A couple of weeks ago, it seemed like everybody’s heart was a-flutter for Twitter,
the social-networking application that lets you share brief status
report messages with your fellow Twits – stuff like “currently grooming
my nose hair” or “OMG this enchilada has a band-aid in it”. Then, last
week, the anti-Twitter backlash set in. Today begins the
anti-anti-Twitter-backlash backlash, because once people find out that
Woot has its very own official Twitter-bot, they won’t be able to
resist it.
That’s right: you can sign up for a free Twitter account, make Woot
your Twitter friend, and receive automatic updates when we put a new
product up, when the daily product sells out, or when anything else
happens around here. Twitter updates are available through your IM
client or as text messages on your phone, along with the standard
web-based Twitter interface. Unlike other Woot watchers (which we also
love), Twitter is a one-stop way to keep up with us and your “real”
friends at the same time. And unlike our own SMS service through SayNow (again, much love), Twitter will be regularly updated during Woot-Offs.
But
you should know that Twitter’s sudden, unexpected popularity surge has
strained their servers. Hey, we know the feeling. We’ve been told that
they’re working to speed things up, and we can tell: today it’s
definitely faster than yesterday. Fortunately for us, the heaviest
loads seem to come mostly during the day, while our most important
messages go out at midnight. So it’s not much skin off our collective
nose.
We have to thank a loyal and industrious Woot member, Jesse Newland, for starting this Twitter bot all on his own, and then
passing it off to us. Kudos to you and yours, sir! We don’t know if any
other online store has been so rash as to leap onto the Twitter
bandwagon just yet. We’re not entirely certain that it makes any sense
for us to do it. But let it never be said that Woot passed up any
opportunity to insinuate ourselves deeper and deeper into your life.
