Once again, the Gear Diary Team invites you to listen in behind the scenes, while we talk about social networking. We also invite you to continue the conversation in the comments section…

Wayne: Isn’t it about time for a post on the use of Twitter? I see Judie and Joel on there. Anyone else? I find that FriendFeed is a pretty useful tool to keep up on what people are doing. I think techmeme overhyped it a little, but I enjoy seeing in one place what people are writing about, and especially when they post photos and YouTubes.

Do you think this is a passing fad? A lot of this seems pretty “early adopterish”. I know the blogging kings are all over it — but I’m not sure if it has “legs” beyond these hardcore folks that are connected 24×7 to a computer and more open to these faddish ideas.

Will the general public put up with what to many might be an invasion of privacy? Don’t know the answer.

I’m finding that it’s almost a replacement for social bookmark sites like Digg or Delicious, since you are filtering out people who you don’t know and other spammy submissions. It’s also a great way to track favorite writers and online friends.

Wayne: The downside is that not everyone is connected and that there tends to be a lot of information overload.

The upside is I can see these types of tools cutting down a lot on email overload — which for some reason I seem to be experiencing more and more of….

I would love to read more about Twitter but on a “Twitter for Dummies” level (which I am).

I found Twitteriffic for the Mac (excellent)

I guess Twitteroo is the Windows equivalent

Woot! has a really cool twitter feed that is about the only updated way to see what is being sold in these woot-offs (all other woot alerts that I sign up for seem to work for a week then go down)

Judie I think you’re the expert here…..story idea for you or someone more experienced with this that me?

Judie: Ha! I am hardly the expert, but I am having fun with it. Based on all the research that you have done, I would say that you are probably more of an expert - at least in theory.

I like twitter because it carries over to so many of the other social networks I have been roped into. It automatically updates my Facebook and Friendfeed listings, and yes –I suppose it gives a stalker something to work with: they can learn all about how I am working in my yard on a particular day, or maybe what I am writing about, or what I had for dinner. It’s all pretty inane really, but it is fun to keep up with friends. Susan from Mobility Site and I generally chatter back and forth on Twitter about our days, and what we are up to.

I dunno, I am pretty mindful of what I post, though. I was tempted to twitter when I was at the dermatologist’s the other day having a mole removed – and then I thought, who CARES about this?

And I guess that’s what it all boils down to – evidently people do care.  Because I am living it, I tend to think that the minutia of my day is “no big thang”, but judging by the people who keep adding me on the various social sites, I guess people are finding it interesting, or maybe at least entertaining.

I am finding these social sites, especially FriendFeed, to be a replacement for sites like Digg in a way, because people you know are talking about things and posts relevant to them. And I really like being able to keep up with friends this way. You’ll also find that Chris C., Kerry, Jerry, and Jenneth are on Twitter – although they aren’t all are as good about updating their minutia as I can be.

Doug Goldring: I’ll sit this one out.  Never used Twitter and I don’t really have the time to play with it.

Though, I did find this cool site not long ago: www.pageonce.com

If you have a lot of social network sites, etc, it is pretty cool. It puts everything in one place.

Wayne: Here’s a list of news organizations that use Twitter to push headlines (cool concept):

http://red66.com/2008/02/a-list-of-news-organizations-using-twitter/

Twitter clients:

Dual platform: http://twhirl.org/

Mac: http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific

I am very curious if Twitter has legs beyond use as a CB Radio for Bloggers and their friends/readers.

Currently the main use seems to be a LOT of self promotion by big sites.

I am still undecided.

Check out twhirl and FriendFeed as well.

Judie: I’m trying FriendFeed right now, too. Patrick from JAMM sent me an invitation, and I have found that it seems to go hand in hand with most of the social networks – it’s kind of a cool aggregator of everything social. One of the most surprising things that I found there was that Patrick was actually publishing a feed to Gear Diary posts in his feed, totally promoting our site without having been asked, and without drawing attention to the fact. I thought that was really sweet.

Wayne: My problem is - how many of these aggregators do we need?  You just know that within 6 months there are going to be 12 “better” versions hyped….

Judie: Absolutely, and I am growing weary of the “top bloggers” jumping on nearly every one of their friends’ new social projects – calling it a must have or whatever – because then enough of my contacts start sending me invites to where I feel halfway obligated to join. At last count, I am on Twitter, Facebook, Spock, Linked In, Plaxo, FriendFeed, YouTube, licker, MyBlogLog…I know I am forgetting some!

Wayne: I like to use FriendFeed for the “one glance” what’s up — I think that’s cool. But do our mom’s care?

Judie: Some do. But It just confuses my mom when she gets a Plaxo notice saying that I have “updated my Blog.” She’ll ask for a link, and I have to remind her that my “blog” is Gear Diary, and I don’t have another site.

Wayne: What about our readers? Do most readers have friends with blogs and who actively comment?

Judie: I think a good portion of our/tech blog readers do, but they are still in the minority versus the “real world”.

Wayne: This is what FriendFeed seems to primarily capture. I don’t know the answer but I think about this WRT to whether twitter is a niche techie tool, or if it has legs for expanded use.

For instance, I could not convince my sister to use Twitter, and I’m not sure  that non-techie early adopters are using Twitter. So does Twitter become like a 2008 version of CB radio for bloggers and techies to communicate with each other?

