Dude! Its all over the news!
The quake struck at 2:46. I was reading about it less than 5 minutes later. So maybe you were reading about it 2 minutes later. Big whoop-de-dooooo! 
Exactly. mabagal, you need to show how twitter is in any way a better medium for getting news in this case? Yes, if I want to read the tweets of people on the spot, but otherwise news, video, commentary, etc is going on everywhere.
Twitter has no advantage or shall I say superior value that I can see. Perhaps it does but as usual you donāt bother to explain it, assuming we all either agree with you, or like you know understand what you are like trying to like say. 
If you donāt understand the advantages of the source being long-tail, then you might never understand Twitter. If you donāt understand why auto-rendering media coming from multitudes of long-tail sourced links that you choose is better than being spoon fed your news, then the only explanation is that youāve never seen this in action.
If you have never seen or used something like Flipboard or Pulse, the I implore you to try it. Itās not something you can experience viewing Twitter in its website form. It might change your perspective.
Twitter is a news reader on steroids. Beyond being a great news aggregator, it is LinkedIn where current thought leadership matters more to reputation than resume (as it should).
This forum is titled ātech forumā. Having to explain requisite material is borderline insulting to the the folks here who do āget itā and would actually like to have a more forward-thinking discussion.
Iād like to see a decent, pre-packaged, twitter feed. Iāve tried following a few people, but it didnāt take. Tried following a few issues, didnāt care for the noise-to-signal ratio. Gimme 5~20 people sharing quality bits in a single place, and maybe Iāll bite on Flipboard when the iPad arrives.
Iād like to āget itā.
I am @davidonformosa on Twitter. I think itās a very useful and powerful tool. If you are new to Twitter it may take a little time to get it to work for you. The important thing is to find a group of people to follow who share similar interests. You can also use lists to follow multiple topics. Twitter search is a very useful for getting updates about current events and breaking news. The earthquake and tsunami currently affecting Japan is a good example of this.
I agree that probably 95% of tweets are meaningless nonsense. The key is to hone in the 5% of tweets that contain useful information. Twitter is not for everyone, but donāt criticise it if youāve never made an effort to use it.
Thatās what I mean, exactly ā Iām getting constant updates, new stories, new videos, that are like minutes old. Iām not using twitter. The best you could be getting is like maybe five or 10 minutes sooner than Iām getting, in which case, I can easily live with that.
Iām not criticising it, I am asking how it provides any value or real improvement on existing media and existing forms of discovering news? The tsunami is a good example of how most of you seem to be kidding yourself about Twitter from what I can see. In the end you will have no better understanding of this issue than I, and probably worse because Iāve long learned my lesson that overloading on little bits of news does not lead to a greater understanding.
Iām completely open to being proved wrong, but so far no one is coming close to making me go, eh? except cfimages and that was on an entirely different use for twitter.
Which could be done on Skype or by email ā¦ or any IM platform
Twitter works really well when youāre looking for real time information about events taking place live. Without it, you would go to a single source like BBC / CNN / Forumosa and keep pressing refresh to get their latest news, some of which might not have been updated for quite some time. With Twitter you can see what all the news organizations (and individuals) have to say about the topic in real time.
Try it. Go to twitter.com and watch the screen for the current trending topics.
Want more detailed information? Try searching for tsunami: twitter.com/#search?q=tsunami
True but with so many using twitter it would likely be more effective. Email is not a good way to introduce yourself to editors you donāt know. 99.99999% will never get back to you despite your resume.
The answer to your question is right here!
Or in other words, in the picture below, replace ālinking toā to āretweetā and there you go. Tweet original thought or commentary. Blog original thought, tweet the title and a shortened link with enough room to retweet. If people like it, it will be retweeted. If this happens enough people will see you as a thought leader and start to follow you. That includes editors you donāt know. Easy game. This is inbound marketing for yourself, in a nutshell.
Isnāt twitter just a public emailing system? Isnāt it a vehicle for celebrities to get popular or notorious, and for all wannabes to have sth. new to aspire too. About businesses, it may be useful, but one could always send out an e-mail. In any case, Jack Welsh and Bill Gates did not twitter and did just fine.
People want to have their say, so they tweet. Anybody who wants a conversation should come here 
I signed up for a twitter account about a month ago, mainly because of all the blogs (especially Andrew Sullivanās Daily Dish) that kept citing tweets during the Egyptian Jasmine Revolution. And, like with someone else above (Jaboney?), it hasnāt stuck for me: thereās too much dross.
As an example, just looking through the current #tsunami thread (is that the right word?): multitudes of languages, and most of the English ones are along the lines of āLetās pray for the people in Japan and for peace all around the world.ā Ohā¦ and thereās been a hundred new tweets added since I started this paragraph. Iām sure there are worthwhile bits in there, but a lot of filtering is required.
For now, Iāll stick with aggregators, like some blogs and the BBC and, in its own way, Forumosa. They can filter that for me and tell me whatās important.
In the first couple of hours after this Japan quake, I tried twitter to keep track of tsunami warnings for Taiwan. To be honest, Forumosa was the best source, although I may just be using twitter wrong.
I can certainly see Twitterās use if youāre at something like a trade show or a festival, and people can tweet about different things going on - you can get real time information about what event you should get to. However, I find it unlikely that Iāll be attending South By Southwest anytime soon.
This is true. Could be done on anything but for now, Twitter is the tool of choice. Itāll be something different in a year or two more than likely.
I use it occasionally to find out what is happening right now: like todayās Tsunami. Unfortunately, it only confirmed what I already knew: No one knew what was happening exactly!
So, was it helpful - sometimes.
Twitterās kind of like telegraph messages but in the context of a media saturated world. There was a time when it was useful to get a message like:
earthquake in Japan stop
sell shares in toyota stop
stop sending annoying messages stop
Twitter is popular among people who canāt be bothered with the true advantages of the internet and how it supersedes old technology like the telegraph.
Drug addled celebrities are typical users.
Fanboys go without saying.
Speaking of using Twitter for news, I may from time to time see something newsworthy break on Twitter but for actual reading of the news, Iāll go to the BBC. If I want more, thereās always a news search on Google. For example, I just news on Twitter of a 6.1 example magnitude earthquake in Tonga. Give it 5 mins and itāll be on the BBC so itās not a big deal to learn it 5 mins earlier than anyone else.
Twitter is great when you use it for a specific purpose like I do. I have it set up so I only see stuff from the photography industry and a bit of overlap into travel and environment plus a few personal friends. I generally donāt see any thing about celebrities, politics or basket weaving.
Whatās your favorite tool for using twitter? Computer, tablet, smartphone, appā¦???
I havenāt found anything that makes it very convenient to use.
None!
Smartphone.
I use Plume app widget and placed to fully take one of the home screens.
I found it quite convenient and user friendly.
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