Is Summize not the coolest stuff since hot mustard, or what? Twitabit is a Summize powered application that allows you to stay connected to Twitter… without really staying connected to Twitter, especially when you can’t connect to Twitter… like right now for example.

It’s a simple application, just like Twitter, but only allows for interaction via the Web, at the moment. No IM, phone or AIR app support… from what I can tell.

There are a few “call outs” on the site as to who and what is powering things… Betaworks, Switchabit, and Summize are linked at various places around the interface, and they even have a neat little birdie graphic on the site (stolen and shown on the right)

Perhaps I should do a post on Summize but mentioning it at this point should be enough… especially after I boast about a twitter-based shopping experience using marrying the .COM bubble-burst-survivor, Amazon.com (you know the site), and Twitter, the ultra Web 2.0 awesome that I now describe as the “hub of the blogosphere”… that sometimes breaks. Oh! the site name, Twizon!

It’s simple, really. Know that Twitter thing? Know that Amazon thing?

Yea, it’s those. Pretty sweet. Though I see this site leading to tons of impulse purchases for stuff I’d NEVER dream of buying. But that’s the wonders of the web.

I could probably start a blog that talks about nothing but micro-blogs and aggregation sites for social networks… Plurk is yet another micro-blogging site with yet more perks than your average twitter site.

• Fancy Timeline-type display of interaction
• Replies (threaded) comments
• Calendar filter for date-based searching
• Emotion Icons
• Fancy “thinks”, “says”, “wishes”, etc - subject selection
• FriendFeed-like “Share” options for stuff you find online…

They also have nice things that are meant to entice you to interact, Karma, Friends, etc. Email notifications for interactions with your timeline are in here… Though I don’t see any SMS capability yet, I assume it’s on the way, given that the input is the “canned” 140 character limit set by the grand-daddy of the micro-blogs.

I like it, it’s neat and dandy… but it’s going to take some work to get Twitter off the throne of King Dude in this arena, I think… Unless of course Twitter’s hardware issues maintain, and they tank as a result. I believe Jaiku might be next in line though. Hurry up and wait, Plurk, your time will come and my account will be there waiting for when that day comes to revel in your awesome.

Widgets? *check* SMS? *check* Flickr and Twitter integration? *check* Extensible, awesome features? *check* Clean, fast inteface? *check* — Zannel, a new online service that’s in beta (currently) has definately got it together. In the past two years there has been a nice influx of random one-off toys that a small handful of people use, but then there are sites that fit into that “holy crap! this is awesome” category… I’m going with, ‘This is one of them’.

I’ve only tooted the horn about BrightKite, I believe, in terms of web-toys that make Twitter rock. Well, this one might even make Twitter wince. Microblogging that supports Flickr, has micro-managable notification  options (including scheduling and so forth), includes fancy search features - with filters, has a Family Filter toggle, and … hell just take their tour.

From their about page - ZANNEL is about life in real time - a way for you and your friends to share what you’re doing, feeling, and seeing as it happens.

Yes! They love “now” just as much as the rest of us!

Happytxt - is still in beta, and may be more appropriately labeled as alpha. I was able to get a database error while creating my account by leaving the Google Talk form field blank (yikes! guys)… but that’s not the point of this write up … really. All in all, it appears that there are less than 200 users on Happytxt. How I found it? I have no clue… I didn’t use Stumble Upon, but I happened to do just that.

Anyhow, Happytxt appears to be a website for the moody. Not in a bad way,but the site features deliberate mood swing icons for each post, and allows you to change how you’re feeling in general whenever you please - which is a neat feature, making it just different enough to write about.

Problem? Well, there’s really no way to add contacts to this, from what I can tell… and I didn’t really find much of a social media value for it at all… Actually, now that I look over this site’s cumbersome features and quite awkard presentation - I’m going to say, this one’s a dud.

Maybe it will pick up later, take a turn for the better? Right now, it’s not worth the trouble.