The idea started when I was looking for a tool that lets me automate tweets, typically send things like quotations, geek humor and other things to my twitter account. There are tools to update twitter from RSS feeds or create tweet publicity, but nothing for bulk scheduling.
The application is simple; all that the use does is logs into the application (the application is on Google App Engine, so logins use Google Accounts) and authorizes twitter accounts. Once this is done, the user uploads a file that contains one tweet per line. There are scheduling options that let the user specify the time interval or the total duration all the tweets should take.The user interface was inspired from Google Reader, and the application on App Engine uses features like cron jobs and tasks lists to get the job done.
One discussion that came up was regarding the requirement to have a use log in with Google credentials. Though this method allows users to manage multiple accounts, most individuals would schedule only with one account. Maybe I would fork a branch sometime soon for implementing this variant.
The typical uses of this application could be
- Help companies send marketing messages easily
- Bots that tweets aimed at teaching foreign languages, one tweet at a time. This, I presume, is a lot easier that reading books.
- Create bots that quote tweets from books like the Gita, Quran or the bible.
