Gaming News Journal

Gaming News Journal

Filed under: Features, Web services, Microblogging, Twitter

Hey, Twitter fans! It's another Twitter Tuesday, and there's one piece of Twitter news that's on everybody's mind: ads are here! Some folks see in-stream advertising as the end of Twitter as we know it, and we're about to find out whether that's true. Twitter's much-discussed Promoted Tweets -- paid Twitter ads that will be injected directly into your Twitter stream -- have started to roll out. Twitter is beginning cautiously by introducing the Promoted Tweets just for users of third-party Twitter client HootSuite.

This is the first time Promoted Tweets have jumped from trend pages and search results into users' personal Twitter streams, and Twitter is anxious to see how they react. HootSuite users are the guinea pigs for this advertising initiative, presumably because it would be crazy to unleash ads into Twitter's most popular clients (the official website and official mobile apps) without a bit of testing first. "We will expand the rollout only when we feel we're delivering a high-quality user experience," writes Twitter's Matt Graves on the official Twitter blog.

Twitter Revises Official Rules About Twitter Logo and Images, Offers Redesigned Twitter Widgets

New rules have been handed down from the Twitter overlords regarding the use of Twitter's logo and related images, so get ready to update any Twitter paraphernalia you might have lying around your blog. Twitter's got some lovely new widgets and "Follow Me" buttons that are free for use, as long as you comply with their new guidelines. One of those says you're not allowed to use screenshots of other people's tweets or Twitter profiles without their permission. That seems quite odd, considering that the tweets are public, and that the text of the tweets is still fair game for quotation. I raise one journalistic eyebrow in the direction of this new policy.

A Command-Line Twitter Utility To Boost Your Geek Cred

If you're a command line expert who doesn't go in for all those newfangled graphical user interfaces, but you still want to use Twitter, there's now a simple, geeky solution. Clitwi is a command-line Twitter client that can display your unread Tweets and mentions, and even let you update your status. Of course, it also authenticates with Twitter using OAuth.

Feather Cleans Up The New Twitter.com With A Little CSS Magic

The New Twitter website isn't for everyone, but even the haters might learn to love it if they check out Chris Masterson's Feather, a new skin for Twitter.com. It removes the heavy black bar at the top, and some of the sidebar clutter, which makes the overall look of the site less distracting. You can either install Feather as a Safari extension or grab the raw CSS and apply it to Twitter in your browser of choice.

Adium IM Client for OS X Now Supports Twitter

If you'd rather not use separate apps for your instant messaging and your Twitter account, you're in luck. Adium -- a popular multi-service messaging client for OS X -- has now added Twitter to its list of supported services.

That's the Twitter news you can use for this week, folks! Tune in again next week, when we cover more news from the twitterverse, both official and unofficial. Feel free to leave your tips about cool Twitter apps in the comments!

Twitter Tuesday -- Twitter starts slipping ads into your stream originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 02 Nov 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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