Twitter is a preview of the third generation of the web, where we are communicating in real-time. The first generation of the Web was rather static. It was mostly about companies displaying their products and services on web pages. Individuals started creating personal websites, but they too were static. The Web was used for publishing and a lot of screen scraping was done to cut and paste from other websites so you could fill your own.

The second generation of the Web, the so-called ‘Web 2.0’ was already more interactive. With the advent of Web services, the web became a more connected place. Companies now had to show much more interaction with their customers and started using the social networking media like MySpace and Facebook, to set up a dialogue with their customers. Individuals were using these social networking media to connect with their friends and to keep them posted on what they were doing. Everywhere you could see ‘wikis’ being set up and individuals started blogging about a wide range of subjects. This created a web where you could follow what was going on in a certain niche and take part in the discussion.

The third generation of the Web is about to break loose. Here we take one step further than interactive, we go real-time. Here the Web is just there… connecting everything and every body. We will see real-time interactions between devices and people are juicing a gigantic stream of data that everybody can jump into. Surely people will still be concerned about what happened in the past, but this generation of the web is about what’s happening now.

Twitter gives us a glimpse of what this the third generation of the Web could be like. It lets us communicate in near real-time, but it resembles a stream of information we can dip into.

Many things that happen in the world are reported on Twitter first. When that plane landed in the Hudson River early 2009 a guy called Janis Krums was on the ferry picking up the first survivors. He took a picture of the plane and tweeted this to the world. When the elections in Iran in June 2009 were over, the world learned from the many tweets from Iran that there were violent protests against the election results. When the protests started, the regular news media like CNN did not pick this up for hours. This in itself caused a big discussion on Twitter (#cnnfail) about the role that the regular news media should be playing, where what is happening on Twitter is taken into account. The issue here is: can what is tweeted be trusted by the news media or is further investigation required. The answer is a difficult one, but one thing is clear “ the truth is more seen than read”, so anything that is documented on video or photos, can be trusted more than what is just written.

Humanity has reached a point in time where instant-gratification has taken over the world. Twitter has out done the demand for instant-gratification.

Whether you are a regular person on the Internet, or a business trying to please their consumers, Twitter creates the ability to keep everyone up to date instantly with a simple press of a button. There is no need to purchase your favorite gossip magazine because celebrities have turned into their own paparazzi. Instead of waiting until your local news hits the air on your TV, you can get instant updates on news while it’s actually happening.  Remember the pilot that landed on the Hudson River in New York?  CNN picked that up from a passenger putting it on Twitter as it happened!

Businesses now can keep their consumer’s up to date on new products, events and job openings. Everyone is taking advantage of Twitter to network, advertise and reach the world with a press of the button. You do not have to have a computer at home to enjoy the networking ability twitter supplies. As long as you have a cell phone, you can keep up to date with everyone.

When you have a fancy iPhone or Blackberry, you can get numerous applications to use Twitter in the normal way, but even a regular cell phone will en enough to use Twitter.  If it’s important for you to keep up to date with companies, celebrities or just even your friends, simply add each important Twitter user to mobile updates. After someone tweet(ing)s, instantly you will receive a text message letting you know what’s going on. If you’re out and about and would like to keep others updated on your life, you are able to text twitter and your tweets will be refreshed with your message.

Every can benefit from the use of Twitter. Companies can save money on advertising when they can reach millions of consumers instantly with their promotions. Celebrities have been known to keep their fans up to date with event information and sometimes they take the advantage to promote their favorite cause. Your message can be heard instantly for free, what can get better than that? What could possibly top Twitter? Twitter is a genius concept and should be used by everyone.

Critics will say that nobody cares what you’re doing from one minute to the other, but I find that keeping a random journal of a day is not only fun, but interesting, and has been the source of many a conversation between my friends and I.   Though people are critical of Twitter’s purpose and don’t understand a point to it, its growing user base and versatility – for business, news, and getting out of jail (like the American student who kept in touch with his friends at home when he was jailed in Egypt – his Twitter correspondences allowed people to get in touch with the proper authorities and free him) are securing it as an essential part of the Web 2.0 experience that is focused on the user and the ‘me’ experience.

If you don’t already have a Twitter, maybe you should reconsider why and possibly join today.