I don’t remember what I was doing or where I was when I heard about Twitter, but I certainly remember the impressions I had. What is a “microblog” and how on earth could that ever be useful? As a web developer I certainly thought of myself as embracing new web technologies and platforms (I cringe to use the term “Web 2.0″ because of the buzz-wordy, hype status it has now obtained), but this Twitter… Why would I ever want to send the internet-at-large a sparse 140-character message on what I was up to. I mean, what the heck? I’m not even interested in what I’m doing at times. Now this web app comes along and expects me to remember to stop what I’m doing and compose a message devoid of most vowels like: “In bdrm thnkng abt wht 2 do on satrdy.” Pass.

It wasn’t until I attended An Event Apart in San Francisco last August that I decided to break down and join though I still didn’t make my first update until September.  One day I decided there had to be more to this web app phenomenon and delved a little deeper into the inner-workings of Twitter.  I found that Twitter is definitely more than meets the eye. [Insert Transformer sound.]  As soon as I read about the API, I absolutely wanted to feed my most recent update to my blog.  It was hardly an original idea, but for me it was a perfect extension to my blog!  Many things often prompt me to complain with never a computer in sight, but my cellphone is my ever constant companion.  With Twitter, my web-based mind-dump is only a few key presses away.  And both of my readers get to see up-to-the-minute updates as I send them.

Twitter’s allure doesn’t stop there however.  In my readings I’ve seen Twitter referred to as “the command line of the internet” by multiple sources.  That is a powerful thing.  It kicked off so many ideas in my head and hopefully I’ll get to make them at some point.  Who wouldn’t want to change their site stylesheet with just a text message?  I’ve also mapped out a mashup between Twitter and Google Charts.  It sounds weird, but really, it’s a good idea, trust me.  I’m also currently working on a Twitter widget for Dashboard, and it’s not exactly focused on the messages.  Stay tuned for that one.

In writing this post, I just wanted to share my love for this humble app.  I get mocked for my devotion to Twitter by my less-than-internet-savvy friends, but I don’t care.  Especially when I used the term “tweet” the other day.  Although now that I think of it, I almost made fun of myself for that one.  Not sure if I was ready for that.  Baby steps.