In: , , ,
On: 2011 / 08 / 02
Shorter URL for this post: http://ozh.in/ux

Often when viewing a Twitter profile, the same comment pops into my mind: "Does this person follow me?". That's a basic information Twitter profiles still fail to clearly show.

There's a neat site you may know already, doesfollow.com, which lets you know if user1 follows user2 in a very simple way: check http://doesfollow.com/user1/user2 (example). Simple, but this lacks automation and geek fun. Let's make a cute bookmarklet out of this.

The javascript is fairly simple: get Twitter username, create a new page with a frameset and in each frame launch two instances of doesfollow.com to check for mutual followitude.

javascript

  1. (function () {
  2.     var me = 'ozh',
  3.         df = 'http://doesfollow.com/',
  4.         d = document,
  5.         t = d.location.toString().replace(/.*twitter.com\/#!\//, '').replace(/\//, ''),
  6.         nw = window.open(),
  7.         f = '<frame frameborder=0>',
  8.         nd = nw.document;
  9.     nd.write('<html><head><title>Mutwual - bookmarklet by @ozh</title></head><frameset cols=50%,50%,0%>'+f+f+'<frame src=http://bit.ly/fmutwual frameborder=0></frameset></html>');
  10.     nd.body.childNodes[0].src = df + '/' + me + '/' + t;
  11.     nd.body.childNodes[1].src = df + '/' + t + '/' + me;
  12.     nd.close();
  13. })();

This bookmarklet has my name ('ozh') hardcoded in it, so don't forget to edit it with your own Twitter username.

The bookmarklet also loads in a hidden frame this very page with a few Google Analytics variable set: I figured it would be fun to add some cheap anonymous analytics and monitor bookmarklet usage. If that somehow hurts your privacy concerns, feel free to remove that third frame of course.

Handy bookmarklet link: Mutwual (drag this link to your toolbar or bookmark it — remember, edit it so it works with your name)

Shorter URL

Want to share or tweet this post? Please use this short URL: http://ozh.in/ux

Metastuff

This entry "Mutwual, A Twitter Bookmarklet To Quickly Check If Someone Follows You" was posted on 02/08/2011 at 8:13 pm and is tagged with , , ,
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5 Blablas

  1. Rarst says:

    Ehm, there is very obvious direct message button that only shows in profile if person follows you. That takes knowing (basic) Twitter mechanics, but I think qualifies as clear way to show it.

  2. Ozh says:

    Rarst: yeah, saw that in the meantime that post was in draft for 15 months. But where's the geek fun then? :)

  3. James H. says:

    haha.. I'm with you on that one, Ozh. Whenever one is presented with two options in life and one of them is the behind-the-scenes 'geek' method… well… the decision is already made ;)
    Thanks for the Javascript.

  4. Rares says:

    Have you checked out Twitual?
    It seems to present the mutual following information in a very neat way.
    The drawback: it only works for accounts with less than 3000 follow(ers|ing) combined.

  5. Harris says:

    I did not work. Are there any restrictions?

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