BackType

WordPress announced the release of version 2.9 “Carmen” today; we’ve updated our WordPress plugins for support. BackType Tweetcount was updated and you’ll need to upgrade to version 2.0 if you’re running WordPress 2.9. BackType Connect did not require an update, so if you’re already running version 0.2.5 you should be fine.

Bitly Pro Support

One of the unique features of our Tweetcount button is its support for custom URL shorteners – we debuted with support for short URLs powered by Awe.sm. Today, we’ve updated Tweetcount to also updated to support Bitly Pro; the button will work with your custom Bitly short URLs. Once you’ve obtained your custom Bitly-powered short URL, visit the BackType Tweetcount options page and enter your API credentials.

Tweetcount now supports: bt.io (default), awe.sm (custom), bit.ly, bit.ly pro, su.pr, digg.com and tinyurl.

Since we launched BackType Connect, we’ve seen a growing demand for our API. We serve millions of requests every single day through our free (limited to 1,000 daily requests) and commercial API. Here are just some of the companies using our API to do interesting things:

Bitly allows users to shorten, share, and track links (URLs). They use BackType’s API to display related conversations on the Bitly info/statistics pages for URLs.

FiltrBox provides real-time social media monitoring for companies. They use BackType’s API to extend their reach into conversational media, allowing them to deliver even more coverage and quality.

(more…)

We’re always looking for new uses of our API; here are three that have caught our attention:

Bit.ly, a URL shortening service, added comments to the "Conversations" section on their info pages:

In addition to aggregating conversations from Twitter and FriendFeed, the info pages about blog posts show the number of comments found on each post. We use an API provided by backtype.com to pull in the comment count as well as the names of people who’ve commented on each post. You can check this out by visiting the info page for this blog post by Umair Haque: http://bit.ly/info/4AUD68

(more…)