why twitter is better than facebook

Ok ... so that is not completely true. I enjoy both but I have found twitter surprisingly powerful. The two features I enjoy most on facebook are the picture and status updates. I find those two apps give the best sense for who an individual is. Twitter does a great job of both of those features without a pile of other garbage.

Twitter is like facebook status updates on steroids. Message are limited to 140 characters and allow you to very quickly send messages to a group of people that follow you. You can use it from a computer using many different programs. I use Twhirl which is a light desktop app based on Adobe Air. There's also a facebook app. When I send something on twitter, it shows up in my facebook status. You can also receive and send tweets from a mobile device.

If you've ever seen a friend's facebook status and would like to reply to it ... and can't ... well ... you can do that in twitter. You can even send pictures using twitpic.

What I find cool is the stuff that people are building on top of twitter (which is extremely open). For example, a venture capital guy in NYC called Fred Wilson kicked off "lyric of the day". When you hear a lyric that you like, you post a message with @lotd at the front and everyone that follows @lotd gets the lyric. Pretty cool but just an early example.

I follow a few people on twitter and I have found that it is a much better way to get to know people than facebook. If you are looking for a way to connect to others and have others connect with you, you might want to give twitter a try. Of course , the issue is that you have to get your friends on twitter first and right now it is mostly used by propeller heads but that will change. So go ahead ... sign up. I'm @isfan.

Cheers,

Allan