If you use Twitter to stay in touch with your friends, you know there are several ways to update your status. Why not eliminate a whole window on your computer by adding this great gadget to your iGoogle page. It’s called BeTwittered and it’s a great way to send a quick tweet out. And since it’s on your iGoogle page, it’s right there for you.

So now you can tell your friends what you’re ‘up to’. Currently the guys who make betwittered have it so you can turn on and off the user pictures and choose whether or not to have timestamps, but again, they’re planning more. Now you don’t have to have a separate tab or window open to tell your friends you are trying that new recipe or sitting on boxes of stuff!

The writers of this gadget are from 32hours.com and are working to allow multiple accounts and direct message selections. If you don’t use Twitter just yet, try it! (and remember, you can do these updates right from iGoogle!) Take a look at this video for a great explanation!

_{Written by: Brian Wallace}

Sharing your links just got better: A note system has been added!

Google reader allows you to share the links you find with friends, and now they’ve added the ability to send a quick note with your shared post. Using the new “Notes” function under “Your Stuff“, you have the ability to either send a quick note to your friends, or add a note to any links you share.

Now you can can finally say, “Hey, I found this and thought you might like it!”

The other function you will see under the “Notes” is that there is a bookmarklet that you can drag to your browser’s toolbar. Now you can share ANY story/link that you happen to find online with a note and optional ’snippet’, just by pressing it. When using this bookmarklet, you can turn off the “Add to shared items” checkbox to just add the story to your own notes list.

This new feature seems like it has plenty of room to grow, like, how about a function similar to Twitter, where you can send a note to a single friend? Or, how about the ability to have tags, search, organization, and the ability to delete notes?

Google, you’ve got something good started here, so if you bring this one home, it could become the new social pipeline!

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_{Written by: Brian Wallace}

What is YQL?

How Do I Get Started?

1. Check out the YQL Console.
2. Read how to access YQL from your application.
3. Get your Access Keys to sign your requests if you need them.

Usage limits

YQL has the following API usage restrictions:

Per application limit (identified by your Access Key):

• 100,000 calls per day.

Per IP limits:

• /v1/public/* 1000 calls per hour
• /v1/yql/* 10000 calls per hour

All rates are subject to change. In addition, you may also be subject to the underlying rate limits of other Yahoo and 3rd party web services.

Please contact yql-questions [at] yahoo-inc.com with requests for additional limits and information.

Support and Community

Questions and suggestions on YQL are discussed on the YQL Developer Community forum. If you have questions or need technical support, please use this forum.