interesting results

After googling my name, a plethora of different "steve hurley's" popped up. None of which was myself, not even my facebook or google+ account. What did show up was an apparently pretty famous r&b musician steve "silk" hurley and "adult entertainer" steve hurley. Both of which I laughed at, along with more random people such as photographers, lawyers etc. I seriously went through 7 pages and nothing that was about me. I guess it is because my name is a pretty common one, but I was really surprised to see that my online presence is almost non existent since I do have facebook,google+, and other websites I have created or been a part of.

My situation most likely isn't the most common one, and internet privacy is something that I know people are concerned with. I really think though, if you do not want your information available, dont post it! People should be aware that yes there are privacy settings on some websites, but for the most part, the internet is an immense tool with immense capabilities, some of which make it possible for your information and privacy to be seen even if you dont want it to.

I was happy with the results that popped up after googling my name. I have my Facebook account put on private, so the only thing that’ll show is my favorite TV shows. I have an old LinkedIn account I’ll end up deactivating anyway, and my ancient MySpace page never had any reference of my real name on it. I do think the only reason why my page shows up first is because of my IP address and my location to the servers. Otherwise, as I search deeper for my name, other Peruvian Anthony Bordas in South America populate in my results. I think I’m off the hook for now.

I checked out the articles about Facebook when they had made that change. If Zuckerberg stole the idea of Facebook from prominent rich folks, I don’t think he’d care about my feelings of privacy. I try to keep in mind on what information I post. I have a total of maybe 6 things that I have “liked” through facebook. Fortunately I’m anti-Facebook, I only have the account to keep in contact with people I’ve met through school. If Facebook fell off the earth I wouldn’t care because it runs people’s lives. I’m careful of the internet content I post because anything can be saved and documented. Internet postings could hurt a reputation (Anthony Weiner) or benefit someone ( Phil DiFranco Youtube star). I think users should use the social networking sites to their advantage.

Googling myself

Upon a quick search for the name "Evan Ward", multiple profile accounts for facebook, linkedin, myspace and other popular sites appear, none of which are mine. I do have multiple accounts on different popular websites, but my use of them is extremely limited. My posting is few and far between on any given site as I prefer to have my personal interaction, well, in person. Whether or not someone took the time to actually find any one of my profiles would not matter much to me regardless. When I do use sites like facebook, it's more of checking messages/events more than posting, there is nothing that anyone would be shocked to find out on my accounts. Also, anyone I care to talk to is generally a contact on my phone or I can see them in person.

There is a general amount of security one should have in matters like email, but anything posted on a public site (or private like someone's facebook profile) is out there and anyone with enough doing can see it. Most things on the internet are archived, and people do save things and repost them later. It surprises me when I hear stories of people posting things online, or emailing something and it turning up online somewhere a few days (or hours) later. Absolute privacy on the internet is almost impossible, but you can do a lot to keep yourself secure.

Some of the case studies

There are more than 800 million active facebook users who log atleast once in a day. How many of them actually care for privacy?  If they did they would not have been active users on facebook. But there are some cases wherein the information provided by facebook updates have caused loss of jobs, or divorce in marriage. I read an article by cbsnews, wherein a teacher was forced to resign from the job, only because she had put a picture of hers holding a glass of wine and beer on facebook. A parent complained the principal of school  and it all formed a huge issue.

Ashley Payne: A former teacher

Link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/06/sunday/main7323148.shtml

I have also heard of some cases of spam and hacking account. A woman’s account was hacked and messages were sent to all her friends, that she needs money because she is tormented and beaten by her husband and all this increased to a stage which  finally led to the divorce between the husband and wife. Neverthless, most of us have been victims of spam messages sent from our account of weird pictures or messages to our friends. Facebook allows the user's  pictures to be downloaded by anyone, especially the profile picture. But despite this people are ready to keep their original pictures on facebook.

Moreover, the primary information of email address we provide to most people these days can help anyone to track easily, the name, phone number, address and the country of the person. A useful site for this is: http://www.email-seeker.com/. There are sites like reputation.com which help to build a good reputation on the internet. They can delete the unwanted information on the users name on the web. These was primarily used by parents to keep their teenage children’s record clean, especially being concerned of what they post on the social media websites. But now it is used by even adults, especially those who want create good impression while applying for jobs.

