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Since the initial creation of the TweetMeme button we’ve been looking for interesting, useful & innovative ways to update it and to make it easier for you all to update your Twitter accounts with the most interesting content that you find on the internet and to share your own content with your followers. As such we’ve extended and slightly altered the way that the TweetMeme button now works.
Before I go on and show you how this will work and what it will look like please note that this functionality has not yet been put live and a such the images shown below may look slightly different to the final version but with no significant changes to the basic functionality.
We will have two different variants of our button. One for on our TweetMeme website, which we call our internal button. And one for on external websites. I explain this first because I don’t want anyone getting confused that they act very slightly differently.
The TweetMeme Button on the TweetMeme site
The image above is what you will see when you try to connect to TweetMeme for the first time. It is basically setting you up to connect us to TweetMeme using Twitter’s Oauth access. It will take you to Twitter and ask you to log in just like in the image below. It’s a bit like Facebook connect really but for Twitter.
Once you’ve done this you’ll then be able to re-tweet any content from our site by pressing the green part of our TweetMeme button without having to log into TweetMeme if you are already logged into Twitter. Instead you’ll just get an image like the one below! Note that you can now edit the content of the message to whatever you choose. What you cannot do is remove or replace the URL with a different one. This is to ensure that the content sent does really relate back to the original source. After all we wouldn’t want it to misguide people.
Now for on your own site!
External TweetMeme Buttons!
To ensure consistency and simplicity we use a very similar system to the internal one. So for the first time you log into the TweetMeme button you will see the following:
Once again it connects with Twitter just like Facebook connect for the first time. If you aren’t logged into Twitter you’ll be asked to log in as usual and then get passed back to the button. Where you can edit the content (excluding the URL) and read even more interesting content on the site. We don’t take you away from the site that you are reading to update your users.
If at any point you don’t like or want this functionality you can always log into TweetMeme and change your preferences so that all buttons act as they currently do with no content editing for your account and automatic retweeting of content when you press then button and are logged in. If for any reason you say no the the initial connection on an external site we will automatically revert back to the original log in and allow manual tweeting & editing of your tweet on your own Twitter account on Twitter.
We hope you enjoy the new functionality and if you are press and would like to find out more about the button or require additional information please don’t hesitate to get in contact.
On Tuesday we promised regular updates on who the top commenters are on our site that are getting re-tweeted for their comments in the TweetMeme Comment competition so here goes in most re-tweeted order!
- @erickschonfeld
Comment: “working memory” is overrated anyway.
- @virtuosoblogger
Comment: These ipods will include cameras that is great!. I think that was much needed
- @mimipoosh
Comment: spending time with psychologists will permanently impair human intelligence.
- @msniqueew
Comment: On Joe Wilson: ‘You’ve Embarrassed The Nation’
- @mirala90
Comment: 09/09/09 is the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that we’ll not see for almost a century
- @ProudAtheists
Comment: I value and enjoy things. Belief is an overused word in the US.
Comment: For those who have not witnessed religious “nuttery” at it’s best, watch these videos.
- @herdboy
Comment: Looking forward to that, hope its API related
Comment: II found this on the Twetmeme Blog . It basically means that if you are logged on here and happen to tweet from anywhere via the Tweetmeme buton, the tweet is posted automatically without intervention from you.
Quote follows:
The current retweet button is a clever little thing – it can redirect you to Twitter to retweet but also if your logged into TweetMeme (via OAuth) it sends the tweet behind the scenes and leaves you on the site you were currently browsing, this we call ‘one-click retweeting’. The downside is that Javascript can only live in certain places on the web, i.e. in a web browser.
- @thefranchiseca
Comment: We can finally announce our move!
- @Jnicks
Comment: DOWNLOAD THIS SONG IF YOU LIKE AND GIVE IT TO YOUR FAV DJ
- @codenamemax
Comment: Pretty Elzabeth Arden is the inspiration for the Make the World a Prettier place campaign http://codenamemax.com/
Curious about our competition and what you might win… (there are some pretty nice prizes so it’s worth taking a peak!) You’ll find all the details in our Competition blog post. Get Commenting and Get Re-Tweeting!
Today we are launching a shiny new TweetMeme competition. As many of you know, we recently released our new TweetMeme platform which included our comments system. Well just to get you all started using the system and to see how you find the comment system we thought we’d have a little fun in the form of our comments competition. Here’s how it will work.
The Best Comment
What we are looking for is the best comment that you can create around one of the posts on our site. The comment must be created on our system and re-tweeted through the site. The individual with the highest number of re-tweets of a comment will win our competition.
