Three fairly cool things you can do on Twitter (apart from tweet, obviously)

Today I read a post that suggested that clickbait is a good thing. Having always thought it was a bad thing I've had to re-adjust my view of it in light of this ;)

I thought I'd have a go at funnelling you in to read some interesting stuff about Twitter and at the end there are some other useful bits and pieces so hopefully no-one will feel too ill done by if you clicked and then wish you hadn't.

Edit: I've included a bit of music to cheer you on your way, it's got a bit in it that makes me think of that nice feeling you get when you solve a problem (you can buy the original here).



Cool stuff you can do on Twitter.com
- the website version. You can do most of it on third party apps too anyway, but the instructions are written for browsers.

1. Monitor what people are saying about your brand, website or blog
If your website is http://www.widgets.co.uk you can type widgets.co.uk (don't use the http:// bit) or even just widgets in to Twitter's search and find tweets that have included it - it doesn't even matter if people have shortened the link (or if Twitter's auto-shortened the URL) it will still show up.

For example I can see if anyone links to this blog simply by searching for the word brodiesnotes on Twitter as it brings up any link to brodiesnotes.blogspot.com or .co.uk or any other Blogger variant of my blog's address. Doesn't matter which post they link to, because they all contain the word brodiesnotes.

If you want to share a link to an organisation but want to keep it quiet from them use the Do Not Link URL shortener 'wrapper' which sets up a free redirect.

2. Find old conversations, going back several years
If you know who sent a tweet you can use the search term from:jobrodie (if it was from me) - no need to include the @ symbol when it's preceded by the from: operator. If you know who it was sent to you can add in the @name as well, or just search for the @name to find lots of tweets sent to that person.

For example from:jobrodie @chi_med shows all the tweets that I've sent mentioning my work account (make sure you've clicked on 'All' rather than 'Top'). The reverse, from:chi_med @jobrodie would show all the ones mentioning me.

Sometimes people ask a question on Twitter and get lots of great answers - they might retweet a few then say something like 'check my mentions to see other examples'. Although this is pretty easy in third party smartphone apps this search format is the way to do it on Twitter.com.

You can also play around with the Advanced Search options (see the suggested search operators you can use) or search off-site at Topsy.com (it's amazing) and, if a tweet's been favourited or RTed a lot, you might find it at Favstar.

2a. Find old tweets that you or pals have sent
A variant of the above. Search for a keyword, then make sure you click on the 'People you follow' option and you can go back several years seeing tweets people you follow have sent containing it.

If it's your own tweets you're after your best bet is to request your full archive from Settings.

3. Remove annoying spam, or people, from conversations including hashtagged threads
Whenever a conversation picks up momentum or a hashtag starts to trend spammers start sending out tweets with the hashtag in them to try and get their websites under your eyeballs. Chances are they'll be using the same website domain - so you can set up a search to remove it.

This involves using the '-' (minus) operator.

#hashtag -x.co will search for any tweet containing the hashtag but which doesn't contain the shortened x.co URL (much used by spammers).

• See also Thwarting spammers on hashtag livetweeted events

If someone is sending you unwanted messages it's quickest to block them, but if doing so is likely to escalate things you can simply view your messages by searching for...

@YourTwitterUsername -from:AnnoyingPerson 

...then choose 'All' to see all tweets sent to you that haven't come from the annoying person.

Other useful things on Twitter
1. Send links in DMs 
Break the link, so that Twitter doesn't know it's a link. Twitter has a habit of linkifying anything that starts to look link-like, so as you type http://www.google.co in a tweet it's probably already turned it blue. If you type http://www.google leave a space and type .co.uk then Twitter doesn't 'see' a link, doesn't hyperlink it, and it will be sendable in a DM. Your recipient will need to knit the URL together again.

Bear in mind that Twitter allows a link of any length to take up a standard 18 characters. If our broken link is a lot longer than that then you may need to use an URL shortener first (eg tinyurl) and then break the resulting short link, eg http://tinyurl    .com/YourURL

• See also How to send and receive web addresses via Twitter DM - break the URL - an imperfect fix
• Further also-ing Useful posts about Twitter - a collection

2. Avoid the new pictures autopreview
Twitter just started doing this last week, easily avoidable in third party apps, so far a bit trickier if you're on Twitter.com. Easiest solution is to use Chrome and download a plugin and edit it according to the instructions here. If you use AdBlock you can tweak the settings there too.

Other useful sites that have nothing to do with Twitter
• Fairly useful pages on the internet

Includes online timer, file converter, Freezepage (to capture a page as it is now) and, if you're feeling a bit under the weather you might like to bookmark this 'Oral Rehydration Solutions' instructions page for those awkward diarrhoea-y times.

Fairly useful pages on the internet

These are the websites I have filed under 'Useful' - that's literally the only thing that unites them. I've numbered them but no ordering system is implied.