Besides, I even would like to share the case of one of my close friends, who got a job, through craigslist. Initially she was very happy, but since the job was concerned with money transaction she tried to search in detail about the company and figured out that it was a fake company which took money of the employees and put them in serious bad financial condition. Before her, there were many cases of victim and a fbi investigation is going on it.

Undoubtedly the world wide web, has helped us with many sources, but we also have to be more careful than before regarding the information we share on the internet.

Internet Piracy

I had goggled myself before to find out what comes up and my facebook was in the top five of what came up. To make it disappear to a certain extent I had changed my facebook name by making my last name my middle name and I also changed the url to my facebook link so it wouldn’t read facebook.com/britneywallace.  I know that some employers or people in general may find my facebook page so I still keep it as professional as I can but I don’t want it to be that easily accessible.

Now when I google myself I just realized that my twitter also is shown in the results along with my google plus account (which I don’t mind).  I do mind my twitter coming up and I will definitely change that in the near future and would like my linkedin account to come up instead of my social medias. I do plan on using twitter professionally one day and when that happens I will make it accessible again.

I don’t expect to be able to hide anything from people to access because I know it is not rational. Because of this I do not put anything on the internet that I don’t want people to see.

Google / Privacy

I'm happy to say that my public online presence is pretty much insignificant information.  When I google my name the top hit is to my blog and then many other "Monica Sicilia's" appear before I have content again.  There are links to my site and projects I have created, books written for Sadlier, etc. but all-in-all, really not much pertaining to me.  I like it that way!

I think the only reasonable expectation we can have about online privacy is the reality that there are times when no matter what our desire, our privacy may be violated.  I think it's important to keep what you share at a bare minimum, but realistically others can post information about you or, innocently, you can makes comments or postings that reveal information you had not intended.

I believe that online communities, such as facebook, should be held accountable if information is "leaked" through their sites and it is not intended for public knowledge.   I guess another reality check is appropriate here-- we are dealing with technology and imperfect people so "glitches" happen and will continue to happen.  So as wonderful as our cyber world is, there are definate unfortunate realities--hopefully we will learn from these and they will become less in the future.

googling colleen caffrey.

when i was younger, i wasn't really aware of the reach of my web presence. every few years, i end up googling myself, each time for different reasons usually. when i first googled myself, i did not hold any social media accounts. i remember finding other individuals with the same names, but then i also recall finding an online record that was actually me from a town charity walk which i participated in, simply listing my finish time. the next time i googled myself, i was probably a sophomore in high school, and had  quite a few social media sites: facebook, a personal myspace, a photography myspace, a picasa web albums account, and a purevolume account. because i wasn't really supposed to have a myspace account, i thought i had set my privacy settings in such a way that no one would be able to find me. little did i know that those settings only mattered within the myspace search, and not within google. of my five accounts, i remember three or four displaying in the search. i quickly went back and reviewed all settings. i ended up deleting my purevolume and both myspace accounts soon after (or so i thought). the next time i googled myself, i was applying to be a resident assistant. after hearing stories that reslife would search people's social media presence while in the hiring process, i scrubbed my facebook clean so to speak, untagging all incriminating photos and tightening up my privacy controls even moreso. when i googled myself, i was shocked to discover that my photography myspace account was still up, after i believed i had deleted it. i scrambled to remember the email and password i used, and deleted it(after seeing how many requests and spam messages had accumulated). after googling myself earlier tonight, i was relieved to see colleen caffrey the drummer from atlanta coming up most frequently. when i looked at images, i was not very surprised to see my facebook default picture present in the search, as i have that as one of the few things that display when you search for me in facebook. i was however, surprised to see an image i had created and set as my default for a spraygraphic account that i had set up to receive the newsletter, but never really utilized. i traced the image back to the account, and deleted it, yet tonight when i searched, the image still appears. 

growing up in this explosion of social media, i feel as though i have grown to become more responsible for my decisions in posting web content and creating accounts. i have always been somewhat cautious about what i have posted, but i feel as though now i have matured myself, i am even more discrete. i think its sort of related to the generational discussion we were having last class... as a young teenager, you tend to rebel and live without consequences. as you mature, you tend to take more responsibility for your actions, and recognize the consequences each and every choice you make may have on your future. 

