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Inspired by a few bloggers, here’s an attempt to track my favorite products over time. This is my 2010 list of ‘products I can’t live without’:
Twitter Gmail Google Finance Google Docs Google Chrome Google Picassa Microsoft Outlook TechHit TwInbox TechHit SimplyFile TechHit QuickJump VLC ITunes GarageBand Adium Skype VirtualBox Mint iPhone Pandora Twitter for iPhone Amazon YouTube MyFitnessPal (iPhone App) Credit Karma
Tweet
OutTwit’s latest release (#39) is packed with a number of powerful features – For example: Ability to save sent tweets, Keyboard shortcuts for posting tweets, Ability to filter incoming tweets based on Tweet type (FriendTimeline,@replies,Direct messages) to name a few.
In addition to all of that, one feature that I find particularly useful.. is the ability to Tweet my Outlook Tasks and Appointments. OutTwit makes this almost painfully simple. Follow these steps:
1. Go to your Tasks folder, select a Task.
2. Select “Retweet” from OutTwit drop down menu.
3. Change the tweet text if you’d like, and hit Update.
That’s all. Along the same lines, you can Tweet your Appointments, Email messages.
How to receive reminders via Twitter If you would like to get more fancy, follow these steps to receive reminders for your Outlook tasks, as Direct Messages in Twitter.
In order to do this, you’ll have to add rtm as your friend on Twitter. After completing the setup, follow these steps.
1. Pick a task from your Tasks folder.
2. Invoke Retweet command from OutTwit drop down menu.
3. Prepend the tweet text with “d rtm” and specify the reminder interval as needed. For example:
Twitter will send you a reminder for your Outlook Task item, as Direct message, at the specified time.
You can find more RTM commands here.
In the previous post, we have seen one way to stay on the top of tweets from a specific set of people. Let’s look at another way to achieve the same results, using Outlook’s Search Folders feature.
You can create a new “Search Folder” in Outlook and set it to display only tweets from particular senders, or only tweets that contain a particular word, or match any other criteria supported by Outlook filters.
Follow these steps:
1. Install OutTwit if you haven’t already. Complete the basic set up. Open Outlook. Go to the mail box containing your tweets.
2. Go to “File->New->Search folder” in Outlook. Outlook displays a “New Search Folder” window.
3. In that window, under “Select a Search Folder“, choose “Create a custom Search Folder”.
4. Next, click on the “Choose” button in that window. Outlook opens a “Custom Search Folder” window.
5. Give a name to your Search folder. I am calling it “MyTwitterSearch“.
6. Click on the “Criteria” button to specify search terms. In this example, i’d like to search for all the tweets that contain the words “mashable” or “Lifehacker” in them.
7. Click on OK and return to the “Custom Search Folder” window.
8. Click on “Browse” and select OutTwit’s Twitter folder. (This is the folder you’ve configured in OutTwit).
Click on OK.
9. Your search folder is ready! Go to Mailbox->SearchFolders->MyTweetsSearch. You can now have a look at all tweets that contain the words “mashable” or “Lifehacker” in them.
This is just one example. You can play around with Outlook’s Search Folder options and tune it according to your needs.
Combine Outlook’s Search Folders functionality with OutTwit and boost up Twitter’s Signal-to-Noise ratio
Twitter could be overwhelming, when you follow a lot of people. Often times, you might find yourself in a deluge of tweets and it is very easy to miss tweets from your closest friends, or other sources of interest.
OutTwit offers a very simple way that lets you quickly check what your sources of interest are tweeting about.
Follow these steps to create your own Twitter group:
1. Install OutTwit if you haven’t already. Complete the basic set up.
2. Click on OutTwit drop down menu in Outlook toolbar. Select “Search/Track Keywords”.
3. Click on “New”
4. In the “Search for” text box, add the Twitter ids you are interested in, to the group. For example: “from:Lifehacker OR from:mashable”
5. Click on “Select Folder” and assign an Outlook folder for your group. I’m calling it “MyGroup”.
6. Click on Save and return to the “Manage Searches” window, and hit “Close”
That’s it… MyGroup is ready.
Open My Group folder in Outlook and check out tweets from people in your group.
By creating your own Twitter Group in Outloook, you can filter out signal from noise. You no longer have to dig through a pile of tweets searching for tweets from your friends.
There are tons of other possibilities with OutTwit+Twitter Search integration. Check out this page for supported search operators.
The beauty of OutTwit lies in its seamless integration with Outlook, which you probably have open all the time anyway. So, that’s one less application on your desktop.
Make use of the Search/Track feature in OutTwit and boost up Twitter’s Signal-to-Noise ratio.
Perhaps the ultimate signs of twitter’s success & popularity!
Domain name investment is a mature industry now with every word in the English dictionary long since reserved by some entrepreneur/squatter. Now Twitter has created a new supply of valuable “names”: Twitter IDs. They take the form of twitter.com/stiennon for instance. Have you signed up for your free Twitter ID? Do you own your surname? Company name? Brand identity? Read on..
100 World’s Greatest Twitter Tips & Twitter Secrets The Ultimate “Twitter How To” Guide
OutTwit conveniently lets you post & read tweets from Outlook, without having to open another desktop application or a browser window.
OutTwit’s latest version (0.5.2.34) comes with an extremely handy Preview feature that lets you read and post tweets from the Outlook toolbar itself. Twittering had never been so easier!
Preview supports the following actions:
More details here
Complete List of Twitter Commands – As of March 14, 2008
Off Turn off all messages to you. Sending it twice will even silence direct messages.
On Will turn the messages on again.
On username turns on notifications for a specific person
Off username turns off notifications for a specific person
Follow username this command allows you to start receiving notifications for a specific person
Leave username this command allows you to stop receiving notifications for a specific person
@username + message Send Reply to a specific user. If the user doesn’t follow you, replies end up in Replies tab.
d username + message Sends a person a direct message. These messages do not appear in public timeline.
Whois username retrieves the profile information for any public user on Twitter.
Get username retrieves the latest Twitter update posted by the person.
Nudge username reminds a friend to update
Fav username marks a person’s last twitter as a favorite
Stats this command returns your number of followers, how many people you’re following, and which words you’re tracking.
Invite will send an SMS invite to a friend’s mobile phone. Example: Invite 415 555 1212
track word starts tracking a word
untrack word: stops tracking a word
untrack all stops tracking all words
track off stops tracking all words
track returns a list of words you’re tracking
