twitter, catching the world by storm !

At least according to a few bloggers, including my newest Twitter friend Paul Walhus, who also lives in Austin. Paul has a recent post about Twitter’s ‘explosive growth’, which I’m not overly surprised to read about. This site/tool really does seem like it could be something VERY useful in helping friends keep in touch. It’s extremely easy to use, which is an important key factor. Just use your cell phone, IM client, or web page to send out a quick note about “what you’re doing now”, and anyone (or friends only) can get an instant update sent to THEIR phone, viewed on a web page, or through ay RSS reader. On the left side bar of this blog I have set up a live view of the Twitter feed from all of my “friends”, which is a nice and convient way for me to keep up with everyone.

I think one of the MOST interesting apps I’ve seen with Twitter so far is TwitterVision, a mashup of Google Maps and the public feed for Twitter members. Be sure to zoom out enough so that you don’t have to deal with map scrolling. It’s quite something to watch! You really get the sense of a community.

For another something interesting, you might try TwitterMap, and then punch in a search location (keyword) of something like “Austin, TX”, or “rock808″ for me. I just discovered that sending a Twitter message with “L: [location]” will put a marker on the map with my bit of text, or do the Twitter Search, and punch in “rock808″ for your search keyword.

Now THIS is getting fun!
Of course, only for those of us who don’t care about other people knowing what we’re up to, or where we’re at.
If you’d like, you can follow my Twitter feed by adding me.