Tweet Street View

Drive the streets and read the tweets. Our mashup for Google Street View and Twitter – Tweet Street View has been updated.

Drive with Street View and see tweets nearby. You can see Street View and either an appropriate map or a list of nearby messages from Twitter. So, you can read the latest real-time news for the places you are in with Street View.

By default mashup shows some predefined sites and you can see your own location. Just pass your latitude/longitude pair to the URL. Parameters are

lat - latitude
lng - longitude

So, it looks like this:

http://tsv.linkstore.ru?lat=YOUR_LATITUDE&lng=YOUR_LONGITUDE

E.g. drive through El Camino Real

Technically it is Google Street View (via Gmaps utils) + Twitter search + several mashups from our directory.

Puzzle for Facebook

Our mashup Puzzle for Facebook has been updated. Lets you create a puzzle with photo from profile.

For example, Mark Zuckerberg

Btw, you can copy puzzle to your mobile phone (via QR-code)

Productivity tools

"These online tools focusing on your core work responsibility and help in various tasks and help to add value in your tasks. Most of them are not very well-known, but they are really amazing in respect to their features." - 15 Free Productivity Tools To Simplify Your Work Life For Web Professionals

Mobile bookmark for locations

Our mashup Location bookmark has been updated again. It lets you create two things:

1) QR code for mobile map associated with the given address
2) HTML for putting that QR code on your site

So with this tool you can place on your own site (blog etc.) – e.g. somewhere in Contacts or About pages QR code for any given address (e.g. address of your company, office etc.). And any visitor of your site will be able simply to scan this code and load that map right into own phone. So they (visitors) do not need to write/print/remember your address/driving directions anymore. He/she can just load an appropriate mobile map right from your site. Loaded map could be simply bookmarked on the phone (loaded map is just URL).
And driving directions as well as many other interesting things will come automatically with the mobile map (we are using Geo Messages).

Of course, QR code created with this mashup could be placed anywhere. E.g. add it to some article in your blog, print and place it on the wall etc. Also QR – code is just a view that simplify loading of some mobile-friendly URL with map. Actually mashups creates at the first hand that URL and only after that creates QR-code for it. So you can publish in your blog a mobile-friendly URL too. Your mobile readers will be able to open/bookmark that URL directly.

P.S. similar projects:

QR map - lets you create QR code right from the map. This mashup also can create a link to mobile friendly map (iPhone, Android).
Mecard - lets you create QR code for loading address data (contact info) right from your site
Location from Twitter - lets you copy address info from Twitter (via QR-code again)
Tips - lets you copy address data right from social recommendations (Foursquare).

Weather info via Twitter

We wrote already about our Twitter mashup – Twitter 411 service. It is a web application lets you easily create your own Twitter bots. Bot here is an application that receives some requests via Twitter and responds with your own data. You define a form for the request as well as the content for the response. Here is an example for such a bot (stock market).

As a response for the bot within t411 service you can provide any CGI script (e.g. jsp, java servlet, php etc.) on your own site. See again here a complete example (JSP) for stock market bot.

And now let us see a yet another example. Now it is a weather bot.
How does it work? The source data provided by the site yr.no This site contains weather forecast around the world. And what is important, you can pickup weather data in XML or RSS format. So it is a quick deal to build some automation processing. We create a new bot for t411 service – code for the request is w

As a reaction for this bot we've set a JSP file that obtains RSS data from yr.no, presents them in mobile ready form and responds back with a link to the requested forecast. Here is a part of that file:

<div class="content">

<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/taglib374.tld" prefix="w" %>

<w:setLocation url="http://www.yr.no/place/United_Kingdom/England/London/" ttl="36000" id="A"/>

<w:forEachDay feedId="A">

<strong><%=itemTitle%></strong><br/>
<img src="<%=itemImage%>" style="border:0;float:left;padding-right:5px" alt=''/>
<%=itemDescription%><br/><br/>
</w:forEachDay>

<br/>&copy; <w:getChannelCopyright feedId="A"/>
<w:getChannelLink feedId="A" id="url"/>
<br/><a href="<%=url%>">Original data</a><br/>

</div>

code uses the Weather taglib from Coldtags suite. Tag setLocation requests rss feed (and caches it for 10 hours. Tag forEachDay outputs data. And finally we prints a copyright information as well as the back link (as it is required by yr.no)

The rest of the deal is standard. Send to user @t411 a reply or direct message for the weather forecast you are interested in.

