Micro-blogging

I recently learned there's something called micro-blogging. Basically you can post short messages about what you're doing now, and your friends can see. Here's a 2 and half minute video by Common Craft Show explaining one of the most popular micro-blogging service, Twitter:
Twitter in Plain English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o&feature=user

By the way, Common Craft Show has a number of “in plain English” videos that explain new web tools and services such as Twitter, blog, RSS etc. Have a look on http://www.commoncraft.com/ when you hear about some new web stuffs and you want a simple explanation.

Back to the topic of micro-blogging. So, basically, it lets your friends see your 碎碎念. It's kind of like people writing a short message besides their nicknames in instant messengers. I'm skeptical about the concept, though. My initial thoughts are, wouldn't it be a nuisance to keep writing about what you're doing every moment? And do you want other people to know what you're doing all the time. Also, wouldn't it be annoying to get notifications about what people are doing all the time?

But then I thought it'd be useful in some cases. I think it would be suitable for people who have close relationships and are interested in each other's daily lives and don't mind letting the other person know their own lives. It'd useful for partners or friends living in different countries as they may be harder to keep getting updates about each other. I think it's because micro-blogging is of different time, different location; whereas instant messaging is same time, different location. It would require both people to be online at the same time (for online messages) to use MSN. Sometimes it's not so convenient for people in different countries with time differences.

Twitter and Plurk are the 2 popular micro-blogging services I've heard about. Plurk looks kind of cool with the timeline interface. There are some example Plurks on its home page, such as this example, have a look if you're interested. When you see the timeline, you can click the button on the bottom right that says “only blahblah's plurks”, and select “blahblah and his friends plurks”, to get a better idea what it would be like when many people leave messages.

I wonder if any of my friends is micro-blogging? I guess probably not. Otherwise one of them might have asked me to start micro-blogging too. I guess if I micro-blog. I might write too much for the first 3 days, and find it takes too much time, then abandon it. I'm just guessing though.

Another thing, you can also let other people know what you do in your day by sharing Google Calendars. That wasn't the main intention of Google Calendars, but you can use it that way too.

I'm thinking... I have no idea what Hari does everyday, if he uses this, it'd be cool. But I wonder if I'm willing to publish what I do daily, though. :P
Another possible usage is for my 2 video gaming enthusiasts friends. They leave messages about game stuffs on a message board, maybe they can use this to give updates to each other. Ha.