Ginx, the third-party interface for Twitter that makes it easier to share news with friends, has added a new feature that organizes experts into groups so you follow their ongoing commentary on your favorite topics.
Each group on Ginx is created and administered by a single owner who determines who the experts are in a particular field or category. For example, here’s a group of journalists who are focused on covering Apple news. It’s run by the user mirthlab and members include John Gruber and Arnold Kim.
Currently there are 11 groups in total on Ginx, and all of them are listed in this simple directory. The others include one about China and another about Arizona politics.
If you’re interested in hearing what the experts in a particular group have to say, you can become a follower of that group with a single click. All of the tweets from the group’s members will then show up in your Ginx timeline, regardless of whether their tweets are related to the group’s topic or not. When asked about whether it would be better to just show followers those tweets that are relevant to a group’s topic, co-founder Pierre Omidyar insisted that getting the whole stream of tweets from group members actually lets you learn more about who the members are as people. And in turn, this makes the news and commentary you get from them more personal.
This new groups feature is a natural addition to Ginx’s core functionality, since it advances the notion that Twitter should be used to learn and educate others about the world. It does pose the risk of information overload, however, since by joining just a few groups, you’re expanding the number of people who contribute to your timeline considerably. In anticipation of this problem, there are checkboxes next to the timeline that let you temporarily remove all tweets from a particular group. But something tells me that most users will still want to be part of only one or two groups at a time, lest they have trouble separating the wheat from the chaff.
Only select users have the power to create groups, although I’m told that this will change soon so that anyone can set up their own. Everyone can start following the existing groups today, and if you’re not already a Ginx user, the first 100 users to sign up with this code will get in: 842A11AC93EA.
Update: We’ve created a group with TechCrunch employees that you can follow.
Interesting, I wonder if they’ll be any disagreements of determining whose an expert.
best,
Chris O.
Blog Director
http://www.refe...-business-blog/
Your Trusted Referral Network
duh.
rather than a few channels with questions about expertise, we’ve just surfaced thousands of channels – integrated with photos/videos on the same topic. See http://tv.tearn.com/ or http://s.tearn.com/ sports channels for march madness.
if you can’t find your channel, just search at http://search.tearn.com/ – grab a badge to create your own channel.
forgot the Oscar channels http://bf.tearn.com/ and http://gf.tearn.com/ – thousands of folks talked about each nominee. The conversations are still online.
Ginx rocks. I’ve been maintaining a clunky list on Twitter of recommended China folks to follow. Been wanting something like what they did for election coverage where there’s a stream of relevant posts by group.
Glad we’re getting to be one of the first to test it out with China folks on Twitter.
Thanks for the code, I just joined.
Hello Ginx,
Would love to help you set up a Golf Group. I am the editor of BunkerShot.com and YouTube.com/GOLF
all i hope is this is not another elite thing…. getting kind of tired of those. I prefer things to be a bit more egalitarian. Many of the self professed experts on Twitter are just making noise to feed their own coffers
Ginx is really, really slow at the moment.
I’d have to say that’s my biggest complaint too
Also, the fact that I follow people on Twitter should be enough to display tweets from those people in Ginx. It appears that I have to follow people again? Not sure that makes sense.
On first login, since I’m not following anyone else in Ginx, I only see my own tweets under ”
Updates from People You’re Following” — makes no sense.
Oh, wait. Suddenly, it has the view I was looking for in the “Updates from People You’re Following” tab.
Must be a performance related problem.
thanks for the code. I just joined.
Dang, it says the code ran out. Any other way of getting a code?
Beg them to raise the cap on our invite code
From their website: Don’t have an invitation code yet? Follow @ginx on Twitter so we can let you know when more codes are available.
I am an EXPERT! {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/2ljAHeClns_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”I am an EXPERT! ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/S4RwroZgPL”}}}
It looks like TechCrunch increased Ginx web traffic and made their website super slow. I think that’s a good thing…
Thanks for mentioning the Arizona Politics group in your review of Ginx’s new feature. We appreciate the mention.
Yay! Another twitter story on Techcrunch! Just what I wanted!
LOL @ “pre-alpha”. I swear to god, web developers have ZERO idea what the software development cycle is.
I’m going to start a site that’s in super-private pre-alpha-beta v.2.0.0.15. Codes will be given out based on blood-type.
Site development aside, the Ginx concept is very cool.
Didn’t get a chance to sign up but looks cool and Twitter is such a powerful concept yet has such a basic website 3rd parties are left further developing the idea and adding features. I don’t see a significant business model in anything related to twitter tho, typical web 2.0.
Ryan – is it called DaoByDesign – dodgy results but u know it clings to a web2.0 label because it’s got shading.
My question is, why doesn’t Twitter just do this? It seems that Twitter has the opportunity to offer so much more, yet they don’t.
HI,
I’ve been testing another new service based on Twitter since about a week now. Pretty neat!
It’s called MicroPlaza (http://www.microplaza.com), and you can request an invite code by following @microplaza on Twitter …
I’m really sick to death of all these stupid Beta websites that require invites to access. Either you are ready to be covered by the press or you are not. These stories are truly pointless if the readers can’t view the websites you are promoting.
too bad,i didnt see me here.
follow me on twitter @Winserzhao aka China Travel 2.0
I’m quite suprised that no one is really concerned that all these 3rd party apps that unknown companies are making require you to give your password and username?
Some (like use) are using the OAuth api so you don’t need to put your twitter password. Have a look at http://microplaza.com and follow us on twitter for an invite.
In addition to my annoyance at the whole invite scam. This is something else that I was leery about, I’m glad someone else noticed this trend that we’re going in the opposite direction when it comes to security – as it relates to these social networking sites that all require our User IDs and Passwords to connect.
You can follow my inane twitter feed at @eclipsemagazine
All these experts in Twitter are just arrogant egos who think they are better than anyone else. Ooh I’m flying on airplane to China oohh lala, envy me!.. So dumb.
Thank you alot, i am looking for the group that i wanna join
Regards
I’m looking for a service that lets you tweet events. IE. a basketball game, where a user can subscribe to only my tweets (updates) from that particular event. Does one exist?
Very cool service that will expand Twitter capability.
My concern with Twitter at this very moment is the digital security issues it has with hacking.
When I checked with http://www.justaskgemalto.com they reassured me that it was just a growing pain. So, I’m waiting for the growth spurt to die down a little and settle into something secure before I get too wrapped up in it.
A lot of people are comparing GINX to my Tweetizen – and I must say, we are no not the same. Visit http://www.tweetizen.com/beta/ and see how much more easier it is to use tweetizen – I’ve tried to make grouping tweets as dumbified as possible!
I tried the group feature. The problem is though, to create a new twitter account. You know, to create another and manage another account is too complicated (it is not hard to do, but needs a lot of steps and management). I hope there is a better solution.