Here are examples (what the bot recognizes and what you have to send as reply or direct message to @t411):

w london  get forecast for London
w paris   get forecast for Paris
w msk     get forecast for Moscow
w spb     get forecast for Sankt-Petersburg

And the result (you will get a reply or direct message back) is a link to the mobile site with the forecast. Because it is a mobile site you will be able to open it right from your mobile phone.

The direct messages from Twitter could be delivered by SMS to user's mobile. And so – the mobile link will be delivered too. That was the original idea for t411 service – Twitter could be used as an alternative model for programming SMS services. Twitter is a new transport layer here.

JSOS ver. 7.35

Coldbeans Software announced the next milestone in JSOS (servlets office suite) development. JSOS reaches the version 7.35.

This largest collection of Java servlets and filters provides 150+ "out of the box" components ready for building web-pages. One of the biggest parts is the rich set of filters. Package includes such components as XML and WML transcoding, access restriction, traffic restriction, caching, profiling etc. All components are configurable, so you may incorporate them into your own design frameset. Components from JSOS do support mobile web, so the same set of components can be used for wireless users too. At this moment JSOS provides a largest set of servlets and filters over the Net.

Check out the latest version of Java Servlets Office Suite here: http://www.servletsuite.com

Marketing resources

A good collection - 21 Must Read Resources for Startup Marketing

Calculator in Twitter

A yet another interesting usage for Twitter 411 mashup: Google's calculator, available via Twitter. Just send to @t411 a reply or direct message in the following format:

gc your_request

For example:

gc 100 rubles in dollars

You can use any Google's built-in calculator function.

Twitter: map on demands

One new service for Twitter - map on demands. Based on our Twitter 411 mashup (see more articles about Twitter 411 here).

It is a bot lets you obtain a map for some address. How does it work:

Send to @t411 a reply or direct message in the following format:

   map some_address

  For example:

   map Palo Alto

you will get the response in Twitter (as a reply or direct message too) with the map for the given address. The map will be delivered in the form of the static picture - so you can see it on any mobile phone for example. We are using here the same idea as in our Mobile Maps mashup - Google static maps.

Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

And here you can read the technical details - how to create the similar new bot for Twitter.

Twitter talk bot

One interesting feature in Twitter 411 service. This mashup lets users create own programmable Twitter bots. They are so calling messaging bots - so they will respond to direct messages.Service lets you register (reserve) some keywords (words, direct messages started with) and define your own reactions (including your own CGI scripts) for the reserved words in the incoming messages. Here you can see more about building your own information systems on the top of Twitter and how you can easily create your own Twitter bot.

But if you will simply send any reply or DM to Twitter user @t411 and the first word in your message is not reserved for the service you will get answer from the default service - talk robot. Of course, it is not a famous Eliza from J.Veizenbaum, but anyway it can support the conversation, so you can talk. Try to reply to @t411 and talk with the robot.

Mobile forums

Our mashup Mobile forums has been updated. It lets you create a mobile web page for the discussions (via Disqus API) and an appropriate QR-code for the quick access. Just place this code on any real (physical) object and you (your customers, visitors etc.) will get a forum for this object. Tested for HTML5 mobile browsers (iPhone, Android, Bada, Opera 10.1 etc.).

Similar applications from our directory:

Geo talk - discussions on the map
City forum - Places + discussions
Place card - Facebook Like button for the real objects
QR-code maker - mobilize your content with QR codes

Social Graph and social links for sites

Our mashup Social graph for sites has been updated.

Lets you search sites associated with the given URL (e.g. other sites from the same author) as well as the links (recommendations) in the social networks.

