Here are some twitter tools/tricks that you’ll probably never see in 99% of those ‘twitter lists’ out there. When you have so many applications that do either the same thing but with a different face or don’t really do anything at all, these are some tricks/tools that will actually help you stay productive…especially if you’re a Twitter/data junkie.

TweepML
Before there was twitter lists, there was TweepML. The funny thing is I still use this more than twitter lists because you can easily import/export your lists in csv format. Essentially its simple format designed to help share lists of twitter users. Plus you can auto-follow part or all of TweepML lists directly from within the site. two thumbs up.

TwitPic JSON API
This app was released upon the world by Remy Sharp when he wanted an easier way to pull out all of his uploaded photos from TwitPic (Their API only allows you to upload to the site, not download from your account).Source is available on GitHub.

Twavatar
If you’ve ever developed a twitter app that pulls a users profile picture you’ve undoubtedly run into the problem that occurs every time that they change it, all of a sudden the link doesn’t work and the photo’s gone! Well, fret no more because Damon Cortesi (@dacort) put out an appspot hosted permalink to be able to grab anyone’s updated twitter profile picture. Very useful.

Amy Iris – An AI chat bot for twitter. This one’s a very easily adaptable AI chat bot for twitter. The possibilities are endless for adaption into your projects. Check it out, it’s really a cool framework that they give you.

Now the last one isn’t a tool but rather a Twitter trick:

Want to download ANYONE’s previous 3,200 tweets? Easy! Just fire off the following curl command replacing where it says username with the desired tweeter’s name and you’ll soon have the last 3,200 tweets of theirs all to yourself. This one is also courtesy of @dacort.

curl -O “http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/username.xml?count=100&page=[1-32]“

Just came across a new service that’s been officially approved by Twitter.com: introducing TweepML, an XML based format for sharing lists of twitter user accounts. If you know what OPML is then you already know the concept behind TweepML, it provides a free universal framework for importing, exporting and creating twitter ‘groups’ that can be shared or even stored as a backup of important accounts. The main website, www.tweepml.org, also includes a free follow tool that helps streamline following lists of users via your twitter account.

On the site it has various libraries and examples available to aid developers in implementing TweepML into new or existing apps. Currently the most popular lists seem to be the ones with the largest number of followers. I’d be willing to bet good money that this is already being used by spammers and/or marketers to cultivate their own twitter accounts targeting various ‘groups’ featured on the site…but then again, almost every tool or platform that is useful has the potential for grey/blackhat usage.

Interesting new format, it’s definitely going to make twitter account sharing (not to mention account duplication) a lot easier!

found via mashable

Youtube.com has just recently released a new section of their site devoted to videos from educational sources. They’ve named it YouTube EDU and you can find it by following the link. Pretty much if you’ve ever wanted to find a lecture or speech given in any sort of collegiate atmosphere, this would be the place to go.

In addition to adding YouTubeEDU, they’ve also added a new feature throughout the video sharing site, a “share to Twitter,” link allowing you to ‘tweet’ any video with just one click. I guess for those of you who share videos on twitter frequently, this will save you from having to do your normal copy + paste.

Brand management firm ElectricArtists just recently launched Trackingtwitter, a site that tracks media, entertainment and consumer product accounts on the microblogging site.

Trackingtwitter follows Zappos, Whole Foods, Starbucks, Jet Blue and Comcast, among others. It broadcasts the brand category (“sports,” “television,” etc.), the Twitter usernames, number of followers, most recent tweet and any personal notes they may have collected about the account.

Coudal – The Fish Puzzle
Have some time to waste? Good, you’ll need it!

20 Ajax Effects You Need To Learn
Tutorials and source code, just how I like it.

Smush.it Image Optimizer
Quick and easy website that will optimize your images for viewing on the web. It’s an open-source project run by one of the members of Yahoo!’s “Exceptional Performance Team” – The same group that put out their YSlow Firefox application!

Enjoy!