I just joined Twitter, as you can see from the badge on the right side of the blog.
Twitter allows you to send a status update (via GoogleTalk IM or SMS from your cellphone) to a server, and friends who are watching you can see your status. Wonderful for keeping track of all my SF friends and probably a great thing for the stalkers of the world too.
I’m new to this, but I decided to play along. No sooner do I post that I’m r”unning across the street to the store” (street spelled strett, of course) then I get a Google alert that my name has been posted on the web. It is my Twitter status, posted in someone’s blog.
Go to look, and the person, whose nickname is “LetItRock” (Let it rock) is in Myanmar (formerly Burma, South East Asia), talking in Myanmar language about Twitter, but cutting and pasting a clip of current status that includes my post.
So, let’s look at this flat world thingy again: I send an instant message, it updates Twitter, someone in Myanmar reads this and posts it, Google indexes the post and alerts me my name was used, I blog about it here.
I guess I should get up and go to the store more often.