You can directly set your URL and search type in the request too. For example:

mashable.com - more mashables
dzone.com - links to dzone

P.S. check out also:

Whois for Twitter
Whois for Facebook

Google Places

Our Google Places mashup has been updated. Full screen map with known places. Lets you see also the POI sets for the same area from Foursquare and Facebook. Which database is bigger?

You can directly provide the following parameters for the basic URL:

lat - latitude
lng - longitude
q - query string for search

For example, Google Places in London

P.S. and here you can see Facebook Places

Facebook Like for real objects

Our mashup Place card has been updated again. Lets you place Facebook Like button on the physical object.

Mashup creates QR-code for mobile page (and that page itself, of course) with Facebook's Like button. As soon as QR-code (e.g. placed on the product's wrap) is scanned and an appropriate URL is opened in the mobile browser we can show Like counts. And of course, mobile user will see who from his/her friends likes that too. As a result – we have a simple recommendation system on the base things from Facebook.

It works for any HTML5 browser (iPhone, Android etc.)

It is possible also to check out stats for created pages (we are using FBstat here)

Places from Facebook

You are welcome to check out a new version of our mashup Places from Facebook.

Lets you search for places, show them on the map, copy locations to mobile, check-in anywhere as well as prepare mobile web pages for check-in

You can directly pass the following parameters to the basic URL:

lat - latitude
lng - longitude
q - query for search

For example, Facebook in London

P.S. and here you can see Google Places

P.P.S. See also QRpon – customized check-ins for Facebook

Mobile 2.0 Europe

We continue to publish links for monitoring the interesting events in Twitter. Now it is Mobile 2.0, Barselona, 2011



/via Geo Messages

P.S. and the same in Twi-gazeta Mobile 2.0

How to make a bot for Twitter

Twitter bot is an application that automatically responds to users requests. It could be done in Twitter either via @reply postings or via direct messages.

Here we will show how to use Twitter 411 service for your own bots creation. E.g. you can create there your own information system for the business or private purposes.

411 for Twitter uses Twitter as transport layer. A potential user can follow to @t411 and send direct messages to @t411 or simply post a reply. The responses will come back as replies or direct messages too. And users of Twitter 411 service define how to proceed requests. They can reserve some keywords as well as associated rules described how to proceed messages starting with that keyword.

As a method of message processing service users can choose an URL for some CGI script. This script will be responsible for the processing the incoming messages and producing the responses. Twitter 411 service works in this case as a daemon: gets a message, passes it to the appropriate CGI script, reads the response and sends it back. Let us see how does it looks like practically. Service Twitter 411 includes build-in bot lets you request stock quotes. Let us see its internals:

1. We've registered a keyword t (just a letter t). So all the direct messages starting with t (t will be processed by this bot.

2. Our bot expects messages in the following format t stock_symbol for getting the quote. For example:
t ORCL - quote for Oracle
or
t LNKD - quote for Linkedin

3. As a processing engine for this bot we've set an URL for JSP file. It is our CGI script for the processing: http://linkstore.ru/t411/quote.jsp. For this bot our processing will be placed on the same server, but of course you can provide your own URL for any available server.

4. We can instruct Twitter 411 (our daemon) pass the whole incoming message to our CGI script. So in service's GUI we've set actually the following URL :
http://linkstore.ru/t411/quote.jsp?t=text
Service (daemon) will replace the variable text with the original request. For example, for the following incoming message t ORCL the final request to CGI script will looks so: http://linkstore.ru/t411/quote.jsp?t=t%20ORCL.

Now let us see the script itself. In our case it is JSP file expecting requests with the parameter t. And parameter's value will be in the following form t stock_symbol. So, our script (JSP file) will read parameter's value, extract stock symbol (part of the string after the space), request quote and print the result. It is all. For example:

<%@ page contentType="text/plain; charset=utf-8" %>
<%@ taglib uri="taglib27.tld" prefix="get" %>

<%
String t = request.getParameter("t");
if (t==null)
{ out.println("unknown");
return; }

// the pattern is: t <space> stock_symbol

int i = t.indexOf(" ");

if (i<=0) { out.println(t+"?? could not get ticket"); return; } t = t.substring(i+1).trim(); %>

<get:Quote symbol="<%=t.toUpperCase()%>" id="A" />

<%=A.get(0)+": "+A.get(1)+" "+A.get(9)%>


Here our JSP file prints the quote and its chart (we've used custom tags from Coldtags suite)

In other words - all what do you need for your own Twitter bot is just an ordinary CGI script with your own processing. You can program your own script, reuse something existing component etc. And your Twitter bot could be placed on any web server with CGI scripts support.

