Inspiration for the project came from a popular (and similar) utility for Twitter called TweetStats. We liked their service enough that we’ve modeled ours after their high standards. Though we’re apples to their oranges, we feel that we owe quite a bit to Damon for inspiring us to build FeedStats.

Integration with FriendFeed

One of the coolest things about FeedStats – aside from the awesome data visualization – is that you can interact directly with FriendFeed using your account. You may choose to use our site completely without signing in, but you’ll miss out on some cool features. Once you authenticate yourself to us, we’ll use your account to perform functions like one-click following of other users you stumble upon on our site. Though it’s the only feature right now that requires authentication, there might be more in the future. Rest assured that your credentials are safe and we take privacy seriously.

Graphs You’ll Find Useful

All the information we use is collected directly from the FriendFeed API using publicly available methods. If you do have a private account, we won’t be able to process your stats at this time.

For all the public users, we chart the services you use (in bar and pie charts), how many posts you make each day of the week, how many posts you make each hour of the day, and who likes and comments on your content the most. The final, and possibly most useful, chart we build is called the Like Compatibility Index.

The Like Compatibility Index is generated by looking at posts you’ve liked recently and seeing who else has liked them. We’ll tally up the users with whom you have the most likes in common and give you the option to follow them or view their stats or profile. The Like Compatibility Index is great for finding other users who have similar interests as you.

Like Compatibility Index Chart & Top 10

Screenshots

Services that have posted to FriendFeed

Services that aren't Twitter that have posted to FriendFeed

User Profile on FeedStats

Rejaw has stopped accepting new sign-ups effective immediately. From now until May 15th, you can continue to send new shouts, whispers, and replies, as well as request export of your private user data at http://rejaw.com/account/export

Rejaw is the third microblogging platform to shut down in the past year, following the footsteps of both Pownce and Jaiku. While Pownce and its staff were assimilated into Six Apart and Jaiku was essentially released back into the wild by Google, the Rejaw team is simply shutting down.

Being Different Wasn’t Enough

What is most disappointing about the announcement is that Rejaw was actually doing things differently than other microblogging platforms. They actually went against the 140 character rule, allowing people to post as much as they wanted. Other features included groups, auto-refreshing pages, email notification of replies plus their own official applications.

Unlike Twitter, which has depended on third-party developers to create clients for it’s service, Rejaw built its own desktop app (for both Mac and Windows) and an iPhone app.

No Traffic, Mo Problems

No official cause was cited for the shutdown, but its likely related to funding and/or traffic. While Twitter has just begun experimenting with various revenue generating streams, they’re sitting on heaps of cash from multiple funding rounds. Other platforms have not been so fortunate. Rejaw has been free to use since its inception and the team never hinted at sources of income for the platform.

According to Compete, traffic to the website actually increased over the previous month by 74.08%, moving from 10,054 unique visitors in February to 17,502 unique visitors in March. However, Rejaw launched in August 2008 with 53,345 unique visitors and was never able to post a month at even half that much traffic in each month since.

Time to Export Your Data Again

Just like you probably did with Pownce, now is the time to export your data from Rejaw. Head over to your export settings and submit your details to get an XML output.

Your XML file will include:

• shouts in your inbox including replies
• whispers in your inbox including replies
• people you are following
• people who are following you
• rooms you belong to including the list of owners and members
• your profile

The ironic part of this shutdown notice is that Rejaw was one of the first to build an import utility for Pownce, and was described as the best place to import your Pownce notes by Rahsheen Porter (@rahsheen).

Let us know how you feel about the platform shutting down in the comments.

Where will you move next?

Even though I am a Twitter addict and superuser with (at last count) four active accounts, I have stubbornly kept tweeting in browsers as others have migrated to specialized Macintosh or Windows applications.

I’m a minimalist by nature. I’d rather keep my Twitter use streamlined than deal with overwrought applications that make my life seem more complicated than it needs to be.

Besides, many top Twitter apps hurt my eyes. App publishers have had difficulty duplicating the elegance and readability of the Twitter’s basic Web interface.

Loren Brichter of software publisher Atebits may have finally done it. He’s the one behind an iPhone-based Twitter app called Tweetie, which is a hot seller on Apple’s App Store. Tweetie is sheer elegance, with a near-perfect blend of minimalism and raw functionality.

Now Brichter is duplicating this difficult feat on the Macintosh, with a desktop version of Tweetie that could be the best such app yet, on any computer platform.

I’ve spent more than a week testing several private-beta builds of Tweetie, which went public this morning. To say I’m impressed is an understatement.

Tweetie is sleek, superfast, powerful and drop-dead-gorgeous. Judging by the insane level of buzz on Twitter, it also looks to be very popular. It may, in fact, be a Twitter killer app, though one that Windows users must lust after from afar (sorry, guys).

