ChirpBot Launches, offering on-demand content, games and more through Twitter

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New service allows users to access on-demand content, play games, and control web-based software through commands issued on Twitter.

Waterloo, Ont. – June 30, 2009 - ChirpBot, a free service that lets you issue commands through your computer or your phone using Twitter, launched in Beta form today. The service allows users to issue simple commands, called chirps, through the popular microblogging service Twitter.

Using ChirpBot, anyone with a Twitter account can:

• Access several types of web-based content on demand, including weather, sports scores, stock quotes and daily horoscopes
• Play text-based games (like Blackjack) through Twitter
• Access and control web-based software through Twitter
• Retrieve web-based information easily without the headaches of mobile browsing

At launch, ChirpBot will offer a sampling of services that includes:

• Real-time sports scores for any MLB or NHL game
• Local weather forecasts and conditions
• Stock quotes for publicly traded companies
• Daily horoscopes
• Blackjack, a Twitter-based version of the popular card game
• Dreamhost API commands. Use Twitter to access web hosting tools from this popular hosting provider.
• Book search, a quick method for accessing Amazon.com search results on your mobile
• Random quotes from classic literature

The ChirpBot team insists that this initial sampling is a mere fraction of what is to come. “We’ve got a long list of channels we intend to develop,” says Dan Skeen, President of Keyword Communications Group, the holding company for ChirpBot. “Some of them will really surprise people and show them what this service is capable of.” The team also looks forward to extending the ChirpBot service to the developer community through API tools and support, creating the first extensible platform for Twitter automation.

The company’s origin comes from a fairly simple concept, Skeen explains. “My co-founder was looking at the update area for Twitter,” he says. “Where others saw a simple text field he saw a command line.” Building on this principle, the team created ChirpBot.com and set up the service to issue commands using the API of a popular web hosting company, Dreamhost. “Suddenly, a simple tweet could reboot a web server, and that got us thinking about other possibilities,” Skeen says.

About the ChirpBot Team:

ChirpBot, based in Waterloo, Ontario, is the most comprehensive automation service for the Twitter platform available today. For more information on ChirpBot, visit ChirpBot.com or follow ChirpBot on Twitter.

ChirpBot Wins the Early Bird Prize in the DreamHost API Contest

Thanks to Josh Jones and the team at Dreamhost for awarding ChirpBot as the winner of the early bird prize in their “Crazy $10,000 giveaway contest!”. You see, Dreamhost developed a lovely little API a while ago, and to promote it, they set up the following contest:

Develop any application (Windows, Mac, Linux, Web, iPhone, Facebook, Boxee, Firefox Plugin, whatever…) that uses the DreamHost API by April 30th 2009, and submit a link to it in the comments to this post.

We (I) will personally review all entries, and CASH prizes will be awarded to the best apps to the tune of:

Grand Prize: $5,000
1st Place: $2,500
2nd Place: $1,250
3rd Place: $500
4th Place: $750

The final prize winners have been announced and we’re very pleased to report that a $2,000 early bird prize was awarded to the best of the bunch – ChirpBot.

We’re quite pleased with this early recognition, not just because we like people giving us money, but because it’s validation for an idea that we feel has so much room to grow into something bigger.

ChirpBot Delivers Stock Quotes and Finance Info Through Twitter

Getting up-to-the-minute stock info on your mobile device can be challenging. What if you could do it through good ol’ Twitter rather than mobile browsing or installing another mobile application? Now you can, and it couldn’t be easier.

ChirpBot’s stock quotes channel doesn’t require any installation or configuration – it’s ready to go. All you need to do is send an @reply or direct message to ChirpBot on Twitter. In your message use the quote command, then specify the ticker symbol for the stock you’d like to monitor (e.g. MSFT for Microsoft). So, your @reply would look like this: @chirpbot quote msft

And a direct (private) message would look like this: d chirpbot quote msft

Within seconds you’ll receive either an @reply or direct message to your Twitter ID from ChirpBot that includes the latest stock market info for that stock.

Happy trading!

The ChirpBot blog has hatched!

Welcome to the ChirpBot blog! We’re very pleased to have launched a feathery new service to the world, but MUCH more excited about what’s to come from this little critter. Thanks to everyone who has visited us already and those of you following us on Twitter. Stay tuned for exciting things to come!