Twitter Unveils Fast Follow via SMS for India

Twitter has launched new 'Fast Follow' feature for mobile phone users in India, U.S., Indonesia and Haiti. This feature will let mobile phone owners get Twitter updates of their favorite Twitter user by sending a text message (SMS) even if they don't have a Twitter account. So all those folks you have been trying to put their head around Twitter can now get a hang of it via SMS.

In a way, it is creepy as anyone knowing just your username will get to read your updates without even you getting to know about it! Anyone, we repeat, ANYONE can receive Twitter updates on their phones without signing up on Twitter. This feature is currently available only in U.S., India, Indonesia and Haiti. In India, Fast Follow feature is available for Airtel and Videocon mobile subscribers only. The short code for India is 53000.

Kick start to get updates by sending a SMS message - Follow [USERNAME] to 53000 and start receiving updates from that particular user. Do note that you must know the particular username, like Techtree, to start getting updates.

For example, Airtel and Videocon mobile subscribers can send an SMS with text - Follow Techtree to short code number 53000. And then, they would receive Techtree's Twitter updates via SMS.

Here's a basic list of command for users to start receiving twitter updates on their phones:

• Follow [username] - To receive updates from a user send Follow along with the username to 40404
• OFF or STOP or LEAVE- You can turn off receiving updates from the user that you are following by sending OFF or STOP
• ON - Sending ON will turn on device updates and you will start receiving tweets again.
• WHOIS username - Retrieves the profile information of the user.
• STATS - This command returns the number of people that you are following.
• GET username - This retrieves the latest update that the user has posted.

For a comprehensive list of commands, visit this page.

Do note that there's no way to stop following a user or block them via SMS. You'll have to visit that user's profile on the web interface to stop following them. Using ON/OFF commands in SMS will only stop the notifications being sent out to your phone.

Now if you, as a Twitter user, don't want any random people to follow you, then you'll have to protect your updates by setting a privacy filter from Twitter account settings. Go to the Settings link on the top of the page and on the Account tab scroll down to check the box next to Tweet Privacy. Once you've protected your Tweets, only users you approve can follow you and get to read your Twitter updates - be it for the mobile notifications or on the web.

Visit this link to register the phone number to sign up for Twitter.

The new Fast Follow feature for selected countries is an effort to bring aboard more Twitter users via mobile phones. Even though whatever is being sent out as Twitter updates is available and accessible openly on the web, the privacy of existing users is at stake and an average user won't be able to figure out if someone is already receiving his/her updates via mobile phone. What do you think about this new feature? Leave us a comment and let us know

Read More...

Teen Exposes Twitter Flaw, Hackers Exploit It

A 17-year old teen from Melbourne, Australia "claimed responsibility" for making public the cross scripting flaw on Twitter - which in a few hours took a potent form and caused a widespread attack on Twitter.


The flaw, which was exposed in a casual tweet, was exploited by hackers and in a few hours, Twitter was under attack. The "MouseOver" JavaScript code that was exposed automatically opened a pop up window when a user simply hovered his mouse over links on Twitter. This spelt a golden opportunity for hackers who used the flaw to make people click on links they might have not clicked usually. Most of these links lead to adult and infected websites.


Twitter explained about the attack in a detailed blog post and added that it was aware of the flaw a month back and had already fixed it. However, a recent update to the site caused the security hole to reappear and was then forgotten. Bob Lord, a spokesperson from the Twitter Security team says, "First, someone created an account that exploited the issue by turning tweets different colors and causing a pop-up box with text to appear when someone hovered over the link in the tweet. Other users took this one step further and added code that caused people to re-tweet the original Tweet without their knowledge."


Twitter confirmed that it would not be pursuing legal action against the perpetrators of the attack - nor will it identify individuals publicly who might have been involved in these attacks.

Read More...