When the space shuttle Endeavour blasts off for the final time, there will be 150 lucky space geeks in attendance who obtained a free behind-the-scenes pass thanks to Twitter.

On March 15, NASA gave its Twitter followers a chance to have a rare vantage point for the historic launch slated for April 29 at 6:47 p.m. from Cape Canaveral, Fla. through its account @NASA.

“You could see a space shuttle launch in person at a #NASATweetup,” the tweet read, linking to a registration site that closed 24 hours later.  

In that time, more than 4,100 people registered from around the globe. NASA said it selected 150 attendees at random. The participants come from 43 U.S. states and far-flung locales such as Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Venezuela.

The Tweetup participants get a tour of Kennedy Space Center as well as a spacesuit demonstration. To follow their pre-launch adventures, follow the #NASATweetup hashtag and the list of attendees here.

Endeavour was the final shuttle built. It joined the NASA fleet in 1991 to replace the ill-fated Challenger, which was destroyed shortly after launch in 1986.

Endeavour has flown 24 missions. After its last flight next week it will return to Los Angeles for permanent display at the California Science Center in Exposition Park.

Endeavour's launch will mark the fourth time NASA has invited Twitter followers to experience a space shuttle blast-off. The agency also hosts Tweetup events at other NASA centers. For example, there’s an upcoming event taking place June 6 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

If you’re interested, registration will open April 26 at noon for 24 hours at: http://www.nasa.gov/tweetup

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-- W.J. Hennigan

twitter.com/wjhenn

Photo: Endeavour is scheduled to launch Friday for its 25th and final mission. Credit: Roberto Gonzalez / Getty Images

The app can identify the TV show or movie that's playing down to the airing, episode and time of a program, for shows that are up to 5 years old. The app also produces recommendations for what to watch, based on what it identifies as a user's interests and what a user's friends have watched.

"Relying on social channels as a means for discovering content -- whether it's on a PC, mobile
device, or TV -- is rapidly on the rise," Bill Shaughnessy, Yahoo's senior vice president of product management, said in a statement. "IntoNow's technology combines the ability to check in to what a consumer is watching, engage in conversations and find related content.

"The IntoNow application the team has built clearly demonstrates the opportunities the technology presents across Yahoo's network, especially in regards to our video content, search, mobile and Connected TV experiences. We are excited to have the IntoNow team join Yahoo as we continue to build out these experiences."

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Image: Screen shots of the IntoNow app on an iPhone. Credit: Apple/IntoNow

It's official -- Twitter is staying in San Francisco.

On Friday, Twitter announced that it had signed a lease to move the micro-blogging service's headquarters into the Central Market area's Market Square building, also known as the San Francisco Mart building.

The move will bring to fruition a promise Twitter made in a letter of intent to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors that said the social networking site would stay in the city if a payroll tax exemption was approved. Twitter had been expected to leave San Francisco if the exemption had not passed.

In a 8-to-3 vote this month, the supervisors approved an ordinance that gave Twitter and other tech firms what they were looking for -- an exemption from a 1.5% city payroll tax for the next six years, as long as a business is located in San Francisco's Central Market Street and Tenderloin areas.

"The city where we have started and grown will remain our future home," said Sean Garrett, Twitter's vice president of communications, in a blog post. "Twitter is staying in San Francisco and has signed a lease to move our headquarters to Market Square, a historic building in San Francisco's Central Market neighborhood."

Garrett said Twitter looks forward to being part of an expected wave of companies that will move into the Central Market and Tenderloin areas, which San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee has said badly need to be revitalized.

"San Francisco's unique creativity and inventiveness is a part of Twitter's DNA, and we feel like we are part of San Francisco," Garrett said. "Three-quarters of our employees who live in San Francisco are involved in causes and charities in the city. Our employees are excited to be active members of our future neighborhood as volunteers, customers, diners and patrons of the arts."

Twitter expects to make the move from its current headquarters in the South of Market area of the city into the Market Square building sometime in the middle of 2012, he said.

"We can't wait," Garrett said.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

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Photo: A Muni train passes by the building at 1355 Market St. in San Francisco on March 31. Twitter is planning to move into the building next year. Credit: Jeff Chiu / Associated Press

Twitter is in talks to buy TweetDeck and its eponymous Web and mobile app for about $50 million, according to a report.

