Over the weekend I came across a couple pretty cool Twitter directories, something that seems to have been lacking lately (especially since the simple “search” function on twitter’s homepage is pretty weak). One is twibs.com and the other is WeFollow.
Twibs.com is directory allowing you to find what businesses are on twitter. You can search by either a description of what you are looking for, such as “advertising agency chicago” or by name, like “whole foods”. It appears all submissions are manual, so you must submit your own listing. Get your business up as quickly as possible — since this service is fairly new you can probably appear on a couple valuable tags before the power users gobble them all up. You can also add a link to your company blog. BONUS: As of right now, it does not appear to have nofollow tags, and it is a business directory, so take that for what its worth.
WeFollow is a new twitter directory from Kevin Rose that allows you to find, well, anyone! Biggest problem right now is, you can only search by tag, not by name. You are limited to 3 tags to describe yourself, so choose wisely. I picked “chicago” “sem” and “hockey”. You have to manually submit your name, unless you are a power user like @THE_REAL_SHAQ or @MCHammer by replying to @WeFollow with your #tags. This was my submission. I like how WeFollow has some predefined, popular tags on the right side of the page. If you’re looking to follow certain #celebrities or are looking to connect with #bloggers, you’re only one click away.
Twitter directories have a lot of potential. I don’t think either of these are perfect but they are a step in the right direction to connect with others. I already use twitter as a real-time search engine, why not use it as a real-time friend finder, too?
