In a continuation of my series Uncommon Uses (previously Podcasts, wikis and SMS text interfaces) I thought I’d look at Twitter, for such a new simple tool I’m thinking most of the uses are Uncommon Uses. One of the things that made Twitter take off was it’s simplicity and with that simplicity comes the ability for it’s users to mold it into what they want.
Uncommon Uses – SMS Based Interfaces
Beyond voice, probably the simplest and most ubiquitous technology on the mobile phone is text (SMS), North America has been a bit of a laggard adopting this technology but in the last year or so has really started to use text.
I think the voting on American Idol might have been one part of the tipping point for texting in the US. I’ve certainly seen a rise in the amount of people using text, but being in San Francisco my experience may not be mainstream. Here’s some interesting text interfaces:
Web Writing: Create Writing Flow With Four Uncommon Connectors
Connectors — conjunctions, punctuation, and transitional phrases — allow readers to process information promptly by creating balance and relationships between sentence parts. The connectors are performing the same work as verbs, objects, modifiers and multiple subjects.