Why do we Twitter on about it?

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COMMENT: Once again, rumours are flying around about the sale of Twitter. This time it is the turn of fruit based legend Apple who has allegedly offered $700 million, a good $200 million more than Facebook if the rumours are to be believed. But why so much column space for these rumours and why the urge to buy Twitter?

It is true it has become the latest social networking, sorry, I mean micro-blogging, craze with even celebrities giving us little snippets of their daily lives – President Obama has an account for goodness sake! But I am unsure about how much one can really say in 140 characters.

I admit it. I have a Twitter account and fall into the category of a Follower more than a Tweeter. You may judge me for this decision but I can get a really broad spectrum of news from the site each day and some interesting commentary on said stories, as well as tempting people to read mine. However I very much doubt anyone cares where I am going for lunch or if the sun is out today in the particular town I am writing from.

There is a vast amount of people that do care though - maybe not about me but about other people on the site. I know a girl with over 600 followers. Maybe not the million that Ashton Kutcher has but she isn’t a celebrity or even a reality TV star, just a fellow journalist who seems to have worked out how to play the Twitter game. IT PRO also has a solid Twitter following that make us very proud, so it is not just celebrities who get the exposure or followers on this so-far non-profit-making site.

It is no wonder then that computer giants like Facebook, Google and latest addition Apple, want a piece of the action. There you have a ready made audience for the grabbing and it has long been said that Twitter is a money making machine ready to have the on-switch flipped.

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