Tweetie for Mac looks deceptively simple. It is a narrow, vertical window with a toolbar on the left sporting a mere four control buttons (for a user’s main Twitter timeline, replies, direct messages and searching). Click one of the buttons, though, and the Tweetie magic ensues.

Moving from one toolbar option to another triggers a vertical fast-slide effect I find delightful. Click a user’s avatar or username and a fade-zoom effect reveals his or her particulars. More fast-sliding (horizontal, this time) moves you among that user’s tweets, faves and info.

Double-click a public reply and the entire back-and-forth conversation is revealed in threaded form. Your private exchanges also are threaded (but, strangely, with IM-style colored bubbles that deviate jarringly from Tweetie’s otherwise-consistent interface guidelines).

Though Tweetie lets you drill deep into the Twitterverse via willy-nilly clicking, it will always guide you back to your point of origin. It does this cleverly by displaying every step you took, each as its own clickable hyperlink, along the top edge of the application window.

The tweet-posting interface is even more minimalist; it’s a little window that swoops to the center of the Mac desktop (via a customized keyboard combo, if you like). This is a swell touch, especially when you do not want to be distracted by the tweeting of others. Tweetie lets you send direct messages in a similar fashion, and the posting window opens with a handy autocomplete field for entering a recipient username.

Tweetie does clever things with photos, too. Click a TwitPic link or a user’s avatar photo within his or her info page, and the enlarged image appears in a slick-looking standalone window that zooms to the center of the Mac screen. You can easily upload photographs, too, by dropping them into the posting window; they are then pushed up to any of four photo-hosting services Tweetie supports.

Tweetie handles multiple Twitter accounts with equal grace. Each one is displayed via its avatar in the toolbar, above or below the four primary buttons. Click one and it becomes the active account (the others gray out). Double-click one and you’re taken to an info page for that account. Bubbles alongside each avatar subtly flag you about new account activity (tweets, replies, direct messages).

I think you’re getting the idea: Tweetie manages to cram an incredible amount of Twitter utility yet it never seems intimidating, and is easily whisked out of sight with a single click of a tiny icon at the top left of the Mac OS X desktop.

That menu-bar icon is also a notifier, turning from a neutral gray to a glowing blue when you have new tweets, replies or DMS (y0u can customize it to glow for only some of these).

So (assuming you’re on a Mac), is Tweetie for you? Loads of alternatives exist.

Some are positioned as feature-festooned Twitter dashboards with little pretense of minimalism. Examples of these include Twhirl, TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop (all running atop Adobe AIR software that allows their use on Windows as well as Mac).

For Apple diehards who detest the appearance of AIR apps, there is Nambu (with a multicolumn interface similar to that of TweetDeck, but a Mac-like look and feel) and Lounge.

Those needing access to other social networks, along with Twitter, can dabble with the Mac-native EventBox and the AIR-derived Skimmer.

Need absolute simplicity with a touch of elegance? the Mac-native Twitterific and the AIR-based DestroyTwitter fit that bill nicely.

But Tweetie looks to become my default Twitter client on the Mac as well as the iPhone because it manages to do so much without becoming overbearing. That is the genius of developer Brichter — He has an uncanny knack for striking a perfect balance.

I did run into a few issues during my testing. Tweetie at times would not take more than one of my accounts; Brichter told me this is a known issue he is addressing. I also craved absent features like saved searches, a refresh button and Growl support (this refers to the popular system-notification software used by other Mac-native Twitter apps to flag users on new account activity).

Some users also want an ability to create Twitter subgroups, a la Tweetdeck and Nambu; Brichter said he isn’t inclined to provide this feature, and suggests an obvious alternative.

Tweetie, though, is a must-look for serious Mac-based Twitter users. And it needn’t cost them a cent; In addition to a $15 version (the price goes up to $20 after May 4), Brichter is offering a free version that embeds an occasional banner add in Twitter timelines.

This is similar to the approach taken by Twitterific maker Iconfactory, and not an unreasonable one. So download Tweetie today; even if you find it doesn’t fit your needs, I guarantee you will be impressed with it. As a Twitter app, it is state of the art.

I listened to the interview a couple of times, but this quote from Biz Stone continues to stick with me, “The idea of recognizing the difference between profit and value, and defining value…for us, value is making a great service, making a great user experience, putting out a good network, a robust network worldwide, and focusing on features and feature development, those types of things. That’s value for us. And profit will come later, when those things are achieved.” (Quote credit: Cnet’s Webware blog).

What kills me about this quote is that up until the very recent interface changes I have no idea what features they have been developing. The whole concept of Twitter adding value to Twitter is nonsense. The company is in its fourth year and it is still very much the same.

