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Politicians are flocking to Twitter. Whether they’re Democrats or Republicans, they’re finding new ways to talk to their constituents. I’ve found 20 politicians who are using the micro-blog to communicate their policies. Some are more active — and more interesting — than others. Here’s the rundown:

Democrats

President Obama started the political Twitter craze.

(Credit: BarackObama.com)

Barack Obama If it weren’t for this President, most politicians probably wouldn’t be on Twitter. He made the service appealing to politicians by showing them that it’s a great way to establish a grassroots campaign. Currently, he has staffers tweeting for him, mostly discussing his policies in office. It’s an informative Twitter stream. See also the White House on Twitter.

Barbara Boxer Barbara Boxer, a U.S. senator from California, is quite active on Twitter. But she has her staff update her Twitter stream, only diving in personally form time to time. Her tweets mostly discuss where she will be appearing, so it’s not too informative.

Chris Dodd Sen. Chris Dodd’s Twitter account is a little sneaky: the tweets sound like Dodd is updating his stream, but if you dig a little deeper, it turns out that his Twitter account is for his “office.” So, it’s not really Dodd updating his stream even though his staff makes it sound that way. Regardless, they’re interesting tweets. You’ll gain insight into the Senate proceedings, see where he stands on issues, and find some interesting political links. Dodd’s Twitter account is worth following.

Dick Durbin Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin is on Twitter. He has 99 followers. There’s just one issue: he’s never updated his Twitter stream. I find it appalling that such an important figure in U.S. politics can create a Twitter profile and not update it. Don’t follow Durbin.

Russ Feingold Senator Russ Feingold from Wisconsin is on Twitter. But unlike some of his colleagues (I’m looking at you, Durbin), he knows how to capitalize on the micro-blog. His tweets are divvied into two parts: those written by staff and those written by Feingold himself. Staff updates are usually links to statements he has made. Feingold’s updates are personal thoughts about the country. Those are the most informative. His Twitter stream is updated about once a week, which isn’t ideal, but it’s still worth checking out.

Dennis Kucinich A 2008 Presidential hopeful and Ohio Congressman, Dennis Kucinich has Twitter account filled with mentions of his appearances on various television shows. It also has a few tweets asking followers to vote for a dancer in Ohio. But his stream isn’t updated often (he hasn’t tweeted in over a month). Not worth following.

Claire McCaskill Sen. Claire McCaskill is one of the most active Twitter users in this roundup. She replies to many of her followers’ queries. Most of her tweets discuss important topics impacting people around the country — not just in her home state of Missouri. I like following Senator McCaskill.

George Miller George Miller is a congressman from California. Unlike many other politicians who leave Twitter to their staff, Miller tweets himself. He doesn’t update his stream too often (we haven’t heard from him since April 22), but when he does, it’s an interesting discourse. He asks his constituents to call his office, answers many of their questions, and gives you insider information into what’s happening on the House floor. His tweets are worth following.

Bill Nelson Sen. Bill Nelson updates his Twitter stream often with interesting tidbits about his life. Sometimes, he’ll talk about what he’s advocating on the Senate floor. Other times, he’ll discuss something about his home state of Florida. If you’re from the Sunshine State, you should follow Sen. Nelson.

Joe Sestak A retired Navy Admiral, Joe Sestak is now a congressman from Pennsylvania. His Twitter stream is basically a list of links to his speeches or television interviews. He doesn’t provide much insight into the life of Congress-people. And he fails to state where he stands on most issues. It’s not worth following his stream.

Republicans

John Boehner Rep. John Boehner uses his Twitter stream to play politics. He frequently uses the Democrats’ statements to support his side of the debate. His stream includes a variety of links to news sources on topics impacting the entire country. It’s an interesting stream, worth following.

John Boozman John Boozman is the perfect Twitter politician. He updates his stream frequently. And more often than not, those tweets are applicable to any U.S. citizen, and not just those in his home state of Virginia. He often discusses what’s happening on the House floor. He’s one of the first politicians you should start following.

