My new favorite on-line application is Twitter. I don’t know if its pronounced Tweeeeter or Twiiiiiter. Either way, I don’t care. If you don’t use it, you pretty much already missed the boat.

If you don’t know about it or, if your already a veteran user, let The D drop some knowledge on y’all!

But first what is twitter? Simpley put, from the web site “its the answer to one simple question “What are you doing?” Some clown at Time Magazine said “Twitter is on it’s was to becoming the next killer app”

I’m not going to repeat all the info about why your should join or how it all works because I’m lazy, just go the the website sign up the come back here and click on the “Follow me on Twitter” and follow me. If you’re cool, I’ll follow you. (that doesn’t mean that those of you that are already following me, and I’m not following you, aren’t cool. It just means that I haven gotten around to following you yet.)

Here is the video that is from their web site.

If you think of Twitter as a blog, but with one every big difference. Every entry or “Tweet” as they’re called can only be a maximum of 140 characters (including spaces). It has a counter so you know how many you have left. So if you have a lot to say then you best be going some where else. You can say anything from “DAM! Those tits are huge!” Or “I’m going to church”, It doesn’t really matter. Post anything you like.

Some of the coolest things about Twitter are:

You can set it up so that your tweets get posted on on both your Facebook and Myspace pages, or even your own blog. It doesn’t matter if you use Blogger, Word press, Typepad, Movable Type, or Live Journal, it works with all blogs as long as you can copy and paste you can get it to work. Like, I have over there on the right column. The cool thing about being able to put your tweets on those pages is that you don’t have to keep updating your Facebook status all the time. (I got tired of doing it) I used to have my tweets set up so they would update my Facebook status automatically. But Facebook had this annoying “is” after my name. It would say “Darren is” bla, bla, bla, whatever I just tweeted, and most of the time they didn’t make any sense at all.

One of the draw backs of putting your tweets on your social network page or blog is that, depending on how you have your settings set, no one can see what the other people are saying to you. So some of them don’t make much sense. I used to use song lyrics to express my mood in the mornings like, I would put in AC/DC’s Hells Bells if I was feeling great, or whatever. But that got old fast, having to go look up all those songs took too long. Plus, half the time I didn’t know what the song tile or artist was, that i was looking for, so I quit that shit.

A couple of days ago I increased my tweeting output by 200% just by adding my Google chat address (which is the same as my gmail address (click the contact me at the top if you want it). I used to have to keep two browser windows open all day to keep up with every thing that was going on. Now I just leave open my gmail and I’m set. I get my twitter updates IM’ed to me. It’s pretty sweet. I used to use the IGoogle home page with a bunch of widgets but those hardly ever worked. And I couldn’t use my Netvibes home page that I use at home for some reason. So after I added Twitter to my Google Chat, I’ve consolidated the number of windows that I had to have open. That folks is efficiency and thusly in creased my productivity!

My favorite new thing with Twitter is Twitpic. This is really kick ass stuff right here. Here’s how it works: Lets say your cruising along just minding your own beeswax, you could be walking around or just cruising for chicks on Noland road. (FYI, I’d avoid doing that if I were you) or you could be having a cup of Joe at a coffee shop downtown, or in Westport, when all of the sudden you see Carmen Electra making out with me at Kelly’s! You bust out your cell phone that has a camera on it and catch a perfect image me with my hand up her shirt! Then she punches me in the face! And you get a pic of that also. You can then email those pics to Twitpic which will automatically post a tweet with a link to your pics. Thusly, letting everyone who’s following you know that a) I was making out with Carmen Electra, and, b) she beat the shit out of me. Shama-lama-ding-dong! You just broke a story faster the you can say Edward R Murrow! How sweet is that! Of course, when you get back home you can write a the whole story about the whole thing and include the pics you took. All of that has already been done by that Grumpy Old Bastard XO in this post of his.

See I just took this pic. Its already been posted on Twitpic and Twitter!!

I know its crappy quality but what do you expect from a phone that is 2 years old?

As far as my twittering goes I use it just like I use this blog for whatever I want. I say whatever I want, and to whomever I want. I don’t use it for business, but that are a lot of people that do, but I don’t. A lot of times I and the people that I follow use it as a sort of group chat. Some one will ask a question and you could get a couple of dozen answers, or hundreds depending on how many people follow you. Some funny, some dumb, some serious. It all depend on who you follow. All of the peeps that I follow are bloggers most of which are in the Kansas City Merto but a couple aren’t.

Some one asked the question a few days ago if Twitter was becoming the new blog? I think for me it has become a new type of blog. I don’t have to spend hours typing out long post (like this one) I don’t have to research a topic so I get my facts right (Yea, like I’ve done that.) Or searching for a pic that I may want to go along with a post.

It would also become a great way for families to keep in touch that might be scattered across that country. (But asking my siblings and there wives to join would be quite a stretch.) You could also use it as an instant messaging service. You can lock your tweets so that no one can read them but the people you want to read them. If you get a follower that you don’t know or don’t trust then just block them, it’s that simple.

A nice feature about it is that you can also do everything via your cell phone. You already communicate via text messaging don’t you? So why not set it up to do all that via your cell. But you better check your plan to see how many text messages you can send and receive, your provider will charge you if you go over your limit.

As far as, who tweets? That answer is easy, pretty much everybody, CNN, Fox News, I bet your local TV stations are on it also, ALL of the presidential candidates, (actually all of the candidates have multiple twitter pages you’ll just have to search for the right one), and probably most of the politicians in your local area. Celebrities, Athletes, You bet! I just did a search for “Kansas City” there are 656 twitters that have Kansas City some where in their profile (including me). Just pick a name or city and search for them. I bet they’re on it! I bet most of then would follow you back. You will also find Darth Vader, The Emporer, and a Stormtrooper!

The power of Twitter? How about a guy in England knowing about the earthquake in China HOURS before the USGS did? That is some crazy shit. But, I can see how it would happen. Some guy is in China Twittering about the quake LIVE and he has followers all around the world, BAM! England has the scoop! If my house burns down and I get pics, my followers would find out before anyone else.

There are also a bunch of other programs and add-ons (I use Twhirl at home) that you can check out though this guys web site. Read this post, and this post and to get all the little details about twitter. Com’n you know you want start Twittering.

If you decide to join and have questions, just drop me a line, I’ll hook you up. Just try to do it in the evening.

Happy Twittering!

Peace Out, Boy Scout!