How to enter
STEP 1 – Login
Login to TweetMeme (this requires a Twitter account – if you don’t have one? go here
STEP 2 – Find
Find a story that you find interesting – click on comments – or the ‘more’ button.
STEP 3 – Comment
Leave a comment and have it send it back to Twitter (this is the default behaviour) – get your friends to retweet your comment.
STEP 4 – Spread the word
Spread the word about the competition and about your comments on our site! Lets see how far and wide you can get your cool and interesting comments. This competition will be running for 7 days 1 month from today and we will do a daily update here on the blog on who our top 10 comment re-tweeters are! We will announce the winner and runners up on the 8th October around 5pm GMT.
PS the most amusing comment that I see may also get a sneaky little prize too! And anyone I see just spamming will get removed! Spam is EVIL! |
What could you win?
First Place – An EEE PC Netbook, a TweetMeme Tshirt and stickers.
Second Place – An IPod Touch 16gb , a TweetMeme Tshirt and stickers.
Third Place – A Flip HD, a TweetMeme Tshirt and stickers.
5 Runners up will get a TweetMeme Tshirt and stickers. |
Terms & Conditions for this competition can be found here.
Europe-Unlimited, Europe’s leading event organisers for investors and technology companies, today revealed its 2009 Tech Media Invest Top 100 list, in association with The Guardian, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Kemp Little. And there in our inbox was an announcement that we are one of the top 100 tech media companies for investors and others to keep an eye on! What can we say! There’s been a lot of hard work behind the scenes at TweetMeme to keep our product and related services fresh and fun. It’s great to hear that The Guardian like what we are doing and we will continue to improve and grow with time.
According the the Guardian we were chosen for our creativity, innovation as a great social media site. There were only 10 in our category which is a real surprise to me! I would have expected there to be more but that makes it all the more special to the TweetMeme team!
Thank you to those who were involved in putting the list together and we look forward to a bright future!
10:32:40 AM: Today we will be doing a maintenance update of our TweetMeme site #TweetMemeV2 as we know you like to know what’s going on we’re tweeting it
10:36:55 AM: Looks like we’re all set to get started!
10:39:08 AM: TweetMeme is now down and the buttons will be up for now still.
10:39:44 AM: And the buttons that are new will show the Maintenance button #TweetMemeV2
10:40:01 AM: System back up done! #TweetMemeV2
10:44:27 AM: Now for the big stuff! 
#TweetMemeV2
10:51:46 AM: Why is it that the post arrives mid upgrade and live tweet! It seems to all be going very smoothly so far… Fingers Crossed #TweetMemeV2
10:55:52 AM: Now for the code updates… they look like they are upgrading OK atm… The dev team are checking they are all there! #TweetMemeV2
11:01:59 AM: So what does everyone think of the new logo ? You’ll see we’ve updated it over on the TweetMeme twitter account http://retwt.me/pN
11:04:31 AM: TweetMeme will be back soon! http://bit.ly/ClXQy
via @tweetmeme
11:04:43 AM: TweetMeme Maintenance Live Update http://bit.ly/wnNjX
via @tweetmeme
11:07:17 AM: Do we want more pics of the team working hard? #TweetMemeV2
11:12:42 AM: So you’ve already seen Alex doing his thing… Now for Nick T our in house Mylie Cyrus fan… #TweetMemeV2 http://twitpic.com/fjwqd
11:16:04 AM: I have a feeling @nicktelford is probably going to hide now he’s been outed! 
http://is.gd/2DJ99
11:19:53 AM: If you’re wondering what’s going on we’re still upgrading. It does take a while to do though! The team have been working hard! #TweetMemeV2
11:24:12 AM: You should hear the silence in the office as everyone is beavering away! Just the tap tapping of keyboards! #TweetmemeV2
11:39:37 AM: Checking our spam filter settings & a few other bits now…#TweetmemeV2
11:50:40 AM: We’re now testing everything to make sure it’s all working properly!
12:01:44 PM: We can hear the dull tones of #readingfestival from our offices! I’m amazed we can hear it as it’s a few miles away! #TweetMemeV2
12:08:03 PM: Team motivation to get the site back up online #TweetMemeV2 http://twitpic.com/fjzzn
12:11:04 PM: RT @alexforrow: @talkTweetMeme http://twitpic.com/fjv3c – Yeah makes me look like some kind of milk addict <- he’s our milk fiend!
12:11:53 PM: RT @stewarttownsend: http://bit.ly/u9SNK The Story of Tweetmeme #tweetmemev2
12:33:54 PM: We have content in our test area! And are looking to go live very, very soon!
12:50:15 PM: The first thing to go online will be our API. THe rest will follow.
1:27:05 PM: The buttons should be starting to come back up and the API should be working but is currently rate limited.