Judie: Yup, pretty much. But you have to admit that there are bits of it that are fun. I will admit that I do find myself not following people who update too often, or who only update with links to things they have written. Many of their sites are in my RSS feeds anyway, so I would prefer to see links to things they saw that they thought were interesting, instead. I most prefer to read the more personal stuff, like when Susan replies to me and says she is planting flowers today, too., or Chris Leckness bemoans the fact that he didn’t make it to CTIA this year, since I didn’t either.

Jenneth: I don’t actually use Twitter that much - not because I don’t like it, but because most of my extended network is on Facebook and I’m happy enough to use the status update feature there (although now with HelloTxt, I can update my status across all of the social networking services I’m registered with).

A lot of people diss those that add people that they haven’t even met, or haven’t seen in years and likely won’t ever see again, but you know what? I actually enjoy this passive style of communication, where I can check my feeds in the morning and see what everyone in my network is up to, look at the photos they’ve uploaded and just generally see how they’re getting on in life. Yes, it is kind of like a CB radio, only you get to choose who’s allowed to tune in.

Judie: Jenneth, I totally agree with you about the passive communication aspect; in fact services like FaceBook have allowed me to stay connected to people I haven’t seen in years but that I don’t want to entirely lose contact with. I like seeing that a collegiate I advised years ago is engaged, or a friend from college has been promoted. I don’t need an email or necessarily want a phone call, but it is nice to know what’s going on.

Wayne: I think FriendFeed also will raise a lot of creepy privacy issues, and that will limit it to the techie crowd. Look how easy it could be for an employer to find pictures you post, comments you make, articles you write.

Judie: Yeah, which is why you always have to hold back something – or be mindful of what you are putting out there. For instance, if you are dumb enough to put that you just got done smoking a post-coital cigarette, then you deserve whatever fallout or embarrassment may follow. Seriously.

Wayne: For people looking to make noise it’s great. Problem is that most of America isn’t looking to be tracked by computer.

Judie: True, but the fact of the matter is that we all - not just bloggers who intentionally put ourselves “out there” - are being tracked and followed, whether we like it or not. Have you seen ZabaSearch? If you want to talk about how privacy is an illusion, then do a search for your name on that site, or Google yourself, or your phone number. I think that in some ways, using these social sites gives us a chance to at least have some influence over what people see when they go looking for us.

Jerry: Actually I have gone from thinking it is silly to just having fun with it. People already know I do the things I say I’m doing in Twitter, for example. If somebody in Tuva wants to have a look too what do I care? Everything about me is all over the internet already anyway.

Wayne: I’m doing a social networking presentation in May at a conference in Washington and I’m not sold that for business purposes  Social Networking has a ton of value. Just maintaining Linked In, FaceBook, Myspace, Plaxo (and the dozen copycat)  sites is more than almost all businesses will be able to handle.

Judie: I think that for a business, a simple BLOG has more value than anything else. A place where your customers can see that you are human and that you LISTEN. I don’t care to follow a company’s twitter…unless it is announcement time and they have something fab to reveal.

Wayne: All the buzz, hype and growth we’re seeing now is driven by bloggers hyping Twitter like technology and their readers “trying” it. Where will the growth be in 12 months when it’s not new any longer? Will there be continued growth? More importantly - what’s the Twitter business model? We’ve already seen the boom and bust cycle of Internet technology. My guess is we’ll see another before too long.

Judie: Absolutely – which is why I would never invest in this type of stock. I’ll certainly try the products, though.

Wayne: Well, to change the subject for a moment, check out http://www.quotably.com if you haven’t already. It’s a neat way to see whole Twitter conversations  and everyone’s replies.

Christopher Gavula: I am not a big fan of social networking services and related items, but this stuff sure is getting popular and more complicated all the time, isn’t it? Do we really need all these layers?  How are you supposed to keep track of and maintain all this information down the road?

Doug G.: I agree with Chris on this one.  I am utterly fascinated by the “cloud” or online apps like Google and Evernote that let you access you information from anywhere on any device.  But I really do not see the attraction to all of the social network sites.  There are too many of them that are all similar, but not exactly the same.  I can’t keep track of whether I am Facebooked, Plaxo’d or LinkedIn’d.

Judie: Or all of the above?

Joel: “Social Networking” is pretty much just a tool to do what we’ve always done. We’ve always maintained our personal “networks” via phone calls, get togethers and in the past e-mail.

What I think is difficult now is how everyone decides they are going to use social networking but it is in its own new site. For example, there’s mychurch.org for church social networking, there’s also a podcast or two that I listen to that are doing their own social networking features, except I don’t know why everyone insists on reinventing the wheel. Can’t you just do a cause on facebook if you’re a church? Or a Gear Diary group on facebook?

Judie: We did! It’s right here.

Joel: Just because social networking is the “in” thing, you shouldn’t be adding it to your website. Most people already have a MySpace or a Facebook account.

Christopher G.:I’m not sure that I find it overwhelming as much as I find it to be a potentially messy long-term problem.

We have a problem in that we leave little digital trails wherever we go. Newsletters we never unsubscribed.  Old abandoned email addresses, not to mention the online stores we give our credit card info to to store, then we stop using the online store.

Social networking adds us to a whole bunch of other sites, then you add sites that use your info to tie stuff from other sites together.  That means I’m now leaving more layers of digital debris that will stay out there for years to come whether or not I’m still paying attention.

Site owners make it very easy to enter and add digital info and so hard to completely get rid of when you finally want to leave a site.  I’m just wondering how much of an additional mess all these “intermediaries” add to the overall mix?

Judie: So what do you all think about social networking? Have you drunk the kool-aid? Are you running for the hills? Or are you still not sure why you might want to let people peek into your life? Do tell…