One. The news of the closer of tr.im URL shortener a few weeks ago highlighted issues with dependence on a third party in content creation. ReadWriteWeb has posted a useful guide to hosting your own URL shortening service and as more libraries begin to join Twitter and post content, it may be a good idea to have the maximum control over that content.
Two. Twitter has released an API that will allow developers to add latitude and longitude to any tweet. And as for possible applications, well…
… with accurate, tweet-level location data you could switch from reading the tweets of accounts you follow to reading tweets from anyone in your neighborhood or city—whether you follow them or not. It’s easy to imagine how this might be interesting at an event like a concert or even something more dramatic like an earthquake.
Three. TinEye is a reverse image search engine which is the first to use image identification technology. Upload an image or a URL and it will tell you where the image came from, how it was used, show you modified versions of the image and find higher resolution versions. Also, check out Multicolr Search Lab where you can choose up to 10 colours from a palette of 120 different shades to browse through Flickr’s Creative Commons images and find ones that share those same colours. Both applications are developed by Idée, a company based in Toronto.
Wildcard. For a while now I have been playing around with mobile social networking applications, including Brightkite and Plazes. However, I have been waiting not so patiently for the arrival of Foursquare north of the border. Now my dream might some through thanks to Ashton Kutcher. Yes, the web was a flutter today that he had joined the service. Remember what happened when he joined Twitter? Expect to see Oprah on Foursquare very soon.
