I was logged into Google and did a search for the word “the” in an attempt to determine about how many websites Google knows about. I was impressed with the results but for some reason I did it again when I wasn’t logged into Google – and the results were different! These screenshots prove it, but how did Google know to rank Colbert #2 for me?

Now you know why ranking high in Google is such a difficult thing to hit all the time. In this case, the people who do the SEO for TheColbertNation.com didn’t do anything different to rank #2. Google just gave it to them when I did the search.

I guess somehow Google felt like I was more interested in Stephen Colbert than Barack Obama? Or could it be that the #1 website is a clue (it’s satire!). Ha!

Of course you can just use Twitter.com “out of the box” right after you sign up and interact with people well. But if you want to be more effective, you’ll need an application or two or four.

[UPDATE: The Guardian in the UK just published that "only 20% of its traffic comes through the Twitter website; the other 80% (logically) comes from third-party programs on smartphones or computers. "]

Below are what I usually recommend (or use myself) to others who want to take the next step. Under each category I put a line about “How Twitter Does It”. This is meant to show what is provided for you if you don’t use any applications or services. Many of these tools are not necessarily exclusive to the category in which I placed them. Also note I listed them in order of importance in my personal opinion (find interesting people, listen to them, then say something).

Find People
How Twitter Does It - Find People by searching or Find On Other Networks by cross-checking your online email contacts to see if they are on Twitter already.

• FriendOrFollow – See who is following you that you’re not following so you can decide if you should follow back.
• MrTweet – Follow @MrTweet and it will direct message you after a period of time with recommended profiles to follow.
• SocialToo – If you feel you need to follow everyone who follows you, this will do it for you for free or catch you up for a small fee.
• Networking – I do this often: find a relevant person to follow, then go through all of the profiles they follow. As you click through each list, you’ll probably discover another nework to check out.  Yeah, it’s pretty old-school but it works.

Find People in a Niche
How Twitter Does It - they do not provide a way to search by niche.

• WeFollow – List of twitter profiles by category when users tag themselves or add themselves to the service.
• Twellow – List of twitter profiles by category maintained by an organization. “The Twitter Yellow Pages”
• What The Hashtag – See who is twittering posts tagged with particular #hashtags.

Find Local People
How Twitter Does It - they do not provide a way to search by geography.

• Twellowhood – List of twitter profiles by category maintained by an organization sorted by geography.
• Twitterhholic – List of twitter profiles rankings. Search for a twitter profile and click on the location to reveal top profiles in that location.

Listen to Others
How Twitter Does It - Text Message – Link your mobile phone’s texting with Twitter. Receive direct messages as text messages on your mobile.

Also Twitter Search (or use searchbox in right column of your twitter profile) – Live search for current and trending topics. Perform search to see what tweets mention your twitter name “-from:TWITTERNAME TWITTERNAME”. Perform search to follow a #hashtag “#TAG”. Save a search if on your Twitter profile or grab the RSS feed if using search.twitter.com.

• Topify – Email notification of new followers. Ability to reply inside email or click link to follow, block, report as spam, or direct message the person.
• TweetBeep – Email alerts for predefined search terms. Provides link to reply, retweet or view the original tweet.
• BackTweets – Scans and alerts you when someone tweets a domain you specify. Receive email alerts or grab the RSS feed.
• Monitter – Web-based, follow tweets in real time based on search keywords you choose.

Broadcast on the Web
How Twitter Does It - Twitter.com - Straight-forward website to publish a tweet!

• FriendFeed – Add your Twitter profile to FriendFeed so when you publish a status update, check the “CC: Twitter” box.
• TwitterFox – Small Firefox addon that notifies you of your friend’s tweets and allows you to publish quickly.
• HootSuite – Still testing it – Manage multiple twitter accounts at one time, tweet RSS feeds, and scheduled publishing.

Broadcast from the Desktop
How Twitter Does It - they do not provide a desktop application.

• Twhirl – Single column monitoring with easy publish box. Can use multiple twitter accounts.
• Tweetdeck – Allows easy search, sorting, and publishing tweets in multi-column format for one multiple twitter accounts.
• Seesmic Desktop – Still testing it – Robust like Tweetdeck and allows multiple twitter accounts as well.
• Digsy – If you use Instant Messaging chat on your desktop, Digsby is a great way to combine most IM clients (including Twitter and Faceook Chat) into one place.

Broadcast from your Mobile Phone
How Twitter Does It - Text Message – Link your mobile phone’s texting with Twitter. Send text message to Twitter.

Also remember that if you can get online from your mobile you can use your web browser to use many web-based services like Twitter Mobile.

• TwitterBerry – Tweet and read from a Blackberry. Note: I do not use a blackberry.
• Twitterrific – Tweet and read from an iPhone. Note: I do not use an iPhone.

