweetgroup @guestbook. If you’re not sure what a tweetgroup is click here. I DM’d the group and my tweet was automatically sent to 6k+ followers. I sent out a tweet that demanded attention; something like

There’s this free program that helps you make money on twitter. seems pretty cool. will update you. More @ http://bit.ly/sample

Here is what I found: Remember the link was thrown in front of 6k+ followers.

1) Everylink tweeted on twitter has a lifetime of around 5 minutes: After several tweets I began to notice that the links I just tweeted got the the most clicks in the first minute. After about five minutes I was getting 1 click a minute.

2) Mostly American based traffic: By using the location feature on bit.ly it became apparent that America provided the most traffic.

3) tweetGroups: When I tweeted through a tweetgroup (@guestbook) 1 percent of the 6,900 followers clicked on the link.

4) Personal profile: When I tweeted through my profile I 10 percent of my followers clicked on the link.

Obviously these stats are based on my situation. These will differ for everyone. That’s why I think you should use bit.ly. It gives you insight.

Why should you track your URL stats:

Lets assume for a moment you’re marketing a product on twitter. You might have a few twiitter profiles and maybe you’re tweeting through tweetgroup. If you track your shortened URLs you can find out where is best to tweet about your product.

Use tweetgroups;

Tweetgroups are quite hard to find but if you can find them utilize them. Use tweetlater tools to send them Sceduled reoccuring DMs every so often.Here are two that I am aware of @guestbook and @share_a_tip

Connecting with other tweeple:

So you’ve sent out a link to an article you read. Other people are sharing that article and with bit.ly you can see who. By tracking the conversations you can find who’s talking about your interests or even talking about your blog!

My five Do’s and Don’ts of the Twittersphere

Here are my five do’s and don’ts of the twittershpere.

Some don’ts

Don’t tweet every minute

“I’m getting on the bus” 08:31

“I’m on the Bus” 08:33

“it smells” 8:35

I will never know the end of the story because By then I would have unfollowed.

Don’t tell people what you’re drinking, unless your drinking liquid gold.

Wow you’re drinking coffee. That’s the greatest most useless piece of news I’ve heard all day

Don’t tell people you’re bored.

What do you want me to do? Pop out of my screen, dressed like a clown with animal ballons.

Don’t tell people you’re doing a poo

If it’s too much detail in real life then its too much for the twittersphere. And please don’t tweet as it happens. Please!

Don’t integrate your twitter with blip.fm.

I’m not interested in finding out what you’re listening to every 4 minutes.

Some  do’s

Do: Share some useful tips you think I might use

Do: Answer my question if you know the answer.(or just point me in the general direction)

Do: Make me laugh with a link to a funny video and/or picture.

Do: Talk with me. I like interaction. After all I’m human.

Got some do’s and don’ts to share. Hit me @tweetingmad

Recap

Here’s a look back at some of the articles here on twittermad.tumblr.com

1) Get your twits out for the lads: escorts on twitter

2) Tweetvalue; 5 tips to help you improve the value of your tweets.

3) How to benefit from breaking news and emerging trends on twitter

4) 4 ways twitter will make you a better blogger

5) tweepular.com

6) Twitter the Movie

7) T.W.I.T.T.E.R I tweet therefore I am

8) Twitter widgets: Grab attention and followers

9) 5 places to go to get twitter backgrounds

10) Demi Moore prevents suicide through twitter

Stay tuned and follow us for more twitter related tips. @tweetingmad

Get your Twits out for the lads: Escorts on Twitter

How would a tech-savvy guy go about finding an escort during his lonely business trip?

Well, He’d take out his iphone and go to twitter. Browse through the people search function or even do a realtime seach for #escorts. He’ll stumble upon a tweeter who “services” his area. Quick DM and hey presto your “in-business”.

But on a serious level it seems that twitter is now a directory for escorts and prostitutes. On top of that, those annoying camgirls seem to be poping up all over the twittersphere.

Everywhere where you look on the “everyone” tab, you see

“just out of shower; www.linktosomecamsite.com”

However, there is a fundamental problem for these tweeting escorts (or should that be twatting escorts) Who is going to follow them? A professional on twitter could easily be embarrassed if someone happens to notice that he is following @sanfranescorts.

Lets pray that craigslist remains king of the escort directories!

Have you had any run-ins with these twitter escorts?

@tweetingmad