It may come as no surprise—the Internet is buzzing with talk of Twitter. Twitter activity is at an all time high.

Google Trends, which displays search activity over time across the web, shows that search for “Twitter” content is peaking. (Blue line in Figure 1.)

Likewise, Alexa.com shows a steady increase in Twitter traffic. (Figure 2)

Indeed, the latest increase in Twitter activity from January 2008 seems to begin with the recent spike in interest in Obama. (Compare Figure 3 with green arrow in Figure 1.)

The prospective nominee hooked into the Twittersphere to help his campaign. By way of payback, it looks like Obama’s involvement has helped popularize Twitter.

More info:  
Follow Obama on Twitter
Obama most followed on Twitter: report
Using Twitter to follow the campaign

Disclaimer: Twitterthoughts does not endorse any political candidate. 

I’m not a programmer.

So here is a top 5 most wanted wishlist for Twitter apps that I can’t build but that would meet common needs.

These would be applications, plugins or mashups that could (should?) be built on the Twitter API.

1. Add notes to tweets (bookmark and annotate)
2. Create folders for (or otherwise categorize) tweet favorites
3. Select which friends’ tweets show up on your blog or browser
   
4. Get mobile or email alerts on tweets that have specific key words
5. Auto-expand snipped URLs inside a Tweet upon rollover
   

Vote for your favorite:

If you know of any similar apps in development, please DM or comment below.

You can use Twitter to follow packages sent by major carriers. 

A free service offered by a company called Trackthis, all you need to do is to direct message (DM) the TrackThis ID (see steps below) and you get a DM telling you whenever the location of your package changes.

No need to log on to the shipper’s slow or convoluted website!

1. DM @trackthis with tracking code
2. Watch DM for updates

That’s it!

You can also configure your Twitter account to set up your mobile phone to receive DM updates, or get notified by email or IM as well as directly online.

TrackThis presently supports tracking codes from FedEx, UPS, USPS and DHL.

For more info, check out the TrackThis website, or follow them on Twitter. 

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