When I joined Twitter last year, I said I wouldn’t be able to work anymore on Twitoaster, but the whole service would keep running. Since then, it’s been quite amazing (and unexpected, I have to say) to see pure organic growth more than doubling the traffic!

I’m really happy to see this project has been useful for a few extra months, but the time has come for Twitoaster to sunset. From product goals to technical stuff, there are many areas where Twitoaster needs to evolve and to be improved. And I unfortunately don’t have the time anymore to work on all of this.

So this Sunday (March 20th):

• The Twitoaster API will be totally shut down (read & write). Any external service relying on it will obviously cease to function (i.e. Twitoaster WordPress plugin). Please note this also includes the feeds!
• The website will remain accessible in a “read-only status” for some time. That means you’ll still be able to access your threaded timelines, conversations, rankings… but nothing will be updated anymore and you won’t be able to login with your #twitter account.

I really wanted to thank you guys again for using Twitoaster. Take a last bite in the toasts while they’re still hot. I’ll update this post when I’ll actually unplug the toaster.

Update (March 20th):

• 1:40 PM (PST) - Twitoaster API + Feeds have been turned off.
• 2:15 PM (PST) – Connection to the Twitter Streaming API closed + Login disabled. No more content update starting from now!

I know you’re a lot to like the hot conversations showcased on Twitoaster front page. But I also know you’re a lot to miss some of these popular conversations, because you don’t necessarily visit Twitoaster every day.

So, I just released a new little feature showcasing the 100 most replied (and/or retweeted) tweets of the week. Take a look on it: Most popular tweets of the Week.

Note that every tweet that makes this Top 100 gets “starred”, so you can’t miss it if one of yours is selected. And to discourage “cheating”, the list is ordered by distinct users (i.e. 10 replies from the same user will count for 1, not for 10). Congratulations if one of your tweets gets listed there, and happy tweeting :)

Update: I also added the most popular tweets of the Day.

It’s been a year or so since the « Twitoaster project » has started. Thanks to your suggestions and your support, the « little threading tool » has turned into a much richer experience.

Analytics charts, statistics and rankings, Embeddable Widgets, a Conversational search engine… But also an Open API, which gave birth to a couple of nice plugins (WordPress, Blogger / iGoogle…)

I really had fun developing all of this and talking with you guys to improve Twitoaster in new and innovative ways. You’ve been more and more to use the service, it has received a very nice Press coverage, and it gave me the chance to meet and talk with so many interesting people!

The thing is I’ve also been talking with Twitter since mid-April (just after the Chirp conference, actually). Great discussions, Awesome team, and… So exciting projects! I can’t tell you more about that, but I guess you get the point: I’m now going to work at Twitter.

So what does that mean for Twitoaster? The service will keep running: the website, the API, the widgets, the plugins… Everything. But it shouldn’t evolve that much starting from now. I’m really sorry for those of you waiting for features we had planned to add, but I hope you’ll understand I’ll have to focus 100% on my new job.

I hope you enjoyed – and you’ll continue to enjoy – Twitoaster as much as I did. Thanks again to all of you! That was really fun, and it’s going to be awesome at Twitter :)

So far, only Twitter conversations were displayed on your Twitoaster profile pages, so Tweets that didn’t receive any reply (or retweet) where hidden.

If it’s a great way to visualize which tweets are attracting attention, some users have recently expressed interest in having their whole timeline displayed on Twitoaster (including “orphan” tweets that didn’t receive replies or retweets).

Because such a change represents quite a big move for Twitoaster, I’m introducing it through a private beta test.

The feature will be activated on demand, and only for a couple of users. If you join the beta test, all your Tweets will be displayed on your Twitoaster profile page, and you’ll have a new Display Filter option, giving you the choice between :

• All Tweets (default): Whole timeline.
• With Replies: Only Tweets that received at least 1 reply.
• With Retweets: Only Tweets that received at least 1 retweet.

If you want to see an example, take a look on Pmablog Twitoaster page. In the same way, you’ll see the Twitoaster widget he’s using on his Blog (in the right sidebar) is also displaying all tweets, and not only conversations.