TweetDeck is one of the most popular Twitter clients on the market, allowing users to do many of the same things they can on on Twitter's website and apps -- tweets, direct messages, lists, search trends.

Twitter is eyeing taking over TweetDeck as part of its plan to increase the micro blogging platform's appeal, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the rumored talks, citing "people familiar with the matter."

Officials at Twitter, based in San Francisco, and TweetDeck, based in London, were not available for comment Monday.

Twitter's reported interest in TweetDeck comes shortly after Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey returned to the social media firm to lead product development, while remaining chief executive at Square, the mobile payments start-up.

Last month, Dorsey told students at Columbia University that Twitter will have to become "more approachable so that people can get into it immediately and it's extremely relevant right away."

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Photo: TweetDeck display outside the keynote hall at Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco in September 2009. Credit: Niallkennedy via Flickr

Wal-Mart Stores has agreed to buy social-media company Kosmix for an undisclosed sum of money in a move to better position itself with online and mobile consumers.

"We are expanding our capabilities in today's rapidly growing social commerce environment," Eduardo Castro-Wright, Wal-Mart's vice chairman, said in a statement. "Social networking and mobile applications are increasingly becoming a part of our customers' day-to-day lives globally, influencing how they think about shopping, both online and in retail stores."

Buying Kosmix should speed up Wal-Mart's development in both social and mobile retail plans, Castro-Wright said.

Kosmix, based in Mountain View, Calif., builds Web-based applications that filter social media content in real time by interest, using three different websites: Kosmix.com, Tweetbeat and RightHealth. The company was founded by Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, who sold their first start-up, Junglee, to Amazon in 1998.

Once the Wal-Mart purchase is complete, Kosmix won't be leaving Silicon Valley. Instead, Wal-Mart said it plans to integrate the company and its employees into its new tech offshoot called @WalmartLabs to focus on building out its platform technologies for social and mobile commerce.

Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer, with brick-and-mortar stores in 15 countries and e-commerce websites operating in nine countries. But Amazon.com is currently the leading retail website online -- something Wal-Mart would like to change.

Rajaraman, in the statement, said he thinks Kosmix will fit well into Wal-Mart plans.

"Our work has focused on developing a social genome platform that captures the connections between people, places, topics, products and events as expressed through social media -- be it a feed, a tweet or a post," he said. "We are thrilled to join one of the world's largest companies and combine our work with Wal-Mart's vast online and offline retail businesses."

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Image: A screen shot of TweetBeat.com, one of Kosmix's social-media-sorting websites. Credit: Kosmix

The National Basketball Assn. is heading into the 2011 playoffs on the heels of what the league says is one of its most successful seasons on TV and the Internet so far.

And through online video, smartphone and tablet apps and social media gaming, the NBA is working to keep the momentum up after the season ends, a champion is crowned, and, in the worst-case scenario, if it finds itself in the midst of a possible player lockout.

The NBA set an all-time high for itself with more than 1.9 billion videos viewed on NBA.com this season, and the league is expecting to pass the 2 billion video view mark in the postseason, said John Acunto, a league spokesman.

More than 100 million people follow or "like" the Facebook and Twitter accounts of the NBA, its teams and its players, placing the league among the most popular professional sports organizations in social media, he said. About 8.2 million fans "like" the NBA's official page, a number that was at about 2 million a little more than a year ago.

The increased popularity of NBA content on the Internet has come as ratings for professional basketball on TV in the U.S. have risen too. Games were up 38% from last season on ABC, up 28% on ESPN and up 42% on TNT, with each network having their most-viewed NBA regular season ever, Acunto said.

NBA Commissioner David Stern said the higher TV viewership and increased traffic via new-media paths on the Internet is the result of the NBA being open to embracing technology in its earlier stages.

"You can track with precision the way our fans stay connected to us," Stern said. "When there are a billion downloads of streams of highlights from NBA.com, when players in the NBA have 50 million 'likes' on Facebook and probably another 400 million YouTube views, then you know that this whole community is there. And community, that is a key aspect of the Internet.

