I was reluctant at first. Didn’t understand, didn’t have a need, but since I decided to jump in with both feet I’ve been hooked. Talking, of course, about Twitter.

Most people who haven’t taken the time to look at the service see it as the negative stereotype of self-important nobodies that update with useless information about what they ate for lunch and their disdain for the weather. While those types of things do exist, the entire process is far more revolutionary.

Imagine being alone in your car and seeing something of interest, to you. A car wreck, an interesting looking animal, a UFO. You may make a mental note to tell friend/family member X later that day, but as time passes so does your memory. If you had someway to immediately share with everyone you know quickly and easily, would you hesitate?

Don’t get me wrong, Twitter isn’t inventing the wheel. There are several dozen ways to get messages out to people. Text messages, Facebook status, your own blog, etc. What makes Twitter so appealing is in its simplicity. There arn’t other things to do on Twitter, it’s just that. A way to find out what your friends are doing, and let them know what you are doing.

There are several other side benefits that I enjoy:

* A catalog of my past, history, and creative thoughts. If I think of a writing sample, or an opinion I can quickly tweet it and have it saved indefinitely. Like having a personal assistant following me around taking notes on whatever I want to say.
* News and updates. Much like how RSS feeds allow news sources to pull in from several different other websites, Twitter allows companies, products, news sources to consolidate and simplify the topics of today in less then 140 characters. A quick scroll and you have  a general idea of whats been happening today.
* Cut out the middle man. As much as I love public relations and marketing, celebrities can now bypass all of those filters and have direct access to their fans and followers. Wouldn’t you like to have a celebrity you really like respond directly to you by name (or by twitter alias)?

While it still is in its infancy, Twitter is one of the great innovations of the ’00s. It’s changed the way the world works and people communicate. I’d put it as the biggest thing since text messaging.

Now, Twitter just needs to figure out how they can make money from it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 3:17 pm and is filed under analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.