U2 Live on YouTube

Rock giants U2 will be broadcasting tonight’s concert at the Rose Bowl in a global webcast on YouTube. You can view the concert on the official U2 channel, which will be available in 16 countries.

Tonight’s concert will be an acid test for streaming live video on YouTube. In the past, Google (who owns YouTube) has said they were not interested in live streaming because of the cost. In recent months, they have begun experimenting with live streams of an Obama press conference and the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco.

The concert begins tonight at 8:30 PM PDT. That’s pretty late for those of you on the east coast, and if you’re in Europe, prepare to wake up in the wee hours of the morning. In reality, choosing to webcast a west coast concert was a shrewd choice, as the time alone will reduce the audience a bit. I like U2, and I’ll be tuning in to see how well the stream holds up under stress. It will be interesting to see how many people are able to watch simultaneously.

Twitter Down?

I’ve been getting the Twitter Fail Whale with an “over capacity” message on and off this afternoon. Apparently Twitter has been getting a lot of traffic. As they say, stuff happens. It seems to be working now, but I thought I’d share a handy tip for checking the status of the Twitter servers.

Just visit http://status.twitter.com. The folks at Twitter post updates here whenever they are experiencing networking problems, over capacity issues, etc. It’s a good place to go just to make sure the problem isn’t with your own Internet connection.

What do you do when Twitter goes down?

Dilbert Does Twitter

Scott Adams Dilbert comic provides a wickedly satirical view of life in cubespace. Dilbert, the geeky white-collar engineer, has discovered an ulterior use for Twitter — keeping up on the boss’ whereabouts. Go Dilbert!

Of course, you wouldn’t do that, would you? What creative uses of Twitter have you discovered?

Analytics for Twitter

I admit it. I’m a sucker for analytics. I love to look at the numbers, identify trends and analyze the peaks and valleys. I’ve used Google Analytics on BigBlueBall and other sites, and before that, used my own log file analysis programs. Tracking Twitter is a slightly different matter. It’s not a web site, so how do you track follower history, post trends and other stats?

Enter TwitterCounter – a free service that will let you analyze key metrics for your Twitter account (or that of any other Twitter user, for that matter). You can also chart comparisons for up to three Twitter accounts (similar to Alexa for websites); see your friends, update history (posts per day) and more.

In addition to the basic, free service, TwitterCounter is working on a “pro” version. According to their settings page:

“We are developing a Pro account for users who want to see more stats, browse back more than 3 months, track retweets, export data in Excel and CVS format and more. The Pro account will cost $32.50 a year. Are you interested in hearing more about this when it becomes available?”

They also have a clever blog widget called TwitterRemote that you can add to your blog or website. Much like similar tools from Google, Yahoo or Facebook, TwitterRemote shows recent Twitter users who visit your blog.

It will be interesting to see if TwitterRemote is able to monetize their users by enticing enough of them to convert to pro accounts. I suspect it would be attractive to businesses using Twitter, to help them manage their social presence, but it’s an increasingly competitive space.

Meanwhile, data junkies like me have another tool to play with.

AT&T Supports VoIP on the iPhone

It’s been a long, battle with a lot of finger pointing, but AT&T has officially stated that VoIP over their 3G network will be supported, opening the door to Google Voice, Skype and other apps on the iPhone and other 3G phones. While VoIP applications such as Skype were previously available, they relied exclusively on WiFi connectivity. In a statement issued today, AT&T says they have taken the steps necessary to allow Apple to enable VoIP apps for the iPhone to run on their wireless network.

“iPhone is an innovative device that dramatically changed the game in wireless when it was introduced just two years ago,” said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets. “Today’s decision was made after evaluating our customers’ expectations and use of the device compared to dozens of others we offer.”

The finger-pointing reached a head when the Google Voice app for the iPhone was apparently held up indefinitely for review. AT&T has previously stated that approval of the app was solely in the hands of Apple. Apple appears to have been threatened by the Google app replacing much of their own device’s built-in phone functionality, particularly the visual voice mail.

Customers have been clamoring for this for a long time, and at least for, the ball is very clearly in Apple’s court.

Source: Mashable

10,000 Hotmail Accounts Hacked

From the Windows Live Team blog:

Over the weekend Microsoft learned that several thousand Windows Live Hotmail customers’ credentials were exposed on a third-party site due to a likely phishing scheme.

One site indicated more than 10,000 Hotmail credentials may have been compromised. Translation: User names and passwords were illegally posted online. Most appear to be accounts in Europe and include @hotmail.com, @msn.com and @live.com accounts. If your account was on this list, you will need to fill out the form linked in the Windows Live Team post to regain access to it, as they are blocking the known compromised accounts for obvious security reasons.

If you haven’t yet read How To Avoid Phishing Worms on WLM please take time to do so. While the illegal list was removed, for a period of time, this information was available to those who may use it for phishing schemes. It is important to know what to watch out for, and how to protect yourself.

Twitter Suckers

Why do we have Twitter worms? Because there are suckers out there who willingly give away their Twitter credentials for the promise of thousands of followers. Remember, the number of followers you have is irrelevant if they don’t really care to follow you. It’s quality, not quantity that matters.

In general, always exercise caution when deciding to click a link. Sometimes it’s better to just say no.

More from Noise to Signal.

BigBlueBall Staffer Awarded Microsoft MVP

BigBlueBall staff member Doris Kenney–patndoris in the forums–has been officially recognized as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Windows Live Messenger (WLM).

The Microsoft MVP Award is an annual award that recognizes exceptional technology community leaders worldwide who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with users and Microsoft.

Rich Kaplan, VP Customer and Partner Advocacy at Microsoft said “It is with great pride we announce that Doris Kenney has been awarded as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP). All of us at Microsoft recognize and appreciate Doris’s extraordinary contributions and want to take this opportunity to share our appreciation with you.

“As a recipient of this year’s Microsoft MVP award, Doris joins an exceptional group of individuals from around the world who have demonstrated a willingness to reach out, share their technical expertise with others and help individuals maximize their use of technology.”

Of course, we at BigBlueBall are especially proud of this honor, but we are not surprised. Doris has been actively involved in our forums for a long time, sharing her expertise and helping people every day.

Congratulations, Doris!

Related Links

• Doris Kenney’s MVP profile