"Now how that translates into, let's say, attendance or viewing is another issue. But I dare say that our increased ratings this year come with help from social media, this digital water cooler, this digital grapevine -- and that leads ultimately to e-commerce and NBA TV, which is in 55 million households, NBA League Pass, NBA Game Time."

A federal government shutdown could close the National Zoo, Smithsonian museums and national parks. It could also reveal which members of Congress are social media whizzes and which ones lean on staffers for their tweets and updates.

If a shutdown were to come to pass, thousands of furloughed government workers deemed "nonessential" might have to turn in their BlackBerrys, the Washington Post reports.

That could prove painful in an era when smartphones are a constant companion and stay close even when workaholics sleep (after all, the device is nicknamed is the Crackberry).

"I'm not sure I could handle it," Kevin Bishop, communications director for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), told the Post. "It's basically a part of who you are, from the moment you wake up in the morning to the moment you go to bed at night."

It's still unclear how a ban on BlackBerry use would be implemented if congressional leaders fail to reach an agreement on the federal budget. One idea being floated around requires workers to turn in their government-issued phones before exiting, the Post said. But it's unclear how carefully the government has tracked the handout of phones over the years.

This could mean that the Facebook pages and Twitter feeds of some congressional members will go silent, speculates Ben Smith at Politico, separating the true socia media savants from those with savvy employees.

Politicians have increasingly embraced social media to address their constituents directly. Facebook has also geared up its presence in Washington, sending staffers around town to show organizations how to take advantage of its network and flying executives in to discuss privacy and other hot-button topics with lawmakers, a Times story reported in February.

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-- Shan Li

Photo: President Obama talks with Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg before a dinner with technology business leaders in Woodside, Calif., on Feb. 17. In the background are Carol Bartz, Yahoo president and CEO; Art Levinson, Genentech chairman and former CEO; Steve Westly, founder and managing partner of the Westly Group; and Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google.
Credit: Pete Souza / European Pressphoto Agency

The federal government could soon replace the five-color terror-alert system with a new two-level warning protocol that would be distributed, in part, on Facebook and Twitter, according to a report.

The Department of Homeland Security said in January that the color-coded system was on its way out and that the new system -- which it then didn't offer much detail on -- would utilize the Internet to get alerts out to people.

"The National Terrorism Advisory System alerts will be based on the nature of the threat: in some cases, alerts will be sent directly to law enforcement or affected areas of the private sector, while in others, alerts will be issued more broadly to the American people through both official and media channels — including a designated DHS webpage (www.dhs.gov/alerts), as well as social media channels including Facebook and via Twitter @NTASAlerts," Homeland Security said then.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano also said in January that the new system will be clear and simple.

"When a credible threat develops that could impact the public, we will tell you and provide whatever information we can so that you know how to keep yourselves, your families and your communities safe," Napolitano said in a statement then.

The new system may end up being a new, simpler approach and only offer either an "elevated" or an "imminent" warning, according to a report from the Associated Press, which cited a copy of a Homeland Security proposal the news agency said it had obtained.

The AP said the new system could be in place by April 27 and that, at times, the alerts would be sent only to government officials but not the public if the government determines that publicizing a warning would jeopardize national intelligence.

Facebook and Twitter would be used to broadcast public alerts only after local, state and federal government personnel, "including the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center and the White House," have been notified first, the report said.

"If the threat is considered serious enough, a Homeland Security official will call for a meeting of a special counterterrorism advisory board," the AP said. "That board would be expected to meet within 30 minutes of being called. If it's decided an alert is necessary, it would need to be issued within two hours."

The new two-tier alerts would also be given an expiration date, the report said.

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security were not available to comment on the AP report, but agency spokeswoman Amy Kudwa told the AP, "The plan is not yet final, as we will continue to meet and exercise with our partners to finalize a plan that meets everyone's needs."

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Photo: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at a Senate Homeland hearing Feb. 17. Credit: Michael Reynolds / EPA

Twitter is getting a tax break that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors hopes will keep the social-media company and other growing tech firms in the city for years to come.

