#twitterradio

On a day like today, I think that Twitter demonstrates how integral,  omnipresent, and important it has become in the daily lives of everyone in the world. This has been my belief for some time--that Twitter, although not perfect and can come with a lot of extra noise--is the best platform out there. You can read some interesting commentary from readers of  Fred Wilson's blog in which he asked about people's choice for breaking news. 

I can't speak for everyone but I go to Twitter, almost exclusively, for all of my news, breaking or not. I rarely buy newspapers anymore (except the NY Post because it's the freaking NY Post).Today, most of the media is getting their information via Twitter. Many city agencies have Twitter accounts and are reporting and alerting the public via Twitter. This is an enormous shift in the way news and information is being delivered, discovered, and used--I think it's for the better. 

Is Twitter the best positioned platform out there? With the horrible events occurring in Boston, I'd guess 8 of 10 people that I see walking on the street glued to their smartphone aren't checking Facebook, but rather Twitter...or possibly another news aggregator like Reddit. Although Facebook is fantastic, serves a great purpose, is fun, and is embedded into the whole world, I don't feel that I get out of it an equal return for the amount of effort I need to put into it. It's too cumbersome in many ways, too invasive, too many facets, and there's much information I don't care about. Twitter is a more simple solution with news and information that I actually sign up for and hopefully want. I can do everything on Twitter that I use Facebook for: follow people, view their pictures and videos, message them, post my own pictures and videos, update statuses, get streamlined news/information, etc. With the launch of Twitter Music, another dimension is now added to it's platform which, in my opinion, will continue to demonstrate how versatile it can be. 

I'll comment more on Twitter Music later. Even though there are clear limitations off the bat, it's a step in an awesome direction and their partnerships with iTunes, Spotify, and Rdio show that they're hopefully thinking in the right direction of interconnected platforms.