The Internet

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon, NASA is using wechoosethemoon.org to create an online version of the launch. Since it’s online, though, the astronauts have Twitter feeds, you can listen to the broadcast on Shoutcast, and track the mission with a desktop widget. You can also rest comfortably in the knowledge that your laptop has far more computing power than what was aboard the lunar module, and you’re using it to update your Facebook entry.

It may sound weird that Twitter is beating Google in real-time search, but a little reflection shows that there’s some sense behind it. After all, there’s a difference between the real-time search of Twitter and the carefully vetted and indexed information Google provides. Like all information, faster is not always better or more accurate - you have to evaluate your sources. If you’re feeling lucky though, it’s easy to find what you’re looking for in the cacophony of Twitter.

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Regular Twitter searches just not exciting enough for you? Take a look at Twitterfall. You’ll see the new tweets as they occur, cascading down the middle of your browser window. You can set filters so that you view only trendy topics or your own custom choices, and you can how often, how many, and exactly how the tweets appear, among other options. Twitter is a very malleable data source, so look for even more fun and creative ways to look at tweets as people experiment with the information.

Now that Oprah is using Twitter, it might seem like everybody’s already at the party and there’s nothing new you can do with the service. The conversation might be bigger, but somebody has to provide the entertainment. Now, you can be the music for the party.

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Remember when everybody thought that cellphone conversations were intrusive and disruptive? How about the destructive power of the Web on cellphones? Two court cases are in judicial limbo after jurors were found to have done research on the Web and posted Twitter updates about the cases . . . while they were still in session. Since such research is prohibited, appeals are in the works and the outcomes are in the balance.

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It’s no secret that Twitter is making the rounds as the “it” social networking tool right now.  Of course, now that it’s written and people are talking about it, it’s time to move on to the next big thing.  But for now, enjoy the contact you can enjoy with these short mini-bursts of information.

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Twitter is an amazingly useful tool to keep in touch with many people using short bursts of information, or “tweets.”  However, it can be a bit hard to follow from the main Twitter page, especially if you follow quite a few people.  The tweets fly fast and furious, and all you get is a chronological list of messages.

It’s not immediately available from Twitter’s homepage, but there are several programs listed on Twitter’s download page that can help you manage your account with ease.  These programs will help you with the following:

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Twitter is more than just a micro-blogging site for those with minutae to share and the short attention span to do so.  Following some larger names on Twitter can help you get lower prices on the things you want (or the things you just realized you want). (more…)

If you’ve got multiple social media accounts, it might be hard to keep every account up-to-date when it comes to your status (and let’s face it, you’ll just feel all out of sorts if everything isn’t up-to-date).  There’s no magic button that will update both MySpace and Facebook at the same time, but you can set it up to update them all with one click by using an intermediary service: Twitter.

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