Hawaii-based startup Peer News, founded by eBay’s Pierre Omidyar, announced some big news today.
We are creating a Honolulu-based local news service that will produce original, in-depth reporting and analysis of local issues in Hawaii.
One of the first steps for this endeavor is finding an editor. So if you have the skills and passion, an opportunity awaits!
Local columnist Erika Engle wrote an article about a new Twitter client, Ginx. Lots of the hi-Ginx are done in HI. 😉
One of the things I’ve noticed about using Twitter is its “lightness.” Once you’re using Twitter’s microblogging service, you’re not tied to or heavily dependent on any particular Twitter client. You can use the default Twitter web interface, or you can try other web UIs that improve on Twitter shortfalls like Ginx.
There are Twitter clients for mobile platforms like Twitterriffic or Tweetie for the iPhone. And there are a ton of desktop clients such as Tweetdeck and Twhirl.
With all these various client apps, you can easily switch without losing much. Because Twitter is so light and specific in functionality, trying out various apps ain’t nothing (try changing email clients – what a pain). I’ve now switched to Twhril since it better manages multiple Twitter accounts, but I also use the Twitter web and Ginx web interfaces and Tweetie while mobile.
Not quite your typical fail whale, but if you’re going to be offline for a wee bit, might as well do it in paradise.
Just a collection of articles and posts talking about the new Ginx groups feature.
I’m digging the concept of Ginx groups to help filter tweets. Basically, you establish a Twitter account and follow other Twitter users to form a “group.” Now in Ginx, you follow that newly created user/group, and you’ll see Tweets from all the followed members of that group. Pretty ingenious!
So instead of you following Twitterers, you can follow the group that contains Twitter users you’re interested in. So what’s the big deal? Well, if you’re a Ginx user, you can use this Twitter group as a filter and hide the tweets from followed members of this group. Why? Well, I like AllTop and Guy Kawasaki, and did you know that he LOVES hockey! I mean really loves hockey. I mean really, really loves hockey. I mean he loves hockey in an incredibad “MF-er, I’m going to cut my b@11s off, and die for hockey!” kind of way. You get the point? I know he loves hockey so sometimes I don’t want to see umpteen tweets that he loves hockey (or whatever new AllTop topic just launched) so instead of wading through these, I can simply hide them using Ginx groups.
So now I’m thinking, if Ginx groups catches on, will your count of followers need adjusting? Instead of having individuals follow you, you might have a ton of groups following you, possibly reducing your overall followers. Yet, each group might have a bunch of followers. So how do you balance this out and not obfuscate your fandom?
Reading more about Ginx since info is being released to the public.
And Ginx is giving out invitations to its private service if you send a direct message (DM) to Ginx and follow them on Twitter.
Saw this article about Ginx.
More about Ginx.
HONOLULU, Hawaii, January 14, 2009 – Peer News Inc. released the following statement today regarding Ginx:
Ginx is a Twitter client that aims to provide Twitter users with a rich experience for sharing and discussing links. Ginx was created to enable people to become more actively engaged in the news and topics they care about.
Ginx recently went live to a small group of early alpha users who are providing feedback to the team on features and functionality. Peer News expects to make Ginx available to more users later this year. For updates on the service follow @ginx on Twitter.
Ginx is the first service from Peer News, a new startup co-founded by Pierre Omidyar and Randy Ching.