In an 8-to-3 vote, the supervisors approved an ordinance on Tuesday to give Twitter and others an exemption from having to pay a 1.5% city payroll tax for the next six years, as long as those businesses are located in the city's Central Market Street and Tenderloin areas, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Edwin Lee, San Francisco's mayor, applauded the move and said in a statement that it could lead to a rejuvenation of parts of the city that had struggled to attract businesses.

"This moment represents a real step forward in the effort to revitalize and transform the Central Market area," Lee said. "Central Market and the Tenderloin have been burdened with high vacancies and blight for decades."

Lee said the payroll-tax exclusion will be a powerful tool that could create needed jobs and services in the downtrodden areas.

"I would also like to thank Twitter for making a commitment to remain in San Francisco and for their enthusiasm about joining our broad-based effort to revitalize Central Market and the Tenderloin," he said. "There is great synergy between Twitter and the arts organizations and small retail businesses who are looking to expand in the area. This new partnership with Twitter represents just one example of how the city can work collaboratively with businesses, community-based organizations, property owners and area residents to catalyze meaningful change in this neighborhood."

Twitter officials declined to comment on the approval of the tax break on Wednesday.

The proposal pertains to the newly hired employees of companies that move into or are remaining in the Central Market and Tenderloin areas over the next six years, the Chronicle reported.

Businesses, however, would still have to pay the 1.5% payroll tax on employees they already have, the Chronicle said.

Twitter had been on the fence about moving out of the city of San Francisco, where it is currently headquartered, or moving to a new location in the Central Market district.

With the tax exemption now passed, it is likely that Twitter will now move into office space in the now-vacant Market Square building, also know as the San Francisco Mart building, the Chronicle reported. Twitter has signed a letter of intent to move into the Market Square building after a payroll tax exemption was passed.

The payroll-tax break could lead to Twitter saving about $22 million in taxes over six years, the Chronicle said.

John Avalos, one of the supervisors who voted against the tax break, told the Chronicle that the move will create an expectation among businesses that will hurt the city.

"I don't believe giving an exception to our payroll tax is the way to go," Avalos said to the Chronicle. "I believe that businesses in San Francisco and around the country should be socially responsible, and part of that social responsibility is paying our taxes. ... If we're going to be allowing a company to threaten to leave, and give them a tax break so they don't leave, we're setting a really bad precedent for other companies to do the same."

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

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Photo: A Muni train passes by the San Francisco Mart at 1355 Market St., March 31, 2011. Credit: Jeff Chiu / Associated Press

Twitter has removed the QuickBar from its iPhone app, to the delight of a loud and passionate group of grumblers on the Web who bestowed it with another name that we can't publish here.

At the beginning of the month, Twitter updated its iPhone app so that its QuickBar, a small black strip across the top of a user's Twitter feed, would drop down and display what's trending on the microblogging service or show ads.

"One very cool update is iPhone specific -– for now. We've introduced the QuickBar that lets you quickly see trends at the top of your timeline. You can swipe the QuickBar to the left or right to see additional trends," Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner wrote when the feature was announced.

Well, the QuickBar totally never caught on. In fact, a lot of people were irritated by it giving the bar pejorative nicknames across the Internet.

On Thursday, Twitter retreated from its QuickBar, removing it from the iPhone app and issuing a "mea culpa" of sorts to its users.

"The QuickBar was originally conceived to help users discover what's happening in the broader world beyond people they already follow," Twitter Creative Director Doug Bowman wrote in a blog post. "The bar was also seen as a potential means of in-app notifications for new @mentions, DMs, and other important activity."

The QuickBar was experimental, Bowman said.

"After testing a feature and evaluating its merits, if we learn it doesn't improve the user experience or serve our mission, we'll remove that feature," he said. "Rather than continue to make changes to the QuickBar as it exists, we removed the bar from the update appearing in the App Store today."

But while the QuickBar wasn't particularly loved, it did get used, Bowman said.

"We believe there are still significant benefits to increasing awareness of what's happening outside the home timeline," he said. "Evidence of the incredibly high usage metrics for the QuickBar support this. For now, we're going back to the drawing board."

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Images: The QuickBar in-action on Twitter's iPhone app. Credit: Twitter