In Praise of HootSuite

There are a lot of interesting people on Twitter. Too many, perhaps. Or at least so many that after a while, you need some help keeping track of everyone. Twitter lists were a great start. Now, I’ve discovered an even better option – a free service that lets you slice and dice your Twitter streams into a personalized information dashboard, all online; no software downloads required.

I speak, of course, of HootSuite.

It seems that everyday some new website, software program, mobile app, or Firefox plugin crops up that promise to revolutionize your Twitter experience (e.g.: TweetDeck, Tweetie, Brizzly, Twitbin, etc.); however, HootSuite is by far the most effective solution to information overload I’ve ever used. Some key features include:

Organization: Organization is the greatest strength of HootSuite. After the introduction of Twitter lists, I spent an obsessive weekend afternoon parsing each person I follow into one of 20 categories: bloggers, brands, class clowns, celebs, comedians, creatives, critics, do-gooders, freelancers, friends (private), gurus, insiders, jobbers, journos, literati, mediaites, newsies, smarties, techies, and tweeple. But even after this feat of organization, I almost never took the time to filter streams from the main twitter page, as this involved the tedious task of scrolling down a long column of lists on the right-hand side of the page.

In HootSuite, however, it’s simple to create multiple tabs, each containing streams from several lists. For example, I’ve created seven tabs: “news,” “entertainment,” “arts & lit,” “media & tech,” information,” humor,” and “personal.” Click on “news” and three separate columns appear, in which loads content from everyone in the groups “newsies,” “journos,” and “bloggers”:

As you can tell from this screenshot (click image to enlarge), HootSuite can create a powerful real-time snapshot of what’s happening in the world. The first column contains major headlines from various news organizations and breaking news services; the second a scroll of real-time comments from White House correspondents and other prominent news journalists; and the last a mix of online news providers and individual bloggers to provide comment and context. The same process creates similar depth for entertainment, tech news, and other topics. Essentially, HootSuite empowers you to transform your twitter stream into a personalized, real-time information dashboard.

Statistics: HootSuite provides a robust collection of statistical analysis tools, if you’re curious about your page views or who’s clicking your links. The system’s main weakness is that you must post links using HootSuite’s in-house URL shorter, Ow.ly. Other links will not register visitor information. But the information available is thorough and well-presented. Imagine Google Analytics for your twitter stream.

URL Shortening: These days, most Twitter clients provide a built-in URL shortener. HootSuite is among them. No more popping open a new browser window to paste in a link for shortening.

Scheduled Tweets: Until now, if I wanted to schedule a tweet – perhaps the impulse to post a #FF recommendation arises two days too soon – I jumped over to FutureTweets. HootSuite is the first application I’ve found to include built-in scheduling.

Multiple-Account Integration: HootSuite is similar to another social networking platform – Brizzly – in that you can use it to manage multiple accounts, including multiple Twitter and Facebook profiles.

RSS Feeds: Are you a blogger as well as a Twitter user? Enter your RSS feed into HootSuite’s RSS/Atom tab (under Settings) and the site will shoot out an automatic tweet each time your update your site. Personally, I use a similar service built into Tumblr, but it’s a nice feature.

Mobile App: If I had one complaint about HootSuite, it would be its mobile application isn’t up to its own high standards, or those of its competitors in the mobile marketplace. The app does a decent job at replicating the “personalized dashboard” experience in a mobile environment – and other unique features such as statistics and scheduled tweets are also present – but it falls short when it comes to features offered in other apps. You can’t open links in Safari, for example. Nor can you import links to other applications, such as Instapaper, a revolutionary service whose virtues I’ve previously extolled. For these features, and more, I’ll stick to the excellent Tweetie. But for a superb web-based Twitter experience, I can’t recommend HootSuite enough.

Hulu for iPhone - Do It Yourself Edition

Rumors of a Hulu application for the iPhone/iPod touch have been swirling around the Internet for at least six months, but no application capable of delivering streaming online video via Wifi or G3 has yet to emerge. However, thanks a new iPhone app available from the iTunes Store (as well as innovative online video program for Mac users), the next best thing to free television in the palm of your hand is available now on your iPhone or iPod touch.

The answer? AirVideo, an affordable ($2.99) application from InMethod.com, which enables users to stream video content from their laptop and/or external hard drive to their iPhone/iPod touch. Unlike some iPhone applications that enable you to access content on a remote HD, AirVideo does not require your mobile device to be on the same network connection as your computer or laptop. In my experience, the video quality is extremely high as well. Also importantly, AirVideo automatically converts your videos into an iPod-compatible formate before streaming. You can even choose to “Convert on the Go,” an option that allows users to start watching videos before their conversion even completes, so you can start watching a three-hour movie in seconds. In my experience, even the longest videos started to play after about 10 seconds.

What’s most impressive about AirShare, however, especially for those who’ve struggled to take their videos “on the go,” isn’t the conversion quality, but simply the sheer amount of time and trouble it saves it’s users. No more conversion woes, no more shuffling episodes on and off the device, jockeying for physical memory. Prior to installing this app, I spent hours clearing information, converting videos into an iPod-compatible format and synching via iTunes. In order to convert unusual file formats into an iPod-compatible formate, I spent about $25 on VisualHub, a versatile video conversation program for Mac that, unfortunately, is no longer under development or being updated.

After AirShare, however, I simply synch up the program’s desktop software with the “movies” folder on my laptop, and my “videos” folder on my external HD, and tap the AirShare app on my iPod to access an enormous smorgasbord of television shows, cartoons, movies and late-night dramas. Better yet, all this entertainment takes up zero memory on my iPod, freeing up space for more important information, such as photos, podcasts, audiobooks, music, games and apps. The content on my external HD doesn’t even take up space on my laptop. Suddenly, I’ve potentially got 500 GB of video available on my humble 1G iPod touch.

But what about the promise of a Hulu-like application? How can you turn AirShare into a true streaming entertainment application, without waiting out Apple’s byzantine iTunes Store approval process? It’s simple, as long as you’ve got a program on your desktop device that automatically downloads new television shows as soon as they come out. You can subscribe to most popular television programs via iTunes, for example, or install some other program, such as Miro, which also delivers free video content. The video from programs such as these appear as files onto your HD. (For example, to synch your Miro content to your iPod, click on the AirShare icon in the navigation bar, select “Server Preferences, then select “Add Disk Folder,” then choose Users/username/Movies/Miro.)

After taking the time to configure your desktop machine, just sit back and wait for your content to download. Whatever’s on your home machine’s also on your mobile device. The next time you miss your favorite program because you’re stuck on the train, simply whip out your trusty iPod and access your video library on your main computer! (Keep your desktop downloader running to guarantee your content stays up to date.) If the program’s available online, it’s available in the palm of your hand! Voila — personalized streaming video content on your phone, without the constraints of hard drive space, video conversion software, or iTunes synching! Eat your heart out, Hulu.