Twitter Virus Coming?

This is a question I have been wondering since I joined the Twitter community. Almost all links are shortened using a site like tinyURL.com. What is to stop someone from getting a few followers and linking to a virus, not too unlike viruses that have floated around Facebook. I posed this question on Twitter with the responses below. What are your thoughts?

PennyCave.com - Don't Be Fooled

I came across the new site PennyCave.com last night and was immediately impressed by whoever came up with the idea. The site is simple: An eBay-style auction site for brand new electronics, gadgets, and video games where every auction starts at 1 penny. Users place bids increasing the price by one penny at a time, until the time runs out and the winner pays a fraction of the cost of the actual product.

Here is the catch (there are actually two):
1. Each time you place a bid (increasing price 1 penny), you pay $1.
2. Each time you place a bid, the countdown timer starts over (most auctions are 1-3 minutes long)

Example: The bidding for an iPod touch starts at $0.00 at 10am. When the auction starts, the countdown timer starts at 2:00 minutes and counts down. Each time a user places a bid (adding a cent), the timer starts over. When the timer runs down to zero, the winner only pays the final bid price, plus 1 dollar for every time they bid.

The designers are making tons of money and creating an addicting atmosphere. If PennyCave.com lists an item they are selling (iPod Touch with retail of $230) and sell it for $10.00 ($1000 of bid money goes to them for each 1 penny bid made), they will make a heap of money. The countdown timer creates a sense of urgency for the bidder, and since it restarts with every bid, it actually doesn't matter if you bid at the last minute.

The risk to users is that you can sit there for hours increasing the bidding (the auction of the iPod touch I watched started at 10am today and is still going on right now), and end up investing a lot of money into the auction ($1 each time you bid), and then not actually winning. The auctions that are currently running never have their original start time listed, and there is no way to tell how far a bidder is in already or how far they will go. A bidder could have bid 50 times (spending $50 already to try and win) and a new bidder could enter the auction and drive the original bidder away because they had spent too much money. Caution to those thinking they can beat the system: You can't win.

Citizen Journalism Takes a Credibility Hit

Citizen journalism is a great idea. People can post breaking news as it happens before the media can get to it. One problem though: fake news. This became an issue today with someone posting on CNN's iReport that Steve Jobs had been rushed to the hospital because of a heart attack.

The story was posted to iReports homepage and sent Apple's stock price for a dive. This definitely confirms the power of internet rumors as well as the power of the individual on the internet.

Citizen journalism is a tricky issue. You want people to upload news instantly, but you also want it to be legitimate. By the time you check sources for the breaking news, it will have likely already been covered by other outlets. Strict moderation of sites is a good option. Also, with major news stories such as a heart attack of a major figure, it would be wise to get a credible source before posting it to the homepage.

To see an in-depth summary of this issue, check out this article.

Twitter Terminology (Twerminology)

While being an active Twitter user (follow me here) I have been exposed to a whole new set of terms on Twitter. Below is a list of the most common phrases that I have run into. Feel free to leave other terms I missed in the comments.

Tweeps - People on Twitter
Tweeples - Plural form of Tweeps
Tweets - Posts on Twitter
Twitosphere - Everything on Twitter
Tworld - The world of Twitter
Twittertude - To have a bad attitude on Twitter

And my favorite....

Twis - To dis someone over Twitter

From TV to the Computer

It was announced last week that ratings for all of the TV premiers were down from last year. Can't say I'm surprised. Did anyone really expect them to go up?

One reason they dropped: the rise of TV on the internet. Hulu has shown a big increase in popularity over the last year, with NBC being a major backer behind it. More people are shifting towards watching TV shows at their convenience, instead of only at a specific time slot. I believe there is a correlation between the rise in popularity of the DVR and internet TV. Both let you watch almost any show whenever you want. While DVR lets you skip commercials, internet TV cuts down on commercial time significantly.

Another reason: It is free. Why buy the cow (cable subscription) when you get the milk (tv shows) for free? When people started sharing CDs online illegally, the labels went after them. The TV networks are doing the opposite by offering up their content online also.

This is a step in the right direction for TV networks. They are embracing their customers and adopting to what they want. They learned from the mistakes of the music industry and embracing change.

WSJ has more on this here.