A couple of us got together over the last weekend and expanded on a site that has been in the works for a long time. A weekend that focused on a new product direction and lots of code writing has resulted in something we think is pretty cool.

Unfortunatly the site isn’t 100% ready yet. We are still moving some things around, tweaking some algorithms and utilizing a little bit of elbow grease to get the cobwebs off. Even though it isn’t ready, it is out there so if you use your super sleuth skills you can probably find it (security by obscurity). If you do happen to find it and want to learn more, leave a comment or just email me directly. I would be more than happy to discuss in full the details of the site. When the site is actually launched a more detailed post will follow. That launch is right around the corner, but in the meantime sit tight and watch this crazy ping pong match.

A lot of you noticed that the center column just didn’t make sense. “We should be able to click on those names” was often read around the internets. So we did just that, each name is now clickable and takes you to their “candidate page”. As of right now we are showing the last 3 tweets from the candidate (if they have an active twitter account) and the last 3 tweets you the “citizen journalists” have reported. We are also providing some quick links to the candidates activity on other social sites around the internet.

We are working on some other ideas for post Super Tuesday. Presidential hopefuls are more clear, we will be producing some interesting charts and graphs to document “the daily buzz”. We are always looking for suggestions, feel free to leave a comment and we will take your thoughts into consideration for the next release.

Thanks again for all the kind words about the site, they are much appreciated!

**update
We are now showing the latest flickr photos and youtube videos on the candidate pages.

Politweets rose up from all the great publicity twittertale got (and is still getting). We knew we had to take the same technology and use it for something a little more practical. Dan Croak of thoughtbot reached out with an idea to track the presidential election. This was one of the many ideas we had come up with but now that people were asking for it, we put it on top of the priority list. There was a definite need and I wanted to be the one to help provide that solution to the twitter users. Dan also offered his rail’s expertise to help us get it out the door quickly (in time for the New hampshire primary). In three short days we came up with the concept, designed and delivered a product that we are all very proud of. This evening we made some minor tweaks, one being a better iphone experience (in case any one out on the trail needs up to date info), another in preparation for next steps/features.

There have been many articles written lately questioning how twitter is going to monetize. Subscription models, ads and other methods have been mentioned and we don’t think those are the long term solution. They have built an amazing platform for sites like politweets and twittertale to take advantage of. I think you will see them taking advantage of it also, really soon. Ev, if you want to talk, I have a million ideas of how this data can be used… hint.. hint.

Just by analyzing the tweets I have noticed some really interesting trends. One for example, people that speak foreign languages really like to swear in English. That really blew me away, not really sure why but it did. I was also astonished by all the political commentary from other countries and how much they are interested in this election. We will be continuing to add features in both twittertale and politweets that showcase some of these trends. The first thing you will be seeing are candidate pages on politweets. We want to do the best we can to prepare those undecided voters. I will stop there because I don’t want to give anymore away.

Finally, we are now operating under the name Character140 (website coming soon). It isn’t so much a physical company but more of a collective of guys who enjoy twitter (and sms) and want to continue extending the uses and data that is being captured. Character140 is Doug March, Gabe Hanford, Jason Garber and Min Kim