Control ur Privacy

A little shocking to find that everything I did in my Google+ account shows up when I google my name! Thankfully, there is nothing much I did with it! Initially, I did the mistake of posting most of my life in Facebook. A few of them has even caused problems. There is no point in complaining that you are loosing your privacy when you are the one who is giving away your information. They say that a Social Network is to stay in touch with your friends. But the truth is, your Facebook-friend is not always your Friend. There are so many other secured ways through which one can share their life with friends. Plus, some tend to post indirect statuses especially when in a bad mood that they will regret later. Professional sites like linkedIn should also be used carefully. Some give all their contact information including their address which is totally not safe. Thinking about the amount of people coming to know my information is a little scary.

But the thing is, we have all the control to our privacy. Its in our hands to how much others should know.

Privacy?

I can remember about a year of so ago when there was an up roar on Facebook with everyone being upset that your cell phone number was being published. The mad dash to correct this injustice was like a group of stampeding buffalo. Everyone was in such a panic with daily post of "How can they do that?" or "We must protect our privacy!"


I just had to laugh at everyone. The loudest people to worry about their "privacy" were the same ones that practically post their entire lives online or are such big online consumers that their info is already out there. People live under this misrepresentation that their private info isn't online. I can find out anything I want about any person as long as I have an address or phone number.

Now I might be in a some what unique position in that I own a company and can get access to that kind of info; but at the same time I have heard of others being able to do the same things. My overall feeling about the topic of internet privacy is if you don't want anyone; and I do mean anyone; to not find out about something then don't put it any where on the internet. Even hiding behind screen names and cute icons you are not safe. If someone wants to really find out about you there are ways out there for them to do it. Its not always legal but we are no longer in a safe world. Don't mean to be doom and gloom just one more facet of our new modern lives.

This week's assignment

Read: http://consumerist.com/2009/02/facebooks-new-terms-of-service-we-can-do-anything-we-want-with-your-content-forever.html
http://mashable.com/2010/04/26/facebook-openness-debate/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Mashable/SocialMedia+(Mashable+%C2%BB+Social+Media+Feed)

Google yourself and see what you can find out about your public online presence

Write: What reasonable expectation do you have for privacy on the internet?

Virtual Worlds

I think the articles for this week’s blog were some of the best. I consider myself a digital native, and looking back, I feel like I was the immigrant to old teaching methods throughout grade school. As a daily YouTube viewer, I can absorb more news and information better through video and interaction than I could by just reading it. When I read articles the information doesn’t stick all the time because my mind floats as I read. If I’m focused on the content of a video I seem to grasp more knowledge on what’s being presented. I remember being in grade school while the teachers would have us use Mavis Beacon to learn keyboard typing, but it wasn’t helpful. I learned typing through instant messaging. I’ll Google and wiki everything throughout the day to stay on top of news, or to learn something new.

The digital age of communication/entertainment will only get bigger in the next 5 – 10 years. I had an online gaming account when I was younger and I remember people paying with real money for virtual goods. I don’t think it will stop; but I do think the government will step in someday so they can tax the companies. I don’t think virtual games like Second Life will explode in popularity, but I do think that other games will offer a lot more in the future. I’ve heard of a man who works for Second Life, has 2 online wives through the game and spends countless hours with his virtual family. He also has a real family that he supports by developing/playing on this game and his wife knows of his virtual family. Virtual game consoles (so you won’t need a physical box in the house) could offer higher end performance and higher end gaming solutions with deeper statistics of how well a user plays, better audio and video, even physical movement to control the character instead of a typical controller. The good news is more developing jobs, digital design jobs, animation jobs, and gaming jobs… the bad news the world will live on a diet of pizza and Neo will have to save us.

Google search National Geographic’s show + Taboo + second life. (my reference)

age of the gamer

Growing up as a child, videogames were a huge part of my life. I remember borrowing the original Nintendo system from my older cousin and playing mario and duckhunt and never giving it back. Then came super nintendo, dreamcast, playstion 1/2, xbox, PC games etc etc. Point is, this (sad or not) is what I remember alot of growing up and how I spent my time.

As an interactive designer, in this age of videogames, it is getting to the point in gaming to where it is all interactive. Take for example World of Warcraft, while never personally getting into it, it is seriously so massive and so interactive and involved with their community, it skews the original idea of a gamer down in his dark parents basement playing atari all day and night. With the advent of ventrilo and other programs that let players talk to each other through microphones and or/video while playing, the age of the gamer is getting more interactive every year.

