Webby News

Twitter has a history of killing off features in order to stay up. And it looks like it had to do that again today, in the wake the avalanche of tweets that are flowing in following Michael Jackson’s death. Gone are Search and Trending Topics from logged-in Twitter account main pages.

It’s probably not that tweets that are so bad for Twitter right now, it’s the searching for tweets to get information about not just Michael Jackson’s passing, but also Farah Fawcett’s and Ed McMahon’s. Plus there’s a whole trend of celebrity deaths being erroneously reported that probably isn’t helping Twitter too much either.

Want your very own Twitter applications database, listing 450 sites and add-ons that work with Twitter? You might be in luck.

Twtbase, one the 15 Twitter databases we reviewed in our January 2009 article 15 Twitter Directories Compared, is up for sale on the Digital Point forums. Back in January, we made the following key points about the service:

Overview: Similar to Twitdom, Twtbase also houses their database of applications within Wordpress and divvies them up into either the web, mobile, desktop, or browser plug-in buckets.

What you might like: The thumbnail view. Each application has a screenshot, displays current rating, and number of votes. Twtbase also has a Site of the Day page that features one app per day.

What you won’t get: Selection. It’s difficult to ascertain exactly how many apps Twtbase has, but this reviewer estimates they’ve got about 80 applications in their database.

The selection issue is somewhat fixed, with Twtbase now listing 450+ apps, although the numbers are modest: the site serves 500 pageviews/day and makes “over $100″ in ad revenues per month.

If you want your very own somewhat-average Twitter directory, the listing is here.

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Disclosure: Mashable also maintains a directory of Twitter apps at our sister site Blippr.

Reviews: Mashable, Twitdom, Twitter, WordPress

Tags: twitter, twtbase

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Understandably, the Internet is on overdrive right now as the world learns of the passing of Michael Jackson. Unfortunately, the music icon’s death is also spawning a series of other, ugly false rumors about the demise of other celebs.

Two of the more notable rumors going around involve the death of actors Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford. These are completely untrue, but are being spread rapidly, largely due to how quickly they can be shared on social media sites like Twitter.

While these rumors, which are often created by obvious spoof sites (the fake Goldblum story is here), are fairly easy to debunk, the urge to “retweet” huge news without actually investigating the attached link can lead to a proliferation of false information. And the snowball effect leads people to believe, for at least a short period of time, that the story is true.

It’s a pretty ugly situation, but one that is showing that mainstream media still does play a huge role in these types of stories, with each operation working to independently confirm the death of Michael Jackson this afternoon. Meanwhile, social media eventually filters what’s true and what’s not, but at least today, a few unscrupulous users have been able to gain momentum for patently false stories.

Reviews: Twitter

Tags: harrison ford, jeff goldblum, michael jackson