Twitter Resources - Sites, Tools, Tips, Communities

If the success of a new social phenomenon and its community of followers can be measured by the number of websites and applications created to serve the needs of this community, then Twitter is definitely the big deal it's made out to be.

Here's a preliminary list of Twitter resources (the categories are a work in progress, so don't fret if not all the sites within a category fit equally well):

Twitter

http://www.twitter.com/: the main site where you either register a new account, or sign in to your current account

http://apiwiki.twitter.com/: programmers use the Twitter API to make applications, websites, widgets, and other projects that interact with Twitter.

http://search.twitter.com/: on-site Twitter search engine

Search + Discover

http://wefollow.com/: a user-powered Twitter directory

http://www.twellow.com/: a search engine/directory/Yellow Pages for Twitter (and other social media); analyze and categorize each of the users responsible for public messages into various categories, making it easier for you to narrow your searching into specific niches where you can find who you are looking for

http://topsy.com/: a search engine powered by tweets; includes lists of trending topics and popular pages on 10 or so heavy traffic sites

http://twittertroll.com/: real-time Twitter search engine

http://geofollow.com/: location-based Twitter directory; provides plug-in for WordPress blogs/sites

http://www.twitscoop.com/: search feature that allows you to track a conversation, topic or conference; auto-refreshes every 20 seconds so you can easily follow current hot topics

http://www.twitterlocal.net/: TwitterLocal is an application that allows you to filter Tweets by location, making it possible to watch as many location-based Twitter feeds as you want

http://twitter.grader.com/: get ranked by Grader on a score out of 100; search function allows you to see who the top "Tweeple" are in a particular area or by topic

http://twittervision.com/: real-time geographic visualization of posts to Twitter; watch the map, see the bubbles pop up and follow the conversation

Account/Network Management

http://www.tweetlater.com/: manage your Twitter account(s) with tweet schedules, tracking, sending messages etc.

http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/: desktop application for staying in touch with friends on Twitter, Facebook and other social network sites, allowing you to keep track with messages, notifications and conversations and making it easy to share photos and video; shows you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organised and up to date

http://www.zannel.com/: free mobile video and photo blogging community allows you to instantly share your pics, video and text via Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, or any popular blog platforms. TechCrunch calls it "twitter with multi-media"

http://www.socialtoo.com/: makes it possible for you to become a "social networking power user"; allows you to keep your follower lists in sync across multiple social networks, and get daily updates

http://splitweet.com/: easy management for multiple Twitter accounts and brand monitoring

http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/: shows you all the people you are following and all those who are following you; useful for managing your account from a followers/following perspective

http://twitbin.com/: Mozilla Firefox extension that allows you to keep up with all of your Twitter conversations from your browser sidebar; send messages, receive messages, share links, and more

http://ping.fm/: service that allows easy updates to your social networks; send your text messages or images via mobile phone, IM or email or 3rd party applications like Facebook or iGoogle

http://www.twhirl.org/: desktop client for social software such as Twitter, Friendfeed, identi.ca, or seesmic; displays notifications for new messages, shorten long URLs, cross-post your updates, post images to TwitPic, search tweets using Twitter Search and TweetScan, and follow topics in near-real time with saved searches

Twitter + Site/Blog Integration

http://twitterfeed.com/: get your blog (or any other RSS or Atom feed) sent to your Twitter account, and/or other popular microblogging platforms

http://friendfeed.com/: link your Twitter account with your Facebook account, and other similar services; makes it possible to feed all your posts on Twitter to your wall at Facebook, to give one example

http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress: "Twitter Tools" is a plugin that creates an integration between your WordPress blog and your Twitter account; allows you to pull your tweets into your blog (as posts and digests) and create new tweets on blog posts and from within WordPress

URL Shorteners

http://www.malcolmcoles.co.uk/: list of URL shorteners that can be used with Twitter, with useful review on each one

http://www.twitpwr.com/: short URLs for Twitter with analytics, user profile pages and other tools

Anti-Spam Measures

http://truetwit.com/ [33,243]: validates your followers to eliminate spam bots and spammers "following" you

Personal Network Expansion

http://www.mrtweet.net/: "personal networking agent" who helps you expand your network by recommending you to relevant (potential) followers, assisting you in discovering people relevant to your current needs, and helping you improve your Twitter usage via useful statistics

http://www.twitthis.com/: provides a bookmark-type button or text link to place on your website; built-in URL shortener; add a bookmarklet to your browser toolbar to send a message through Twitter about any page you are viewing; WordPress plugin to add TwitThis to every post on your blog/site

http://www.fiddyp.co.uk/: adds a Twitter field to your comment form for users to enter their Twitter username to be displayed as a link to follow them via their Twitter page

Creative Tools + Other Applications

http://www.twitbacks.com/: brand yourself on Twitter by creating your own custom background; ability to promote your profile and/or services

http://www.twitterbacks.com/: free Twitter background templates which you can modify to your own liking

http://www.tweetbacks.com/: customizable, free Twitter backgrounds

http://twitdom.com/: a database of more than 720 applications maintained by Twitter users

http://mikedemers.net/projects/tweetbar/: Twitter sidebar for the Firefox or Flock browsers

http://twitpic.com/: TwitPic lets you share photos on Twitter from your phone, their API, or through the site itself

Monetization, Advertising, Classifieds

http://www.twittad.com/: connects advertisers and Twitter users to monetize Twitter profiles

http://revtwt.com/: provides links; every time someone clicks, you make money

http://be-a-magpie.com/: a Twitter advertising network; they get their messages in your tweets, you make money

Music

http://blip.fm/: create your own music station; share what you're listening to

News, Money, Sport, Weather

http://m.twitter.com/cnn: CNN headlines

http://twitter.com/weather: Weather news & headlines

http://twitter.com/espn: ESPN Sports News

http://twitter.com/bbcsport: BBC Sport headlines

http://stocktwits.com/: search real time discussions from the web's savviest investors; you can also contribute to the conversation and build your own investment reputation and following