Tweepstats.com generates stats for twitter users, with details such as hashtags used, websites linked to and top words tweeted. Here are a few tips to get the most out of the site:

Google have launched their social media application 'Buzz' and it has been a great overnight success. I haven't really embraced it yet though, and here are the reasons why:

Gmail The main reason for Buzz's fast growth is also its Achilles' heel - it's seamlessly built into Gmail. This is great for Gmail users, but for everyone else? Convincing people to sign up to a new website is hard enough, but to get them to sign up to a new email account and all the associated Google stuff that goes with it, well, that might be harder. For many people it's going to be a deal breaker. They already have their email sorted out. No need for Gmail.

Apps The main players in the game, Twitter and Facebook, both have rich, stable APIs that allow programmers to build applications based upon their services. There's a whole array of apps for computers, mobile phones and games consoles. Google Buzz doesn't have this ecosystem yet, but a full API is coming very, very soon.

Need I have an extensive network on Twitter and public and private Facebook profiles. Do I really need Buzz as well? I don't think so. Not yet anyway..

I've been doing some coding based around the XML feeds from twitter.com for a while now and have hosted a twitter account analytics page which has become moderately popular. I thought it was now time to set up a dedicated website for it, so ladies and gentlemen, please welcome tweepstats.com, where you can find out the how, who, what and when of a twitter account. Enjoy.

There's been a lot of talk on the net recently about the new Nexus One phone by Google and quite a few reviewers have been underwhelmed by the launch of the handset. The point that has been missed though, I feel, is that it is an evolution of the smartphone, not a revolution.

The really important thing about the Nexus One is that it seems to be a smartphone that has finally got everything right in one package. Convergence has been coming for a while now, with phones taking over the role of MP3 players, sat navs, cameras and more, but there is always a catch, always a reason that a dedicated device is better than a smartphone: batteries that can't be replaced, lack of camera flash, etc. The Nexus One, on the face of it, looks like it has smoothed the edges and finally delivered a real convergent phone. Here are some reasons why:

You know how it is, you're at a party, the conversation turns to music, someone mentions Bob Dylan, they turn to you and say "What do you think about him going electric?".

Well, avoid the ensuing embarrassing silence with this compact guide to Dylan, featuring his career summed up in a dozen tracks.

Here's a video of the wonderful Rachael Warwick, with clips from gigs in 2005 with me playing keyboards, including a festival in Interlaken, Switzerland and the Americana festival in Newark, UK. I'm also strumming away on a guitar at a radio interview. As it isn't hosted on YouTube or anywhere else public, you'll need to click through to Rachael's website to view the video.

Facebook have recently updated their privacy settings. This means that millions of users will be presented with a form when they login, showing them new recommended settings and the option to use their old settings. The thing is, Facebook seem to have forgotten basic principles of how to set out an online form. I was confused when I saw the form, and it took me a little while to work out why.

Before recording technology, music came in two forms: written and performance. With the arrival of recorded music, the concept of 'recording artist' arose and the recording itself became the most important form of a piece of music. Mention 'Hey Jude' to someone, for example, and they’ll think of the recording made by The Beatles on that specific day at Abbey Road, not the sheet music or a live performance. The recording is the music. As such, a cover version is a reworking of a recording.

There have been many great cover versions over the years and everybody has their own favourites. Here are some basic principles to stick to when considering songs to do cover versions of:

• Choose wisely. Pick a song that you think sounds like a sketch of the song it could be. Try to think like Jimi Hendrix must have thought when he heard Bob Dylan's original Country strumming version of 'All Along The Watchtower'. Don't cover a song because it's your favourite, or it's a classic recording. You may be trying to recreate the ambience of the studio, a moment in time that can never be reproduced.

• Innovate. Do something different with the song. Don't just learn it and play it note for note. Try female vocals instead of male, a different tempo, rhythm or chord structure. If you have choosen your song wisely this will be easier.

• Live limitations. Don't try a faithful reproduction of a recording unless you have the right band set up. Even then, some tracks may still be out of reach. Bohemian Rhapsody is a great song and a classic recording, but even Queen struggled to play it live

If you use Twitter and want to keep your Facebook profile updated with the occasional tweet, there is a great little application you can use called Selective Twitter Status, which will post updates to your wall only if you add the tag '#fb' to your tweet. This is a good idea if you’re twittering a lot and don't want to swamp Facebook with updates. It works with fan pages as well, which is very useful.

However, what if you have a personal Facebook profile and a public Facebook page and want to be able to update each one individually from Twitter? You could add Selective Twitter Status to both, but then all tweets that you tag with '#fb' will get posted to both, which is probably not ideal. Or, what if you want a group of twitter accounts, from individual band members maybe, to be able to update a fan page? This wouldn’t work with Selective Twitter Status as it will only look for tweets from one Twitter account. Well, the answer lies in a little creative use of the free online service Twitterfeed.