Game Design and Society

As a digital designer I believe it is important to have some knowledge about gaming design but unfortunately I don't really have much interest in gaming. Growing up I would play video games and computer games with my older brother but as I got old and when he went to college I slowly but surely stopped playing a lot of games the one one I am interested in now is RPG games like Grand theft auto. Even though I am a little rusty with gaming and playing them, I believe I can pick any game up with little time because I can easily figure out technology because that is how I was raised as a Digital Native.

Being a digital and interactive designer in today's society I believe that I should start learning more about gaming because its what's most popular right now and it seems as if its going to stay that way for years to come. I believe that gaming design can be not only a fun recreation for Digital Natives, it can also be helpful for Digital Immigrants as teaching tools. Even though gaming design is not that path I watt to pursue, I still believe it is an important aspect of design whithin society.

The new era of education

“Theory is important but practical application is critical to success” – Karl Kapp. All those people who have spent time in job hunt in their practical field would totally agree with Karl Kapp. Knowledge is important but at the end of the day , the practical use is more important. Knowledge without use will be like the gold coins of a miser which are used only for counting. Particularly in the field of digital design, the talent and quality of work matters. Whether I applied for master level admission in different universities or job, all they matter is the work in my portfolio rather than my GPA.I had the privilege of studying under many professors who themselves were self taught but teach the graduate level students.

It does not matter, how, where or when one studies ? All that matters is that one know's the stuffs to do his/her task. Certainly as Prensky marks out today’s generation , in his words the ‘Digital Natives’ are used to multi-tasking and instant gratification. They prefer the digital technology for education, which is much different from the old educational system of books , syllables and examinations.  I agree with what Prensky states in most of the cases. But there are points where I disagree with him eg: Too much of multi-tasking reduces efficiency. I have often found being on facebook and studying at the same time reducing my concentration level. Another point is that speed  does not always help even the digital natives. I do not know about the others but I take time to grasp the basic knowledge and would prefer to be taught the basics step by step. Once I am thorough with the basics, I can easily catch up with randomness and speed of the work.  For eg : My first interaction with the HTML and CSS language was an overview given by my professor by showing the various code sources of existing websites. This made my work really difficult. I rather fell into the category of Digital Immigrant and printed the notes from the W3 schools. Once thorough with it…I can now grasp other languages easily.

On the whole in most cases, I absolutely agree with Prensky and Kapp , that a lot more knowledge, invention, discoveries are hidden outside the four walls of an education institution. Education should always be interesting……something which today’s generation is having and the only reason why they always love to go to school.. The internet , the gaming industry and other digital technology definitely are a more promising sign of better education system.

Designing for the Gaming Age

As a digital designer I feel like it is part of my job to keep up with the most current designs in all forms of interactive media. I've played a decent amount of video games in my life, and my roommates now play a lot. Since more kids are growing up with video games and other electronic stimulation, they begin to become accustomed to what those things look like and how to interact with them. Since they will be the next main generation to use the internet we will be designing for their use.
Games today have come a very long way from the games I remember playing on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) that I first had as a child. They utilize powerful graphics cards and engines and are meant to be played on HD televisions to be fully enjoyed. At the rate technology advances, devices are getting flatter, faster and cheaper, while screens are getting larger. This means that we can utilize larger website sizes and more impressive forms of navigation and interaction with our viewers. I, for one, am looking forward to being able to design larger and larger websites with more original content, once it becomes standard of course.

digital immigrants vs. digital natives

I found the articles involving the concept of digital natives vs. digital immigrants to be rather interesting and thought provoking. I especially found the portion of the Prensky model which described the immigrants' accents to be quite humorous, yet also an appropriate metaphor.  "...like all immigrants, some better than others – to adapt to their environment, they always retain, to some degree, their "accent," that is, their foot  in the past." I think we could all think of little things that immigrants do that make zero sense to natives but perfect sense to them(for me, my dad printing out his entire user guide for his phone).

