The World is Lonely with Twitter Down

Twitter not working today, you thought?

Today we all witnessed a massive Twitter outage, which apparently was caused by hackers that also targeted Facebook.  Whenever we lose something we love, as we did temporarily with Twitter down for a few hours, it gives us a chance to reconsider how much value that thing has in our everyday lives.  And Twitter, for those that use it and understand it, is a lovable thing that we can no longer live without.

With this morning’s Twitter outage, what did I miss the most?  Exactly where I see Twitter has value in:

1. Where do I go now to find out the latest “buzz” or information about something?  Google is not real-time search, and I don’t want to search through tons of blogs and social bookmarking sites for the latest information.  I want to easily access it on Twitter!!!
2. How do I communicate with my Twitter friends?  You may laugh, but a lot of avid Twitter users rely on the Twitter Direct Message and @Reply system to communicate, NOT email.  For many of these Twitter acquaintances, I don’t even know their email addresses.  Help!
3. Most importantly, I missed the real-time communication that cuts across windmills in a Windmill Network and allows me to have dynamic conversations with anyone, anywhere in the world, revolving around shared ideas.

Just as I finish this blog post, I notice that Twitter is back online.  A huge sign of relief.  Back to tweeting.  And if you still don’t see the value in Twitter, hopefully the above three points give you a big hint!