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I just recently discovered when I write in a super bad or super pissed off, or super good mood, I write like Paul Carr, the newly hire at Techcrunch. While I have been away from my own blog for a while, here is the first lousy attempt for the weekly round up in the twitter app. Seriously, all I did was to dig into my previous notes (4 months old), shit load of techcrunch posts for the whole week, (seriously, the economy is bad but TC keeps hiring crazy kids, someone is getting paid!) and occasionally, I took a look at RWW, a more geeky tech blog in my opinion. I used to get my tipped off from entrepreneurs themselves and I still occasionally do but for now, let’s just be lazy.

So what are the big stories last week?: Zappo got its big pay day from Amazon; Rumors about Apple’s tablet PC (I think it will be AWESOME!, not the rumor, the iTab, oops that is just my guess of its name). Yahoo’s earning dropped 13%, Google’s earning increased by 3%, Microsoft: missed earning – for every dollar it made from online, it lost in its campaign. This is exactly like my CPC ad budget allocated among Google, Yahoo and MSN, in a slightly different proportion. Yahoo bought Xoopit (again, no idea what they do); Kevin Spacy explained twitter to David letterman, who in turn called twitter a waste of time. Twitter cracked down spam account and I lost more than 100 spam followers in one day, yeah! I was trying to lose them forever. Twitter unveiled a live-updating twitter search widget and twitter 101 for business. But what is the big deal about it? Twazzup does that live update ages ago!

In the twitter app world, following is a mix of new and old relevant apps.
1. twitterAround.com
2. Buddy Media’s “ultimate twitter client for brand management”, think cotweet for brand marketing.
3. Localbunny.com: problematic, but smart idea helping small business stay on top of market pulse through keyword identification and in time response.
4. tunein.com: find relevant information through people you care
5. tweetlinx, twitRollr, tweetMixx.com, retweet.com: all trying to do similar things as tweetmeme
6. Izea’s sponsoredtwts.com: ad network for twitter, similar players like twittAd.com, tweetROI, adcause.com, magpie.

That is the quick lousy update for the tech world. Thanks to the inner hard working me trying to get myself back on track on a foggy Sunday night like this one. Cheers!

By now, there are tons of “follower management” tools on the market and hardly any of them is perfect, nevertheless, some gained more momentum than others, Tweepler.com is one of such. Techcrunch even ran a full length report about it early January. Months have gone by, tweepler’s growth seems holding up, so I decided to “ring” Corey up for a quick follow up interview. The idea is to get personal and some more “intimate” thoughts/conversation going, although the answers I got were a bit high level, many linking to its FAQ and the earlier report on TechCrunch, not nearly as informative as other twitter app founders that I have spoken to, but I definitely appreciate the developments/funding related information, and key insights from Cory on why the app is successful as is. Take a look.

1. What is Tweepler?
Cory: See http://www.tweepler.com/faq
In TechCrunch’s word back in January 09:

Tweepler is definitely a time saver and an easier way of managing followers on Twitter than the currently available apps and Twitter.com, but it’s also something that you’ll likely use only once or twice, unless you’re really popular and gain dozens of new followers a day….But if you’re on Twitter, make sure you give it a spin and see if it’s a better way for you to manage your Twitter social graph (and follow @tweepler for updates).

2. How did you come up with the idea? How’s your past background serve up this venture?
Cory: See http://www.tweepler.com/faq

3. How long did it take to bring the idea to launch? Are you a full blown start up with funding or bootstrapping?
Cory: No funding. Idea was for fun. Duration was a few weeks over christmas holidays, total time was probably 60 – 70 man hours.

4. How’s user adoption so far?
Cory: Indexed over 1.2 million users on Twitter (3rd degree since our app imports everyones followers)

5. There are so many followers-managing tools out there…If there is one thing that you think the key to the success of the Tweepler, what is it?
Cory: Not a lot of good tools for follower management though. Our app had one sole purpose that no one was addressing. Processing followers. 1st to market, intuitive and nice looking UI. Easy of use. simplicity. Viral features added into the app. Word of mouth that people spread because we have a great product. Our article on Tech Crunch definitely helped.

6. What is the business model?
Cory: See http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/21/regain-control-over-your-twitter-social-graph-with-tweepler/

In Techcrunch’s word: Essentially they would give people the option of advertising their account so they’d show up on top of the interface and/or as a ’suggested follow’ and pay up per follower they gain through Tweepler. As much as I like the application and the people who built it, I can’t imagine that this business model will work, and frankly I hope they’re not expecting too much from it.

7. Future plan? Technology, business partnership, products etc.?
Cory: Enhancements, we don’t like to go into too many details here. We have some neat ideas in store though.

Smallaa aims to group your social media “stream” into category by interests. In their own words: “Smallaa makes people’s conversations in their multiple social networking websites more about their own interests – The ability to follow only the most interesting aspects of the people you like.”

TechCrunch just released its first article about it, mentioning Facebook and twitter integration is on the way.

P.s. Pay attention to what he says toward the end of the video.