We are very proudly announcing BlogBridge release 6.6, with now with Twitter support. It should be available within the next 24 hours and as I spent the afternoon writing and recording a screencast as well as many details about what the release entails, I couldn’t resist beginning to show it off.

Wait. You don’t know what Twitter is? Really???  Let me  link to a couple of recent bits of press about Twitter that will give you background if you need it. First, here’s very recent article by David Pogue about his experiences and opinions about Twitter. Second, an article from TechCrunch, just today, about Twitter’s new financing which also gives you interesting background.

But really if you are reading BlogBridge, you almost certainly know what Twitter is. You may not be using it (yet). The truth is that it is a little controversial… As David Pogue says, there are many very different views of what Twitter is for:

“One says to use Twitter to market your business; another says never to use Twitter to market your business. One recommends writing about what you’re doing right now (after all, the typing box is labeled, “What are you doing?”); another says not to. One of these rule sheets even says, “Add value. Build relationships. Think LONG term.” (from Twitter is What You Make of It)

What’s the value then of tying BlogBridge to Twitter?

In my view, there’s a great overlap between the typical BlogBridge user and the typical Twitter user. You hear it often that people share the interesting blogs they read on Twitter, and others who learn what’s going on by listening to trusted friends on Twitter. Here are two key scenarios:

1. I get my news from blogs and like to keep a presence on Twitter. One of the things I tend to often want to Tweet about is an interesting article or bit of information that I saw in one of the many blogs I follow (using BlogBridge, natch With 6.6, I simply choose ‘Tweet This’ while reading the blog, and up pops a box, with the shortened url pre-populated. I type my comment and press OK and away she goes.
2. I am a product manager, PR person, techie, any kind of info-junkie. I want to know whenever my product or topic is mentioned in any blog. So I use BlogBridge and have standing searches (SmartFeeds) for the topic of interest. Now, what if my topic is mentioned by someone in Twitter? I’d like to know that too. With 6.6, I simply create a Twitter SmartFeed, and away she goes.

Cool eh?

Here’s an “Introduction to Twitter” video that I just recorded that will give you a visual introduction to our new stuff.

Click on the image to begin the video

Remember, there’s still 24 hours to go before BlogBridge 6.6 is available. Existing users will be automatically updated. New users of course will get the new release.

And as usual, thanks for your support!