Eric Cantor Congressman Eric Cantor is the minority whip in Congress. His Twitter stream is fascinating. It’s updated often, he replies to followers almost every day, and he provides some real insider information into what’s going on in the House. If you want to see where he stands on issues, his Twitter stream features that too. I was really impressed with Cantor’s Twitter page. It’s worth following.

Jim DeMint Jim DeMint is a South Carolina senator. His Twitter stream is a waste of your time. It includes a slew of videos and links to DeMint documentation that you won’t care about. Every now and then, he’ll update the stream with a few comments about what he has done, but he doesn’t provide real insight into politics. Don’t follow Sen. DeMint.

Orrin Hatch Senator Orrin Hatch’s Twitter stream is filled with a variety of links to TV segments he has done, radio spots he has recorded, and speeches he has recited. Sometimes he’ll update the stream with a statement, but he rarely responds to followers. And his overabundant use of the #tcot (Top Conservatives On Twitter) hashtag annoys me. I don’t follow him.

John McCain Though he lost his Presidential campaign and closed that Twitter account, Senator McCain is back on Twitter with his senatorial stream. It’s a fascinating page with updates on McCain’s politics, why he feels a certain way about different issues, and more. Even better, he updates it himself. He’s one of the most active politicians on Twitter. Definitely follow Sen. McCain.

Kevin McCarthy Kevin McCarthy is the deputy Republican Whip in the House of Representatives. Many of his tweets have some impact on his district in California, but he also delves into national politics at times. He updates his own stream, which provides some insight into his life. It’s an interesting page, but it won’t provide you with real political discussions.

Sarah Palin is on Twitter.

(Credit: Twitter)

Sarah Palin Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin joined Twitter last week. So far, she has updated her stream with tweets about what’s she doing with the family, issues facing Alaskans, and the occasional Democrat insult. Worth following.

Ron Paul Congressman Ron Paul made a name for himself in the last Presidential election, but if he wants to keep that appeal going, changing his Twitter stream is in order. His profile is rarely updated. When it is, it’s filled with updates on where he’s going to speak and where he has already been. Following Rep. Paul isn’t worth it.

Rob Wittman Congressman Rob Wittman’s Twitter stream is focused mainly on topics impacting his constituents in Virginia. Because of that, there isn’t much that will appeal to the rest of the country. He does get bonus points for updating his stream himself. But it’s not enough to make it worthwhile for people outside his district follow him.

See also: Congressman twitters secret trip to Iraq

See more here:
Politicians who get Twitter…and some who don’t

On Monday, September 8, two major product launch shows kick off: DemoFall in San Diego, and TechCrunch50 in San Francisco. There will be more than 100 products officially announced at these conferences, and we’ll be covering the best of them on CNET blogs and on our Launch Week page.

For the full rundown of everything that’s happening at the show, see the Twitter feed at the right of our roundup page, or go to the standalone Launchweek Twitter page.

We’ll have video crews at both shows. Natali Del Conte at DemoFall, and Kara Tsuboi at TechCrunch50 will be interviewing the most interesting entrepreneurs. Those videos will also appear on the roundup page.

What to expect
Launches at the TechCrunch show will all be Web 2.0 companies. Demo’s presenters likely will be mostly Web 2.0 launches, with a few traditional software and hardware companies in the mix. So what’s the real difference between the shows?

Demo, a show that’s been running since the late 1980s, attracts a regular group of venture capitalists and journalists who come to see what they know will be a highly-produced showcase of closely vetted companies. Demo charges companies to present to the crowd (the fee is now more than $18,000), and this has historically had the effect of filtering out poorly-funded companies from even applying to present. While Demo’s presenting companies are not always scintillating, the majority of them have solid business models. There have been notably cool demos at Demo, like the Palm Pilot, the Pleo, and the Moobella ice cream machine I mocked previously.

