Congratulations to the people behind Twitter - the latest sensation in the very interesting world of Web 2.0. They couldn’t have wished for better publicity than Twitter is currently receiving courtesy of the all powerful blogosphere. Yes, Twitter is certainly popular now but for how long? Could it be put to better uses that might ensure its longevity? Not long and yes are my answers and below I explain why.

Just in case you have been on another planet for the last few weeks and therefore hadn’t heard of Twitter, here is a brief overview. Basically, as a Twitter member you can send Twitter a text message (SMS) and it will broadcast your message to your followers, i.e. your group of friends who have subscribed to your updates. Your message is also posted to the Twitter website if you have configured your account as public. And as the Twitter tagline indicates, friends can ‘nudge’ each other to find out what they are doing.

Sounds great doesn’t it? Well a lot of people seem to think so. The service claims over 50,000 and if the current publicity it is gaining is anything to go by, that number is set to grow very quickly. Many bloggers are now blogging via Twitter with one popular blogger recently announcing that 90% of his blogging was now being done on Twitter and another having over 1500 Twitter followers at the time of writing.

Impressive numbers but you have to wonder just how sustainable this level of interest is in a service from which you receive unscheduled text messages about other people’s lives. I mean how long before even the staunchest follower of the most popular blogger gets fed up with the annoying text messages and turns them off? How much of “what I am up to today” messages can any one person take from another? I am sorry but this has fad written all over it for me.

Now I grant that Twitter is being put to some innovative uses by bloggers and techies. This one here about home automation is my favourite. However I think that Twitter will need to facilitate much worthier causes to stand the test of time. So here is one idea:

I haven’t yet worked out all the details of how it might work but what if alcoholics, smokers or drug addicts in recovery could ‘nudge’ their support groups or a sponsor group for support during moments of temptation? Note that this would need to work slightly in reverse to how Twitter currently works in that nudges would be broadcast and responses targeted. You wouldn’t want a quitting smoker who was just learning to forget about the urge to suddenly be reminded of it by some annoying text message now would you?

I am not sure why exactly but I can’t shake off the feeling that there are even worthier causes (than I have suggested above) that a service like Twitter could potentially serve. As I was completing this post, I came across the following post by Andy Carvin in which he explores the possibility of using Twitter for saving lives. Now that is what I am talking about.

Can you think of any more?