I don’t mean to discredit Twitter and their work, as they have found something remarkable. Every blog and media outlet can’t stop talking about Twitter. Oprah is even rumored to start tweeting today so there is no doubt that they have something. I just ask that Twitter keeps things in perspective.

Their innovations, features and use cases are coming from the community; not from a small team of engineers based out of a San Francisco office. And even more importantly, as they are supposedly focused on adding value, everyone else around them using Twitter is finding ways to profit from it. Developers are coming up with a better user experience and charging for applications, companies are building robust CRM tools and charging businesses to use them and even a countless number of designers are making money from making backgrounds to use on Twitter profile pages that we can’t even measure to find out how many people even get to see it or navigate to a URL listed on it.

As Biz said it best, “We are just working to keep it working,” and I am happy with that, though I caution the team that they may have missed their own boat.

(And Twitter, if you are reading this, I hope you find an amazing value-add business model. With all of the innovations happening, driven by the community using your service, it saddens me to think that the only one that seems viable now is more ads.)

TribeHQ is one of the latest flavors of microblogging, this time around with a targeted audience of business professionals. Much like LinkedIn became the social network for professionals, TribeHQ is poised to be that resource in microblogging.

Launched by co-founders Paul Jacobs and Tim de Jardine in late 2008 and set up in private beta until just a few weeks ago, TribeHQ is already making waves. I’ve been a user on the site for a few months now, but traffic has certainly picked up now that the site is public and TechCrunch has sent hundreds inbound.

While TribeHQ may look similar to other microblogs in design and function, it does a number of things differently than its peers, including groups, messaging, subscriptions and jobs.

Pre-determined Groups for Users

When you first log on as a user, the idea is to find the tribes that fit in with your profession, that way you can stay connected to your industry and share the knowledge you have with other like-minded users. TribeHQ gives you a nice search box to find groups, but don’t be surprised if your exact field isn’t listed. I found marketing and advertising to be listed in the same group, though both professions lead very different lives.

Most social networking platforms allow users to create the groups, but this organization helps establish some parameters for getting the site started and I wouldn’t be surprised if they open up group creation to the users later on.

Each User has a Cave Wall

Similar to how users have their own wall on Facebook where friends can leave messages, TribeHQ has a similar featured called a Cave Wall. Users can scrawl messages onto your wall as they pass by and you can also reply to messages left behind.

Subscriptions and Allies

Staying connected with content on TribeHQ happens by way of joining a tribe or identifying an individual user as an ally. If you join a group, all the resulting activity will be available from the tribe button on your main home page. If you mark someone as an ally, you will see all of their messages under the ally button, similar to how your home screen on Twitter displays tweets from all of those you follow.

Posting Jobs

Any user may create a profile for their company and post jobs to TribeHQ for free. If you fill out your user profile “properly,” TribeHQ will even try to match you up with the jobs you may be interested in. On each job posting page, users can post messages to the company who is hiring, opening up a dialogue not generally present in the jobseeker environment.

Outside of these new features, there are several components you will be entirely familiar with:

• each user has their own profile page
• all messages must be posted in 140 characters or less

I’ve joined five tribes so far: Marketing / Advertising, Social Media Specialists, Web Designers, Bloggers and Entrepreneurs. Some tribes are really taking off in terms of conversations, though others are running slightly more stale.

As more users find the site and the team continues to work through suggestions and new features, I hope we see this site grow and get a chance to see its true potential. If you decide to join, you can find me on TribeHQ as miketempleton.

The training session, dubbed #tweetcamp, runs from 2:30-3:30pm CT today, with more information available at SMUG.

1. Anyone can participate, whether live or not, by going through the slides and tweeting comments or questions using the #tweetcamp hashtag. Please begin by introducing yourself and where you’re tweeting from.
2. We will have a group of participants going through this together at 2:30 p.m. in Rochester, but can accommodate a limited number joining us by phone conference. If you are interested in this, please send an email to me, and my assistant will let you know if we are able to accommodate you live on the call.
3. Please re-tweet this event invitation to your followers. I hope to use this event as another illustration (besides what you see in the slides above) of Twitter’s power to make connections rapidly.
4. The beauty of the #tweetcamp hashtag is that the discussion can continue even after the one-hour live session is done, and hopefully you’ll make connections through the introductions with other people who have common interests in social media and/or health care.
5. See the rest of the Twitter curriculum.

If you can’t get dialed-in to the session (Lee has a limited number that can participate via teleconference), you can walk through the slides on your own. Lee does a great job providing direction and guidance in his presentations.

If you have any feedback for Lee or are looking for a bright mind to follow, catch him on Twitter as @leeaase.

You can follow the event and see who the top hashtag contributors are by visiting the What the Hashtag?! page for #tweetcamp, available here: http://wthash.com/tweetcamp

Twitpay

Here’s what has me excited about Twitpay:

Payments no longer powered by PayPal.

