When Rex first told me about Twitter, I said something to the effect of, “That’s it?” In essense, Twitter lets you send out short messages that describe what you’re doing at that moment. You can text them or IM them or post them online. And your friends can read them on your blog or have them texted or IM’d to them. John Edwards is using Twitter to give short updates of where he is on the campaign trail. Stephen Colbert is sending out random quips. And I just signed up to send out little LostRemotisms like, “I’m trying to figure out how to blog in bed without paralyzing myself” (follow me here, if you dare. It’s also on my bio page with other random 2.0 stuff.) Anyway, while people scratch their heads over the value of Twitter — or its cousin on Google called Dodgeball, which lets you tell your friends where you’re hanging out — thousands of people have signed up for it and the Wall Street Journal is writing about it. So go figure.
I’m going to give Dodgeball a try next, which works in 22 cities. Let’s say you’re at a bar. You can text out a message to your Dodgeball friends that gives your location and asks if they want to stop on by. Friends of your friends who are within 10 blocks of that location will be alerted, as well. It also works on “crushes.” Cool, eh?