This whole description of immigrants, particularly as it pertains to education, reminded me of a concept I learned about in a Personalities and World Cultures course a few semesters ago called "teleconditioning" or "teleconditioned behavior". Essentially, teleconditioned behavior, refers to how new generations are used to being inundated with various stimuli, yet only concentrating on the individual stimuli for a brief span of time.  I found this excerpt from a journal article written by an anthropology professor on how he has altered his classroom procedure and antics to better suit his teleconditioned students.

http://www.faulkner.edu/academics/artsandsciences/socialandbehavioral/readings/an/teleconditioning.aspx

There definitely is evidence of different thought and learning processes between natives vs. immigrants as a result of their environments; yet, I wonder wear the similarities lie. Although I am considered a native, I was raised by and taught by immigrants. Similarly, although I had computer class in school, and had one or two computers per classroom, I did not consider myself to be so native or teleconditioned until high school, when I got a cell phone and my own laptop. Since then I have definitely fit the native description more definitely. When thinking of my younger cousins, who have been native since birth, and taught by more native teachers in more electronic environment, I see few similarities to immigrants. Sure, my cousins read before going to bed, but they now sometimes read on kindles. They complete homework electronically, and play educational games on wii or xbox.
I wonder about the detriments of native vs. immigrant behavior, with relation to teleconditioned behavior. I think that the shortened attentions spans and constant multitasking may limit or prohibit deep, pensive, singular thoughts. On the other hand, the ability to process large amounts of information and stimuli simultaneously is definitely advantageous in terms of widespread productivity. I think that while both natives and immigrants exist, we will continue to notice this tension, especially in the classroom and workplace. I'm slightly concerned with what will happen as immigrants become extinct. I think we might lose the ability to think, concentrate, and specialize on one area only. Similarly, I am concerned that we will only have digital metaphors, and lose the realities which they represent.

Virtual Worlds

"I'm having a great time in VIE. I can't wait to see what they add next." –RJay, a user.

As I always say, something better might show up which might make VIE and second life a history. For a person like me, who doesn’t always enjoy playing video games, this might not work. But here’s what will happen to the 2 big virtual worlds considering the video game lovers and with the assumption that nothing good is going to show up. With continuous advancements in technology, both the games can add more features that will make the user addicted to the game. With the world getting faster, it is hard for people to catch up with their friends. This automatically leads to the addiction to virtual worlds so that one might feel connected to people. Plus, it’s fun.

The worlds can be made use in various other purposes too. Like in education or creating awareness of what happens throughout the world or charity and more. I also believe that people might continue earning money through second life if the world has the capacity to keep attracting people. From what I’ve heard, second life is not as famous as it was previously. It still has a huge user crowd though.

To conclude, VIE and Second Life will conquer a huge crowd in the future if it has all the qualities to make the user want to keep visiting it provided nothing better shows up.

Only a little kick

I have been thinking for a very long time that people young and old are going to need new ways of being brought into experiences. I read the Digital Natives piece with a slightly different bent to it. Taking the arguments that where brought up and applying them to how to engage anyone. I guess I have a unique perspective in that I have an autistic son, so I have had to think outside the norm in order to draw my son into things.

A point that kept coming to mind as I was reading was that in many ways what needs to be done is to immerse people in a learning experience. So how does this all apply to being a designer? Very simple, the old ways of just print or web only based design is out the window. You can no longer think along a single line of output. If you aren't touching on a number of senses with a project then you are going to miss a large number of your audience.

Those digital immigrants are being drug along and are adapting faster than ever. Why is this? No body wants to be left behind. This doesn't apply to every "immigrant" but it does apply to enough of them that it makes it important to not just focus your design energies on one single market. The more people get into what you are doing the better a success you will have.

My Turn!

Since I am going in Character Design for gaming I have little change due to it rise. So I will be focusing on how others should leverage it.

People like games, bottom line sorry! Kids like games, they learn from them. So in up coming generations I see more learning involving some scope of a game. It is a source of motivation for kids, so why not use it? One example I have from my childhood is the game 24. It was a simple math game that help you learn how to do basic math problems at high speeds. I played this game and my teacher actually ended up entering me into a tournament for it. That motivated me to learn, because it was fun.

Website design has a concept I don't see enough, but is gold. Minigames for loaders is a way to keep a viewer around if you have a extreme load time. You can easily occupy a persons time with even the simplest game as pong or tic-tac-toe if implemented even basic.