TechCrunch, in its second year, is the scrappier conference. Timed this year to run at the same time as Demo, it also has a tough approval process, but it doesn’t charge companies to present on-stage. Companies for which $18,000 makes a big difference are drawn to TechCrunch, as are those that believe that the new TechCrunch conference will get better press coverage than Demo. I expect that a much larger proportion of the companies at TechCrunch will have unformed business models and be further away from being ready for customer adoption, but there will still be many with solid, creative plans. TechCrunch last year brought us some really good Web 2.0 start-ups, such as Mint and TripIt.

This year, stories written about TechCrunch presenters will likely be less insightful than those about Demo companies, for two reasons. First, TechCrunch management has scared presenters into not pre-briefing the press. A few companies have wisely ignored this directive, but for the most part the writers and bloggers covering TechCrunch don’t know what they are going to get when they go to the show. Demo presenters have been pre-briefing journalists for weeks.

Second, there is no post-presentation showcase for TechCrunch companies. People who want to interview TechCrunch CEOs have to buttonhole the presenters immediately after the presentation in a special room set aside for interviews, or find them later in the hallways. There will be a demo hall for TechCrunch companies, but this “demo pit” is for companies that did not make the cut to present on-stage. Demo, in contrast, puts all its presenting companies in one big pavilion where people can wander between the companies and chat up the execs as they want, either before or after they see their presentations on the main stage. It’s a better environment for learning about the companies.

Based on my experience with previous product launch conferences, it’s a safe bet that no more than a dozen of the companies presenting during the combined Demo/TechCrunch launchfest will be truly memorable. But there are plenty of opportunities still to seize market share on the Web, and we will try to find those dozen companies that have identified good ways to do it. CNET writers and video crews will be on-site at both events and will uncover the new products worth your attention.

See the original post:
A user guide to following DemoFall and TechCrunch50

Google’s Chrome browser has as Spartan a user interface as possible, but the browser’s Omnibox also turns out to be a window into a much more elaborate view of the browser.

That’s because Chrome users can type several commands into the browser’s address box to uncovers a wealth of nitty-gritty detail and an amusing Easter egg.

Google Chrome can display lots of detailed information, such as which plug-ins are running. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: CNET News)

Firefox can be fine-tuned by typing “about:config” into its address bar, and other about: commands shed light on many details. Google followed suit.

Most folks won’t care a whit, but the feature is notable for programmers–both those creating Web pages and those who might want to toy with Chromium itself, the open-source project behind Chrome. Programmers are a key audience for Chrome, which Google hopes will advance the state of the art in particular for Web applications.

One Firefox tool popular with Web developers is the Firebug extension, which permits detailed analysis of a Web site. Although Chrome lacks an extensions ability for now, though, right-clicking on Web page elements offers an “inspect element” option that reproduces some of Firebug’s abilities.

Happy Easter
For you non-programmers, there’s an Easter egg, too: type “about:internets” into the Omnibox. I’m not going to be a spoilsport by revealing what happens, but here’s a hint: Ted Stevens.

Because I’m interested in browser user interface limits, though, I’m very curious what rendering technology is used to produce the Easter egg output. Feel free to offer your theories in the comments field below.

Among the “about” features:

•

Google’s Chrome browser has as Spartan a user interface as possible, but the browser’s Omnibox also turns out to be a window into a much more elaborate view of the browser.

That’s because Chrome users can type several commands into the browser’s address box to uncovers a wealth of nitty-gritty detail and an amusing Easter egg.

Google Chrome can display lots of detailed information, such as which plug-ins are running. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: CNET News)

Firefox can be fine-tuned by typing “about:config” into its address bar, and other about: commands shed light on many details. Google followed suit.

Most folks won’t care a whit, but the feature is notable for programmers–both those creating Web pages and those who might want to toy with Chromium itself, the open-source project behind Chrome. Programmers are a key audience for Chrome, which Google hopes will advance the state of the art in particular for Web applications.

