I have been busily working out my Twitter thoughts here in the last few days as it has become apparent that I have a slight addiction that needs to be fed now and then as it relates to how I use the service.  I have, at this writing, just under 3000 people or organizations I am following and have begun to turn up my drinking from that fire hose of information a little.  I continue to feel a connection with this application, and I am drawn to it much like I was to blogging when I first caught on with it nearly five years ago.  To me Twitter is the epitome of social media.

I joined Twitter about the time Robert Scoble said he had found this new application in late 2006.  I didn’t really get it at first, but I continued to monitor things.  I have joined and downloaded many apps and tools, but this one seemed a little different.  Then I went to SXSW and suddenly I was caught up in the Twitter plague like most of my friends and colleagues.  For whatever reason, the application had gone viral.

I am now at more than 7000 messages or “Tweets” and not looking back.  It’s funny how some applications just seem to catch on with the people that use them.  I think there are a few components that make an application like this work, and it has to do with need obviously, ego which is the driving force for many of us, and lastly it connects us as groups.  This is why I think Twitter is successful.  Looking over my Tweetstats, I see that I am talking to the same friends in my Twitter life as I do in my real life.  This makes it a little simpler to speak to them and I think that is a hook as well.

I was reading Kara Swisher this morning about the possibility of a merger between two giants, Facebook and Twitter, and I don’t see that happening until the two can at least figure out a way to make money.  Twitter is valued at $98 Million and Facebook is exponentially more.

Neville Hobson showed us what we might expect to see as it relates to Twitter putting advertisements on its pages.  Frankly, if they don’t launch something soon, a third party (i.e. Magpie) may be in the works to do it for them. Of course, this may be their thought or plan to have someone else find and fund the way to making money for the company.  I continue to joke about the fact that people like Guy Kawasaki, and I will admit even myself would pay a monthly fee if they wanted to charge for the service.

This post started out being much more in depth but I kept biloing it down to 140 characters or less.  To say the least, it is a beneficial tool for anyone looking to be a part of their network and communicating with that network.  As I sit here hoping that as I type this post my computer does not crash again, I find that many of my Twitter followers are helping me decide what desktop to buy, what third party Twitter client to use to monitor my Tweets.  I also have a good understanding of what all of my friends are doing.  I guess it all starts with that single questions we see as an empty box on that Twitter screen…”What are you doing?”