Prensky and Kapp....and me :)

     I was wondering why I recognized “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”, and then as I began reading the article, I remembered we used it in an education symposium a few years back.   In the education forum there certainly is a lot of discussion as to how we can best educate the children of today.  We can learn much from looking at the Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants as diverging entities (which is the view of Prensky), but I feel much more can be learned by looking at these groups and how they can best come together.  Certainly educators and the education systems of today do need to adapt and evolve with the times, but I do not believe we should assume that our students are incapable of learning from or communicating with the Digital Immigrants and visa-versa. 
     Prensky makes a good point that it is critical for Digital Immigrants to do what they can to learn about the Digital Native culture as it emerges.  However, once again, I feel that good teaching is about celebrating the likenesses and respecting the differences.   There is still a need for “legacy” learning!  I think that is a huge downfall in our education systems today—not everything can be or should be “future content” learning.  Education needs to go much deeper than this surface awareness (which is where I think Prensky stays); it encompasses knowledge and skills to reach the complexity of the learning process, and also the ability and need to make adjustments for every child. 
     As Kapp points out, the transfer of knowledge is crucial for future growth, and there are creative ways of bringing these generations together.  We shouldn’t wait to try and do this in the workforce of which Kapp speaks; rather, we should start in our families, our towns, our schools, and so-on.

Next Week's Assignment

Read:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/06/14/news/companies/virtualworlds/index.htm
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf
http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/42/07879865/0787986542.pdf
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/09/19/us-gamers-crack-puzzle-in-aids-research-that-stumped-scientists-for-years/

Write:

How will your life as a digital designer change as you begin designing for the gaming generations?
or

Compare Kapp and Prensky’s perspectives on generations

Meebo

The web based company I researched was Meebo. I’ve used this website a few years ago to keep updated on my instant messaging services, and the best part is that users don’t have to download each IM program. The user signs onto the Meebo server, which connects them to the desired IM service.
They’re mission:“Integrating all social networks and communications channels into a single, simple-to-use solution, Meebo enables users to easily share content and communicate in real time with the people who matter to them.”
The site does make money; they have an ad bar on the lower left side of the screen after the user is logged on. When I used this site back in 07/08 the worth of the site was climbing. It was worth $60 – $70 million; and after reading an article published in 08, it was shooting to be worth $200- $250 million. I can’t see the site being worth as much as it was because of all the new apps that are popping up in the market. Text messaging is becoming more of an IM service, and people use Facebook chat more than ever. I think Meebo’s user rate will fall, unless they can find another solution to tie all the website chats into one single outlet. Otherwise the site is old technology and will fade away.

Boag-in It!!

Boagworld is a design based company that is well established on the web. I had learned out this website during a design class where we are learning different strategy and planning for web sites. Information that is provided on their website consists of podcasts, categories of advice and/or tutorials like (mobile, accessibility, and development) and free downloads. Their mission in general is to provide resources for the design world from graphic design to interactive media and design and it is to also keep their company on the market. By doing so Boagworld has their employees on the homepage and you are able to access their individual websites and/or hire boagworld as a company to design or redesign your website. It seems as if that is the only way of revenue but it is very easy and effective to have them work on your site or design. 

Gilt

Gilt is an online, members only, clothing store. However, they do not make their money from membership fees, the entire site is free to browse. Gilt built up their reputation by hiring some of the biggest names in the field of fashion direction and management. They also only sell a few select items a day (the items sold change every day) at a significant discount, from some high quality companies.

Almost all of the items sell out every day. They also have a referral system that gives discounts to members who refer new members. Whenever a referred member makes a purchase, the member who "invited" them to join Gilt gets a coupon/discount. With the stature that they have acquired, they have gained a large user base and high end clothing stores have chosen to sponsor Gilt (which is how they afford to discount the prices so much).

Twitter

From the articles I read, twitter makes money in three different ways.

1. Cost-per-click from its Promoted Tweets. These are keyword-targeted, cost-per-click ads that appear in all Twitter search results in some applications, trending topics, and of course on http://search.twitter.com. You bid on keywords kind of like Google AdWords and can drive users to anywhere a link can go, including high-value brand engagements, videos, lead capture landing pages, etc. Currently the minimum bid is $0.50 and goes up depending on the keywords and categories in your campaign.

2. Cost-per-follower from its Promoted Accounts. These are keyword-targeted, cost-per-follower ads where you target users based on what they talk about and who they follow. This is a great way to quickly build your base of followers (basically Twitter friends who have opted in to receive your tweet messages). At the moment, and depending on the category, followers are running at about $1 to $2 apiece.

3. Exclusivity from its Promoted Trends offering. This is a flat-rate; daily sponsorship that drives huge amounts of impressions, engagements, and clicks. A sponsor can receive over 60 million impressions in one day, but it does require a rather large financial commitment. If you want to see the needle move in a short period of time, high-impression sponsorships like this and other home page buyout opportunities can be effective.