I have learned a lot of this by experimenting with three twitter profiles I use regularly plus others I’ve created or used on behalf of clients. The three I use currently are @orangejack, @clemsonfootball, and @lostsoup ranking in the top 30,000, 82,000, and  49,000 accordingly by Twitterholic. Ha! I laugh because I couldn’t care less how my personal twitter accounts rank overall.

1. Come be a fan! If you are already, thanks!
2. New marketing URL: facebook.com/orangejack
3. Tell your friends!

Following are quotes from three sources that explain it all. Amazing!

The Internet was built to withstand nuclear attack. That was why it was built in the ’60s in the first place, as a communications system with redundancy built in so that the military could communicate even if one of the nodes went down.

We saw some of that happen today, as news of Michael Jackson’s death spread like wildfire through the Internet. TMZ.com got the scoop about Jackson being sent to the hospital. But the site went down from the surge of traffic. The LA Times reported he was in a coma, but then that site went down too. The LA Times managed to report that Jackson was dead, and then everyone else started buzzing about it. Twitter went down. Keynote Systems, which measures web site performance, said that the following sites all slowed significantly: ABC, AOL, LA Times, CNN Money and CBS. Starting at 230 pm PST, the average load time for a news site slowed from 4 seconds to 9 seconds. (source: VentureBeat)

Search giant Google confirmed to the BBC that when the news first broke it feared it was under attack. Millions of people who searched for the star’s name on Google News were greeted with an error page. It warned users “your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application”.

“It’s true that between approximately 2.40PM Pacific and 3.15PM Pacific, some Google News users experienced difficulty accessing search results for queries related to Michael Jackson and saw the error page,” said Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker.

Google was not the only company overwhelmed by the public’s clamour for information. The microblogging service Twitter crashed with the sheer volume of people using the service…Before the company’s servers crashed, TweetVolume noted that “Michael Jackson” appeared in more than 66,500 Twitter updates. According to initial data from Trendrr, a Web service that tracks activity on social media sites, the number of Twitter posts Thursday afternoon containing “Michael Jackson” totaled more than 100,000 per hour. That put news of Jackson’s death at least on par with the Iran protests, as Twitter posts about Iran topped 100,000 per hour on June 16 and eventually climbed to 220,000 per hour. (source: BBC)

Wikipedia saw a flurry of activity, with close to 500 edits made to Jackson’s entry in less than 24 hours. CNET reported that by 3:15 p.m. PT, Wikipedia seemed to be “temporarily overloaded.”

The Los Angeles Times…reported that AOL’s instant messenger service had been hit, quoting an AOL statement that said, “AIM was down for approximately 40 minutes this afternoon.” The statement said, “Today was a seminal moment in Internet history. We’ve never seen anything like it in terms of scope or depth.”

That was backed up by AOL consumer adviser Regina Lewis, who said that, although the numbers weren’t in yet, the day should prove a historic milestone for mobile Internet traffic.

“It could go down as the biggest mobile event in history,” Lewis said. She felt that was in part because people were checking news headlines from work. “People wanted to keep tabs on this story, but if you’re an accountant you’re supposed to be working on your spreadsheet. So they were using their personal cell phones to do so,” she explained. (source: CNN)

Where do I go on the tree? I joined June 2, 2007 and currently I’m in the top 30,000. Ha! Whatever.

This came from Manolith: The Story (so far) of Twitter

At issue is the time lag between a breaking news event happening and how long it takes old media (traditional news outlets or main stream media) to report it. Compare that to how fast user-generated content and social media networks report these events.  Normally I just find it interesting because I think, “of course locals with wireless technology can report events in real time faster than main stream media”. There’s no verification process that the main stream media takes. This is a much needed and good process.  That’s interesting, it’s not that important.

But I think now, in some cases, it’s becoming important. Here are three situations in chronological order where I’m seeing the movement.

First is a video of my friend Erik Hersman speaking at a TED conference:

Erik Hersman presents the remarkable story of Ushahidi, a GoogleMap mashup that allowed Kenyans to report and track violence via cell phone texts following the 2008 elections, and has evolved to continue saving lives in other countries.

YouTube: Erik Hersman: How texting helped Kenyans survive crisis

Did you catch what they are working on right now? The ability to shrink the gap between when a crisis event begins to be reported and when it is verifiable. That’s not just interesting, it’s important.

Next is a longer video by Clay Shirky, also presenting at a TED conference but this was weeks ago.

Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics.

YouTube – Clay Shirky: How cellphones, Twitter, Facebook can make history

There’s plenty of take-aways, but did you see how new media forced the hand of the Chinese Government during the earthquake? That’s not just interesting, it’s important.

A few days ago I quoted excerpts from a recent conference regarding CNN vs. Twitter in the first few days of the protest riots in Iran. Ann Curry from NBC’s Today show really impressed me:

I learned about the last missile test in North Korea on Twitter. I turned on the TV and no one was reporting the story. I thought to myself, ‘this sucks.’ So, I jumped on Twitter and reported the facts as I found them in real time…I had to be careful however. I was receiving reactions and questions. The trick is communicating solid information without misleading anyone. One word can change how people interpret anything. I feel a great obligation to never twitter something that is wrong…once you lose [credibility], you’ve lost.

