Want free publicity? Create a Twitter mash-up like TwittEarth

Written on 2nd May 2008                                                                                                              3 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Sometimes you just need a break. So do I. Then I either persuade a colleague to play some soccer in the hallway, or press the Stumble button. This afternoon I chose the latter and ended up at TwittEarth, a rather smashing visualization of the Twitter public timeline.

It’s a mash-up by Digitas France SA, who created this Twittearth for fun. Although I don’t question their motives, creating a Twitter mash-up seems like the perfect free publicity PR tool these days.

Just ask somebody to develop a 3D engine (Papervision), use an API for the geolocalization service (Yahoo!) and find some fancy icons (Fasticon). The result? Some heavy coverage on world’s largest tech blogs:

• TechCrunch: TwittEarth Makes Twitter A Global Experience
• Mashable: TwittEarth Shows Tweets From Around The World

Keep that in mind, all you web design agencies out there. Don’t spend your money on ads, just go creative with Twitter and let the blogosphere do the rest.