I just noticed that I’m on 101 Twitter lists. Lists are a new feature that let you group people you follow any way you like, publicly or privately. I have a few lists myself: Jersey people, funny people, creative people- and a couple private ones that include the folks I like to follow a little closer than the rest.

What’s cool about being included in lists is that it gives you a little glimpse into how other people see you. I’m on some NJ lists, some WordPress and geek lists, and others that just make me smile. Some of my faves include

• the-good-shit-list
• smartladies
• smartypantses (defined as “The SmartAssii.”)
• respect
• women-that-rock
• mega-helpful
• team-hot-salad-dressing
• boobenvy
• the-awesome-squad
• sunshinepandacakeparty
• makemesmiletoo
• awesomesauce
• ny-mets-fans

Thanks everyone who’s listed me! I need to spend some time making a few more myself- what other groups can I come up with?

I’ve been spending some time researching how parents and their college kids interact on Facebook, but The Onion sums it up quite nicely (PS- The Onion is parody…)

Facebook, Twitter Revolutionizing How Parents Stalk Their College-Aged Kids

Twitter has just released a new front page design that puts Twitter search front and center.

This makes Twitter content more accessible for people who don’t have accounts. Of course, anyone could use Twitter search before but now it’s more in your face that you don’t need an account to take advantage.

I wonder how this will work out. Will fewer people join overall? Will those who do decide to join be people who’ve taken the time to search and lurk and therefore be more likely to stick around after joining (unlike the majority who seem to join, post, and leave)?

Twitter search is quickly becoming one of the best tools for discovering what people are thinking and talking about right now. In fact I use a Greasemonkey script in Firefox that adds Twitter results to the top of any search I run in Google. Sometimes I don’t need to look beyond those results to find what I’m looking for.

If you don’t already use Twitter, give the search a try. You may find an untapped resource you’ll use time and time again.

Follow Pixel Currents on Twitter here.
Follow Annie on Twitter here.

“We think of these social media tools as being in the realm of the sophisticated, multiplatform marketers like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, but a lot of these supersmall businesses are gravitating toward them because they are accessible, free and very simple,” said Greg Sterling, an analyst who studies the Internet’s influence on shopping and local businesses.

Marketing Small Businesses With Twitter – NYTimes.com.

People don’t get Twitter. No, I know you do, I’m talking about those other people.

The ones who look at me like this O_o (see what I did there?) when I say I’ve been using Twitter regularly for over two years.

The ones who say “Who cares what I’m doing and why should I care what they’re doing?”

The ones who joined Twitter in the big boom of the last couple of months, only to stop using it after a couple weeks.

The ones who make up the 90%.

These are some of the same people who happily use Facebook so I’m not talking technophobes or privacy freaks.

This week the 140 Characters Conference is happening in NYC. It’s all about Twitter, and there have been some interesting panels from what I’ve seen (the expected live-streamed video didn’t work out.) But as far as I can tell nothing about how to help more people understand, care about, or even continue to care about Twitter.

Of course, I realize that with a $1000+ price tag and a very business-centric schedule this conference wasn’t made for the everyday users, it was made for marketers and PR people.

But if people don’t get Twitter, and therefore don’t use Twitter, who are all those marketers and PR folks going to talk to?

I would have liked to see this addressed at the conference. Maybe next time?

(late edit- just saw this really interesting look at who uses Twitter and how they use it – warning, lots of stats and graphs and stuff!)