I’ve been watching how Ann Curry has been handling Twitter breaking news and rumors out of Iran during the protests. Watching someone with main stream media training balance new media reporting has been an encouragement.

That’s not just interesting, it’s important.

We’re moving into a time where news moves fast and reports move faster. Looking at these three examples I think shows us, however, that we’re closing the gap between an important event happening and it’s verified reporting.

If you’re interested in following any of these three on Twitter, they are @whiteafrican, @cshirky, and @anncurry respectively.

However, it’s been interesting to see how reporting of Iranian vote protests was covered this week. While CNN seemed quiet about the protests, the stories, videos, and photos from Iranians and the world streaming to social media sites like Twitter.

On the heels of this event was a Twitter-inspired conference called 140 Characters Conference in NYC. I’m going to pull some quotes from the TechCrunch article Is Twitter the CNN of the New Media Generation? of dialogue between Ann Curry of NBC, tech guru Robert Scoble, CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, and Clayton Morris of Fox News…

SCOBLE: “I wanted to learn more about the election in Iran and the crisis and the violence that was spilling onto the streets. I couldn’t find anything on CNN. In fact, all I could find was Larry King talking to motorcycle mechanics.”

SANCHEZ:  ”Is news judgment changing? Yes! This is the first time we can connect directly with citizens who could be a reliable source aside from the talking heads and pretty faces that serve as news anchors.”

CURRY:  ”While I may not be another ‘a pretty face,’ we have to look at whether or not mainstream media is covering the world fast enough and the answer is no…Should we be? Yes. But, right now, we can’t keep pace.”

SCOBLE: “[But] Where was CNN on that day, at that time?”

SANCHEZ: “We had people in Iran watching the events unfold, live. Our people were tear-gassed. We were there.”

SCOBLE: “How would we know that? Why didn’t you share that side of the story with us as it was happening? You couldn’t because your show wasn’t on!”

CURRY: “There are other stories that are important for people to hear, but don’t make broadcast.”

MORRIS: “There’s a tipping point right now with new, traditional, and social media. It’s conversation versus fact checking. No one has answers to where this convergence is leading.”

CURRY: “I learned about the last missile test in North Korea on Twitter. I turned on the TV and no one was reporting the story. I thought to myself, ‘this sucks.’ So, I jumped on Twitter and reported the facts as I found them in real time…I had to be careful however. I was receiving reactions and questions. The trick is communicating solid information without misleading anyone. One word can change how people interpret anything. I feel a great obligation to never twitter something that is wrong…once you lose [credibility], you’ve lost.”

SANCHEZ: “I’m bothered by people who use Twitter as shtick and people who think they’re going to change the world just because they’re using it. The race with Ashton, news teams that ‘go to the twitter boards’ while on TV to see what’s happening, it all seems contrived, like they’re trying to be part of the community, but instead they’re cheapening it.”

MORRIS: “There are old parts of new media that they [publishers and broadcasters] are comfortable with and aspects of new media that represent new ways to seem like they ‘get it.’ It all feels disingenuous though. Somewhere in the middle is the future. There was a point where fax bulletins were part of the breaking story.”

SANCHEZ: “Companies that don’t assign managers for social media will fail! [...] Twitter has made me a better journalist.”

I think what set this situation apart from others in the past is the length of time CNN took to begin to confirm and report these stories.  I don’t know why there was such a delay, but there was.

What do you think about this and the role of New Media in the context of all media?

Before you do that, stop and ask yourself a simple question: can you think of more than six?

I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to do that. Truth is, Google is the dominant search engine and if they know about you chances are everyone else will. But do you even need to tell Google you exist? Not really. If a site Google already knows about links to you, Google will find you.

However, it’s not a bad thing to jump-start the process a bit — and there are a few other places you can submit to just to get off to a quicker start. Not totally necessary, but it won’t hurt. Here’s my list of free places to consider:

• Add your site to Google
• Add your site to Yahoo
• Add your site to Bing
• Add your site to DMOZ

If you have a local business, submit it also to:

• Add to Google Local
• Add to YellowPages.com

If you submit your site to a directory or search engine, just do it once per service. But really if Google knows about you, so will everyone else soon enough.

Thanks for checking it out. I just want to provide a way to help us all be aware and be safe.

Also, just as a reminder, though I haven’t been posting here much lately, I plan to soon. In the meantime I’ve been posting links to other great articles on the Orangejack Facebook Page. I encourage you to head over there and become a fan as well.

Just reading through Olivier’s posts and photos, I’m inspired.  In case you don’t have the time to read the posts (and you should make the time), let me share a few photos Olivier took that are my takeaways (all from Geno Church presentations):