Is Twitter doing any value addition to you?

Are we doing too much of social networking? How many different networking websites can we 'manage' to use? Specialised websites or 'One-Stop-Shop' ?
An average techie will be (atleast) using the following websites on a day to day basis:

1. Office mail
2. Personal Mail (Gmail / Yahoo)
3. Blog (Blogger / Worldpress)
4. Social Networking (Facebook / Orkut)

I wont dare to list all other web activities, one may carry out.. since there are lot many to metion if I attempt to do that!: Chat, tweet,photosharing ..etc
The question is : considering the fact that social networking not being the main or solo purpose of life , how much time can be allocated to such activities on a day to day basis with out affecting productivity (Or simply put, "Productivity = Performance in the job which is paying us" !)
Remember , there are still avenues for communication left which are inevitable; like personal meetings, telephone and SMS. A portion of available time shall be allocated for these activities also.

Companies like Google are coming up with a single user account for multiple services. Yahoo! also provide similar service, but not as good as the way Google does it! I am a Google user and I do like their approach. I have chosen Google as my preferred service provider for:

1. E-Mail (Gmail)
2. Chat (Gtalk or Chat inbuilt with Gmail)
3. Networking (Orkut)
4. Blogging (Blogger.com)
5. Photo sharing (Picasa)

Now with a single Google user ID , I can log in and use all these services! Amazing isnt it? Another thing which make it more exciting is, data sharing between Google Apps. Some one I have added in Orkut is accessible through Gmail and vice versa. In short Google is making social networking more easy and productive.

Now , I must agree that Facebook is far advanced than Orkut. It has developed itself as a robust platform.Features and applications are incredible. How ever , too many features may turn any application annoying. Thankfully Facebook provide great tools for managing features and applications.

Now, back to the Twitter business. What special Twitter is offering, which others dont ? What value addition it is providing to our daily lives? Are we using it just because its free and many of our friends got it?

The honest answer from me is Twitter is just another tool for status update/messaging and its not inventing anything! Status updation and notification is available in most of the platforms : Google & Facebook. I think Facebook offer the best 'Status updation' and feed in social networking industry. This make Twitter, just a 'Sub-Application' in social networking.

Take a look at status updation service in some of the websites, which I am using.

1) Gmail:

Very simple status updation. Links can be used and visible to any one who is in your 'Contacts' using Gmail / Gtalk.

2) Orkut:
Simple status update text box provided on the top pane of Orkut. Links and smilies are allowed. (Links are controlled by Orkut script, though). Published updates are visible to other buddies as given below:

3)Facebook :

The best status update available among all networking websites. There is an option for you and your friends to discuss on the update as well.

And it is presented in a neat & tidy manner. Take a look:

I am sure Google & Facebook guys can very well provide (I think they may already have) API's to transmit such feeds to other applications - most importantly - including mobile devises (Like iPhone).

I started using Twitter and started following a few. To be honest, I am not able to follow or read all the tweets. It is too much information which is piling up and i dont wanna spend all my time reading all these stuff. Personal messaging is the best way for me to reach people and if at all I wanna know what our buddies are doing , I can just check out their Google/FB account status update.

I am not against Twitter , but I just cant see any value addition from Twitter to my daily life. If anybody ask me what will I suggest for networking websites,my reply would be  "Building a common platform for data sharing (atleast status updates)".

Tech Gurus shall think about "Universal user ID's" which can be used to login to  mail application provided by any. Like 'Internic' a global body can be formed where master user login data is stored.

Possibilities are unlimited, its upto the innovators to get the best deal out of them!

Lets stay finger crossed to see what 2009 has to offer for the web arena!