5:49:09 PM: Not quite as simple an update as we hoped but buttons are being served & the API is running. The site update is a bit tricker but is coming
7:39:42 PM: And finally the main site is about to go live! Wait for it! …..
7:42:11 PM: We’ll be doing a count down!
7:42:35 PM: 3, 2, 1, go!
7:45:59 PM: http://tweetmeme.com
7:47:37 PM: Thanks to all the TweetMeme team for all their hard work today! I know it’s been a long hard few weeks getting it all finished!
7:54:41 PM: We hope everyone likes it and do let us know about any site bugs over on the forum http://help.tweetmeme.com/forum
TweetMeme is currently unavailable as we are performing a system upgrade.
This will have an impact on the service we provide, so please read this post carefully before you post any support requests at this time. Please read on to find out how this will impact you.
User Impact
First of all, all webpages at TweetMeme.com will display a holding page until the upgrade is complete. The API will also also be down, but will still return a failure message in the requested format. Buttons displayed on websites will exhibit one of a number of behaviours, so please examine these carefully before you ask for support for a broken button.
Button Behaviours
If your URL was known to TweetMeme before the upgrades began, we will still attempt to serve the last known Retweet count on your button. When users click on the Retweet part, they will be directed to Twitter where they can post the Tweet about the story. However, during the period of downtime, button counts *will not* increment as you would usually expect. When we come back online we will try our best to retrieve as many Tweets that were posted while we were offline as possible, however we will miss some of them (we estimate about 10 minutes worth). The button counts will start changing again as we come back online after the upgrades are complete.
If your URL was not know to TweetMeme before the upgrades started, you will see a special TweetMeme button with a spanner icon instead of the usual count. This is expected behaviour and will be displayed until the upgrade is complete and TweetMeme picks up your URL, when it will start displaying Retweet counts as usual.
There may also be some buttons displaying question marks, these will be picked up by TweetMeme and will begin displaying as expected when the upgrades are complete.
We’d like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding while these necessary upgrades are performed, and we hope you enjoy the improved functionality and response speed of the TweetMeme site and button in the future.
To follow our progress we will live tweet updates here: http://blog.tweetmeme.com and status updates for our services will be on http://status.tweetmeme.com
Having been down to the Channel 4 Education event earlier in the week which I have to say was an outstanding event. It left a lot of food for thought and got me thinking. As a result I’m looking into what we should be putting into an Education category and have just created a Moodle channel which is starting to fill out with content.
I’m hoping that this will become a useful resource for those in education or other areas that will find the content useful. If anyone can think of any other channels then do let me know…
So I’ve been going through adding a couple of new TweetMeme channels today and the two key ones of the day are the San Diego Comic Con Channel and the Tour De France channel.
The Tour De France starts tomorrow so it’s already starting to fill with stories around the competitiors and the locations. Keep an eye on it if you’re a cycling fan! I’m sure it will be an interesting one for anyone who likes this sort of thing.
The San Diego Comic Con Channel is one that I personally have a big interest in as I really enjoyed my time there a few years back. To me it was the best Comic Con that I’ve ever been to. It’s full or amazing artists and some of the rarest comic collections around. There are some great auctions that go on there as well!
Earlier in the week we had a chat with Guy Kawasaki about integration of the TweetMeme content and button into AllTop and as a result TweetMeme is now on Alltop.com http://tweetmeme.alltop.com/.
As you may have already noticed Alltop is a great new way to read all our different feeds and in terms of our content it takes the top stories and aggregates them to give you a quick and simple view of what we have on our site. Feel free to take a peak and let us and Guy know what you think.
Our thanks on this one to @guykawasaki and his team for getting it all sorted out it looks great and we look forward to seeing what happens next with it.
We are currently looking to put a case forward to Wordpress.com to get our TweetMeme button plugin into Wordpress.com as part of this effort we need to gather statistics on how many people are asking for our button to be integrated into Wordpress.com. So rather than just sitting back and waiting for the requests to come in we thought the easiest way to do this was to ask everyone who is interested in having our Re-Tweet button on their wordpress.com hosted blogs to re-tweet this article. This way we can count the number of requests for the feature we are getting. We’re going to class each re-tweet as a request for integration! If you want this feature added in but don’t yet have a twitter account then do leave us a comment to let us know you want us to count you in!
By re-tweeting all your followers and friends on Twitter will also hear about this and hopefully those followers of yours who use wordpress.com will re-tweet the article and therefore help with the request count. If you also want to blog about it then that’s fine with us too! The wider the spread the more feedback we should have and hopefully the higher the likelihood that we get the information that is needed for wordpress.com.
We look forward to hearing from everyone!