While PayPal is a tool that many already use (especially early adopters), it does create a barrier to use if a new Twitter user doesn’t have an account there. Also, if this was simply a service that piggybacked off of PayPal, why not just PayPal someone the money directly?

Payments sent through the Twitpay service are handled by Amazon Payments. While a lot of people may have PayPal accounts, even more people have Amazon accounts. Amazon Payments acts as an extension of your basic Amazon account. And in the words of Twitpay, “that means we don’t have to be the middle-man for your cash.” It also allows the team to focus on adding new features and the core functions of their business, rather than the actual process of payment transfers.

Signing up is easy.

To get started sending payments, just hit http://twitpay.me/account/claim and punch in your Twitter username. Twitpay will send you a PIN via direct message (you must be following the @twitpay account prior to doing this) that you can use to confirm your account. Notice you’re not giving away passwords anywhere.

Once you have your PIN and have claimed your account, connect it up to your Amazon account with a few more clicks (plus an email verification) and you’re ready to go.

Sending payments is easy.

If your friend caught the last check at lunch because you forgot your wallet, just pull out your iPhone, fire up Tweetie and send him a message: @jensenrf twitpay $7.65 for lunch

Twitpay records this transaction, called a “promise” in Twitpay lingo, and stores it in both your account and your friend’s account (in this case, @jensenrf).

Actual money won’t change hands until you settle up with those you owe, and that’s where Amazon Payments comes in. You can settle with a single person, or with everyone you owe. The Amazon Payments website will walk you through the steps.

While there are already competing platforms for moving money on Twitter (Tipjoy uses PayPal backend), I can see Twitpay quickly gaining ground as more begin using it. What will be most exciting for me is when I can pay for my meal at a restaurant (who also uses Twitter) using a quick tweet payment.

For more great reading on Twitpay, take a look at the Twitpay article by Jesse Stay on LouisGray.com.

These events are not open to the public (don’t you wish you were a UNL student right about now?), though two of them will be streamed live online.

The session at the Raikes School will go from 1:30-2:30 pm CT at http://raikes.unl.edu, and at the Journalism college from 3-4 pm at http://newsnetnebraska.org.

More details from the UNL press release below:

Evan Williams, the founder and chief executive of Twitter, will be at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln April 10 for a series of student events. The events will include question-and-answer sessions with students in the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management and the College of Journalism and Mass Communications that will be streamed for the public on the Internet.

Plans for Williams’ visit to UNL include lunch with representatives of the Raikes School and the University of Nebraska Foundation, followed by a broader discussion with Raikes School and several College of Business Administration students, availability with media, followed by a meeting with College of Journalism and Mass Communications students and an interview for the Campus Voices radio program. These sessions are not open to the public.

[via Danny Schreiber at Silicon Prairie News]

Birdhive is an aggregator for creative project tweets. As TechMeme is to popular tech topics, Birdhive is to creative works. The team describes Birdhive as a way for people to share fun, creative projects they’ve found through Twitter.

As more people rely on Twitter for its real-time search capabilities, they can also turn to Birdhive as a filter for creative works and tweets about graphic design, photography, traditional art, music, crafts and more.

To submit a link to the Birdhive site, first you have to follow their Twitter account (@birdhive). Then there are three ways to submit a tweet:

• Send them a Direct Message
• Add #bh to your tweet (provided you’re following them)
• Send a reply to @birdhive

All inbound tweets are then reposted on the site into specific categories. Each category shows the latest submissions plus the top ten contributors to the category. To stay up to date when new links are submitted, you can always visit the website or subscribe to the RSS feed for each specific category.

Birdhive was created by Nial Giacomelli (@NialGiacomelli) and Glynn Smith (@____________g)

The new Qwest initiative, aptly titled, “Talk to Qwest,” includes the talents of seven employees, each formerly from different departments and roles within the company.

To see what Qwest is up to, visit their new social media portal at socialmedia.qwest.com. You’ll find links to their Twitter account (@TalkToQwest), a Viddler profile with several intro videos from employees and an email address specifically for this team.

The Twitter profile is decked out with good info, contact details and a link to the main Qwest website. I would probably change it to link to their social media portal, but that’s just me.

As of this writing the account was following 440 people and had 316 followers. Many of the updates are being posted from the ever-popular TweetDeck client, though you’ll also see updates sprinkled in from the basic web interface. In addition to the customer service account, Qwest has also set up a news feed for Twitter (@QwestNews).

For a long time @ComcastCares has been the leading example of a company doing customer service right on Twitter. Will Frank Eliason and his team fade into the past with Qwest now launching something new? Only time can tell, but I imagine we won’t stop hearing about Comcast for quite some time.

[via Phoenix Business Journal]