Travis's post last week on the use of text-messaging in 2008 inspired me to provide a quick snapshot of Twitter, another way for presidential candidates to broadcast information to their supporters. The more tech savvy amongst you may already be updating your friends with important information like, "eating chinese" or "driving and should be paying attention to the road." For those that are not familiar with this web tool, here's a little overview.
Twitter is a free service that allows you to send messages to your friends which they can receive as an instant message, a text message or simply through their web browser. While it remains a niche phenomenon, a recent story in the Fashion & Style section of the New York Times has certainly given it some pedigree.
Twitter does more than just facilitate inane missives that keep you abreast of your friend's every move. It was put to use by local residents and news organizations in San Diego during the recent wild fires to provide instant updates ranging from supply needs to the status of the fires. More recently, tech political news junkies were getting their Super Tuesday election results and reactions from a Google Maps and Twitter mashup.
With the notable exception of John McCain, all of the presidential candidates have signed up. As a free service, it's a great way to quickly disseminate information to their supporters as short, 140 character "tweets." Here's a sample of what would show up in your Twitter feed if you were totally agnostic with regard to the candidates.
(I'm as surprised as you are at how active Huckabee has been. Maybe a little more. As I have checked my feed on and off throughout the month, Huckabee has consistently had the most posts.)
