Ken vs. the City

For the past week or so I’ve been trying out the much hyped micro blogging service Twitter. Twitter asks users a simple question: “What are you doing?” and then lets you type in your answer in 140 characters or less. No need to type in a title, select a category, add tags, or any of that complicated stuff. Just type your answer and hit “update.”

Your micro blog entries will then appear in an endless list that can be read by friends who are also on Twitter or added to a public timeline that lumps everyone together in one list.

I have to say that I like how simple it is to post something, but it’s just not for me. Twitter is set up as if it expects you to update your micro blog moment by moment. It’s like that annoying friend that keeps poking you, asking what you’re up to every 15 minutes.

I have been using del.icio.us for much the same purpose, “micro blogging” links that I find interesting. That’s what the Zeitgeist is all about. Because it’s link-centric, I think it serves a more utilitarian purpose that Twitter can.

I also don’t have any friends who use Twitter, so the only ones I’m blogging to are anonymous strangers through the Twitter timeline that’s updated every second or so. There’s no point to it. I can reach more strangers through this blog. You can make your Twitter account private and viewable only by friends, but since no one I know uses Twitter, making my account private means the only one who sees it is me, which also defeats the purpose.

I applaud the people at Obvious Corp, the same guys who made Odeo. Twitter is well designed and easy to use. I actually wish the Wordpress blogging platform that I use for KvC could be paired down in the same way. But for someone like me, I just have no use for it.