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How To's Digital Strategies E-Media Tidbits
8 Tools to Help Filter Your Twitter Stream & Find
News
by lavrusik
Published Jan. 4, 2010 10:58 pm
Updated Nov. 22, 2010 8:06 pm
If you’re like me, you first hear about a lot of news and information through
your Twitter stream. It’s is an excellent way to tap into what the buzz is about at
the moment. But if you follow more than 500 people who post frequently, it can
be difficult to filter the stream and see what your most trusted sources have
shared — especially if you’ve been away for awhile.
Several desktop apps and Web sites, like TweetDeck and HootSuite, will help
you manage your Twitter account. But there also are several services that will
filter your stream and the collective content on Twitter so you can get the most
important (or at least the most popular) news and information shared by users.
Here are eight sites that can help you filter the signal from the noise.
Filtered by Followers: Twitter Tim.es and MicroPlaza
After you log in with your Twitter username, The Twitter Tim.es creates a page
that displays stories by filtering through what the people you follow have
tweeted the most. The Twitter Tim.es shows who has posted the story along
with a blurb to give you an idea of what it’s about. In some cases, the service
shows the full text of the post. It also gives you options to view popular stories
on Twitter from media sources and Twitter Lists.
MicroPlaza helps you see what’s being shared by many people — both the
people you follow and all Twitter users. MicroPlaza puts more emphasis on
what people say about the link by prominently displaying their tweets directly
below the link and allowing you to easily see all the tweets on the link. This is
probably the most flexible filtering tool. You can change how the streams are
displayed, see what’s most popular today (or this week or this month), even
assume the identity of other Twitter users and see what their sources are
sharing. MicroPlaza also bookmarks links (though I wish it synced with other
bookmarking services).
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