I'm on Twitter.

Some might say slow on the uptake, some would argue that I’m not jumping on the bandwagon without considering where it’s going.

In the end it was Will Hawkins [blog, twitter] that convinced me to start using Twitter a bit more - even without the ability to tweet from my iPhone (which I don’t have) it still looks like a valuable tool.

I’ve been using a few AIR applications for Twitter, which for me are a big element in it’s success on the desktop.  I dislike twhirl (and not just because it takes me five attempts to spell it), TweetDeck gets a little annoying with too many searches (but I think that’s less the app and more the way Twitter works) and DestroyTwitter looks really nice - except it lacks the search features of TweetDeck.  So I think I’ll be using TweetDeck and DestroyTwitter for a little while together, until I pick a fave.

Why?

Well actually, this micro-blogging thing has merits.  And not really obvious ones - I mean generally, who cares what useless things people ‘Tweet’ about?  Who cares that 44 thousand people have tweeted about the snow falling?  Not me.  What IS good though, is the fact that it’s so quick and irreverant.  Full-on blogging takes ages to string together sentances to post.  Ok, you get more meaning across, but it takes longer.  Tweeting something takes a few seconds, and with a liberal smattering of keywords, lots of people read it.

The TweetDeck search implimentation is a killer feature.  Setup a search on keywords, and moments after it’s posted, it’ll appear on your desktop.  Want to know if anyone’s talked about something, put in a search and you’ll find out.  I’ve been tweeted twice this week, and I never even knew.

Oh and building on the searches, it’s a good way to seek out people interested in the same things as you, network, make friends, etcetera.

Follow me!

Hey, if you want to see what I tweet about, check out: http://twitter.com/psyked_james