socialmedian: Is Twitter Becoming a News-Wire?

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Is Twitter Becoming a News-Wire?

Submitted by Infodiva

Jul 31, 2008

Summary

Twitter is one of those services I just can’t make up my mind about. On one hand it provides a simple and quick way to get information about what’s going out there whether it be updates from friends or news from my favorite sites. On the other hand, it can get annoying when people use it for the simplest mundane types of things like, “I see an ant.” Then of course there are the times when Twitter simply doesn’t work which has happened on more than one occasion. Complaints aside, one area where Twitter shines is when it acts as a news-wire when something big happens. This week Twitter was more of a news-wire service when the earthquake occurred earlier this week in the Los Angeles area. Read the full article

Comments (10)

Musicmixingguru,

Jul 31, 2008

lets see how much we like twitter after they have 20 plus million users.

Thesleepygeek,

Aug 01, 2008

You can get good information from Twitter if you are watching the right people. It connects us well but can be a waste of time of you are watching everyone. And I agree, with more people comes more garbage, good content as well but the garbage grows exponentially.

Mitchellhislop,

Aug 01, 2008

I think that twitter works best on a local scale-It functions as a news-wire well when it is limited i.e. the Minneapolis-St. Paul area

Eristoddle,

Aug 01, 2008

It works really well. It's faster than a feed reader because of it's limitations. If a blog of news site updates and tweets this, chances are that that I will catch it on twitter first, because I subscribe to a lot of feeds. And a lot of them are full feeds. With twitter (not in whale mode), the character limitation aids speed and in five minutes I get a brief synopsis of what I might have found in my feed reader.

Not to mention the fact that you can use twitter wherever you have a cell phone.

Elclark,

Aug 01, 2008

Think about local applications like TwitterTraffic, TwitterSpeedTraps, TwitterNightOut; all great local apps for roadwariors and locals alike. Globally, updates on industry events allow twitts to get relevant info since attending everything is impossible. Downside is sifting through 'I see an ant' postings to find the gems

Weblaunches,

Aug 02, 2008

Yes !! and I love it!

Iwanao,

Aug 03, 2008

Nice.

Eyebee,

Aug 07, 2008

I use Twitter for both messaging people I know (including my wife) with simple messages - " don't forget to grab some coffee beans on the way home" (which I often forget to send direct when I'm in a hurry, and also for getting news, such as the local hurricane lookout feed, BBC world news, and Test Cricket Scores!