Here's a bookmarklet to help you tweet links to Web pages from your iPhone using iTweet.net and bit.ly:

Post Link via iTweet

Adding and using this bookmarklet is simple.  Just drag the above link into your Safari bookmarks and sync your iPhone to transfer the bookmarklet to your iPhone.

Then, from any Web page that you would like to post on Twitter, just go to your Bookmarks, locate the "Post via iTweet" bookmarklet and select it.  A new web page will be opened to http://itweet.net, the link will be shortened using bit.ly, and placed in the Post field ready for tweeting.

I thought about putting the original page's title into the tweet as well, but then I realized I would usually rather make up my own caption. However if the general consensus is that adding the page title to the tweet would be more useful, I can make that change - leave your opinion in the comments here, or email me, or contact me on Twitter.

Thanks to Matt Teske for providing the motivation to make this bookmarklet - I will definitely find it useful and I hope you will too. 

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I saw a lot of discussion going on in the Twitterverse recently about standard conventions for "retweeting" - the increasingly popular habit of repeating someone else's tweet verbatim with a credit to their username (or as close to verbatim as possible inside of the 140-character limit).

I personally don't retweet often, but I see it happening more and more every day. (Whether or not this increases the quality of Twitter conversations is a debate for another post.) Enough users of iTweet.net, the Twitter client for the Web and iPhone that I make, requested a retweet button so I went ahead and added one several weeks ago.

Several weeks ago, savvy iTweet.net user David Simmons had written me to ask if iTweet could use the Unicode "recycle" symbol ♺ as a standard for retweeting.  I immediately liked the idea - it's expressive, cool-looking and best of all it's only one character long, conserving space for more tweet.

Unfortunately I looked into it and found that the symbol doesn't render in SMS messages or on the iPhone.  Since iTweet.net is an iPhone web app, and since a large number of Twitter users rely on SMS, IMO this makes it a no-go for a standard retweet convention.  Bummer!  Many other Unicode characters display just fine on the iPhone - I don't know why some do and some don't, but ♺ is not one of the friendly ones.

My point here is that if a convention isn't able to be communicated through all channels, it shouldn't become a standard. For this reason I have made the ♺ symbol available in the "symbols" section, but can't recommend using it as a retweet symbol for anyone who wants maximum exposure and clarity in their tweets.


Anyway there is some great discussion on the topic over at Stowe Boyd's blog - go check it out if you're interested - and this made me think I should put my two cents in on the subject.

There has been other discussion about whether "RT" or "via" makes for a better standard.  I personally think "via" is a bit more friendly to newbies and a lot more readable, but "RT" seems to be the most common convention, so that's currently what I use in my Twitter client.

I also found this interesting article at Dan Zarrella's blog where he states:

Contrary to what I initially thought, “RT” is used more than 4 times more often than the full word “retweet”.

I am quite open to the idea of using something different if a better standard is proposed.  What's your favorite retweet convention?


Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.

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iTweet.net user John Haydon made this fantastic "How To" video called Setting Up And Using iTweet.Net and posted it on his blog, CorporateDollar.org.  Nice work John!


The response to iTweet 2's web interface has been truly extraordinary and now WAY surpasses usage of the original iPhone interface.  It is so wonderful to see a larger user community developing and producing great stuff like this video.  Thanks everyone!

Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.

Technorati tags: itweet, twitter, video, iphone, howto, diy, web app

I've made a couple additions and modifications to iTweet this week, they are lots of fun and add some great functionality!

In the Web interface I've added Statistics to your profile in the top right - so you can see at a glance your number of updates, favorites, following and followers. This updates itself as you tweet, fave and follow.  There is also an "Appearance" preference in the Settings menu - you can keep the default iTweet look OR import your Twitter profile's appearance - background image, font colors, sidebar color and everything!

If you are wondering "where did the nifty follow/notifications/block buttons go?", I have moved them all to the Profile pages to make better use of the API and make these methods more intuitive.  The old method assumed whether you were following a person or not based on the timeline they were found in; this was a little confusing and inconvenient, so I've moved it to the Profile page.  Here the page can tell (via the Twitter API call) whether you are following that person or not, and present the correct options depending on that status.

There's also an "is so-and-so following me?" button so you can see if that person is following you, and a "Twittering Since" date that shows when that person joined Twitter.  That part has been interesting to me as it's neat to see how long someone has been part of the Twitter community.  That data is made available via the Twitter API, although for some reason you can't find that info about a user on twitter.com - another reason to use iTweet!


Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.

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Twitter just made a great addition to their Search API: Twitter Trends!

This method allows you to see the hot topics of discussion across the entire Twitterverse.  This is a neat way to keep up on breaking news, technology trends, political sentiments, or the latest Internet meme that everyone's tweeting about.

When I hear about some fresh news or tech rumor, I do a quick Twitter search before I go to any news website; it's a great way to find a wealth of links to pertinent content across the Web.

I've added the Twitter Trends method to both the iPhone and the Web version of iTweet.net.  I think it will become a fun way to keep up on current events, and to entertain myself when I'm stuck in line at the bank.    Enjoy!

Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.

Technorati Tags: itweet, itweet.net, twitter, iphone, trends, api, colby palmer