A new direction
He was eventually rescued, but not before the experience made it onto another Web 2.0 service: Hashtags. To use Hashtags you simply include a keyword preceded by a ‘#' and your tweet will be listed alongside every other one using that same tag. #frylift was soon a busy place and provides a good illustration of how quickly even a relatively trivial event can become big news in the Web 2.0 world.
We bring this story to your attention because a) it's an amusing story and b) it's a sign of a direction social media is headed. In one way it's an extension of the RSS concept, but its real-time nature and the two-way nature of the communication make it a fundamentally different experience.
And it's not just celebs that are using it. While you would expect the media to be keen on a new way of bringing attention to its content, it's also starting to be used as a sales channel. Dell in the US recenly announced a special offer available only to followers of its Twitter feed.
You can access the HEXUS.channel Twitter feed here.
Update - 11:00 4th Feb 2008: In case you think it's just us, the Times and the Sun are also reporting this story.
