Microblogging, with the wide usage of Twitter, is a hot subject in today’s web.

Using few words & spending less effort compared to the standard blogging, it becomes possible to share knowledge, feelings, etc. And, it keeps users connected to other users with the simple yet powerful community features.

While there are very popular microblogging services like Twitter, Tumblr or Plurk, being a rival may not be (or may be) the best idea. However, in order to create something unique, a community for a closed group or a microblog for a single user, there are still huge opportunities.

Here are 9 open source microblogging applications to create your own:

StatusNet (PHP)

StatusNet (previously Laconica) is the engine which runs the popular microblogging site Identi.ca.

It is built with PHP/MySQL & offers a smooth usage as it is a widely used, mature application.

P.S. The source can be found here.

Yonkly (Asp.Net)

Yonkly is an Asp.Net-powered Twitter-clone for creating your own microblogging community network.

Besides the open source version, it has a hosted & an advanced standalone version.

Read the rest of this entry »

Benjamin Reid is sharing a set of 81 social bookmarking icons named Social Media Bookmark Icon + where it is possible to find almost every social network.

The "+" in the name refers to the continuous additions being made to the set upon user requests.

They come in 3 different sizes:

• 16*16px
• 32*32px
• 122*42px (large buttons)

And, all icons are in PNG format.

Pubwich is an open-source PHP application that enables anyone to display the data from multiple websites/services in a single HTML page.

It is a perfect "instant website" for anyone who is active in social networks.

Besides the ability to show content of any website via RSS/Atom feeds, it supports popular web services like:

• Delicious
• Facebook
• Flickr
• last.fm
• ReaderNaut
• Twitter
• Vimeo
• Youtube

Although the default theme already offers a nice presentation, it can be easily themed (uses Savant template engine) for a unique look & feel.

Twitter offers various options to customize the look & feel of profile pages which is a great way to make them reflect "what type of content to be tweeted", "match the look of a brand" or just "make them nicer & unique".

Background images are the ones which creates the biggest difference & here are 26 websites to find free Twitter backgrounds. 

Twitter Patterns

TwitterImage.com

Read the rest of this entry »

John Resig is sharing very functional script named Easy Retweet Button that will simplify "the sharing of your content on Twitter".

It is an unobtrusive JavaScript file for displaying a retweet link with a shortened URL via Bit.ly (similar to Tweetmeme) & number of clicks came to that content from Twitter.

Easy Retweet Button has 2 ready-to-go styles: vertical & horizontal. And it can be easily themed as only HTML, CSS & JavaScript is used.

It is possible to customize the "Retweet" text, prefix of the tweets (like RT @..) & Bit.ly username / API key to be used.

It offers various advantages like:

• speed: it works completely asynchronously
• tracking: all the tracking is done via Bit.ly & clicks from retweets can be tracked from a single interface

Steps For Using It With Wordpress:

This is nothing complicated but can save your time:

Read the rest of this entry »

Ptwix is an open source web component, that is built with PHP, for displaying tweets in an Ajaxed interface.

It can be configured to show your tweets or the tweets of your friends.

Once a webpage is loaded, the latest tweets are shown & "an update button" can make an Ajax call to get the new ones.

The component comes with 3 ready-to-use themes & new ones can be created by updating the CSS + images used.

Ptwix is so easy to install & it supports caching for faster loading.

Besides anything we write on a website, we also create content on 3rd party services by:

• uploading images, videos (Flickr, Youtube..)
• saving bookmaks or voting (Delicious, Digg..)
• listening to music (Last.fm..)
• logging "what we are doing right now" (Twitter, Facebook..)
• & more..

AmpliFeeder is an open source lifestream application which can combine every activity we have on other services & present them.

The application is already integrated with many popular services & new ones can be added easily.

The look & feel can be totally customized with the theming support (there are 10+ ready-to-use themes).

AmpliFeeder is built with ASP.NET & uses MSSQL for storing the data.

P.S. The source code is not yet available for download but it can be downloaded in the next few weeks.

Twitster is an open source PHP application that enables you to display tweets of everyone you follow in Twitter in any website.

And, it can filter tweets by a hash tag (#example) which makes it possible to create a Twitter-based group or community in the website.

Twitster comes with a web-based installation wizard that helps setting up the system quickly.

It currently supports one hash tag to be used but features like multiple has tags & @reply linking are expected in the next release.

Almost every Twitter user needs the ability of scheduling tweets. There may be a tweet that you need to send later or you may want to Tweet 7/24 but you must sleep as well .

Although there are web based services which enable you to schedule tweeting, you may not want to give your Twitter password.

Here comes ScheduledTweets. It is a 100% free web application to schedule your tweets that you can install into your web hosting account.

ScheduledTweets is built with PHP, uses MySQL to store the data & its interface is fully Ajaxed.

It enables you to define time-intervals which your tweets will be sent every x minutes. You can enter unlimited tweets, drag’n drop your tweets to change the order they will be sent.

Also, URL shortening service TinyURL is integrated for shorter tweets.

ScheduledTweets comes with a web-based friendly installer that helps you define database & Twitter information easily.

Read the rest of this entry »

Social bookmarking buttons like Digg, Delicious or StumbleUpon on any website is very familiar. They help spreading the content.

Twitter, getting bigger & better, is also another powerful network where content can reach to thousands easily in minutes.

To help the readers of a website share/tweet a content at Twitter easily, here is a simple way of integration:

You can send a querystring to Twitter like:

http://twitter.com/home?status=Your Tweet. For example, a tweet link for this post can be:

http://twitter.com/home?status=How To Add Tweeting With Short URL Functionality To A Website (With PHP): http://www.webresourcesdepot.com/how-to-add-tweeting-with-short-url-functionality-to-a-website-with-php/

The problem & the solution:

There is a 140 character limit in Twitter & the length of the URL is a headache. So, auto-shortening the URL with a short URL service will be handy.

Read the rest of this entry »