1. Alt codes for PCs
For typing unusual shapes like ♣ and ♫ with your PC's numeric keypad and your alt key (make sure you switch on NumLock) - it won't work with the numbers across the top of your keyboard. If you don't have a numeric keypad on the right hand side of your keyboard it's possibly embedded in the main bit of your keyboard (check the JKL letters), accessed with the Function (Fn) key. I'm using a Mac so I just copy and paste them.
• http://www.spike-jamie.com/alt-codes.html - like the small bullet points I'm using? It's Alt+7 = • and Alt+8 on a Mac •
• http://www.alt-codes.net/

1a. Keyboard shortcuts for Macs
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1343

2. Online timer
Probably worth using the 'five second test' first so that you can hear what the alarm sounds like. I recommended this page to my dad who set the alarm for a period of time minutes, forgot about it then after the time had elapsed discovered his computer making a really odd and unpleasant sound and with no idea what was happening until he twigged.

3. File converter
I've used Zamzar a few times and it all went swimmingly. I've converted an mp3 into an ogg file for uploading to Wikimedia Commons and a Powerpoint into a PDF for printing as an A1 poster.

4. Google results URL pruner / link converter
If you've ever 'right click / copy address' from a page of Google search results and pasted the address somewhere else you might have been a bit disappointed by how ugly it is. There's a whole load of stuff that Google adds to URLs when they're participating in its search results and this tool prunes out the excess.

Basically it turns this:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0A&

// url=http%3A%2F%2Fabc.go.com%2F&rct=j&q=abc&ei=kuw&cad=rja

(line break added by me)

into this:

http://abc.go.com/

5. Domain tools
Who owns that website, when was it registered? These tools can help.
• http://whois.domaintools.com/
• http://www.domaintools.com/
• http://who.is/
• http://www.nominet.org.uk/uk-domain-names/about-domain-names/domain-lookup-whois/whois-tool
• http://www.dnsstuff.com/

6. Freezepage
Lets you capture a copy of a web page as it is, in case it changes.

7. Wayback Machine from the Internet Archive
Lets you find earlier versions of websites, even if those websites have since disappeared.

8. Google cache search and site search
Find the previous copy of a web page (eg if it's recently changed and you want to see what it looked like before) by adding cache: to the URL (but delete the http:// bit). Search within a domain / site by restricting it using site: and then the name of the website.

Examples - this is what you type into the Google search box:
• cache:brodiesnotes.blogspot.com
• site:brodiesnotes.blogspot.com useful

9. URL shorteners
Although no longer needed for Twitter as it automatically converts any web address into a shorter one these are still useful in printed documents or powerpoint presentations where a reader / audience might want to note down or type in a web address that doesn't go on for ever.

With bit.ly ones you can also find out how many people have clicked on it and some other analytics stuff.
• is.gd
• bit.ly
• tinyurl.com ← this is the one I'd use where I'm not sure if the audience is familiar with URL shorteners

10. What is my monitor size?
- Hold a credit card on top of the on-screen credit card, slide the slider until they match and voila, it tells you how big your screen is. Also works with compact disc, and a whole bunch of American stuff (nickels etc).

11. BT Speed Test
Gives you a rough estimate of your download speed (not your upload speed though - there are tools for that though, but I never use them).

12. TV CatchUp  // TV Guide UK
Free, awesome, registration required. Watch actual live television (couple of seconds delayed) on your PC, Mac or iPhone etc. Wifi connection needed. 

13. Flickr images with a Creative Commons licence
Find pictures that can be used, as long as you credit the photographer / Flickr appropriately (eg if you embed a picture into a blog using the embed code this all happens automatically).

For example, here's one (hover over it to see who it's by, click on it to see it on Flickr, in situ)


14. Oral Rehydration Solutions
If you've got diarrhoea but have salt, sugar and water to hand you can help yourself feel a lot better by following the instructions in this excellent page:
http://rehydrate.org/solutions/homemade.htm#recipe

15. Cheaper telephone numbers for companies - say no to 0870
http://www.saynoto0870.com/ - helps you find geographic numbers (eg 020 8xxx xxxx rather than 0845 numbers which may cost more, especially if run from a mobile).

16. Remove line breaks online tool
For when you need to copy and paste text from one place to another and want to get rid of line breaks (example below). You can choose to get rid of line breaks and preserve paragraphs, or just get it all running together: http://www.textfixer.com/tools/remove-line-breaks.php hat tip @zeno001 who pointed out that the site has other useful tools too.

Example
Raw text from Food Standards Agency letter on raspberry ketones (October 2013). 

(a)

Under Regulation (EC) 258/97, novel foods and food ingredients may only be

marketed if they have been evaluated and authorised under the procedures

defined in the regulation. A novel food or ingredient

is defined as one that was not

consumed to a significant degree in the European Community before 15 May

1997.

Raspberry ketones

have

not

been authorised under this regulation.

(b)
Same text with formatting removed (there's a button in Blogger's editing pane that does this):

Under Regulation (EC) 258/97, novel foods and food ingredients may only be
marketed if they have been evaluated and authorised under the procedures
defined in the regulation. A novel food or ingredient
is defined as one that was not
consumed to a significant degree in the European Community before 15 May
1997.
Raspberry ketones
have
not
been authorised under this regulation.

(c)
Same text run through the line break remover

Under Regulation (EC) 258/97, novel foods and food ingredients may only be marketed if they have been evaluated and authorised under the procedures defined in the regulation. A novel food or ingredient is defined as one that was not consumed to a significant degree in the European Community before 15 May 1997. Raspberry ketones have not been authorised under this regulation.

Ta da!

17. Vocaroo
Online voice recorder - record a short message and share it with a link. It's a bit like an audio tweet.