One Firefox tool popular with Web developers is the Firebug extension, which permits detailed analysis of a Web site. Although Chrome lacks an extensions ability for now, right-clicking on Web page elements offers an “inspect element” option that reproduces some of Firebug’s abilities.

Happy Easter
For you non-programmers, there’s an Easter egg, too: type “about:internets” into the Omnibox. I’m not going to be a spoilsport by revealing what happens, but here’s a hint: Ted Stevens.

Because I’m interested in browser user interface limits, though, I’m very curious what rendering technology is used to produce the Easter egg output. Feel free to offer your theories in the comments field below.

Among the “about” features:

•

Since so few people are at work this week (physically in many cases, mentally in many more), it’s a great time to go off topic and ponder just how much better life has become over the last three and a half decades. (How’s that for a random figure?)

I’m not sure exactly what sparked it, but I got to thinking one recent rainy day as I watching my kids bounce between watching the flat screen TV to listening to their iPods to chatting with friends online to playing video games, how much better life has become since I was their age in the early 1970s. It’s not just that we have more stuff (though we certainly do; the size of the world economy has more than tripled since 1970), but that the stuff we have has improved so much—it’s smaller (in the case of electronics) or bigger (meals, houses), faster, higher quality and more functional.

Consider music for example (no, not the music itself, which was of course way better in the 1970s—Styx, Van Halen, Boston, REO Speedwagon, Aerosmith, c’mon!—but rather the way we listen to it). Albums provided high fidelity, but were fragile and definitely not portable. 8-track tapes were a disaster; cassettes were smaller and songs didn’t break in the middle, but the audio quality was so-so and they had a tendency to wear out and eventually get “eaten” by a player. Now we have MP3s; decent quality, ultimate portability, and you don’t have to go to record store to buy them.

Or movies. In the early 1970s, if you missed seeing a movie during its theatre run, you had to wait two to three years. Then one of the networks would finally show it—chopped up by commercials and “reformatted to fit your television screen,” which at that time was smallish and so convex you had to sit almost directly in front of it to get a non-distorted view. And they didn’t even have remotes! Now we have Netflix and pay-per-view and video stores and cable; we can watch movies, in widescreen high-def format, shortly after they leave theatres, commercial-free, on big flat panel TVs.

Or communications. In the early 1970s, sending a note meant sending a note. On paper, in an envelope, through postal mail which took days to deliver (much longer if overseas). There was one phone company. Unless you were rich, you had only one phone (a black one, rented from the phone company), and it was stationary. Long-distance calls cost a fortune (I remember calling a friend in Spain cost me $1.27 per minute, in mid-1970s dollars; can you even imagine paying the inflated equivalent, which would be about $6.00 per minute today, to make a call to another country now?) and the sound quality was awful. Freedom of the press belonged to those to owned one, and many big city newspapers had a virtual monopoly over local distribution of the written word.

Yuck! But today we have email, IM, Skype, Vonage, Twitter, blogs, cell phones, texting and more. Communication is democratic, cheap, instantaneous and portable.

Not everything has improved with time of course: due to a lack of true choice, our educational system in the U.S. has failed to keep up; progress against cancer has been painfully slow; lawyers have sucked a lot of the fun out of life; and the downfall of communism was unfortunately followed by the rise of a competing ideology even more ruthless, sinister and absolute. But, on the whole, life is a whole lot better, and everything has changed.

Why, back in the early 1970s, we had a presidential election that pitted a veteran politician from the western U.S., who was viewed as too liberal by many of his fellow Republicans, squaring off against a senator from a midwestern state, with no executive experience, who was viewed as too liberal even by many Democrats. Among the most pressing issues of the day were energy policy, relations with China, and an unpopular war halfway around the world.

Hmm, perhaps not everything has changed either. Oh well, Happy Independence Day!

*****

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

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Off Topic: Have the Best 4th of July Ever!