PoliTweets : Cool Social Network Political Tracker

Five industrious geeks (Doug, Gabe, Jason, Min, Dan) launched PoliTweets earlier this month. PoliTweets tracks Twitter posts ("tweets") that mention 2008 Presidential candidates. (tip)

The current leader-board ranking: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Mitt Romney, John Edwards, Ron Paul. (Even those who have dropped out have a place on the popularity board.) I've not known about it long enough to know if the ranking changes often.

For those of you unfamiliar with Twitter, it is a social networking service that revolves around text-messaging/micro-blogging. (Free, of course; 140 character limit.) The content ("tweets") can be delivered across multiple media: phones (traditional SMS text messages), Twitter.com (traditional web) or stand-alone applications like Twitterrific or Jabber.

Some people use Twitter to let a small group of friends know what they are up to. Companies or people may use it to release product information ... or as a mini-RSS feed. There are experimental uses by libraries and educators. Some people are using it at conferences to advise of room or schedule changes... or where the parties are.

And PoliTweets is tracking the Twitter conversation surrounding the 2008 Presidential race. Cool!

Learn more about Twitter: The Guardian Technology (Mar 2007), All The World Is Twittering (Nov 2007), Twitter Blog, Twitter FAQ.

Related: The Best Facebook Political Applications - Presidential Campaign 2008 and Facebook + Politics. My Twitter Feed.