No Time to Blog. Twitter Instead.

Twitter proclaims itself as a way to keep in touch with your friends, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. As long as you have a cell phone that is. Otherwise, you’ll only be keeping in touch when you’re near a computer. At first I thought Twitter was just another take on instant messaging. As is often the case, I was wrong, Twitter is more like short, rapid-burst blog posting which can either be public or private, depending on how you configure your account.

Twitter limits your entries to 154 characters, so if you’re one of those people who gets wordy, Twitter provides you an editor to keep it short. As soon as you enter your entry about what you’re doing, Twitter will let your friends (and the world if you choose) know about it. In fact, I will Twitter that I’m writing this entry right now. Done. Now my one friend knows what I’m doing as well as every other Twitterer.

You don’t need a cell phone to take part, though. In fact, I have one but prefer to keep it off as much as possible. Most of the time I find it an annoyance. There are RSS feeds and a badge to display on your blog along with an API which has turned out apps like Celly that give you a desktop Twitter update.

What you do need are friends, otherwise Twitter could get lonely. Go sign up, invite a few friends and get your Twitter on.