Want to join the Beta Test? I’m looking for active Twitter users who would ideally have a blog to test both the Widget and their Twitoaster profile page. If you’re interested, please contact me on Twitter, my username is @rno. Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions :)

A new Twiter widget displaying your most recent Twitter conversations is now available on all Twitoaster Profile pages.

This Twitter Widget brings most of Twitoaster features to your website: conversations threading, statistics… And it allows your visitors to reply/tweet directly from it, without leaving your website (clicking on the little arrows in black).

Take a look on this screenshot (example for the NYT profile page). See the “Widget” yellow box on top-left?

Set the width and height you want for your Twitter Widget, and it will show you a preview.

Then, you simply have to copy/paste the embed code provided, and you’re all set! Here is a “live” example, embeding the NYT Twitter Widget on this post (300px by 450px):

Note a Google Gadget has also been released, so you can use this Twitter widget on your iGoogle, or on your Blogger hosted blog:

The Twitter Hot Conversations appearing on Twitoaster home page are now linked to the countries they are “coming from”.

The country you’re living in should be automatically detected, but you also have the possibility to change it, if you want to see what’s going on elsewhere.

Select a Country, and it will display its most active conversations.

These most active conversations are updated nearly real time (every 5 minutes). I hope you’ll enjoy it! :)

You can now embed a Twitter conversation on your blog or your website (just like you do for a YouTube video) through our Twitter Conversation Widget.

On all conversations – tracked in real time on Twitoaster – you’ll find a new purple button called “Embed Conversation”. Simply define the size of the widget and copy/paste the code in a blog post, a forum, a website, etc. That’s it! Your readers can now react and follow the Twitter conversation.

This embed feature can be very useful if you want to highlight your followers’ reactions to a question, show a Twitter survey results… Your readers will have the opportunity to react in real time via Twitter, directly from the widget, without leaving your website/blog.

Sometimes, I receive questions from users wondering why a specific tweet mentioning their username is not appearing on their Twitoaster page. Most of the time, it’s because the tweet is neither a reply (in reply to a given a tweet) nor a retweet (reusing a given tweet) but a simple mention (a tweet where your @username appears).

Twitoaster is not handling these simple mentions. The reason is it’s quite difficult to guess if a mention is just a spontaneous tweet someone wanted to highlight on your timeline; or if it’s actually a reply / retweet.

I already made a couple of tests using a time window algorithm (grouping mentions with the closest tweet you made) but it retrieved far too much “false positives”.

A good idea would probably be to mix this technique with semantic analysis, but it’s a heavy development for something that probably won’t worth it… Most of people who really want to reply (and not just drag your attention) are making a real reply.

So I’m opening the debate: Would you like to see these simple mentions handled on Twitoaster, or is it useless? If there are developers around, I’d be happy to hear their technical suggestions! Think also to share this post if you know some Twitter devs :)

How many twitterers are reading your tweets?

Well… You obviously get an idea if you take a look on your number of followers. But when a tweet is retweeted by someone, this “someones’s followers” are also receiving – and probably reading – your tweet as well.

This is what I call 2^nd level Followers: the number of users who are receiving your tweets, but who are not following you directly. And there can be many!

Here is an example, with this @jbruin conversation read by 350,000+ users, where she has “only” 9,500 followers.

Because this number is different for every tweet you make, it is displayed on every Twitoaster conversations pages. A good metric for measuring how viral a tweet can be!

I also included an average count of these second-level followers on your profile pages, next to the regular followers number.

Let me know what you think about it!

As announced a few days ago, real time threading and retweets (RT) support is now active for all Twitoaster users!

Real time threading means no more “sync” delays. If you tweet, reply or retweet something from Twitter or any other Twitter application, you’ll see it a few seconds later, threaded on Twitoaster.

For Retweets, they are handled the same way replies are, which means you’ll find them in conversations, charts, rankings…

I hope you’ll enjoy these two brand new features!