If you have noticed, I’ve placed a Twitter badge on my sidebar, so that every Twitter post I make would be shown here in the blog as well.
I’ve already had a Twitter account a few months ago, but I have never seen much use for it then. Now, I’ve got a better grip on how it could help me get better informed.
The original purpose of Twitter is to keep you and your friends in touch with each other. A novel idea indeed, with the fact that every Twitter post you make is sent (optionally) to each of the followers you have. Lately, keeping in touch had taken a different meaning.
Tech sites and blogs, like ArsTechnica, ZDNet, and CNET, as well as news centers like CNN, now have their own Twitter account. Every now and then they post links to news articles as they are added to their site. This is done for free, unlike the news services of telcos here in the Philippines where they charge you for every text news message you receive.
In effect, by following their Twitter posts, I get updated with news from CNN, and tech updates from CNET, ZDNet, and ArsTechnica. Since the messages come with links to the news articles, I get to read the ones I am interested in when I get in front of my computer — and delete those I really don’t care about.
Twitter isn’t really the only one that exist with this type of service — there’s Jaiku, and a lot of others. I suggest you try one of them, and get updated with what’s happening around you — all for free.