When there’s a helicopter circling my home or I think I felt an earthquake, the first place I go to find out what’s up is Twitter. But here’s the thing – I swear I used to be able to click a button to search only Tweets from people within my local area. That button is now gone. . . or did I imagine it. . .

I can type in my city and the event, but that’s not how people write on Twitter. They don’t write, OMG there’s a police helicopter circling Smallville. They say, OMG there’s a police helicopter circling my house! Without a “local” button, I can’t tell if they’re in Smallville or Spain. (Though I suppose, if they were in Spain, they’d be writing in Spanish.)

Uh oh, better get Maaco!

Remember that slogan? The auto painting and collision repair franchise has been around since 1972 and that slogan was a hit for them throughout the 80′s and 90′s.

Now Maaco is trying to hit the right note a second time with a clever Twitter campaign called Twestimates. Tweet a photo of the damage on your car and get a free estimate back via Twitter. They even give you a coupon for 10% off the repair should you follow through.

AdWeek says that the campaign has generated around 200 Twestimates and 40 leads. 40 isn’t a huge number, but that’s a nice percentage given the low number of followers and participants. What’s tough about a service like Maaco, is that it’s (hopefully) a one-time use company, so there’s no reason for people to follow the Twitter account on a regular basis. This campaign is all about brand awareness and it’s working.

Facebook is testing again. . . or maybe that should be still. It seems like they’re always moving things around and trying little tricks to get you to spend more time on the page.

This week it’s the “presence dot” and the profile push.

First, an eagle-eyed reporter at CNET discovered tiny green dots in their newsfeed. These dots, which appear next to a poster’s name in the feed, means that person is currently online. Click the dot and a message box opens so you can discuss their recent update.

A year ago, I wouldn’t have given this idea a second thought, but in the past few months, I’ve begun to use Facebook as a way of seeing if my friends are online before I fire up Skype. It’s a quick way to locate my friend who spends her evening playing Facebook games, but I don’t care for the actual chat mechanism, so hi-ho, hi-ho, a quick message and it’s off to Skype I go.