Erictric

Twitter Grants Startups Full Access to Data Feed of All Public Tweets

Twitter announced today on its official blog that it is granting a handful of new search startups partners full access to all its data feed of public tweets — something they call “the firehose.” Up until now, only big renowned search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo have been able to take advantage to the fullest of Twitter’s Firehose of data. The other 50,000 application already utilizing Twitter’s Streaming API have been set different limits as to how much they can take.

Now, smaller search startups including Ellerdale, Collecta, Kosmix, Scoopler, twazzup, CrowdEye, and Chainn Search, which is yet to launch, have all gained full access to Twitter’s Firehose. It’s not really clear though, if these startups will have to pay like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to make use of said data. More »

Status Updates From Facebook Pages Are Now Part of Google’s Real-Time Search

Just eight days ago, we reported that Google had finally integrated MySpace updates from public pages into its real-time search feature, which was launched back in December at the Google Search Event in Mountain View, California. Google had originally announced that public updates from both MySpace and Facebook would be integrated into the service. Though up until now, Facebook was nowhere to be seen.

With that said, Google announced a few moments ago in a tweet [pictured above] that status updates from public Facebook Pages are now part of real-time search results. Alas, there’s a catch. Most Facebook Pages are for celebrities, events, brands, politicians, etc. and there are only about 3 million of them. That means that Google will not be utilizing public updates from the more than 400 million Facebook users. Why, you ask? Turns out that Facebook is granting that privilege almost exclusively to Bing, though the feature is not yet live on Microsoft’s search engine. More »

MySpace Updates Now Part of Google’s Real-Time Search

Back in December at its Search Event, Google introduced its Real-Time Search service, which already is a useful feature that utilizes updates from various sources like Twitter and FriendFeed. Now, MySpace updates have been added to the service. That means that all status updates from public profiles will be included in the stream of real-time updates, which sometimes is featured in the results page.

The MySpace Update integration was announced by Google Vice President of Search Product and User Experience Marissa Mayer the same day that Google introduced Real-Time Search, and it’s finally taking effect today. Facebook is yet to be integrated, but we expect such integration to take place very soon.

To access the stream of live updates, just click on “Updates” in the advanced search bar on the left side. Check out one more screenshot after the break. More »

Google to Send 100,000 Invitations to Preview Google Wave

Just as we reported back in July, Google announced today in an official Google Blog post that on Wednesday, September 30 they will send 100,000 invitations to preview Google Wave to active developers, some of the first users to sign up for testing and select customers of Google Apps. This does not mean Google Wave is launching to the public today [ahem, Mashable].  As Google says it, “Google Wave isn’t quite ready for prime time. Not yet, anyway.”

Google will ask some of these “early users” to nominate people they know to also send them an invitation. This will make the Google Wave experience for these users even more fun since Google Wave is a communication tool and who better to test it with than your friends and relatives? Google also expects to send more invitations to more people soon.

It is said that when the invitations are sent, the current interface of the Google Wave website, which currently has an embedded video of the Google Wave preview at Google I/O, will be replaced with the application itself.

These 100,000 people will be very lucky indeed. This we can tell because we’ve gotten a lot of feedback from people who are extremely excited about Google Wave. All we hope is that some of our readers get an invitation [let us know if you do]. We’ll keep following this story.

MyBlackBerry Opens to The General Public

At the beginning of last month, we reported that RIM was launching a social networking site for BlackBerry users named MyBlackBerry. At that time, you needed an invite to have access to the site. Today, the site is open to everyone who owns a BlackBerry device.  So, if you’re a BlackBerry addict and would like to stay in touch with other BlackBerry users, be sure to go to http://na.blackberry.com/eng/myblackberry/ and register now.

[ CrackBerry ]

YouTube’s Redesign Finally Goes Live

At the beginning of this month, Erictric was the first to bring the news of a possible redesign to the YouTube homepage when my colleague Eric [the first person to notice the change] captured the screenshots and wrote about it. Last night, YouTube finally released the new design to the general public. Just like the screenshots Eric took, the new design emphasizes the search bar but it has also been modified slightly by re-arranging the different sections. A statement explaining the redesign was written on The YouTube Blog:

“We’ve streamlined and simplified the design to focus on the primary experience of YouTube: watching a video. The left side is dedicated to exploration: finding videos to watch through search and browse. The right side is all about organization of the videos that matter most to you: your subscriptions, your recent viewing history, and your own uploads. A few features have been removed from this area, to keep it as clean and functional as possible.”

AKA, we rock.

Google Wave Beta To Be Released In September To 100,000 Users

Remember Google Wave? With so many great products and applications coming out or being announced lately, I guess we all kind of forgot about the Wave, right? Well, on Monday it was announced that Google will be releasing a public Beta to 100,000 users on September 30th. If you would like to sign up head over to wave.google.com to join the developers already surfing the Wave, dude! Be serious though, Google wants people to test it, report any bugs and send feedback.

Yahoo! Will Launch Search Pad to The General Public Tonight

Google Voice Finally Sending Invites to General Public

On June 18, we reported Google Voice was finally becoming public. Sadly, It did not happen that day. But great news, folks! Google announced yesterday that if you’ve requested an invite on GrandCentral or what is Google Voice now, to expect an invite e-mail soon. They have decided to move beyond former GrandCentral users and start releasing it to the general public slowly (small steps, people). Once you get your invitation, you need to click on the link provided and follow the instructions there on. They have even provided a tool for members that helps you find a phone number by area code and/or personalized text. You might find and pick a specific word or number combination. If you would like to receive an invitation, make sure you sign up at Google Voice Invite page.