Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2007 > March > 16 > Entry
Twitter.com: Next big thing?
I’ve been playing around this week with Twitter, a site that was much-mentioned at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival.
Think of it as a scaled-down version of MySpace, or at least a swift substitution for your Instant Messenger’s Away Message feature. The point of Twitter is to post a 140-character-maximum message saying what you’re doing.
That’s it. Others can view your Twitter page or add you to their list of buddies as a “Friend” or “Follower” and keep tabs on what you’re doing whenever you update. You can get updates via Instant Messenger, by text message or on your own Twitter Web page. You can also update your own Twitter message via IM or by texting “40404.” IM seems pretty sluggish (it took a few hours to update via IM), but text messages appear almost instantaneously, as do messages posted via the Web site. The site’s been a little slow this week, which I attribute to lots of South by Southwest activity and quick growth.
Twitter becomes more useful the more friends you add to your list, although I can see Twitter overload being a real possibility if you have a lot of people on your list who update too frequently. But the site seems like a natural for South by Southwest, when it’s easy to lose track of your friends and you need a quick way to connect without making cell phone calls or sending e-mails. One of my friend Shannon’s recent Twitters: “Planning my evening. 10:00 (Beirut at Emo’s), 11:00 (Finally Punk, Wiggins, Die Die Die at Habana), 1:00 (Les Savy Fav at Red Eyed Fly).”
You can see what other SXSW attendees are doing on the official 2007 SXSW Twitter page.
Twitter allows you to post different styles of “Badges” on your own Web site or blog to let people know what you’re up to without having to visit Twitter. Here’s what one of mine looks like
Twitter is pretty much the opposite of LinkedIn.com, a business contacts site that is about as inviting as a Fortune 500 company conference room. Maybe I’m missing something, but the site’s uninspiring design and leaning toward résumélike presentation just doesn’t speak to me. I finally updated my profile on there after about a year of incessant invitations to join and to get “Linked In” with friends and business contacts. I’m there, but I don’t think it’s a place I’ll be spending a lot of time.
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