I really enjoy the idea behind Google's Dodgeball product, an SMS-based service that lets users tell their friends (and strangers) where they are. I think a lot about location based services, and I see Dodgeball as a catalyst for the inclusion of location data into a social network.
Despite that, Dodgeball never quite caught on for me and my group of friends. I used to think it was because I wasn't young enough, or because I was not part of the SMS generation. However, I soon realized that I just didn't care that much about broadcasting my physical location to anyone, whether my friend or not. In fact, as much as I like have a public voice, I tend to be pretty private about where I am at any given time. (Though, I certainly think there are many people who are quite the opposite of me.)
Thus, when Twitter launched a few months ago, I initially resisted using it. Nevertheless, my eyes were opened when I saw how my friend Eric Case had used Twitter to stay in touch while traveling through Africa. No Internet connectivity for email or blogging? No problem. Case merely sent SMS messages detailing his adventures to Twitter and they were broadcast to all of us who are his Twitter friends.
Put simply, Twitter enables the wide broadcast of anything one can fit into a text message. I tend to think of it as microblogging - blogging a sentence or two. A mobile and completely spontaneous and immediate channel for expressing the widest range of thoughts and experiences. Learn something startling? Deep thought shared with you? Need to vent a little? Anointed yourself the Fashion Police? Jam it into your phone or Blackberry and, instantly, your friends are all apprised. Twitter also serves as an archive of your messages, a chronology of all of these occurrences that can be shared and linked.
I think the beauty of Twitter lies in how it doesn't preordain how it should be used. Rather than tell users what to message or what problem Twitter is solving, Twitter instead just offers a powerful platform then leaves the door wide open and the users themselves evolve its application. I think that is smart.
Go here to try it for yourself and then you can find my profile here so we can keep in touch.