A new kind of social network

Orkut/Facebook are people relationship centric social networks. Your social graph on these networks usually consist of people you have met personally or know about. Great for keeping in touch/sharing photos/stuff but gets boring after a while when all you do is respond to 'how are you?' scraps.

Enter a new kind of network. Your contacts are those you find interesting. Not necessarily someone you know personally. You are interested in the ideas of the person not the person itself. 

Twitter and Friendfeed are services which do just that. You can 'follow' people you are interested in and share your thoughts/ideas. Privacy is not an issue because they don't show much profile information. 

For e.g. Shashi Tharoor is on Twitter.  His twitter posts are probably going to give a good insight into the govt now that he is an MP.

FAQ:

I already use Facebook status updates. Why use Twitter?

Well, you might not have much interesting things to say nor a curiosity to know interesting stuff but still Twitter is something which does one thing right - status updates. Its like using a single multi-function device like camera phone with mp3 player versus multiple devices which execute a single function very well: Nikon + Nokia 3210 + iPod.

What does it mean for me? 

The Internet is a huge datasource. These networks are great filters to find the information you care about. For e.g. if you follow people who share stuff thats interests you, that is a great source of information. Ofcourse, the key is to 'follow' the right people that interest you.

Is it worth the time?

If you are curious, someone who like to be informed or even just share stuff, this is a great medium.