Static sites

Sometimes, all a geek needs is a quick way to generate a static site and put it up on a server or hosting service like Amazon S3 or GitHub Pages. We've compiled a list of static website generators that can be used for exactly this purpose - 32 Static Website Generators For Your Site, Blog Or Wiki

Messaging server for Twitter

Our mashup for creating information servers on top of Twitter has been updated. Twitter 411 service lets you easily build your own information system that used Twitter as a transport layer. The idea is very transparent. You can define your own keywords as well as data, associated with the selected keywords. Users will ask service via replies or direct messages in Twitter and receive responses as replies and direct messages too. Simply, you can send request with some user defined keywords and get reply with an appropriate response.

It is like old information services with SMS. Send some formatted SMS to service number and get reply. Now you can use Twitter for such kind of services. And @t411 plays a role of "service phone number".

User defined responses could be provided as some texts (of course, the keyword owner will be able to change/update the text any time) or (what is more interesting) as URL's for the external CGI scripts. So you can reserve a keyword and provide your own CGI script for the responses. The engine simply calls this URL in order to get the response. And the text of the original request could be passed as HTTP parameter.

The usage for this service is transparent. Just send reply or direct message to @t411. Of course, for direct messages you should be mutual friend with @t411, where replies could be used without any restrictions.

Some examples or build-in services:

test - just a test for the service
t stock_ticket. E.g.: t LNKD - returns price for the ticket. This service uses an external CGI script for getting quotes.

And by the way, it is automatically a mobile service too.

Technically, mashup uses appropriate components (including Twitter taglib) from Coldtags suite.

Bookmarklets

Yet another good tutorial for creating bookmarklets

P.S. check out here our collection of bookmarklets

HTML5 templates

A new collection of free web templates. For example, Undiscovered template looks interesting.

Templates for maps

Templates for Google Maps related mashups - Cartoview

QR code maker

Our mashup QR-code generator has been updated. It is a quick way to mobilize any content (just a copy/paste procedure). Simply copy your text and get mobile web page as well as an appropriate QR code.

You can also add file for downloading, open links with wireless transcoder (lets you see web pages on the limited mobile web browsers, program your mobile page for one time access only. In the last case your visitor will be able to open that page only once. Could be convenient for delivering some secure or non-free context.

A new version of mashup lets you add mobile discussions to your page as well as Google Analytics.

P.S. the similar mashups inspired discussions feature are City forums and Mobile forum

Icons

Useful collection: 20 Most Useful Free Web-Icon Set for Web Designers

Social checkin

"This TopGuest social checkin service (for iPhone) with hotel reward program + fb + foursquare + instagram integration. Now when I checkin from any venue I can start gathering even more points – an interesting concept." - from here.

Great. It is another proof of concept for our QRpon project. We were first in introducing business-oriented customized checkins.

Viral video

Interesting read: Overview of What Makes Up Viral Videos – Styles & Tips

HTML5 template

A good tutorial: HTML5 + CSS3 + jQuery

Google Places API

Our first experiment with Google Places API - Google Places mashup. Full screen map with known places. Lets you see also the POI sets for the same area from Foursquare and Facebook. Who knows more?

Places from Facebook

You are welcome to check out a new version of our mashup Places from Facebook.

Lets you search for places, show them on the map, copy locations to mobile, check-in anywhere as well as prepare mobile web pages for check-in

P.S. See also QRpon – customized check-ins for Facebook

You can directly pass the following parameters to the basic URL:

lat - latitude
lng - longitude
q - query for search

For example, Facebook in London