Status Here, Status There, Status Everywhere

MySpace just recently announced that they have a new app to update Twitter when you update your Myspace status. I think I heard that AIM is also jumping into the status bandwagon. I'm sure Yahoo is not far behind.

Of course, Facebook has had an app to Twitter for a while.

With all these apps running around that will update your status on all the social networks (yes, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and many others are now called social networks), the ordinary person can go nuts trying to figure out who updates who. Or else, you will see double, triple updates of the same status in one network. I've seen this happen on Twitter and on Facebook.

If you have a Facebook and MySpace and Twitter account (*raises hand* I do) and you activate the app on Facebook and MySpace -- remember Facebook and MySpace do not talk to each other (sacrilege, they are real competitors) -- and you put the same status update on Facebook and MySpace, Twitter will get the same status update twice. Because... Facebook sent it to Twitter. MySpace sent it to Twitter.

You really need to understand the direction of these apps.

Unless... You find an app that will update all your social network sites in one fell swoop. Is there such an appimal out there? There sure is.

I use Hellotxt.com. I understand ping.fm does it, too. You will need to trust these sites with your userid and password into your social networks. Yes, you do. If you use the MySpace connect to Twitter, you will need to give MySpace your Twitter information. Same is true for Facebook. How else do you expect the API to talk for you?

What I like about Hellotxt is that I can type in my status and decide which social network I want to update -- all of them, just two or only one of them. Hellotxt also gives me some visibility to my Twitter activity and I can use it to respond to my Twitter friends. I just discover another reason I like Hellotxt. I just tried to connect to ping.fm and VPN blocks it.

As majority of my day is in VPN (yes, another acronymn. Virtual Private Network. I have to log into this for my job.) hell, all my social network access is banned. Google Reader gives me visibility to Facebook and some Twitter statuses. I don't care about MySpace.

If you have multiple social network accounts and each of them offer apps, you might want to seriously think of finding a service that will handle bulk updates for you. This also saves you time if you want to post the same status to more than one social network.

Mashable.com has a great article about how Facebook statuses can be updated without being in Facebook -- HOW TO: Update Facebook from Outside. The article briefly touches on services like HelloTxt and ping.fm.

How many social networks do you belong to? If you belong to multiple ones, how do you update the status if there is one?

Shorten URLS - Beware, Be Safe

When you take a URL like this: http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218401098&cid=nl_IW_daily_html and use a service like Twitter or HelloTxt, it gets shorten to something like this: http://tiny.cc/YOuJ8. This is the only way to communicate a link if you want to include more than just the link in a short message.

The shortening of the URL has concerned me more and more as I see it spread across all social networks -- Twitter, Facebook, MySpace. Can you trust the links that your friend sends?

Alas, no. I recently got one, a link from a trusted friend on my MySpace account. I read the message, and it was a weird one. Good old search engine was able to find me an app that will expand the shortened link. It was still mumbo jumbo. DO NOT trust mumbo jumbo links. So, I texted ;) her to go look to see if she did that. Guess what? Her account got hacked and that person is spreading poison to her friends.

Folks, don't trust shorten urls, even from friends. I'm using Firefox and have added a plug-in that will expand shorten urls. I put my cursor on top of the link. It pops up a bubble that shows the real link. Now you can see where it may take you. COOL!!!

The plugin or add-on I installed for Firefox is LongURL Mobile Expander. You can also use their website LongURL.org.

Extracted from MakeUseOf.com Blog of Cool Links, they offer another one that can be used. Untiny. Want more information about Untiny, check out Untiny: Extract the Original URL Behind The Short URL.

Please be safe than sorry.

Oh, read the article link that I used in the first paragraph. It talks about the same thing I am. You may need to close an ad if it appears.

Opening Day

This is my first day on Blogger.

No, this is not the first time I've written a blog. I've been blogging for a several years. I just did it on MySpace. I've become unhappy with MySpace as there are advertisers there that are sneaky and not safe. I think I've gotten a couple of dangerous trojans from that site, and it has in the past driven my laptop bongers. I'll be keeping my MySpace account, but just to keep in touch with MySpace friends.

I'll be moving my MySpace Blogs over here. If I should ever want to get rid of my MySpace account, at least my blogs are over here.

To keep my MySpace friends who like to read them, I'll post a link back to here.

This will also enable me to post a link in Facebook and Twitter. Yep, I do those, too.

Apps -- Begone

I don't participate in many apps. I've been getting new invites and have been rejecting them. Of the ones I do have, I will be removing the PETS (you know -- Own Your Friends) app.

This has happen to me twice and I don't need it happening a third time.

What happened? When I exit MySpace, and this is just when I've finished playing with the Pets app, the computer goes wackers where it keeps opening up new MySpace windows. It won't stop unless I can catch it to power down my computer. I had it at a point where it opened up 29 new MySpace windows *arggghhhh*!

I don't know what it is and I don't play like that. For all I know, it may not be the app but one of the darn ads that are all over the place to pay for this place so it remains free.

Some people don't have anything better to do than make your computer go bonkers.

Maybe my workplace has the right idea to ban access to certain things.

And if it's not the Pets app, then I will get rid of all apps. MySpace will be kept to just keep up with my friends. I'll play on FaceBook instead. So far, it's not done me wrong.

Arrrrr...My Profile Page...What You See

I generally don't look at my own profile until I want to give it new decor. There's no reason for me to look at my own page since I removed the friends and comments section from the page. I can go to the links on my main page to see that stuff.

I decided to play with MySpace's new Profile Editor. Poked here and there. Still don't have a opinion on whether I like it or not as I've already invested lots of time ripping it apart to change the parts I want.

Whatever changes MySpace has done to put in their Profile Editor has made my customized page go a bit awhack. Now I got to figure things out again.

Tis good that I will be working form home for a bit.

P.S. Now I see the blog gone nutzoyd. *arghhhhhhh*