Graham Waldon has been working for several years behind the walls of the Googleplex on Blogger and he knows all the tricks. In this first-ever guest post on the Twitter Blog Graham has a tip for how bloggers with twitter badges can sail smoothly past those occasional times when Twitter is taking a little, *ahem* "cat-nap" (so to speak).

Twitter was down for a little while Sunday afternoon. (It happens to the best of us). Unfortunately, I've currently got my Twitter updates showing above my blog posts, and with Twitter temporarily unreachable, it stalled the loading of my entire page until it finally timed out. Bummer, that. Ideally, it would load my entire page first, and then work on contacting Twitter, so that folks could start reading my posts right away. Turns out that's pretty easy to do. Here's how.

Disclaimer: This only works with the Javascript version of the Twitter badge code, not the fancy flash version.

To put Twitter updates on your site, you get a chunk of code that looks more or less like the following. (Be sure to get the version of the Graham Waldon

Attention smart developer-types in San Francisco: We could really use some help making Twitter rock harder. Here's the job posting.

Vodpod added Twitter support over the weekend. Vodpod is a fun way to watch and rate videos with emoticon actions. If you happen to use both Vodpod and Twitter, then the ratings you assign to videos (Watched, Loved, or LOL'd) will show up as Twitter updates. Interesting!

The article I wrote for Blogger users a couple years ago wouldn't have helped Sam. Crazy!

Airbag Industries: "Twitter is a virtual subway ride packed full of cell phone conversations and schizophrenics. It's like the Lewis Black of the web." In our book, a creative review is a positive review.

TrippingOnWords is "The Continuously Unedited, But Ever-Professional Account of Two Accidental Travel Writers" and now they're on Twitter so you can learn about their travels while you travel.

Reuters.co.uk: "Text messages sent to and from mobile phones will more than double over the next five years to 2.3 trillion messages sent by 2010, a survey said on Tuesday."

It's real time at the same time: "The folks at Twitter.com have built their site around the seemingly toothless but cosmically important question, 'What are you doing?' Launched in July, the aptly named service aims to close the real-time gap between you and your friends when you are not e-mailing, instant- or text-messaging one another, by letting you send your nearest and dearest up-to-the-minute updates on everything you think and do."

Web Worker Daily wants your thoughts on Twitter: "So if you haven’t played around with short-messaging a friends list from almost any device, give it a whirl. If you have, let us know what you love and hate about the service in the comments. We are thinking about ways to implement Twitter into our web work lives - perhaps using it as a way to create a private network and staying connected. Any thoughts?"

Lotta can't figure why she likes Twitter so much: "Now I’m hooked and I still think it’s nonsense. I get notified when my friends have a cup of coffee, take a walk in the rain, do their laundry and whatnot. I send them completely uninteresting details about my life. And I can’t figure out why it’s all such a blast."

A Twitter Application: "The idea behind the client is a small application that will sit in your taskbar and constantly update you on your friend timeline. It will also allow you to easily update your timeline without upsetting your flow."

The Talented Mr Twitter: "Perhaps Twitters widgets should be seen as the blog within the blog."

Tech Geek Blogger Robert Scoble has a list of signs that you've been blogging too much and #12 is "You go to Twitter and write I'm blogging.'"

We've added AOL Instant Messanger support to Twitter. If you have a AIM screen name, you can add it to your IM Settings in Twitter and use AIM to send and receive Twitter updates. This update adds AIM to the list of ways to connect with folks on Twitter which already includes Gtalk, LiveJournal, Jabber, SMS Mobile Texting, and the Web Interface. Nice!

We've seen engagements, skydiving, and businesses launched on Twitter but this is the first time we've seen somebody announce that they're having a baby!
Sarah: is pregnant. :o
Congratulations Sarah! a Twitter baby is a happy, healthy, and lucky little baby. (So say us!)

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