Twitteriffic
“Twitter” was deemed the most popular word in the English language for 2009 by the Global Language Monitor with the top phrase being “King of Pop.” The second most popular English word was Obama, third was H1N1, fourth was stimulus and the fifth was vampire (no surprise). In 2008, “change” was the most popular word based on the Obama campaign, but the blue bird of Twitter has officially taken over.
Tweetie 2.1, the iPhone Twitter application, made it to the iPhone app store today and unveils support for lists, retweets, geolocation, spam reporting, and time gap detection. Although it is simply a software update, it is setting the tone for other mobile Twitter apps to follow.
TweetDeck’s update was released today and everyone is buzzing about the new version that offers mapping to see where other users are that have opted in to geolocation. The new version supports lists (even offering a pop up to create lists), and the big news is that the new TweetDeck now streams Linked-In updates similarly to how Facebook updates had been integrated.
Twitter is psychic in that researchers show Twitter users’ use accurately predicts sales and can determine whether or not stores need to increase or decrease inventory, have a sale, etc. It’s a new model but we predict more of this monitoring capability will hit the market in 2010 or 2011.
Lani is the COO and News Director at The American Genius, has co-authored a book, co-founded BASHH, Austin Digital Jobs, Remote Digital Jobs, and is a seasoned business writer and editorialist with a penchant for the irreverent.

John Badalamenti
December 1, 2009 at 8:07 am
No doubt about it, Twitter is hot! As a REALTOR, I’ve integrated it into my daily routine.
Like any tool though, you need to take the time and learn to use it properly, otherwise (and Twitter is no exception), rather than it being a leading edge tool for you, it can quickly become a bleeding edge tool for you.
Zack Katz
December 1, 2009 at 1:13 pm
I have been unable to find a way to use Twitter moderately; it’s either post once a month, or constantly!