To follow up on last month’s Your Blog post, there’s a whole lot more to Twitter than reading what your friends had for lunch or what time they hit the sack.
Yes, it’s cool how Twitter gives you a “sixth sense” about what’s going on in your friends’ lives, as Clive Thompson has pointed out in WIRED. In her Life After Web blog, Sherri Leigh asks “Is Twitter Useful?” and proceeds to show how it has. Mack Collier even explains at The Viral Garden blog why he follows over 900 people. But besides connecting you with other people, there are many useful Twitter accounts that can do some neat tricks for you.
For example, TrackThis is a Twitter “bot” (from robot) that can keep you informed of the status of a delivery you’re expecting from any major shipping carrier. MyMileMarker helps you calculate the MPG for your car. IsItNiceOutside will send you the weather forecast for your area. Plus, you can even interact with all these and others through your mobile phone! Oh, and BTW several major news carriers are now using Twitter to deliver breaking news. See? It’s not all inane.
In fact, DellOutlet has even been offering Twitter-exclusive discount coupons for nearly a year. Their current offer, running until Thursday, is for 20% off an XPS One computer, one of Dell’s sexiest. There’s also DellHomeOffers, which lets you know what’s on sale on Dell’s Home & Home Office site and will likely start offering Twitter-exclusive discounts soon as well. Not to be outdone, DellSmBizOffers is about to start providing special savings to small business owners through Twitter any day now.
So, if someone tells you Twitter is a waste of time, you might be able to tell them how Twitter bots not only saved you time, but how Dell’s Twitters saved you some $$$, too!