What Twitter Means for Information Gathering

Twitter has become less "What are you doing?" and more "What's going on in the world?"

The Iran protests are a handy example. Searching #IranElection ("#" denotes a searchable subject) on Twitter yields literally hundreds of 140-character blurbs (albeit, some of which unreliable) on the escalating political situation every minute. Given that the Iran government has blocked most other media outlets in the country, Twitter has set the stage for which the events to unfold for the rest of the world.

The State department, knowing well the role Twitter is playing in Iran, asked the three-year-old social networking site to postpone a scheduled maintenance that would cause the site to be down. They complied and moved it to a less disturbing time for Iranians.

That's how you know we live in a digital world, one that journalists are increasingly on the heels of.

Time has already run a cover story about how Twitter is changing the way we live. Before reading that and other articles, I figured Twitter for a mere listing of daily play-by-plays by average people and celebrities. An earlier cultivation argued how Twitter feeds into narcissistic behavior. While that certainly litters thousands of "Tweets," I recently discovered how handy the free service is for information gathering after finally joining last week.

It all depends on who you "follow," which allows those selected persons' Tweets to show up on your homepage. For the purposes of this blog and my insatiable curiosity, I began following news organizations and journalists. For example, Ann Curry of MSNBC had this to Tweet about:

Activists rounded up at night. Amnesty International: " Some have been shot and killed, others have simply disappeared." #iran election

Want behind the scenes info on the set of new movies? Follow actors like Kevin Spacey, who will tell you who he's shooting with. Often times, Tweets will provide links when sites or blogs are updated, effectively pulling updated content from whoever you're following.

Love it or hate it, Twitter is simply another medium for information. It has become too hard to ignore; too big to call a fad. It is not a medium without its flaws: There is no business model to speak of; the founders invested millions to see how it would do. We have yet to see what will be implemented for Twitter to make money. Most annoyingly, the 140-character limit requires URLs to be shortened via tinyurl or other third-party websites. Misinformation and gossip is rampant. But the bottom line is that Twitter is where current information is. And that means that's where I'll be too.